Another two RPG bundle offers - Mongoose Traveller 2E

Two offers - both I think new - for the 2nd edition of Mongoose's version of the venerable Traveller RPG - one is the game itself, the other campaign material:

Mongoose Traveller 2E

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/MongTrav2E

"This is the first of two all-new offers in progress featuring the Second Edition Traveller SFRPG line from Mongoose Publishing. This Mongoose Traveller 2E Bundle has the 2020 core rulebook and essential 2E supplements. If you're new to Mongoose Traveller, start here. The companion offer, Traveller Pirates of Drinax, adds adds Gareth Hanrahan's epic sandbox spacefaring campaign across the Trojan Reach sector.

This Traveller offer gives you everything you need to play any science fiction RPG campaign, from desperate battles across the stars against evil empires, through free traders operating on both sides of the law, to mercenary companies desperate to find their next ticket. Traveller lets you explore the universe the way it suits you.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase of these two Traveller offers (after gateway fees) goes to their pandemic-related charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief gets protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.

The total retail value of the titles in this Mongoose Traveller 2E offer is US$214. Customers who pay just US$17.95 get all three titles in this offer's Player Collection (retail value $100) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the complete Mongoose Traveller 2E Starter Set (retail price $40), comprising the MgT2 core rulebook and The Fall of Tinath campaign; the versatile Traveller Companion rules expansion (retail $30); and the Central Supply Catalogue 2E (retail $30).

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $27.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Referee Collection with ten more Second Edition titles worth an additional $114, including the essential shipbuilding supplement High Guard 2E (retail $30) and its Deployment Shuttle add-on (retail $6); the Vehicle Handbook 2E (retail $30); six concise Referee's Briefings on useful topics (retail $6 apiece, total $36); and the MgT2 Referee's Screen (retail $12).

Pirates of Drinax

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Drinax

!This is the second of two offers in progress featuring the Second Edition Traveller SFRPG line from Mongoose Publishing. The first offer, Mongoose Traveller 2E, has the core Second Edition rulebook and essential supplements like the Companion, High Guard 2E, and and the Central Supply Catalogue. If you're new to the game, start there. This companion offer, Traveller Pirates of Drinax, adds the massive ten-part spacefaring campaign across the Trojan Reach sector by Gareth Hanrahan (Eyes of the Stone Thief, The Dracula Dossier, The Darkening of Mirkwood) -- one of the highlights of Traveller's 40+-year history.

Spinward of the Imperial capital, the Trojan Reach is a border sector of 460 stars with a total population of about 600 billion in nine sophont groups. A gaggle of small independent states, with just a few worlds each, separate the Third Imperium from the Aslan Hierate. The Tlaiowaha Subsector, now dominated by the Aslan, was once ruled by the Kingdom of Drinax, named for its throneworld (Trojan Reach 2223). A recent disastrous war with the Hierate shattered the Kingdom and left Drinax blasted and lifeless.

In The Pirates of Drinax King Oleb XVI entrusts the Travellers with a letter of marque, permitting them to prey on 'illegal' trade within his vanished kingdom. The King hopes this privateering will give him leverage to restore Drinax to glory and win back all the planets lost over the last two centuries. But the King's plans are just the starting point for The Pirates of Drinax campaign. Once the Travellers have their letter of marque and ship, their path is up to them. Will they stay loyal to their patron and help restore Drinax? Will they turn rogue and create their own kingdom? Will they be heroes or monsters, pirates or privateers? At all points the choice is up to the Travellers. The Trojan Reach is their sandbox.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase of both these Traveller offers (after gateway fees) goes to these two offers' pandemic-related charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief gets protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.

The total retail value of the titles in this Traveller Pirates of Drinax offer is US$167. Customers who pay just US$12.95 get all four titles in this offer's Starter Collection (retail value $77) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the complete three-volume, 595-page The Pirates of Drinax campaign (retail price $50) and the first three Reach Adventures set in the Trojan Reach (retail $9 apiece, total $27): Marooned on Marduk, Theories of Everything, and The Calixcuel Incident.

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $24.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with five more supplements and modules worth an additional $90, including the helpful Drinaxian Companion (retail $30), the recent Shadows of Sindal (retail $27), and three more Reach Adventures: Last Flight of the Amuar (retail $12), The Borderland Run (retail $12), and Exodus (retail $9).

This feels like a return to the roots of Traveller; without a lot of the grimdark elements that predominated in later editions, and with rules that are much closer to the versions that the game began with. There are a lot of new careers and options, but it ought to be possible to get up and running fast if you're familiar with the original game. This isn't to say that it's perfect - I found the explanation of character generation a little confusing, even though I actually know pretty much how it works. There's a flow chart that helps considerably but more of a simplified "these are the things you need to do in this order" explanation might help. Presentation is very good, and avoids some of the pitfalls by minimizing illustrations where they aren't really needed - for example, there is only one illustration of a player character, a spotty nerd just entering college, in the first fifty pages, and sexual balance seems fairly even in later pictures, with zero gratuitous nakedness, at least for pictures of humans.

The campaign returns to the classic roots too, the Trojan Reach has been in the game since 1980 and looks open-ended enough to satisfy the sort of player who listens to all of the options presented by the GM then does something entirely different. I won't say much about it because spoilers, the description above should give a reasonable idea.

Definitely recommended, but as usual I'm not paying for this stuff, if you do you may have other ideas!