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By James (Limeydragon) on Tuesday, May 08, 2012 - 10:33 pm: Edit

Is the new book going to be an adaption of previous book with the Traveller mechanics.?

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Tuesday, May 08, 2012 - 11:12 pm: Edit

James, welcome to the BBS and the short answer is basically yes.

A piece of housekeeping: on the BBS we require a complete real name -- first and last. It keeps people civil, we find, and you get credit for for contributions made in all areas.

By James Kerr (Limeydragon) on Tuesday, May 08, 2012 - 11:18 pm: Edit

Will there be just a core book for the game with supplements like the current Traveller Line?

Example, The Third Imperium universe, with associated module and race books.

Housekeeping, Gotcha..

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, May 08, 2012 - 11:58 pm: Edit

We'll basically take the existing PD books and replace the game mechanics. So, GURPS KLINGONS becomes KLINGON TRAVELLER and so forth. Because Travellers love deck plans we have a guy Mongoose knows ready to do tons of those, Part of this project is that you start getting a new deck plan every month, not every year.

By James Kerr (Limeydragon) on Sunday, May 13, 2012 - 08:52 pm: Edit

I can't wait, sounds like you guys are going to make buy even more books.. Thanks

By Andrew Marrington (Mazza) on Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 06:06 am: Edit

More deck plans is awesome for all system variants!

By Andrew Granger (Captaincf) on Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 01:50 pm: Edit

I am really looking forward to this.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 02:07 pm: Edit

The plan at the moment is this:

During May 20-28, Jean converts PD20M core rulebook into PD Traveller core rulebook. That's about 200 pages.

About June 1st, SVC and Matthew decide if we want to go with a 200-page POD book two months later, and 200-page hardback three months later, or a 300-page hardback book four months later. The extra 100 pages would be 65 pages of deck plans, and 35 pages of RPG stuff like (perhaps) a survey of hex of the F&E map with several important planets laid out in multi-page detail and other planets done in one-page or one-paragraph, and/or maybe a campaign or something.

The extra 100 pages would then be turned into the first issue of FINAL FRONTIER with 20-40 pages of game system specific information (covering PD, PD20M, and GURPS, and maybe Savage Worlds, and of course Traveller if we went with the 200 page version of PD traveller).

By Andrew Granger (Captaincf) on Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 03:11 pm: Edit

Well would my input would be, yes.


No seriously, either way I will likely buy it though not right away, as money is a bit tight right now. I like the idea of large book, but I think I would rather have a soft-cover available now then wait longer for it.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 03:44 pm: Edit

It's not really an input thing. It's how much money the two companies decide to invest, and that depends on a lot of factors having nothing to do with this project.

By Andrew Granger (Captaincf) on Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 04:25 pm: Edit

Ahh... ok.

By James Kerr (Limeydragon) on Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 09:23 pm: Edit

I'd rather have more books than have to wait for one big book. It will keep interest up and the game on peoples minds.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 10:38 pm: Edit

So if I want to stick with PD20M or GURPS, I wouldn't need to buy PD Traveler for the extra content because it will all show up in FInal Frontier, right?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 11:49 pm: Edit

Loren: right

By Steve Race (Renny) on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 07:37 am: Edit

I'd be willing to wait for the larger hardcover at this point, although i'm likely just to buy whichever version appears first and then pick up the extra content later if that's what the decision is.

Also, I noted that Savage Worlds content is listed as maybe appearing in Final Frontier. Presumably that means there is still a possibility that a Savage Worlds version of PD is in the works?

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 08:48 am: Edit

Steve, I believe my author for SW has vanished, but I would need to confirm that when I actually have time to work on the book.

By Carl Herzog (Carlzog) on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 12:31 pm: Edit

Excuse my ignorance: What is "Final Frontier"?

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 12:46 pm: Edit

Carl, it will have stuff in it that we ran out of room for in some of the lines. It will also (I hope) become a magazine for the RPG line.

By Steve Race (Renny) on Sunday, May 20, 2012 - 06:08 am: Edit

Jean, that's a shame as I think the way Savage Worlds plays would work well for Prime Directive, and would offer a different play experience to some of the other rule systems. Hopefully the author will reappear at some point.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, May 20, 2012 - 09:51 am: Edit

Or another author. The big problem is that remote-Jean can do one or two books a year, and with the fierce competition between d20 and GURPS, and the need to do entirely new books, it's hard for a new system to get done.

The savage worlds author probably got tired of waiting for Jean time.

Once we have Amarillo-Jean, she can do four or five or six books a year, and authors will have plenty of Jean time.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Friday, June 01, 2012 - 03:08 am: Edit

Shawn Hantke found a Kickstarter by Marc Miller for a fifth edition of Traveller. It seems to me that this could be both threat and opportunity for Traveller Prime Directive. Something to keep an eye on.

By Greg Smith (Gregs) on Friday, June 01, 2012 - 08:34 pm: Edit

Traveller 5th edition has been coming since about 2007, so don't hold your breath.

Also there is nothing to indicate there will any kind of open licence for the rules.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Friday, June 01, 2012 - 09:19 pm: Edit

@Greg, a playtest/beta/preview version has been released on cdrom a few years ago and active editing, rules commenting, etc. has been ongoing on the Citizens of the Imperium (discussion board for all Traveller version)Link: http://www.travellerrpg.com/
The CDrom version was organized by chapters and rule numbers, the pages didn't have numbers so new section could be added as editing took place and more art could be added. The pdf was 521 pages, this is to print the book and the kickstarter says the book will be 600 pages. I haven't had time to follow that board much, but apparently they had added 79 more pages of material and must be getting ready to print it.

As for an open license there probably won't be, but Marc Miller must be pretty reasonable about the license since there have been a ton of Traveller licensees over the years including current GURPS, Mongoose, BITS, T20, Ad Astra and a pile of others on Drive thru RPG.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Saturday, June 02, 2012 - 04:27 am: Edit

The Fifth Edition looks like it will finally be going ahead. He's using the Kickstarter money to get it actually printed as a physical hardcover book. I believe that the Kickstarter will be successful. If it is, that may be a problem for PD in that TPD is written for Mongoose Traveller and T5 may steal some of MongTrav's market share. On the other hand, maybe ADB could talk to Marc about doing a supplement for T5, or a document for converting TPD to T5.