Power Projection Demo (6th Jan 2007, Maryland, USA)
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A summary of the event:
On 6 January 2007 Mystic Station Designs, LLC will be hosting a Traveller Power Projection Event at Brunswick Games Day in Brunswick
Maryland. For directions to Brunswick Games Day see their site at: http://www.fantasymaps.com/gaming/brunswick.html
The event will begin at 2.00p.m. with an overview of the rules for Escort and depending on the attendance will conclude with the event entitled: Long Shot. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
There will be a second Power Projection event hosted by MSD in January 2007. I will let everyone know asap.
Kory
Managing Member
Mystic Station Designs, LLC
Photos of Dragonmeet
Wishing you all a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year from all here at BITS!
Dom (BITS Webmaster)
The Far Future has suddenly got Cheaper! [UPDATED]
Comstar Games have just launched their own online store, and are running a 40% price reduction promotion for a limited time. Now, Comstar publish Avenger Enterprise's Traveller 1248 range, and this is included in the promo. The PDF versions of the first two releases are around $9 each (less than a fiver) at the moment. If you're not sure about 1248 as a setting, it's a good time to check it out. And if you've already got the paper version, you can get colour maps and the opportunity for better quality printouts than the print books contain by getting a copy. We don't know when this promo ends, but thought we'd mention it in case you haven't seen it already.
There is also a new supplement for Traveller 1248 with Small Merchant Ships in.
Updated 27 December 2006: The initial 40% off sale has ended now, but there is still a 25% discount on PDFs and 15% on print material in an 'End of Year Sale'.
Traveller Calendar launched in aid of Children's Charities
Jesse DeGraff, Andrew Boulton, and Wayne Peters have teamed together and released a 2007 Calendar for Traveller, which can be purchased from Lulu. $2.50 from every sale goes to Children's Charities, according to the website info, although it isn't specific which charities. If anyone has more info, feel free to let us know.
Traveller Universe & GnomeTrader
In the mean time, Traveller: Universe is still available and costs £15 plus postage. Please use the contact form on this site to let us know you are after a copy and I will forward your enquiry to Peter himself, who will arrange for payment and shipping.
Apologies for any Inconvenience.
Dom (BITS Webmaster)
Scenario Playtest (16th Dec 2006, Edinburgh) CANCELLED
"You've been loyal, hard working, god fearing farming folk all your years. But something just ain't right. Maybe it's this war, all that violence. Your dreams haven't been good these past few weeks, nope, something just ain't right"
"Masks", as previewed at Dragonmeet, sets the players in the middle of the Fifth Frontier War as the Zhodani (psionic humans) prepare to invade your planet. But the dreams have been bad, very bad... (6 slots free, 4 hr adventure)
Richard Talbot will be playtesting this new scenario at ORC Edinburgh at 13.00 hrs on 16th December 2006. 6 players required. If you fancy coming along drop Richard an email.
Power Projection Demo (16th Dec 2006, Virginia, USA) UPDATED TIME
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A summary of the event:
On 16 December 2006 Mystic Station Designs, LLC will be hosting a Traveller Power Projection at Game Parlor Woodbridge, Virginia. For directions to Game Parlor Woodbridge please see their site at: http://www.gameparlor.com/
The event will begin at 5.00p.m. with an overview of the rules for Escort and depending on the attendance will conclude with the event entitled: Standoff. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Kory
Managing Member
Mystic Station Designs, LLC
TML now live, back with Traveller Central
...is the link you want if you would like to resubscribe to the TML which has risen from the ashes of the QLI server failure, thanks to Rob and Todd.
Some members have automatically been re-subscribed, but not necessarily all as the full list wasn't available.
Welcome home TML, we're glad to see it was only a short temporal mis-jump.
Dom (BITS webmaster)
Dragonmeet 2006 (2nd December 2006, London)
* Come and see if we've managed to complete the layout of the new book in time!
* Come and tell us what you think of the Interstellar Wars and 1248 books!
* Come and chew over the likelihood of T5 being released in 2007!
