[Playtest Timeline] Next Revision/New Books

MongooseMatt

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Staff member
The playtest has not been going on for very long, but a veritable horde of you have been picking the text apart and it looks like a sizeable number have started getting some games in.

The feedback you have all been providing thus far is rock solid, far better than we had expected at this juncture in the playtest. There are certainly areas we need to keep looking sat (such as damage scaling and vehicles/starships in general - but we expected those areas to generate issues), but I think we can probably risk a rulebook update for you chaps a bit sooner than we had initially intended.

We are going to start working on updating the core files next week - this will probably take us a week or two to do (as we will also be collating playtest data generated during that time), so we are currently looking at getting an updated rulebook to you in 2-3 week's time (ish).

At that point, we will also include the Word doc. draft of Central Supply Catalogue.

I am not going to set up forums for each chapter in CSC (there are a lot of them!), but will do them in general sections instead (weapons, armour, fiddly bits, etc). There will also be a forum for you to suggest brand new items for the CSC - no idea will be turned down, but we are intentionally looking for non-weapon related items. You'll see what I mean when we get the docs to you :)

We are also playing around with the layout of CSC, which you won't get to view for a good long while. Instead of the usual columns and lists of items, we are playing around with the idea of it appearing as a proper mail order catalogue (complete with models in Combat Armour!). This is extremely art intensive, and we are still looking at whether this is actually possible. But it will be a good attempt, nonetheless!

The other book you are all waiting for is, of course, High Guard. We will be doing another sweep of the core design system next week - the basis of it seems solid (well, until you chaps start tearing it apart!), but we want the optional extras to be a little firmer before we unleash it on you all. All going well, you should see this towards the end of October.

By that time the Vehicle Handbook should be near completion - this is very much dependant on what you guys make of the scaling rules (see the relevant threads!). Once I think they are sitting comfortably, we will be going full bore on this one, which will take us to the end of the intended playtest period (around Christmas).

That is the plan, at least :) As we have said before, this game will not be unleashed before it is ready, but we think there is enough time for everything to bed down, given how active you have all been thus far.

There are two other books on the list - I want to at least throw the draft of the Companion under your noses, though it is less critical than the other books, given its nature.

I also want to give all of you a complete mini-campaign, fully updated for the new rules, to thank you for your early support. This will be completely dependant on time, so no promises, but it is very much something I want to do.

So, that is how things lie at the moment. Please keep up the good work, you really are making a powerful difference to this new edition.
 
msprange said:
So, that is how things lie at the moment. Please keep up the good work, you really are making a powerful difference to this new edition.
And thank you for getting players involved in making MgT2 :)
 
The part about making CSC look like a real-world mail order catalogue made me really happy! Having pictures and in relevant cases non-game-data/details on gear and stuff is really helpful, I really hope you manage to pull that off!

Looking forward to it, hope it works, good luck :)
 
I'm really really impressed with the effort going into playtest here Matt, and the amount of feedback generated based on the analysis of actual playtesting.

I think this is key to increasing new-player uptake of Mongoose while maintaining the existing fanbase that has come to love it.

Your continued openness in accepting alternate option to when a problem presents itself is a key success in how we've gotten this far. Problem? Ok - how can we fix it!

The fact that we have addressed so many issues from MGT1 thus far (length of space combat, lack of player influence due to flat no skill based modifiers, # of skills and redundancy, an much more), is a testament to the effectiveness of this approach.

I've personally been a nagging voice I'm sure but I d it all out of lovin' lol. Mongoose Trav has become my team's game of choice and we are committed to its quality :)

We are very much looking forward to CSC and High Guard.

Sam W
(pls don't do capital scale! :p)
 
Nerhesi said:
(pls don't do capital scale! :p)

I'm in two minds about that.

On the one hand, if we don't need it, great. Makes everything a lot easier.

But.

If it means we can play with 200,000 ton dreadnoughts as quickly as we can a Mercenary Cruiser, it is attractive (would also mean porting stuff directly to a miniatures game would be much easier!). If it means we can muck around with really big spinal weapons without them rolling huge amounts of dice, it is attractive. And if it means we can play a fleet battle with the same/similar speed as a regular battle, it is _very_ attractive.

