Techno-Guru
Mongoose
Out of curosity, has Mongoose announced what they plan to do for the next book after Scoundrel? While it is admittedly early, I am curious to see what they do if anything for Citizen and Merchant.
Next Career Book?
- Thread starter Techno-Guru
- Start date
The following is the list of "Coming Soon" products at Alliance Games (distributor):
NYA MGP 3816 Traveller RPG: Agent $24.95
NYA MGP 3818 Traveller RPG: Alien Module 1 - Aslan $34.95
NYA MGP 3819 Traveller RPG: Central Supply Catalogue $39.95
NYA MGP 3820 Traveller RPG: Tripwire $24.95
NYA MGP 3821 Traveller RPG: Supplement 5 - Civilian Vehicles $24.95
NYA MGP 3822 Traveller RPG: Supplement 6 - Military Vehicles $24.95
NYA MGP 3823 Traveller RPG: Book 6 - Scoundrel $24.95
NYA MGP 3824 Traveller RPG: Referee's Screen $14.95
NYA MGP 6143 Traveller RPG: Golden Age Starships Compilation $29.95
NYA MGP 3816 Traveller RPG: Agent $24.95
NYA MGP 3818 Traveller RPG: Alien Module 1 - Aslan $34.95
NYA MGP 3819 Traveller RPG: Central Supply Catalogue $39.95
NYA MGP 3820 Traveller RPG: Tripwire $24.95
NYA MGP 3821 Traveller RPG: Supplement 5 - Civilian Vehicles $24.95
NYA MGP 3822 Traveller RPG: Supplement 6 - Military Vehicles $24.95
NYA MGP 3823 Traveller RPG: Book 6 - Scoundrel $24.95
NYA MGP 3824 Traveller RPG: Referee's Screen $14.95
NYA MGP 6143 Traveller RPG: Golden Age Starships Compilation $29.95
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
Thanks
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
[Shameless Plug]
While not "official", Spica Publishing has an OGL Career Book out (available at DriveThruRPG) that expands the Citizen career into 9 specialties (each specialty in the TMB is expanded into it's own career with 3 specialties).
[/Shameless Plug]
While not "official", Spica Publishing has an OGL Career Book out (available at DriveThruRPG) that expands the Citizen career into 9 specialties (each specialty in the TMB is expanded into it's own career with 3 specialties).
[/Shameless Plug]
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
Thank you, I've heard of that although I'm not sure if I want to dabble in OGL products at this time. The last time I did was for Modern and 3.5 and we know how that ended. 
dmccoy1693
Cosmic Mongoose
Doesn't hurt to check us third party publishers out. Unlike d20 OGL products there are fewer of us and we listen to what people are saying. The whole reason I started with making creatures for Traveller is because someone said they wanted creatures in their game and the main book doesn't give much detail about that.
Plus you do not have to sift through a grand ocean of companies to find a product right for you. Current number of 3rd party career books: 1. Compare that to the (according to drivethrurpg) 211 products on classes, 385 PrC products and 165 race products for d20. You do not have to spend endless hours looking through countless companies you've never heard of before and hoping not to waste your money. We're alot easlier to take on a case by case basis.
Plus you do not have to sift through a grand ocean of companies to find a product right for you. Current number of 3rd party career books: 1. Compare that to the (according to drivethrurpg) 211 products on classes, 385 PrC products and 165 race products for d20. You do not have to spend endless hours looking through countless companies you've never heard of before and hoping not to waste your money. We're alot easlier to take on a case by case basis.
Spica's Career Book is very nicely done. It's exactly what I expected from such a product - more careers, done in the same style as the main rulebook. It also has some very nice expanded mishap and event tables for a number of the "Stock" careers and more "life event" tables to make chargen even more interesting.
I would highly recommend it for anyone who finds the main rulebook's career list too limiting, or who wants a little more variety in their events.
I would highly recommend it for anyone who finds the main rulebook's career list too limiting, or who wants a little more variety in their events.
