As something of an experiment, we have created a handful of new PDF-only additions for Traveller. They are intended to be small, cheap, but with enough content to expand your games in different directions, or give you a good session or two as adventures.

Special Supplement 1: Biotech Vehicles

Special Supplement 1: Biotech Vehicles is a bolt-on for Supplement 5-6: Vehicle Handbook. Written by the same author (Colin Dunn), it provides everything you need to make organic vehicles, from the floating squid-airship we include as an example to, well, anything your imagination can come up with; tunnelling moles with hardened chitin skins, great biotech walkers that stride across the landscape, or truly alien weird, fleshy pod cars.

Biotech Vehicles also includes rules for organic battle dress (that has to be weird to put on!), as well as modifications and weapons unique to biotech. You can even power your vehicle by sunlight and give it effectively unlimited range during the day!

Special Supplement 2: Deadly Assassins

The second of the Special Supplements deals with three very different flavours of assassin. Each coming from a seperate ‘school,’ they concentrate on stealth, close combat and sniping, respectively. For high-powerered campaigns, we have included full careers for these assassins (don’t expect to stay long in the careers, they are tough!), though we think most referees will use them as adversaries for players – imagine the look on their faces when you tell them the Enemy they just rolled up is, in fact, one of these guys!

As well as all the very special (and extremely high-tech) equipment these assassins have access to, we have also included three assassins, all tooled-up and ready to be inserted into your campaign.

The Tricolore's Shadow

A complete adventure for 2300AD, The Tricolore’s Shadow sees the players take an innocent enough job, surveying a valley on a colony world. However, a downed French spy satellite soon creates an international incident that the players will find themselves caught up in. They must choose between confronting powerful governmental forces directly, or racing across the planet to get off-world and reach safety.

Terror's Lair

Alternatively, if you are currently lacking players, why not take a trip to Terror’s Lair? This is a solo adventure for 2300AD, putting you in the role of American Marshal Obadiah Thomas, assigned to track down and capture Felix Berthold. Will you be able to guess who the elusive Felix is masquerading as before he escapes?

We have included plenty of hints and tips on how to expand this solo adventure into group play, perhaps getting your players to all run through Terror’s Lair on their own so they are familiar with the background, before launching into a group game with their own characters.

We have several more supplements and adventures like this planned, with the next being an adventure bearing the ominous title Cowboys vs. Xenomorphs. This is a much larger supplement (and will have a hardcopy print option available at Drivethru), and includes full rules for running Wild West games using the Traveller rules, a ‘desperado’ career to create new characters (though a full set of pre-generated characters is available), a complete town to use as a base/setting and, of course, the actual adventure. The players, running from the law, come to a small mining town far outon the frontier. They decide to lay low, and get involved with some of the machinations of the residents. Then, something very bad happens, and they find that something terrible is lurking in them thar hills.

I think you can probably see where this one is going…

Cowboys vs. Xenomorphs is in editing and layout right now, and will likely be available on Drivethru at the end of the month.

Just playing around with her 3D software, Sandrine came up with this. Some of you might recognise it…

Gionetti-class Light Cruiser

This light cruiser is named exclusively for posthumous recipients of the Imperial Starburst for Extreme Heroism.

Originally intended as a fast-reacting fighting ship, its actual use has evolved with experience. The ship is currently in favour as a flagship for many minor operations. Its high jump capability makes it extremely responsive to most situations, and it is possible to displace troops or service crew (or both) to provide quarters for command and staff personnel.

A New Race for Traveller, by Jacob D C Ross.

The Takel are an aquatic native to the planet Umina. A minor race hindered by the unique nature of their planet and physiology, the Takel are not widely-dispersed among the stars.

Physiology
Takel are a genetically diverse aquatic species. They grow to a height of between 1.75 and 2 metres. There are no immediate differences in the appearances of male and female Takel beyond the great variation in appearance from one Takel to another. Takel are omnivorous, generally requiring a diet of 3,500 calories per day, with similar nutritional needs to humans.

