New setting for Traveller needed

[F33D]

I think it would be a good idea to create a whole new setting for Trav. On a commercial basis. Not a different system (2300) and the like. The 3I is old & moldy at this point. It would be like if D&D had stuck with only Greyhawk for the last 35 years.

Maybe something along the lines of:

far, far away ...
in a galactic arm
A Long Time From Now

 

[CosmicGamer]

Like Hammers Slammers, Judge Dredd, Stronium Dog, Outer Veil...?

 

[F33D]

Like Hammers Slammers, Judge Dredd, Stronium Dog, Outer Veil...?

No. Hammers is too narrow, "Players will take the part of tank crews and specialists within the best known and most capable mercenary unit in the galaxy! "

Dredd is isn't a traveller (intersteller setting). Stronium is Earth a hundred years or so from now. As such it is HIGHLY modified rules. Outer Veil again gimps the rule set to a much lower TL.

No, a different setting that uses the same rules & Tech assumptions.

This would need to be produced by Mongoose so as to bring in enough players. New ones too.

 

[AndrewW]

Twilight Sector?

Not Mongoose but higher tech and interstellar.

 

[hdan]

Don't forget Terra/Sol. That one pushed into transhumanist space opera.

But I think I like what you're getting at. Update the computer and cybernetic assumptions a bit, and assume that most people will have at least some "wafer jack" level upgrades in themselves.

Throw out the "almost everyone is human or some variation thereof" assumptions and go with a more "Mass Effect", "Uplift War" or "Babylon 5" type setting where humans are, at best, equal partners with a host of other sophonts.

 

[F33D]

Twilight Sector?

Not Mongoose but higher tech and interstellar.

No. Jump 8 city ships and the like is not using the Trav rules. Other stuff in there also goes way outside the existing rules.

Thanks, it is closer but it isn't just a different setting but, it's a different game.

 

[dragoner]

My campaign setting is like this, in respects that I keep canon, to not have to change rules or careers and provide a familiar base for players, but the future is wide open. For example: The Imperium exists, but does not rule the frontier and only has power projection there, thus allowing me to use all the written books, but also changing things towards new things: higher tech (like my alcubierre gun), transhumanism, etc. .

I have six sectors mapped out, so it is definitely doable.

 

[Dave Chase]

Sounds like you need to get busy and create it yourself.

Otherwise I do not think anything else will met your expectations.

Dave Chase

 

[F33D]

Sounds like you need to get busy and create it yourself.

Otherwise I do not think anything else will met your expectations.

Dave Chase

Expectations of a setting that uses the existing Trav rule set? :wink:

It was just an idea since the existing setting is WAY too old. I have my own setting but, no interest in going into the RPG business.

 

[Prime_Evil]

Most Traveller GMs get bitten by the bug to create their own campaign setting eventually. Keep in mind that CT was originally intended to be a generic set of SF rules that groups could adapt to their own needs - originally, the Third Imperium was merely offered as an example of what a Traveller campaign setting might look like, but was only sketched out very lightly. It wasn't until later that important details were nailed down. The success of the OTU was largely due to the fact that it brilliantly evoked a number of key SF tropes from the 1950s and 1960s that were still floating around in the late 1970s. It helped that many of the early Traveller products detailing the Third Imperium were very well written and that there was a strong focus on adventures rather than sourcebooks. If some aspects of the setting seem stale now, that is largely because SF has moved on since the late 1970s - since that time, we've seen Cyberpunk come and go, a resurgence of military SF, and the recent rise of Transhumanist Space Opera.

From a commercial perspective, my suggestion would be to keep the OTU as it stands and offer the Third Imperium as a Golden Age product line while at the same time introducing a new Fourth Imperium product line that advances the timeline beyond 1248 and reflects current SF sensibilities. If it was set a hundred years or so after Out of the Darkness / Bearers of the Flame et al there is plenty of scope to shake things up.

 

[dragoner]

From a commercial perspective, my suggestion would be to keep the OTU as it stands and offer the Third Imperium as a Golden Age product line while at the same time introducing a new Fourth Imperium product line that advances the timeline beyond 1248 and reflects current SF sensibilities. If it was set a hundred years or so after Out of the Darkness / Bearers of the Flame et al there is plenty of scope to shake things up.

That is exactly what my campaign setting is.

 

[AndrewW]

No. Jump 8 city ships and the like is not using the Trav rules. Other stuff in there also goes way outside the existing rules.

Thanks, it is closer but it isn't just a different setting but, it's a different game.

Was refering to Twilight Sector from Terra/Sol Games:

http://rpgcampaigncentral.com/wordpress/?page_id=8

Traveller setting.

Wouldn't say far outside. Sure some differences, but does work with the Traveller rules.

 

[GypsyComet]

As that may be where T5 is going (neat stuff at TL17 and beyond), having Mongoose involved could be awkward.

If I'm reading F33D correctly, he wants something that can be grown out of the settlingless books (CRB, Careers, etc) already in print, but which isn't the Imperiums.

I have my own setting but, no interest in going into the RPG business.

That has gotten a fair bit simpler than it used to be, since a lot of the industry no longer futzes with dead tree editions. Writing talent, page layout talent, an artist, and Acrobat Professional. The business license at your local City Hall is a minor Admin roll compared to the writing...

 

[Prime_Evil]

If Mongoose ever releases an updated and expanded version of the Traveller core rulebook, it would be great if they release more content under the OGL so that third-party publishers have more material to work with when developing the new settings. Although setting-related material licensed from FFE should remain Product Identity, it would be nice if some rule systems such as cybernetics and vehicle design were opened up for third-party expansion.

 

[Ishmael]

'WarpWar' + 'Ghost in the Shell' + 'Maschinen Krieger' + "Harder-science-than-Traveller"

 

[simonh]

IMHO Mongoose Traveer, more than any other edition since CT, is specifically intended to enable creating your own setting. Travelled has always had the world generation system specifically for the, the ship design system and vrhicle design systems so you can create your setting's material cultures, etc. Tye Mongose game also provides tech ideas that don't fit into the OTU setting, such as warp drives. Stu Forevenyou an even drop your own original sector right into the classic setting.

Whether they publish a new setting I think is of course up to Mongoose, but its a question of whether they feel constrained by supporting the OTU. IMHO the only point in publishing a new setting is if they can do things with it they can't do in the OTU, and I don't see how a setting with all the same tech assumptions and using all the same rules does that.

Simon Hibbs

 

[dmccoy1693]

No, a different setting that uses the same rules & Tech assumptions.

The problem is though, a setting designer has to make some changes to make a setting feel different than the 3I setting. Otherwise, it'll just be a sci-fi heartbreaker. I mean, what can you do with a different setting that has the exact same tech assumptions that you can't do with a non-standard sector in Traveller? Why can't you use something like Reaver' Deep or Hiterworlds or whatever? Doing a sector that is vastly different than the Marches means the designer doesn't have to recreate the wheel and still use the 3I name, insuring higher sales than a new setting.

 

[Hopeless]

How about a setting where their homeworld has been destroyed and the few remaining ships use up whatever fuel available to reach a long forgotten safe haven hidden within a nebula where they rebuild their lives as best as possible by coupling whatever ships they can spare whilst using whatever resources they have to start looking around for systems with resources they can mine without drawing the attention of the enemy that attacked them as well as a new homeworld to reestablish their species hopefully nowhere their enemy can find them?

Could have the Kree be the feared enemy, with other atypical Traveller races used in the setting.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I think it would be a good idea to create a whole new setting for Trav. On a commercial basis. Not a different system (2300) and the like. The 3I is old & moldy at this point. It would be like if D&D had stuck with only Greyhawk for the last 35 years.

Tell Marc Miller.

 

[F33D]

If I'm reading F33D correctly, he wants something that can be grown out of the settlingless books (CRB, Careers, etc) already in print, but which isn't the Imperiums.

Exactly.