The Trailing Frontier - Now on Pre-Order & PDF

There's definitely stuff on the Luriani there. Not as much as the supplement, but stuff. And yeah, it does look like some of the world descriptions are copied from Gateway to Destiny, but it's not plagiarism if you're copying your own work.

Still:
Just noticed this: for all the subsector summary tables, the Location column does not have a leading zero when it is less than 1000. It should.
Also, all these astrophysical features mentioned, various Mains, Clusters, Scatters, etc., are nice, but it would be nicer if they were also on the maps. Ditto for some trade routes.

And another thing: The box for each of the worlds is rather wasteful of space and overly redundant (in addition to being sometimes wrong – see below). It would be cleaner just to list the UWP after the name in the heading (something I wanted to do in a previous book, mumble, grumble, mumble)

p. 177 Somberview’s population is referred to as 6 million in the text, but it is actually 600 million.
p. 180 Indolence box: descriptor column is wrong (fairly certain Law Level 0 is not ‘Rigid control of civilian movement’)
p. 184 The statement on the previous page, that Waystation claims control of Paradise of El, is completely unsupported and somewhat contradicted by the Paradise of El text.
p. 192 PAD missiles ‘Standard missiles can be used for defence of a Size 0–2 world but do not have sufficient thrust to climb out of stronger gravity wells in time with sufficient remaining fuel to engage a target’ Untrue. Even six gees for six minutes (one round) is more than enough to get to Earth (Size 8) escape velocity. It get’s you 21.6 kps, and escape is about 11.8, so even with a loss of 1-2 kps for gravity and atmosphere (3-5 if firing straight up), there’s plenty left over. And at 10 or 15 gees… Anyway. Entirely unnecessary addition. Existing missile rules can cover planetary defense.
p. 195 Vehicle Bay – made much cheaper than Docking space (which is MCr 0.25). The Maintenance bay is smaller than a full hangar and still cheaper than docking space. Not sure why these are needed additions.
p. 198 It is RAW, but a streamlined lined hull, where ‘light’ lowers the price, but after rounding has zero effect on the Hull damage points seem like cheating. Especially with Armour then added. At the very least we should add a rule that disallows armouring light hulls. Because.
p. 201 The Double Turret (beam laser, sandcaster) should also be x2. Extra space in ‘L ibrary’
p. 205 I like that the Abyss-class has a DSMS, but that system is only referenced in the Deepnight Revelation set (didn’t make into the HighGuard update, but Fuel/Cargo container did, so that doesn’t need a reference.), so it needs a reference here.
p. 209 Turret is labelled as 14, should be labelled as 15. And 3. bridge should be 3. Bridge. Bridge is undersized – should be noted as Small Bridge. (unless the little lettering on the deck plans is the only intended indication of a small bridge. Nah.) Shouldn’t the Planetology Lab be 4 tons?
p. 210 Also small bridge
p. 213 Medical Bay should add x3 for clarity based on size and cost, though with only one Medic, that seems like two too many.
p. 217 Same comment on Medical Bay
p. 220 ‘the Federation is only capable of building jump-1’ Gateway has a Class A starport and TL11, so it should be able to build Jump-2 drives, though none of the other worlds in the Federation can build jump-capable ships at all, at least at civilian starport yards.
p. 221 Jump Control has no cost with a Core computer. The software listed doesn’t’ need more than a Computer/10 at the most, so why is it even there?
p 226 Tons and cost columns are reversed. Cabin space is hinky either way. And adding cabin space to a cockpit is by definition not kosher. Should be a bridge (3 tons) if you add cabin space (1.5 tons per person, but why?) Oh and why would fuel tanks have a cost? Oh, just redo the whole table…
p. 227 Similar issues, but at least here the cabin space makes (reversed) sense – except it can’t be used with the cockpit. Or at least not from it. Says right in the Highguard definition that they’re ‘self-contained sealed area’. And a dual cockpit is 2.5 tons, so you might as well use a 3 ton bridge. You’ve got space to waste in this design – if it’s fixed. But… new Highguard requires 3 Firmpoints for a barbette, so the design won’t work at less than 70 tons. It could be a turret-size plasma gun, though. (it might have been designed before the new Highguard came out, so…)
p. 250 Not sure I would take the operational penalty of a small bridge when there’s cargo base to use, but that’s a design decision, not a mistake.

And that’s enough of that, then. I’m sure I missed something.
 
