Notice the use of the word "if"
Yes, I noticed that you were offering a series of strawmen to set up another round of pass-aggro attacks on the rest of the
Traveller community.
Do you realize you're
your own worst enemy?
Now, I believe this thread was originally about reactions to
MgT. I've finally read the core rulebook, at long last. I created a couple of characters, to see how chargen works, and I staged a fight between three combatants, to see how the combat rules play. I didn't try out the starship construction or combat rules or the planet building rules.
The final result is much better than the playtests, IMHO; good call on stripping out the Stupid Dice Tricks for one. Overall the core rules retain the feel of
CT, but with details that are "off" for someone familiar with the original. There are little bits of implied setting that don't mesh with the OTU of the past thirty years scattered throughout the rules, so every few pages something would just go *
CLANK!* for me. That was to be expected: Mongoose's intention wasn't to appeal to
Traveller gamers satisfied with their game already (see
Signs and Portents 48, p. 11).
There are a few things I just flat dislike. Skills are devalued and personal attributes overvalued: I prefer the spot modifiers for attributes common in
CT so I can tailor the challenges on a case-by-case basis. The skill training rules are terrible. I don't care for armor-as-damage-reduction: it makes some weapons effectively useless against some forms of armor.
Snapshot is etched on my brain at this point, so
MgT's d20 combat system simulacrum doesn't appeal.
The artwork isn't bad, but it's not Dietrich, Barr, Jacquays, or Keith. I fully cop to nostalgia on that one.
If I was just picking up
Traveller for the first time, I might like
MgT. As someone playing
Traveller literally for thirty years, using both the GDW materials and an abundant supply of third-party books and articles plus my own tried-and-tested house rules,
MgT is irrelevant to me. I didn't see anything in the core rules that haven't been done before, and often better, for
CT.
On one level I am pleased about
MgT: it has a new generation of gamers excited about
Traveller again. As I noted in another thread, it's fun to peek in on the forum at Mongoose once in awhile and see new gamers exploring the OTU, or creating their own universes. Fresh eyes, and fresh perspectives.
I think there are a couple of implications for those of us who've played for years. There is a new pool of
Traveller players discovering the OTU, but they're going to associate it with Mongoose's system. Will this be a barrier for us in recruiting new players for our classic games? I haven't recruited any new players in over a year, so it will be interesting to see what happens when we decide it's time to bring in a new gamer to our existing campaign.