The Takel

Takel bodies are incredibly flexible and dextrous. Takel colouring is variable, and any hue found in the visible spectrum (and beyond) may be present. Their skin can be uniform in colour, spotted, streaked or even covered in fractal patterns. Takel skin varies from smooth to bumpy to scaly. Due to their wild genetics, Takel offspring seldom bear any resemblance to their parents.

Takel each have eight arms (not tentacles), with each arm containing a great number of neurons connected to the brain. Each arm houses 3.5 percent of the total brain mass of the Takel, giving the arms amazing co-ordination. Seeing the impossible-seeming contortions, quick-as-a-flash movements and exotic colouring of the Takel, alien visitors to Umina have reportedly been moved to tears at Takel displays of dexterity, such as dance or athletics.

Takel have four eyes and two beaks, and effectively two faces. The first is found at the front of the head, while the second face is at the top of the head, allowing the Takel to see and eat prey while swimming at top speed.

Takel reproduce sexually and are egg layers, with the eggs kept within the mother. A typical Takel pregnancy has approximately twenty fertilised eggs but perhaps only two are likely to survive to term. Takel mature at approximately sixteen Earth years (seven Umina years) and live to about the age of 68 (29.75 Umina years).

Takel do not have vocal cords and so must use a vocoder in order to converse in other languages, in a similar manner to the Hivers. Takel language consists of a series of clicks made with their beaks, requiring non-Takel to use a specialised vocoder to speak in the Takel language.

The Takel manifest psionic ability in roughly the same percentage of the population as humans. Psionically-endowed Takel tend to have the same psionic strength as their counterparts in other species, but when in the water their abilities are enhanced.

The presence of unique mutagens on Umina severely affect Takel genetics. As a result, Takel have a wide variety of traits that manifest differently from individual to individual. When creating a character, roll once on the table below for any mutations present.

2D6     Result
2            Chamelon Skin
3-4        Poison
5-6       Two Tentacles
7           No Mutation
8-9       Thick Skin
10-11   Enhanced Jet Propulsion
12          Amphibian

Chameleon Skin: The Takel can change the color of its skin. This grants it a +2 DM on all Stealth checks, provided that they are wearing transparent clothing or are nude.
Poison: The Takel can deliver neurotoxin (see page 74 of the Traveller Main Rulebook) via a bite.
Two Tentacles: Two of the Takel’s arms are actually tentacles, terminating in hard claws. When used as weapons the tentacles do D6+2 damage.
Thick Skin: The Takel has natural Armour 1.
Enhanced Jet Propulsion: When using their jet propulsion (see below) the Takel gains an additional +3 metres that it may move in a turn.
Amphibian: The Takel is adapted for both land and water habitats, and may breathe air, but still needs a survival suit to venture into alien oceans and must ingest Umina-specific chemicals daily.

Psionic Sharing
In Takel who have a Psionic Strength characteristic, the ability to draw upon their environment for power is present. A Takel can power their talents by taking Psionic Strength from willing participants within a radius equal to Psi DM x 10 metres. The psion may take a single Psi point from one being per point of the psion’s Psi DM to power a talent. All participants must be fully submerged in the same body of water.

Takel Characters
When creating a Takel character, make the following adjustments:

Str –2
Notable Dex (4D6)
End –2
Edu +1

Aquatic: The Takel cannot operate outside Umina’s ocean (including other oceanic environments) without using survival suits.
Jet Propulsion: If a Takel chooses to do nothing but move for its turn and is in a fluid medium, it may use their innate jet propulsion system to double its movement. Each time it does this counts as two rounds of action for the purposes of fatigue.
Multi-tasking: Due to their complex neural systems, Takel gain an extra minor action each round.

To adventure outside of their ocean, including within an alien ocean, a Takel requires a survival suit.

Survival Suit (TL 13)
The suit is of non-Takel manufacture and must be imported. It is a nearly skin-tight apparatus that provides the salt water mixture a Takel requires to live,  including the unique mixture of chemicals peculiar to Umina. Using this suit, the Takel can survive and interact on land and within alien oceans. The survival suit costs Cr. 4,500 and requires Cr. 20 worth of chemical refills per week. A completely transparent model costs Cr. 13,500.

