Official 2300AD Comments Thread

[RandomNumber]

Book 3, p.10

Houston Aerospace UV-7 Howey & Aero-Nordique WSP-50 Wasp are both stated as having Navigation (improved). The DM for Improved Navigation is +2 (per Traveller Core rules p.137). Both vehicles are stated as having DM+1 in the Equipment table, which is the DM for Navigation (basic).

There's probably an error in the Autopilot skill level for the WSP-50 as that vehicle has Autopilot (improved) but the skill level is stated as 0. I think it should be 1. That would align to the Gwa'winna Aerospace L-20 airship on p.12 which has Autopilot skill level 1 with an Autopilot (improved) package. NB the airship is stated as having Autopilot skill level "+1" it should be "1" (no plus sign) as it is a skill level, not a DM.

 

[vili]

Here are my remaining comments for Book 1.

A general comment first:

In my previous post, I mentioned that it would be helpful to have a table that lays out average wages, to give us an idea of the designer's intent on the economy. Similarly, it would be very helpful to have a simple table that lists typical service and purchase costs in the Core, urban Frontier and rural Frontier. Things like "decent meal", "hotel night", "two bedroom house", and some other similar things. Just to give us an idea of the designer's intent.

Page 80:

"launchers are mounted integral to many combat rifles" -> is the word "integral" needed here?

"magazine-loading" -> "magazine loading"

In the table at the bottom, "Range" is given as "300m". Previously, Range has always been just a number, without a unit. So maybe drop the "m"? Or better yet, add the unit marker to every Range, or label the columns as "Range (m)". Traveller's main rulebook tends to have the range unit (m) in these numbers, so maybe that convention should be followed here as well. Come to think of it, I don't think it's mentioned anywhere what units the Range numbers are meant to be, and marking it everywhere would certainly help avoid confusion.

Page 81:

"Bulky to Bulky.The bipod" -> Add a space after the full stop.

On this page and the next, I would reduce the margin on top of the small one-line tables, or increase the margin over the item name headers. Now each table is visually closer to the heading that follows it than the description above it (that it is actually part of).

Page 82:

"This allows the Traveller to" -> Maybe rather: "This allows the user to" (twice on this page)

"Super-Conducting Electromagnetic Sensor" -> "Super Conducting Electromagnetic Sensor"

Page 83:

"a standard ‘bullet-proof’ vest" -> is there a need for the quotes here?

"In general, civilian body armour is controlled at Law Level 12-Protection of the armour, while military body armour is controlled at Law Level 10-Protection." -> Are these meant to be read as "Law Level X minus armour's Protection level"? Would there be a more elegant way of expressing this? Or maybe even just spelling out "minus" would help avoid confusion?

Page 85:

"Full-body" and "Full body": both forms are used on the same page. I would stick to one: "Full body" is perfectly readable without a hyphen.

"You cannot layer. a rigid breastplate with rigid armour" -> catch the stray full stop and move that little rascal to the end of the sentence: "You cannot layer a rigid breastplate with rigid armour."

Page 86:

"with a 10 kilometres tactical radio" -> "with a 10 kilometre tactical radio" (drop the plural)

"Full-face protection +1" -> "Full-face Visor" (to be consistent with the header). The "+1" also makes it sound like you could stack these, which probably isn't the intention?

"A HUD (Heads-Up-Display)" -> Should it actually be "Head-Up-Display" (not plural "heads")? A quick googling would suggest that that's the strandard term in the real world, whereas "Heads-up-Display" is what it's called in video games. But I might be wrong.

"protect the Traveller" -> "protect the user"

"allows the Traveller" -> "allows the user"

Page 87:

"high-resolution" -> "high resolution"

"colour-coded" -> "colour coded"

"a five kilometres range radio" -> " a five kilometre range radio" (drop the plural)

Page 89:

"A PLSS is good" -> "A PLSS-C is good" (to retain consistency with earlier in the paragraph)

Page 90:

This page, and ones following it, refer to "Dolls" but it is unclear what "Dolls" actually are. Is it just another name for "robots"? Or are they some special type of robots? To avoid confusion, it would be good to explain the term here. (The term is later explained on page 93, but by then the reader has already gotten confused. Also, it is difficult to find the term description as it is under a product description, rather than under any more general section.)

"armour-piercing" -> "armour piercing"

"plastique-9" -> "Plastique-9" (consistency: on page 55 you capitalised the term)

The table for Series S: aren't the borders here the wrong way around? Previously, with this type of tables the title line (here Robots/Hits/Speed/Cost) hasn't had borders while the details (Series S / 7 / 20m / Lv50000) have been surround by a border line. For some reason, here it's now the other way around? Or maybe use no borders at all, as earlier in the tools section in similar cases. This same applies also to other tables in the Robots & Drones section.

Page 92:

The Benthic II is very cheap compared to other droids? Is the price missing a 0 at the end?

Page 93:

"remotely-operated" -> "remotely operated"

How does an android with a robot brain cost exactly the same as an empty android shell without a robot brain (from page 92)? Both are listed as Lv280,000.

Page 96:

The PDF bookmark for "The Core Worlds" should link to this page, but instead links to page 97.

"longest-settled" -> "longest settled"

"better-developed" -> "better developed"

"very high, and a" -> "very high and a" (drop the comma)

"mandated for them, and their perception" -> "mandated for them and their perception" (drop the comma)

"provides subsistence living, with a housing allowance, so" -> "provides subsistence living with a housing allowance, so" (drop the first comma)

"Computers read the RFID tags in implants or Links, and bombard them" -> " Computers read the RFID tags in implants or Links and bombard people" (drop the comma, and grammatically "them" here would I think refer to "implants or Links")

Pages 97-98:

These are a little confusing. What is the purpose of the illustrations?

What do LGG and SGG stand for under the names of some planets?

"Saturne" should be spelled "Saturn"

See if you could still change the asteroid icons. They look... a little unpalatable, to put it nicely.

"Orbital distances are from A/B" -- it is totally unclear to me what planets are meant to be referencing A and which B. Or which are A+B. Or what's really going on here?

Page 99:

"security agencies, and corporations" -> "security agencies and corporations" (I don't think you have been using an Oxford comma before)

Page 100:

"page XX" -> a missing page number here

"Gravity Types" -> Is this intended to refer only to Spacers (as it now looks like) or should it be under its own larger header (the same kind that "Spacers" has)?

"High-Gee, Heavy Gee" -> My dislike of the "gees" terms is definitely still stayin' alive and I would suggest "High Gravity, Heavy Gravity" instead.

"Regardless of what world a Traveller is from, their home nation and Tier level will play a large role in determining their background." -> compare this with previous page's "It is less the nation that is important for the purposes of Traveller creation than the Tier, but choice of nation affects Tier and languages available." Not fully contradictory, but a little so.

The font on the headers for "Tier 1-4 Core Worlds Background Skills", "Other Skills", "Languages" and "Tier 5-6 Core Worlds Background Skills" look different than anywhere else in the book?

"Any Traveller would automatically be fluent in the primary and secondary languages of their nation, plus additional languages equal to either their INT and EDU modifiers, or their EDU and SOC modifiers." -> You should add a reference here to the country table that comes later to let us know where we need to search for languages. Also, on what level are the "plus" languages given that come from EDU + INT/SOC? And while possible, as someone who comes from a bilingual country and holds degrees in both theoretical linguistics and language pedagogy, I am a little sceptical about these proficiency levels, particularly in a world where real-time translation is available. I would drop the automatic proficiency of any secondary language to 0 or 1, as is quite typical unless a student actually wants to learn the "other" language that's forced on them -- my experience is that not many do, especially if it's a minority language. Also, the Traveller rule book says that fluent languages don't need to be marked as skills, but I think it's good if they actually are marked; we have done the same in our group.

