Now I do not want to bash all ideas and the hopes and dreams of all you lovely gamers out there, I just want to offer my opinion and if my language offends, I am sorry.
I understand that everyone and their mother would like to see a lot of books about their favorite universe, but in my opinion, this would make Mongoose Publishing as crappy as Palladium Books who constantly puts out new worlds and universes for their Rifts game. Making all their gamers scream for their favorite setting and complain that not more books are made just for them, and the books they do publish is badly written and inconsistent with each other as if the editors and writers have not read the previous books that has been published.
What I like to see, is that Mongoose chose a few settings and center their efforts on those. My favorite is Third Imperium and I do not see any other game that is linked to these rules (such as Judge Dredd and etc) as Traveller.
And what I think is needed is a book that introduces the Third Imperium to a new public, one that has not been around for like 10-30 years of playing this fantastic game.
So what I think should be written soon is a "Players Guide to the Chartered Space" where you can read about the history of the 1st-3rd Imperiums, briefly about major and minor races. How the Imperium is run, notable cultural areas and brief ideas how to build/run adventures.
The reason why I think this is needed is that I help a friend who has a game store and we often get questions from new players about what game to play and what we would recommend. I usually recommend Traveller in the SciFi genre, but I am always sad to explain that there is no introductory book about the universe that would help new gamers understand the vastness of the game and what to do.
So I suggest a book that would look something like this:
Chapter 1: The Imperium and its Astrography:
In this chapter the Imperium is described so that you get a brief view and so that you can understand the rest of the book. Preferably with a few maps of the Imperium, where different important worlds are located (Sol, Capital, Vland, Zhdant, Kyshu etc) and ignore worlds like (Reference, that always confused me when I played magatraveller, why was that always on the maps).
Chapter 3: Timeline of the Imperium:
A timeline of important things happening in the Imperium, and a few lines about every heading, seperate headlines for each race would be wonderful.
Chapter 3: The Races of the Imperium:
Brief data o the races (with stat modifiers and abilities) enough to make an aslan, vargr, Jonkeeren, Imperial Human etc, but not so much that it ruins the Alien Modules, this will be a way to show that ''Here play a Droyne, and this way is the way that you make a Droyne as a character, but if you really want to know more: Look at Alien Module X where the whole book is about the Droyne".
Chapter 4: Life and Trade in the Imperium:
here it explains how the general ctizen of the Imperium looks on life, the emperor and more and how trade binds together the Imperium.
Chapter 5: Adventuring in the Imperium:
Here is a brief explanation, maybe 2-4 introductionary adventures that shows the variations of what you can do in Traveller: Third Imperium. Some help for a new game Master to make adventures, maybe a few patrons with possible adventures.
Chapter 6: Secrets, Rumours and Goodies:
This is a chapter that is specially made for the GM, here is all the open information about Ancients (not who they were, but that they existed and that they are gone), as well as other conspiacies that might exist in the Imperium to flesh out the universe.
S, what do you think.
I understand that everyone and their mother would like to see a lot of books about their favorite universe, but in my opinion, this would make Mongoose Publishing as crappy as Palladium Books who constantly puts out new worlds and universes for their Rifts game. Making all their gamers scream for their favorite setting and complain that not more books are made just for them, and the books they do publish is badly written and inconsistent with each other as if the editors and writers have not read the previous books that has been published.
What I like to see, is that Mongoose chose a few settings and center their efforts on those. My favorite is Third Imperium and I do not see any other game that is linked to these rules (such as Judge Dredd and etc) as Traveller.
And what I think is needed is a book that introduces the Third Imperium to a new public, one that has not been around for like 10-30 years of playing this fantastic game.
So what I think should be written soon is a "Players Guide to the Chartered Space" where you can read about the history of the 1st-3rd Imperiums, briefly about major and minor races. How the Imperium is run, notable cultural areas and brief ideas how to build/run adventures.
The reason why I think this is needed is that I help a friend who has a game store and we often get questions from new players about what game to play and what we would recommend. I usually recommend Traveller in the SciFi genre, but I am always sad to explain that there is no introductory book about the universe that would help new gamers understand the vastness of the game and what to do.
So I suggest a book that would look something like this:
Chapter 1: The Imperium and its Astrography:
In this chapter the Imperium is described so that you get a brief view and so that you can understand the rest of the book. Preferably with a few maps of the Imperium, where different important worlds are located (Sol, Capital, Vland, Zhdant, Kyshu etc) and ignore worlds like (Reference, that always confused me when I played magatraveller, why was that always on the maps).
Chapter 3: Timeline of the Imperium:
A timeline of important things happening in the Imperium, and a few lines about every heading, seperate headlines for each race would be wonderful.
Chapter 3: The Races of the Imperium:
Brief data o the races (with stat modifiers and abilities) enough to make an aslan, vargr, Jonkeeren, Imperial Human etc, but not so much that it ruins the Alien Modules, this will be a way to show that ''Here play a Droyne, and this way is the way that you make a Droyne as a character, but if you really want to know more: Look at Alien Module X where the whole book is about the Droyne".
Chapter 4: Life and Trade in the Imperium:
here it explains how the general ctizen of the Imperium looks on life, the emperor and more and how trade binds together the Imperium.
Chapter 5: Adventuring in the Imperium:
Here is a brief explanation, maybe 2-4 introductionary adventures that shows the variations of what you can do in Traveller: Third Imperium. Some help for a new game Master to make adventures, maybe a few patrons with possible adventures.
Chapter 6: Secrets, Rumours and Goodies:
This is a chapter that is specially made for the GM, here is all the open information about Ancients (not who they were, but that they existed and that they are gone), as well as other conspiacies that might exist in the Imperium to flesh out the universe.
S, what do you think.