Possible Alternative SF settings for Mongoose Traveller
- Thread starter alex_greene
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AndrewW said:
Planet Pirates is set in the same millieux as the Dinosaur Planet series.
I do know that Anne McCaffery has told SJG to bugger off more than once... so don't get one's hopes up.
Also note: the FSP setting seems to include the brain-brawn universe, Pern, and the DinoPlanet series (and thus Lunzie, Sassinak, and Death of Sleep)
Powers that Be was a distinctly different government, and possibly setting.
All are excellent reads. Todd doesn't seem to be picking those up, however.
AndrewW
Emperor Mongoose
AKAramis said:
Correct, those two books came first. Just didn't see a need to mention both.
AKAramis said:
FSP is there but the author has stated that they are separate universes. No mention of the Brains or anything like that in the others so this makes sense. Though crystal singer is in the BB universe as far as I know.
AKAramis said:
Probably.
AKAramis said:
Agreed.
And there's the Doona ones, Acorna, telepath's. And a few miscellaneous ones as well.
Gentleman John
Banded Mongoose
How about adapting some of the classic sci-fi? van Vogt's Empire of the Atom series always struck me as being an interesting possibility, given that it has two empires that have fought each other into barbarism, barbarian warriors, spacecraft and ancient artifacts. Alternatively, some of Asimov's universe could be adapted to Traveller quite easily. The Foundation is too big and vanished up its own arse towards the end, but adapting something based on Pebble in the Sky and the associated novels would work.
However, if you want to go more modern, I'd settle for Charles Stross' Estachon setting. Admittedly it is probably more transhuman than Traveller currently allows for, but it is one of the better set of books I have read recently.
However, if you want to go more modern, I'd settle for Charles Stross' Estachon setting. Admittedly it is probably more transhuman than Traveller currently allows for, but it is one of the better set of books I have read recently.
David J. Williams' Mirrored Heavens (and upcoming sequels) can provide a very fine MilSciFi/Espionage SciFi setting.
http://autumnrain2110.com/index.php?action=home
http://autumnrain2110.com/index.php?action=home
waylandson
Mongoose
AKAramis said:
If I remember correctly one of the Stardrive Options in the TNG Edition of Fire, Fusion & Steel was for a Psionically Powered Drive System. So it would be too difficult to develop either a Psionic Based Stardrive or Stargate System for Traveller.
waylandson
Mongoose
Maths was always my worst subject at School, but how much energy would you need to teleport a 100 ton ship a parsec? How much tonage would you need to fit a Psionic Drive to a ship?
If my remember correctly, the Primes in The Tower & The Hive & the Pegasus in Space Books had to achieve a Gesalt with tunned generators in order to move anything. So what sort of game mechanics and hardware do you need to devise in order to replicate what is in the book?
Perhaps there might something in the forthcoming Psionics Book in order to modify the Traveller Starship Construction System to allow this. :wink:
If my remember correctly, the Primes in The Tower & The Hive & the Pegasus in Space Books had to achieve a Gesalt with tunned generators in order to move anything. So what sort of game mechanics and hardware do you need to devise in order to replicate what is in the book?
Perhaps there might something in the forthcoming Psionics Book in order to modify the Traveller Starship Construction System to allow this. :wink:
There's a problem with using one's mind to move a starship, and it would be interesting to see any rules system address it.
For any action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. The trick with using psionics is to achieve some sort of balance so that the reaction happens somewhere else, rather than directly on the psionicist's head, but even so, failure means his brain gets flipped out through his ear.
(If I remember correctly, original Traveller had an interesting side effect to psionic teleporting. You had to be careful that you teleported to near enough the same altitude because conservation of energy meant that any potential energy lost or gained as a result of the teleport was balanced by heat gained or lost by your body. A backpack heatsink was a wise precaution.)
As for alternative settings: how about Isaac Asimov's "Robots" series or Arthur C. Clarke's "Rama" series? For the latter, either a campaign set on Rama during the third book, or a one-off game in which the characters are the ones exploring Rama for the first time.