Takel Society
Takel live on Umina (C66A622-7 S R NI Ri Wa), and have done so for the entirety of their civilisation, which stretches back at least 32,000 years. This age is only verified by historical account, not by archaeology, as the lack of minerals on Umina and the mildly-corrosive nature of its ocean means few artefacts of the past have survived.

The Takel govern themselves by convention, meeting every two Umina years (4.4 Earth years) to settle important matters and direct Takel efforts. Once a majority of 80% agree on a course of action, that plan is enacted. Disagreements seldom arise, not because the Takel get along uncommonly well, but because of their individualistic natures. Takel leave one another to their own plans on the understanding they will not be bothered by their companions.

Takel science is somewhat lacking in most areas. Without access to vast mineral resources on the very sparse land of Umina, the Takel have not achieved much in the way of transportation or computer technology. As they are perfectly adapted to their environment, the Takel never researched housing or buildings beyond basic protective barriers to keep safe from large predators. The Takel have excelled in creating personal weapons and traps to defend themselves against the megafauna that stalk Umina, and their skill with medicine is astonishing. The Takel quickly adapted their own medical technology for other species after first contact. Since Umina is mineral-poor, offworld traders provide the Takel with TL 7 or TL 8 equipment they do not have the infrastructure to manufacture for themselves, while Takel medicine is at TL 14 and nearing TL 15.

Takel have a very permissive attitude with regard to body modification, as they do not have an orthodox ‘look’ to the species, and they are tolerant of physical forms outside of the norm. Rather than cybernetic enhancements, the Takel usually opt for biological enhancements. Some of the most popular include crustacean claws, bio-electrical shock systems, limb regeneration and echolocation organs. These are also some of the most popular augments that the Takel sell, after gills and corrosive-resistant skin.

Within galactic society the Takel play a minor role. Those who venture away from Umina generally find work as doctors, entertainers, scouts (especially useful on aquatic worlds) and soldiers. Few Takel do leave their world, however, as many find the need for a survival suit to be too great a burden for the chance to adventure. Umina’s ocean contains a certain mix of chemicals that the Takel require in order to survive, and so in addition to wearing a survival suit, the suit must be precisely calibrated.

Adventures
The majority of adventures involving Takel will take place on Umina. The small ocean planet contains scant few islands, but corporate and scientific interests have constructed a floating city, Namitam, that serves as the planet’s downport. Submarine tours are available for hire and the Takel will welcome strangers to their sea floor settlements, out of curiosity, if not hospitality. Umina has several sites of interest.

There is a portal near the southern pole, of unknown design. It is actually a jump gate, linking Umina with an unknown watery realm. The water within this realm contains the same mix of chemicals required to support Takel life, but does not appear to have a solid surface, although large spheroids of rock do float within it. It is home to all manner of aquatic creatures, as well as jump gates to other planets with a Hydrographic score of 7 or greater. The portal is large enough to allow passage to a submarine twice the size of modern nuclear subs.

A psion cult is hidden near the ruins. They are led by a mad Takel priest who wants to use the portal to hydroform the planets linked to the portal to be hospitable for Takel life. This would, of course, utterly decimate the native ecosystem of the hydroformed planet. The cult use their abilities of Telekinesis, Energy Kinesis and Psionic Attack to devastating effect (see Book 4: Psion). Additionally, the cult may inundate the minds of Travellers with images of their monstrous deity and false dangers, perhaps causing them to turn on their comrades or open the airlock while underwater. If the cult detect scholarly minds with appropriate political connections or technical knowledge they will try to capture and brainwash the crew in order to receive the information and materials their operation requires.

Campaigns
Takel perhaps work best as a supporting force. They make fine patrons in that most of what they want in terms of material must be imported and few Takel have the desire to leave their homes. Takel NPCs should be socially outgoing, but reserved enough to not readily allow strangers into their inner circle.

Takel encountered off-world will usually be merchants selling medicine or doctors offering bio-augmentations. Because of the cost of living incurred with the required modifications to most of their equipment, Takel medical supplies and other wares should be offered at a higher price than usual. Of course, Takel medical services are often more advanced than those readily available, so players will likely have use for them.

If the referee decides to use the Takel as an enemy, the easiest way would be by using the southern jump gate and the psionic cult that guards it. The referee should feel free to make the hydroforming apparatus work swiftly, eradicating native ecosystems quickly. For added threat, allow the Takel to win their first planet with ease, taking the capital of whatever government the players serve, Earth, or a player’s homeworld. In true battle the Takel would prove to be a serious nuisance, utilising guerilla tactics like stealth strikes and harrying units.

Every now and again, one question pops up on our Traveller forums – after finishing a term during character creation, how do you change assignments within the same career? If, for example, you are a marine working in Support, can you buck for some ‘trigger time’ and become a Star Marine or join a Ground Assault battalion?

Before we give the grand answer to this eternal dilemma, it is worth pointing out that Traveller is not like many other roleplaying games. Balance between characters is far more nebulous, and this is down to the nature of the game.

At its most fundamental level, Traveller is about ordinary people trying to make their way in the world.  Your character has just finished his career and is effectively getting a second start in life, built on his past experiences.  He may have a pension, my have some savings but, other than that, how he gets on in life is up to you. Maybe your character will be a trader, plying the space lanes in a succession of larger freighters as his bank balance increases. Perhaps he will be a mercenary, intentionally seeking war zones and lending his service to the highest bidder. Or he could just ‘see what is out there,’ exploring the galaxy and taking whatever work happens to pop up on the next planet. You could start your own business, mine asteroids, start a criminal organisation, be a space ship salesman (or thief), or become the galaxy’s greatest (ageing) rock star.

Given that, balance between characters is not much use and we intentionally don’t give it much more than a nod in terms of the number of skills and credits a character can earn in a career. After all, one of your friends may be determined to build a combat monster whereas you might prefer to play a ‘face man’ who can bend people round his little finger with a little silver-tongued work. Just as in the real world, both characters have their merits – after all, a blood-thirsty maniac would be no good to us here at Mongoose when it comes to laying out books (Will is more your silent, cloaked assassin type).

So, back to the question; after finishing a term during character creation, how do you change assignments within the same career? Can you just switch, do you need to roll to enlist again, or what?

Here is the official answer…

It doesn’t really matter.

Really, it does not matter.  You are not going to break the game or end up with a monstrous, unbalanced character whichever method you choose – or whether you choose not to allow it at all.

All I can really tell you is what we do in our own games in the office. And before I go on, let me stress that this does not in any way denote the ‘proper’ way of playing the game. It really is just what we do. By all means take this as a starting point for your own campaigns or choose your own options. It is your game and we won’t be busting down your door for doing it differently!

When I am running the character creation session, I tend to vary between allowing an automatic switch and rolling for qualification/enlistment again.  Which is usually determined by the career and also the character involved – an Event may suggest a change in career path, or the player may make a good case for why his character should be allowed to make the change, based on the personality of the character and where the player wants to take him. When rolling for qualification/enlistment, however, I don’t usually use the negative DM for previous careers. After all, the character is already in the career and has, to an extent, already proved himself. Of course, you may want to impose your own penalties if the character has had a string of rather unfortunate Events…

Here are some examples of how we do things.

Agent
If a character is in Law Enforcement, it makes plenty of sense for them to make an automatic move to Corporate, especially after a notable event, good or bad (good may mean they are headhunted, bad may mean the character was ‘encouraged; to leave law enforcement and had no choice but to go corporate). If, however, the player wants to take the character into Intelligence, this may be automatic if (for example) they get Event 8 and successfully go undercover to investigate an enemy and impress an intelligence agency. On the other hand, without such a boost, a straight qualification roll may be more appropriate.

Army, Navy and Marines
These can all be treated in a similar way, and we normally do this based on whether the assignment can be seen as a ‘sideways’ move or is a fast track to something more in the limelight.  For example, in your campaign, Support and Infantry in the army may be seen as being the ‘core’ of an armed force and therefore at a similar level as each other, allowing automatic swaps between them. However, if Cavalry is seen as being somehow more important or a ‘cut above’ the rest of the army, then an enlistment roll may be the way to go. On the other hand, if someone in the Infantry rolls, say, Event 12 and displays heroism in battle, perhaps a switch in assignment may be an automatic benefit as well as the promotion or commission.

Citizen
Well, how many times have you changed job in your life?  It is entirely appropriate to switch assignments on the fly with the Citizen career.

Drifter
Unlike the Citizen career, being a Drifter is more likely to lock a character into a certain way of life, and so it may be better to treat each one as a separate career in its own right. After all, if you have a Scavenger working as part of a salvage crew, he is unlikely to suddenly become a Barbarian – though maybe something like Event 8, where the character is attacked by enemies, could not only leave him injured but marooned on a low tech world. Now that is a great plot hook to bring back into the game later in the campaign!

Nobility
I would tend to let players switch between Administrator and Diplomat as they saw fit, as the two can have some obvious links as the character becomes one of the movers and shakers of their world. However, Dilettante… Maybe it is just me, but I am not sure such characters will end up doing anything truly worthwhile!

Ranks
The final question when switching assignments is how to handle Ranks and, again, I would base it upon the career in question.  If you are switching between assignments within the same military (such as our Army example above), then it makes perfect sense for the character to retain their current Rank and, hopefully build upon it. The same can be said for more informal organisations or even different organisations that have a common basis. For example, a Rogue who starts as an Enforcer, becomes a Thief and ends up as a Pirate could perhaps retain his Rank through all assignments (gaining Skills and Benefits only as he ranks up within each assignment, so you don’t get to ‘double up’ on Benefits), with the reasoning that their reputation is growing and begins to precede them. Someone who has made his name as an Enforcer or Thief could easily be accorded great respect among Pirates. The same argument cold be made for Citizens, as their CV/resume gains weight.

On the other hand, perhaps it does not work so well for Entertainers. How many times has a real world celebrity decided they are no longer a singer/actor/socialite and tried to do something ‘serious’ only for their career to disappear down the plug hole? And, again, the Drifter has somewhat defined lines between its assignments and keeping Rank makes little sense there.

In these cases, it is perhaps better to muster out, get your cash/benefits, then roll for the qualification and start as Rank 0 in a different assignment, effectively treating it as a new career.

The Golden Rule here is to not hamper a player in what he wants to do with his character. There are enough dice rolls to end his character’s greatest dreams already, and if he wants to attempt to do something with his character, let him.  His choices and the dice rolls that follow will determine whether his career choices are the right ones…

By Jacob DC Ross

Whether an alien fighting master or a human mystic warrior, martial artists have long held a place in science fiction. This article introduces new options for players who want to train their characters in the way of unarmed combat. The hard-brawling thug and the wise pacifist will both find ways below to resolve a conflict with their bare hands.

Styles
To take a martial arts style, simply choose the appropriate style skill, as listed below, whenever a character has the opportunity to take Melee (any) or Melee (unarmed) by substituting Melee (style). With the referee’s permission, aliens with Natural Weapons may choose one style to be usable with the Melee (natural weapons) skill. A character may know multiple styles, but may not use more than one in a round.

Offensive Style
Offensive styles are based primarily on attacks, although defense and strategy are also factors. Offensive styles include boxing, savate de rue and karate. A practitioner of offensive styles may use Strength or Dexterity as modifiers when rolling to hit or for damage.

Grappling Style
Grappling styles are based on getting close to an opponent and immobilizing them. Such styles include sumo and Greco-Roman wrestling. Grapplers only use Strength for their style. Grapplers add their Strength DM to all damage done during a grapple, and gain a cumulative +2 DM to their Melee (grappling style) rolls made to control a grapple for every round they have controlled the grapple consecutively.

Soft Style
Soft styles focus on throws and other less-damaging strikes. Judo is a prime example of a soft style. Soft styles may only use Dexterity as their relevant characteristic. Soft practitioners double their Dexterity DM for the purpose of winning control of a grapple, but cannot chose the option of inflicting damage equal to 2+Effect, and damage from throws and unarmed strikes is halved. Changing stances from prone after being thrown or knocked prone by a soft practitioner is a significant action.

Defensive Style
Defensive styles teach patience, waiting to strike until the perfect opportunity presents itself while blocking incoming attacks. Jeet kune do is an example of a defensive style. Defensive styles use either Strength or Dexterity when rolling to hit or for damage. A defensive martial artist may dodge or parry in combat once per round without taking the penalty to subsequent actions.

