Travellers Needed - Core Rulebook Reprint

MongooseMatt

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Hello, fellow Travellers!

Last year we reprinted the Traveller Core Rulebook and made a few little tweaks. The next time we reprint the Core Rulebook, we are going to go a bit further.

The first thing we are going to do is completely update the artwork and formatting. The Core Rulebook was a good stride forward when it was first released many, many moons ago, but anyone who has seen our more recent releases knows we have gone so much further in terms of quality art. We will be bringing this to the Core Rulebook.

While we are at it...

We could tweak the text further too. Now, we are NOT (capital emphasis!) doing a new edition, and we are not going to invalidate any of the supplements and expansions that have come since. But we do have the chance to make some changes and/or additions.

So... over to all of you.

Is there anything, however small, that has urked you about the Core Rulebook as it currently stands? Is there anything you think should be in there but is not?

Give me your wish list, from any tiny typos (page references will be useful) to entire chapters you think should always have been in there in the first place (page count is a factor, but let us worry about that).

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
 
I have the 2016 version of the Corebook and one thing I've always wanted is an index. You'll have to pardon my ignorance if a newer print already has one. If not, an index would be nice. There's no Ctrl-F in books!
 
Things for you to consider:-

* A glossary. Useful for non-grognards.

* An index. Useful for looking things up in play.

* An extended table of contents, to be put opposite the first printed page.


Outlandish suggestion:-

On Inside front cover and inside back cover, put the tables from the Traveller Referee's Screen there. Along with page numbers for the relevant tables. It is *so* useful, for example:-
* When running a game and you suddenly realise, you don't remember a particular game mechanic or, perhaps, where in the CRB it goes.
* When running a game and you have a small gaming table (or even no table at all), making a Referee's screen... awkward

EDIT: I have a draft extended table of contents you can build on. I also use webdings to put a box like character next to entries that link to tables in the text.
 
Would you like to include my combat flowchart?

For reasons unknown, the Hull Points were removed from the ship floor plans in the last reprinting.
 
I only have a few minor suggestions.
1. Adding an example technology table showing at which tech level certain things are normally developed. Maybe at the end of page 6?
2. Adding an abbreviated racial traits list for the races now included from Aliens of Charted Space V1 & V2. Page 50?
3. Adding in book and page numbers for additional related content in other books that have been printed.

And 1 suggestion that would be a major undertaking:

Putting an index at the end of the book.
 
Better optimization of the PDF's.

Better bookmarking.

The chargen flowchart seems to be a bit broken.

Maybe re-emphasize that the rules are a starting point, and a guideline, and that referee's should use as little or as much as suits their needs.
 
As IanBruntlett said, an index, an extended table of content and a glossary would be useful.
Other things would be :
* 2D maps of the ships that can be used with minis or tokens.
* A ship sheet that can be used during play (like the character sheet). The current ones are more design sheets, they are useful to understand how a ship was designed, but they are lacking data on weapons (range, damage, DM, Power, special traits, etc.), hull points, etc. If possible printer friendly, that would allows people to store all the ships in a folder.
* Indicating the tech level of the Imperium and its neighbours during their history?
 
Nothing that I haven't mentioned before.

Accurate statistics for spaceship designs.

Examples demonstrating how a game mechanic is supposed to work.
 
A combat flowchart would be helpful, and the career flowchart needs work.

I for one like the career pages being white-on-black, as they're easier to find.

+1 on the index/glossary.

p.45 the Old Ships Table is on page 164.

It's a total art nitpick, but it is never addressed what that alien monster is on p.61.

I'm curious what the consensus is on the isometric floorplans.
 
Hull Points put back on the Ship descriptions.

Some more guidance on the Psion career. The assessment of Psi strength and attempts to gain powers is fine, but it isn't very clear how you gain 'skills and powers' if you take the career for a number of terms.
 
Please could you clarify how sensors work in play. It is really confusing. The error confusing active radar/lidar with visual didn’t help but even with that fixed it is not clear how it is supposed to work in play.

In general, a clearer description of spacecraft operations would be good.

It bugs me that acceleration is equated with velocity. It would be nice if you offered a more sophisticated movement system as an option.

Rolling for freight is very complicated and usually there's enough to fill a ship's hold anyway. It would be nice if this were simplified.

And of course...the 3D starship maps are lovely but plan views would be nice too.
 
"And of course...the 3D starship maps are lovely but plan views would be nice too."

The B&W PDF of the Core Rules, which came included when I bought the PDFs on DriveThruRPG, includes 2D ship plans. Would be really nice to have these for all the books, but, alas. . .
 
The ship construction rules need work for the size of drives and powerplants. I was trying to convert an 1800 ton ship I'd made in mongoose 1E and the drives took up so much more space in 2E as to make the ship pointless. maybe they were tested at more of the typical ship sizes 200-400 tons but to make the drive worthwhile you HAVE to make it a higher TL, which limits repair opportunities - which really shouldn't be the case.
 
Something more for the Referee on the types of scenarios and campaigns they could be running (investigative, intrigue, tradecraft, travelogue, exploration, medical, psion, and so on).
 
Basic rules for miniatures combat

Rules for boarding ship combat that is missing from High Guard

Soem nice large clear ship plans based on grids not in 3d, some nice ship sketches of each ship in flight or landed based on the old Traders and Gunboats Supplement.

Maybe some nice ancillary mission clues to get you thinking as you are reading, like those paperclipped ones in IISS Ship Files. IISS was one of the best CT supplements ever made and incidentally has some great ships plans as well showing how they should be done, although Traders and Gunboat's plans were also very nice as well - just because they had some thought spent on them regarding the ship design and function.
 
Wow, a lot of good ideas here already. As a GM I really miss the following things:

  • An Index in the back.
  • Better and finer detailed bookmarks in the PDF.
  • A more detailed list of contents in print and PDF that links to the correct page in the PDF.
  • A set of common ships that is checked for errors in construction and deck plans, has all the necessary information (i. e. hull points, power and bandwidth consumption) and presents them in a meaningful way (e. g. in lists).
  • Clearly explained sensor rules that tell GM and players how sensors work, what they can and cannot do at various TLs, modes and package grades. This could be simplified and explored in depth in a second volume of Highguard, of course, but I currently miss rules for detecting missile launches, multiple sensor platforms cooperating to detect incoming ships (especially a well known stealthy player's ship) and all of the things from JTAS vol. IV.
  • Rolling for trade goods seems pointless right now, as I always roll up enough freight to fill up a tramp trader. Passengers coming and going from red zoned spaceport level X worlds with TL3 are also plenty, making the whole process of "rolling for money" rather numb.
  • Flowcharts should be added and/or updated.
  • Examples should be given in order to make rules easier to understand.
  • Clean up the equipment chapter. Some of the text is formatted in a layout wasting a lot of space. The same goes for parts of ship operations and the vehicle rules.
  • The presentation of vehicles is not following the same design rules as the rest of the book, especially ships. A different font should be used, which does not convey a "80s hand calculator" style.
  • The current depictions of weapons often defy basic functionality rules of weapons, especially in the case of firearms. These graphics should be re-done completely by an artist who has a basic understanding how weapons work.
  • Weapons, especially melee weapons, have unrealistic weightings: Blade weapons do not weigh 2-4 kg per piece, that just would make melee combat impossible.

All of this will add to the book, so it might be necessary to think about, what could go. This is always hard and it's easy to loose customers this way. I'll stick my head out and try it anyway:

  • Why not kill the option to generate alien Travellers at all? The information given is badly out of date with the publications of Aliens of Chartered Space vol. I & II anyway. And original Traveller publications did not offer this either. It's a sharp cut in the styles of play made available to beginner groups, but not as harsh as not including ship construction rules in th core book. And I think the latter choice went very well for this edition: a good declutter.
  • Augments have a two-page commercial-style presentation. That's nice to see, but it's a standalone for augments and not a repeated flair of the whole book. I would argue to either kill the two-pager or expand it for all other gear and equipment, including ships etc.
  • Animals of alien worlds: We get seven encounter type animals right now. Those are not representative for Chartered Space and they are not enough to be enjoyably worthwhile. I would delete all seven and expand on these in a free PDF.
That's not a lot to be deleted, but might be a start.
 
Addendum:

I would delete all references to future publications in name, especially if these volumes have not been produced during the last five years, i. e. Merchant Prince.
 
For me the the two biggest ones would be a proper index in the back and a return to 2D deckplans for starships (those isometric ones aren't very usable and aren't that pretty either, IMO).

Also, to echo Ursus Maior, above, it might be better to cut the creating alien PCs from the core rulebook and refer people to the proper aliens books. As of now, if you do not know the two offered alien races (well, species) beforehand, there is nowhere near enough information there in the CRB to roleplay them very well. Better to use that space for something else. If memory serves, there weren't any rules for alien PCs in the original Traveller rulebook either (you needed the Alien Modules for that).

And please redo the slug thrower weapon illustrations by someone who actually knows how conventional firearms function.
 
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