For any action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. The trick with using psionics is to achieve some sort of balance so that the reaction happens somewhere else, rather than directly on the psionicist's head, but even so, failure means his brain gets flipped out through his ear.
(If I remember correctly, original Traveller had an interesting side effect to psionic teleporting. You had to be careful that you teleported to near enough the same altitude because conservation of energy meant that any potential energy lost or gained as a result of the teleport was balanced by heat gained or lost by your body. A backpack heatsink was a wise precaution.
)As for alternative settings: how about Isaac Asimov's "Robots" series or Arthur C. Clarke's "Rama" series? For the latter, either a campaign set on Rama during the third book, or a one-off game in which the characters are the ones exploring Rama for the first time.
AdrianH said:For any action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. The trick with using psionics is to achieve some sort of balance so that the reaction happens somewhere else, rather than directly on the psionicist's head, but even so, failure means his brain gets flipped out through his ear.
(If I remember correctly, original Traveller had an interesting side effect to psionic teleporting. You had to be careful that you teleported to near enough the same altitude because conservation of energy meant that any potential energy lost or gained as a result of the teleport was balanced by heat gained or lost by your body. A backpack heatsink was a wise precaution.
Hows about you don't actually "teleport" but "teleportal" as in Steven Gould's "Jumper" (the original book, not the semi-terrible movie) and expanded on in the sequel "Reflex"?
In that variant, the "Jumper" actually opens up a doorway between one spot and another and simply steps through (later, he learns to keep it open and use pressure/temperature differentials in the local environment on either side to good effect).
It seems as if the process matches the different rotational speeds between locations so that its literally just like stepping through a doorway.
Since Psionics is, of course, likely impossible and, therefore, pure chrome, you can easily come up with some technobabble explanation for this ... 8)
Phil
That's asking for all sorts of abuse. For one thing, a perpetual motion machine with a psionicist at the core. Open a portal with one end just in front of you and another about 500m straight up. Drop a rock into it. Then get out of the way. If the system doesn't find some way to balance the energy, you have a continually accelerating rock.aspqrz said:
Then you open a further portal with one end in the path of the rock and another above the enemy building of your choice, and hit it with a meteor.
Putting one end of the door underwater can also be fun...
The "Psionicists" add-on for AD&D includes this ability, calling it "Dimension Door", and my character is always trying to find new ways to abuse it. :twisted: The above two tricks probably won't work, but one which does is to open one door between yourself and about 500m up, another between yourself and a charging enemy, then get out of the way. I can't line them up to turn the enemy into a meteor, but it does mean he'd better learn to fly very soon...
AdrianH said:
Well, of course, in "Jumper" (the novel, not the less than stellar Hollymovie), there is exactly one psi.
To which you add, in the second book, a second ... his wife ... with the implication that she somehow "learned" it by osmosis through close contact over ten years or so.
Actually, you can't get a continually accellerating rock ... what you do is get a rock that reaches terminal velocity ... whatever that may be locally.
And, of course, the book "solves" the problem by requiring that the teleportal be kept open by the personal presence in it of the Jumper ... even keeping it open to allow ambient environment differences to mix required that the Jumper be there, keeping the door "open" around them, so to speak, but also partly blocking it.
The description of the event, in the first book, implies that the Jumper opens a person shaped door in space ... only really big enough for themselves and whatever they are carrying (so they can "jump" with another person if they can physically lift them)
AdrianH said:
Oh, yes. This is how they deal with the baddies in their "death trap" mansion at the end ... :shock:
Phil
steffworthington
Mongoose
You should check out the RPG 'Continuum: roleplaying in the Yet'.
Its just like that but Temporal as well as spatial.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
1) Traveller: Gloriantha?
Mongoose already owns the rights, just need to adapt it.
2) An early exploration game with TL 11 being VERY high tech. Maybe artificial gravity is still a novelty and not all ships have it?
Mongoose already owns the rights, just need to adapt it.
2) An early exploration game with TL 11 being VERY high tech. Maybe artificial gravity is still a novelty and not all ships have it?
