Traveller Release Schedule 2024

[JustEastOfTheEdge]

Aliens 4 is sadly one of the most useless books I have. I'd much rather have had 3-4 pages on dozens of alien races than 266 pages on 4 quite boring (IMHO) races.

Totally agree. The quest to fill the Traveller universe with generic Star Wars canteen monsters is not a good way forward, I think. Much better and useful would be entire books of creatures aka 'monster manuals' as it's something we could all use.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I guess this thread is primarily about PDF releases, so please forgive me as I'm not sure where else to ask this: any idea when the hardcovers slated for July (previously June) are coming in? I'm keen to get my hands on The Deep and The Dark, and Aliens 4, but I'd rather fold them into my planned order of in-stock items then make two separate orders.

I just got my hardcovers of these a week ago. They are out.

 

[Arcanum]

Totally agree. The quest to fill the Traveller universe with generic Star Wars canteen monsters is not a good way forward, I think. Much better and useful would be entire books of creatures aka 'monster manuals' as it's something we could all use.

I like the aliens of charted space books for myself. And i hope to see an alien of Charted space 5 book with the Vilani (we need them), and perhaps other important races of the empire like the Lancians or the Lurianis, and perhaps the Addaxur.

 

[thorsilver]

I just got my hardcovers of these a week ago. They are out.

The UK website says they're not, so I can't add them to my cart with the non-preorder items I want to buy.

 

[Terry Mixon]

The UK website says they're not, so I can't add them to my cart with the non-preorder items I want to buy.

Perhaps the US warehouse got them sooner. Sorry.

 

[OriginalCaruso]

US shipments are a week or so ahead of the U.K.

 

[JustEastOfTheEdge]

I like the aliens of charted space books for myself. And i hope to see an alien of Charted space 5 book with the Vilani (we need them), and perhaps other important races of the empire like the Lancians or the Lurianis, and perhaps the Addaxur.

Yes, Alien books can be excellent, if they provide something different enough worth playing. But a book of monsters/animals would be so much more useful for every DM/GM out there.

 

[MongooseMatt]

We expect to start shipping those new hardbacks from the UK next week!

 

[OriginalCaruso]

At risk of repeating myself here...

A book of Monsters would be a great addition, a first volume could collate those from various adventures into a single book with more to follow - there's plenty of source material "out there" in other genres

IMHO Traveller would benefit from a book of vignettes, mini-scenarios which last a few hours adding variety and interest. As an example, my players are currently on Gorram and investigating why there is a shortage of spares at the starbase - not the primary reason for them to be there - so I decided there is a bonded warehouse on a restricted part of the Starbase which the players investigated and found more spares than recorded on the central system. A side note on the main adventure, but something easily dropped into other adventures

We have plenty of mega-themed campaign settings, I will pay good money for a source book of unusual events, situations and circumstances which can befall my team of Travellers just scraping by

More focus on micro events rather than macro events, for me, FFW is a distraction, a backdrop rather than something to get deeply involved in

 

[JustEastOfTheEdge]

Totally. We want stuff we can use, day-to-day, in the game. Books of quasiscientific mumbo-jumbo have little impact on actual games. E.g., is that star a G3 or a G5? What does that even mean for a RP game's plot and characters. Nothing, really.
I want to know what are the predators on WorldX, a book of 99 unpredictable outcomes, something like the old "citizens" and "patrons" books, tons of vehicles, more careers (wet navy, air force, 'technomage', etc, etc ), more equipment. All very useful, and will help new players get into the game, rather than having them get sucked into debates about the cubic volume of a jump drives, or how often their socks orbit their pants in low G.

 

[Micky]

Aliens 4 is sadly one of the most useless books I have. I'd much rather have had 3-4 pages on dozens of alien races than 266 pages on 4 quite boring (IMHO) races.

sorry to hear that. Granted I've only skimmed the PDF and won't really read until I have the book in hand I thought it looked like any other of the previous couple books. An excellent resource for providing color and flavor for those you might encounter chartered space and even some fun options for playing a different kind of PC if you want.

I like the aliens of charted space books for myself. And i hope to see an alien of Charted space 5 book with the Vilani (we need them), and perhaps other important races of the empire like the Lancians or the Lurianis, and perhaps the Addaxur.

One could say the Vilani race could easily be covered in a Vland sector book. Kill two birds with one stone. The sector and the race that stand out most perhaps for not having been done by Mongoose for their shear importance to the setting.

Perhaps taking a cue from what Chris did with the excellent (best sector book of all of them?) Third Imperium covering Core Sector. Cover all the history of the Vlilani, from the beginning up through the current day. Obviously could cover the Lancians in that even if their Cultural Region is just outside the borders of Vland but a vital part of Vilani history. The three Bureaux and the Vilani way of life and while doing so cover most anything an entry in a Aliens book would. Perhaps handling the Vilani as the Syleans were in Chris's book. Wouldn't need more than a page, or less than, to cover the creating Vilani characters for all the rest was covered in the rest of the body of the rest of the book. Like Core, Vland could probably easily fill a sector book my itself and wouldn't need a 2nd sector to fill out the page count.