Likewise, not an error, or a problem really, but I notice that the timeline in the Gateway sector seems to have been reversed somewhat compared to what was previously published. In "Mercenaries of Charted Space" the Lords of Thunder invasion of the Renkard Union is well underway, with the capital of Silest having been conquered by them. Is there any particular reason why you decided to make the war imminent but not started yet in "The Trailer Frontier"?
A reference to Mercenaries of Charted Space, page 57?
The Renkard Union has been watching the Lords of Thunder approach for roughly a century and a half, and the Thunder have been swallowing worlds Renkard used to trade with in Lure'tiir!girr Sector. The Thunder provoke a fleet engagement in 1106, just after most Mongoose books are dated, and occupy the Union, but the two have been tussling in Lure for a while.
 
One thing I noticed is that you must go to the text to figure out which native aliens live where. The UWPs won't tell you.
In the case of the Ursa, even the text doesn't say.
 
p. 101 "Gaudix Drift"
Shikimi/Shikirmi (p. 104/106)
Galian League? Or Federation? p. 108
Outworlds subsector? p. 121
 
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I haven’t read any prior books about the Trailing Frontier, so I can’t tell if anything has been reused. It’s all new to me.

I was… disappointed to find that the majority of the High Guard chapter was filled with repetitions of existing things, sometimes with minor tweaks.

Multi-warhead anti-fighter missiles exist in High Guard. With more powerful sub-munitions and simpler mechanics. The ones in this book will be time-consuming to use in volleys, since each warhead must be resolved individually.

Does each warhead count as a missile volley of one (with DM to hit) or do they count as “regular attacks” adding effect to damage?

Firmpoint mounted dogfight missiles have likewise existed before, and my chief complaint against them remains. A firmpoint can mount a missile rack holding four regular missiles. Why then can a launch rail for smaller and inferior missiles only mount two?

If the multilauncher with six missiles had occupied one firmpoint, it would have made sense, or if a launch rail could be added in addition to another weapon on a firmpoint. but two small missiles on one firmpoint, over a laser or four regular missiles? Why?

Fuel/cargo containers already exists.

PAD missiles, covered by Geir above.

Point defense weapons and turrets are new, but there are some issues/unclear details with them as written. They got a thread of their own though.

Starships however, bring some interesting designs! would have loved to see some Luriani or K’kree designs, but plenty of stuff for belting and exploration!

P.205 400 dt fuel would only suffice for 1x J-2, not 2x. 1x is also what the description says on the page before.

The deckplans only seem to have 6 staterooms, not the 8 from the stat sheet?

P.221 launch deck (launch tube?) not present on sheet
I like the creative touch of using a residential zone for the crew or Beckann class super freighters!

Is the commercial zone intended for crew R & R or to sell manufactured goods in port?

P.246 upper deck, item 14: should this be the main cargo hold rather than hangar? The cargo hold at 9 looks a bit small for the 24k dtons capacity the ship has.
 
Generally, the supplement is a poorly and sloppily rewritten version of the D20. Lots of typos, twisted names KIIRIISHI? Kiiriirshi according to canon? Where exactly is the LSCA described? It looks like someone ripped a piece of description out of context. Several races are not described, other alien races are briefly described. There is no detailed description of the Luriani and their ships, when they are the main player in the Ley sector.
Yeah I agree, I'm an old T20 player. The Races aren't flushed out enough, I guess thats being saved for another Aliens book? I haven't played any of this yet and have only sped read it but I'm not getting the same fuzzy feeling that I got with the other sectors books.
 
I'm slowly working my way through the book (up to page 50 now), but I'll share the typos and (possible) mistakes I've found so far:

(Obs.: if I'm not sure if something is a mistake or no, the entry will have a [?] beside it)
  • Page 3, first paragraph: 'Gateway is almost entirely Imperial territory, whilst Ley lies entirely outside the Imperium' - Sectors in this description are swapped; Ley is Imperial, Gateway not.
  • Page 21, timeline entry for 1061: Emperor Strephon ascends to the throne in 1071 (see The Third Imperium, Pages 51 and 62 & JTAS Vol.1, Page 48). This should read "Emperor Paulo III" instead.
  • Page 25, last paragraph on Luriani: The text reads 'Those of Terrain descent are known as Verasti Dtareen.'; I'm 95% sure that should be 'Terran' and not 'Terrain'.
  • Page 27, last paragraph [?]: 'It is not known whether Akeed can breathe water or they store oxygen in their tissues but they can remain submerged for long periods.'; there might be an 'if' missing between the '(...) breathe water or' and 'they store oxygen', but I'm not sure.
  • Page 37, 'Political Structure of the Domain', first paragraph [?]: I think there is a second 'as' missing in 'Each planet provides for its own defence as best it can', but I'm not sure.
  • Page 40, 'The Imperial Interstellar Scout Service', second paragraph: '(...) updating planetary and autographic charts, (...)' should almost certainly be 'updating planetary and astrographic charts'.
  • [Skip here because I couldn't help myself and checked the High Guard section before I actually got there, woops]
  • Page 201, Software Section: There's a weird space in 'L ibrary' software.
  • Page 221, M-Drive section: The 'M-Drive' section is missing its label.
  • Page 224, ship schematics: What are presumably the High Staterooms are mislabelled with a 27 instead of the correct 28.


