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How will Mongoose's recent announcement about a new edition affect this product?

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Friday, September 04, 2015 - 10:59 pm: Edit

I think they've been waiting for this product before they did Traveller: PD.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, September 05, 2015 - 08:09 am: Edit

Yes. When Mongoose is done, we will start work on Prime Directive Traveller.

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Saturday, September 05, 2015 - 12:15 pm: Edit

Does this leave an opening for an Empire book to be released for the existing game systems?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, September 05, 2015 - 01:43 pm: Edit

In theory, but given that I'd have to be very involved and I need to finish other stuff, as a practical matter maybe not. I'll chat with Jean about it sometime.

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Saturday, September 05, 2015 - 02:29 pm: Edit

That would be cool, but I understand if it is unworkable.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, September 05, 2015 - 07:44 pm: Edit

Trying to do too much at once is what gets us into trouble.

I have made faithful promises not to work on other major products until I finish some of these. (A major project an RPG empire would be, as no matter what empire it is, I'd have to write half of the pages and read/edit all the others).

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Saturday, September 05, 2015 - 09:57 pm: Edit

Understandable.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, September 05, 2015 - 11:28 pm: Edit

Speaking of new empire books, how many of these projects have already been assigned to various long-term writers?

The most prominent example I can think of is Loren Knight's ongoing efforts regarding the Tholians, though I somewhat recall a note about John Sickels having a hand in the Orion Pirate file. Are those the only two which have been assigned thus far (if I'm not mistaken on the Orion example, that is), or are there any other Alpha Octant files which have been earmarked for any given author in particular?

By Michael Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Sunday, September 06, 2015 - 02:22 am: Edit

Well, I haven't been assigned to do boo. But just for my very own amusement I have been working on the Lyran version.

When you read the bare background version of the Lyran & Kzinti empire governments they seem almost indistinguishable!

So I was working on some way to make the Lyrans different...

SVC said to my submission (something like) "Wait until Feline Empires is getting done. Maybe a little of it can be used. Lots of this is completely wrong..." Oh well.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, September 06, 2015 - 04:34 am: Edit

If it is completely wrong, it is completely wrong. And it was, which is why it was rejected.

Tough truth is that very few people have
1. The ability to write an empire book
AND
2. The knowledge of the SFU to write one
AND
3. The willingness to color inside the lines and not try to change published facts about that empire.
AND
4. Be fully aware and agreeable that nothing from any non-SFU source can be used without ADB approval and you probably won't get it. I had one book crash and burn when the author pulled stuff from FASA books and random websites without telling me he did.

Petrick and Loren got totally into knife vs claw combat over the tholian draft because Loren reversed the single salient fact about the Tholians (they are very nasty people who think humanoids are bacteria) to the point that I gave up trying to referee. At least for now. I do plan to try again when the time comes.
John Sickels did a great job on Feds but said that it took too many hours for the sales/royalties.

Which means only racial zealots on a mission to change things are willing to write a book. Them, or me.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, September 06, 2015 - 03:00 pm: Edit

With the three above caveats in mind, would there be a different level of pressure placed on those seeking to write for one or more of the more "established" factions, as opposed to those which have yet to be truly fleshed out in fiction or background terms?

To put it another way, the remaining "TV factions" (such as the Gorns), or those "SFU-native" species which have built up a solid mass of supporting material (such as the Lyrans), might come with a higher set of expectations; at least in terms of ensuring that a would-be author "colours inside the lines" of what has come before.

In contrast, there is still relatively little in print for the five home planets of the Inter-Stellar Concordium, and not much covering their "pre-Y160" history outside of the material factored into SFB Module Y2 and Module Y3. Similarly, more distant zones like Omega and the LMC have material to draw from in their respective SFB modules, but are still quite early on in the process of accumulating "PD-esque" material outside of those files.

While one may still expect a would-be ISC (or other such) writer to stay "on-reservation", might that still leave a lot of open space in terms of defining exactly what each portion of the reservation itself could look like in Prime Directive terms?

And speaking of the ISC, would it be worth setting up a discussion thread for the Concordium here; or is it wiser to keep one's powder dry on that topic for the time being?