* Come and buy stuff off the BITS stand!
You could even....
* Come and play Traveller!
Full details at http://www.dragonmeet.com/
Dom (BITS webmaster)
TML down due to Server Failure [Updated]
Dear TML,
I sent this notice out just after the server hosting the TML crashed but only had 80-some subscriber addresses then (the actual TML subscriber list has been offline until Hunter can restore the last backup). I've been trying to recreate the TML subscriber list and have over 350 unique addresses who've posted to the TML between 2004 and 2006. I'm sending this out to them too. I apologize if you received this notice before, and for multiple copies if you have multiple addresses subscribed. If you don't want an address on the TML (if we have to recreate it from this list), please let me know.
No update on the status of the server in the last week. We're waiting for Hunter to get the mailing list software up and running again.
Rob Davenport
TML listmom2
---forwarded message (11/16/06)---
As you probably know or have guessed, the machine hosting the Traveller Mailing List - travellerrpg.com (quiklinks.com) - suffered a hardware failure of some kind yesterday [11/14/06].
All data after 10/22/06 was lost also. So all TML posts and archives after 10/22/06 are gone from that machine. (I know I have archives on my machine of those posts, and others probably do also, so we should be able to rebuild the missing data once the machine is back up and running.)
Hunter Gordon, the owner of the machine, and the TML's benefactor, is hard at work getting things back up. His priority is the Citizens of the Imperium website (the main site, the catalog, order system, Moot and other forums), and then he said the TML is his next priority.
He didn't expect to get to the TML until early next week though.
I apologize for not having a complete TML roster to send this notice to everyone on the list. I'm sending it to the people who've posted in the last month. If you see any names missing from my to: list, please pass this on to them, or direct them to me here. (And sorry if you get two of these messages.)
If you're on the CotI website, Hunter has been posting some progress there, if you want to check up on things. But I wouldn't expect anything until next week.
Rob Davenport
TML listmom 2
-------
Tod Glenn posted the following:
The TML will go up on travellercentral.com if I don't hear
from Hunter by Dec 8. I can have the list running in nothing
flat, But I need to check with my ISP and see if he's going to
charge me for high bandwidth usage.
Tod
FarFuture.net Website is Temporarily Down [Updated]
[UPDATE 25 November 2006] - The site is now back up.
Scenario Playtest (16th December 2006, Edinburgh)
Masks sets the players in the middle of the Fifth Frontier War as the Zhodani (psionic humans) prepare to invade your planet. But the dreams have been bad, very bad... (6 slots free, 4 hr adventure)
Richard Talbot will be playtesting this new scenario at ORC Edinburgh at 13.00 hrs on 16th December 2006. 6 players required. If you fancy coming along drop Richard an email.
Slight Delay for Classic Traveller CD ROM
Power Projection Demo (Virginia USA)
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A summary of the event:
On 11th November 2006 Mystic Station Designs, LLC will be hosting a Traveller Power Projection game at Game Parlor, Woodbridge, Virginia. For directions to Game Parlor, Woodbridge please see their site at: http://www.gameparlor.com/ The event will begin at 5.00pm with an overview of the rules for Escort and depending on the attendance will conclude with the event entitled: Blockade Runner. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Kory
Managing Member
Mystic Station Designs, LLC
The New Era Continues: Traveller 1248 released in Print
In the UK they are retailing for around £17 each, and should be generally available. You can also get them as PDFs from DriveThruRPG for $15 each.
The first book gives an overview and history of the whole of Charted Space 46 years after the Traveller: The New Era setting, space that is very different, but in some ways feels more like the Imperium of old. There is also a small campaign setting in the book. The second book gives details on the four sectors of space that are occupied by the Fourth Imperium, plus details on the various institutions (especially the military) which may be found there.
BITS Members: we are hoping to have a review of this in the next newsletter in the near future. If anyone has a copy and wants to review it, please contact us.
Traveller demo in Edinburgh 4th Nov
Furnace & Game Parlor this weekend
If you're in the USA, Mystic Station are running a Power Projection demo at Game Parlor Woodbridge, Virginia. Details can be found in the blog entry on 7th October 2006.
