MG Traveller and GDW Traveller

[WhiteWolf]

I am sure this question has been asked, and I vaguely remember seeing a comment regarding this; so please forgive me for asking the question again.

:?: :shock:
Is Mongoose Traveller the same as the old Game Designer Workshop Traveller? Basically I am wondering how easy will it be to incorporate all the older game material into the new MG Traveller? I have some of the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society magazines, and a group of people that might like to play so it would be nice to kick them off with a few adventures and ships from those magazines.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Gruffty the Hiver]

The adventures should mesh with most Traveller versions, as long as you're familiar with the version you want/are using and any task system in that version. I think Traveller by Mongoose will slot nicely in with most previous GDW stuff.

Ships are a different matter, due to the differences in design rules. Converting, say, an older GDW ship design to a Traveller by Mongoose version is going to involve some work, methinks. However, the actual rules of use (i.e. 1 week in jump space regardless of distance, paying crew salaries etc) shouldn't make a great deal of difference.

HTH

 

[WhiteWolf]

Thanks Gruffty. It does help quit a bit.

I am looking forward to MG Traveller.

I just read this out of the Signs & Portents 55 PDF that you can download for free.

"It’s got all the content of the Little Black Books but it’s also a whole new thing. It is even closer to Classic Traveller than I originally intended it to be but is also a foundation for a long game line covering multiple settings. It’s not a generic sci-fi system but the bits that are not generic are easily modified or replaced with sections customised to whatever game you want to play."

Taken from "The Road So Far Travelled" By Gareth Hanrahan on page 49.

 

[Gruffty the Hiver]

I dunno if Mongoose have thought of this (and it's not a *particulalry original idea on my part, I admit :lol: ) but perhaps they might look at one of the old GDW adventures and revamp it for MGT and the '00s.......

 

[Zowy]

I like some of the old FASA stuff, who owns the rights to that nowadays?

The Sky Raiders trilogy was the foundation of one of the best Traveller games I ever played in. 8)

 

[Emperor Herdan]

I like some of the old FASA stuff, who owns the rights to that nowadays?

The Sky Raiders trilogy was the foundation of one of the best Traveller games I ever played in. 8)

From the wikpedia (therefore may be suspect...)

"FASA unexpectedly ceased active operations on April 30, 2001[2], but still exists as a corporation holding intellectual property rights, which it licenses to other publishers. Contrary to popular belief, the company did not go bankrupt. Allegedly the owners decided to quit while the company was still financially sound in a market they perceived as going downhill. Mort Weisman had been talking of retirement for some years and his confidence in the future of the paper-based games business was low. He considered the intellectual property of FASA to be of high value but did not wish to continue working as he had been for the last decade or more. Unwilling to wrestle with the complexities of dividing up the going concern, the owners issued a press release on January 25, 2001 announcing the immediate closure of the business."

Theres more but thats the most pertinent part... "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration" still hold what they have produced, and what they had in agreement with Marc Miller. Now if anything has reverted back to Mr. Miller I wouldn't know.

Take care

E Herdan

 

[broken serenity]

didnt microsoft basically buy fasa studio's recently? i wonder what they got in the way of property rights in the deal and is it just the rights too make games and stuff? i do know they closed them down last year coz there shadowrun game sucked(thats what u get for turning a perfectly good rpg into a very messy fps game)

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

FASA sold their computer games division to Microsoft a few years before they closed down (and rather intelligently, the apparently sold rather than leased perpetual rights to their RPG/Wargame properties at the same time), they released Crimson Skies, MechAssault 1 and 2 and MechWarrior 4 amongst others, before eventually being closed down.

 

[WhiteWolf]

Gruffty, you can always do what I plan on doing. Take the older adventures and update them myself. Really the only thing you would have to do is update the stats.

Regarding FASA. What I have read and understand is the company itself no longer exists. They sold all the rights for any of the games to be published on computer and have sold some of the rights to a few games. Shadowrun is one of them since WizKids owns the rights and is currently being leased to Catalyst Games, Inc. Same for BattleTech.

The sad thing about the Shadowrun Xbox360/Computer game is the day after it was released Microsoft announced that the FASA division that created the game would be terminated. That really helped me decide on whether or not to purchase the game.

What is really sad though is now that Microsoft owns ALL the rights to produce the FASA games via electronic format we may never see a descent version of Shadowrun or Battletech, and as far as Shadowrun I hope it is another 10 years before they decide to make a single player, or MMO, game out of it.

 

[AKAramis]

Note that WhizKids is run by former FASA people, and one of the younger brothers.

(Much like FFE is to GDW...)

 

[littleidiot]

I may be wrong but a set of licensed traveller material by FASA and Gamelords is in line for the Far Future CD-ROM treatment.

See : http://www.farfuture.net/n0000.html

If it has anything like the amount of content that the classic traveller cd has then this will be a must buy.

Not sure when and if this will get released though. Or what will be on it.

 

[Loz]

I'm currently working on Beltstrike for MG Traveller.

It draw some inspiration from the old GW boxed set, but I stress its inspiration. Obviously there's some updating to do mechanics-wise, but I'm also building dedicated Belter char-gen, specific situations and hazards within belts, and then a full campaign background and scenarios (set, at the moment, in the Schaeffer Belt, rather than the Bowman Cluster).

 

[Zowy]

I love Belter game setings .... much more fun than silly pirats

 

[WhiteWolf]

Note that WhizKids is run by former FASA people, and one of the younger brothers.

(Much like FFE is to GDW...)

Thanks for the information. I had no idea they simple changed names.

 

[Gruffty the Hiver]

Gruffty, you can always do what I plan on doing. Take the older adventures and update them myself. Really the only thing you would have to do is update the stats.

I'd rather Mongoose did it.

Cos then if it's wrong it's not my fault :lol:

 

[pasuuli]

I may be wrong but a set of licensed traveller material by FASA and Gamelords is in line for the Far Future CD-ROM treatment.

See : http://www.farfuture.net/n0000.html

If it has anything like the amount of content that the classic traveller cd has then this will be a must buy.

Not sure when and if this will get released though. Or what will be on it.

That would be exactly the classic Traveller material produced by FASA and Gamelords. Lots of useful and hard to find stuff.