Who Didn't Play It And Doesn't Like It?

[by_the_sword]

Classic Traveller- played it back in the day and we all loved it. I was usually the GM and I found the system to be quick and easy to work with. Rolling up hundreds of characters in my spare time was fun too. It kind of made 1001 characters obsolete. What I didn't like about CT was the inflexibility of the setting. It was as though the whole universe had been planned out and you had to do a lot of homework to alter the setting.

Mega Traveller: I really loved the setting but I found the vehicle and starship construction rules to be a headache. I did not care that the 2d6 system was still in use and I opted for a mixture of MT couples with R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk system. The Shattered Imperium will always remain my favorite setting for traveller because a GM could basically do anything they wanted with it.

GURPS...I tried it and I love the idea of GURPS but it's the whole xd6 mechanic that I did not like. With 2d6 you get an inordinate number of 6's and 7's and with 3d6 you get 9's and 10's. I like a nice even spread of probability where the dice give even graduations. If they would just use a damned d20 the system would be great.

Traveller The new Era zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz *snort, snort* Oh hey look, a new version of Traveller... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (I did not like the system or the setting and I thought that VIRUS was ridiculous.

T4 (Traveller: The Prequel): Prequels didn't work for Star Wars or Star Trek and they didn't work for Traveller either. I never had any interest in buying it.

T20: I love the system but I think they really knocked themselves out a little too much by trying to convert a d6 system into a D20 mold. After 20 years they could have re-vamped the Jump Drive to make it more logical (instead of 1d6 parsecs why not have it a number divisible by 10?). They really could have redone the Character history and background a little better as well by re-inventing the whole thing instead of trying to copy CT with d20 rolls. And how about a 3-D starmap? We have the Technology! We can rebuild the universe. Which reminds me, I really need to pick up a copy of 2320.

Mongoose Traveller- With it's $40.00 price tag, I'll just break out my CT and MT books and run a game with those.
Mongoose Traveller:

 

[kafka47]

All versions of Traveller have something that makes its way into my games. I tend to always play rules lite preferring a narrative approach. Currently, my rule set includes most of Mongoose simply because that is what people can actually buy in the stores up here.

However, I never fully understood d20/T20 nor GURPS, so they offered very little other than flavourings for the OTU. Also, any set of rules that tells me that I have to buy a 3rd Party publisher just to play the game already has flaws IMHO.

If I were to choose least favorite ruleset, it would be TNE and only came to appreciate the setting later. I find the best thing that would approximate my Traveller Universe would be a Mongoose Hard Times milieu. I like MegaTraveller alot but so much of the rules are unusable it renders it moot.

The people other than me who don't like Traveller is not due to its alleged complexity but those never really could wrap their heads around Science Fiction rather Space Fantasy or Interplanetary Romances which is what they came to expect from SF. Also, there is a whole breed of younger gamers who have never watched Science Fiction/Action films of the 1970s/1980s who lose large parts of the Traveller dialogue let alone the books of the 40s & 50s that the game is based upon.

 

[Ishmael]

CT- had it, liked it but with every new supplement there were more DM's scattered about and I didn't like weapons chart. It was good ( better than anything else at the time ), but not great. Houserules = 'make_things_up_on_the_spot_during_the_game'

MT- Put all the best parts of all the older supplements in one place. Task system ends trying to remember tons of dm's. Weapon system is just good. Easy mass combat rules. More complex to set up, but easier to play. Best version of Trav....period.

TNE- never bought it...why should I? I already had a version I loved. FF&S1 was good, but couldn't decide if it wanted to use equations or tables which made it fiddley. World Tamer had good ideas, but too much trouble.

T4- Why bother? I already had a version I loved. Why spend money to get another version of something I already had. Pocket Empires is great for diplomacy meta-rules and at least it tried to provide a non-static background through meta-gaming a polity.
Imperial Squadrons...eh. Briefly toyed with kbv2.0 variant of the task system, but I hate the possibility of throwing a fistful of dice.

GT- Got gurps 1st edition hoping it'd be TFT. Discarded it as too much 'chrome' hung on a decent sword-sorcery system. Never bothered with Trav using it.

MongTrav. eh... It looks like a 'new' version of the LBB which I dropped a long long time ago. The rules look okay I suppose, but I don't want to buy the same game all over again just to have a different ruleset....besides I love MT ( with heavy houserules )

d20 bleh

2300AD thats how mtu looks, mostly, but I didn't like the rules

 

[Darkhstarr]

CT: Still the easiest, but never liked the computers-home ruled modified it. Always felt ships were underpowered.

MT: Never hated the system, might have liked it with a GM who really understood it. Main problem-death of Strephon, civil war, semi-collapse. What is it about that time frame that brough out all these post-holocaust/collapse games?

TNE: Never liked the system when I encountered in Space 1889. In fact, eventually ran Space 1889 with the CT rules. Disliked the background even more than MT, but I incorporated Virus & few odds & ends into my campaign.

T4: Never cared for system, liked the setting, & it had some nice stuff to incorporate into my game including new careers & skills.

GT: Never a fan of the GURPS system. Have to agree with an earlier post, it is a rich mine to extract goodies.

 

[Maladominus]

Just to keep things complete, here's the dumping ground for all our Traveller RPG prejudices.

I didn't play Munchkin Traveller (by Steve Jackson Games). And I never liked it. In fact, it probably doesn't even exist. Yet.

 

[beowulf2044]

Munchkin Traveller doesn't exist? So, those stories of games where players flit around on Grav Belts while wearing Battle Dress and toting FGMP-15's while being 'retired military' don't count? SJ Games probably thought there was no need to make Munchkin Traveller.

 

[robject]

Munchkin Traveller doesn't exist? So, those stories of games where players flit around on Grav Belts while wearing Battle Dress and toting FGMP-15's while being 'retired military' don't count? SJ Games probably thought there was no need to make Munchkin Traveller.

I've sometimes thought about a "Spaceman Spiff" setting...

 

[far-trader]

I've sometimes thought about a "Spaceman Spiff" setting...

There's a blast from the past

(Spaceman Spiff Traveller!)

(drat, the link there to your Spiffy stuff is broke)

 

[robject]

There's a blast from the past

(Spaceman Spiff Traveller!)

(drat, the link there to your Spiffy stuff is broke)

Link fixed.

And new thread (I should have resurrected the old one, but ah well):

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=19623