Other than the actual mistakes above, I have a couple of observations that aren't really mistakes in any way, but suggestions or just nit-picks (because I am a massive nerd and should probably get a life).
  • [Suggestion] Page 35, first paragraph: Add quotation marks to the phrase (...) but is thought to translate as the usual 'thinking people' or 'us'. to improve clarity.
  • [Nitpick] Page 34, first paragraph: It states that 'Vargr are by far the commonest non-human species in the Third Imperium (...)', but in actuality if one is to believe the Travellermap/2nd Survey data, Aslan come in first at roughly 0.96% of the Imperium population, followed by the Vegans at 0.92% and only then the Vargr in third place at 0.56%. Source: me being a colossal nerd and having made a python script to calculate this from all the sector data.

As I continue reading I'll make further posts in this thread to help iron out the kinks in this book before it hits the physical presses. Loving it so far!

Fly free! O7
 
...It states that 'Vargr are by far the commonest non-human species in the Third Imperium (...)', but in actuality if one is to believe the Travellermap/2nd Survey data, Aslan come in first at roughly 0.96% of the Imperium population, followed by the Vegans at 0.92% and only then the Vargr in third place at 0.56%. Source: me being a colossal nerd and having made a python script to calculate this from all the sector data.

Okay, that's really awesome colossal nerd work. I salute you!
However, I would suspect that the Vargr are the most widespread, and might not be counted (a.k.a. listed as Varg 0) on worlds where their population was in the single digits or less (Dentus, for instance doesn't have a Varg notation). Vegans are obviously clumped, Aslan, as a (relatively) younger race are potentially also less likely to be spread out.
 
Agreed. My assumption is that Vargr are quite widespread but only thinly in most places. It is also worth noting that Lishun, Antares, Fornast, and other sectors of the Imperial core are not as detailed or curated as Core, Ley, or the Marches. As such, even the odd Varg1 or Varg2 that should be scattered about are largely absent, driving down their apparent population in deep dive calculations.
 
Hey everyone,

Just to let you all know, we have just updated the book file with your comments - if you simply re-download you will have the latest version. We will be doing the merest tweaks on the two Sector Maps next week.
 
Hey everyone,

Just to let you all know, we have just updated the book file with your comments - if you simply re-download you will have the latest version. We will be doing the merest tweaks on the two Sector Maps next week.
I am concerned that the issues affecting display on Apple systems have not been fixed. I am beyond concerned that they have not even been acknowledged.
 
Hey everyone,

Just to let you all know, we have just updated the book file with your comments - if you simply re-download you will have the latest version. We will be doing the merest tweaks on the two Sector Maps next week.
In total, in several ship descriptions, there are still mixed-up orders (according to the Mongoose standard) or names - Accommodation, Cargo Space, and Common Areas in the wrong places.
Examples (not all):
GUNSHIP-EQUIPPED MERCHANT CLASS: Sapphire - "Accommodation" ?p. 230
S-40 GUNSHIP CLASS: — p. 226,227 "Accommodation"

Galian Cruiser p. 220 - "The only solution to the distance problem is to carry enough fuel for two 1-parsec jumps, while the time issue cannot be solved with locally available technology."
Yet the federation has TL11 technology and other ships with Jump 2 (e.g., Absym)
I haven't checked the rest of the book yet.
 
"The upper pair of arms is smaller and weaker, intended for fine work, whilst the lower ones are muscular and can apply greater force." p. 26
Sydites.png
 
I am concerned that the issues affecting display on Apple systems have not been fixed. I am beyond concerned that they have not even been acknowledged.

We have spoken about this in the past but, in a nutshell and as things stand, this is a compatibility issue between PDFs and iOS. We have found ways round this but every time Apple update something, everything resets. If you try Adobe's free PDF reader on your iOS device, you should find things work.

This is an annoying issue right now, and we are hoping Apple comes up with something more permanent.
 
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