Traveller Minatures?

[TrippyHippy]

Will there be any minatures made for Traveller? Or hex maps, or starship plans?

We've been using Star Wars figures up to this point, and a large Hex map that we've already got, but I was wondering if there are any plans to produce some specialist minature lines for Traveller?

 

[Kristovich]

Are there even hex maps? I could really use one of those, you know! Would make battle so much more easier, and give the players a better view of stuff.

 

[rje]

Are there even hex maps? I could really use one of those, you know! Would make battle so much more easier, and give the players a better view of stuff.

Chessex is your friend.

http://www.chessex.com/mats/Battlemats_&_Megamats.htm

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I think Mongoose has said that all ship designs will include deck plans. If that is the case, then I say Great!

 

[Sturn]

Anyone know if the deck plans will be slanted towards a 15mm scale or a 25mm one?

I have lots of 28mm Star Wars figs, true 25mm metal Star Wars figs (there is a large size diff. between the Wizards plastic and older 25mm), and some Star Grunt figures that work quite well. I think either will work fine. I also have some older 15mm Traveller figs but they are hard to find and/or expensive.

There are 1 inch square and hex mats that your local hobby shop may carry. I also have a very large dry erase board that I have plotted 1 inch squares on that works even better then a mat.

In the end though, what I use most often is my "butcher block" sized graph paper (1 inch squares). I use colored pencils to draw permanent maps before hand for planned encounters. For Traveller, this means you could eventually draw deck plans of common ships on their own over-larged graph paper to place figures upon (I don't like the scale of the Gurps maps that are otherwise excellent, just way too big).

There are 15mm and 25mm (true 25mm, no Wizards size) resin vehicles that can be found that look purposely? like Traveller and 2300AD vehicles. I have a few of these, but they require work on your part and are very expensive. Also, I have found, a better and cheap alternative. Find top-down graphics of vehicles, print them to the proper scale, then mount them on poster board of some type. They are cheap, you can make tons of copies, and you can actually place figures on top of them to simulate who is riding inside a vehicle.

The pics at this link are Star Wars RPG pics, but give some examples of what I mean. The pics are on the right, the left is just text for a campaign I ran.

Example Pics

 

[Sturn]

Anyone from Mongoose willing to state whether there are plans for Traveller miniatures?

I have years of experience looking at ebay sales of Traveller type minis and collecting them since a about 1985. Whoever has the rights/ability to make and sale Traveller minis may be sitting on a gold mine. With the release of two new types of Traveller along with a few other scifi RPGs (Serenity, Battlestar G, 2300 AD T20), a line of Traveller minis would sale great in my opinion.

 

[Takei]

Traveller variants of Mongoose's wargame lines would be nice (B5 for space and either Battlefield Evolution or Starship Troopers for ground).

 

[GamerDude]

Anyone from Mongoose willing to state whether there are plans for Traveller miniatures?

I have years of experience looking at ebay sales of Traveller type minis and collecting them since a about 1985. Whoever has the rights/ability to make and sale Traveller minis may be sitting on a gold mine. With the release of two new types of Traveller along with a few other scifi RPGs (Serenity, Battlestar G, 2300 AD T20), a line of Traveller minis would sale great in my opinion.

I agree. It's hard to find good generic Sci-Fi minis (unless you want tons of stuff for Starwars, or even like Stargate SG1). I would LOVE to see a line of minis from MGP for Traveller and use them in my games.

 

[Sturn]

Traveller variants of Mongoose's wargame lines would be nice (B5 for space and either Battlefield Evolution or Starship Troopers for ground).

I took a look and really like what they did with the Battlefield Evolution line. They are pre-painted (I used to pride myself in my painting ability, but have less and less time for this), look realistic, and include vehicles!

I think many Traveller fans would LOVE Mongoose to treat the Traveller line with such a set of miniatures. Imagine buying a group of "ships crew" with an air raft or a squad of Marines with an Intrepid grav tank to back them up.

 

[crazy_cat]

What scale are Battlefield Evolution minis? Are they compatible with WOTC Star Wars minis for example.

 

[Sturn]

What scale are Battlefield Evolution minis? Are they compatible with WOTC Star Wars minis for example.

I believe they are 25mm, but they are TRUE 25mm unlike the larger Wizards figures. So, they are somewhat smaller then Star Wars figs, doable but they will look like 12 year old children.

 

[Se Chris]

Anyone know if the deck plans will be slanted towards a 15mm scale or a 25mm one?

The deck plans are done on a scale of 'one square is 1.5 metres'. Since a square is a square is a square (unless it's a hex) the real question is "Is your battlemat slanted towards 15mm or 25mm scale?"

Personally, all the mats I've ever encountered have been in 'D&D scale' or 1 inch = 5 feet (25-28mm scale), but I haven't been looking very hard for 15mm ones.

 

[tbeard1999]

Anyone from Mongoose willing to state whether there are plans for Traveller miniatures?

I have years of experience looking at ebay sales of Traveller type minis and collecting them since a about 1985. Whoever has the rights/ability to make and sale Traveller minis may be sitting on a gold mine. With the release of two new types of Traveller along with a few other scifi RPGs (Serenity, Battlestar G, 2300 AD T20), a line of Traveller minis would sale great in my opinion.

I agree. It's hard to find good generic Sci-Fi minis (unless you want tons of stuff for Starwars, or even like Stargate SG1). I would LOVE to see a line of minis from MGP for Traveller and use them in my games.

