Rorschach
12-01-2008, 04:07 PM
From the State of the Mongoose
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=557512
Babylon 5
As you read this, the Universe of Babylon 5 is about to be released. Written by Lawrence Whitaker, this is the mighty tome that will allow you to play Babylon 5 using the Traveller rules. This is not a new edition of the game (indeed, only two books are planned for this mini-series), but Babylon 5 is such a good fit for Traveller that we could not resist bringing this out.
Why is it cool? Well, for a start, we have tied Babylon 5’s timeline directly into the character creation system. So, if you are creating an EarthForce officer of a certain age, you will be able to see exactly what he was doing during the Earth-Minbari War. You’ll be able to see what your Minbari warrior did during the civil war. And so on. We have also tied the universe of Babylon 5 tightly into the core Traveller rules so that you can use any core book (those with the black covers) with minimal, if any, conversion. For example, if you need a small freighter to appear just outside the Babylon 5 station, you can use the commercial trader in the Universe of Babylon 5 book – or you could grab Traders & Gunboats, and gain access to a much wider selection. Want to give your Drazi telepath a bit more pep? Flick through Psion and decide what powers he should have.
This, in the end, will be the strength of Traveller, being able to use all the core books with any setting seamlessly, meaning that the moment we (or someone else, with the OGL!) release a new setting for the game, there will already be a massive amount of support for it.
The second book in this mini-line will cover the ships of Babylon 5 and, as we promised when Traveller was first released, every ship featured will come with a deck plan. We expect this book to be very popular! We are also preparing a mega-campaign for B5-Traveller, that we will be releasing free in Signs & Portents as a series – starting in December’s issue, this will give you everything you need to launch your players immediately into the Universe of Babylon 5.
A final note on Babylon 5. We first approached Warner Brothers about doing games for the setting because, although the studio regarded it as pretty much a ‘dead’ property, we had faith enough that there were enough fans among the RPG and miniatures crowds to justify the games we have done, and for nigh on six years we have been pretty much the only Babylon 5 licensee, the only ones carrying the torch (during the course of this, we actually made it into the Top Five of publishers Warner Brothers works with, a bizarre achievement for an RPG company, but it got us into a few premieres, such as 300 – but, again, I digress). During that time, we have produced over 40 books and over 200 miniatures.
However, nothing else has really been happening with Babylon 5. Lost Tales, though it did well enough as a release, failed to spark any real interest in the property. Legend of the Rangers, we believe, might actually have done some damage, and we have recently heard that there will be no more Babylon 5 screen projects unless funding is made available for a major feature film. From our point of view, interest in Babylon 5 has visibly declined in the past two years and, regretfully, we will not be renewing the licence in 2009.
It has been a great ride for six years, but all good things must come to an end. We will be releasing Warships of Babylon 5 in 2009, along with the Trouble with Drazi adventure and Lurker’s Guide to Gaim, but then things will just. . . stop.
and then later
There will also be a new version of A Call to Arms. The space combat game set in the universe of Babylon 5 has too many fans for us to let it fall by the way side. So, expect a new universe, new ships, and a lot of the core mechanics you have been asking for – including a solid points-based system!
It sounds like they'll be basing it around TRAVELLER from here on out. So we'll have our B5 stuff still useable and compatible, but no official support after P&P.
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=1641
If P&P is in February, let's see.... 2 months to paint one of my unused fleets, 1 month to hype a Last Hurrah... So let's say campaign in June?
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=557512
Babylon 5
As you read this, the Universe of Babylon 5 is about to be released. Written by Lawrence Whitaker, this is the mighty tome that will allow you to play Babylon 5 using the Traveller rules. This is not a new edition of the game (indeed, only two books are planned for this mini-series), but Babylon 5 is such a good fit for Traveller that we could not resist bringing this out.
Why is it cool? Well, for a start, we have tied Babylon 5’s timeline directly into the character creation system. So, if you are creating an EarthForce officer of a certain age, you will be able to see exactly what he was doing during the Earth-Minbari War. You’ll be able to see what your Minbari warrior did during the civil war. And so on. We have also tied the universe of Babylon 5 tightly into the core Traveller rules so that you can use any core book (those with the black covers) with minimal, if any, conversion. For example, if you need a small freighter to appear just outside the Babylon 5 station, you can use the commercial trader in the Universe of Babylon 5 book – or you could grab Traders & Gunboats, and gain access to a much wider selection. Want to give your Drazi telepath a bit more pep? Flick through Psion and decide what powers he should have.
This, in the end, will be the strength of Traveller, being able to use all the core books with any setting seamlessly, meaning that the moment we (or someone else, with the OGL!) release a new setting for the game, there will already be a massive amount of support for it.
The second book in this mini-line will cover the ships of Babylon 5 and, as we promised when Traveller was first released, every ship featured will come with a deck plan. We expect this book to be very popular! We are also preparing a mega-campaign for B5-Traveller, that we will be releasing free in Signs & Portents as a series – starting in December’s issue, this will give you everything you need to launch your players immediately into the Universe of Babylon 5.
A final note on Babylon 5. We first approached Warner Brothers about doing games for the setting because, although the studio regarded it as pretty much a ‘dead’ property, we had faith enough that there were enough fans among the RPG and miniatures crowds to justify the games we have done, and for nigh on six years we have been pretty much the only Babylon 5 licensee, the only ones carrying the torch (during the course of this, we actually made it into the Top Five of publishers Warner Brothers works with, a bizarre achievement for an RPG company, but it got us into a few premieres, such as 300 – but, again, I digress). During that time, we have produced over 40 books and over 200 miniatures.
However, nothing else has really been happening with Babylon 5. Lost Tales, though it did well enough as a release, failed to spark any real interest in the property. Legend of the Rangers, we believe, might actually have done some damage, and we have recently heard that there will be no more Babylon 5 screen projects unless funding is made available for a major feature film. From our point of view, interest in Babylon 5 has visibly declined in the past two years and, regretfully, we will not be renewing the licence in 2009.
It has been a great ride for six years, but all good things must come to an end. We will be releasing Warships of Babylon 5 in 2009, along with the Trouble with Drazi adventure and Lurker’s Guide to Gaim, but then things will just. . . stop.
and then later
There will also be a new version of A Call to Arms. The space combat game set in the universe of Babylon 5 has too many fans for us to let it fall by the way side. So, expect a new universe, new ships, and a lot of the core mechanics you have been asking for – including a solid points-based system!
It sounds like they'll be basing it around TRAVELLER from here on out. So we'll have our B5 stuff still useable and compatible, but no official support after P&P.
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=1641
If P&P is in February, let's see.... 2 months to paint one of my unused fleets, 1 month to hype a Last Hurrah... So let's say campaign in June?