Acrobatic Style
Acrobatic styles stress incredible maneuvers that allow the practitioner to place themselves in advantageous positions. Parkour and capoeira are acrobatic styles. Acrobatics use Strength or Dexterity. As a significant action, a practitioner may make a daring dash or leap, rolling Melee (acrobatic style) 8+ and adding the Effect to their Initiative on the next round, as well as half the Effect as a negative DM to hit them. In order to use this technique at greater than Personal range, a character must move on their minor action before attempting the leap or dash. Any character may use Athletics (acrobatics) or Art (dance) in this manner, but may never use those skills to strike in combat.

Anti-Cybernetic Style
This rare art is taught to combatants who find themselves frequently opposed by cyborgs. Anti-cybernetic styles use either Strength or Dexterity. When an anti-cybernetic practitioner strikes a cyborg with a melee attack, the cyborg must throw Endurance with a negative DM equal to the Effect of the attack or have one of their augmentations temporarily go offline. Unless the cyborg has self-repairing augmentations, the damage lasts until minor repairs can be made.

Psionic Style
Psionic fighters concentrate on anticipating their opponent’s actions and enhancing their own capabilities to attain victory. This style grants the psionic martial artist a new Talent that includes the Enhanced Awareness, Tactical Awareness, Psionically Enhanced Strength, and Body Armour powers.
Equipment
Cestae: Battle gloves made from leather at TL 1 to high-density diamond thread weave at TL 10. Cestae add +2 damage to unarmed strikes and do not count as a carried weapon. They allow for parrying of most bladed weapons, with the TL 10 version capable of parrying a mono blade. Cost: Cr. 10 for TL 1 and Cr. 250 for TL 10.

Adventure Seeds
What follows are a few ideas for a martial arts-themed tournament adventure, as well as some complications which can result. Players can participate in any of these tournaments and reap the rewards that come with victory or feel the crush of defeat.

Tournament
The tournament is an assemblage of martial artists, each striving for the championship, in order to prove the worth of themselves and of their styles. Tournaments can take many forms:

1. A one-on-one single-elimination tournament between members of many species, akin to the Olympics of Earth. Combatant NPCs should be of all races imaginable, perhaps many not yet encountered by the players. Players fight in front of judges who assign points based on hits, with three consecutive hits, throws or successful grapple rounds counting as a point. First to three points wins, but must win by at least two points.
2.  A one-on-one single-elimination match in a zero-g cage. Obstacles, both static and dynamic, are in place, imposing a difficult (-2 DM) penalty on all actions within the cage. Combat continues until one player is incapacitated or quits.
3. A tag-team or one-on-one single-elimination wrestling match held in a square ring. Teammates must tag one another via touch to switch out, and teammates cannot act together in the ring against a lone opponent, although the referee can be distracted against penalising cheaters. The match continues until one player is successfully held prone in a grapple for three consecutive rounds.
4. A rare psionic tournament, where psions are allowed to use their abilities. It can take the form of any of the other tournament formats.
5. A simultaneous team-on-team single-elimination tournament pitting equal teams against each other. The match continues until all contestants on one team submit or are incapacitated
6. A free-for-all among all competitors, with victory going to the last man standing.

Complications
Not every tournament is as it seems. The complications below can spice up a game or surprise players.

1. The tournament organizers approach the players, demanding they throw a specified match. Acceptance of their demands will gain Cr. 10,000. Defiance will earn Enemies among the local organized crime syndicates.
2. Government agents recruit the players to infiltrate the tournament, suspecting the organizer of being a multi-system crime lord. The players must gain access to his inner circle.
3. As above, but the organizer is a master psionic combatant who plans to take telepathic control of the victor’s body for his own use.
4. One of the combatants is a Rival or Enemy of a player, or is acting on that antagonist’s behalf. The fighter will show no mercy to the player, and will not stop fighting if he has won and the player submits. If he loses, the player had better watch their back…
5. A mysterious, masked competitor is actually a prominent noble. The players are charged with protecting him during the match, by taking out the most dangerous opponents first, depending on tournament format. The noble might be itching for a real fight, or he might take vengeance on anyone who defeats him in combat some time after the tournament is over.
6. It is said that a secret master of a player’s style is going to be present. He may pass on secret techniques to those he judges worthy.

