Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition

[MadBeardMan]

Morning All,

I started building Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition back in September 2015. At that time I didn't know how to build a ruleset, I looked inside CoreRPG and CoC and found out 'how' to do certain things. I love Traveller, one of the best sci-fi games I've ever played (and I've played a lot!). I can remember first playing Traveller in the mid-1980's, then playing MegaTraveller and finally playing and running Traveller 2300 (or as it was known as later, 2300AD). So my plan was to create 2300AD so I can play it again, but I noticed that Mongoose version was based on the Traveller ruleset, so that's where I started. I started stop, added more, stopped, started and so on and after a year or so towards the end of 2016 I had built a lot of modules for FG (mostly CoC). Doug asked me if I could help them out, could I build the ruleset for 'What's Old is New'. So I did. I stopped Traveller, spent a year building that (was a lot to learn and WOiN is very complex) but I finished that and it's out in the store.

Which meant that I was free again. I've been talking to Mongoose about this ruleset as I back all their Kickstarter projects for the New Traveller. They want me to start on the New Traveller, but I explained I had to finish this off as the new ruleset could be built on top. So I picked it back up in late March and have basically re-wrote a lot of what I originally wrote to better fit the latest CoreRPG updates.

Just like WOiN, I've started simple, and over time I will fix issues and add development.

Version 1.0.8 is already in the system
Version 1.0.9 should be LIVE on Tuesday (26th Mar 2019)
Version 1.0.10. is currently in development, fixing and adding things - main focus is Psionic based attacks and Healing

So what does the Mongoose Traveller Ruleset get you?

Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition Rulebook. All parsed, created Careers, Homeworlds, Equipment (Armour, Augments, Communications, Computers, Medical Supplies, Robots/Drones, Sensors, Survival Gear, Toolkits, Vehicles and Weapons), Skills* and PSI Talents.

Character Sheets
Allow you to drag Skills, Equipment and Homeworlds onto the character.
Dragging a Homeworld onto the Character Sheet will add the Skill.
You can drag any Equipment onto the character and encumbrance is calculated.
An action tab includes attacks for Weapons and has the Character Status (Wound Track) frame.
Weapon attacks, you can create custom attacks.
PSI Abilities linked to PSI Talents.
Normal histories, Friends/Ally, Finances notes are also included.
Armour is supported. Drop it into the Equipment and it's added as armour IF it's worn. So you can stack armour (if the GM allows). This will show as 'Layered' in the Combat Tracker.
Weapon Attacks. Drop a Weapon into the Equipment tab and it's added as an attack, reading the skill to set the skill level.

Combat Tracker
Attack rolls and Damage Rolls are all supported.
Melee attacks will add either the Str or Dex DM (whichever is higher by default)
Ranged attacks will add the Dex DM by default.
Attacks are either Melee or Ranged (the Range is used to know which is which)
Targets are supported, drag the Crosshairs onto the target, or drag the attack/damage dice.
Armour is taken into account for Damage Rolls, however so is the Min Damage of 1 is an attack is made with 6+ Effect (if you roll 14 or more).
Armour has a resistance that reduces damage only against that Damage Type.
Wound Track goes down with Damage (starting on the Endurance stat). After End is 0, then the next damage affects the highest of either Str or Dex (and so on).
Modifiers take effect to the attack dice total being rolled.
The Desktop modifier adds to the attack dice total.

NPC's
NPC's have simpler character sheets - you can enter the UPP to quickly build them. Add in Armour, Add in Attacks (or Drag a weapon over the top of an attack) and add skills/equipment.

Party Sheet
The Party Sheet allows the GM to see a snapshot of the team. The Wound Track is shown as 3 bars, all stats are shown as well as Armour/Rating.

Skills
Skill rolls. Have to be associated with a Characteristic, which the DM then affects the total bonus before rolling.
Unskilled. Automatically added and set as -3.
Skills may be added manually (on the Character Sheet).

Other
The desktops include a series of quick buttons to set the Difficulty modifier quickly. For example, if it's an Easy roll (+4) when the roll is made the +4 will be added automatically.
Traveller styled Theme created by Damned.
3 Letter based token packs created by Die Hard Gaming. Pack 'B' is part of the ruleset, Pack A and Pack C are token modules.
Tables. Lots of tables are all part of FG, mostly for Career choices.
World Data. You can enter in Worlds using the UWP to quickly build the details out. (part of 1.0.6.).

There's more to it as well, but hopefully, everything added works nicely. Need some nice beta testing now.

There's a DropBox folder containing screenshots, found here.

You can also find other updates on Twitter (I show most of my coding updates there)

*Now one thing I hoped would be in the initial release was Psionics. But if WOiN has taught me anything, be careful and do this correctly. That's what I'm doing, get the ruleset out there and for a future build add-in Psionics in a way that works.

What's next?

This is my current thinking Todo List. My priority is to fix issues that stop the game from being played. Once the ruleset has 'settled' down the Beta/Early Access will be removed and more updates will focus on adding new features.

• Reduce PsiPoints when Psi based skills are used/attacks are made.
• Careers. Allow drag and drop and prompt the user for which career assignment - prompt skill choices etc.
• Spaceships. Add spaceships as data, then look and sharing a ship (once this feature is in FG).
• Tables. See if it's possible to roll a D66.

The Little Black Books. (Does not include the Third Imperium)

It's not my intention of converting any of these.

I shall be jumping onto the New Traveller from March 2019, but this edition will still see updates as 2E and 1E share a lot of rules.

So here we have it, I'll be tweaking it over the coming week until the Theme is updated (Combat Tracker).

Cheers,
MBM aka Colin.

[TriOpticon]

This is great as I’ve been following it for some time!

How does one help test it?

[MadBeardMan]

This is great as I’ve been following it for some time!

How does one help test it?

Once the code gets over to FG and they pass it, they'll give a beta build to a few select people who can give it a test. Feedback will be direct with me.

So drop your details to jholloway (at) smiteworks.com as he'll organise the beta rollout.

Thanks for your interest!

Cheers,
MBM

[damned]

I think that would be jholloway@

[Honken]

I have seen you do some tweets about it. It is based on CoreRPG, right?

I am playing Mongoose 2e now with CoreRPG, it is simmilar enough so I might have a look at the beta.

/H

[MadBeardMan]

I have seen you do some tweets about it. It is based on CoreRPG, right?

I am playing Mongoose 2e now with CoreRPG, it is simmilar enough so I might have a look at the beta.

/H

Yes it's built on top of CoreRPG like all the newer rulesets.

The 2e stuff will be officially from Mongoose Publishing, the plan is to release everything over time.

Cheers,
MBM

[MadBeardMan]

Evening all,

Been a busy week. I'd like to thank TriOpticon for all his feedback on the ruleset.

I'm going to push v1.0.3. tonight. This has a few bug fixes, some additional dev for NPC's and a series of tokens from Damned that fit the ruleset.

So all in all this week, added Vehicles (data), fixed typo's in the rulebook, fixed errors and added dev.

I'll take some more screenshots and add them to the DropBox later.

Cheers,
MBM

[MadBeardMan]

Afternoon All,

Last night I sent v1.0.4. over to FG.

This is what 1.0.4. contained:

• NPC - UPP was ignoring 0 values
• PC's - Added rollable icons to attack/damage fields
• PC's - Updated background colours to match NPC's (Dark Grey)
• Equipment - Titles were showing Tl rather than TL
• Skills - You can now add Skills and edit the title/body (formatted text)
• Task Difficulty Average - Wasn't showing in the skill text in the chat manager
• Reference Manual - Addressed 2 formatting issues

Also added 3 token sets that were created by Damian/Die Hard Gaming (who's also created the Theme).

I've updated Post #1 with the version details and added a screenshot for the token set in the DropBox folder.

Cheers
MBM

[Logarus]

I have run a couple of campaigns in Mongoose traveller and will be starting The Pirates of Drinax soon so was wondering how to get into the Beta test.

Logarus

[MadBeardMan]

Hi All,

Last night I sent v1.0.5. over to FG, it's now classed as 'Early Access'.

First thanks for the awesome feedback from the beta chaps, especially TriOpticon who's been the best I could hope for (hope you're feeling better).

This is what v1.0.5. contained:

• Reference Manual - all images are now links, click on them to show the picture
• Reference Manual - formatting issues at end of chapter fixed
• NPC's - Added CareerPath field, for example 'Rogue (3)'
• Party Sheet - Fixed issue with it not showing the Cash on Hand for each character
• Party Sheet - Fixed the issue with the cash distribution not working
• Weapons Data - Now shows Recoil/Heft, BlastRadius and Auto fields (depending on the weapon you're viewing)
• Weapons Data - fixed issue with Cost field showing as the Magazine size
• Encounters - Changed text to Battles (tool tips etc)
• Quest - Removed from being a default GM button
• Images - Removed/renamed some images

On top of those a number of tweaks to things.

Currently under conversion for this version of Traveller, the Tripwire Campaign. I'm converting this and starting to run it on Sunday, soon as I've play tested and addressed any issues it'll go upto FG.

Cheers,
MBM