"Computer 0" (in Tier 1-4 background skills) -> I don't think such a skill exists in Traveller? You are maybe thinking about Electronics (Computers) which can't be 0, or the old Informatics skill that appears to be no more?

"to place them on a downward" -> There is a word ("spiral"?) and a full stop missing here.

It is a little strange that people from worse backgrounds ("Other Skills") and poorer countries ("Tier 5-6 Nations") and lower social statuses ("Tier 5-6 Nations: Languages") have a wider choice in background skills than people from better backgrounds. Is there a reason or an intent behind this? Could Tier 1-4 countries be given a little more choice?

Page 101:

"If a nation is listed with two languages, Travellers from that nation are fluent in both." -> add "(see page 102)" or similar to guide the reader

"French", "English", "Russian"m "Artificial Languages": I think these belong to the "Core Languages" section, so should be under smaller headings?

"wide-spread" -> "widespread"

"Ships crews" -> "Ship crews"

Page 102:

"Scandinavian Union" -> As the Scandinavian Union includes the present day non-Scandinavian country Finland, and Finnish language is not listed as a minority language for the country here, are we to understand that Finnish identity has been entirely eradicated either by Twilight or the following centuries?

"Serbian" vs "Serbo-Croatian": Why does Bosnia speak Bosnian and Serbian, but Serbia and Croatia speak "Serbo-Croatian"? To avoid needlessly offending people, I would just call these Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian and leave it at that. It's a touchy subject for many.

I fear there may be similar cases outside of Europe, but I am not capable of commenting on them. I hope you have double and triple checked that things are as they should be.

"Hungarian (Magyar)" -> "Hungarian". Why do you list the language's native name separately here, but not with any other language?

Index:

The Index is missing from the PDF bookmarks.

Page numbers for these are incorrect in the index:
- Ariel Dry World Adaptation
- FADS/ANGPTL6 Vostok Adaptation

It's a nice basic index but could be more comprehensive. Also, the pdf file could utilise links here.

 

[vili]

Onwards in my reading. All page numbers here refer to book 2, unless otherwise specified.

General comments:

You are quite inconsistent here (and probably in other books as well) about whether you use superscript ordinals or not. Check ordinal numbers like "23rd" and "15th", and modify their style to be consistent across the books. For instance, on page 3 of book 2, you spell "August 12th" without superscripting "th", but "22nd century" with a superscript. It's not a century thing either, because on page 7 you spell "23rd century" without the superscript. Personally, I would not use superscript ordinals anywhere and would just write the ordinal indicators as regular letters.

PDF bookmarks:

Check the spelling on all pdf bookmark titles: some titles lack word initial capital letters.

Page 2:

"dis-repair" -> "disrepair"

"Further study revealed that it had a greater than 90% probability of striking Earth." -> I would say that this a little overly dramatic. The previous edition talked about a 1/20 chance of hitting the earth, which felt more "hard scifi". I also get the feeling that the text tries to imply a conspiracy around this, but again this doesn't sound like believable hard scifi to me.

Page 3:

"potentially-habitable" -> "potentially habitable"

Page 4:

"cease-fire" -> "ceasefire"

"100-fold" -> "hundredfold"

Page 5:

"star-faring" -> "starfaring"

"selfsufficient" -> "self-sufficient"

"space-faring" -> "spacefaring"

"Time Line" -> "Timeline"?

Page 6:

"Humanity went to war with one of these species, the space-faring, but not interstellar-capable, Sung and may yet be plunged into a full-scale war with the belligerent Kaefers." -> "Humanity went to war with one of these species, the spacefaring but not interstellar capable Sung, and may yet be plunged into a full-scale war with the belligerent Kaefers." (a couple of words and commas)

"minimal human casualties, although with" -> "minimal human casualties, but with"

"often-hostile" -> "often hostile"

Page 7:

"long-defined" -> "long defined"

"long-held" -> "long held"?

"life-styles" -> "lifestyles"

While you may be planning to save more detailed descriptions of the Central Asian War and the War of German Unification for a later Core book, I would still suggest giving just a little more information about these conflicts, as they are such a core part of the geopolitics of 2300. Maybe just a small box somewhere that describes the participants, reasons, events and results of these conflicts with a couple of sentences.

"the subsequent secessions of Flanders from France" -> " the subsequent secession of Flanders from France" (drop plural?)

"the army was forced to allow the first free elections" -> "the French army was..." (otherwise unclear which country you are talking about here)

"bring Nicholas Ruffin ... to power" -> give a year here so we know when this happened. It is unclear to the reader if this is the 2298 elections that the next paragraph talks about. My understanding is that it was not, and Ruffin came to power in 2293.

"Inclusion of the question in a plebiscite attached to the 2298 elections led to the formation of the Third Empire, with Ruffin as Emperor, by late 2298." -> Since this is very recent history, could we be more specific than just "late 2298"? Also, the sentence is a little cumbersome. How about "Inclusion of the question in a referendum held during the 2298 elections led to the formation of the Third Empire, with Ruffin becoming its Emperor on November 11, 2298." (or whatever date it was, I just chose Armistice day here for no particular reason)

Page 8:

This page makes it sound like Tiers are not just descriptive game terms, but actually a part of the geopolitical vocabulary of the world in 2300. I'm a little skeptical how this kind of categorisation would work in a real life situation and would keep the Tier system a game term and not imply that it has direct real life parallels in 2300 or that it somehow directly guides geopolitics. But maybe that's just me.

"commonly-voiced" -> "commonly voiced"

Page 9:

Remove the white circles, as you already give the Tier number in the headers, no need to repeat them.

The literacy rates for tier 4-6 nations seem quite low to me, especially if compared with college education rates.

Then again, what is "college" in this context? Are we talking about high school, lower tertiary education, or full university education? The real-life term is a little hazy and used differently in different countries. Since Book 1 page 101 says that "For most Tier 5 and 6 nations, higher education will require them to move to another country." I assume that college here cannot refer to university education (70% college educated in Tier 5 nations would not imply having to move because of it)? I would suggest clarifying the intent by changing "College Education" to "Secondary School Education" or some such.

Meanwhile, why do Tier 3 nationals get DM+2 to higher education rolls while Tier 4 don't (page 101 of book 1), if College Education levels in Tier 4 nations are actually higher than in Tier 3 nations (85% vs 82%)? Also, why is there such a huge difference in Literacy rates between these two Tiers, if Tier 4 is actually better educated?

"well-developed" -> "well developed"

Pages 10-11 (Earth map):

It's a bit confusing now with two types of numbers on the map, as well as countries sometimes referred to by numbers and at other times by names. For clarity, would it be possible to list all countries with their Tier numbers in the text areas, and have no Tier numbers or country names on the map itself Or would the country names not fit then? Alternatively, would it at least be possible to not have situations like Bolivia and Turkey, where you have the Tier number and the reference number on the map, and the name of the country in the text: in these cases I would just have the reference number on the map and the Tier number with the country name in the text.

Hungary and Bosnia seem to be the wrong way around on the map.

Austrovenia, UAR, Somalia and Mali appear to have no Tier ranking?

Why is the Indian Ocean marked Tier 4??

