Viewer Mail Segment

Continuing in the tradition of our earlier "viewer mail segments", today I would like to take a moment and answer a few questions that commonly come to me in person, online, or in emails.  We're always happy to answer questions and we try to answer them as quickly as we can.

I figure that for every question I get there are several out there who have wondered the same thing and just haven't had the opportunity to ask it themselves.  So, without further delay, let's dive into this episode of "viewer mail".

1> Hey John! Where's the Clement Sector rules using the Mongoose Traveller 2e rules?  Why isn't Gypsy Knights Games involved in TAS?

Well, the truth is that, as things currently stand, there isn't going to be one.  After months of Mongoose telling us that Mongoose 2e would be OGL and that there would be a corresponding Traveller Logo License, they changed that and began Travellers' Aid Society (TAS).  

TAS allows publishers to use any portion of the Mongoose 2e rules and any portion of the Original Traveller Universe (OTU) which has been published by Mongoose for their products.  The publisher's products then become part of a "creative commons" where anyone can use the information in those products in their own products.  The publisher may then keep 50% of the earnings for themselves.

While that might be great for someone who wanted to publish OTU products, it was tantamount to suicide for GKG.  As we do not use any portion of the OTU, the only upside of this program was nullified for us.  So we would simply lose 50% of our earnings AND the IP rights to our own setting.  That was a bad deal for us and we voiced our concerns early in the TAS process.

At the time we voiced those concerns, we were told that none of those would be the case.  We believed that right up until we started to upload Clement Sector to TAS and discovered the legal language which said the above.  At that point, we left the program and will no longer consider doing Mongoose Traveller 2e products.

2> So what's with the "OGL" on your products?

All of our second edition Clement Sector materials use the Mongoose Traveller 1e rules. Those rules are Open Game License. Since we are no longer allowed to call it that nor are we able to use the "Traveller" logo and there is not an accepted term for it other than "the old SRD" or "The Rules Formerly Known As Mongoose Traveller 1e", we are denoting this by saying "OGL".
 

3> If you're not doing Mongoose Second Edition why do some of your products say "second edition" on them?

The simple answer is that the "second edition" on our products refers to the second edition of Clement Sector.  When we figured out that we were going to have to do a complete overhaul of our products to either go OGL or match up to Mongoose 2e, we decided to produce a second edition of Clement Sector.  In this we made a lot of changes to how the Zimm Drive works, added some new material to the Clement Sector main rulebook, and folded some of our older products (Career Track 1: Medic, Career Companion, and Clement Sector Player's Manual) into the main rules.

We then went through our existing catalog and worked up second editions for all of those as well.  In some cases, just performing a few error fixes and, in others, adding a lot of new information, art, and charts.

4> Oh man.  Does this mean I have to buy all of this stuff again?

It does not.  If there is anything we dislike at GKG, it's the idea that a game company would make a few changes to the rules or setting, jack up the price on the PDFs, and then expect you to buy your entire catalog again.  We're just not going to do that to you.  We have more respect for you than that.

If you have purchased (or were gifted) a PDF of any of our books, you should be able to go to Drive-Thru RPG or RPGNow, look in your "Updates" section (under "Account"), and download the new version for free.  Unfortunately, if you only bought print books, I'm afraid that I cannot update your book for you though.  Sadly, no one has invented a method to do that but, if they do, I'll be happy to use it to update print books as well.

5> I notice that a lot of your print books are no longer available.  Why is that?

We have pulled down all of the Clement Sector 1e print products.  As we can do so, we will begin putting out second edition print products.  Currently, only Clement Sector can be purchased in print.  Hopefully, this will change sooner than later.

6> Where can I discuss Clement Sector?

Most of the GKG team (especially me) are very active on social media.  You can find Clement Sector discussions on our "Clement Sector Discussion Group" on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/clementsector/) as well as discussions going at Google + and forums such as COTI, Mongoose's Forum, and the RPGSite.  There is also a Clement Sector forum at RPGGeek (http://rpggeek.com/forums/family/22817/clement-sector) but it doesn't seem to get a lot of traffic.

7> You had talked about a Wendy's Guide to The Fleets, A Superpirate themed 21 Plots book, a Ships of Clement Sector with a cruise ship, some American ships for Ships of Clement Sector, etc. for last year and early this year.  Where are they?

Sadly, we spent most of our time in the third and fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year preparing to revamp all of our products as Mongoose Traveller 2e.  That put us behind on our usual schedule.  However, we are up and running now and all of those things will be coming as soon as we can.

8> I see you go to a lot of conventions.  Would you like to come to our convention?

Yes, I would.  However, due to the fact that I have a very busy schedule, we would ask that you let us know at least eight months in advance so we can plan for it.  We are in the Southeast US and if your convention is out of that region, this may require additional planning.

9> We'd love to have Clement Sector on the TravellerMap.com.  Why isn't it?

I wouldn't mind that a bit.  That assumes that the fine folks at TravellerMap would want us there and have a place to put us which ensures that folks don't think we are part of the OTU.  In addition, I assume that this might be a somewhat time consuming project and, as it stands, time is at a premium as we try to update everything to OGL.  So time might also be an issue.

In short, I like the idea but I have no immediate plans to do it.

10> Hey!  I'm a writer/artist/designer and I'd love to do something for GKG.  What do I need to do?

Honestly, right now, we're fully booked on projects for the near future.  If you'd like for us to consider you for future products, shoot us a line through our website or on one of those social media outlets we mentioned in the earlier question.  When we do have an opening for something, we'll contact you.

Thanks everyone!  Hope you've enjoyed this viewer mail segment!