Mongoose Publishing Interview Part II - Christopher Griffen
By Wazza
On a cold and windy day in the town of Swindon in Wiltshire, England I walked past a plethora of takeaways before turning into an alleyway that contained a hidden treasure troveI, I had arrived at the headquarters of Mongoose Publishing, the prodigious talent behind Traveller, 2300AD, Paranoia, Shield Maidens, and the upcoming Pioneer. Read on to find out what marvels I found within!
Q1: What’s your job at Mongoose Publishing?
A1: I’m the head writer for Traveller and I will be heavily involved in the development of 2300AD.
Q2: Do you remember your very first RPG session, and did you catch the gaming bug straight away?
A2: I was 12 years old growing up in northern California when I was first introduced to D&D. I already had a heavy interest in narratives, especially science-fiction, and also in fantasy having read the Lord of the Rings, and I thought wouldn’t it be cool if there was a science-fiction version of this? As a genre, space opera and science-fiction have always had a strong appeal for me. Space Opera has grander story lines and doesn’t need to be hard science-fiction.
Q3: What’s your favourite aspect of roleplaying, and what category of game do you best associate with?
A3: Social interaction is the best part where you are ideally in the same room as the other players. There’s a big difference between around the table and remote gaming such as the intimate camaraderie you share in person where you can have a pizza and a beer. 20 years ago it would be considered science-fiction but we’ve surpassed that, just think what you can accomplish on your smart phone. It’s more sophisticated than the communicators Kirk and Spock used in Star Trek!
Q4: What roleplaying game content do you enjoy reading?
A4: I like to see what's going on in the RPG world and currently on the market such as the new Daggerheart TTRPG which feels like an attempt to improve D&D with gorgeous production values. Also the Shadow Dark TTRPG, a super-paired down D&D game which is easy-to-play. If a game appeals to a market it should exist. I’ve even heard of the Wrestlemania TTRPG where wrestlers of the world have to fight off a vampire lord! You can be very specific or more generalized in your game concepts, and if you can sell it you should make it.
Q5: Who do you admire the most in the roleplaying game community?
A5: Marc Miller. I've met him several times and he’s a brilliant guy, great to talk to and always has new ideas.
Q6: What’s your favourite die?
A6: I really like the d12 which feels good in my hand.
Q7: Is fantasy dead and it's now the era of Science Fiction?
A7: I’d be concerned if the opposite was the case. To me, writing science-fiction is a large investment, especially if you want to do any modicum of hard science-fiction. Traveller was spawned from the golden age of sci-fi and then the space age, the moon landing and the development of the space shuttle which gave us a positive feeling enabling us to imagine a future in which we can discover faster-than-light travel. We have to be given the freedom to be creative to come up with solutions. We can strive to be a multi-planet species in order to survive.
Q8: How does Traveller blend realism with playability?
A8: Traveller handles this by imagining a tech level scale from 0 up to 15, where humanity is currently at TL7, with more advanced technologies such as Jump Drive becoming available at higher TLs. This allows the game to feel real without the need for complex physics.
Q9: How do you feel about A.I. content?
Q9: I worked for a storage company which leveraged A.I. and enabled it to exist although it’s not conscious like Terminator’s Skynet and more about pattern recognition by compiling information from the internet. Ultimately A.I. takes away from creators and then from other A.I.s and that's where slop comes in. I don’t think having an A.I. GM or players will work in the long term as around 90% of human communication is non-verbal and you’re not going to get that out of an A.I. playing in your game! I would feel cheated although whether it’s inevitable is another story. I’m also completely against A.I. generated art. It’s not art as it’s not created by a human, more a conglomeration from other artists.
Q10: Why would you promote Traveller?
A10: If you love science-fiction Traveller lets you participate in an ongoing narrative. The Traveller universe is as big as you want it to be from group survival on a single planet to getting on a space ship and travelling to another star. The game is designed so you can pick up and go, and when you actually play the game it gets right down to the principle of interpersonal communication and recreating the stories at your tabletop which you’ve read or watched.
Q11: Are you involved in Dark Conspiracy?
A11: I’ve been a playtester and will be writing the very first campaign.
Our approach will be much more player driven, with the referee an adjudicator of situations, with the players guiding the investigations of the conspiracy. As a player, the more you play the greater your empathy will be for your referee’s plight!
Q12: What games are you running at the moment?
A12: I’ve just finished running the Pirates of Drinax which is Mongoose Publishings most successful Travellers campaign. I also ran an adventure called Islands in the Rift to introduce new players to Traveller which is a nice little mini-campaign in only 30-pages. Half of all Traveller players create their own universe as it has the tools to create any science-fiction environment imaginable.
Q13: What can you tell us about Pioneer?
A13: The game is set 10-30 years in the future and totally solar-system orientated, and although it is its own universe separate from both Traveller and 2300AD there’s nothing stopping you combining it with those games as the systems are similar. We’re focusing initially on low, medium and geosynchronous orbit, so the Moon and Mars although it will eventually go as far in as Mercury and as far out as Pluto.
There’s no combat system as the conflict is the hostile environment of space. You play pioneers who can be a billionaire financing the whole operation as well fully-trained astronauts. It's about human interaction and imagining the democratization of space where there are not just trained astronauts being sent up there but a lot of different kinds of people with perhaps a modicum of training in space survival. We’re avoiding a predication of political undercurrents, no utopia, no dystopia, just technology and a collection of governmental agencies and corporations working together or apart. Space law currently says the Moon is a commons and this allows the game to imagine different nations going there with different interests to claim the same or different resources and the associated competition for those resources. Your missions can include travelling to Mars and back or even setting up a permanent base there.
You can’t go to Jupiter as its gravity and radiation are too intense but you could travel to its moons. As an example you could 100% do the mining operation on Jupiter's moon Io from the movie Outland but you have to imagine a technology which is superior to what we have today and we actually use a system based on NASA’s Technology readiness level which we simplify for you. It deals more on the minutia of space travel but does so in a way which adds to the narrative in an entertaining fashion. The game lets you create an interesting narrative to simulate complex orbital mechanics or technical problems without needing a physics degree!
There’s no fusion power, which is always ten years off, rather we have ion propulsion and fission. We only get to Jump Drive in the year 2289 when humanity travels to Barnard’s star and encounters the Vilani, so it’s a long way off. The game's goal is believable but interesting to play in. The Military will also have a presence. We’re writing a Mars campaign called Aries Ascendant approximately 160-200 pages which enables you to plan and execute a mission to Mars. We provide the tools by which you can start a colony but the campaign is more about getting there and back, with ordinary chemical rockets and given the best window of opportunity, the travel time to Mars will be 9 months, you could even have a romance onboard! And with a 22-minute time lag with Earth communication will be tricky. However with nuclear propulsion it could be as little as 45 days. Most campaigns will start at low Earth orbit with the core rulebook including a 20-page introductory adventure called Rescue at Low Earth Orbit. Space is dangerous and we want to convey that in Pioneer, if you are foolish and don’t take the proper procedure and care you will die. The Pioneer Core rulebook is due summer 2026.
Thank you for your time.