Traveller 3rd Party Licensing

[MongooseMatt]

It has taken us a little while, but we have finally arrived - 3rd party licensing for Traveller has been revamped and is now live!

You can find out more right here: https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/pages/traveller-licensing

We now have three modes of licensing for those looking to publish their own Traveller material to the wider world.

Fair Use Policy
This is continuing as before, granting immense scope for fans wanting to create non-commercial material. We will be formally adding Mongoose's editions of Traveller to the Fair Use Policy in early 2025.

TAS Programme
This is our Drivethru community publishing programme, and it has been running successfully for quite some time now! Fundamentally, it allows creators to publish their own material based on all current edition Traveller books from Mongoose, including the official Charted Space universe. However, we have made a few tweaks and changes for publishers.

First off, 3rd party publishers going through the TAS Programme will now receive greater revenue. We have changed the percentage received by publishers to 60%, and we will be looking to increase this further in the future.

Second, we have added a new set of templates that will allow publishers to match our new 'Update' format (it is much prettier!), complete with deck plans, sector maps, and all the other bits and pieces you will need. You can find that here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/473270/tas-adobe-templates-update-2024

Finally, we have also updated the TAS Programme logo. You are still welcome to keep and use the old one on existing books, but the new logo looks better!

Traveller Compatibility Licence
Are you an existing publisher and want a freer hand in both print and PDF publishing? The Traveller Compatibility Licence will be for you, a royalty-free licence that allows you to publish products that have a direct compatibility with the current edition of Traveller.


And the Fanfare
From this point on, we will also be taking a more active role with third party publishers, blowing their trumpets and highlighting all the new products that catch our eye so the wider Traveller audience does not miss out!

 

[Studio Cat]

And so it begins.....

 

[Varulv]

And so it begins.....

Meaning?

 

[Studio Cat]

Meaning?

 

[CordwainerFish]

 

[flyteach]

Does this new TAS program mean that Mongoose cannot reuse material without gaining copyright or paying the original author? I thought that was in the old program, but don't see it in the new one. I could have it confused with a different program, so please keep your blasters on stun.
Thanks!
Jim

 

[agentwigggles]

Why is the SRD behind the compatability licence?

 

[Vormaerin]

What were you going to do with it that doesn't involve publishing Traveller compatible material?

 

[agentwigggles]

What were you going to do with it that doesn't involve publishing Traveller compatible material?

Thats immaterial. To what these 3 things were suppose to replace and surplant, that include a publically available SRD. No longer having that is a none trival change, and one might be able to argue a moderate to major change.
The point for the public, as there are seperate business points, is to make the system more accessible, and freely usable to the public. Not having the SRD, is antithetical to this.
No, we're not owed anything. So what.
No, Mongoose doesnt need to have done anything of this. Yep. But they did anyway, and have obscured one of the more important aspect to the OGL that rpg community has rightly soured on, and that was a publically facing SRD.
And while not a design goal of the SRD as it was concept borne before online games, but as we all know there is a lot of low key piracy with online games. Its to impractical shares pages and paragraphs at a time, for folks without the books or for that session or living circumstances do not have access to their legally gotten books.
Furthermore, the point of the SRD was to divorce the system creator, so other persons can learn from it, expirment with. And while ultimately doesnt need to be for the use of other commericial products, it borne lots of community resources that are quite helpful. Such as but not limited to, DandD wikia. Gosh, like T5 might have viable playerbase if it had a dandD wikia to organize its tomb of purple prose and labyrinthine and puzzle box mechanics. Heck the Merc Books for Mongoose Traveller, might not be such a bastard of books if it had such a thing too.
And by placing the SRD behind close doors, makes the SRD pointless. While, I am sure a good if opaque business reasons to do so exist, as all business to remain viable in our capital hellscape have to be selfish and ultimately inconsiderate and indifference to us, its not a SRD by defination by being behind Mongoose.
Its still for effectively a licenseship. As there no defination to what "established" or "thriving lot", to qualify. And Mongoose can and probably should be, as capricious as to who qualifies for it. But it being behind close doors, it is effectively not a SRD. Its great that its royality free. Shouldnt and cant involved Charter Space IP. Its not an SRD.
And that what was most cared about during Hasbro/WOTC fumble with OGL was about.

Thank you for attending my ted talk.

 

[chibiko]

Thats immaterial. To what these 3 things were suppose to replace and surplant, that include a publically available SRD. No longer having that is a none trival change, and one might be able to argue a moderate to major change.
The point for the public, as there are seperate business points, is to make the system more accessible, and freely usable to the public. Not having the SRD, is antithetical to this.
No, we're not owed anything. So what.
No, Mongoose doesnt need to have done anything of this. Yep. But they did anyway, and have obscured one of the more important aspect to the OGL that rpg community has rightly soured on, and that was a publically facing SRD.
And while not a design goal of the SRD as it was concept borne before online games, but as we all know there is a lot of low key piracy with online games. Its to impractical shares pages and paragraphs at a time, for folks without the books or for that session or living circumstances do not have access to their legally gotten books.
Furthermore, the point of the SRD was to divorce the system creator, so other persons can learn from it, expirment with. And while ultimately doesnt need to be for the use of other commericial products, it borne lots of community resources that are quite helpful. Such as but not limited to, DandD wikia. Gosh, like T5 might have viable playerbase if it had a dandD wikia to organize its tomb of purple prose and labyrinthine and puzzle box mechanics. Heck the Merc Books for Mongoose Traveller, might not be such a bastard of books if it had such a thing too.
And by placing the SRD behind close doors, makes the SRD pointless. While, I am sure a good if opaque business reasons to do so exist, as all business to remain viable in our capital hellscape have to be selfish and ultimately inconsiderate and indifference to us, its not a SRD by defination by being behind Mongoose.
Its still for effectively a licenseship. As there no defination to what "established" or "thriving lot", to qualify. And Mongoose can and probably should be, as capricious as to who qualifies for it. But it being behind close doors, it is effectively not a SRD. Its great that its royality free. Shouldnt and cant involved Charter Space IP. Its not an SRD.
And that what was most cared about during Hasbro/WOTC fumble with OGL was about.

Thank you for attending my ted talk.

Maybe I read the announcement wrong, but my interpretation was that the SRD would be public (thus also allowing fair use) and serve as the base on which compatible materials would be made.

 

[agentwigggles]

Maybe I read the announcement wrong, but my interpretation was that the SRD would be public (thus also allowing fair use) and serve as the base on which compatible materials would be made.

Then where is the SRD? Its only talked about with the Compat portion. And there is no ability to view the SRD.
If I am wrong, thats ab fab. Its just, you know, late? And didnt arrive with everything else.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Am I being a bit thick here?

Why should Mongoose give away an SRD that makes them no money?

Why should MWM allow this and make no money?

You can always just write your own setting and publish it.

 

[Vormaerin]

I am still not sure what use case there is that isn't either fair use or Traveller Compatible. You want to commercially publish something that uses the Traveller rules but isn't "Traveller Compatible?"

Or are you just talking about the fact that Mongoose doesn't have to approve a Traveller Compatibility license use?

 

[phavoc]

Unless you want to set your own stuff in the Spinward Marches, with Duke Norris on Regina - with the illustrations (all copyrightable) you can pretty much reuse the entire Traveller material - just change the unique names. Dice rolling, laser (pulse or beam), missiles, etc are all concepts that fall outside of copyright jurisdiction. There is not actual need to use the SRD except when referring back to copyright-specific materials.

The reason people DO is because they want to leverage already existing material. Usually it can result in all parties (consumers, creators and original IP owners) winning - no tiger blood required.

 

[flyteach]

Does this new TAS program mean that Mongoose cannot reuse material without gaining copyright or paying the original author? I thought that was in the old program, but don't see it in the new one. I could have it confused with a different program, so please keep your blasters on stun.
Thanks!
Jim

@MongooseMatt
Bump

 

[Studio Cat]

The clipart that was made available for MgT 2e when it was first published, can that be used for 3rd Party Publications?

 

[MongooseMatt]

The clipart that was made available for MgT 2e when it was first published, can that be used for 3rd Party Publications?

The one in the TAS programme? That can be used for TAS alone.

Does this new TAS program mean that Mongoose cannot reuse material without gaining copyright or paying the original author? I thought that was in the old program, but don't see it in the new one. I could have it confused with a different program, so please keep your blasters on stun.
Thanks!
Jim

In theory. This is a result (and inevitable consequence) of opening up Traveller and Charted Space to this degree. However, it only applies for TAS and this is precisely why we pushed ahead with the Compatibility Licence.

Hope that helps!

 

[flyteach]

@MongooseMatt , I'm not sure it does, but then it could be me. Either you can use anything I publish in the TAS programme without my permission or you can. I'm not a lawyer, just someone who'd like to publish. The current system seems to have provisions for the use of your IP, but I'm still not sure if my IP is protected or not. I certainly like the idea of opening up Traveller and Charted Space, but if I'm just doing it for free, then I'll continue down my current path as there doesn't seem to be an incentive.
Jim

 

[MongooseMatt]

@MongooseMatt , I'm not sure it does, but then it could be me. Either you can use anything I publish in the TAS programme without my permission or you can. I'm not a lawyer, just someone who'd like to publish. The current system seems to have provisions for the use of your IP, but I'm still not sure if my IP is protected or not. I certainly like the idea of opening up Traveller and Charted Space, but if I'm just doing it for free, then I'll continue down my current path as there doesn't seem to be an incentive.
Jim

The likely path for you then would be the Compatibility Licence.

 

[wats_open?]

So there will be no

Feel like a lot of questions are being ignored and if I'm reading this right you told someone if they didn't want the possibility of their stuff being stolen by mongoose to not use the TAS program?