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I skimmed the main rule book

I went to the B&N store and skimmed the main rule book. I thought it looked cheap but the rules looked okay.

I have $100 to spend on RPG games for the rest of this year. Do I buy the rulebook, Marches, and Mercs?

Do I spend my money buying judges guild stuff on e-bay instead?

As background, I like the CT rules, I thought the MT and TNE rules stunk and were adventures in accounting, I like the CT background, and I love the GURPS background and think the rules are workable but not great.
 
I went to the B&N store and skimmed the main rule book. I thought it looked cheap but the rules looked okay.

I have $100 to spend on RPG games for the rest of this year. Do I buy the rulebook, Marches, and Mercs?

Do I spend my money buying judges guild stuff on e-bay instead?

As background, I like the CT rules, I thought the MT and TNE rules stunk and were adventures in accounting, I like the CT background, and I love the GURPS background and think the rules are workable but not great.

The Pocket edition of Mongoose Traveller will be more affordable; I'd wait for that.

Allen
 
Garyius: You sound like either you should either stick with CT or pick up the core for MGT, but it's iffy.

MGT is less table-driven than CT. It has a slightly more realistic trade system. It has more options for system generation. It has a much different Character Generation, including a points option. It has has a consistent task system.

Ships are very close to Bk2...

But also, be aware that the CT CDRom has a few things not in the big floppy books.

SO, the question becomes, "Since you have CT, Why are you looking at MGT?"
If it is because you are not happy with CT, then MGT might be for you.
If you're just looking for background material, get just the setting books; the other stuff is all generic. Far more so than any other edition, including 2nd edition (post 1981) CT.
If you love CT, but are looking to replace any of the above mentioned major differences areas, again, it is a viable option.
 
Wait a month, and buy the pocket book. Then spend your saved money on a large ice cream, a pint of Guinness and spam sandwich.
 
Wait a month, and buy the pocket book. Then spend your saved money on a large ice cream, a pint of Guinness and spam sandwich.

Wait wait... can I get spam ice cream, and instead of the pint, may I substitute some spam?
 
I think the book is good - but the PDFs have errata fixed so wait for the pocket edition or a second edition but do get it.

Mercenary. Avoid. It adds little and has some problems, the gear section is badly flawed.
760 Patrons. Have a look. It leaves me cold but some really like it.
Spinward Marches. Good, some very useful essays in it. Worth buying.
 
More information about what I like. I like the CT/GURPS setting. I like CT rules for people/tasks, but not the weird choices it forces people into for ships.

The CT cost of ships and the weird trade makes no sense at all to play.

Does MGT handle this better? Is the background like CT/GURPS?
 
Is the background like CT/GURPS?

Yeah the setting is the CT setting in the Year 1105. No rebellion yet.

As to the comments about CT and MGT. I like collecting RPGs so I got both. I think some of the rules in CT aren't my cup of tea like death in character generation and I like that MGT fixes it. I liked T20 and GT a lot but those aren't in print anymore and MGT is a bit 'easier' as far as rules than say GURPS so, if I DM Traveller in the future I'd use MGT.

The Spinward Marches book for MGT is good too.

Mike
 
More information about what I like. I like the CT/GURPS setting. I like CT rules for people/tasks, but not the weird choices it forces people into for ships.

The CT cost of ships and the weird trade makes no sense at all to play.

Does MGT handle this better? Is the background like CT/GURPS?

Approach the various editions you have as toolkits. Mix and match parts as you like.

As long as you keep the strongly connected parts together (chargen for skill ranks and the task system, for example), other parts can be from some other edition. Don't like the ship awards in Muster Out being so specific, look at TNE or MGT for their "Ship Shares" systems (different, but similar).
 
Gypsy Makes a great point.

The MT, 2300 and MGT task systems work well with CT, MT, 2300, and MGT characters.
TNE and T4 task systems can be swapped easily enough for TNE and T4 characters.
T20 characters and tasks are different enough as to be not easily swapped.

Some other task systems that could be imported easily as the skill and attribute levels are similar to CT/MT/MGT:
Burning Wheel: Add Attribute/3 as base for level 0, adding 1d per skill level. double base ob for unskilled. Simple= Ob1, Routine Ob2, Diff Ob 4 , Form ob7 Imp Ob11. Need to add beliefs and artha to make it work well, or simply allow all rolls to open end. (Note: This gives a base of 3d for level 1 skill in an average stat, and 4d in a 9+ stat.. add forks, and you can get 2 more dice, and an advantage for another die... meaning typical people roll 5-8 dice... without artha)
CORPS: Att/3 + skill level as CORPS-equivalent level. TN Sim=2, Rou=5, Dif=8, Form=11, Imp=14
EABA: Convert attribute to dice using the levels to dice conversions as normal. Each level of skill to level 5 is a +1D to skill. TN Sim=3, Rou=7, Dif=11, Form=15, Imp=19
ooWOD: Skill level + (Att/3) dice vs Simple =TN2, Routine TN4, Difficult TN6, Formidible TN8, Impossible TN10
oWOD: Skill level + (Att/3) dice vs 7+; Simple 1s, Routine 2s, Diff 3s, Form 5s, Imp 7s


T&C can be migrated rather easily; there are several sets: Bk2, Bk7, MT/TNE/T4 (expanded Bk7), T20 (Expanded Bk2), MGT. GTFT is less easily used, but is useable; be warned, the GT credit is not the OTU credit, so prices may not always match.

MT, MGT, and TNE combat systems are almost purely task based, and quite portable to other editions; T4, while task based, is slightly more tied to its task mechanics, but is also portable as a module.

Ship design and ship combat intertwine heavily.
Bk2 can handle Bk2 and MGT
Bk5 can handle Bk5, MT, and T20 designs easily; CT and MGT designs with a little work.
MT's HG can handle MT, Bk5, and T20 designs easily. Bk2 and MGT designs with little effort, namely the same conversions needed for Bk5...
T20 can handle MT, Bk5, and T20 designs; non-T20 designs need some numbers crunched to finish out the needed data. CT and MGT designs need conversion to Bk5/MT plus the addition of structure points...
TNE and T4 use the same design engine, and have incompatible combat data, but the designs can be rerated; in both cases, due to the detail levels, other design systems do not convert well; MT converts with the least fuss.
MT's vehicular combat system (which is allowed to be used with ships) can handle designs from all editions if you have the spreadsheet to hand to generate the Hits data from tonnages, and are using stock weapons only. (I treat 3-ton TNE/T4 turrets as +1 UCP over comparable 1-ton turrets.)

World design differs only slightly from edition to edition; T20 and MGT have the most divergence. MT's Hard Times and TNE both have collapse procedures to downrate standard UWP's to reflect the settings. GT has a wholly different world system, but the results are similar; UWP conversions to GURPS stats are somewhere in GT (I think in GT and/or BTC)

Cybernetics: TNE and MGT cyber are not per se compatible, but either is relatively portabe to other systems.
 
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