Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition Resource: Starship VTT Tokens!

 

Here's a LINK to a zip folder of 229 Traveller 2e starship tokens. This zip is current as of Feb 9th 2021.

The only ship not accounted for thus far is the LSP Modular Cutter. The art chosen for it broke the style too severely, and looked identical to a normal modular cutter. I also did not make tokens for partial ship components, like starbase structures or ship modules, since they can't function in isolation from their base system.

Understanding Battletech

Disclaimer: 

This article is written to be up-to-date, as of January of 2020. Its information may eventually become out of date. In particular, there are currently rumors that older books will be made available in print-on-demand format, which will make previously expensive collectors items much more available to future gamers. New eras and expansions are likely to be published in the coming decade. The books may undergo another formal restructuring, as the current corebook setup is nearly a decade old at this point. The entry point box sets will also likely be replaced by new products in the future. Some of the linked resources may become dead links as the online presence of the brand continues to decay. Etc. Etc. 

This was written while I was in the process of getting into the hobby. It is, essentially, my notes to myself to try and sort it all out in a way that makes sense to me, shared in the hopes that it may assist others. It may contain some errors. I'm fine with that. 

I'd also like to mention that nobody pays me to write these things, not even advertisers, which I think should be clear considering how I speak pretty negatively of products even in my positive articles, but it should probably be said.

How Lovely

You probably know the franchise as "Mech Warrior" from the extremely popular and extremely niche video game series derived from the Battletech franchise. However, the video games are not the heart of the brand, even if they wound up being its face. 

So let's imagine that, like many nerdy kids who grew up in the 90s, you've occasionally seen glimpses of the giant stompy death machines of Battletech, and now you want to poke your head into this corner of the hobby. To you, I say Welcome! And good luck! See, Battletech as a franchise has gone through a number of mutations as the IP has passed hands over the decades, and now it is extremely difficult for people entering the hobby to decipher what products are current, what products are collectors items, and what products are just obsolete junk. It's also hard to tell what products are supposed to be compatible with each other. Cease your mourning however, for I have guidance! I, a hardcore game nerd have navigated the paper jungle of Battletech, and have compiled this guide for you to use! So, proceed and be enlightened! And once you have a lance of your own, shoot me a message and we can roll dice!

Star Trek Adventures Probability Analysis

This has to be the prettiest output I've ever seen.

Well. I've done it. It took a solid 12 hours of hard work. I had to learn things about probability and excel I never knew before. I have seriously grown as a human being. I present to you a PDF document that can tell you exactly, given the number of dice being rolled, the target number, and the DC your are rolling against, what your chances of success are. In decimal format. Ignoring crits.

With this document, a savvy GM can plot the challenge of the tasks presented to the players and intentionally drain metacurrency resources, or demand threat feed, as they see fit.

Here's The Document

Star Trek Adventures Ship Stat Analysis

Free PDF!

Well, I got down to doing some technical investigation of how starships are designed for STA. I broke them down by category, era, and scale, and found the average for each group's systems and departments.

But why? What use is this?

Homebrew. This information is used as a guideline to create new content that is in-line with that provided by the game. Using this as a basis, I could make a Curry-Type, a Saladin Class, a Chimera Class,
or one of those origami nightmares from the FASA game. For example...

Departments always get 3 points, with the following exceptions:

1. Pre-TNG scale 1 shuttles get 2 points.
2. Scale 2 Shuttles get 4.

Anyways, yeah, give it a look!

A Reply.

Go read this. Then come back.

1. All beings deserve equal liberty. That has not happened and it is a tragedy. We must make the vision of true philosophical equality a reality.
2. You do. I have spread your message.
3. No. I will speak out against it, I shall fight against it, I shall point it out, deride it, and attack it. But I shall never silence a fellow human, now matter what they have to say.
4. A dude thought he could get away with kneeling on a fellow human's neck for almost 9 minutes while people filmed him. He believed that because for a long time, that's the way it was. Not any more. It must change. It is changing. If you don't understand that, you are an idiot.
5. People are only truly accountable to themselves. I do not put any other person above myself for any reason. I do not put myself above any other people for any reason. I expect the same from everyone else.
6. In many ways, much of what is being done is not my place to be involved. My philosophy is too individualist to fully support every part of the movement without being a hypocrite. I do what is appropriate, but no more than that. I am anarchic, not communist, and this movement incorporates many communistic beliefs that I, frankly, oppose.