What is the blue square next to the "Asia" list of countries?

What is the number 10 next to "Nepal"?

It looks like Nauru appears to have moved to Australia? Shouldn't it be further east? Although that said, how did Nauru survive rising sea levels in the first place if places like Florida didn't?

How did Australia get its inland sea with sea level rise, and without there being any connection the sea? It probably should be linked to the sea down south, no?

Pages 12-13 (star map):

Umnh... sadly, this nice looking star map seems to be a bit of a mess.

Now, the design is pretty slick. Although the symbol for the Sol system looks a little like... well, a child's drawing. I would suggest removing the triangles and making the SOL font slightly smaller, resulting in a nice, visible circle with the word SOL.

But why does it say "The Core" in top left, considering this is the entire human space?

For some reason, Rho Eridani is connected by a line to Tau Ceti (in reality over 14 light years away) and by another to Van Maanen's Star (over 19 light years away). The only places that it should be connected to are Zeta Tucanae and 82 Eridani (as well its twin star, but that's in the same coordinates).

Meanwhile, there is a line missing between Tau Ceti and Van Maanen's Star (5.9 light years).

DM-21 1377 shouldn't be linked to Ross 614 as the distance between them is 7.79 light years.

Procyon should have a link to DM+5 1668, as the distance is just over 1 light year.

There should be no line connecting Nyotekundu and AC+66 3955 which are over 25 light years from each other.

Kimanjano and 61 Ursae Majoris should have a line linking them (7.24 light years).

Beta Comae Berenices and Beta Canum should not have a link between them (8.14 light years distance).

DM+36 2393 and Beta Canum should have a link between them (7.53 light years).

Hochbaden should have a link to DM+35 2436 (6 light years).

Zeta Herculis should have a link to Ross 863 (6.4 light years).

There should be a line linking Mu Herculis and Red Speck (7.6 light years).

Epsilon Indi is spelled "Epsilon Irdi".

There may well be other mistakes in the map. I only checked systems with human presence and started to run out of steam towards the end of the process.

Anyway, it might be a good idea to mention that this is not the full star map of reachable stars, as dozens of undeveloped star systems that are perfectly reachable for humans seem to be missing from this map. (Edit: Although in all fairness, I haven't actually counted them, so I might be mistaken here and the number of missing systems is smaller.)

And speaking of systems, would it be too late to add a table with all the systems and their coordinates, as in previous publications? That seems to be missing completely and I for one miss that.

 

[vili]

Ahhh.... A nice cup of green tea. A brand new Vangelis album. And a new 2300AD rulebook to read. It's a good day!

I want to stress again that while I'm perhaps questioning a lot of things and raising flags here and there, that's only because I love the books and hope to help make them the best that they can be. It's an amazing job that you have done here. I hope that at least some of my comments help. That said, I must still mention that it would have been nice of you to employ a professional proofreader or a copy editor for this release.

All page numbers here refer to Book 2, unless I mention (or forget to mention) otherwise.

A general comment

In many places, "vitamins" are mentioned. I wonder if we should rather talk about "micronutrients".

Page 16:

"Life lacks the desperation so common in the Core, with 10 people for every job." -> The way I parse this, grammatically the "10 people for every job" would seem to refer to "Life", which in turn refers to the Frontier. But I assume the reference should be to the Core. So: "Life lacks the desperation so common in the Core, where there are 10 people for every job."

Page 17:

The hard/soft path division has created quite a lot of discussion in our game group. Personally, I quite like it and think that it's a good addition to the system. It feels like a nice base philosophy or heritage onto which to start sketching a new character's identity. It doesn't force you into much of anything, and it is not a hard black-or-white division, but gives you a nudge towards something, and describes your surrounding society with some very broad brushstrokes. However, some in our group feel that it is too abstract and needs more game mechanical influence in character creation.

"locally-available" -> "locally available"

"somatic (body) cells" -> "body cells" (if you need to explain the use of a fancy word, it probably makes no sense to use the fancy word in the first place)

"well-adapted" -> "well adapted"?

Page 18:

"bio-chemistry" -> "biochemistry"

Stellar Coordinates: I suggest mentioning here that the numbers in the coordinates refer to light years and that in order to calculate a distance between any two points you use the Pythagorean theorem (and insert formula).

Distance from Earth: Is straight line distance really relevant information? Travel distance would probably be a better number to give an idea of how far the colony is. Now, I don't vouch for its total accuracy, but you could in theory get those numbers from my 2300AD travel plotter at https://starscanner.six51.com/ . But you may want to double check that the results make sense.

"short-hand" -> "shorthand"

Page 21:

"deep-space" -> "deep space"

"more detail in Chapter 21" -> This book has no chapter numbers?

"colonies were established on 33 habitable worlds" -> Book 1 page 3 claimed that "humanity has colonies on 32 Earth-like worlds". Is it 32 or 33? Or was some colony lost?

Gravity column in the table: why is this just a word here and also later on in the colony list, while outposts give the actual gravity value as a number?

The term "Compatibility" appears in the table out of nowhere. Maybe add a reference somewhere to check the definition on page 101? That said, the inclusion of this number is brilliant. Bravo!

Page 22:

Would it be possible to put the outposts (and in later tables the colonies) in an alphabetical order within the countries, either by system name or outpost name? Now they seem to be in totally random order?

"Innsrück Station" -> Double check if this is the intended spelling. In the previous edition the station was called "Hunsrück Station".

"Gerollblock" -> Double check spelling. I suppose the German word is "Geröllblock". Previous edition turned the ö into oe: "Geroellblock".

Page 23:

Why do some UCP codes use a comma between some trade codes, while others don't? These commas later don't always exist in the world descriptions. Compare for instance the UCP code here for Ellis (has a comma), and then the UCP code given on page 29 for Ellis (no comma).

"Eta Bootes" (twice) -> "Eta Bootis". In fact, go through the whole book and fix it everywhere. You use both spellings, but as I understand it, "Eta Bootis" is the star and "Bootes" is the constellation.

Page 24:

Do I see correctly that in some cases the "Colony Name" doesn't actually list the colony name but the planet name, as in the case of Adlerhorst, where the colony actually is "New Mark"? I'm not sure.

"Baveria" -> "Bavaria"

Page 25:

"Eta Bootes" -> ""Eta Bootis""

What does the X stand for in Arbor's UPP's Starport Type? Also, are these actually UPPs or UCPs, since they appear to have trade code data, which page 19 says "is not part of the UPP for 2300AD"?

Page 26:

See my earlier comments about the map.

Page 27:

"DM26 12026" -> "DM-26 12026"?

"remaining out the cluster" -> "remaining out of the cluster" ?

Page 28:

I see King has changed dramatically since the previous edition. I have no issue with that. Seismic activity!

Page 29:

King's survival DM-4 doesn't match with the information given on page 23 (DM-3).

"Environmental Hazard and Requirements" -> I don't think any planet has any "Requirements" listed, although every planet has this section. Was this where the DNAMs were supposed to be listed? Could they be added to every planet?

"barely-habitable" -> "barely habitable"

"bareky-able" -> "barely able"

"tele-operated" -> "teleoperated"?

"highly-charged" -> "highly charged"

Why don't we get any description of Hermes and its colony? The previous book had a couple of paragraphs. I love that world and its White Wings.

"Ellis is also on old world" -> "...an old world"?

Page 30:

Since Liberty is on the shore of Lake Fellowship, shouldn't the hexagon marking the city be right next to the lake? Also, I have often wondered why Liberty was built there, if the good farming lands were further east?

Page 31:

Why are the descriptions of Botany Bay and Kingsland missing? Previous book had them. I would rather have these than the description of a touring circus a few pages later.

Botany Bay's UPP doesn't match with the one given on page 23.

What's the "Darwin Island" colony? It is not listed on page 23 and has no visible cities on page 32, and the UCP here doesn't match with the colony listed there as just "Botany Bay".

Page 34:

See my earlier comments on the star map.

Page 35:

"more-advanced" -> "more advanced"

"long-settled" -> "long settled"

"more advanced than theirs" -> "more advanced than ours"?

Nibelungen's Survival DM-2 here is different than the number given on page 24 (-1).

"tidally-locked" -> "tidally locked"

"in the ‘Twilight’ region" -> "in the 'twilight' region"? (otherwise makes you think of the Twilight, and certainly no one wants to think of the horrors of Twilight on a perfectly nice world like Nibelungen)

"tidally-locked" -> "tidally locked"?

Beowulf's UPP doesn't match with the one given on page 23 (looks like you've entered Alicia's UCP here).

"nights (40+ days each) carnivorous life forms" -> "nights (40+ days each), carnivorous life forms" (missing comma)

Again, we are missing descriptions that existed in the previous edition: why no information about Alicia and Europe Neuve?

Page 36:

"Stadt-am-see" -> "Stadt-am-See"

Page 37:

"Devereau" -> "Devereaux"

Page 38:

In the previous edition, Kimanjano rotated in the opposite direction than now. I think it was the only mapped world to rotate that way, which I always found peculiar. Unless I'm mistaken, now every listed world rotates the same direction as Earth. Is this on purpose? Although I suppose it just depends on what is considered "up" or "north". But then, should the Kimanjano map be upside down now? Well, I guess it doesn't really matter.

Page 39:

"biologically-reactive materials in sea-water" -> "biologically reactive materials in sea water" (in both the Kimanjano and Kie-Yuma hazard descriptions)

"life-forms" -> "life forms"

"In additional to the" -> "In addition to the"

"carefully-planned" -> "carefully planned"

"bio-chemical" -> "biochemical"

"from Arm-to-Arm" -> "from arm to arm"

Kie-Yuma's listed Survival DM-2 doesn't match with the one given on page 25.

"tolerances Kie-Yuma’s" -> "tolerances, Kie-Yuma’s" (a missing comma)

"Kie-Yuma (colony)" -> why does it specify "colony" in the title box, when it doesn't with any other colony? Is it because the planet name is the same? But you don't always do this? Maybe just remove "colony"?

No map for Kie-Yuma? The previous edition had one. Sadface.

Page 40:

"Jungenberg" -> check spelling, was previously "Jurgenberg"

Page 41:

"fundamentally-incompatible" -> "fundamentally incompatible"

"potentially-poisonous" -> "potentially poisonous"

"remarkably-well" -> "remarkably well"

"bread-basket" -> "bread basket"?

"Betan Canum" -> "Beta Canum"

"New Africa is still instrumental in shipping goods back and forth across the continent" -> This sentence beginning has a weird logical loop, doesn't it? Basically it says: "New Africa is still instrumental in shipping goods back and forth across New Africa". I'm not sure what's the intent here. Also, if it's instrumental in distributing goods on the planet (?), how are its tourism and agriculture still bigger industries for it?

"is the smallest full colony on the planet" -> Does this actually refer to area or to population? If latter, I would change to "is the least populous full colony on the planet"

"greatly-benefitted" -> "greatly benefitted"

Page 42:

"Albinsel" -> "Halbinsel" (as always previously)

"New Hameln" -> "Neu Hameln" (as previously, and makes more sense)

Page 43:

Joi's Survival DM is listed here as DM+0, but in the tables on pages 23-25 each colony is given -1 Survival instead.

Elysia's UCP doesn't match with the UCP given on page 25.

"micro- continent" -> either remove the space or write "micro continent"

"carefully-planned" -> "carefully planned"

"peoples’ lives" -> "people's lives" (I assume we are talking about one group of people, the Azanians, and not several different peoples)

"ground-based" -> "ground based"?

Page 45:

No map of Crater here, unlike in the previous edition?

Crater's Survival DM-1 doesn't match with the number given on page 23.

"Crater (colony)" -> why the "(colony)" text in the title box when others don't have it? Again because its the same name as the planet? Others like Nous Voilà and Dunkelheim a couple of pages later don't follow this.

"eco-system" -> "ecosystem"

"highly-productive" -> "highly productive"

"American and Australians" -> "Americans and Australians" (missing plural)

"peace-keepers" -> "peacekeepers"

"relatively-impartial" -> "relatively impartial"

Page 47:

"The current tensions are exacerbated by a combination of a sense of betrayal, as until recently the French and Bavarians had been close allies, and the sort of rage that comes from being beaten by an inferior opponent." -> This is a bit difficult to read because of the clause in the middle. I suggest rewriting this as: "The current tensions are exacerbated by a combination of the sort of rage that comes from being beaten by an inferior opponent and from a sense of betrayal, as until recently the French and Bavarians had been close allies."

"genetically-engineered" -> "genetically engineered"

"Nous Voila" -> "Nous Voilà"

"relatively-harmless" -> "relatively harmless"

Page 49:

"Sternenkuppet" -> "Sternenkuppel"

Page 50:

"Novoyoa Kiyev" -> "Novoya Kiyev" (as on page 24). Or just pick one form and stick to it across the books. And I'm actually not sure what should be the correct way to spell this. Currently, in our world, the spelling of the original city's name is also something of a political issue as far as I understand. "Kyiv" I think is the spelling currently endorsed by the Ukrainian government. But what would be the Ukrainian word for "new"? Novyy? I don't know, I don't speak Ukrainian. And of course, the language has also changed by 2300.

Page 51:

"engineering colonists to a better fit with" -> "engineering colonists to better fit with"?

"Novoa Kyev" -> "Novoya Kiyev"

"Novoa Kiyev" -> "Novoya Kiyev" That's the fourth different way you spell the name in the book so far -- the third in just two pages and the second in just three lines! That said, "Novoa Kiyev" is actually the way GDW spelled it back in the 80s, or at least in the Colonial Atlas they did. In any case, just pick one format and stick with it.

Page 53:

"kilometre-long" -> " kilometre long"

"food-chain" -> "food chain"

Page 54:

See my earlier comments on the star map.

 

[cunningrat]

Page 50:
"Novoyoa Kiyev" -> "Novoya Kiyev" (as on page 24). Or just pick one form and stick to it across the books. And I'm actually not sure what should be the correct way to spell this. Currently, in our world, the spelling of the original city's name is also something of a political issue as far as I understand. "Kyiv" I think is the spelling currently endorsed by the Ukrainian government. But what would be the Ukrainian word for "new"? Novyy? I don't know, I don't speak Ukrainian. And of course, the language has also changed by 2300.

Native Russian and Ukrainian speaker here. "Kyiv" is the Ukrainian spelling. "Kiev" is a Russification. That's why it's a really hot-button political issue right now, as Ukraine is trying to assert its independence. (I don't actually have "2300 AD", so I don't know if Ukraine is an independent country in that universe. That would affect what name you'd use for the city.)

The correct word for "New" in this case would be "Novyy" if you're using Russian, "Noviy" if you're using Ukrainian. (Edited: had to look up the transliteration rules. ) Using "Novaya" is a gender mismatch, which is a very basic building block of both languages. That wouldn't change by 2300.

 

[vili]

Thanks for the clarification, cunningrat! So I guess if we went with today's language and transliteration rules, it should be "Noviy Kyiv". I might personally go with that.

Although, it is also true that the timeline of 2300 diverges from ours in the 1990s. In the world of 2300AD, Ukraine (like other countries) survived through an almost century long nuclear war type event that nearly ended civilization. You'd also be surprised how quickly a language can change. For instance, back about a thousand years ago, English lost its entire gender system within the span of just a couple of centuries. Whether anything like that could have happened with Ukrainian, or if "Kyiv" could have changed grammatical gender, is a question I am in no way qualified to answer.

Character creation notes

Meanwhile, a couple of friends and I spent last evening creating characters with the new rules. The system works pretty nicely! A couple of comments though:

Page 10 says that "If their nation or colony has a secondary language, they will also be proficient in that language at skill level 1". How do we know if a specific colony has a secondary language? Colonies don't seem to list those.

Page 10 also says that "Frontier colonists will have a passing knowledge (skill level 0) of the primary language of their arm of space". Strictly speaking, does Traveller rules allow for skill level 0 languages, other than having the generic "Language" skill at 0?

Still on page 10, the book tells us that "To reflect this longer life-span, ageing rolls start at age 50 rather than age 34." This makes sense and is a good idea. However, it also leaves open the question: when we eventually roll for ageing at age 50, do we still roll using the Traveller rule on its page 47: "Use the Traveller’s total number of terms as a negative DM on this table". This would mean that the first ageing roll will be with DM-8, which resulted in both of my characters taking quite serious stat hits. Is the designer's intent that the first roll should actually still be made with DM-4 as you would when ageing for the first time in Traveller? If so, maybe write this on page 10. Otherwise it's really quite a shockingly fast ageing event.

And still on page 10, it says that some naval and marine characters can have a neural jack as part of the character creation process and that "This will consume a Benefit roll but also grant DM+1 to advancement rolls." -> The text leaves two things unclear to us: 1) When exactly can this neural jack be taken -- during mustering or already during the marine/naval career by noting that you will have one less benefit roll later? 2) Is the DM+1 to advancement rolls applied only to the naval/marine career, or to ALL careers from here on? Maybe these two things could be clarified in the text?

The previous edition of 2300AD had different mustering out tables for careers, usually with less money given than in Traveller's tables. With those 2300AD specific tables now gone, players end up getting more money. Is this intentional?

Nudging a character out of their homeworld with the "Leaving Home" mechanic feels like a fairly good idea. I didn't like it much at first, but having now made my characters, it gives a good reason why these characters are travelling. And it's of course always possible to play without it if needed for any reason. Good work!

Country/language list and the world map

I noticed a couple of inconsistencies between the country and language list on Book 1 pages 102-103 and the Book 2 map (pages 10-11).

In the country and language list, Baluchistan is listed as part of the Middle East. In the map, it is listed as part of South Asia and spelled "Balochistan".

Australia, New Zealand and Papua should probably be part of Oceania in the map; now they are South Asia. Meanwhile, in the country list New Zealand IS in Oceania while Australia is... its own region that also includes Papua and Tasmania? This is confusing.

Guinea Coast is a country listed on the map but not in the country/language list, as far as I can see.

Georgia is spelled "Gorgia" in the map.

Why is Japan in Oceania and not in Asia in both the map and the list?

What is called "South Asia" on the map is "Indian States" in the country list.

I can't find Mysore (listed in the table) anywhere on the map. Meanwhile, I don't think there is any Kamataka in the country list, but it's on the map.

By the way, what's the deal with two number 10s in the Indian region (one up north, one in the sea next to the word "Nepal")?

Amaterasu is spelled "Amatersasu" in the list.

The list in Book 1 is also quite strangely laid out. Take for instance the North African countries: the list starts at the bottom of the left-hand column of page 102 and one would imagine it to continue at the top of the right-hand column of the same page, but instead it continues on the left-hand column of page 103. This is quite confusing for the reader.

In fact, is there any point in having the countries divided into regions in the list? It would make it much easier to find countries if they were just in an alphabetical list, especially when Japan is not in Asia as one would assume, and New Zealand is in one region on the map and in another in the list.

Also, the list really would fit better into Book 2, just after the map.

 

[vili]

Book 2 continues.

General comments

It would be brilliant if each colony could have its foundation year listed in its table.

Perhaps my biggest disappointment in this new edition is the removal of descriptions for many colonies that had descriptions in the previous edition. Some of the colony descriptions also seem shorter than what we had before. If this due to a lack of space, I would suggest taking some of the maps and rotating + resizing them so that they take only half a page. While lovely looking, maps for places like Kingsland, Hochbaden, Sans Souci, Dukou and Heifang have very few interesting details, so we wouldn't really lose anything if those maps were smaller and only took half a page, and it would give you a couple of extra pages for colony descriptions, and maybe also for extra maps if you happened to make coloured maps for those colonies that currently miss a map, but which had a map in the earlier edition.

Page 55

"The Manchurian Arm begins at Delta Pavonis" -> Does it? Or would it rather start at DM-26 12026 which you call the gateway to the arm on page 27.

"Omicron2 Eridani" -> should it be "Omicron 2 Eridani" (space missing?) (twice on this page and multiple times on other pages)

Canadian Finger -> By the way, is there a reason why none of the Canadian finger systems have ever been named? The numbers can get confusing.

Page 56

"Han Shan (Cold Mountain)" -> Since the most common name used everywhere else in the book for this planet is Cold Mountain, I would suggest writing this "Cold Mountain (Han Shan)" as that would make it easier to find.

Page 57

"Han Shan (Cold Mountain)" -> Same here as in the previous comment: either always prefer "Han Shan" (including in the colony list on page 24), or switch this to "Cold Mountain (Han Shan)"

"planet-wide" -> "planetwide"?

Daikoku's survival DM doesn't match with the ones given on pages 23 and 24.

"highly-specialised" -> "highly specialised"

"Heidelshiemat" -> "Heidelsheimat"

Why no descriptions of Daikoku, the Arabian colony, Chyuantii and Lihngtou? We had descriptions for all of them in the previous edition.

Heidelsheimat's survival DM-1 doesn't match with what it says for its colonies on page 24.

Page 61

"while other" -> "while others"?

"formally-established" -> "formally established"

Page 62

"Yinging" -> "Yingjing"?

Page 63

Inconsistency: Chengu's nationalities are given as country names (e.g. "Manchuria") instead of nationalities like everywhere else (e.g. "Manchurian").

Again, a missing description for both the planet and the colony of Kanata. Very sad, considering we had half a page in the previous edition. And exactly the same with Kwantung's colonies.

Page 67

Dukou, Xixiang, Montana the world and Montana the colony are all missing descriptions which existed in the previous edition. So sad.

"High Gravity, intense cold," -> Is Dukou's hazard list missing something, or should you replace the comma with a full stop?

Montana's survival DM matches with the one listed for Mexico on page 24, but not with the one listed for Argentina on page 23.

I don't remember if I already mentioned, but DM-3 1123 is spelled "DM+3 1123" (plus instead of minus) on page 25.

Sechura's Survival DM in the colony list on page 24 doesn't match the survival number given here for Austin's World.

"This has the planet passing from pointing one pole at the sun for several days at a time, as it swings around to point the other pole at the sun." -> It might be just me, but I can't understand what this sentence describes.

"heavily-built" -> "heavily built"?

"in the islands" -> "on the islands"?

Page 69

"Couteau" -> "Cousteau"

"light-element" -> "light element"?

"which exist" -> "which exists"?

"hydrogen-powered" -> "hydrogen powered"?

Paulos' survival DM doesn't match with the one given on page 23.

This time we not only don't get a description of the colony, or a description of the world, but there isn't even any mention of the Brazilian colony! Wow. Very sad indeed.

"Tidally-locked, Constant storms" -> "Tidally locked, constant storms" (remove hyphen, switch to lowercase c)

"Much of the Eriksson’s water" -> "Much of Eriksson’s water"?

"tidally-locked" -> "tidally locked"

"orbits quite closely in." -> "orbits quite close to it."?

"There are resources there" -> "The planet has resources"

"tidally-locked" -> "tidally locked"

Page 70

"Heifang" -> "Haifeng" (twice)

Page 71

"well-financed" -> "well financed"

"Most governments enforce limits on copyrights and patents, however," -> "However, most governments enforce limits on copyrights and patents,"

Page 72

"Even then, they continued to make the case for genetic engineering of colonists, despite the unpopularity of that position on the Core worlds." -> wrong tense?

Page 74

"auto-building houses" -> "self-building houses"?

Page 76

"wrong-doing" -> "wrongdoing"?

"loosely-affiliated" -> "loosely affiliated"

Page 77

"To do that, they felt, humanity would need to change, to grow tougher, smarter and faster." -> let's clean the commas here a little: "To do that, they felt humanity would need to change and grow tougher, smarter and faster."

"experiemnt" -> "experiment" (or preferably "experimental disease", as that would make the paragraph read better)

Maybe specify somewhere at the beginning of this description when the incident at Tristan da Cunha happened. The next paragraph suddenly mentions that it was 200 years ago. Is it realistic that the place is STILL under quarantine and no information about it has leaked out during that time? And were retroviruses even a thing yet around 2100? According to Book 1 Page 28, DNAM tech was created only around 2150?

Page 78

It seems like the illustration is meant to illustrate a Children of Mao execution, but the text says that the cutting is done with "a wire knife", which neither floating-head person here seems to be holding? Not a big issue, but consider changing the text to "with a wire knife, or worse", or something similar.

Page 79

Would Vanuatu have survived the kind of sea level rise that has sunk Florida?

"space-travel" -> "space travel"

"Vanautu" -> "Vanuatu"

"largely-independent" -> "largely independent"

"United Kingdom" (several times) -> I think this section is the only place in this book (pages 79 and 81) where you use the term "United Kingdom". The term also appears in Book 1 on page 65. Everywhere else in these two books it is always "Britain", including in the map. I would considering changing it to Britain here as well. However, Book 3 only mentions "Britain" once and prefers "United Kingdom" on pages 64, 74, 78, 80 and 88. Maybe stick with one term throughout the books, or then explain what the difference between the two terms is in 2300?

Going back to Page 79 of Book 2, the location of the British Pathfinder headquarters is given as "Britain, United Kingdom", which raises the question what exactly is the relationship between these two terms in 2300AD and if UK is indeed the larger political entity, why are the colonies listed as being under Britain, not the UK, and why does the map prefer Britain and not UK? On page 81, the HQ for the Royal Aerospace Force does not follow the same style -- Britain is not mentioned at all.

"since creating the colony on Joi" -> I would suggest adding a year here to guide the reader.

"newly-independent" -> "newly independent"

A note on the multi-line titles in this section, such as the one for "Deuxième Bureau de l’État-Major Général": reduce line spacing (and increase bottom margin if possible on all titles). Now the text is a bit weird looking, with there being lots of spacing between the two lines of the title, and practically none between the title and the text below.

"Intelligence-gathering" -> "Intelligence gathering"

"law-enforcement" -> "law enforcement"? (twice)

Page 80

"Intelligence-gathering" -> "Intelligence gathering"

"intelligence-gathering" -> "intelligence gathering"

"law-enforcement" -> "law enforcement"?

"Earth Géosynchrones Orbit" -> "Earth Geosynchronous Orbit"?

"search any, and all, vessels" -> "search any and all vessels"?

"Le Contrôle de Quarantaine Orbitale" -> The title of the section doesn't use the circumflexed "ô". I would say either use it in both or in neither. There have been also some other French names and titles where I have been wondering whether they should have used acutes or graves, but I'm not sure.

"ship-building" -> "shipbuilding"?

The box in the bottom right is information related to character creation. Would it be possible to refer to it in Book 1, where character creation is discussed?

"Foreign Legion characters never have to check for morale." -> What is this "check for morale"? Neither Traveller rules nor the 2300AD character creation seem to refer to "morale"?

Page 81

"Wellington-class" -> remove italics and remove hyphen?

"in 2268" -> Should this be 2267, as the Canadian Confederation was proclaimed in 1867 and the Canadian Centennial was celebrated in 1967?

"Eta Bootes" -> "Eta Bootis"

"free-market" -> "free market"?

"Tanstaaff" -> "Tanstaafl"

Page 82

"and facilities The Rangers" -> "and facilities. The Rangers" (a missing comma)

"almost-mythical" -> "almost mythical"

Page 82

Make the table headers on this page consistent. Now you have "Enlisted Ranks" for the US Space Force, but just "Enlisted" for the others. And for the third columns, you have "Officer Ranks", "Officer" and "Officers", depending on the nation.

Also, this now misses German ranks, which the previous book had.

Also, in what order are these? Not in an alphabetical order, but neither in size order, as French Army should surely be the first one listed then? Might be a good idea to list it first anyway, as France is after all the leader in this world.

Page 84

The "Chronology of Contact" table here differs majorly from the "Alien Contact Time Line" on page 5 of this book. Please fix things like Sung contact, Slaver War and other dates, and then go through the text in the books to make sure that dates are accurate everywhere and consistent with these tables.

"left-overs" -> "leftovers"

"on Kormoran single continent" -> "on Kormoran's single continent"

Page 85

See my earlier notes on the map.

Page 87

"beautifully-pointed" -> "beautifully pointed" or "beautiful pointed"

"genetically-manipulated" -> "genetically manipulated"

"DM+27 28217" and "DM+36 2219" -> it would make reading easier if you noted that these are at least today called Bon Chance and Sans Souci, respectively.

"for the boat approach closer" -> "for the boat to approach closer"?

Page 88

"commonly-encountered" -> "commonly encountered"

"approximately 12%" -> How large was this diplomatic party if it allows us to "approximate" a number to 12? Apparently at least a hundred individuals? Would "10%" make more sense here?

"wildly-variable" -> "wildly variable"

"tightly-integrated" -> "tightly integrated"

"Pentapods.." -> "Pentapods." (remove extra full stop)

Page 89

"Progress continued until" -> "Peaceful progress with the Sung continued until". Having just read the Physical Description, a reader has already forgotten what we were talking about earlier. Not sure why the Physical Description even breaks this narrative? Maybe just move it after The Slaver War?

"previously-assumed" -> "previously assumed"

"more 'advanced' societies" -> Why quotes here? You don't use quotes later in this sentence for the same word.

Page 90

The map gives no names for any of the cities and continents in the east.

Page 91

"was born" -> "followed"?

Page 92

"hunter/trappers" -> "hunter-trappers"

Page 93

"After time, although, they" -> "After time, however, they" (or "After a while, however, they")

Kafeer trooper stats: does the trooper lose the low state Melee (Unarmed) 2 skill when it switches to a high state?

In the table at the bottom of the page, Horse Pistol has the wrong weight (1600 kg?).

Also the Thud Gun's weight doesn't match between the two tables on the page.

Page 95

"a long winter hibernations" -> "a long winter hibernation"

"branch/arms" -> "branches/arms"

Page 96

"well-protected" -> "well protected"?

"over-all" -> "overall"

"smaller-calibre" -> "smaller calibre"

Page 98

"powerfully-built" -> "powerfully built"

"female night-stalkers" -> "female night stalkers" (you didn't use a hyphen earlier or in the title)

"night-stalker’s" -> "night stalker’s"

"night-stalker" -> "night stalker"

Page 99

"well-protected" -> "well protected"

Page 100

"The smallest creature considered to be gigantic must mass over 100,000kg" -> "A creature considered to be gigantic has a mass of over 100,000 kg" or "To be considered gigantic, a creature must have a mass of over 100,000 kg"

"Gigantic trait" -> "gigantic trait" (or then capitalise also elsewhere)

"Minimum Damage" -> "minimum damage" (or then capitalise also elsewhere)

 

[vili]

The remnants of Book 2.

Page 84

"By 2300, Humanity has encountered five other sentient species" -> Yet, you go on to tell us about six: Ebers, Pentapods, Sung, Xiang, Kaefers and Arbors.

Page 101

"Hostile Enviroments" (title) -> "Hostile Environments" (missing n)

"carbon-based" -> "carbon based" (twice)

"safe to eat" -> I would widen this a little to something like "safe to eat or otherwise closely interact with", or something similar, to not be so focused on eating things. I would imagine that the first question that new colonists ask is not "can we eat it?", but whether they can touch or even exist in the same biosphere with local wildlife. Eating comes only later. Or so I would imagine.

Page 102

"The 32 colonised worlds" -> make sure that this is in line with the number that you end up writing on page 21 and in book 1 on page 3

"individual-to-individual" -> "individual to individual"

"world-to-world" -> "world to world"

"the worlds survival check" -> "the world's survival check"

"PAS DM of -3" -> "PAS DM of -3." (missing full stop)

"on-planet" -> "on planet"

Page 103

"unrelentingly-hostile" -> "unreletingly hostile"

"Routine (6+), Athletics" -> "Routine (6+) Athletics" (remove comma)

I don't understand the example that is given at the top of the page. Why is the PAS level of the world 7? Cold Mountain's Survival DM is -3 (page 24) and if I deduct one from it as instructed on page 102, I get a PAS DM of -4. How does the example come up with DM-7?

Should the second paragraph on this page be in italics? Is it part of the example?

"A Traveller with Athletics (endurance) 1 and END DM+1 rolls an 8 on their PAS check, for a total of 3." -> Why a total of three? If you mean 8 (roll) + 1 (END) + 1 (Ath) - 7 (DM) = 3, maybe you could write this a bit clearer? It took me a while to understand, if this indeed is what's meant by the paragraph.

"Zero or micro-gravity" -> "Zero gravity or microgravity"

"long-term" vs "long term": You use both on this page, stick to one style.

"This swimming motion has a speed of STR x 0.01 metres. A STR 7 Traveller could therefore ‘swim’ at a speed of 0.07 metres." -> For speed, maybe indicate the time unit. I guess it's metres/round?

Page 104

"zero-gee" -> "zero gravity", because the "gee" still gives me something of a saturday night fever

Again, in "Stopping and Bouncing" the speed needs a time unit.

"3V documentaries" -> I don't think this term is explained anywhere? I assume it refers to TriVids, but has that been mentioned anywhere else in this edition? A reader with no background information would read this as "3 volt documentaries".

Page 105

"constantly-mutating" -> "constantly mutating"?

"easily-cured" -> "easily cured"

Page 106

"second- or third-generation" -> "second or third generation"

Page 107

"STR:9" -> "STR: 9" (space missing)

Page 108

"cybernetically-augmented" -> "cybernetically augmented"

Page 109

"This sections details" -> "This section details"

"Although not common, there are Belter communities throughout human space, although the largest is still in the Sol system." -> Two althoughs make the reading a bit clunky, especially as there is a third although in the next sentence. I suggest: "Although not common, there are Belter communities throughout human space, the largest being in the Sol system."

"Chinese Arm" -> "Manchurian Arm" (use the new name)

Page 110

"second- and third-hand" -> "second and third-hard" or maybe "secondhand and thirdhand"

"home-world" -> "homeworld"?

Page 111

"genetically-altered" -> "genetically altered"

"bio-chemical" -> "biochemical"?

Titles: "Neo-Cats", "Neo-Dog", "Neo-Fins"m "Neo-Octopus", "Neo-Raven": inconsistency here, either make all singular or all plural

"bio-chemically" -> "biochemically"

"fully-uplifted" -> "fully uplifted"?

"biochemically-bonded" -> "biochemically bonded"

"law suit" -> "lawsuit"

Page 112

You could refer to this page from Book 1 page 5 where it first mentions proto-intelligences.

"orcas and porpoises" -> looks like there is an extra space between "orcas" and "and"?

Page 113

"Clver" -> "Clever"???

"life-forms" -> "lifeforms"

Poor cat doesn't do much of any damage, much less than her Traveller rule book cousin, or even a mouse or rat there.

"Carnivore/Chaser" -> "Carnivore, Chaser" (to be consistent with others)

Page 114

"hard-science fiction" -> "hard science fiction"

"a huge variety" -> "a large variety"? (you already described Third Imperium as "huge")

"With this sort of campaign, although, there" -> "With this sort of campaign though, there"

"Mandchurian Arm" -> "Manchurian Arm"

"Chinese Arm" -> "Manchurian Arm"

Page 117

"counter-terrorist" -> "counterterrorist" (as earlier in the section)

Page 118

"The majority of people are afraid..." -> Maybe I'm seeing things again, but does this paragraph have a different font size or letter spacing or line height or something?

Page 120 (index)

"Core Worlds" -> The map on page 12 is not the core, although it does say so on the page and in the bookmarks. Should probably be renamed in all three to something else.

"Nations of the World" -> Technically speaking, should point to page 10

Book 3: A quick scan

Since you said you need feedback by Friday this week, I thought I'd skim through book 3's illustrations that are probably harder to change. I'm not sure if I have the time to read through the last book with the intensity that I have done with the other two.

PDF chapter titles / bookmarks are capitalised strangely in book 3, check those.

Also, check the pdf links from the index on page 1: for me, many of them go to the wrong pages (typically one page further than they should -- I'm looking at the book with a single page view)

Page 39: Beowulf is a poor choice here and the number given for its geosynchronous orbit must be wrong since, one page 37, you specifically write that "For most worlds, geosynchronous orbit is equal to the world’s Size x 4,000 kilometres. However, for worlds with very slow rotations, like Beowulf, this may be much higher." Yet, in the graphic, the geosynchronous orbit is still calculated as Size x 4000. For a basic example like this, maybe choose a planet that is not an exception to the general rule given?

Page 41: I think the graphic given here makes no sense and would confuse new readers. I mean, why do all lines meet up on the left side of the planet? Surely, the distance between the borders of The Deeps, The Shelf, The Shallows and The Shore should be the same in all directions? Now it looks like you can just approach the planet from the left and instantly get from outer space to the shelf, or even the shore.

