Deviations From CT

[fiat_knox]

Mongoose Traveller is here, and AFAIC it rocks the business.

However, from what I've seen so far, while FFE has granted Mongoose the license to publish the OTU, there are already ... differences.

What differences have you spotted in the Mongoose OTU, that nobody would have imagined in the CT OTU?

 

[Jame]

There's now the option for cybernetics.

As an aside, if you aim to misbehave ... what happens if you miss?

 

[Kilgs]

What differences have you spotted in the Mongoose OTU, that nobody would have imagined in the CT OTU?

I think "nobody could have imagined" is a tall order. I'm willing to bet someone came up with these ideas before in their own games. But I think the wisdom or creativity to add them is worth a shout-out.

With only CT as my reference (no MT/GURPS etc), I can say the following:

-Connections and rewards for it (although I understand this was an MT thing, new for me)

-Ship Shares (also an MT thing I hear, but new to me. This makes the game so much more fun when you can just buy a ship out the gate without handwavery. Gets the players involved from step one.)

-Expanded Mustering (while they can make life hell, I really like the expanded options that have been presented in Mercenary and High Guard. Retainers, cybernetics, funding, free ticket advances etc.)

-Events (not sure if this was ever done before. I'm a sucker for Lifepaths and previous history. I think this was almost a no-brainer after the career expansions in the later CT books that added more detail. But it gives the players some starting points to fleshing things out)

-Small Craft (I know the grogs hate the different rules for building small craft. I love them. The starship rules were designed with 100 tons as the smallest capable model. Small craft needed love.)

Other than that, I'm not seeing a lot of changes from canon really. It feels like I mentioned it before... a little glossed up, the rough edges shaved off, a little simpler and smoother. The things I listed above really don't count as changes... they're just improvements on the old engine or, in some cases, taking a good idea from a previous edition and implementing it.

One bad change... the OGL. No one can write an adventure set anywhere but Foreven without permission?

 

[spinwardpirate]

Small things I can think of off the top of my head... solar sails, solar panels, robotic arms, boarding tubes, torpedoes, subdermal armor...

 

[rancke]

With only CT as my reference (no MT/GURPS etc), I can say the following:

-Connections and rewards for it (although I understand this was an MT thing, new for me)

New to Traveller, I think, but seen elsewhere.

-Ship Shares (also an MT thing I hear, but new to me. This makes the game so much more fun when you can just buy a ship out the gate without handwavery. Gets the players involved from step one.)

I think they're from TNE. Personally, I think a ship is a plot device. If the ref wants to run a campaign where the PCs jump around in a ship, he should furnish them with one; if he prefer that they don't have a ship, he shouldn't be forced to let them have one. Leaving such an important campaign feature up to random dice throws is, IMO, ill-conceived.

-Expanded Mustering (while they can make life hell, I really like the expanded options that have been presented in Mercenary and High Guard. Retainers, cybernetics, funding, free ticket advances etc.)

Most CT CG expansion also expanded the mustering out benefits. Some of the new ones sound like fun.

-Events (not sure if this was ever done before. I'm a sucker for Lifepaths and previous history. I think this was almost a no-brainer after the career expansions in the later CT books that added more detail. But it gives the players some starting points to fleshing things out)

Again, I think it's new to Traveller, but seen elsewhere.

-Small Craft (I know the grogs hate the different rules for building small craft. I love them. The starship rules were designed with 100 tons as the smallest capable model. Small craft needed love.)

MT's system went down to hoverbike sizes.

One bad change... the OGL. No one can write an adventure set anywhere but Foreven without permission?

I could be wrong, but isn't it that you can't write an adventure and sell it for money, unless it's set in Foreven? In which case, the OGL is an expansion of what you could before.


Hans

 

[GypsyComet]

One bad change... the OGL. No one can write an adventure set anywhere but Foreven without permission?

The three modes allowed by current licenses are:

*SELL products that use the system, but avoid the OTU setting completely.

*SELL products that mention the OTU, but are limited to Foreven.