By Dal Downing (Rambler) on Sunday, September 06, 2015 - 03:24 pm: Edit

Gary it is just me but, keep your Powder dry. Why create a big discussion on a book that is years away now?

Think about it we have the Tholians sorta in development the Orions I thought were in development. After that we can chose either Reptiles and Chickens or Feline Empires which may or not house the Wolves. Then worry about Peace Freak Terrorist or Fireplugs.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, September 06, 2015 - 03:39 pm: Edit

Which reminds me: we sort of have a "half-module" of Hydran material in Module Prime Alpha. While the game system material might now be out of date (and useful for only one PD game system at best), the actual background details should still be more or less valid.

Perhaps an eventual option could be to "upgrade" the MPA data into a proper Hydran sourcebook? Perhaps with the Borak, and more details on key Exile-run planets and Guilds, thrown in for good measure.

If there still needed to be something "more" to complete a full-sized book, perhaps the post-"independence" Vudar Enclave could also be added in; to make a "Prime Directive: Rimward Empires", or some such.

Given that the Vudar eventually claim three Hydran provinces, and are not in a hurry to give any of them back, that could be enough of a hook to group both powers together in PD terms.

Plus, unlike the Orion Enclave - which would presumably have more room for it in the Orion Pirates file, on top of the introduction shown in PD Federation - the Vudar may not have an alternate venue in which they could be given a proper look at, beyond their cameo in PD Klingons.

I suppose that might allow the Hydrans to once again "skip the queue", as they had done over in the SFB Master Starship Book project.

By Dal Downing (Rambler) on Sunday, September 06, 2015 - 04:09 pm: Edit

Once again keep your Powder dry most people already know all that so I was keeping future possibilities intentally vague Gary.

Like I said there is plenty of Tri Vid source stuff for awhile

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, September 06, 2015 - 05:44 pm: Edit

Gary, I have no problem with you taking a shot at the ISC, but start with an outline. No promise on sales potential.

The Tholians are about half done, but that book should include Seltorians on which little is done.

Hydrans are less than half done from the Prime module, but even so we need to add something (Borak) to fill out the book and sales potential seems tenuous.

Feline Empires seems a strong sales potential.

Gorns has little work done but seems a strong sales potential.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, January 21, 2016 - 11:21 am: Edit

The new Mongoose Traveller Core book has been released- http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/171643/Traveller-Core-Rulebook?affiliate_id=7242

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Thursday, January 21, 2016 - 03:31 pm: Edit

Heh...I see what you did there, Mr. Affiliate Link. Well played!

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, January 21, 2016 - 06:57 pm: Edit

This is relevant in that Taveller: Prime Directive and the subsequent PD Empire books were on hold until the new version of the Traveller Core Rulebook was released. I realize that it won't happen overnight, but maybe work can start on them now that the Mongoose Publishing end of the log jam is free :+)

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Thursday, January 21, 2016 - 07:36 pm: Edit

Naw man, I was just ribbing you for putting an affiliate link in your URL. Hey, I'm all for you making an extra buck...that's what affiliate links are for.
Peace.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, January 21, 2016 - 07:46 pm: Edit

I got the link off of the Mongoose Facebook page, not sure what you mean about the affiliate part.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, January 21, 2016 - 07:48 pm: Edit

Is this a better link? http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/171643/Traveller-Core-Rulebook?cPath=161_24851

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Thursday, January 21, 2016 - 09:16 pm: Edit

Where it says "?affiliate_id=7242" it means there is someone who is making a percentage for the referral.
It's called affiliate marketing and people make truckloads of money doing it.

By John Williams (Johndw) on Thursday, October 21, 2021 - 09:22 am: Edit

I was reminded recently that this was supposed to be a thing. When was the last update on the status of Traveler Prime Directive?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, October 21, 2021 - 11:37 am: Edit

The newsletter (should be out any time now) has a preview.

I asked Jean to do it but she had too many other jobs.

We hired several writers, all of whom disappeared without doing anything.

Al Beddow has been working on it for a while now.

By John Williams (Johndw) on Thursday, October 21, 2021 - 03:12 pm: Edit

Steve Cole, thanks for the update.