New Traveller setting?

[PFVA63]

I hope that this isn't taking this thread too far off track but I always thought I 1st contact like setting or maybe something set in the near term aftermath of 1st contact with an alien race (like say 5 to 10 years after)might be interesting.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

Regards

PF

[Edit] I rewrote this post to get more directly to the point. The Original post was kind of rambling and probably too far off topic [End Edit]

 

[Paladin]

I hope that this isn't taking this thread too far off track but I always thought I 1st contact like setting or maybe something set in the near term aftermath of 1st contact with an alien race (like say 5 to 10 years after)might be interesting.

1-5 years after the first contact. Corporate goons bring the Aliens back to "study them," they escape in a major spaceport/hub and several "disappear," conveniently boarding other spacecraft and humans indirectly spread the Alien race like wildfire. The new hives somehow alert the "motherworld" and an intergalactic war begins. The Yautja (Predators) play both sides against each other and hunt the best of both sides and balance the conflict back and forth where needed so that both races continue to survive/spread & produce better/stronger warriors for them to challenge/hunt.

 

[Paladin]

Well, my money's on Aliens or Aliens vs Predator.

Well, at least this would save me some money, because I could certainly
resist to buy it. :lol:

Seriously, I would not know what to do with such a setting. I find combat
against powerful aliens a nice plot for one or two adventures at most, but
then it quickly becomes repetitive and boring - "been there, killed that".

Fair point. It's a limited setting that would struggle to support sustained play. I'd appreciate a consolidated resource for background reading, but then why not just grab a copy of the Colonial Marines Technical Manual instead.

4-7 books would be sufficient.
Core setting
1 on Aliens
1 on Humans
1 on Yautja (Predators)
2-3 adventures/campaign based books

Gauge response on sales and expand if necessary or be happy with a self contained system and closure. 1 book a quarter is a 2 year run without pushing hard at all.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

That's not a new setting. So far I think the closest anyone's been is the My Little Pony thing. :lol:

Hmmm, that means it could be any one of: 'Star Trek', 'Aliens' or some Mythos setting (sort of like a cross between 'Cthulhu Rising', 'Delta Green' and 'Cthulhu Tech')....

Or, just '2303AD' (i.e. not '2300AD' or '2320AD')..

It could indeed be any one of those things. Or it could be none of them.

Fordy, have you been taking notes from JMS (creator of B5)? He used to post like that back in the day when B5 was first airing...

 

[martinjpayne]

Let's hope Matt has just spent the next five years worth of Traveller franchise income on licensing Halo! :mrgreen:

 

[alex_greene]

Me, I'd like to see them develop their own Mongoose Traveller Universe setting. Just plain vanilla Traveller, but with their own versions of Traveller technologies, civilisations, alien races and so on. And make it all OGL, so that everybody can join in - and nobody's tied to a FFE - licensed setting product, so we don't have to argue about Arbellatra's middle name or what colour a Droyne's wing ridges turn when it's the mating season.

 

[Rex]

Me, I'd like to see them develop their own Mongoose Traveller Universe setting. Just plain vanilla Traveller, but with their own versions of Traveller technologies, civilisations, alien races and so on. And make it all OGL, so that everybody can join in - and nobody's tied to a FFE - licensed setting product, so we don't have to argue about Arbellatra's middle name or what colour a Droyne's wing ridges turn when it's the mating season.

LOL. I'd be all for that. But then I do that anyway for my home games. I'd take a slightly different approach, tie it to Signs and Portents, and set it up as a sort of "Living MGT Universe" thing.....

All would of course have to avoid the Fordy Zone......or the Sprange Cluster.....

~Rex :twisted:

 

[EDG]

Maybe a D&D-style approach would work. In 4e, they have this implied "Points of Light" setting that the adventures etc are set in (which includes Nentir Vale, Keep on the Shadowfell etc).

I think this approach is kinda like how CT started, where it was defined by adventures and less so by the corebooks (until later anyway). The problem there is that it was inconsistent and fairly disorganised, so we got a mess of contradictory material that was impossible to condense into anything consistent later on.