Ground Zero Games has an excellent line of 25mm and 15mm sci-fi miniatures. The 25mm line is "true" 25mm, so it won't be compatible with 28mm Games Workshop figures. GZG also makes a variety of vehicles in 15mm and 25mm. One interesting advantage is that GZG sells the same troops in both 15mm and 25mm. So a sufficiently ambitious game group could have 25mm figures for small scale stuff with matching 15mm figures for Big Battles.

If you play in 15mm, Quick Reaction Force has the most extensive line of 15mm modern vehicles available. Many of them make excellent TL7-9 vehicles. The Merkava and S-Tanks also make excellent grav tank conversions. They also sell 15mm Aliens figures.

Brigade Models has a nice complimentary line of 15mm sci-fi vehicles.

Also, see Stan Johansen Miniatures. I'm not wild about his infantry, but some of his 25mm vehicles are nice.

http://www.groundzerogames.net/
http://www.quickreactionforce.co.uk/
http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/
http://www.stanjohansenminiatures.com/star.htm

 

[The Greek]

Old Crow have some nice sci-fi vehicles, in different scales too. 6mm, 15mm and 25mm are all catered for. I have some of the latter for my Dredd games and very nice they are to.

 

[Sturn]

On a somewhat related topic, does anyone know where I can find top viewpoint graphics of Traveller vehicles? I have tons of Traveller books and have looked online, but can only find 3D or side view graphics. I was hoping to find some for printing out 25mm scale vehicles to use with minis (as I did for Star Wars as explained in the post above).

 

[GJD]

Some more sci-fi retailers:

Blue Moon
Heresy
Mega Minis
Hasslefree

G.

 

[GamerDude]

What scale are Battlefield Evolution minis? Are they compatible with WOTC Star Wars minis for example.

I believe they are 25mm, but they are TRUE 25mm unlike the larger Wizards figures. So, they are somewhat smaller then Star Wars figs, doable but they will look like 12 year old children.

Ok, nice slam here but shows some ignorance.

If "true" 25mm = 5 ft, then there is nothing wrong with a product like SW minis or D&D Minis. In d20 parlance, the "medium" or "man" size catagory runs up to 6' 9" so basically you are claiming WotC miniatures are "true" because they don't make everything in the "Medium/Man" size class 25mm/5ft tall.

Know what you are talking about.

 

[tbeard1999]

What scale are Battlefield Evolution minis? Are they compatible with WOTC Star Wars minis for example.

I believe they are 25mm, but they are TRUE 25mm unlike the larger Wizards figures. So, they are somewhat smaller then Star Wars figs, doable but they will look like 12 year old children.

Ok, nice slam here but shows some ignorance.

You seem to be going out of your way to find offense here. In any case, the term "True 25mm" is commonly used by wargamers to refer to the original 25mm scale, which was roughly 1/72 (or 1"=6'), give or take. These figures are noticeably smaller (especially thinner) than the standard "28mm" 25s available today. Although even in the late 1970s, certain lines were distinctively stouter (Grenadier and Heritage for instance) than other lines like Ral Partha or early Citadel.

Assuming that this is what he was talking about, there is no slam here. You'll note that I referred to the Ground Zero Games' 25mm figures as "true 25mm" as well.

And you may also note that a lot of manufacturers call their figures 28mm or even 30mm in recognition of the fact that they are much too large to be compatible with older 25mm figures.

If "true" 25mm = 5 ft

As noted above, 25mm historically meant ~25mm = 6' ot thereabouts.

Know what you are talking about.

Ironic, that.

 

[Sturn]

Thanks for coming to my defense Tbeard (that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be) :wink:

I did not mean to "slam" Wizards minis at all. I like miniatures from many different companies including Wizards. I said, "TRUE" merely to denote the size difference in order to answer the question I was responding to. As Tbeard said, many old gamers refer to the older, somewhat smaller 25mm lines as "true". I didn't come up with the term, the gaming community did.

I also meant that the true, older 25mm would look like 12 year old children when compared to the newer Wizards scale (28-30mm as Tbeard pointed out). Perhaps I didn't explain it completely.

On a funny note, I ran a Star Wars RPG campaign a couple years ago using Wizards minis. One of the PCs played an, "escaped Wookie slave boy". I used an old metal 25mm Wookie for him; its reduced size worked nicely.

 

[captainjack23]

Thanks for coming to my defense Tbeard (that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be) :wink: .

Heh. Do not mock hardcore colonial miniatures players, for they have strange and terrible castings.


I've sieved about 20-30 of the wizards figs that work well based on: human; not a major character; not an insane pose; and common or cheap uncommon rarity.

From there, the problem is as it ever was. No civilian unarmed types...hell, no military unarmed types. Like troopies carry their SSW and Rocket launcer everywhere all the time ?

I think having your figs always waving guns may be part of why many traveller stories revolve around a bloody gunbattle....

Scene: Cantina bar and grill.

Game mat indicates bar with appropriate furniture and such, some customers, and bartender played by ral Partha fantasy innkeeper , slumming.
Players place armed cammo clad figs, each brandishing one or more weapons, just inside the doorway.

Enter: lt. Stukey, Gunny Wright, Troopers Zak and Bonfon, and shifty friend named "Todd" accompanied by two dodgey ownership droids.
Crusty old Gunny: "Hmmm. wanna look for a ride, here looie ?"

Bartender (to droids): OUT ! We don't serve your type here !

BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM

Stormtrooper patrol: Hey !