Not wedded to it by any means, but the option is certainly there.
 
msprange said:
The feedback you have all been providing thus far is rock solid, far better than we had expected at this juncture in the playtest.
[snip]
So, that is how things lie at the moment. Please keep up the good work, you really are making a powerful difference to this new edition.
I have to admit I have found this o be a great experience so far. The way I have learned from it as well as tried to contribute makes the experience well worth the effort.

Thank you for being open to all our feedback, even when we don't agree among ourselves. :mrgreen:
 
msprange said:
Nerhesi said:
(pls don't do capital scale! :p)

I'm in two minds about that.

On the one hand, if we don't need it, great. Makes everything a lot easier.

But.

If it means we can play with 200,000 ton dreadnoughts as quickly as we can a Mercenary Cruiser, it is attractive (would also mean porting stuff directly to a miniatures game would be much easier!). If it means we can muck around with really big spinal weapons without them rolling huge amounts of dice, it is attractive. And if it means we can play a fleet battle with the same/similar speed as a regular battle, it is _very_ attractive.

Not wedded to it by any means, but the option is certainly there.

We are in agreement with respect to end-goal Matt. 200,000 ton dreadnoughts fighting eachother should be as fast (ok maybe a tiny bit slower) than 800 ton merc cruisers fighting eachother. Dissimilar encounters should be either longer or shorter, but similar ones should be generally timely as to not have players become disengaged.

Saying that matt, I think we need to look at a fleet battle system, but not make the same multiplier / divisor issues for a capital Tiers. Remember that fighters, small craft, spacecraft and the like need to be effective against capital ships as well (Max Armour = TL, but with barbettes and so on being able to penetrate that). What capital ships should have, is massive massive massive amounts of hull.

The OTU is filled with forces that rely on small-craft or space craft (e.g. Aslan, Vargr) rather than capital ships for their navies. Their shouldn't be some weird arbitrary step where suddenly they re doing 10-times less or more damage.

Im in favour for tiers for targetting issues (aiming a giant bay at a craft that is 1/10th the size of the bay), or aiming a spinal weapon at a spacecraft (Previous HG had a -6 here, with even more penalties based on size of target), but not tiers that change damage.... Lets avoid the Vehicle issues here.
 
I would not mind a system of miniature combat both small scale and fleet for the new Traveller game. Something that would enable me to model conflict in the Trojan Reach would be useful, something along the lines of the old Fifth Frontier War.
 
RajunCajun3025 said:
I would not mind a system of miniature combat both small scale and fleet for the new Traveller game. Something that would enable me to model conflict in the Trojan Reach would be useful, something along the lines of the old Fifth Frontier War.

Would that not be a product in the same space as X-Wing & Armada? I can't imagine that producing high quality pre-painted minis is cheap unless you have FFG's economys of scale and Star Trek attack wing shows just how bad it can get if you do it wrong, especially in terms of scaling the minis.
 
Capital scale weapons never bothered me, it's the interaction between the two that always rubbed me raw. I played one game where capital scale weapons had a lower chance to hit, but if they did, the attacker got to choose what happened. "It obliterates the target," was just as eligible as "the beam cores the engine cluster, destroying it complete leaving the rest of the craft drifting helplessly without power or thrust." Hitting was harder, but if you hit, you got cart blanch to do whatever you wanted as long as it didn't require precision. Smaller scale weapons couldn't deal "actual" damage (to its hull points), but could freely choose called shots with varying effects based on damage of the weapon system.

I can't remember the system, but it would be kinda cool if capital ship and starship scales interacted like this.
 
Major Tom said:
Would that not be a product in the same space as X-Wing & Armada? I can't imagine that producing high quality pre-painted minis is cheap unless you have FFG's economys of scale and Star Trek attack wing shows just how bad it can get if you do it wrong, especially in terms of scaling the minis.

To be clear I was not talking about that sort of game but something simpler and cheaper along the lines of the original Fifth Frontier War. Basically a board game with map and cardboard counters. Something like this could be used by a GM and/or players to set up RP scenarios against the backdrop of a larger conflict.
 
I would love the CSC to have the same feeling as the OLD first/second edition Street Samurai Catalog from Shadowrun. I love just going back and reading that thing so funny and full of fake marketing goodness.
 
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