Traveller Developer's Pack

[cmdrx]

Now that I have High Guard, I am ready to start cranking out ship designs. But my question is this.

Can I post my designs on my personal webpage. I'm a bit confused over the legaleese. It would seem to imply that I can post anything BUT Mongoose Traveller designs. Also those designs would have to be based in the Foreven sector. (?)

Generally I want to convert my currently existing designs for Classic, T20 and GURPS into MGT and have them on my site. The website also spans not only versions of Traveller, but eras as well including Early Imperium, Civil War, Solomani Rim War, Classic Era, and GURPS timeline.

I already intend to post only basic statistics, not dt and price per component(as the format in the books), as I know this could lead to people reverse engineering the design system.

Please let me know if this is permissible and what legal verbage to put on the website.

Thanks

 

[Commander Drax]

i Have a fanzine Question, I've almost finished a fanzine created under the Fair Use Policy as it does not reference any part of the Mongoose Traveller rules, though actively supports prior (d6) rule sets. When this fanzine is complete do I need to get it approved for publication by Mongoose or Marc Miller before releasing it free of charge to the community as it's a first issue I am keen to get the legals right and play fair by everyone.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I believe that you do NOT have to get permission to publish FUP items. You don't even have to get permission to publish under the OGL or the FFSLL. For the OGL and the FFSLL, you have to send in the forms indicating intent to produce, but you don't have to get permission before you produce anything.

COPIES of the FUP would probably be appreciated though... :lol:

 

[dmccoy1693]

Publishing under the OGL requires no permission. Publishing under the TLL or FFSLL, you have to send in the acceptance form to mongoose.

 

[Commander Drax]

The reason why I ask is that it says in the fair use policy that notification of a new website is required, I'm just wondering if it also applies to a new fanzine.

 

[donm61873]

While any statement I would make is NOT official, I know that Marc appreciates being told about new fanzines and websites.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Matt, is there any movement on updated the Developer's Pack with the information from Mercenary and High Guard (new Skills etc)?

THANX

 

[MongooseMatt]

Hopefully we'll be able to add at least one of them later this month.

 

[Vile]

Hopefully we'll be able to add at least one of them later this month.

I hope that one has an H and a G in the title ...

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Hopefully we'll be able to add at least one of them later this month.

Thanks Matt!

I appreciate the quick response.

 

[Sturn]

I've been developing a "Terran Dawn Campaign Guide" for Solomani Rim sector way back at the end of the Long Night. I intend to have historical information, sector data for that time period, ships, vehicles, etc with MGT stats. Intended for my own campaign, but I want to share.

I've read through the current documentation, and as I read it, I can't publish this for others to use, for money or even for free, because it is not set in the Foreven Sector. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Does the time period make it not-OTU and so easier for me to publish? If I release it free does that mean I'm ok even with new vehicles and ships with MGT stats? If I decide to put it on RPGNow and charge $1 does this mean I would have to remove the MGT starship and vehicle stats after adding appropriate logos? Or I couldn't do that at all since it's semi-OTU?

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Sturn, your problem is using the MGT stats. IF you make it setting only material, without referencing anything MGT specific, then you could publish under the FUP (FOR FREE) since it could tie into CT or T4 (T4 setting anyway).

UWPs are FUP, since they were used in all versions of Traveller (but not Temperature!); so you should be fine.

It is RULES that can bite you.

Again, since it is OTU, it must be FREE. If you want to sell it, it must be under Foreven, which won't work for you since you can't change the location of the sector.

Hope that helps.

 

[Sturn]

Thanks Rikki Tikki. Didn't really want to sale it anyway, just asking for explanation sake (that's why I jested saying I would sale it for a $1).

Kinda sucks that I could make deckplans and graphics of various ships and vehicles found in my campaign to share with others, but couldn't post the MGT stats behind them. But I could post T4, MT, and CT stats even though MGT is the current star.

 

[EDG]

Kinda sucks that I could make deckplans and graphics of various ships and vehicles found in my campaign to share with others, but couldn't post the MGT stats behind them. But I could post T4, MT, and CT stats even though MGT is the current star.

You can release them as OGL products - genericise the ships, present MGT stats (via the OGL) and away you go. You just can't mention any OTU stuff in there.

 

[Sturn]

You can release them as OGL products - genericise the ships, present MGT stats (via the OGL) and away you go. You just can't mention any OTU stuff in there.

So let me get this right. Under FUP I could release a free early Solomani Rim campaign guide with modified UWPs and setting information including such things as a general description of a commonly found Donaldson-class 300 ton Old Earth Union free trader and include CT and MT stats for it if I wish to.

Under OGL I could also release a free supplement of various generalized ships, including a generic Donaldson-class 300 ton free trader, I just couldn't describe it as an Old Earth Union free trader found on the Solomani Rim around year -200.

Seems odd to me that I could release all of the information I wanted to, just not togather in one product.

Is that a correct interpretation? If so, doesn't that defeat the protections MGT was implementing in the first place?

 

[EDG]

So let me get this right. Under FUP I could release a free early Solomani Rim campaign guide with modified UWPs and setting information including such things as a general description of a commonly found Donaldson-class 300 ton Old Earth Union free trader and include CT and MT stats for it if I wish to.

Correct (as I understand it).

Under OGL I could also release a free supplement of various generalized ships, including a generic Donaldson-class 300 ton free trader, I just couldn't describe it as an Old Earth Union free trader found on the Solomani Rim around year -200.

Correct (as I understand it).

Seems odd to me that I could release all of the information I wanted to, just not togather in one product.

Is that a correct interpretation? If so, doesn't that defeat the protections MGT was implementing in the first place?

No, because if you release it under the FUP, you can't make any money off it.

If you release it under the OGL, you can make money off it, but to do so it must be generic - you can't use or even mention any elements of the OTU. You have to use only what has been released in the Traveller SRD (or your own original rules), and you can't use what hasn't been released there (which means that you can't use High Guard until the OGL elements of the High Guard rules are finalised and released).

It's not explicitly stated, but for the d20 OGL IIRC it was requested that you release at least some of your own material as OGL to give back to what you've used and expand the OGL. So if you make a bunch of new ship add-ons with your deckplans and ship stats then you could perhaps think about releasing the stats/description of the add-ons as OGL.

Releasing material under the Traveller OGL is covered under the Traveller Logo License, and lets you put a "Traveller Compatible Product" label on your product so you can attract those who are interested in Traveller.

That's how I understand it anyway, I'm sure Matt will correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Sturn]

Thanks EDG. I think I have a hang of what I can do now.

One final (I hope) small question. Here is what I THINK I can do in regards to ships specifically:

Under FUP

General descriptions of ships, size, history, and even OTU information on where the ship is commonly encountered, what megacorporation builds it, etc. Deck plans even if tonnages based upon MGT? I could get away with saying it is a Jump-2, Manuveur-2 ship with a crew of 4 and 35 tons of cargo, but I couldn't list complete details or exact tonnages by part if based upon MGT rules.

Under OGL

Ship name, descriptions, but nothing connected with OTU. Deck plans including a list of exact break down of MGT tonnages and a complete list of abilities under MGT - Jump 2, Man 2, Powerplant B, Military Grade Sensors, Core/2 computer, etc.

[EDIT]: I assume it wouldn't be so easy as to put the FUP and OGL on the same PDF and have both of the above inside? They have to be seperate documents I assume. What about a website under FUP, then links from there to the OGL ship pages with the OGL license on them? I understand intent of the law vs. letter of the law, if MGT frowns upon this I wouldn't consider it at all.

 

[EDG]

Yeah I'm not actually sure if one would be specifically not allowed to present MGT stats for anything published under the FUP. I guess if you wanted to put something out there for free but that had MGT stats, then you could just do it under the OGL license and not charge for it? It doesn't really make any sense to me for them to prevent people from using MGT stats in free material.

Matt? Any clarification there?

 

[EDG]

Matt, is there any update on when the High Guard and Mercenary bits of the SRD will be avaiable?

 

[kristof65]

I'm a little confused as to what the OGL allows in regards to the SRD and careers. As far as I can tell, here's what I interpret and what I could do if I were writing my own Traveller setting book:

1. I can't include Career's from the Main Traveller Rulebook, because they are not labeled OGL and are not in the SRD. The one possible exception to this is the Scout "sample" career in the SRD.

2. I can create my own Careers for inclusion in my book. Whether or not these are OGL is up to me?

Am I correct so far? Here's where things get fuzzy for me -

Say I need to make some minor changes to a career to fit more with a setting - like maybe I need to change the events tables and a couple of skill specialities for my setting's Navy career.

From my read through of things, I think I can publish the differences - my new events table, and an updated skill table, but for the rest, I'd have to reference back to the main Traveller Rule book.