*FREELY DISTRIBUTE (WWW, etc) "OTU" material with a disclaimer that you are merely using the OTU, not defining it officially.

---

All of the details should be available via Mongoose.

 

[Supplement Four]

Most things in MGT are available in previous versions of Traveller. Don't just check the core rules, though. CT, for example, has cybernetics. It's just in a magazine story rather than the core rules or supplement.

 

[RandyT0001]

The three modes allowed by current licenses are:

*SELL products that use the system, but avoid the OTU setting completely.

There are really two of these:
1. Sell products that use the Mongoose Traveller SRD but don't label or allude to it as Traveller.

2. Sell products that use the Mongoose Traveller Ruleset but the setting cannot be the OTU. You can publish your own setting and with the right license call it Traveller.

*SELL products that mention the OTU, but are limited to Foreven.

If you sell products that are set in the OTH you must use the Mongoose Traveller Ruleset and it must be set in the Foreven sector. You cannot sell products using a previous ruleset (such as Classic, MegaTraveller, TNE, Gurps, Heros, etc.) set in the OTU. You can publish for free (website, fanzine) material set in the OTU using previous rulesets but it must be set in Foreven sector.

*FREELY DISTRIBUTE (WWW, etc) "OTU" material with a disclaimer that you are merely using the OTU, not defining it officially.

You can publish for free (website, fanzine) material set in a non-OTU setting (ATU) using rulesets other than Mongoose (ie Classic, MegaTraveller, etc).

All of the details should be available via Mongoose.

You can download the different licenses from their website.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Gentle nudge back to original posters question

Here is the original post for this thread.

Mongoose Traveller is here, and AFAIC it rocks the business.

However, from what I've seen so far, while FFE has granted Mongoose the license to publish the OTU, there are already ... differences.

What differences have you spotted in the Mongoose OTU, that nobody would have imagined in the CT OTU?

 

[RandyT0001]

What differences have you spotted in the Mongoose OTU, that nobody would have imagined in the CT OTU?

I never would have imagined that anybody at GDW during the late '70's would have published TL8 AT guns that have a maximum range of 1125 meters that when corrected in the errata the ranges would increase drastically to the other unrealistic extreme. The new maximum range (taken from the Mongoose errata) for the TL 8 AT gun increases to 750 kilometers.

I think somebody compared Mongoose Mercenary artillery weapons to those found in anime cartoons.

Mongoose picked the wrong person to write Mercenary, IMO. He did very little if any research to the state of weaponary today or it's historical advances. His primary basis for these creations was for fun regardless of realism.

YMMV

 

[travellernoob]

I'm getting into Traveller thanks to the Mongoose free stuff, although I played Space Master back in the day. Is there a good way to get an idea of this CT stuff,... for free

 

[Supplement Four]

I'm getting into Traveller thanks to the Mongoose free stuff, although I played Space Master back in the day. Is there a good way to get an idea of this CT stuff,... for free

Not free, but close to it.

For $35 bucks, you can buy the CT CD-ROM that includes every GDW Traveller item ever published.

It's a hell of a bargain.

 

[Icosahedron]

The only way to get CT info for free is to ask questions about it here.

What do you want to know?

But yeah, the CT CD is great value. Even if you don't use the rules, the background material you can mine out of it has got to be worth the money - and the OTU canon in there is the same as Mongoose - you just don't have to wait months/years for it to hit the shelves.

 

[Kilgs]

But yeah, the CT CD is great value. Even if you don't use the rules, the background material you can mine out of it has got to be worth the money - and the OTU canon in there is the same as Mongoose - you just don't have to wait months/years for it to hit the shelves.

Agreed. I picked up old compilations for a total of $90.00 to get, what I later found out, was available on that stupid CD. I justify it by declaring myself a dinosaur and liking books!

 

[Ran]

Agreed. I picked up old compilations for a total of $90.00 to get, what I later found out, was available on that stupid CD. I justify it by declaring myself a dinosaur and liking books!

To be fair, you could always use them to keep warm in the event earth becomes TL4. :toast::toast::toast: