Plans for career book nine?

[Techno-Guru]

Forgive me if this has already been brought up before but has there been any mention of Mongoose's plans after career book eight? At this point it's mostly curiousity asking. I mean we still have scholars, we still have citizens (although I'm not sure there's much of a market for them.) Meh, just curious.

 

[Matian]

I would love a Citizens book. I'm not fond of the idea that to get a bunch of technical skills you need to go through the military. I know some people like a heavily militaristic setting, but I prefer to have a group of more "normal" citizens.

An option for higher education would be neat, too.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Military for technical skills? I don't see this.

Most Military specialties are not technical either. I personally don't see any of the Army or Marines specialties as technical.

Granted, Citizen/Corporate and Citizen/Colonist are not very technical. Scholar/Scientist has those two 'Any Science(Any)' skill slots which allow you to custom choose a technical field.

For many additional options, there is the Spica Career Book 1. Most technical is probably, Worker/Technician.

 

[Techno-Guru]

Military for technical skills? I don't see this.

Most Military specialties are not technical either. I personally don't see any of the Army or Marines specialties as technical.

Granted, Citizen/Corporate and Citizen/Colonist are not very technical. Scholar/Scientist has those two 'Any Science(Any)' skill slots which allow you to custom choose a technical field.

For many additional options, there is the Spica Career Book 1. Most technical is probably, Worker/Technician.

Well, the "Support" speciality for both of them unfortunately lumps combat engineers in together with medics, comm officers, cooks, and EW specialists. That's a lot to cover with five skill choices...
Navy has the benefit of being blatantly obvious and having their engineer speciality expanded upon in High Guard.
Citizen/Corporate could be a computer programmer although yeah, it is geared for paper pushers and bean counters (although granted, Advocate and Broker can be/are VERY useful skills to have.)
Yeah Scholar/Scientist can turn into someone very handy to have around when things break if he takes full advantage of those Engineer (any) and Science (any) positions.

Honestly, I have my doubts about Spica. They may be good, but the two big recommendations for them I have recieved so far have been from the owner of the franchise who I doubt for obvious reasons and Rikki, who has recently demonstrated quite clearly that he has completely different needs in his RPGs then I do (At times, I'd be happy if I could get my current group of newbies away from 4th edition D&D long enough to play something more complex and as removed from those damn elves and dragons as I can.)
That and I honestly wasn't that impressed with the militant religious career in the preview. Depending upon the religious organization in question, you're either still a member of the Army or Marine careers or you have the Guerilla career; give or take some modification for the kind of technology you have access to. While the fluff was alright, the career stank of filler to me. And other then how they spun the Citizen career into three seperate ones, not a lot else that really grabbed me. Career Book 2 is... meh, not much that catches my interest there either.

@ Matian: While I may have to break down and come up with some kind of "space marines" campaign to get my group into playing Traveller or even sci-fi in general, I like playing "normal" people as well. Particularly normal people forced into a situation outside of their comfort zone or find themselves in a situation where they have to make a difference using the skills they know (fighting a powerful organization or species without military training or even much in the way of weapons.)
I would also like to see a Citizens book but I really don't see what you could expand upon. Granted, there would be more careers (at least spinning off the three specialities into three seperate careers) but other then that? Establishing colonies or cities? The Corporate and Worker specialities could start their own businesses but Merchant Prince already does that on a larger scale then a little "mom and pop" shop (which is perfectly alright except for the problem of having a static location and limited scope; not really what Traveller is all about.)

my two cents, take them as you will.

 

[Matian]

Yeah, I don't have Merchant Prince yet, so I want to see how that expands. For Citizen, I was thinking of lumping it with Scholar and expanding the paths into more careers. You could lump Citizen, Scholar, and Artist together and rig up a decent university system, and I'd like to see career paths for things like lawyers or teachers. Would everyone use it? No, but not everyone is going to use Mercenaries or High Guard either.

I just want more "Average Jane/Joe" classes.

 

[rust]

There are a couple of non-military and non-commercial activitities that
could be interesting for player characters and that could warrant their
own civilian careers, for example development aid on low technology
worlds, various humanitarian missions and thelike, plus of course colo-
nization.

 

[Techno-Guru]

Yeah, I don't have Merchant Prince yet, so I want to see how that expands. For Citizen, I was thinking of lumping it with Scholar and expanding the paths into more careers. You could lump Citizen, Scholar, and Artist together and rig up a decent university system, and I'd like to see career paths for things like lawyers or teachers. Would everyone use it? No, but not everyone is going to use Mercenaries or High Guard either.

I just want more "Average Jane/Joe" classes.

None of us do, I think the printers threw a monkey wrench in Mongoose's release plans. Pity, this is one I was really looking forward to ordering as soon as it was available, first printing woes or not.
Not sure I like lumping Citizen, Scholar, and Artist all together. Artist would be a part of the Entertainer path and that's going to be included in Book 8 anyway. Citizen and Scholar... maybe that could work.
Not sure there's what you would do with a "teacher" career unless it was on the collegiate level, I can easily imagine the kind of trouble a university professor can get into conducting research expeditions. And hey, good excuse to include the rest of the party if they have skills he needs or are students of his.
Lawyers on the other hand, that could be interesting depending on the game. They would certainly be required to have high social skills and Advocate, could be spun into a speciality for Citizen/Corporate.
For Cit/Worker... Other then one of the spinoffs being a Technician I don't have much.

Hmmm, I like those ideas Rust.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Do a 'Citizens' book, including Citizens, Scholars and any other type of career not mentioned already in the core rules, with various mundane applications that doesn't fot into the remit of any of the other career books. Clergy, Engineer, Miner, Doctor, Labourer, etc. You could get a lot of inspiration from WFRP in this respect.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Spica has released TWO career books that expand some of the basic careers in the TMB. Included in Career Book 1 is an expansion of the Civilian career from the TMB. Each of the specialties in the TMB becomes it's own career with three specialities.

It is quite possible to get a technical character that way without joining the military.

 

[Techno-Guru]

Do a 'Citizens' book, including Citizens, Scholars and any other type of career not mentioned already in the core rules, with various mundane applications that doesn't fot into the remit of any of the other career books. Clergy, Engineer, Miner, Doctor, Labourer, etc. You could get a lot of inspiration from WFRP in this respect.

Interesting idea, although Mongoose is more likely to take some of those and work them into the Citizen or Scholar career paths.

 

[CosmicGamer]

You could get a lot of inspiration from WFRP in this respect.

What is WFRP?

-------------
Clergy - Missionary, Monastic, and Preacher are all in In Spica Career Book 1. It also covers Militant Religious careers.
Engineer - See *1 below.
Miner - I don't have it, but wouldn't this be covered in Adventure 1: Beltstrike? Also Spica Career Book 1 Colonist/Miner (Note: Definitely not the skill set I would choose for a miner though)
Doctor - Look in core rulebook Scholar/Physician
Laborer - Look in core rulebook Citizen/Worker. Look in Spica Career Book 1 at the three specialties of the Worker Career.

Hunter, Farmer, Settler, Finance, Legal, Administration and more are in Spica Career Book 1

*1
Spica Career Book 1 has a Bounty Hunter/Support career that is fairly technical and there is the Worker/Technician. The core rulebook Scholar/Scientist career is pretty good, especially if you change one of the two Any Science(any) skills to Engineer(Any) or Mechanical or whatever skill you feel is needed.

I just noticed and really like the Space Patrol/Technical set of skills in Spica Career Book 1. Two instances of Engineering(any), Mechanical, Remote Ops and... ok, Spica probably wouldn't like it if I gave the entire table away. Perhaps just take this and make it an additional specialty under the core rulebooks Citizen career.

As far as that goes, there is no reason you can't add your own career specialties. It's just one table for skills, deciding what the Survival and Advancement rolls should be, and putting together some ranks.

Anyways perhaps people could be more specific in what you would want from additional citizens publications because to me, what people are asking for is already available or easily created by yourself. Unless you are looking for the 'fluff' such as descriptions of equipment civilians might have like a lawn mower, briefcase, and ladder; new skills such as cleaning(with specialties of sweeping, mopping and wiping :lol: ); details on certain civilian careers like how to properly cut lawns; additional tasks like Flipping a hamburger: Steward, Dexterity, 1-6 seconds, Easy +4; and a couple Citizen adventures. The Perfect Storm: You are a utility worker and you must restore power that was knocked out during a storm. Fire!!: You work in a fast food joint and a grease fire is getting out of control. What do you do first? Call for help, try to put the fire out yourself, evacuate the customers? In the second adventure of this campaign you must handle an unruly customer. In the third adventure the heath inspector arrives.

 

[tneva82]

You could get a lot of inspiration from WFRP in this respect.

What is WFRP?

Presumably Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

 

[rust]

Anyways perhaps people could be more specific in what you would want from additional citizens publications because to me, what people are asking for is already available or easily created by yourself. Unless you are looking for the 'fluff' ...

Organizations and how they operate, for example.

We have medical doctors, so the setting could well do with an organiza-
tion like the Interstellar Red Diamond and its hospital and rescue ships.
We have scientists, so the setting could include academies and founda-
tions. And so on.

The "network" of any real or fictional society consists of a lot more than
only the military, the scouts and the merchants, and many of the other
institutions and organizations are involved in quite interesting activities
that go beyond combat, exploration and trade and and could provide ma-
ny new kinds of patrons and adventures.

 

[Techno-Guru]

Anyways perhaps people could be more specific in what you would want from additional citizens publications because to me, what people are asking for is already available or easily created by yourself. Unless you are looking for the 'fluff' ...

Organizations and how they operate, for example.

We have medical doctors, so the setting could well do with an organiza-
tion like the Interstellar Red Diamond and its hospital and rescue ships.
We have scientists, so the setting could include academies and founda-
tions. And so on.

The "network" of any real or fictional society consists of a lot more than
only the military, the scouts and the merchants, and many of the other
institutions and organizations are involved in quite interesting activities
that go beyond combat, exploration and trade and and could provide ma-
ny new kinds of patrons and adventures.

Exactly, you could be a engineer or builder involved in an interstellar relief agency providing aid to a disaster striken planet; sort of like the Peace Corps.
On another point, you could be an artisan that is so skilled that your craftmanship becomes a status symbol of sorts. Now, not only must you be good in the workshop, but you also must navigate the sometimes petty political intrigues of your patrons and the nobility in general.
Finally, you could just be a regular guy as CosmicGamer sarcastically praised... then space pirates come down and attack your colony. Now you need to use the skills you know and your intimate knowledge of the area you've lived in all your life to either hide or make a difference. Stealth, sabatoge, and situations where the only reward for success is your character's life become the order of the day.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I have found that the information in Agent and Scoundrel on Networks and Memberships in Organizations is a good general starting place for ANY multi-stellar organization, legal or not.

In Scoundrel, you get some guidance on what the Organization can do for you, rank within the organization etc. That can be easily applied to non-criminal organzations as well. The "Benefits" don't have to be access to drugs or weapons, it could be access to cutting edge technology, access to a Lab Ship or a Scout Ship or a Circus ship or whatever.

I am currently trying to model the Travellers Aide Society as a (non-criminal) organization using Agent and Scoundrel. It fits pretty well.

 

[rust]

I have found that the information in Agent and Scoundrel on Networks and Memberships in Organizations is a good general starting place for ANY multi-stellar organization, legal or not.

I planned not to buy Agent and Scoundrel, because both careers usually
do not fit in well with my settings, but now it seems I will have to take a
closer look at them.

 

[Techno-Guru]

I planned not to buy Agent and Scoundrel, because both careers usually do not fit in well with my settings, but now it seems I will have to take a closer look at them.

I considered Scoundrel briefly because while they don't play as prominant a role as mercenaries or merchants in my setting; criminals and drifters still continue to have a role in how business and politics are conducted.
Agents on the other hand.... yeah, I'll pass.

 

[Jame Rowe]

For many additional options, there is the Spica Career Book 1. Most technical is probably, Worker/Technician.

And their Career Book 2 has an option for University.

 

[Techno-Guru]

Another possible option is civilian ships not related to trade. Granted, some of these were probably covered in Scoundrel but I imagine there would still be room for repair and rescue vessels as well as possibly the rare manufacturing ship (which probably isn't all that practical but still throwing it out there.)

 

[rust]

Another possible option is civilian ships not related to trade.

Well, think of embassy ships, exhibition ships, circus ships, casino ships
- all the facilities a small colony may not be able to finance, and where
it would be easier to take the embassy / exhibition / circus or whatever
to the colony as a "mobile facility" than to take the colonists to another
planet with a "stationary facility".