 

[Seffix]

I am certainly fine with seeing a single book divided into Vland & Vilani, but I would also like to see Vland teamed up with Dagudashaag, which would in turn bring in even more sminor sophonts.

As for Aliens 4, the Suerrat are adorable, and on their way to becoming very important in my game (and already more important than anyone else realizes). Of the others, the Za’tachk and Gurvin are on the other side of Charted Space from my campaign's current action, but I might use a ship containing a few of them to act as a foil for the local Bwaps and suggest that there is a Hiver doing the Hiver thing somewhere nearby.

The Tezcat would be a weird fit for my game, but I could see using them as sort of ominous cryptids for the completely unarmed party.

 

[Micky]

I am certainly fine with seeing a single book divided into Vland & Vilani, but I would also like to see Vland teamed up with Dagudashaag, which would in turn bring in even more sminor sophonts.

if they do a Vland sector book and decide to pair it up with another sector.. they really have a couple of different ways to go. Windhorn would be perfect. A great place to really start to bring the Vargr up to MgT speed.. starting with the Ngath and introducing the Vargr Navy. Those who keep the Corsairs in line as to to not interfere with the massive amount of trade flowing on the Vilani Main between the Imperium and the Extents. Or provoke another war with the Imperium. A little pirating is good...keeps the youth busy and not hanging on out street corners at night... but too much hurts the Vargr powers that be in the pocketbook as much as the Imperials. It stands to reason, thinking of that Reddit topic from a few days ago, that the Vargr have a real navy, a substantial one. They've fought wars against the Imperium before and sure didn't fight them using small itty bitty corsairs with pirate crews. They'd have big ships, capital ones. And have the tech levels to match the Third Imperium with which to gin up those ships. Would be nice to see those detailed.

Lishun is another perfect fit to be paired with Vland.. especially if future plans are for a Antares/Empty Quarter sector book. Just kill the long neglected Coreward regions of the Imperium in two books AND one can go into relations with the Extents that border the Imperium directly to Coreward with Vland/Lishun and of course the other could introduce the Julian Protectorate.

really a bunch of ways they can run with Vland... though Vland could be such such a heavy book on its own with all that is could, or should cover, that anything paired with it might push it into doorstopper territory.

 

[Regnarts]

I think a Vland sector book would be great. As for what to pair it with - maybe with Provence? This way the book name could be a play on Of Wolf and Men. And I would very much like to get a closer look on the Vargr Extents.
Another possibility is the Julian Protectorate, but I think that could use it's own sourcebook.

 

[Arcanum]

Lishun is another perfect fit to be paired with Vland.. especially if future plans are for a Antares/Empty Quarter sector book. Just kill the long neglected Coreward regions of the Imperium in two books AND one can go into relations with the Extents that border the Imperium directly to Coreward with Vland/Lishun and of course the other could introduce the Julian Protectorate.

The northern frontier of the Imperium seem so intriguing and neglected like you said. A Vland/Lishun sector book would be great. And a Antares/Empty Quarter too. But i think the Vilanis deserved the same traitment than the Solomanis, with a sector book and an Alien of charted space book.
This being said, i would be happy with one of these books.

 

[Seffix]

I admit that my choice of Dagudashaag was based on my desire to fill up the rectangle below like a cosmic bingo card, but I assume I would be happy with any such book.

 

[CordwainerFish]

I admit that my choice of Dagudashaag was based on my desire to fill up the rectangle below like a cosmic bingo card, but I assume I would be happy with any such book.
View attachment 2030

Oh good, I'm not the only one who would like to merge the blobs.

Other sector books on my wish list:
* Ziafrplians/Gvurrdon: life in the Consulate and Extents
* Hell, how about a Zhodani equivalent of The Third Imperium and Solomani Front, with Zhdant Sector
* Gzirr!k'l/Ricenden: probably the two least used Majors, plus a really weird Minor sandwiched between them

 

[Seffix]

Oh yeah. I'd get any of those. Let's face it, I'd get a sector book about anywhere except Wrence. Don't like Wrence*...

I gushed about this in an earlier post...


*Just kidding. Of course I would pick up Sector Book Wrence (with Tracerie?) as soon as it was released.

 

[Tom B]

On the subject on monsters - I did zoology at university and I like designing animals just like a lot of people like designing spaceships. There's a couple in Freelance traveller. I needed some dangerous plants. I had a look through the books I had and there were none! So at the moment I'm designing some.

 

[The Canterbury Tail]

I still think we're neglecting the largest pool of races in Traveller. Humaniti. I would really really like a follow up book to the excellent GURPS Traveller Humaniti. Yes we have the Solomani and a couple of other ones but we really need to build and show just how different and alien Humaniti can be to what we think of as native Solomani. After all humaniti is the race with the most variation, so lets celebrate it and have our starports filled with different cultures and genetic drift.