So, Mongoose...other milieus, 1248 and all that.

[G. K. Zhukov]

The thing that appeals to me is that in 1105 everythings boxed up with virtually no room for manouver except for maybe Foreven and the regions beyond Hiver space and other polities (sp?).

1248 is a lot more open and pretty much anything could be done with it within reason.

I concur - after the initial shock of seeing the 3I vanish I quickly realized the huge opportunities for adventure and exploration TNE 1202 offered. Everything became a blank chalkboard for you to write on.

And TNE 1248 is simply some decades ahead, with some powerful pocket empires in development and growing - meaning it offers a few more different backgrounds and options for players - who are not limited to playing forever in a sort of post-apoc SF universe.

 

[GamerDude]

Y'know, I'm surprised that some folks are confused why old Judges Guild stuff can still be bought/sold vs the newer PDF versions of stuff can be pulled and barred from sale.

Of course, what I'm about to say does not allow for any Judges Guild Traveller material being available for purchase as a PDF. Didn't find any but I don't know everything.

Anyway, once a physical product is legally released for sale, pretty much no one can stop the endless resale of that product (barring like proof a particular copy was stolen, offered for sale against the terms of the publisher etc.). Once it's sold it's out in the market. The thing about "against the terms of the publisher" I gained experience with while working for AEG. Their Cust Svc manager had authority on eBay to kill auctions of their products and report it for dispute to the powers-that-be on eBay.

The items he could do that with are like prize/participation items for an event that was explicitly scheduled for a certain date but were for sale before the event could be held. Anyone who signed up to get these materials were under an agreement to follow the enclosed rules and the publicly published dates. In one case a store trying to sell a complete prize kit after the event was stopped. Why? because the store reported the event went had X number of players etc but the kit was complete. Had the event actually happened as reported they could not have a complete kit.

PDFs are like physical product that went out to distributors and stores, and for some reason the company recalled the products. They can't get back what customers already bought but everything else is no longer for sale. Heck, under 3.x D&D WotC really hurt one company when it said the entire run for two of that company's books had to be pulped because they used Greyhawk specific info (deities) from the PHB and that info is not in the SRD for use.

Early this year WotC cancelled all sales and downloading of the entire line of books for 4th ed D&D. DriveThru RPG, Paizo Publishing, etc. had to terminate customer's ability to re-download the PDFs they had already purchased because of the nature of WotC's license for the sites to sell the PDFs

It's a publisher's right to say "no mas, no mas" on the sale of something.

I don't know what happened with the 1248 stuff but hey, that's how business is some times.

 

[EDG]

Y'know, I'm surprised that some folks are confused why old Judges Guild stuff can still be bought/sold vs the newer PDF versions of stuff can be pulled and barred from sale.

Why should a out pf print PDF be treated differently to an out of print hardcopy product? The argument seems to be that there's no guarantee that people selling an OOP PDF haven't made a copy of it for themselves, but there's also no guarantee that someone selling an OOP product hasn't made a photocopy of it for their own personal use either.

I guess another reason to be frustrated about it is that Avenger were putting out some damn fine material right up to the end of their license, while other publshers were doing sweet FA (or taking people's money for nothing, as the case may be) - yet the publisher who actually DID something got screwed over first by the licensing. Fortunately Martin found a way to turn it around somewhat by writing for Mongoose and releasing some stuff via FC, but the line that actually finally moved the setting forward instead of churning out more of the same endlessly repeated era got pretty much killed.

 

[MJD]

Semi-related, but the T20 players book has been pulled from DrivethrRPG. Some 18 months after QLI unilaterally stopped paying me royalties, they have apparently stopped selling my work.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

As I recall, 1248 came out as 'systemless' sourcebooks, and thus can be used essentially as they stand, even with Mongoose Traveller. If you want more 1248, you would probably be well-advised to post your inquiry to the attention of MJD.

That said, I would certainly hope that Mongoose would endorse such further expansion of 1248.

I have done exactly that using the MGT rules.

I ran a (to me) quite successful campaign set in 1248 that I ran for my kids and their friends. They were all D&D types and it was their first foray into SFRPGing.

I only had the TMB, no HG or anything, but it worked very well.

I did a few campaign summaries which can be found on the Avenger/Comstar website (I'm Plankowner over there).

HERE

The setting gave me a lot of plot ideas and I was able to nicly dovetail what my vision of the setting into the original material.

MGT rules worked great and we all had a lot of fun.

 

[Charakan]

I concur - after the initial shock of seeing the 3I vanish I quickly realized the huge opportunities for adventure and exploration TNE 1202 offered. Everything became a blank chalkboard for you to write on.

And TNE 1248 is simply some decades ahead, with some powerful pocket empires in development and growing - meaning it offers a few more different backgrounds and options for players - who are not limited to playing forever in a sort of post-apoc SF universe.

Yeah I was a little shocked by the destruction of the 3I as well, but the players in my MT game seemed ok with it. We updated there characters to the TNE system using the conversion notes. Then created a plot line involving a misjumped ship and a journey in system at STL speeds using low berths and presto we were in the New Era. They rather liked the setting.