Dom,
BITS Webmaster
Classic Traveller CD ROM and Special Offers
The CD ROM retails at $35 plus $5.50 shipping to anywhere in the world. One of the big benefits is that the files are searchable either in Acrobat, or with a system wide search tool such as Spotlight in Mac OS X Tiger, which means you can find obscure references quickly.
Dom (BITS Webmaster)
The details of the announcement:
We (that is Far Future Enterprises) are pleased to announce the Classic Traveller CD ROM. Searchable PDFs of Classic Traveller.
Order now for shipping before Christmas (no surcharge for air letter post outside the US).
Details at http://www.farfuture.net/cdrom
plus three bonuses for direct download:
http://www.farfuture.net/cdrom/MTGuide.pdf
http://www.farfuture.net/cdrom/Tv1Guide.pdf
http://www.farfuture.net/cdrom/Tv2Guide.pdf
and finally, respond to this email (just reply is fine) and we’ll email you our PDF of Classic Traveller’s Fifth Frontier War (3,382 kb).
This was sent to you from
Far Future Enterprises
1418 N Clinton Blvd
Bloomington IL 61701 USA
farfuture @ farfuture . net
Autumn Newsletter now available
We're happy to announce to BITS members that the latest issue of the BITS newsletter, the Autumn issue, is now available for download through the secure Member's section of the site. All members were emailed a username and password yesterday. If you're a member, and haven't seen this email (from the YahooGroup), please let us know via the contact form and we'll try and sort things out.
Dom (BITS Webmaster)
Power Projection Demo (Virginia USA)
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A summary of the event:
On 29 October 2006 Mystic Station Designs, LLC will be hosting a Traveller Power Projection at Game Parlor Woodbridge, Virginia. For directions to Game Parlor Woodbridge please see their site at:
http://www.gameparlor.com/
The event will begin at 11:00 a.m. with an overview of the rules for Escort and depending on the attendance will conclude with the event entitled: Engagement at Start's End.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Kory
Managing Member
Mystic Station Designs, LLC
Review of 101 Starcrews
If you know of any other reviews of BITS products (beyond those on Freelance Traveller), let us know through an email or the comments on this blog.
Far Future Enterprises releasing Classic Traveller, JTAS and Twilight 2000 CD-ROMs
Currently, he has released MegaTraveller and 2300AD. Shipping is fast (my copies of both took less than a week to get to the UK) and there is no extra charge of international orders. The PDFs the same quality as those on DriveThruRPG, but you get all of the books for a fraction of the cost. Details can be found here.
Dom (BITS Webmaster)
____
Here is the FFE press release accompanying the announcement:
We are please to announce our latest CD ROM projects from Far Future Enterprises:
Ships October 1-
Twilight: 2000 V2.2. the canon for Twilight: 2000-- the original texts of all Twilight: 2000 version 2.2 military role-playing materials published by GDW Game Designers’ Workshop between 1990 and 1996. Each image and text PDF contains original page images and searchable text. All files are printable in whole or in part.
v2.2 Rule Book
v2.0 Boxed Set
Infantry Weapons
US Vehicle Guide
Soviet Vehicle Guide v2
Merc:2000
Bangkok
NATO Vehicle Guide v2
Merc Gazeteer
Nautical and Aviation Handbook
Twilight Nightmares
Heavy Weapons Handbook
Special Operations
Castle by the Sea
Referee's Screen
Operation Crouching Dragon
Eastern Europe Sourcebook
Rendezvous in Krakow
Plus: The Official Guide to Twilight: 2000 - an overview of the game system and its components.
Plus: Challenge Magazine articles on Twilight from Issues 45 to 77 (all the applicable T2k articles for v2.2)
Ships November 1-
Classic Traveller. the canon for Classic Traveller-- the original texts of all of the Little Black Books in the ground-breaking and award-winning science-fiction role-playing game. Each image and text PDF contains original page images and searchable text. All files are printable in whole or in part.