** Disclaimer: These rules are as the current draft, and may change (again) before release  **

Supplement 5-6:  The Vehicle Handbook has changed a great deal since it was first commissioned.  As it stands, the design system itself is currently in the latter stages of playtest, and it is about ready to take you on a walkthrough of how the system works.

This book has become what we call a Christmas Tree Project (where everybody wants to hang something off it), a real magnet for ideas.  When the playtesting started in ernest, those ideas came in thick and fast.  ‘I want to create a high TL rickshaw for a frontier world,’ someone would cry, and we would sit back, smug, knowing that was already possible.  Then someone else would say ‘so what about Jabba’s Sail Barge, but one really driven by the wind?’  Ah. Missed that one.

What has become clear is that we could spend a year playtesting this book and constantly adding new ideas as they occur, but that would do no one any good.  Instead, I think you can expect to see a lot of free material and add-ons for this title after release.

Not that it is in anyway incomplete.  From primitive wood and straw carts pulled by muscle-power alone to high tech pilotless drones, grav rail trains and aerodynes, we have a great deal of ground covered.  Oh, and we threw in a complete Battle Dress design system as well, with possibilities ranging from small and light industrial skeletons that just give a small Strength boost to something just shy of a Space Marine dreadnought (which would actually be a Walker in the design system).

Anyway, on with the showcasing of the system!

The Design Process
We wanted the design system to be comprehensive, but also extremely easy and fast to use.  Designed by Colin Dunn (also behind the forthcoming 2300AD), the new system does exactly this.  After a brief introduction, you will turn the page and be presented with a Crash Course in Vehicle Design, which walks you through the necessary steps;

Step 1: Choose a Chassis Type
Step 2: Chassis Modifications
Step 3: Add Armour
Step 4: Weapons and Weapon Mounts
Step 5: Add Modifications
Step 6: Fill in vehicle roster sheet

And that is all you need to do.  Let’s take a real example (remembering that these figures are from a playtest draft and may change upon release!).  Let us say we wanted to create a nice family sports saloon for the late 21st Century. Let’s build Jaguar’s next car!

We’ll assume TL 8 for this vehicle (and TL is a big factor in vehicle design, as it automatically – and seamlessly – alters the materials and power systems used of the vehicle, along with adjusting how various modifications work).

We have to pick a Chassis Type at first.  This will obviously be a Light Ground Vehicle (it travels on the ground, and is not a big lorry or truck).  We already note in the book that a typical ground car has 5 ‘Spaces’.  This is a Jaguar, so we’ll give it 8 Spaces (Jaguar owners will make some sort of joke now about about only 2 of those Spaces being available for luggage and passengers…).

Consulting the Light Ground Vehicle Chassis page, we can immediatly find out that this will cost us Cr. 9,600 (at this stage, this is also called the Base Cost) and will result in a car with Hull 4 and Structure 4. At this stage, the car will have a top speed of 120 km/h and a range of 400 km.  Clearly, the speed will have to be improved, though the range may be generous!

At this stage, we can also make some changes directly to ther chassis – make it a motorcycle (or mono-wheel!), give it additional wheels, off-road capability, tracks, and so forth. However, none of those are really needed here.

Next, add armour. At TL 8, we have a Base Armour of 3, and I don’t see the need to improve it.  We could increase it to maybe 9 to make it an armoured ‘government’ car, but we’ll leave that for now.  Armour 3 is good for us. And we won’t put any weapons on the civilian model either.

Modifications next, and there are lots of these to choose from.  First off, a great big super-charged engine (Jaguar do have an electric car – powered by gas turbines – in the works, but let’s go Old Skool for this one, and make a ‘proper’ XJR). Let’s increase Speed by 80% for a start – this will take it up to 216 km/h, at a cost of 8 Spaces.  We will then decrease the fuel capacity (we could just as easily decrease fuel efficiency instead, but we need to claw back some space), by 30%, leaving us with a range of 280 km/h.  A little generous, if you ask me, but that gives us 3 Spaces back.