Also, why is "The Deeps" inside of a circle in that graphic? Shouldn't it continue practically forever?

 

[blaster219]

Do Psionics exist within the 2300AD setting? I couldn't see any mention of them in Book 1. If they don't, what happens if you roll Career or Life Event during character creation that refers to them? Do you ignore it and move on (nothing of interest occurs during that term), or do you re-roll until you get a non-psionic related event?

 

[TrippyHippy]

Do Psionics exist within the 2300AD setting? I couldn't see any mention of them in Book 1. If they don't, what happens if you roll Career or Life Event during character creation that refers to them? Do you ignore it and move on (nothing of interest occurs during that term), or do you re-roll until you get a non-psionic related event?

Psionics don't exist in the 2300AD setting. There is some tech that could mimic the effects, but the general gist is it is a hard(er) science fiction setting and psionics don't make the cut.

If character generation does throw up a psionic background, either re-roll or reinterpret the event for some type of high tech implant, I guess.

 

[blaster219]

Thought so. While I'm not running 2300 itself, the game I'm planning is going to be drawing on it for a lot of the hard sci-fi stuff in the setting I'm using. I'll talk it over with the players about whether or not they want psionics in the game.

 

[TrippyHippy]

If avenues are still open, please can I put out a request for a Blank (photo-copy-able) character sheet and about 6 Pregen characters to be included in the Box set? In the manner of the Starter Set we used to have?

While character generation is a feature of the game, I’d like some example characters to show to my group.

 

[blaster219]

How are other people working out travel distances between systems? I'm torn between two options.

Option 1 - Meh, good enough
With the exception of the three systems linked to Sol on the map, roll 1d6+1 to determine the number of light years. The three distances to the systems linked to Sol on the map, Nyotenkundu (Wolf 359), Centauri and Barnards Star, can found out on Wikipedia (7.8ly, 4.37ly 5.9ly respectively) although that does put Wol5 359 .1ly beyond the the stutterwarp limit.

Option 2 - Use a map
A 3d starmapping program such as Celestia or Astrosynthesis could be programmed with the 2300AD positions of the various systems. Celestia, which is freely available for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android already has a 2300AD addon. Although I've noticed it doesn't match the poster map in places. For example, the maps shows C1 and Wolf 424 in the French Arm being connected whilst the data in Celestia says they're 19.66ly apart. So its the add-on isn't totally synced up to the current map.

 

[vili]

How are other people working out travel distances between systems?

I actually ended up writing a web app to answer this very question for our game group. Here's a link. I don't claim it to be the final word on how ships in this universe work, but it's our group's best understanding.

Don't rely on Wikipedia, as the stars in 2300AD are not where they are in real life. Instead, they are where we thought they were in real life back in the 70s. More specifically, the star coordinates in 2300AD come from I think the 1979 update of the Gliese Catalogue. It was up-to-date information when 2300AD was conceived back in the mid-80s. Not so much anymore, but it would be a huge update to switch to a more modern star map. It would likely break more things than it would fix.

Also, don't rely on the star maps currently included in the new 2300AD pdfs. As far as I can see, they show some connections that shouldn't exist, and lack connections that should be there. Hopefully, they will be updated for the final version.

Calculating distances between two three-dimensional point coordinates is actually fairly straightforward. The formula is: sqrt( (x1 - x2)^2 + (y1 - y2)^2 + (z1 - z2)^2)

Or in this day and age, you can just ask something like Wolfram Alpha. To calculate the distance between Beta Canum and Joi, for instance, you just ask this.

I hope this helps!

In unrelated news: I never got to reading Book 3 before the print deadline. Life happened.

 

[blaster219]

This is fantastic, I was thinking about doing something similar with a spreadsheet (assuming I could work out all the lookup stuff) but then I noticed that Book 2 only has the coords for systems with colonies, not outpost only and empty "link systems". But this handles the route-finding aspect as well.

I'm hoping I'm interpreting the custom ship fields correctly. If I was routing a Martinique Yacht then Supply Length would be 14 days (since it carries two weeks fuel for the powerplant), Supply Tank Size would be 42.3 tons since the specs states it has 37.8 tons of fuel for the OMS and 4.5 tons of fuel for the power plant (ignoring the smallcraft fuel storage).

 

[RandomNumber]

How are other people working out travel distances between systems? I'm torn between two options.

Option 1 - Meh, good enough
With the exception of the three systems linked to Sol on the map, roll 1d6+1 to determine the number of light years. The three distances to the systems linked to Sol on the map, Nyotenkundu (Wolf 359), Centauri and Barnards Star, can found out on Wikipedia (7.8ly, 4.37ly 5.9ly respectively) although that does put Wol5 359 .1ly beyond the the stutterwarp limit.

Option 2 - Use a map
A 3d starmapping program such as Celestia or Astrosynthesis could be programmed with the 2300AD positions of the various systems. Celestia, which is freely available for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android already has a 2300AD addon. Although I've noticed it doesn't match the poster map in places. For example, the maps shows C1 and Wolf 424 in the French Arm being connected whilst the data in Celestia says they're 19.66ly apart. So its the add-on isn't totally synced up to the current map.

With the updated set of PDF's there is a document called the 'Explored Space poster' - they have annotated this with the distances between stars.

I still have the Near Star List from 2300AD in the 80's and used that to build myself a spreadsheet with the distances between Colonies and Outposts. It's not perfect as it omits 'stepping stone' systems like those in the Canadian Finger but I can add those when I get time. For the few that I checked, the distances I get match those on the Explored space poster so I surmise that Mongoose are working from the old 2300AD Near Star list too.

 

[blaster219]

Funny, I though I had the updated PDFs as Book 1 had the Core appendix on the end. It seems I forgot to download the updated map. Which does make the connections, or lack of in some cases, a little clearer.

 

[vili]

I'm hoping I'm interpreting the custom ship fields correctly. If I was routing a Martinique Yacht then Supply Length would be 14 days (since it carries two weeks fuel for the powerplant), Supply Tank Size would be 42.3 tons since the specs states it has 37.8 tons of fuel for the OMS and 4.5 tons of fuel for the power plant (ignoring the smallcraft fuel storage).

Ah, indeed. Maybe that's right. Sometimes these things are a bit more art than they are science.

I should have mentioned that I haven't actually updated the plotter since the summer, and I haven't yet really looked at Book 3 in the new edition, so I'm not sure how compatible the plotter's ships currently are with the new edition. Previous editions weren't all that clear (to me anyway) about thruster fuel use, so the current plotter doesn't actually calculate fuel use for velocity correction, only for life support supply.

I need to take a look at those new ships at some point, but that'll probably only be after the Aerospace Engineer's Handbook and Ships of the Frontier books come out. I suppose I should update the app to say that it doesn't incorporation the new edition rules yet.

 

[Voltron64]

If avenues are still open, please can I put out a request for a Blank (photo-copy-able) character sheet and about 6 Pregen characters to be included in the Box set? In the manner of the Starter Set we used to have?

While character generation is a feature of the game, I’d like some example characters to show to my group.

Honestly, that's a pretty great idea and something I'd love to see as well.

Personally I'd have the pregens consist of 3 Frontier Travellers (one from each Arm), 1 Spacer Traveller, and 2 Core World Travellers (1 from Earth and 1 from Tirane, or both from Earth with one from a Tier 1-4 nation and the other from a Tier 5-6 nation.)

 

[blaster219]

I may have missed this is the book, but how much does it cost to send a message via mail ship (assuming they exist) across interstellar distances?