Prime Directive For Traveller Announced

[BouncyCaitian]

PRIME DIRECTIVE: TRAVELLER
One of the most popular RPG game engines in the industry is the Traveller series (produced, in various incarnations, by Game Designer’s Workshop and Steve Jackson Games), and the current “Mongoose Traveller” incarnation is the most successful ever. They have an “open license” and Jean Sexton’s team was already at work doing a Prime Directive Traveller version for that system. Our experiences with GURPS, however, showed that any RPG done by a publisher other than the original will have at most 10% of the sales of books by the original publisher. (Hence, our GURPS books are done to the design standard of SJG books, but sell only a fraction of the numbers.) Doing these books as a joint venture means every retailer will carry them.

[ds9guy]

Anyone heard anything new on this?

Last I heard, the book had been delayed....

[Lord Kjeran]

I wish it would happen. Traveller with its background system just seems like a great fit for Trek.

[Renny]

It's still pushing ahead. Some snippets from careers have been posted on the ADB Facebook page. It's actively being worked on now and looking good. There's talk of a large hardback book (300+ pages) with loads of deckplans etc as well.

[Lord Kjeran]

mmmmmm, deckplans

[Owen E Oulton]

I thought it was scheduled for a November release. It's December now - almost January - and it's still listed as a "pre-order".

[Owen E Oulton]

I'm beginning to suspect that, like the D6 version, THIS IS VAPOURWARE!

[trynda1701]

Looking over the ADB BBS forum, it seems as if this project is fairly dependant on Jean Sexton. Check here...

http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/

...specifically the entry dated May 20, 2012 - 09:51 am

She is due to move soon to Texas in a few months, and this will hopefully allow her to work on more projects for ADB, as she retires from her current full time job.

[Renny]

I'm done with Mongoose and ADB, i'm afraid. I'm sure the book will appear at some point but i'll pass on it now.

[Mazza]

I like ADB's games. I like the Star Fleet Universe - it's a fun Trek-based universe to game in which I feel I can mess around in more because it isn't canon. I even like the Prime Directive line although there are a lot of problems with it.

But the truth is that they cannot stick to anything like a schedule on their RPG line in particular, because they don't have anybody working on it full-time. They are too dependent on volunteers. I hope this turns around at some point. It seems to me that Traveller and collaborating with Mongoose presents the opportunity which I feel has been missed with the GURPS and d20 Modern Prime Directives - a complete RPG which doesn't "vague out" on rules which are pretty fundamental to the genre (e.g. starship operations and combat).

[Owen E Oulton]

Is this thing ever going to be released? EVER? Mongoose says it's in ADB's hands. ADB never answeres any questions about it. Last I heard, it was waiting on Deck Plans. Comon, release it without the deck plans - Traveller-style deck plans are garbage anyway, and the few ADB have done aren't much better. F'r crying out loud, this is doing serious damage to ADB's already abysmal reputation!

[Renny]

A great question. ADB has just released the revised version of the Call to Arms:Star Fleet book and it is a great improvement over the Mongoose version. It's currently available on DriveThruRPG as a Pay What You Want product and I'd recommend picking it up if you have any interest in the Star Fleet universe. Hopefully this means that ADB can focus on Traveller. I wouldn't be holding my breath for it though. I'm sure it will appear, just wouldn't want to say when.

[Renny]

I just checked the ADB boards and the last comments were from September. The project is still ongoing but is dependent on Jean Sexton having three weeks (her words) to complete. No indication of when those three weeks will happen.

[Owen E Oulton]

Two years ago, it was depending on her retirement and move to Austin. No real answers. If they're going to put out a game, they need to actually have someone work on it. I don't know Jean or anything about her, but two years just to edit a book, half of which is all reprints, is not doing the job.