 

[Rockmonkey]

I stand corrected. You are absolutely correct. Sorry about that.

 

[GamerDude]

Why should a out pf print PDF be treated differently to an out of print hardcopy product? The argument seems to be that there's no guarantee that people selling an OOP PDF haven't made a copy of it for themselves, but there's also no guarantee that someone selling an OOP product hasn't made a photocopy of it for their own personal use either.

{shakes head}

Copyright, digital rights, local and national laws, the difference in media.

And (at least here in the colonies) it's as illegal to sell copies of the original print product without permission as it is to sell copies of the pdf file. Actually, (as it was once explained to me by a copyright expert) it's illegal to make a wholesale copy of a print product and sell original keeping the copy. The copy was made on the basis of legal ownership/access to an original. Same with ripping CD's/etc. but I'm not going to get that in-depth because, as Denzel Washington likes to ask... I can't explain it so a six year old can understand. It's just complicated, intricate, and can be so "if'd" to death that no explanation will make happy the people who just want it their way and refuse to understand the simple legal differences.

I just 'get it'.

I'd ask WotC to explain it, they've done the biggest "release and then yank back" in the history of PDFs around.

 

[Talesian]

I know this is kinda whimsical, but I hate it when business gets in the way. I wish sometimes it could just be love of the art.

 

[FreeTrav]

I know this is kinda whimsical, but I hate it when business gets in the way. I wish sometimes it could just be love of the art.

I certainly won't disagree with you, but "love of the art" doesn't keep food on the table or a roof over the head. If you can get paid for it, you're already several steps ahead of the game; how many people actually manage to find a job where they get paid for doing what's fun?

 

[EDG]

If you can get paid for it, you're already several steps ahead of the game; how many people actually manage to find a job where they get paid for doing what's fun?

I'm sure some would argue that writing for Traveller is about as far from "fun" as they can get .

 

[Charakan]

If you can get paid for it, you're already several steps ahead of the game; how many people actually manage to find a job where they get paid for doing what's fun?

I'm sure some would argue that writing for Traveller is about as far from "fun" as they can get .

I note the humorous wink at the end of your post Doc, so I'm going to say writing for Traveller as an amateur for fun is kind of enjoyable, it satisfies the frustrated SF and action/adventure hack in me.

For those who make a living or earn some extra income from it I don't envy them - having to deal with the canon police or all the other politics involved well I'm glad they do it but they must have a masochistic streak!

 

[EDG]

I note the humorous wink at the end of your post Doc, so I'm going to say writing for Traveller as an amateur for fun is kind of enjoyable, it satisfies the frustrated SF and action/adventure hack in me.

Doing OGL Traveller stuff is a hell of a lot less hassle than OTU, I'll tell you that right now.

As soon as you start dealing with canon, it becomes a nightmare. And that's speaking from direct experience (even that was just from the sidelines of designing the worlds for the GT Sword Worlds book).

 

[MJD]

Writing for Traveller used to be fun. A combination of politics, not getting paid and associated stupidity made it not-fun most of the time.

Mongoose are doing their best to put thefun back in.

 

[Charakan]

I note the humorous wink at the end of your post Doc, so I'm going to say writing for Traveller as an amateur for fun is kind of enjoyable, it satisfies the frustrated SF and action/adventure hack in me.

Doing OGL Traveller stuff is a hell of a lot less hassle than OTU, I'll tell you that right now.

As soon as you start dealing with canon, it becomes a nightmare. And that's speaking from direct experience (even that was just from the sidelines of designing the worlds for the GT Sword Worlds book).

Its all a little weird, in some quarters of the internet the GT:Sword Worlds stuff is really respected.

 

[BP]

...Mongoose are doing their best to put thefun back in.

There's a slogan in there somewhere...

(Hope they are succeeding for you!)

 

[Charakan]

Writing for Traveller used to be fun. A combination of politics, not getting paid and associated /stupidity made it not-fun most of the time.

Mongoose are doing their best to put the fun back in.

Martin, you write some really good stuff.

All I can say is that despite the crap, you keep on writing for Traveller, don't let certain issues dishearten (sp?) you, 1248 was really inspired.

 

[BP]

...All I can say is that despite the crap you keep on writing for Traveller, don't let certain issues dishearten (sp?) you, 1248 was really inspired.

:lol: uhm... ouch... I truly believe Charakan meant to put another comma in there somewhere... :lol:

 

[Charakan]

...All I can say is that despite the crap you keep on writing for Traveller, don't let certain issues dishearten (sp?) you, 1248 was really inspired.

:lol: uhm... ouch... I truly believe Charakan meant to put another comma in there somewhere... :lol:

I did, Sainsbury's had an an offer on red wine this week and I'm working my way through my GFs supply so excuse a few errors BP

 

[EDG]

Its all a little weird, in some quarters of the internet the GT:Sword Worlds stuff is really respected.

Why shouldn't it be? It's a pretty decent book on the Sword Worlds, and shows how possible it is to get a book's worth of material out of a subsector. I only wish there were more Subsector-scale books around.