I bought a copy of MgT, and going through the rules it doesn't look like there's a whole lot of difference from the game I used to play a couple decades back. Is that right, or are there some subtle details that I'm missing here?
Mongoose is just CT?
- Thread starter Blue Ghost
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MgT is its own game - but it is very much based on CT. The original idea, as I understood it, was that it be compatible with CT.
But there are plenty of substantive differences (especially when you start adding in the dozens of add on books and supplements!).
Chargen is more elaborate. Events and mishaps are a significant change. With connection, package skills and the explicit level-0 homeworld and cascade skills, provides more skills than advanced CT chargen. There is the universal task system. Several 'defining' aspects - like annual maintenance, etc. are changed.
There's a lot of good stuff in MgT. (I've gone back to CT, but borrowed plenty from MgT.)
But there are plenty of substantive differences (especially when you start adding in the dozens of add on books and supplements!).
Chargen is more elaborate. Events and mishaps are a significant change. With connection, package skills and the explicit level-0 homeworld and cascade skills, provides more skills than advanced CT chargen. There is the universal task system. Several 'defining' aspects - like annual maintenance, etc. are changed.
There's a lot of good stuff in MgT. (I've gone back to CT, but borrowed plenty from MgT.)
MGT is very much NOT CT. The skill list is different in many places, and in fact, in several key ways. CGen is considerably different. Armor works differently in all scales from CT.
Ship design is vaguely Bk2 compatible. Bk2 designs are close, but not quite correct, for MGT. PP fuel is different. Ship combat is totally different.
There is an explicit task system.
Trade and commerce is VERY different.
MGT core covers the same scope, but with rather different rules.
Even world gen got tweaked.
Ship design is vaguely Bk2 compatible. Bk2 designs are close, but not quite correct, for MGT. PP fuel is different. Ship combat is totally different.
There is an explicit task system.
Trade and commerce is VERY different.
MGT core covers the same scope, but with rather different rules.
Even world gen got tweaked.
Thanks. At first glance it appeared that it was essentially the same system. I'll have to read it more in depth.
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
The core mechanic is certainly closely related, but there can be a lot of variation on top of that "2d6, roll high, modifiers from stats, skills, and circumstances" base.
Well, when I read through the first few pages the text was obviously different from my venerable CT books, but the mechanics seemed very familiar. Like I said, I'll have to give it a thorough reading.
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
In the grand scheme of things, No, it isn't. It is easily within the range of difference between CT Basic and CT Advanced.
Yes, it does incorporate three specific concepts introduced in the edition everyone loves to hate*: Ship shares, homeworld skills, and multiple careers prior to play. It also uses ship aging (from the same source) as a mechanism to make ships cheaper and more interesting.
Yes, it uses "Events" and "Mishaps" to color the character generation process.
The options to ignore the dice or even go all the way to point-buy are explicit in MGT, but the prior option was common and implicit to CT and MT.
No, it doesn't have the decorations roll that was specific to the CT Advanced system, at least not as a default.
But the overall process is very close to CT/MT.
--
* - TNE
What CT book had the decorations roll and is there a comparable book from Mongoose?
The biggest small detail that changes a lot of how Mongoose Traveller is played is the Characteristic Modifier (probably the most important numbers on a character sheet). They're not even in the SRD. Superficial things like the UPP are removed, so the much easier base-10 numbering is used.
Classic Traveller did not have a standard die mechanic. Mongoose Traveller standardized on a roll 8+ mechanic. It adds character backstory, a character sheet, and adds way more careers. There are other RPG games available that use the Mongoose Traveller core rules.
Classic Traveller is just Books 1 - 3. Later books are considered advanced CT. Just like Mongoose's Books 1 - 9 are advanced MgT.
Mongoose Traveller Book 1: Mercenary
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GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
Decorations in CT are part of the year-by-year systems often referred to as Advanced Character Generation. Mercenary, High Guard, Scouts, and Merchant Prince. Decorations are specific to Mercenary and High Guard, the two military parts of the advanced stuff.
Mongoose sticks to the term for character generation, so Decorations would be a bit odd. The Events take care of some of it, but racking up a collection of medals is still distinctly a CT/MT thing.
Yeah, I was going to add that decorations are in the advanced supplements, but I wasn't sure.
I had a credit, so I splurged on a copy of MgT. Interesting stuff.
I had a credit, so I splurged on a copy of MgT. Interesting stuff.
Sorry, but no. You're ignoring huge items.
Combining retention and promotion into a single roll is a HUGE conceptual difference. A difference from CT, MT, TNE, T4, T20.
Commission is not a separate item from promotion in MGT, it is separate in CT, MT, TNE, T4, T20.
The Event roll is unprecedented in ANY edition. It's conceptually related to the MT, TNE, and T4 special duty rolls, not to the assignment rolls of CT/MT advanced or T20.
The extensive use of level 0 skills alien to other editions; they don't exist in TNE, I don't recall them in T4, and have no comparison in GT nor T20. CT used them on an ad hoc basis for non-weapons, not a formal mechanical grant. MT made mechanical use of them, but not to the extent that MGT does.
CT forbade multiple careers, and Mongoose encourages them.
I'm not saying different is bad, but DIFFERENT!!! is different, as in not the same.
I do like the event rolls. I do like the more extensive level 0 skills use.
I don't like the conjoined Promotion/Retention and the non-fixed reenlistment. I don't like that Commission is not separate from promotion. Both are conceptual differences from CT/MT/TNE/T4.
I like ship shares, but do not like the way they are implemented in MGT.
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
You and I have very different definitions for "huge". I'm going to leave it at that.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Hmm, I am going to have to spend some time going through Mongoose. Looks like it has some good stuff to mix with Classic.
I'd be curious how that works. I don't mix editions.
Yes - it does.
I noted, and Aramis has expanded in detail, several differences to be found in chargen and skills - and there are plenty of others. Borrowing stuff 'backwards' into CT is doable - though not to imply its effort free. If you like the MgT chargen and task mechanic, it actually works better to go MgT and supplement with CT rather than the other way around, IMO.
[I enjoy CT Basic chargen and my unstructured mechanics as its just quicker for me and I can focus on emphasizing roleplay, but I got a lot of good ideas from MgT that made my CT better.]
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Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Hmmm, I mix editions and also use different game systems as well. When I was running AD&D 2nd edition a lot, I mixed in stuff from the Blue Book edition, the 1st Edition, and the Basic Set edition. Keep the players on their toes as they could never be sure that they knew what might happen.
If your players collect a lot of the background books, it gets harder to surprise them and keep them a bit off balance. So, by mixing systems, they can never completely know what they might run into.
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
One of the easiest things to port from MGT to CT is the already mentioned Zero-level skills, and specifically the Homeworld skills. At the beginning of character generation you assign or generate a homeworld, then use that world's Trade Codes to give the character several zero-level skills.
You can also use the Campaign Skills, particularly if you have a disparate bunch of PCs with no unifying theme. Each Campaign option has a skill list, and going in order from fewest skills to most, each PC picks a skill off the list. It is fixed at level 1 and cannot be chosen by more than one PC, so it can't add to existing skills unless a later picking PC has no other option. We allow cycling through the PCs more than once to make sure all the skills are chosen.
Note that both of these options assume that you are using CT Basic (Book 1 and Supplement 4) character generation. The Advanced characters (Books 4 through 7) are generally swimming in skills and don't need more.
Ship shares (also seen in TNE but implemented differently) are a solution to the party that ends up with two ships after Muster Out. Instead of the first award being "here's a ship", each award represents financial or other arrangements that can get that PC significantly closer to owning a ship. The idea is that all the PCs pool their Shares and get *one* ship.
You can also use the Campaign Skills, particularly if you have a disparate bunch of PCs with no unifying theme. Each Campaign option has a skill list, and going in order from fewest skills to most, each PC picks a skill off the list. It is fixed at level 1 and cannot be chosen by more than one PC, so it can't add to existing skills unless a later picking PC has no other option. We allow cycling through the PCs more than once to make sure all the skills are chosen.
Note that both of these options assume that you are using CT Basic (Book 1 and Supplement 4) character generation. The Advanced characters (Books 4 through 7) are generally swimming in skills and don't need more.
Ship shares (also seen in TNE but implemented differently) are a solution to the party that ends up with two ships after Muster Out. Instead of the first award being "here's a ship", each award represents financial or other arrangements that can get that PC significantly closer to owning a ship. The idea is that all the PCs pool their Shares and get *one* ship.
The main difference I find (aside from standarized tasks) among MgT and CT, from playing it POV, is the ships.
While it may seem quite similar in principle (and they are), there are IMHO subtle but interesting differences, such as armor and the PP fuel related to the PP size (letter), instead to the PP number (where the same PP used different amount of fuel depending on how big was the ship, the bigger, the lower fuel needs).
Also, the fact that computers don't use tonnage keeps with the advances in tech from late 1970s and today. Some other ítems have been changed in tech.
Ship combat is also fully different (hence the importance of armor).
While it may seem quite similar in principle (and they are), there are IMHO subtle but interesting differences, such as armor and the PP fuel related to the PP size (letter), instead to the PP number (where the same PP used different amount of fuel depending on how big was the ship, the bigger, the lower fuel needs).
Also, the fact that computers don't use tonnage keeps with the advances in tech from late 1970s and today. Some other ítems have been changed in tech.
Ship combat is also fully different (hence the importance of armor).
