Mercenary Preview - First Impression

[CosmicGamer]

PDF at: http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/pdf/travmercpre.pdf

EDIT: according to a post by Mongoose Steele later in this thread, it looks like my concerns regarding additional skills are being handled

Negatives:
New Skills - The new skills can "break" the current system. Combat Engineer skill is indicated but the details were not in the preview. I see this as being a possible issue with all the current combat careers - do none of them get to have Combat Engineers? Yes I know there are ways to give characters skills that are not currently in the tables but I don't like the idea of having to fiddle with something that preexisted to make it work after something new comes out. I think it is a bad precedent and one of the things that causes contention because different people will have different ways of handling it. Unless there is errata or a description of recommended "fixes" within Mercenary.

Recruiting skill - I thought this could easily be a part of other core skills like Leadership or Admin.

Neutral:
Events - From 10 to 36 possible events now I see. Would have to use this a bit before giving an opinion on it but first impression is its a bit much. There is even an addition Wartime Event table (more rolls, more page flipping during creation - not a plus in my opinion but will hold off till i see the table)

Mercenary Tickets - not enough in the preview to make a decision on.
Headquarters and Military Bases - don't see anything particularly good or bad in it.

Positives:
EDIT: it was brought to my attention that I was mixing up Interrogation with the existing Investigation skill - this would be a Negative now.
Modified skills - Adding specialties to the existing Interrogation skill is much better, in my opinion, than adding new skills. I think this can easily be accommodated in the core careers since the skill exists and all you have to do is select a specialty. Whether these specialties were really necessary could still be a matter of debate. Seafarer I noticed also gets a new specialty.

Giving additional examples of skill rolls for current skills is nice.

New combat rules - looks like it may be good for larger battles.
Equipment - more equipment is always good.

These are just first impressions from the preview and could easily change if I get the product. Not sure if I'd get it at this point - will wait till folks get it and review it.

Mongoose: would be nice if we could get the table of contents included within your different previews.

 

[GypsyComet]

New skills can lead to problems if they just keep coming, but in this case the basic book's list had some gaps. Dunno if Mercenary with add LTA craft, though.

 

[Klaus Kipling]

There is no Interrogation skill in the MGT rule book - it seems to come under Investigation or Persuade in that, so it seems Interrogation is a new skill in Mercenary.

However, adding the odd specialist skill is not necessarily a problem. They can be added to the career events table, and refs are encouraged to customise them. It only becomes an issue if general skills (such as Liaison in CT) are continually added to the game. The base rules seem to cover all of the wide general stuff fairly well, so it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[T.L.]

The preview is great IMO.

I like more Events but I agree with new Skills. Some skills ARE missing in the core rulebook, but adding specialities may be more flexible than a bunch of new skills — please, no more feats . A perfect solution IMHO is what Black Industries did with Dark Heresy and The Inquisitor's Handbook: no new skill but expanded functions for the skills in the core book.

I will buy the book anyway, it seems very good and pretty generic.

 

[CosmicGamer]

There is no Interrogation skill in the MGT rule book - it seems to come under Investigation or Persuade in that, so it seems Interrogation is a new skill in Mercenary.

Thanks for catching that. Will have to move it from a positive to a negative now, in my opinion. Agents with no interrogation skill!

They can be added to the career events table, and refs are encouraged to customise them.

Yes, of course but let me repeat:

I think it is a bad precedent and one of the things that causes contention because different people will have different ways of handling it. Unless there is errata or a description of recommended "fixes" within Mercenary.

There is already too much clashing within the Traveller community because of all the different versions and it just seams like a bad idea to create division and incompatibility within your own product line.

Again, this is just what I see from the preview and I'll repeat:

Unless there is errata or a description of recommended "fixes" within Mercenary.

Mongoose can address this issue if they have not already.

Just my opinion here, but if I see new releases break more than they fix, I would tend not to support them.

 

[B_Steele]

I made sure to add a complete list of where the new skills can be generated in the original Careers.

Basically, the new skills are insertable into the old tables as "this OR that" lines.

Now, I will agree that it doesn't help characters that were already made with the core book by the time Mercenary comes out for them to use, but for everyone here on out...they will be able to add them without trouble to the basic careers in the core book.

-Bry

 

[CosmicGamer]

I made sure to add a complete list of where the new skills can be generated in the original Careers.

Basically, the new skills are insertable into the old tables as "this OR that" lines.

Now, I will agree that it doesn't help characters that were already made with the core book by the time Mercenary comes out for them to use, but for everyone here on out...they will be able to add them without trouble to the basic careers in the core book.

-Bry

Excellent!

I'm not as concerned with the previously generated characters (or converting characters when you have a "pick up" group where not everyone owns the same additional resources) when you can use your "this or that" lines as a guide for "standardized" conversion (recommended by publisher and not every GM having their own house rules). Conversion could cause some small discontinuity of the rolplaying done previously during character generation but is negligible, in my opinion, in order to allow compatibility.

 

[zozotroll]

d to hear you already started with a solution for this.

 

[zanwot]

Well I am concerned about the skills, and the official reply above only seems to me half a solution. Still requires flipping through supplements, and/or penciling in modifications on the core rule book. As in "ok you create an agent, well here is the basic career in the basic rulebook, but you may want to check out some alternative options in the mercenary book, or some other in the X Y Z book, etc " (that is one of the things I hate about Seventh Sea).
Well rules are only rules, and can/should allways be tweaked, but it is soooo much better when they are set right and kept simple.

But what I am very positive about, and I am amazed I seem to be the only one, is the discussion on different forms of warfare depending on technology. Now that is the stuff I like.

And of course the careers & equipment look promising.

 

[Emryys]

I made sure to add a complete list of where the new skills can be generated in the original Careers.

Awesome! 8)
Can't wait to get this book...

My only concern is that if this is done for "Each" career book, then it could become quite the mess... although at the end they could release a career tables book or something... :wink: