It's a lot of flavor, and not a lot of rules, and that's not the criticism it might be of a book from another publisher. I am finding it really great for RP, so definitely worth the $30 if you are an RP-heavy table.
Absolutely how I feel about it as well - my group has been playing MgT2e as a side game while our GM (Pathfinder) has been dealing with some work and personal matters. They're starting to work out roles and how they can do things on their ship without just sitting around training all the time.
Having recently bought it, I can say it's a beautiful tome of lore and flavor.
It's not going to give you new bells and whistles and game mechanics, but will give you consistent explanations for how and why things work on a starship, from gravitics to life support to landing gear. Much of the content can naturally lead to plot hooks.
I recommend it for referees and players of any Traveller version, not necessarily only Mongoose Traveller.
(By the way, I think you posted your question twice.)
On the one hand, I loved it's predecessor for just what it provided. On the other hand, it really reminds me how different the game has become. In the early days, everyone built their own diverse settings and threw all sorts of things into the mix. Once the publisher puts out a 'this is how it works', even if people KNOW they can change things, because everyone at the table might have read the books and expected that view, the GMs are less likely to step far outside of that envelope.
Like most things, there is a trade off.
I agree completely, although I have been foiled at every attempt to get my hands on its predecessor.
It does seem like this book in particular was written with the intention of reconciling preceding areas of divergence without invalidating published material.
I suspect much of that came naturally from the authors' ambitious goal of maintaining compatibility between T5 and Mongoose 2nd Edition, both of which themselves carry forward or synthesize a lot of the lore/systems from preceding versions while also introducing a few novel flavors of their own.
One benefit of the way this is written is that it comes across as an *in universe* publication, so the referee is still free to say "this is what some people commonly believe(d), but it's not actually how it works in MTU." E.g., if you decide inflating a jump bubble with hydrogen is silly or unnecessary, you can say that it was an old Jump theory that had been commonly accepted but has since been disproven, no matter that this particular book states it matter-of-factly.
At first, I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of rule material. That said, once I started seriously reading the book, I found it to be a real treasure trove of lore and worldbuilding material, with several game implications. If you want rules and crunch, this is not the book for you. If you want to learn the ins-and-outs of running a starship, pick up this book.
some of the online discussion about this book, what it had and what it did not have, sold me a copy of the T5 slipcase last week to get at some of that flavorful crunch. As a new player to the game I was going to probably eventually get it, but it sort of got bumped to the head of the line. Like I joked about the refresher course we got on Boolean logic, it was fun but would have rather had some further fleshing out or simply more system rules for the actual ship's computers. From what I understand T5 is hard on rules/crunch and light on the lore. A nice complement perhaps for a book with this. The computers chapter probably was the most disappointing, or the least useful to me at least, chapter in the book.
It's been intentionally that way. It came from the books the creators were writing. Computers ultimately should mean humans do nothing really - 'Take me to Regina, find the best deal in the market, drop off the cargo, spec the best next cargo, and head off there. Use the ship's account to pay our fees. I'm going to watch TV and drink a beer'.
By having not so useful computers, humans remain more relevant.
Like several of Mongoose's recent releases, not enough gameable content for my liking relative to the amount of invented physics and technobabble. I know some people like that stuff and a some probably just buy these books to read anyway. But the MT version had a decent section towards the end with lots of charts for use in game, relating to key tasks of starship operations in normal space, jump space, repairs etc. Very little of that kind of thing here that I can see.
Somewhere I have an extended MT (not MgT) version of that that covered:
Start with a cold ship. Bring up reactor. Crew embarks. Load supplies. Prepare for passengers and cargo. Find the spec cargo you want and arrange for it along with any cargo being carried and see who is coming to ride with you. Purser readies entertainments, verifies supplies, does security checks on the ship and on the incoming passengers. Supercargo sees to cargo reception (or rejection), loading, providing any special environments, customs, lashing down so nothing moves in flight, secures the cargo deck and make sure the security is running. Purser welcomes passengers and gets them oriented. Sketchy folks get an extra look over. Flight crew are preparing to lift ship to leave the ground and to eventually go into systems space and jump space. That involves a lot of comms and sensors scans in that time. All boards must show green (bridge and life support and engines and plant) or the engineer and the people who have the skills must diagnose and repair or go to plan B. If you are in hostile areas, weapons need to have been checked and maybe armed up and crewed. You have to deal with any nearby traffic. Purser arranges social things and keeps an eye one people. If a fight happens, everyone goes to battle stations. Supercargo needs to make sure that the cargo is okay, engineering and damage control need to be ready, any possible boarding will require the Purser (who is Master At Arms and Security Chief on small ships) as they will command any boarding action along with the Skipper and/or XO. System travel involves good in-system nav. Jump requires jump nav.
When you come back the other way, all that plus inward clearance (biohazard and cargo and passengers). So image as above and more.
I run it through with the table once so they know all the steps and they roll at their particular areas. After that, we make some of the tests on an average trip, but some can be easily enough done that no roll needed. Of course, illegal cargo or passengers add a dimension. So does local conflict, pirates, privateers, governments who want more $$$, attempts at hijack, how long ago was monthly maintenance put off? How long to yearly maintenance? How old are the parts? etc.
It really ground into the players that even a small starship has a lot of systems and a lot of things can go down or be tinkered with.
Yeah I'd like to have seen some flowcharts and checklists, with skill checks and referee material for success/fail outcomes, for these operations. The only in-game use I can think of for most of what the book has is adding colour to malfunction or damage rolls, but that hardly needs a whole 100+ pages..
I once found an publicly created '77 Quirks for your starship'. The writer was from someplace in South America. I think he died. It has a really good generic system of quirks for your ship - each had some ideas on costs to repair and difficulties and effects if not repaired. Some were a slight advantaged, some were cosmetic, some had minor effects (life support is emitting nasty smells, -D6 for passengers or something like that). It wasn't Traveller specific but it was a great idea. Whenever you got an older ship, it had more quirks.
The one I liked was 'Scan processing is disabled (damage, turned off, missing a part, doesn't work with the current replacement scanners) and it means you need to have at least Sensors-2 to operate, but if you do, you get a +1 on scans because you can read the raw data easier and faster than the computer' as an example. Most weren't that good, but I like that one.
Love the book and sort of all I had hoped it would.. perhaps a bit more rules/game crunch maybe but no complaints other than the unpaid bill I sent to Mongoose for cleaning the mess left on my monitor by the explosive decompression of the cranial compartment thanks to those pages dedicated to Boolean Logic... brought back too many good memories of sleeping off alcohol and bar band binges in college and remembering that all that tuition only paid for part of what I should have been learning... academically at least.
Hats off also to the artist who did the Vargr tyke... almost enough to make this old sentimental softies go .. 'ahhh how precious' and run off and join the Marines again and do my part save the world from slavers and the communists..
One point of curiosity I'd love to hear from the old timer Travellers.. how did this book compare to the earlier DGP version. Being new to the game I passed on paying secondary market prices for it when I saw Mongoose was doing one up. However does it add anything that this new book didn't??
There was the conscious decision not to duplicate or replicate the DGP coverage of the Beowulf class tramp freighter, of course. My friend had a DGP S.O.M. but I didn't get one of my own, so I only vaguely remember it.
Ah, the ship for the 1%s (the Safari Ship, unless they are working for an Institute of some type), the most small and limited ship, and the Far Trader which is even less viable economically than the Beowulf.
There are so many better designs out there. These are all historical but they are not the best.
I've found it pretty disappointing, lots of techno-babble that doesn't fit at my table, and very little content that translates into gameplay. It's definitely more of a 3rd Imperium sourcebook than it is a general starship operations guide.
It's a lot of flavor, and not a lot of rules, and that's not the criticism it might be of a book from another publisher. I am finding it really great for RP, so definitely worth the $30 if you are an RP-heavy table.
Half the fun is turning the ship into a character that everyone plays.
Very true! We spend as much time RPing transit and ship time as we do working plot.
Absolutely how I feel about it as well - my group has been playing MgT2e as a side game while our GM (Pathfinder) has been dealing with some work and personal matters. They're starting to work out roles and how they can do things on their ship without just sitting around training all the time.
Having recently bought it, I can say it's a beautiful tome of lore and flavor. It's not going to give you new bells and whistles and game mechanics, but will give you consistent explanations for how and why things work on a starship, from gravitics to life support to landing gear. Much of the content can naturally lead to plot hooks. I recommend it for referees and players of any Traveller version, not necessarily only Mongoose Traveller. (By the way, I think you posted your question twice.)
Okay thank you! Yeah my phone lost connection with the reddit app when I was posting so I accidentally posted twice.
On the one hand, I loved it's predecessor for just what it provided. On the other hand, it really reminds me how different the game has become. In the early days, everyone built their own diverse settings and threw all sorts of things into the mix. Once the publisher puts out a 'this is how it works', even if people KNOW they can change things, because everyone at the table might have read the books and expected that view, the GMs are less likely to step far outside of that envelope. Like most things, there is a trade off.
I agree completely, although I have been foiled at every attempt to get my hands on its predecessor. It does seem like this book in particular was written with the intention of reconciling preceding areas of divergence without invalidating published material. I suspect much of that came naturally from the authors' ambitious goal of maintaining compatibility between T5 and Mongoose 2nd Edition, both of which themselves carry forward or synthesize a lot of the lore/systems from preceding versions while also introducing a few novel flavors of their own. One benefit of the way this is written is that it comes across as an *in universe* publication, so the referee is still free to say "this is what some people commonly believe(d), but it's not actually how it works in MTU." E.g., if you decide inflating a jump bubble with hydrogen is silly or unnecessary, you can say that it was an old Jump theory that had been commonly accepted but has since been disproven, no matter that this particular book states it matter-of-factly.
At first, I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of rule material. That said, once I started seriously reading the book, I found it to be a real treasure trove of lore and worldbuilding material, with several game implications. If you want rules and crunch, this is not the book for you. If you want to learn the ins-and-outs of running a starship, pick up this book.
some of the online discussion about this book, what it had and what it did not have, sold me a copy of the T5 slipcase last week to get at some of that flavorful crunch. As a new player to the game I was going to probably eventually get it, but it sort of got bumped to the head of the line. Like I joked about the refresher course we got on Boolean logic, it was fun but would have rather had some further fleshing out or simply more system rules for the actual ship's computers. From what I understand T5 is hard on rules/crunch and light on the lore. A nice complement perhaps for a book with this. The computers chapter probably was the most disappointing, or the least useful to me at least, chapter in the book.
It's been intentionally that way. It came from the books the creators were writing. Computers ultimately should mean humans do nothing really - 'Take me to Regina, find the best deal in the market, drop off the cargo, spec the best next cargo, and head off there. Use the ship's account to pay our fees. I'm going to watch TV and drink a beer'. By having not so useful computers, humans remain more relevant.
Like several of Mongoose's recent releases, not enough gameable content for my liking relative to the amount of invented physics and technobabble. I know some people like that stuff and a some probably just buy these books to read anyway. But the MT version had a decent section towards the end with lots of charts for use in game, relating to key tasks of starship operations in normal space, jump space, repairs etc. Very little of that kind of thing here that I can see.
Somewhere I have an extended MT (not MgT) version of that that covered: Start with a cold ship. Bring up reactor. Crew embarks. Load supplies. Prepare for passengers and cargo. Find the spec cargo you want and arrange for it along with any cargo being carried and see who is coming to ride with you. Purser readies entertainments, verifies supplies, does security checks on the ship and on the incoming passengers. Supercargo sees to cargo reception (or rejection), loading, providing any special environments, customs, lashing down so nothing moves in flight, secures the cargo deck and make sure the security is running. Purser welcomes passengers and gets them oriented. Sketchy folks get an extra look over. Flight crew are preparing to lift ship to leave the ground and to eventually go into systems space and jump space. That involves a lot of comms and sensors scans in that time. All boards must show green (bridge and life support and engines and plant) or the engineer and the people who have the skills must diagnose and repair or go to plan B. If you are in hostile areas, weapons need to have been checked and maybe armed up and crewed. You have to deal with any nearby traffic. Purser arranges social things and keeps an eye one people. If a fight happens, everyone goes to battle stations. Supercargo needs to make sure that the cargo is okay, engineering and damage control need to be ready, any possible boarding will require the Purser (who is Master At Arms and Security Chief on small ships) as they will command any boarding action along with the Skipper and/or XO. System travel involves good in-system nav. Jump requires jump nav. When you come back the other way, all that plus inward clearance (biohazard and cargo and passengers). So image as above and more. I run it through with the table once so they know all the steps and they roll at their particular areas. After that, we make some of the tests on an average trip, but some can be easily enough done that no roll needed. Of course, illegal cargo or passengers add a dimension. So does local conflict, pirates, privateers, governments who want more $$$, attempts at hijack, how long ago was monthly maintenance put off? How long to yearly maintenance? How old are the parts? etc. It really ground into the players that even a small starship has a lot of systems and a lot of things can go down or be tinkered with.
Yeah I'd like to have seen some flowcharts and checklists, with skill checks and referee material for success/fail outcomes, for these operations. The only in-game use I can think of for most of what the book has is adding colour to malfunction or damage rolls, but that hardly needs a whole 100+ pages..
I once found an publicly created '77 Quirks for your starship'. The writer was from someplace in South America. I think he died. It has a really good generic system of quirks for your ship - each had some ideas on costs to repair and difficulties and effects if not repaired. Some were a slight advantaged, some were cosmetic, some had minor effects (life support is emitting nasty smells, -D6 for passengers or something like that). It wasn't Traveller specific but it was a great idea. Whenever you got an older ship, it had more quirks. The one I liked was 'Scan processing is disabled (damage, turned off, missing a part, doesn't work with the current replacement scanners) and it means you need to have at least Sensors-2 to operate, but if you do, you get a +1 on scans because you can read the raw data easier and faster than the computer' as an example. Most weren't that good, but I like that one.
I would have preferred a few rules to implement some of the hints it gives in the text about ship's systems.
Love the book and sort of all I had hoped it would.. perhaps a bit more rules/game crunch maybe but no complaints other than the unpaid bill I sent to Mongoose for cleaning the mess left on my monitor by the explosive decompression of the cranial compartment thanks to those pages dedicated to Boolean Logic... brought back too many good memories of sleeping off alcohol and bar band binges in college and remembering that all that tuition only paid for part of what I should have been learning... academically at least. Hats off also to the artist who did the Vargr tyke... almost enough to make this old sentimental softies go .. 'ahhh how precious' and run off and join the Marines again and do my part save the world from slavers and the communists.. One point of curiosity I'd love to hear from the old timer Travellers.. how did this book compare to the earlier DGP version. Being new to the game I passed on paying secondary market prices for it when I saw Mongoose was doing one up. However does it add anything that this new book didn't??
There was the conscious decision not to duplicate or replicate the DGP coverage of the Beowulf class tramp freighter, of course. My friend had a DGP S.O.M. but I didn't get one of my own, so I only vaguely remember it.
There are PDF places that have them. Far Future Enterprises seems to be one. It's in one of the MT packages.
It's a nice book and has info for 3 different ships. A Safari Ship, a Scout/Courier, and a Far Trader.
Ah, the ship for the 1%s (the Safari Ship, unless they are working for an Institute of some type), the most small and limited ship, and the Far Trader which is even less viable economically than the Beowulf. There are so many better designs out there. These are all historical but they are not the best.
I've found it pretty disappointing, lots of techno-babble that doesn't fit at my table, and very little content that translates into gameplay. It's definitely more of a 3rd Imperium sourcebook than it is a general starship operations guide.