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One of the authors here. We are honored by your review. Commenting as I listen. We had been considering alternative names such as "Starship Operator's Handbook", but ultimately went with "Manual". Left-handed salute was artists' decision. I didn't even notice it until you pointed it out, and it still doesn't strike me as necessarily off. The image at the beginning of the Hull chapter was supposed to be elements of life support. The "buttons" are Droyne coyns. Our submitted draft included more art, including some more diagrams, but there was only so much art budget, so we had to lean into the textual descriptions. I agree, had the book used all of the art instructions we submitted, it would have been better - but it would likely have cost more. That balance was Mongoose's call. We weren't responsible for the layout, but sometimes new sections do start mid-page, such as you noted with the food preparation section. That's just how things flow. I'm not faulting Mongoose for that. An illustration of the various cargo containers was one of the art pieces that got cut. Blame me, if you want, for the lack of detailed control panels, but here is the logic I followed. There are so many control panels that fully detailing one as representative might have misled. Besides, many of them are reconfigurable. If we provided one, some people would have fixated on that exact layout as the only (or primary) example, including claiming that anything we omitted was unavailable. That would have been counterproductive to our goals with this book. Virus or no, Cymbeline chips were out there and may have been slightly controversial even in 1105. They seemed worth commenting on in their own right. (Of course, anyone who wants to take that and run a prelude to Virus is welcome to do so. But there was value beyond just Virus setup in mentioning them in the Computer chapter.) Art depicting how the sensors operate was also cut, such as the art instructions I wrote for diagrams to illustrate how beamforming works. If you see any typos, please email Mongoose to let them know, and don't delay. Even having taken years (literally) to review this, we knew we'd miss some things in the final product. Publishing in PDF some months before the printed version is designed to allow correction of errata. Our original drafts had narrators, similar to the Old Timer, who did more of the showing how to live aboard ship. Mongoose specifically and repeatedly told us to cut that out. Sorry, yeah, black globes aren't that common so we couldn't justify a long section on them. Most in-universe people who read this book will never personally encounter one. That they got mentioned at all was mainly for their in-universe fame. That picture in Maintenance is a much more generic version of what was requested. Among other changes, there was supposed to be a team of people doing the repair, each with their own function, to hint how crew other than just the engineers might get involved in a repair scene. I take personal responsibility for the decision to put Ship Walkthrough in its own chapter at the end, but I feel it was the right thing to do. I considered having each station as part of the appropriate chapter (perhaps ending each chapter with a related station), but that seemed potentially more confusing - and more importantly, chapters such as Crew Roles did not cleanly map to individual stations. Having it in the middle, as DGP's SOM did, meant I had to skim past it when trying to read the other content, which I found annoying. Yes, there is a certain similarity between jump drives and WOPR. Form follows function in both cases, even if WOPR was not intended to support FTL travel. This is intended both for referees and for those players who like to dream up details the referees add to the game: the quasi-sub-GM types. While written from the perspective of the Third Imperium in 1105, it is also intended to give flavor usable in other settings. For instance, file off the serial numbers and tweak how jump drives work, and you could use much of this book in Starfinder.
By the look of it, it has much more stuff and art than its DGP predecessor (which is 68 pages compared to 170) - but the art looks a bit meh in places (although, tbf, I never like Mongoose art). I agree the Hayes Manual type cutaway art should have been throughout the book. Also seems to miss the 'old timer' sidebar commentary that really made the DGP book immersive. Overall it looks very good as a splash book to give the ref material to make ship life more immersive. I will buy it. Thanks for the review.
I agree with your assessment. I am glad I have the book, but was hoping for something 'different'. One of my prized possessions as a kid was The Space Shuttle Operators Manual. It had fold-out panels showing every switch, dial, and knob. There were even checklists so you could follow along and "flip" switches, etc. Lots of illustrations too. Guess I was hoping for something more along those lines. As for the Virus...I just pretend it never happened. If Mongoose wants to produce a Virus product line I will probably opt out.
Ship's internal pressure should match or exceed the external pressure. So... reduce the O2 and N2 content and add an inert gas like helium. Then you can go deeper.
I'd been eagerly awaiting this review. I'm glad you've enjoyed the book! And don't worry about the name; I have yet to meet a single anglophone who can get it right on the first try... 😆
I appreciate you going over the contents. I'll hold off on buying this one for a while. The stateroom equivalents and astrogator busywork really intrigues me, but not enough for Mongoose book prices since I focus more on ground games. Bounty Hunter was a buy on sight for me.
Glad to see this review and as an owner of this I was left a little bit empty. I've currently only sped read it and it has lots of great content but I'm not sure about the initial layout and style. I would have done 3 books, one for each ship type, more like a car manual with bigger pics designed for player viewing like the DGP manual and a fold out plan of each ship (for minis?). Also some of the drawings don't make 'scientific' sense. Are the iris valves for midgets? I know people poo poo AI art but manipulated versions (or inspired by) would have produced more convincing interior visuals IMHO. On the control panels if you look at mil. systems and current space ship design you just need a touch screen and it can pull up any data/user panel you need, its all software driven, but I guess that's 2300ad and not Traveller ;p.
excellent review. Love the book, very useful especially for a new player like me, but could have loved it a lot more. Many of the same reason you had here. How would you compare this book to the DGP book as far as content. If you have this one, is it worth finding and paying for a copy of the original Operator's Manual. Is it just the same type of general info with just a different style of presentation or did you get some of the things you felt were lacking in this one?
The DGP book had the advantage of being first so it has nostalgia on its side. That being said, I liked this book a lot but would have liked it more if there were things I could have shown my players. An Operator's Manual should have examples.
Sadly the lack of pictures and depth is more a sign of weak sales than design choices made for other than budget reasons. Still pumping cash into MgT2 to support them and 2nd Dynasty. We will see what happens now that Mark has stepped back into retirement.
You missed details such as "most ships have what amount to low-grade automated internal turrets (fire suppression systems)", and the alternative freight mission that's a hook to tempt any cargo-carrying small (travellers') ship into going to an oddball world they would have no other reason to visit? Those seem quite useful, in different styles of game.
@@AdrianTymes no. This is covered in other books. Like Tony said in the video I would of preferred something like console break downs and other diagrams with an actual mission or two and something interesting not covered anywhere else. Even additive modular printers for ship repair and meal.prep.