The Traveller Book.
The Traveller Adventure.
Books 0 through 8.
Supplements 1 through 13.
Adventures 0 through 13.
Double Adventures 1 through 6.
Games 0 through 6.
Modules 1 through 5.
Aliens 1 through 8.
Special Supplements 1 through 3.
Plus: The Official Guide to Traveller - an overview of the Classic Traveller game system and its components, and the History of the Imperium - an overview of the background for Classic Traveller.
Ships December 1-
Journal of the Traveller’s Aid Society. all 24 issues of The Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society. Game Designers’ Workshop GDW’s award-winning quarterly magazine dedicated to the Traveller science-fiction role-playing game system. Each image and text PDF contains original page images and searchable text.
All files are printable in whole or in part.
CD ROMS are $35 each. International: There is no extra charge for shipping air letter post internationally.
Changes to the website
This has meant that I had to upgrade the 'theme' which provides the common formatting for the pages, which went smoothly as far as I can see. However, I haven't tested each and every bit of format and function, so I'd like to ask you to let me know here (via the comments to this news entry) if anything doesn't work as expected.
The 'BITS Members' section has been removed as I have completed the initial testing. It will return, and members will be contacted with details on how to access it. Our plan is to make the newsletter available through it rather than requiring YahooGroups membership.
Dom (BITS Webmaster)
Sneak Peek....
It was modelled by Nick Bradbeer, and shows the ship before any textures or details are added.
Testing, Testing...
Dom (BITS Webmaster)
Reviews of BITS products
I'd like to be able to get some impartial reviews linked from the pages that describe our products here on the site. If you know of any reviews, please feel free to send me the URLs using the contact page. If you're feeling incredibly generous, and own the BITS products yourself, please consider reviewing them for one of the sites on the web like RPG.net and Freelance Traveller and let us know the links. We can't offer anything but thanks - and a link to your review - for this, but you will be helping to raise the awareness of BITS and Traveller!
Thanks!
Dom
PS I know that most of the books are reviewed on JTAS, but this is a subscription website, so not available to people generally!
Holidays at BITS Central
The current security problems for air travel are also proving problematic - there were plans to take a laptop to continue with the new books and updates to current books, but this is changing to hand-written edits. If you've seen hold baggage being handled, you'll understand why the thought of putting the laptop in the hold isn't attractive.
Dom (Webmaster)
Continuum - this weekend
Two Steps forward, One Back...
However, as ever, we get those little challenges. Neil has been slaving away, painting the miniatures for me to photograph for Power Projection: Reinforcements, and everything was going brilliantly for a handover this weekend at Continuum. And then the varnish incident happened. Unfortunately, this has turned all the minis white, putting us back a couple of weeks. So, we have 'the wrong kind of varnish on the minis', much like the famous British Rail quote, 'the wrong kind of leaves on the tracks'. Fortunately, we have ways to recover the overall programme, but sadly not Neil's time. The minis are now being stripped off and restarted...
The newsletter is also being proofed at the moment, so expect to see that soon if you are a BITS member.
Dom
Imperium 3k Firesale by Avalanche Press
Several years ago, Avalanche Press Ltd re-released the game Imperium in a new edition called Imperium Third Millennium. Imperium was originally published by the Conflict Games Company (which became part of GDW) and presents the period and battles described in the recent GURPS Traveller supplement Interstellar Wars when Terra was fighting for survival against the Vilani First Imperium.
The main rules remained unchanged, but some of the conflict rules were 'updated'. The graphic look of the game was also modernised.
However, Avalanche have announced that the remaining Imperium Third Millennium stock will be destroyed after 4th July 2006 to create space for new games. They are clearing the remaining stock at $7.50 a box (75% off). With the strong pound/dollar exchange rate, this may well make a good saving, even with the $25 shipping to Europe.
BITS eBay Webshop Re-stocked.
Our eBay webshop, AncientTomesUK, is now restocked with 101 Corporations and Power Projection: Escort after they have now been reprinted. If you are a BITS member, don't forget to contact Richard via the eBay messaging system to give him your details. He will verify these and then apply your discount when he invoices.
