with Matthew Sprange of Mongoose Publishing
By Aaron T. Huss
The following interview originally took place at Gen Con 2012 and is being transcribed here for publication. Roleplayers Chronicle editor-in-chief Aaron T. Huss, shown below with the prefix RPC, is speaking with Matthew Sprange of Mongoose Publishing, shown below with the prefix MS.
RPC: I have a big question. What is the future state of Traveller as far as Mongoose Publishing goes?
MS: We started Traveller about five years ago, it was a ten-year license, and that was confirmed a few weeks ago with [Marc] Miller. We are also talking about what happens after that ten years. Nothing’s set in stone yet, but there’s an indication that we want to carry on with [the license].
RPC: You will be able to continue developing your Third Imperium and Traveller books?
MS: Absolutely! We’re on a bit of a drive at the moment to cover various sectors.
RPC: I’ve been noticing a lot of the sector books that have been coming out.
MS: I don’t know whether we’ll cover everything ’cause there’s a lot of them. We’re currently carrying on with those at the moment. Also we’ve got more Alien Modules…
RPC: What does that release schedule look like for the next year or so?
MS: We should be getting, any time now, the full manuscript for the next Alien Module, the Droyne. We’ve got a solo Traveller book coming out.
RPC: Solo Traveller book?
MS: Basically a set of rules where you create your own character or create your own party and go off and be a bounty hunter or a trader. Basically uses all the mini-systems already in Traveller to act as your Games Master.
RPC: Do you have any other settings that you’re planning?
MS: Indeed. You’ll see at the end of the year the first Traveller book for Prime Directive, basically Star Fleet / Star Trek using the Traveller rules. With that we’re kind of bringing Traveller right back to where we wanted it from the very start. Being able to sit on the bridge of a star ship.
RPC: How much is that going to be developed? Is it just going to be a setting guide like Hammer’s Slammers or is it going to be a full series of books?
MS: It will be a full series of books. We are working on Klingons at the moment.
RPC: Is that going to incorporate into the miniatures game [Noble Armada]?
MS: When we made Traveller we intentionally made it so that you didn’t require miniatures. You can use them if you want to, it’s not compulsory. If you wanted a few of those on the table, the game can certainly handle it.
RPC: What is the state of Paranoia?
MS: A bit of an open question at the moment. We’ve never really made it secret that the core rulebooks do really really well for Paranoia, but the supplements never really have. We’re talking to Eric Goldberg at the moment, one of the owners of Paranoia, for exactly what we should do about that. Once we figure something out, we’ll let the world know.
RPC: Are you going to keep printing the core books?
MS: Oh yeah.
RPC: What about Legend?
MS: Legend, carries on. The core book’s done very very well for us. We’ve made the entire core range of [Legend], things like Pirates of Legend, Vikings of Legend, each with “Legend” in the title of the book, we’ve made that all open content. People can use them in their own settings and actually go forward and publish them. There’s no restrictions, no SRD to work from, just pick up the book and use it straight from the content. We’ve got a new Age of Treason book, the Companion, out for that setting. We’ve just put out Historia Rodentia new setting, which is kind of 19th century history, but everyone’s an animal.
RPC: Do you have more settings planned?
MS: We do indeed… can’t mention them at the moment. Legend’s gonna be another system we carry-on with a very long-term view to.
RPC: Are you going to bring back any of the older settings from RuneQuest years?
MS: Such as?
RPC: Slaine…
MS: We have talked about that. If we can find a little bit of time, then we will bring Slaine to Legend.
RPC: Are you keeping with the Judge Dredd RPG for Traveller?
MS: Indeed. We’ve got the new Judge Dredd film coming out next month. We’ve got some new Judge Dredd miniatures coming out to support the film. There are a number of supplements in the works for Judge Dredd, but they’re reliant of freelancer writers so it may take a little while.
That’s it for this interview. I’d like to thank Matthew Sprange for taking some time to speak about what’s coming from Mongoose Publishing and giving us a little look at development for Traveller and Legend.
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