Starter Kit Book 1 as a separate item?

[egoaz2ca]

I'm working hard to get new people into the game, but a barrier I'm encountering spending a relatively significant amount on a book to get started.

IMO it would do wonders for the game to have a very inexpensive entry into the game by producing separate PDF and printed (softback) version of Book 1 - Characters & Combat. If that were around £10/$10 or less, I'm pretty sure I could get a lot of people to take the risk.

Better still would be a further cutdown version to just character creation, that would ideally be free, as only the referee would need a full set of rules to get session 1 going. That could help really bury the hook and jump start the game out of niche status. WoTC did this to rather great success with 5E.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

You're having a hard time getting people to play in your game? Or getting people to buy the core rules? They're two separate things.

 

[Captain Nebula]

What's needed is quick-start rules and pre-gen characters.

 

[mancerbear]

Quick-start rules and pre gens is definitely the way to go.

 

[egoaz2ca]

I'm having difficulty getting anyone to get into the game at all. It's not about my game(s). I find a few people have tentative interest in the idea, but are unwilling to buy a ~$40 book for something they have never tried.

I have purchased several hard copies myself, run games with those books and generated enough interest with those people that they buy the book themselves, but that isn't growing the game here locally at any real speed.

The SF Bay area has thousands of avid board/rpg gamers. In the past two years, I have found one game group that I didn't start that was running MgT1, and perhaps three other individuals looking for games. That's a very tiny percentage for such a large population. My thought is a low barrier to entry might have a kickstart effect in areas where this game is not catching on, but has an otherwise healthy gaming community.

 

[Hopeless]

Back during Mongoose Traveller 1e I eventually bought the others a copy of the pocket rulebook to speed up character generation by email.
Any chance of a Pocket core rulebook version of 2e Traveller being planned?

 

[steve98052]

If you have the PDF edition, you can print a copy of each career page, and a flowchart page for each player. That should get you through generation if you don't want to generate characters for players. Another possibility is to ask players what kind of characters they'd like and pregenerate toward their preferences. Examples: general spacer, specialist spacer (pilot, gunner, engineer, cargomaster, steward, etc.), specific service, doctor, scientist, investigator, muscle combatant, armed combatant, streetwise guy, administrator, etc.

In play, you can print descriptions of notable gear, key resolution tables, etc.

Done to dodge buying books, that's cheating. Done to lower barrier to play, it's a step on the way to players buying their own books.

 

[AndrewW]

Worked ok when I did it with three new players, had the printed Core Rulebook and a PDF on the laptop, between the two was some sharing but went ok.