MGT Only: Need some buying advice...

[Spinward Scout]

I'm wanting to buy some Mongoose titles, but I don't know what book next.

I have 35 items on my wish list on the Mongoose website.

Some I'm looking at are the 'Central Supply Catalog Update' and the 'Field Catalog'. Has anyone gotten these? Are they specific to any Careers? What's the difference?

Is there a big difference between 'Specialist Forces' and 'Mercenaries of Charted Space'? They sound very similar to me. But I could be wrong.

Will 'Behind the Claw' give me descriptions and activities for all of the worlds of Regina subsector? Aramis subsector? Rhylanor subsector?

I'm also thinking about the 'Robot Handbook'. I don't want to create any 'Bots, but I want it for the sample Robots.

The same with 'High Guard Update'. I just want the sample ships. Are all of those ships in the 'Adventure Class Ships' book and/or the 'Small Craft Catalog' book?

And does anyone know which books will get an Update?

 

[spank]

Which ones do you have?
Which ones are you looking at?

 

[TamsinP]

Central Supply Catalogue - definitely worth getting, it has a much expanded list of equipment compared to the Core Rulebook
Field Catalogue* - lots of weapons and equipment and a weapons builder
Mercenaries of Charted Space* - some background stuff, descriptions of a number of infantry, armoured and mixed merc units
Specialist Forces* - outlines of specialist merc units - special forces, recce, engineers, etc
Behind the Claw - covers Deneb and Spinward Marches sectors. Each sector gets some historical, political and economic fluff, then each subsector gets a chapter with a write-up of a few worlds. Some new ships, vehicles, beasts and sophonts.
Robot Handbook - I'm told that it's good
High Guard - worth getting; all the classic ships and small craft from LBB2 and Supps 7&9 are in there, plus a couple more.
Adventure Class Ships - all new designs for vessels from 100-2500 dTons (NB - some designs are a bit iffy)
Small Craft Catalogue - again, all new designs;

*all the books in the Mercenary series have "issues". Most people I know recommend not buying them. However, if you see them as a deal on Bundle of Holding/Humble Bundle then it could be worth it.

 

[Dragoner]

I have the core of 2 updated cores, the central supply catalog, high guard, companion, vehicles, and robots, (all updated's) plus the ref screen (which was for 2016 and I sold it on reddit). To me, and some friends, that is the core of the system, I usually if I can run games face to face, though my face to face group is stuck on kosmic/solis so that is ok, still interesting to explore, and who knows might be a player. I mean I did sign up for a game on roll20 except it fell through I guess. Hope that helps.

 

[TamsinP]

My opinion
Core - Core Rulebook, High Guard, Central Supply Catalogue
Very useful to have - Companion, Vehicle Handbook, Robot Handbook, sector books/boxes
Handy to have - Adventure Class Ships, Small Craft Catalogue,

 

[spank]

I tend to shy away from equipment books, as I mostly view them as fluff.
But alot of the adventures reference equiptment from the Central Supply Catalog.
They reference it, but do not provide stats for it, so the CSC is required for these.

My opinion
Core - Core Rulebook, High Guard, Central Supply Catalogue
Very useful to have - Companion, Vehicle Handbook, Robot Handbook, sector books/boxes
Handy to have - Adventure Class Ships, Small Craft Catalogue,

 

[kilemall]

I tend to shy away from equipment books, as I mostly view them as fluff.
But alot of the adventures reference equiptment from the Central Supply Catalog.
They reference it, but do not provide stats for it, so the CSC is required for these.

I look at those completely differently, I am highly likely to collect ones from even dissimilar systems for the ideas.

2300 biotech, suits and grunge tech, Privateer high medical/drug and battery tech, Jovian Chronicles colonies, GURPS and Space Opera computers, they can up your duct tape grognard rulescrafting game.

Not to mention achieve those not in Kansas anymore moments every ref should crave.

 

[Daidoji Dave]

Some I'm looking at are the 'Central Supply Catalog Update' and the 'Field Catalog'. Has anyone gotten these? Are they specific to any Careers? What's the difference?

I have Field Catalogue and the first release of Central Supply Catalog, but not the Update. They're both equipment books, with a lot of guns plus some armor and other gear. So there's considerable overlap conceptually, but they're written "around" each other somewhat, with many individual pieces of gear only in one or the other. Neither book has any new careers, career event charts or similar. Field Catalogue is written more as if it's addressed to a mercenary or military campaign, but that's more about fluff and writing tone, it would be handy to any combat heavy campaign.

CSC looks like more the base book that FC was written around, with more options around medical equipment, survival gear, and personal implants that don't reappear in FC. It's also got just 10 robots to get you started, but doesn't show the building rules that must be in the Robot Handbook (which I don't yet have). Field Catalogue is the more "advanced" and fiddly one, it leads off with some optional tactical rules, then presents a weapon building system to build or customize your own guns, then lists some specific guns, and a few other pieces of gear like sensors. CSC lacks the customization rules and is more just a list of gear and guns, but has more entries overall.

For a standard campaign, if I was only getting one I would prefer CSC for the longer list of non-gun gear. Otherwise, get CSC if you just want to look up stats and want the longer list, Field Catalogue for a military/tactical skirmish campaign or if you know you'll use a gun customization ruleset, or both if you're a completist. Condottiere's Ship's Locker mega-thread on the Mongoose forum seems to be using the Field Catalogue builder, so you could look at that and decide if it seems like something you're into or not.

If the core book has enough gear choices for you then treat both as optional, but if I were starting a new campaign I would prefer whatever I was going to end up using to be on hand from the beginning.

I tend to shy away from equipment books, as I mostly view them as fluff.

I like having them on hand as GM resources, more than as player-facing, everything in print is in play resources. I had a bad time with the latter paradigm in a Mongoose 1e campaign, as the 1e CSC had some obvious break points and sweetheart options. 2e isn't as obviously broken, although I still prefer to keep tech levels capped below 15 and stay away from the custom ammo options.

 

[TamsinP]

I would note that the Central Supply Catalogue 2023 Update does not contain the robots, presumably because the Robot Handbook was released in between the original and the update.