Dom (BITS Webmaster)
Salute 2006 Report
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BITS was represented at Salute! 2006, although with Dom suddenly taken ill, only Andy and I were there. I arrived later than I meant to and had to take off early, so Andy had to do all the hard work of setting up and taking down, as well as relieving Keith on the trade stand, while I just ran some demo games.
Salute being a wargames convention, we were only running Power Projection, rather than our usual RPG sessions. We stuck to the tried and tested format of running small quick games and trying to persuade anybody who stood still near the table to grab a ship and have a go. A lack of wine gums prevented us from
running the Mooney Asteroid Belt (AKA 'Battle of the Maynard Belt') introductory scenario, but luckily it turns out that free sweets aren’t the only reason people play the game.
For the most part, we stuck to the lightweight ships from Power Projection:Escort, most of the games being straight-up small ship engagements between familiar Imperial and Zhodani forces. There was a sneak preview of some of the material from the upcoming Power Projection:Reinforcements book, with some Sword Worlds ships making an appearance, as well as the Convoy Raid scenario and a couple of optional rules.
For such a small BITS presence we had quite a lot of interest, with demo games running almost constantly and often two at once. Two or three people asked me if this was the same Traveller they’d played twenty years ago, and we had a couple of very enthusiastic kids at the end who played three demos back to back and were getting pretty mean at the whole starship command thing by the time I had to head off.
I just wish we had miniatures as cool as the Cloudships of Mars ones.
Nick
Brave New World
Dom
Sadly, we can't be at Cannoncade.
I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing Richard a swift recovery back to full fighting fitness.
Dom (BITS Webmaster)
We're at Cannoncade 2006 on Saturday 13th May.
"BITS are happy to announce we will be attending the inaugural show of Cannonade 2006 run by our friends at Falkirk District Wargames Club on 13th May 2006 in Falkirk at Forth Valley College Main Hall from 10.00am onwards.
We will be running demos of our Full Thrust based Starship Combat Game: Power Projection throughout the day using figures from the acclaimed Ground Zero Games range. Come along and play in a Power Projection starship battle with that real "Traveller" feel."
Huge spinal weapons, missiles, fusion guns and sandcasters abound! Can you stop the fleeing enemy cruiser from making it to safety in 4 rounds...?
BITS Member's Newsletter due soon!
2 Days until Salute 2006
We will have our trade stand there (stand T406) and will be running games of Power Projection (stand G402) throughout the day, with a prize for the most successful starship commander.
Hope to see you there - also, keep watching the site here for future events (or let us know if there's an event in your area that you would like us to attend).
Andy, Dom & Nick (the BITS team who'll be there!)
12 Days to Go!
Salute is only 12 days away now, and we're getting ready for some games of Power Projection, and meeting up with the Traveller Wargaming fans. Sadly, Power Projection: Reinforcements isn't ready, but please come and say 'hello' and enjoy a game with us! Details of this London based convention can be found by clicking on the links.
Two entries in Warehouse 23 Top 10
We've also added a handy page that lists the places you can get BITS books from. You'll notice that a couple of our books are out of stock at our eBay store. We've not discontinued them - rather, they are being reprinted and we haven't had them back from the print shop yet. However, some of the other stores still have them.
Welcome to the New Look!
Just to reassure all our avid followers out there, the "little white books" of Traveller are still in production, with 101 Starcrews being our latest Traveller supplement. However, as each of us on the team grows that little bit older, our time for Traveller becomes necessarily constrained by personal commitments to our partners, children, jobs, etc. Of course, should any of us ever win the lottery, we'd be able to give up our jobs and do this full time. Alternatively, if any of you out there have a few million pounds to spare, please get in touch.
Once again, welcome to our site - I hope you find it useful (please send us your comments). We hope to keep it regularly updated with information on our latest work, including new products and our planned attendance at conventions.
Andy (Chief BITS Disorganiser)
US availability of BITS products
UPDATE - Warehouse 23 is now restocked.