Right now I guess one could say that the implied setting of MGT is the Charted Space setting, but I think that setting is too defined (and has too much baggage) to be really useful, unless they really say "completely ignore everything that has come before MGT".

I think this approach would work best with Mongoose already defining a framework for themselves that they use, and then presenting it in adventures and sourcebooks (and as little as possible of it in the corebooks).

I'm just wondering if this approach is why D&D is so successful, because it presents the rules as a way for people to play in whatever setting they like (within the rules presented to them), but if they want a predefined setting then they can just riff off and build up on the implied one from the adventures.

 

[lastbesthope]

Hmmm, that means it could be any one of: 'Star Trek', 'Aliens' or some Mythos setting (sort of like a cross between 'Cthulhu Rising', 'Delta Green' and 'Cthulhu Tech')....

Or, just '2303AD' (i.e. not '2300AD' or '2320AD')..

It could indeed be any one of those things. Or it could be none of them.

Fordy, have you been taking notes from JMS (creator of B5)? He used to post like that back in the day when B5 was first airing...

I think he's just been studying too many Kosh quotes, while listening to the lectures of Enthil'zha whilst hanging upside down looking into a mirror.


:lol:

LBH

 

[Rex]

It could indeed be any one of those things. Or it could be none of them.

Fordy, have you been taking notes from JMS (creator of B5)? He used to post like that back in the day when B5 was first airing...

I think he's just been studying too many Kosh quotes, while listening to the lectures of Enthil'zha whilst hanging upside down looking into a mirror.


:lol:

LBH

Can one REALLY have to many Kosh quotes? I suppose, if it were all Zathras day, one could say that. However I do believe, it is "Can you be more enigmatic then Kosh while making a quote?" day.....

~Rex

 

[Ishmael]

Me, I'd like to see them develop their own Mongoose Traveller Universe setting. Just plain vanilla Traveller, but with their own versions of Traveller technologies, civilisations, alien races and so on. And make it all OGL, so that everybody can join in - and nobody's tied to a FFE - licensed setting product, so we don't have to argue about Arbellatra's middle name or what colour a Droyne's wing ridges turn when it's the mating season.

If they do this, I'd love it so long as they worked out reasonable interstellar economic rules first ( like 'Pocket Empires' ) so that this universe would be living and changing in a rational manner without too much screwy-ness. In my opinion, this is the source of so many of the absurdities in the OTU.... and the resultant arguing over said absurdities.
Maybe only a sector like "Spinward Marches" in size only; if you can't find adventure in an area that size, you're not looking hard enough.

Imagine if there could be an online map that updates on a weekly or monthly basis with computer controlled alliances/treaties/etc. using a system similar to Pocket Empires. Players would have adventures within this setting, although it'd rule out Empire changing activities.

 

[alex_greene]

And for goodness' sake, make sure to include the ability to scale things to a personal level.

I'd get rather tired of games that ultimately devolve to just bloody trading runs and gold farming - a habit Traveller seemed to have invented decades before it appeared in WoW.

And improvements to the character development systems. I'd like to have a system that allows for characters to develop their abilities, characteristics through the course of play, rather then the emphasis on the characters' development being static as it seems to be in Traveller at the moment.

Perhaps it might not necessarily be the character's skill set that is important, as much as it's the character's ability to think on his feet, be flexible and come up with new solutions to problems he faces during the course of play.

Plus, more Referee stuff on building imteresting and imposing NPCs, not just sheets of dots and numbers and rolling the dice but developing NPCs as well - rounded, interesting, often menacing and intimidating, people.

Us Refs have got to roleplay these strange people too. And we have a whole lot of them to play, unlike the players who generally only have the one, and a backup for when the alpha characters inevitably cross the path of the open mouth of an activated FGMP-15 (a sure omen of bad luck, that, the Sign of the Smoking Boots) so if the Mongooses are doing something of their very own, don't forget the Referees guys!

 

[Mark A. Siefert]

Personally, I think that Aliens is best for Space Hulk-style "gun crawl" wargames.

