actionman
Emperor Mongoose
Star Wars has been done to death, and Disney buried it in 6 feet deep pit of incompetence. I think stepping into that cesspit would be a very bad idea.
State of the Mongoose 2025
- Thread starter MongooseMatt
- Start date
Star Wars has been done to death, and Disney buried it in 6 feet deep pit of incompetence. I think stepping into that cesspit would be a very bad idea.
TrippyHippy
Emperor Mongoose
FFG don’t make Star Wars RPG anymore because they aren’t interested in printing books. Because FFG is part of the Asmodee group, they shifted the RPG to a new subsidiary which was Edge. However, that happened a few years ago, and I’m not sure how long these licences last.
TrippyHippy
Emperor Mongoose
If it is still making money, then there is still a market.
Magos Trismegistos
Mongoose
Despite loud minority whining on the Internet, Star Wars is still super popular.
But like I said, there is no chance of Traveller: Star Wars happening any time soon as FFG/EDGE Studios is still holding license and still publishing new materials to it.
I agree that it would be good for Traveller to try some licensed setting though, but maybe something more fitting. If Star Citizen ever comes out as a game, maybe snatching it for TTRPG would work well.
MasterGwydion
Guest
Or get some bigger name writers to write a series of Traveller novels. Maybe that would help. I don't know. I haven't been that impressed with the selection of Traveller novels to date. Most popular movies are first popular novels or series.
lategamer
Cosmic Mongoose
To reduce risk, maybe a separate spin-off.
Pioneer could have been “The Martian”
Traveller still could be “Foundation”
And it’s a shame that 2300AD didn’t bag The Expanse.
CordwainerFish
Emperor Mongoose
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Star Wars is like Star Trek, different fan demographics have started to damnatio memoriae canon they dislike.
I suppose this could happen with each new edition of Traveller.
I suppose this could happen with each new edition of Traveller.
TrippyHippy
Emperor Mongoose
The thing is, none of these other licences would be worth it. Star Wars would be - not least because it has a 50th Anniversary at the same time as Traveller.
actionman
Emperor Mongoose
Like I said, a cesspit.
A cesspit of bitterly divided fans.
A cesspit of inconsistent conflicting canon, tones, and themes.
A cesspit of a 10 movies, 4 shows, however many books, and a vast expanded universe that the bitterly divided fans will expect Mongoose to support.
A cesspit of multiple competing ttrpgs and editions of Star Wars ttrpgs. (WEG, FFG, SW Saga, etc.)
If people want to play Star Wars with the Traveller ruleset. some kind of conversion booklet would a better idea. Buying the rights and the taking on the obligation to publish a lot of books supporting the vast Star Wars universe would be an immense amount of work and probably a non-insignificant amount of money, just to compete with established games that did it years ago.
Talon Greyfeather
Banded Mongoose
Just about all of the above could apply to Traveller as well - except for the movies of course - especially when reading these forums. Not an attack Actionman, and I do not disagree with you, just a observation. This is not in reply to Actionman's observations. That happened to come just before I posted but seems relevant.
Star Wars/Star Trek would not survive this community if set in the Traveller ruleset. Space combat? HA!!!! Galactic/Federation Economy? Double-HA!!! Forest moons, desert planets, planets hidden by illusion shields? Triple HA!!! Why do we feel they MUST be fully defined for the 3I or within Traveller rules and not in those universes? If it's that they are Space Opera and not Sci-Fi I'm calling BS. The entire concept of "Grandfather" was the first thing I tossed from MTU. That theme is certainly closer to later Star Trek space opera versions and is certainly not rooted or explicitly defined in the CRB. Grandfather tech is so far advanced it is handwavium space magic at its finest.
Why are those other licenses successful? Because they focused on the stories, crew/players, and the heroes journey whether it is a planet-of-the-week style or the eternal struggle of the downtrodden revolting against their oppressors. It was never about accurate space combat, understanding the complexities of a galactic economic system of 11,000 planets most separated by weeks of jump travel, or even caring about how all of those ships were built, paid for, and if the 100 ton ship bridge is 6t-tons or 10-tons. But that is all one reads about on these forums. - how the rules are broken, inconsistent, and the players can't do this or that because the economic system doesn't work, TL, Law Level, Government Level and UWP codes don't make sense, blah blah blah blah. Why would anyone want to play Traveller after reading these forums? The game is obviously broken!
I am not excited about Pioneer or 2300 and will not be supporting those lines. IMHO they are diluting the rules and should be completely separate, not associated with the Traveller name. The fact that they use Traveller-adjacent rules has done nothing to improve any of the lines. The skill system does not fit well when one tries to equate it to real-world skills/careers. The closer one gets to simulation the more the system shows its weaknesses. It's not about simulation - it never was.
There are no stories that I cannot tell within the current rules or the 3I setting. They are not adding to the depth of what could be on lower TL worlds since they are specific to those lines. Could I bring them over to the 3I? Sure, but I already have that in the existing Core and Charted Space books. I do not believe there is, or ever will be, an OTU. As soon as a referee starts a campaign with a group of players, it is now Their Traveller Universe, unique to them. It does not need to be transferable to MTU or any other TU. THAT is Travellers strongest selling point.
I really enjoy Traveller and the 3I. It is my GO-TO sci-fi setting unless my table wants something specific like Star Wars or Star Trek in which case I will use those games. However, if they are open to something different ... want a little bit of those settings along with BSG, Alien, Space 1999, Dune, The Martian - have I got a table for you!
EDIT - For reference, I run all sandbox campaigns, tailor adventures to want my players want to do and accomplish. Yes, I do have large things in motion ... my universe is alive and moves with and against player desires.
Last edited:
JupiterIndustries
Banded Mongoose
I have deeper thoughts on the marketing thing but I did my bimonthly window shop at Forbidden Planet and I am always disappointed that there is no Traveller. The only option in London for me afaik is Orc's Nest.
Even if it were just the starter set that would be worth it from a visibility standpoint (especially given in my mind Traveller is THE sci fi RPG)
An official set of digital tools would be good too. There's a need to bring together a lot of the disparate online tools released under fair use. I've been doing a bunch of these for my personal use at https://jupiter.industries/ but its very wip
Even if it were just the starter set that would be worth it from a visibility standpoint (especially given in my mind Traveller is THE sci fi RPG)
An official set of digital tools would be good too. There's a need to bring together a lot of the disparate online tools released under fair use. I've been doing a bunch of these for my personal use at https://jupiter.industries/ but its very wip
JupiterIndustries
Banded Mongoose
Traveller is charted space though. It was not always but it is now. Licensing the D6 system is ultimately what this comes down to.
JupiterIndustries
Banded Mongoose
Dreadful game. Dreadful setting for a TTRPG.
My gpu is still recovering from an attempt to play Star Citizen.
Sigtrygg
Emperor Mongoose
And that is the main reason it is rejected on rpgnet.
It wasn't in the 1970s, but GDW got so much pushback for not having a setting that they made one. And then they let it go to their heads and tried to DM everyone through their setting with a constant barrage of storylines (almost as bad as how Catalyst handles Shadowrun).
It was never intended to be just about Charted Space, but that's what fans constantly jumped on. Fantasy has this massive need for someone else to make them a world to play in too, but sci fi seems to have it even worse. The percentage of homebrew worlders in D&D is higher than in Traveller, but both are a significant minority.
And what is the proposed solutions that many people in this thread are posting? Buy another setting to publish and make Traveller about that! Like..ugh.
I sometimes use Charted Space. Almost never actually *in* the Imperium. There's 0% chance I'd run in Foundation: Traveller Edition or worse Murderbot by Traveller.
I can already do those things with the game now. Maybe it's hopeless and the audience is just gonna buy settings and continue to NGAF about the rules used for them. People play D&D in a setting, but 95% of the sci fi seems to be playing a Setting with whatever rules someone attached to them at the moment.
MasterGwydion
Guest
I may be way off base here, so take it with a grain of salt.
I think the reason for that is because most fantasy realms are roughly similar. This makes the rules more important than the setting, because they are all basically the same (with a few minor differences). Most are swords, armor, dragons, and magic. Usually using roughly the same technology.
Sci-fi on the other hand, every universe almost is fundamentally different from each other. Star Wars to Firefly. Star Trek to Killjoys. Red Dwarf to Babylon 5. The Martian to I, Robot. In Sci-fi, people fall in love with the setting. In fantasy, they mainly fall in love with the nostalgic, timeless worlds where things were simple and good versus evil seemed easy to tell apart. Sci-fi is rarely that.
As I said, I could be way off base.
lategamer
Cosmic Mongoose
I've noticed that some people want the stuff written and some people want to homebrew, either entirely or within a setting.
I'm super comfortable with homebrewing or running entire games within a setting I just dreamed up or one that has no official RPG (I'm going to run a Culture game in a couple of weeks). I'd argue that for most people D&D doesn't have a setting at first, it's generic kinda-mediaeval somewhat fantasy littered with anachronisms. It becomes it's own setting for those that want to delve in there (is this Greyhawk? forgotten realms? Dragonlance? Dark Sun? Birthright?). But it's not necessary in a fantasy game the same way it is more necessary in a sci-fi game spanning multiple worlds.
The point about people buying settings is well made. People buying the books for the setting versus buying the books for the rules is a good thing. For sales anyway.
lategamer
Cosmic Mongoose
Turning 2300Ad into a Core book...and having PIONEER as a core book makes sense on a lot of levels.
Similar threads
