Tech Level 16+

[branford]

I was an old fan of the original Traveller and its later incarnations, and just recently picked up MGT and High Guard. The older systems referenced and often provided stats for various TL 16+ ship technology such as disintegrators, antimatter missiles, jump projectors, coherent superdense armor, white globe generators, etc. Do any of the current Mongoose supplements provide information on these or other TL 16+ technologies, and if not, has any mention been made whether this information will be included in forthcoming books?

Thanks.

 

[alex_greene]

So far, very little TL 16+ tech has been included in the books, except for McGuffins here and there: the FGMP-16 in the core rulebook, some of the weapons in Mercenary, the alien artefact and alien base in Beltstrike, the alien base in Prison Planet, the recommendation that containment force fields in Scout be TL 18+ in the 3I and so on.

No coherent list so far, not yet anyway.

 

[AndrewW]

Central Supply Catalogue adds some more TL 16+ technologies.

 

[lastbesthope]

Central Supply Catalogue adds some more TL 16+ technologies.

Ahh, Argos comes through again... :lol:

LBH

 

[branford]

AndrewW: Will the Central Supply Catalogue contain TL 16+ ship technologies or only personal equipment?

Thank you.

 

[AndrewW]

AndrewW: Will the Central Supply Catalogue contain TL 16+ ship technologies or only personal equipment?

Thank you.

Afraid it doesn't really cover ship items.

 

[branford]

AndrewW, thank you. Do you know if Mongoose intends to detail TL 16+ ship technologies in any upcoming supplements?

 

[Gamerguy]

8)

The Darrians were TL 16 plus I believe. One of my favorite GURPS Traveller books was "Humaniti" one with 60 pages on the Darrians inside.
Ah yes, I can recall when I'd get 10 players easy to a Gurps Traveller game at a convention - and then run 4 sections to boot.

But, Gurps Traveller had its day - no support from SJGs in over three years and everyone wants me to run Mongoose Traveller. Now come the conversion process of my game from Gurps to Mongoose.

All the Mongoose stuff I've read is quite good - not perfect mind you but good. So a Darrian book would be quite nice.

Anyway, I recall talking to Dave Neilson at a convention and he told me about all the Canon changes he was going to make to Traveller - to correct rules he felt were just plain stupid.

Oh, well...........

I do have two things from him:

1) Rough draft with origonal artwork of TNE

2) Rough draft with origonal artwork of 2300AD.


This IS an RPG and is played for fun. If you don't like it - change it. In my MTU the Imperium is galaxy-wide and TL-17 with disintegrators, antimatter missiles, jump projectors, coherent superdense armor, white globe generators, etc as standard.

 

[AndrewW]

AndrewW, thank you. Do you know if Mongoose intends to detail TL 16+ ship technologies in any upcoming supplements?

No idea what they have planned sorry. Though they do include ship options in various other books (Scoundrel for example has a few), those aren't typically TL 16+.

 

[cbrunish]

Unfortunatly that is one of the things I did like in the Megatraveller rules. Not that I used them as much, it was nice if I wanted to create a relic from ancient times.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Someone could do up an OGL product with High Tech stuff.

You would have to make sure it was original material and not just copying stuff from MT or where ever, but it should be doable. There are lots of SF sources for stuff that would be TL 16+ in Traveller. Heck even B5 has stuff that would be TL 16+.

Stargates/Jumpgates, Advanced weapons, Advanced drives (above 6G!) etc. All could be done in an OGL book.

 

[Dave Chase]

They also might be waiting for T5 to get finished or further developed.

It has basic information up to TL 21 and covers some potential things up to TL 32.

It also has some general rules for making equipment which could raise or lower the TL of the item.

Dave Chase

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I don't really want to start another war here, but honestly, I don't think waiting for T5 to be published is a realistic way to handle high tech items.

My personal opinion is that I am more likely to write a high tech OGL book before T5 is published. And I am not a gearhead.

The nice thing about the OGL is that if you have an interest, you can make some money (not much maybe but some) filling in Traveller rules that you think are missing.

Spica has done that with the Career Books. There was an apparent need for additional careers using the Mongoose format, so we did it.

There is an apparent need for additional, non-OTU settings. There are Mongoose people working on that (Hammer's Slammers, Judge Dredd etc) and several OGL products that we keep hearing rumors about.

So, if there is a perceived need for a high tech sourcebook, then someone should just write one. If it later gets superceded by an "official" product, that's fine.

 

[rust]

It is also not that difficult to adapt technology from other roleplaying ga-
mes. For example, I use material from Babylon 5 or from the Ringworld
RPG to outfit alien species that have a very high technology level.

But I would of course be quite willing to buy any good OGL material on
high technology that comes at a reasonable price.

 

[pasuuli]

Not difficult at all.

With relative ease I could generate, today, turrets, barbettes, bays, and main guns for weapons such as:

TL 16 fusion weapons, ortillery, and rail guns
TL 16 thru 18 Jump dampers
TL 16 thru 19 Tractor/pressors
TL 16 thru 21 Disruptors
TL 17 thru 22 Jump inducers
TL 18 thru 23 Stasis weapons

Call it "99 High-Tech Weapons".

For example, here's a name-list of the TL16 starship weapons I've got my eye on. B1 and B2 are barbettes, B2 being a higher-powered version of a B1. LBay is the 100t bay. "Main" is for "main gun", similar to a mini-spine.

B1 Fusion gun-16
B2 Fusion gun-16
Bay Fusion gun-16
LBay Fusion gun-16
Main Fusion gun-16
Bay Ortillery-16
LBay Ortillery-16
Main Ortillery-16
Bay Rail Gun-16
LBay Rail Gun-16
Main Rail Gun-16
B1 Jump Damper-16
B2 Jump Damper-16
Bay Jump Damper-16
LBay Jump Damper-16
Main Jump Damper-16
B1 Tractor/Pressor-16
B2 Tractor/Pressor-16
Bay Tractor/Pressor-16
LBay Tractor/Pressor-16
Main Tractor/Pressor-16
B1 Disruptor-16
B2 Disruptor-16
Bay Disruptor-16
LBay Disruptor-16
Main Disruptor-16

 

[Dave Chase]

I don't really want to start another war here, but honestly, I don't think waiting for T5 to be published is a realistic way to handle high tech items.
...

I don't disagree. I was just offering possible reasons, even if far fetched.



But I do know that some of the MgT update and changes came about from the T5 playtesting material (AND of course Marc's approval of said material).

Dave Chase

 

[pasuuli]

But I do know that some of the MgT update and changes came about from the T5 playtesting material (AND of course Marc's approval of said material).

Dave Chase

And vice versa: I can't be sure, but I think some of the edits to T5 came about from the Mongoose material.

 

[Dave Chase]

But I do know that some of the MgT update and changes came about from the T5 playtesting material (AND of course Marc's approval of said material).

Dave Chase

And vice versa: I can't be sure, but I think some of the edits to T5 came about from the Mongoose material.

:lol:

Yes they did.

Dave Chase

 

[pasuuli]

So what would a supplement like this look like? By that I mean what kind of page formatting standards are available, expected, or preferable? Plaintext on white is boring after all!

Even if we don't have cool art, there are ways of making documents attractive via formatting, shading, boxing, etc. I suppose the core Traveller book has the kind of thing I'm asking about. Hmmm.