MJD was kind enough to answer a few questions I mailed him.

1) When did you start playing Traveller?

1984. I got into gaming in '83. Met up with a group of guys who were playing on a Saturday. One of them had Traveller. I liked it, the others didn't. The group broke up and Trav-guy (Steven Field his name is; I still see him sometimes) departed. I got sick of the antics of the others and went too. Stuck for a game, I called Steve and met up with his new group of gamers. About half of them have drifted in and out of my life ever since... not always positively. Anyway, these guys played more games; Traveller was among them. I think it was my second RPG. The first was Basic D&D. I've only played D&D twice since 1985 or so but Traveller appealed more.

2) What did make you stick with Traveller after all these years and numberous editions?

The phrase 'buggered if I know' leaps to mind. We had some good games back in the day, I know that much. (As an aside, a lot of people rave about how great Classic Traveller [CT] is, but most of them are actually remembering the game experiences they had playing it rather than its intrinsic wonderfulness. Hairsplitting, maybe, but I've met games I disliked only to play again years later with a different group and find that the game was never bad... just the game experience. And vice versa too).

So, I had some good experiences playing Traveller. I stopped buying games about 1986 or so; I'd just write something I wanted to play. So I missed most of Megatraveller except retrospectively. TNE sold me the game all over again. To the point where I became an avid fan and bought everything that came out. So. I think it was TNE that really established that Traveller was a game I'd want to be involved with. Other, later, versions built on my liking for the game but it was TNE that really established that. Before TNE, to meTraveller was a just one of the games I played; one I liked more than most of the others but nothing really awesome. Not that I've ever really been a huge fanboy; I play games sometimes and Traveller is one of the ones I like best.

3) You have managed to achieve something that most Traveller fans aspire to, write canon material for Traveller. What made you go for such uncertain venture? Specially after T4.

Good question. Err... I'd been talking to Marc (Miller) for a good while. Can't remember how that came about, but I became a sort of TNE-question guru. Marc just forwarded questions on to me. When QLI wanted a Traveller writer Marc recommended me. Can't remember how I got involved with GURPS Traveller. Maybe I saw they were looking for writers, maybe Loren approached me. I really can't remember.

It's not all been good. I liked T4, still like T4, but Imperium Games still owe me money. Something went wrong with SJG and I got messed about over the Navy Book. And QLI. I'm in dispute with them now as well. They owe me money and aren't answering mails when I try to find out what's happening. Makes you wonder why I bother.

Mongoose... Mongoose approached me to write Traveller for them. I'd freelanced for them for a while, on and off. Mongoose are great. Really, really awesome. Well, I think so because they don't mess me about and they actually pay me for my work. They're good fun to work with too. And did I mention they pay me on time? That matters, what with writing being my job and all.

4) Tell us about Avenger and how it came about.

Around 2003-4 things started to go downhill for QLI. It reached the point where there wasn't the money to pay me for work I was doing so Hunter Gordon suggested doing my own line of Traveller stuff, publishing through his license. He'd take a cut and pay the license fee. It worked well until Hunter disappeared in the winter of 2005-6. After about 6 months I took Avenger out solo. QLI kept selling my Avenger stuff during that period and I've never seen any of the proceeds. So we had to rebuild Avenger with a product line that had had its best sales elsewhere and not made any money for me.

Once we got clear of that, the partnership with Comstar worked out well. That's carried over into the new setup with Mongoose and it's been good for us.

5) Now that the license for publishing Traveller under your own logo expires, what is your feeling about that.

Mixed feelings. Obviously, it's frustrating to have to rebuild from the ground up AGAIN. On the other hand, we are still publishing under our own logo, it's just that we now sell through Mongoose rather than direct. That brings us greater market exposure and better sales. Long-term it might be a very good thing indeed.

6) And looking back over the last few years, how does it feel to be one of the major factors that has kept Traveller alive?

Truthfully, I don't feel anything at all about that. Various mixed emotions when I think about it but overall it all balances out into... nothing really. It was just something that happened. I bet even astronauts think 'pah, another day at work' sometimes!

I'm a bit surprised to realise how little I feel on the subject. Let's examine this....

My involvement with Traveller has been difficult and at times painful. I've had a couple of unpleasant incidents later that nullified any feeling of triumph I might have had. In one case somebody mailed Marc Miller and claimed I was about to make unauthorised canon changes in the Marches book. About 3 seconds' thought would have sufficed to realise that I wouldn't breach my professioanal ethics like that, so I assume it was malicious (two people have made serious death threats to me as a result of my Traveller writings, so nothing new there.) Before that I got a lot of flak for pointing out that maybe some of the credit being given to Hunter Gordon and QLI for the T20 line was rightly mine.

That's something that irritates me. I'm not claiming to be some sort of Traveller God but it is annoying to be, as you say, one of the major factors that kept the game alive and to see people saying 'Gee (other person), that's a fine book you did'. And to get it in the neck for pointing out that in fact I wrote 90% of the book. I didn't claim all the credit, or anyone else's credit... I just pointed out that I was involved. That wasn't a good experience.

On the other hand, I was able to slightly help Mongoose get their license and to make their Traveller line a success. I's making money for me which is good. I do this for a living y'see. And you know what? seeing Mongoose Traveller, for the first time in a long while I looked over a game book and thought 'yup, I want to play this game'. I had a small part in that. Tiny, truth be told. But I was there. I'm not in the credits though! I (very slightly) helped get the license, I wasn't part of the rules writing process. That's a win.

It was *my* version of the post-TNE OTU that got published and became canon, which much choke that guy who demanded my head on a plate for what I did to his very own game universe. Guess I win that one too.

I sometimes get as many as two pieces of fan mail in the same year. That's cool in an odd sort of way.

But on balance... I wrote some stuff for Traveller and helped keep the game alive. So did a bunch of other people. It's not a big deal to me.

Tell you what is good though. We played One Crowded Hour (which I wrote) at Gencon 2007 and I nearly died laughing. We also played a TNE game where Shane McLean had to jump out of the window (ground floor fortunately) to spit out his drink because he was laughing so hard. I poisoned Greame Mulliss with Glen Livet so he couldn't speak to referee. You know what? I just realised that I *do* feel something. Because if I hadn't done the Traveller thing then I wouldn't have those memories.

So no, I'm not proud of the achievement of helping keep the game alive or anything like that; it's not a big deal. But I'm glad I did it, because I've had some good experiences with the game as a result.

Oh look, I came full circle. Time to stop.

Links:

http://www.avengerenterprises.co.uk/

http://www.comstar-games.com/