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Welcome to You Heard it Here Last where we talk about news you’ve already heard.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/mongoose-acquires-twilight-2000-and-2300-ad.707036/

Mongoose Publishing is at it again. Recently we discussed that Marc Miller had turned over publishing of the Traveller RPG to Mongoose and now they have picked up the rights to Twilight 2000 and 2300 AD. Mongoose has been publishing 2300 AD under licensing since 2007 and currently Free League has the publishing rights for Twilight 2000. Mongoose reports nothing will change and Free League will continue with Twilight 2000 until the current licensing phase ends.

While not necessarily canonical Twilight 2000, 2300 AD, and Traveller all feel like part of the same universe and this seems to open up a huge IP space for Mongoose going forward.

Mike, what are your thoughts?

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, your take?

[Kick to Christina]

Our next item was a minor if interesting article from Rascal News

https://www.rascal.news/oh-captain-my-captain-rpg-simon-and-schuster/

The article starts with “On September 24, Simon & Schuster’s Adams Media released Oh Captain, My Captain! a Descended From The Queen RPG by James D’Amato. This marks the first time in recent memory that an imprint of the Big 5 (the largest entities in book publishing, which include S&S, Penguin Random House, Hatchette Livre, HarperCollins, and Macmillan) has produced a standalone tabletop roleplaying game.”

I guess I have a longer memory, because TSR had a publishing deal, albeit a rather strange one, with Random House in the 1980s and for a long time Dungeons and Dragons was a common sight in traditional bookstores of the day. But, to be fair the low sales of RPGs dropped them from consideration by traditional publishing houses decades ago.

This is what I find interesting. The article discusses the possibilities that TTRPGs might once again become a hot product at the traditional publishing houses and how that’s a good thing, however, the traditional publishing companies are not in a good place write now.

Indie publishing and self-publishing, especially with the creation of Kindle Unlimited have done a number on the traditional publishing companies and they no longer hold the book world in a vice grip. This almost seems like a desperate grab by the Big 5 to gain some market share.

Mike, thoughts?

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In 1977 Marc Miller, bored with the Chess Club at Illinois State University, made his way to the Strategic Games Club…the rest they say is history.

Ok, for those of you that have no idea who Marc Miller is or why the fact that Chess is boring matters I’ll go a little deeper.

Marc Miller, Frank Chadwick, John Harshman, and Loren Wiseman created the roleplaying game Traveller, that’s with 2 L’s by the way, in 1977 born out of games at that Strategic Games Club.

Traveller is the quintessential sci-fi roleplaying game, building on the science fiction novels of the 1960 and 70’s and coming onto the scene just after Dungeons and Dragons and before Star Wars.

My first dive into Traveller started in 1983 with the Classic Traveller Starter Edition. I still have the boxed set buried somewhere in a pile of old games. I remember stumbling across it in my friendly local gaming store and being taken by the cover art. Three heroes wearing golden armor with a space ship flying overhead.

I had just watched the Return of the Jedi a few days earlier in the theatre so I had to get the game, and boy it did not disappoint.

What disappointed me was all my friends. I couldn’t find anyone to play it with me. But that was ok, because the character generation portion of the book was so good it was like a solo game all on its own. I made so many characters…or at least tried to make so many characters, a lot of them didn’t make it. But we will come back to that.

Fast forward a few decades and finally I get to run a Traveller game.

It was a blast and if you want to hear all about it listen to our “Anatomy of a Campaign” series.

Christina, do you remember the first time you ever heard of Traveller?

[kick to Christina]

There are a lot of versions of Traveller out there, many of them still being played, and while we might discuss bits and pieces from the other versions, we are going to focus this discussion mostly on the new caretaker of the Traveller Legacy, Mongoose Publishing and their 2nd Edition Version of Traveller.

Christina, before we dive into Traveller give us the disclaimer.

[Kick to Christina] – We aren’t getting paid for this. They didn’t give us any games or material or support. We actually played the game, a lot.

Now that the official stuff is out of the way, what do you like best about the system?

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Welcome to You Heard it Here Last where we talk about news you’ve already heard.

Let’s start with our favorite toy company and their ability to stay in the news.

https://futurism.com/hasbro-ceo-ai-dungeons-dragons

https://screenrant.com/dnd-ai-controversy-dungeons-and-dragons-fans-hasbro/

At a recent Goldman Sachs Conference, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks admitted that the entertainment conglomerate not only plans to build bespoke AI systems in the future, but that it's already begun using it in development of games including "Dungeons & Dragons" and "Magic: The Gathering."

He claims that currently they are using AI in house. He is quoted as saying;

"It's mostly machine-learning-based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to a ChatGPT approach. We will deploy it significantly and liberally internally as both a knowledge worker aid and as a development aid."

Of course, this has caused the internet to meltdown over the last week or so.

Christina, here we are again, just another day at Hasbro.

[kick to Christina]

[kick to Mike]

This next piece isn’t so much a news article as a question, especially leading into some upcoming podcasts we are recording. Are game reviews you read online real?

Recently I opened up my browser and started looking for news to discuss on this episode and I came across a prominent game review of a game I own. I bought the game because I was a huge fan of the source material, but upon getting it I discovered the absolutely worst game mechanics ever. This thing was a massive, over engineered dud! I wouldn’t let me dog chew on it, it was that bad.

But the reviewer, who admitted they had been given a copy of the game for the review, gave it solid marks, even glowing at points.

So, I ask again. Are online game reviews real? Are they worth anything?

[Kick to Christina and/or Mike]

Finally, I need to report some sad news. At GenCon I had the pleasure of meeting Howard Andrew Jones, a favorite author of mine. I absolutely loved his novel ‘Lord of a Shattered Land’ and could not wait to pick up his new one ‘The City of Marble and Blood’. He spent several minutes talking with me and signed a copy of his book.

A few weeks ago, Howard Andrew Jones announced that he had inoperable and fatal brain cancer.

Our thoughts, prayers, and meditations go out to him and his family.

Do yourself a favor and pick up ‘Lord of a Shattered Land’

Thanks again and join us next time for news you’ve already heard.