4 Spaces will be taken up by passengers and the driver (we won’t go Double Occupancy on this car, leaving that for the minis driven by students instead…) and, currently, 1 Space left for cargo, or about 250 Kg or thereabouts.  Again, if you have seen the boot (trunk) of a Jaguar, that is probably generous!

This is a Jaguar, however, so we’ll add some toys.  Advanced Controls with drive-by wire steering and brakes, along with a heads-up display, will set up back Cr. 10,960, but increase Agility to +1.

We’ll skip past the fission plants, explosive belts, and life support options, however useful they may be getting to Sainsbury’s on a Saturday afternoon.

A Sat Nav would be standard of course, coming in at Cr. 2,000 and let’s give it an integrated comms unit (mobile phone to you and me) at Cr. 500. Let’s give it basic sensors as well (they already have radar these days), at a cost of Cr. 5,000.

Moving through the options, we’ll ignore modifications for Stealth and ejection seats… However, we’ll take a Cr. 4,000 entertainment system and a Cr. 500 fire extinguisher system. We alos make a note to do a stretched limo version of this car later, with a 3 person hot tub in the back (if you have to ask why a three person tub, you are too young to read this…).

So, we are left with;

New Model Jaguar XJ Cr. 32,060
Hull 4, Structure 4
Speed 216, Range 280
Agility +1, Armour 3

Advanced Controls, Basic Navigation, Basic Communications, Basic Sensors, Entertainment System, Fire Extingusher.

Simple as that! Just start off with a base chassis, and you can layer pretty much anything you want on top. Tanks with steam engines? No problem.  Airships powered by aimed beams of energy shot into the sky?  Already in there. There is a huge range of potential in this book, and much, much more begging to be added afterwards as players come up with some really weird and wonderful designs!

Pop along to our forums if you have any suggestions for vehicles, and if you want to be in front of the queue for this book, simply visit its page!

With all the excitement of the new web site, Legend, and all the rest you may be forgiven for thinking we have abandoned Traveller – far from it!  Behind the scenes, the wheels have been turning.

Our ‘core’ Traveller writers, up to this point, have been two chaps well known to Traveller veterans – Don McKinney and Rob Eaglestone.  Don, of course, is the brain behind the recent Alien Module:4 Zhodani.

Thus far, they have been concentrating on material of primary importance to the Marches. Rob is currently working on a book covering Deneb Sector, while Don is crunching through Alien Module 6: Droyne.

However, we have just appointed a new member to the Mongoose team who will be (for now) the official Rim Lord – David Pulver will be the primary writer for all things located around the ‘bottom’ end of the Imperium, starting with Alien Module 5: Solomani.  Expect to see his first work early next year.

In the meantime, we are currently prepping Dynasty for print, a book that will allow players to continue their good work long after their (first) characters die, ruling star-spanning empires (or at least a small colony on some wasted rock, or maybe a floating city harvesting gas, not that we want to give you too many ideas!).  It will follow closely on the heels of Traveller Compendium 2 and the print version of Secrets of the Ancients, the truly epic campaign by Gareth Hanrahan.

We also have two long-suffering books just being polished off.  Supplement 5-6: Vehicle Handbook is just having a few vehicles added and we are currently editing the Campaign Guide, your helpful handbook to (among many other things) running ‘automatic’ campaigns in Traveller – that is, campaigns that require the minimum of work.  Perfect for the lazy referee, like me!

We have also just received the first installment of a brand new epic camapign that we will be posting for free on the web site, The Pirates of Drinax.  Again written by Gareth Hanrahan, this one takes place in the Trojan Reaches with the players as the pirates of the title!  This is shaping up to be a great campaign – we are including a system (inspired by the Campaign Guide) that creates ‘pirating things for players to do’ on the fly, so referees will never be stuck waiting for a new adventure while the campaign is running. Players will take command of a ship and then try to play three empires off one another while flying about independant colonies, wooing colony governors, trying to avoid mutiny from their crew, and all the cool pirate stuff referees don’t normally allow their players to get away with.

Enjoy it, this is going to be a good ‘un…