Sword Worlds Jarl

[middenface]

I've now got my mits on the New Sword Worlds book... I like it.* So I've post a picture of one of the ship's on my Blog.
http://biomassart.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/traveller-the-jarl/

*Not had much time to read it, rush job in the ship yard and all that..

Edit: I really have issues spelling the word sword....

 

[steelbrok]

Did you get it in a FLGS?
Haven't seen any myself yet

 

[middenface]

Did you get it in a FLGS?
Haven't seen any myself yet

Nope, artists copy.

I've had a particular interest in all things nordic since my re-enactment days, so I'm liking this.

 

[Colin]

This is a Third Imperium product that I will pick up. Then again, my mother is Icelandic, so I'll get a kick out if it. I may even get her a copy, for gits and shiggles, and she can share it with the Prime Minister, who is apparently a relative of some sort. (Then again, there's only 350,000 people in the whole country, so everyone is related in some way or another).

 

[steelbrok]

Just had a phone call, my copy has arrived at Travelling Man, Newcastle!

 

[steelbrok]

Well, I picked up my copy of Sword Worlds yesterday. I was really looking forward to this book.

And I'm dissapointed.

Some very good stuff, a couple of intersting career options, good general background on the history of the Sword Worlds.

BUT

The book explicitly states it is set in 1105, pre Fifth Frontier War.
Despite this it is riddled with references to this war being in the past and worse it repeatedly mentions the Border Worlds, an Imperial client state set up in the aftermath of said war. The author compounds this by seemingly being unaware that some of the Sword Worlds he/she describes become those very Border Worlds that keep getting mentioned as neighbours.

The book also seems to be very poorly edited (I almost wonder whether the correct version was sent to the printers - shades of GURPS BtC). There are a number of obvious spelling errors and some very clumsy word ordering.
In one paragraph there are three possessive apostrophes that appear to have ben inserted into the text in a lrger type thus distorting the line spacing (it was this that got me wondering whether this was the proper draft, they look more like an editor's inserted coments than flowing smoothly with the text).

I am only about half way through the book but so far the book is a long way short of the standards set by other products such as Darrians or Zhodani

EDIT:
OK, as I read more I find other things that disturb me.
On several occasions the author uses the GURPS Starport Codes ("III" or "V") which makes me wonder how much of this material has been ported over from GURPS SW without properly looking at it to see what fitted the Mongoose 1105 setting.

 

[apoc527]

Wow. Mongoose, what happened?? Sounds kinda embarrassing!

 

[Wil Mireu]

Does anyone have the GURPS Sword Worlds book and the MGT one? Can they do a side-by-side comparison to see if they really did copy material verbatim from the GURPS book?

 

[Richard]

I have, and highly recommend, the GURPs Sword Worlds (The vast majority of GURPs Traveller was superb and can be ported over to other systems. It's primarily a setting thing after all..). As a result I didn't buy the Mongoose version pending reviews (Hoping maybe for a fleshed out scenario/campaign). If someone wants to post excerpts of the potentially offending Starport ratings etc passages, and give me the context, I could try to look it up for a match. Might take me a little while as a busy Sunday lies ahead.

 

[smiths121]

I read Sword Worlds and like it, then I am pretty good at ignoring things I do not like.
A friend is borrowing my Sworld Worlds at the moment, otherwise I would post the context for the Starport codes as I spotted them as well. Maybe Wednesday if no-one has beaten me to it.

I do not have Sworld Worlds GURPS (do not think this one ever made pdf, which is how I have all my other GURPS Traveller). The one that stood out to me in Mongoose Sword Worlds, in the description of the border worlds, is writing about " a decade after the war". Seemed a bit GURPSy, alternative time-line to me.

I think Mongoose should move the 3I story along a bit. Maybe this is a sign we will see our shiny 5FW before the license expires.Think 5FW was hinted a while back in the Live Traveller or free on-line campaign threads.

Having said that, there is plenty to do in the Spinward Marches in 1105, not really played or GM'd in that setting for 25 years, forgotten lots and we covered only a fraction of it at the time. We were teenagers and owning a FGMP-15, stowed on a stolen ship, was the personification of sophistication in those days.

 

[zero]

Awesome ship pic :wink:

Was thinking on getting Sword Worlds, due to my games currently centred in the Darrian Confederation and I need some ship designs for my 600dton, "The Ra'ar" to destroy. :lol:

However, I dont think I will now.
To people who have the book, are there any Sword World ship designs that would make an even or worthy opponent to a non-Capital ship (600 dtons) with 15 armour and a Fusion Bay as a weapon (which would be the Ra'ar)?

Something armed with Barbettes and a similar level of armour? More than one design would be awesome to know of if theyre in there. So, I guess I'm asking for non-Cap navy or general battleships.

The main reason for me getting Sword Worlds would have been for the ship designs, please help! Just a confirmation either way and the names if such ships are in there will be fine! Thanks in advance! :mrgreen:

 

[zozotroll]

Zero, I dont have my copy at the moment, my GM borrowed it until tommarrow. But yes there are a coule of ship designs in there. Not as many as I wanted, but they do go up to a 2000 Tonner.

The book is mostly good. I certainly would buy it agaoin, even knowing the things about it I do now. The stuff about the border worlds is annoying, but not crippling.

Owen

 

[zozotroll]

I still cant believe this one wasnt proofread better, if at all. It certainly does look like an early draft that got sent to the printers by accident.

Owen

 

[Richard]

smiths 121. There should be NO Border Worlds before the 5th Frontier War! " ...the establishment in 1111 of the Border Worlds Confederation. The new polity was organised as an Imperial client state consisting of (Beater, Biter, Bronze, Durendal, Dyrnwyn, Hoffud, Iron, Mithril, Steel, Sting and Sacnoth..." Page 21 GURPs Sword Worlds). Starports in GURPS are rated 1 through 5 in Roman numeral corresponding to E to A in old Traveller money. This is actually a conversion over to GURPs Space which was part inspired by Traveller. So any such reference in Mongoose Sword Worlds to such is clearly lifted from the GURPs source.

Are Drye, Rancke-Madsen (A keen SJG forum presence still I think) and Prior, the GURPS Sword Worlds, authors credited? Maybe they were consulted or Marc Miller gave some kind of special approval. This would actually have been a sensible move to make up front as their work is excellent and could have given a useful cultural basis for a campaign/scenario pack). It seems to seriously mess up the Sword Worlds region for the 5th Frontier War though (assuming it happens in Mongoose Traveller...). I know Mongoose have borrowed creatively in the past. My Lankhmar Unleashed city maps are all lifted from the TSR D&D release (And aremuch poorer quality than the originals...). I assume Mongoose had the right to do this, so maybe they had something similar going on with Steve Jackson Games/Marc Miller?

 

[Wil Mireu]

It would be nice to have a direct side-by-side comparison of the MGT SW and GT SW books to see if anything was actually lifted from the GURPS book. Direct plagiarism should be taken very seriously, and if there's any evidence for that (and if it wasn't sanctioned by both parties) then I would expect Mongoose and/or SJG to take appropriate action.