Travelling again...

[matholwch]

I have absolutely no idea if this is news to you guys but Mongoose have put up their annual 'State of the Mongoose' address on their open fora.

It's all interesting stuff but one thing that caught my eye was news of the rerelease of Traveller - 'ho hum' I thought, 'another half-hearted D20 tie in' - yawn.

Couldn't have been more wrong folks. It seems Mongoose have gone straight back to the original books and the Third Imperium - yay! They are not using D20 - yay! And they are updating and tightening up, but not significantly changing, the original rules - huzzah!

2D6 stats, Huge character generation tables, Power Armour, Gauss Rifles, Scout Ships - the lot.

To cap it all you can download the entire beta-test rules here http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/series.php?qsSeries=51

- no graphics and no fluff, but hell they are going down the OGL route with it all!

The rulebooks will even have the same covers. Do I sound a little excited? Damn straight I am! Apparently they will be releasing High Guard and Mercenary after the Core Rules, and where next I wonder? Scouts? Azhanti High Lightning?

Thank the Gods for British Games Companies (what? didn't you know that they come from Swindon, Wiltshire?).

[Lon Sarver]

The out of print rules Mongoose is referring to are the original (2d6) rules set from the first edition, as opposed to the percentile system from MegaTraveller or the other percentile system from Traveller: The New Era. And ignoring GURPS Traveller entirely.

[Kenneth Newquist]

So I was a little confused by Mongoose's press release regarding Traveller. Have the Traveller core rules been out of print for a while? I know there was T20 but that's not really Traveller core.

Mongoose's press release made it sound like the game wasn't exactly out of print, yet wasn't really available either.

Also, I'm a little confused as to what they're releasing; there appears to be a "core rule book", which is just the Traveller rules with perhaps some setting material, but then also a campaign book for the original Traveller universe, which might also include the full rules. Does that sound right?

[Kenneth Newquist]

I'd like to check it out, but my scifi gaming nostalgia runs to Star Frontiers. I think I only ever played two games of it, but I had plans ... such great plans...

[Lon Sarver]

I dunno. You're being awfully cagey about this one...

Nah, we can tell. It's subtle, but we can tell.

[matholwch]

Well Mongoose has grown a lot since those days. By the middle of next year they will have 50 emplyees on both sides of the pond, including layout artists and editors if my memory of their boss's adress serves...
More importantly it's Traveller! Third Imperium and no D20! Can anyone tell if I'm excited?

[Lon Sarver]

Traveller is one of those games that I never played so much, but still retains a very warm place in my heart. The hardbound "The Traveller Book" ws my first set of SF RPG rules.

Well, second, if you count Gamma World as Science Fiction.

[Kenneth Newquist]

I can't say; Berin likely can. I know the 1st Edition Conan book was bad enough for them to reprint an updated "Atlantean" edition that fixed the most serious problem (and we're not just talking typos here -- if memory serves, there were big layout problems as well, such as tables appearing in the wrong place, or not at all).

The B5 RPG also had a bunch of cringe worthy errors in it.

[Kenneth Newquist]

It's great that Mongoose is bringing this back. But it's Mongoose -- in my experience -- means we can expect a metric ton of typos in the finished product.

1st edition Conan anyone?

Though maybe they're getting better. Paranoia XP seemed pretty solid, and the Starship Troopers minis book, while a long way from perfect, was noticeably better then what had come before.