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Ian - 2/17/07
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Here's a three-month update on what is happening with MARINER.
First, my attempts to secure a license to use the actual rules and text from Traveller Book 1 have been met with silence. As of today, I'm trying again to submit my inquiry, and my fingers are crossed. Fortune favors the persistent.
Second, in the absence of a license, I've decided to forge ahead with a backup option. I've been working on an adaptation of a freely-available game system that I hope will provide a faithful emulation of the original game, yet with rules that will differ significantly. I realise what the trade-off will be: Some people will be sorely disappointed that it can't be more like Traveller, but on the other hand it will actually be available to play. Also, in many ways, I've become more excited about the new rules that I'm using than with the original Traveller rules, so that keeps me going. I have Book 1 in the final stages of adaptation and beginning layout, and I'll be needing playtesters soon to see how it shakes out in use.
In the meantime, Books 2 and 3 are coming along in small bits and pieces. These are the support volumes that will have little, if anything to do with the Traveller property, and so can progress unhindered once I get going on them.
Finally, Supplement 1, The South China Sea is practically writing itself. I imagine it may be ready for playtest by summer's end.
Ian - 5/17/07
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Fortune Favors the Persistent
I received some good, if tentative news today. At some point in the foreseeable future, the Traveller mechanics may be available for the MARINER project. I'm not holding my breath yet, but I'm very excited by the implications.
Ian - 7/5/07
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A little joke for the in-crowd.
Long Time Comin'
Right. So, almost a year and half on since the last update, and what's happened? Well, first, after much pestering, Marc Miller, the original creator of Traveller, sent a cryptic reply to my e-mails promising that the Traveller system would be available for license. Well, as luck would have it, Mongoose Publishing obtained the game license, and promised to release their spin on the system as an open game license.
Yay! I could use Traveller for free! Well, I could use their version of Traveller for free. I followed their open playtest with great interest for many months, and, finally, in the Spring of 2008, Mongoose released their iteration of Traveller. It was...okay. But it really wasn't what I'd been waiting for. I also didn't like the conditions of their license agreement. Yes, I could use the game for free, but with certain key restrictions that had me worrying.
So, I fell back on a plan that I'd been working with early on. The "backup option" I mentioned all the way back in February of '07 was a variant on the One Roll Engine as seen in NEMESIS. The more I looked at it, the more I liked it. I also pulled in a few tweaks from another ORE game, Reign, mostly in the form of a "One Roll" character creation that loosely simulates classic Traveller's random lifepath character generation. It's pretty slick, and allows for a good bit of player/Referee intervention to avoid the dreaded pre-game character death. I'm polishing up the document for final distribution.
I'm also hard at work on Book 2 small craft tactical movement and combat, which looks like it's going to take the form of 1/600th scale hex-pushing.
So, I'm hoping the next year will see at least Book 1 and Book 2 up on the web and available for download. Book 1 is guaranteed to be free per agreement with the ORE creators.
Cheers, Ian - 12/11/08
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