The Pioneer RPG Kickstarter is now Live!
- Thread starter MongooseMatt
- Start date
lategamer
Banded Mongoose
The marketing and risk angles are there but yeah, for companies like Mongoose or Free League, these are a sure thing. They wouldn’t launch it without deep understanding of the market. But hey, I now have time to get the PDFs and then forget about the physical delivery until it arrives on my doorstep! Winning.
CordwainerFish
Emperor Mongoose
Never caused me trouble, though these days I issue the actual pledge from their app on an iDevice. Just make sure you get the confirmation email from them.
(Ad blockers, that is. At work my iDevices use the wireless we offer to the public, not the staff wired network that won't let me see my doctor's web site because It's Been Classed As Educational. The IT people at City Hall are total fucking idiots.)
Yeah, there was no problem doing it at home. Nothing to do with Kickstarter and everything to do with my work system's security. If it had been time critical I'd have used my phone.
All pledged up properly now.
And a big thank you to everyone for the generous preview rules. I would recommend every Traveller player to get it, if only for the section on environmental hazards. It expands on, but definitely is not at odds with core Traveller. Some of the variations in character generation may also be worth considering as house rules for YTU, although it isn't fully clear if the preview sequence is simplifying.
I would also say that there appears no reason that you couldn't run it as a cold war era space race RPG. Some of the Career assignment names like Influencer that have modern labels might need tweaking for ambiance. You also wouldn't need to go into space; an Earth based campaign dealing with general 21st or 20th century matters should be very possible.
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Is this the right thread for non-playtest people to ask questions about the preview document? I was wondering if the skill list is complete; there doesn't appear to be any social sciences? Are Pioneers doomed to repeat the lessons of History because they can't have expertise in that area? 
shirgall
Banded Mongoose
I think we're all in the Playtest of the Preview PDF (now a ZIP with a formfillable PDF character sheet!). I think feedback should go to the playtest forum.Is this the right thread for non-playtest people to ask questions about the preview document? I was wondering if the skill list is complete; there doesn't appear to be any social sciences? Are Pioneers doomed to repeat the lessons of History because they can't have expertise in that area?
In the USA the science program NOVA (on PBS) aired an episode on the ISS. Operation Space Station: High-Risk Build. The episode was about building the ISS and several problems during construction. Just using hand holds on the outside of the ISS during space walks imparted momentum which moved the entire station off its axis. The episode for next week is titled Operation Space Station: Science and Survival.
shirgall
Banded Mongoose
They give us just enough of a taste that we want to find out.
lategamer
Banded Mongoose
They give us just enough of a taste that we want to find out.
I say “fie” on your description that what we have been given is “just enough”
Here I am making stuff out of whole cloth!
CordwainerFish
Emperor Mongoose
I haven't looked too hard at the preview, but "magic 1 g forever" drives seem to violate the mood of the game, so that leaves Hohmann transfer orbits (and the occasional slingshot that helps you cheat a little bit). And yeah, for those you'd better bring a deck of cards along.
AndrewW
Emperor Mongoose
That's when you bring your Traveller books along and imagine what it will be like in the future.
CordwainerFish
Emperor Mongoose
Woo-hoo!
Wisenhower
Mongoose
I specifically timed my Mars and Beyond pledge so I could be the one to push it over.
lategamer
Banded Mongoose
I think in the early stage we might be limited to crawling slowly around but in the “third stage” implied, I kinda hope for an Epstein Drive.
Honestly, it's relative anyway.
Even without magic tech, it's possible to get from Earth to Mars in 6 months. Even a Hohmann transfer is only 9 months... comparable to the 8 months or so 18th century ships took to go from England to New South Wales. But with better internet.
Earth/Moon, or Earth Orbit/Moon travel is a matter of days.
You don't have to game out the trip if you don't want to. One session might see the players doing something on Luna, then they might be on Earth or a space station. If things take them to Mars, skip to "a year later on Phobos" if you like.
Does it really make much practical difference if that Earth/Mars trip took 6 months or six weeks? Training time, maybe, I guess.
Even without magic tech, it's possible to get from Earth to Mars in 6 months. Even a Hohmann transfer is only 9 months... comparable to the 8 months or so 18th century ships took to go from England to New South Wales. But with better internet.
Earth/Moon, or Earth Orbit/Moon travel is a matter of days.
You don't have to game out the trip if you don't want to. One session might see the players doing something on Luna, then they might be on Earth or a space station. If things take them to Mars, skip to "a year later on Phobos" if you like.
Does it really make much practical difference if that Earth/Mars trip took 6 months or six weeks? Training time, maybe, I guess.
lategamer
Banded Mongoose
It does if there are other time pressures. I mean, the whole of The Martian (and also the sample adventure) are all about time. The 5-rolls-to-spacewalk is all about time. It takes X minutes or you can make it quicker with a roll. So does it matter if it takes 6 months or 6 weeks? Sure, but that depends on which end of the wait you are.
This is an opportunity for stuff happening.
1) after a year away, a PC loses a valued relationship (someone does, someone falls out of love)
2) changing priorities with world events (like cutbacks or expanded investment)
3) maybe you can do it in 6 months but how annoying would it be to be overtaken by someone who can do it in 6 weeks.
I'm a big fan of only focusing where the drama is. In my current STA campaign, with few exceptions we do one adventure per Calendar year (my PCs are currently competing their third 5-year mission). I would see something similar with Pioneer. We don't need to see the dailies, only the Moments.
CordwainerFish
Emperor Mongoose
Heinlein thought so. He and his wife once spent an entire weekend calculating an orbit - no benefit of computer, all math by hand on large pieces of butcher's block, and each doing the same work to check on each other - so he could get one sentence in one of his novels right.
People used to care in this country.
shirgall
Banded Mongoose
To be fair, he was doing engineering work in aeronautics for the military and had a reputation to uphold.