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
Eh, true. But part of the reason there was because Wizards of the Coast Did Not Support Modern like they supported D&D. It would have been incredible if they did, but they didn't and left d20 OGL to pick up the slack.dmccoy1693 said:
Anyway, I suppose I'll have the answer to my question in a few months either way. Who knows, maybe Scoundral will be more like Mercenary and have things I can use as opposed to High Guard (I don't really do ship-based games.)
Something else to keep in mind when comparing Traveller OGL career books to d20 ones - Traveller careers aren't nearly as exploitable as d20 classes are.
First off, since Traveller isn't class/level based, the PCs basic abilities don't grow in the nearly exponential way that they do in d20. What they end character generation makes a pretty predictable base for how that PC will be 3, 4 even 10-20 campaign years later.
Secondly, a Traveller career is basically a collection of charts full of appropriate skills. Since all the careers follow the same base format, once you're familiar with the base careers, it's pretty easy to tell at a glance if a career is under or over powered.
Thirdly, there aren't combinations of class abilities and feats in each career that can be combined in unexpected ways to create exploits.
All of those combine to "stabilize" what can be done with the careers by third party publishers, making it highly unlikely that a 3rd party publisher will release a career that breaks the system - at least without being obvious about it.
Furthermore, Traveller's career system will tend to put an upper limit on what careers are out there. After a certain point - probably around 100-150 careers, any new careers are simply going to be specialist versions of already existing careers. A new PC to a campaign using a new career book that the original PCs didn't have access to won't have an advantage over the original PCs, and may, in fact, have a disadvantage in all but their specialty.
Finally, I'm of the opinion that Mongoose opened up Traveller to OGL because they knew they couldn't get to all the various options in a timely manner, and felt that 3rd party publishers could and would help the system grow, therefore benefitting everyone.
First off, since Traveller isn't class/level based, the PCs basic abilities don't grow in the nearly exponential way that they do in d20. What they end character generation makes a pretty predictable base for how that PC will be 3, 4 even 10-20 campaign years later.
Secondly, a Traveller career is basically a collection of charts full of appropriate skills. Since all the careers follow the same base format, once you're familiar with the base careers, it's pretty easy to tell at a glance if a career is under or over powered.
Thirdly, there aren't combinations of class abilities and feats in each career that can be combined in unexpected ways to create exploits.
All of those combine to "stabilize" what can be done with the careers by third party publishers, making it highly unlikely that a 3rd party publisher will release a career that breaks the system - at least without being obvious about it.
Furthermore, Traveller's career system will tend to put an upper limit on what careers are out there. After a certain point - probably around 100-150 careers, any new careers are simply going to be specialist versions of already existing careers. A new PC to a campaign using a new career book that the original PCs didn't have access to won't have an advantage over the original PCs, and may, in fact, have a disadvantage in all but their specialty.
Finally, I'm of the opinion that Mongoose opened up Traveller to OGL because they knew they couldn't get to all the various options in a timely manner, and felt that 3rd party publishers could and would help the system grow, therefore benefitting everyone.
Techno-Guru said:
Thing is, Mongoose isn't WotC, and this isn't d20. It seems somewhat unfair to avoid third-party OGL material here just because you didn't like how a totally different company handled it for a totally different system
. And even if it wasn't supported in the way you like, that doesn't detract from (or even affect) the usefulness of the material that's out there at all. I'd strongly suggest that you take a look and see what's out there for the Traveller OGL, because so far it's very useful.
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
Thank you, unfortunately my opinion remains the same especially since I am not in the habit of buying PDFs. If Mongoose does not have any immediate plans to release a career book for Citizen, Merchant, or Scholar, then I do not mind waiting until they do.
Thank you for your time and cooperation.
Thank you for your time and cooperation.
G. K. Zhukov
Banded Mongoose
Techno-Guru said:
I'd rather have them doing Merchant sooner than later. :wink:
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
I fourth it.
OK, that is probably enough...(or not)
OK, that is probably enough...(or not)
G. K. Zhukov
Banded Mongoose
Rikki Tikki Traveller said:
The more, the merrier!
Anyone to sixth the motion? :wink:
Brutorz Bill
Mongoose
I've been quite pleased with Spica's Career book, it filled a much needed niche in my Campaign. I would like Merchant book!