Maybe we can revive Snapshot using Aliens as a background.

 

[captainjack23]

Me, I'd like to see them develop their own Mongoose Traveller Universe setting. Just plain vanilla Traveller, but with their own versions of Traveller technologies, civilisations, alien races and so on. And make it all OGL, so that everybody can join in - and nobody's tied to a FFE - licensed setting product, so we don't have to argue about Arbellatra's middle name or what colour a Droyne's wing ridges turn when it's the mating season.

If they do this, I'd love it so long as they worked out reasonable interstellar economic rules first ( like 'Pocket Empires' ) so that this universe would be living and changing in a rational manner without too much screwy-ness. In my opinion, this is the source of so many of the absurdities in the OTU.... and the resultant arguing over said absurdities.
Maybe only a sector like "Spinward Marches" in size only; if you can't find adventure in an area that size, you're not looking hard enough.

Imagine if there could be an online map that updates on a weekly or monthly basis with computer controlled alliances/treaties/etc. using a system similar to Pocket Empires. Players would have adventures within this setting, although it'd rule out Empire changing activities.

without touching the "done realistically" part, something very much like what you describe was done for the WizKids Mechwarrior game online. the website had some pretty nifty realtime action/political reports, a map that changed, etc etc. Really added some fun to just shoving big plastic mechs around. Which is my way of saying that it would be a cool idea.

Its probably how Original traveller would have developed had there been something more than the JTAS to disseminate info - (like oh, say some kind of interconnected electronic information system based on computers, perhaps...) they certainly were running the "real news from the front" aspect even in the first issues.

It'd almost have to be either an independent effort or, more feasably a non otu thingie if Mongoose did it -the Grognards and the Malenfants, and the ideological battles thereby would probably make it impossible to deal with; which is a shame.

 

[EDG]

the Grognards and the Malenfants

Either that's totally unintentional, or it's unusually subtle for you (my other online ID is "Malenfant", now largely retired except on the SJG board).

 

[steffworthington]

I still think it's gonna be 2300AD but would be really pleased if it was Blade Runner. However, knowing how difficult getting the rights are... (having tried... long and uninteresting story)... I'd be less surprised than if God himself floated down from heaven and GM'd a game of In Nomine for me and my mates.

 

[EDG]

I'd be less surprised than if God himself floated down from heaven and GM'd a game of In Nomine for me and my mates.

Isn't SJG still doing that? Or did that lapse a while back?

 

[captainjack23]

the Grognards and the Malenfants

Either that's totally unintentional, or it's unusually subtle for you (my other online ID is "Malenfant", now largely retired except on the SJG board).

Ah. In this case, historian-gamer-geeky of me. The Grognards (old grumblers) were the napoleonic old guard, and their counterparts were the Malenfants (terrible babies) the young guard regiments.
In this case it seems like an obvious name if we must factionalize everything.

Grognards = if it is old and hallowed it is good and shouldn't be changed;
Malenfants = if it is new and shiny it is good, and must replace the old.

Actually, the original use in gaming was for the subscribers to SPI games in the 70's. Not sure when the name came to be applied to anyone from a previous (gaming) generation who enjoyed it.....


As to subtle vs unintentional -well, depends just how clueless I actually am, compared to how clueless you believe I am , I guess. But no, I wasn't intending to draw you out. You may reactivate your ECM at your convenience.

 

[captainjack23]

I still think it's gonna be 2300AD but would be really pleased if it was Blade Runner. However, knowing how difficult getting the rights are... (having tried... long and uninteresting story)... I'd be less surprised than if God himself floated down from heaven and GM'd a game of In Nomine for me and my mates.

Well.....the starship troopers universe would allow MG to use their existing knowledge base.

 

[steffworthington]

Isn't SJG still doing that? Or did that lapse a while back?

yes and no. They hold the licence but nothing has even been updated in 2 years. I kinda missed it second time around as I'd bought the white leather cover version* and all the books when they first came out. Brilliant game, brilliantly easy system. Never bothered with the second edition.


*and if you know anyone who wants to part with the black infernal cover version... let me know