Newbie Questions

[Thanos]

I've heard about Traveler for ever and have looked over various rule books over the years. I'm ready to take the plunge. I’ve picked the Mongoose edition as it’s currently being published and supported.

So besides the core rule book what other two books should I get?

Back in the day there used to be a poster (?) of the Imperium. Is that still around?

Should I purchase direct from Mongoose or try E-bay?

 

[nats]

I asked the same question recently being sort of in the same situation as yourself. It seems the only book you need is actually the core rulebook although the Spinward Marches sourcebook is a very good second book to get for it covers all the planets you may wish to travel to, its useful for picking homeworlds during character generation, and it also provides some good plot suggestions and background into the Traveller universe that is only touched on in the rulebook (which is quite generic).

Other good books are Mercenary and High Guard which enhance personal/large scale combat and large ship combat respectively.

Finally purely ancillary books depend on what you are interested in but I would say the Vehicle Design Book (wait for the new combination one due out soon, not the two old ones which are bust supposedly), 760 Patrons (get the 2nd edition not the first one), 1001 Characters, and The Central Supply Catalogue are all useful additions to any collection for enhancing overall play (althouigh CSC has issues that conflict a lot with the core rule book its worth the effort of syncornising the two because the variety of equipment in CSC is great - and it reintroduces my favourite weapon of all time - the submachine gun!). Starports looks quite interesting as well if only for flavour when the characters are messing around outside the missions.

These are the ones I will be getting myself I think. I have had a look at the other books - Scouts, Merchant Prince, Dillettant, Agent, Scoundrel, Psion and the like and they all enhance small areas of the game whilst not providing too many new rules so its arguable whether these ones are a good buy or not, the chargen in each is good though.

Robots and Animal Encounters both have design issues I believe, which is a great shame because I would love to design a good robot or two for my games - I may still get it for that. Cybernetics looks quite interesting if you are into that kind of thing (not my cup of tea at the moment).

 

[aramis]

Mercenary has some really STUPID errors in the mass combat rules. It's NOT worth it for those. (The kind of errors that have many vets laughing openly at the designer's lack of knowledge, lack of research, and lack of common sense.)

High Guard is much more useful, even if one completely ignore the large ship rules (which are about the worst large ship rules of any edition).

A vehicles book is useful, the rest can be safely ignored for the most part.

You can't go wrong with Spica's Career Books Vol 1 & 2...

 

[nats]

Mercenary has some really STUPID errors in the mass combat rules. It's NOT worth it for those. (The kind of errors that have many vets laughing openly at the designer's lack of knowledge, lack of research, and lack of common sense.)

High Guard is much more useful, even if one completely ignore the large ship rules (which are about the worst large ship rules of any edition).

Why do you feel this? I never played any mass engagements as they seemed a bit simplistic for any kind of solo player enjoyment but why are they broken - I didn't know that they were so bad. I never got around to playing any large scale conflicts with them but they look better than CT rules at least - more interesting role playing (orders and the like) and more variety of weapons etc. The CT rules were very stale I felt - I tried a HG combat with those and didnt want to try another one afterwards.

Mind you I did play a CT Book 2 vector ship combat with a couple of ships and a few asteroids etc and that was great fun though not easy to fit it on a table (and obviously not realistic - more Star Wars asteroids than the asteroids we know exist) - you have to keep moving the ships back to the start of the table. Or you can keep one static and just change the other ship to reflect its movement with respect to the static one - and move the other objects such as the asteroids past the static ship to represent its movement - that works very well but is a little complex to figure out especially when the asteroids have their own individual vectors as well - thats when the piloting starts getting challenging though. And MgT High Guard introduces this vector combat (admittedly in a very limited form).

I must admit I was looking forward to actually trying some personal ground and ship combat with the advanced MGT rules once I get these two books again - until you mentioned this!

 

[Thanos]

Are the Mongoose editions like the LBBs or are They full sized? Should I get the books or would pdf, say from Drivethru be fine?

 

[aramis]

Are the Mongoose editions like the LBBs or are They full sized? Should I get the books or would pdf, say from Drivethru be fine?

There are both small and large editions of many... They issue 8x11 first, then later a "LBB" sized version.

The PDF's are acceptable quality for most of the items, but the ship deckplans are included at low resolutions, and as raster images rather than vector, so blowups look horrid... and many are so small that they are unreadable in the PDF. The Traders and Gunboats supplement PDF was absolutely wasted money - it's worthless.

As for Mercenary...

Some old threads make the case pretty damned well.
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=16665&highlight=Mercenary
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=19744&highlight=Mercenary

And that's before the open ridicule on the mongoose boards that Mongoose very quickly locked, deleted, and generally kept suppressed.

 

[nats]

As for Mercenary...

Some old threads make the case pretty damned well.
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=16665&highlight=Mercenary
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=19744&highlight=Mercenary

Ah yes I remember reading those now. Yeah it's annoying that Mongoose can't seem to release a solid supplement. Animal Encounters for example (a very recent supplement so they STILL haven't learnt) - creating animals without any speeds and no larger than elephants! That is just ridiculous for alien lifeforms.

I so want this MgT stuff to be worth buying to replace my old CT - but the only things really worth getting are actually the Core Book and Spinward Marches. What a shame.

 

[aramis]

Ah yes I remember reading those now. Yeah it's annoying that Mongoose can't seem to release a solid supplement. Animal Encounters for example (a very recent supplement so they STILL haven't learnt) - creating animals without any speeds and no larger than elephants! That is just ridiculous for alien lifeforms.

I so want this MgT stuff to be worth buying to replace my old CT - but the only things really worth getting are actually the Core Book and Spinward Marches. What a shame.

MGT High Guard is pretty useful. Even if one doesn't use the big ships, it adds a LOT to the core ship designs.

Oh, and the Psionics book is useful,too... for non-canon campaigns, that is. The Mind Ships rules are particularly fun.

 

[Cryton]

Thanos

Give MgT a chance. Look it over for yourself. I myself own all but Azinti High Lightning for the CT run, most of the MT run, a solid chunk of both TNE and T20, lots from T4 and the T5 disc. I even own the GURPS Traveller books.

Me, I happen to like MgT, and would say that like a lot of the other runs, each book is its own mixed bag of good and bad. In the MgT books however, each one gives non 3I stuff that you can choose, or choose not to add to your games. Unlike any edition other than CT77(my copys), MgT is the only run tof Traveller hat gives you OPTIONS for building your own setting, as well as running "Cannon" games. And as for a lot of the complaints, Mongoose is re-writing the books that almost everyone had complaints about, and they have to run em by Mark Miller himself now as well. So their quality is improving by leaps and bounds.

MgT also lets you play things like Judge Dredd, Strontium Dogs, Hammers Slammers, Cthothnian Stars, Babalon 5, and Reign of Discordia, all without having to buy anything other than the core rules and a setting book. Heck, you could even mix em all up if you wanted to.

Look the books over, and make up your own mind. Dont let others opinions influence you. You might find that MgT is worth having.

~Rich

 

[Thanos]

A lot to think over. Unfortunately I have no FLGS to peruse the books before purchase. Reading every one's answers here and skimming the forums leads me to think that the core book is well done but that all else is meh to bad. How compatible is MGT to CT?

 

[aramis]

A lot to think over. Unfortunately I have no FLGS to peruse the books before purchase. Reading every one's answers here and skimming the forums leads me to think that the core book is well done but that all else is meh to bad.

MGT HG is pretty decent. But, yeah, the core book is, to date, the best done product. THe whole line's art stinks pretty bad.

How compatible is MGT to CT?

Most CT stuff can be used in MGT with only minor modifications done on the fly.

MGT stuff, due to the task system, differences in the ship combat and design systems, and differences in the skill list and CGen methods, less easily used with CT, but most can be adapted. (It's the same issues as with using MT in CT...)

Some of it is not worth importing (EG: MGT Merc, MGT T&G), some might be for various persons. I find the "expanded" CGen usually includes 1 or 2 that are well done, and at least one that is bad. I find also it's not worth sorting the wheat from the chaff for the CGen stuff; the Spica books flesh out my non-OTU games far better than the MGT expanded stuff.

 

[nats]

THe whole line's art stinks pretty bad.

I have to say that compared to most of the art in Classic Traveller the art of MgT isn't as good, but its not that bad, and certainly the revised core rulebook has some very nice pieces of art in it (the Modular Cutter on page 135 for example is one of my favourite Traveller illustrations of all time). Also many of the CSC gun illustrations are outstandingly good.

In terms of the lack of coordination MgT is like any version of Traveller really - you have to mix and match, alter bits here and there to get it the way you want it. Add pencil comments and clarifications yourself, that's what I do. Certainly synchronising CSC and the Core Rule Book is a big deal but its worth it as they are both great. MgT has suffered badly from errata in the past but it has still some very good products to its name. It just seems that when it gets it wrong it does so in the stupidest, most obvious way possible. Admittedly some products are worse than others, but Mercs and High Guards errata have mostly been addressed in the revised book versions you now get from Mongoose.

You can use CT's '1001 Characters' with MgT by just altering the skills names etc, you can use 76 Patrons with MgT directly. All of the CT adventures are directly usable with minimal changes and as MgT hasnt got many adventures written for it you don't have much choice other than doing some yourself. CT's Spinward Marches is usable but MgT's is better.

Mongoose are trying to get it right, but we are a picky bunch who have been spoiled by the original Traveller. Times change and MgT is the new Traveller and the only one to get (other than the old CT adventures) IMO. Those who are playing old version are simply traditionalists who cant let go and move on. Anyone getting Traveller now should no way get any other version but MgT. Try asking the same question in Mongoose's own Traveller forum and see what answer you get there

 

[BytePro]

Stats - character, starship and world seem to be fairly compatible (there are some differences, but they are fairly easily dealt with) and TLs are equivalent, IIRC. However, weapon stats aren't as much, as the mechanics are quite different. (Cr are probably different - shrug).

The gems, IMO, are the expanded chargen with the events, mishaps and connection skills and the overall simplification of using a uniform task roll system. Adding these to CT (especially the later) is fairly easy - though the new mechanics will probably have you playing MgT.

If I were starting into it - I'd just buy the Core rulebook (PDF, especially if you have a portable reader and those work for you - the softcover book doesn't hold up well in my experience) and use www.travellermap.com and search for deckplans off the net. (BTW: The Core book has 12 careers, IIRC.)

High Guard is good for adding small craft (not really covered in Core) and larger starships.

Mongoose has no detailed system generation or expanded world data (scouts really doesn't cover like old CT Scouts).

For ready made adventures - Mongoose offers the 'secrets of the ancients' (or some such) campaign for free. CT adventures should work well... and Crowded Hours and some of the Mongoose ones seem to go over well.

 

[nats]

If I were starting into it - I'd just buy the Core rulebook (PDF, especially if you have a portable reader and those work for you - the softcover book doesn't hold up well in my experience)

I take it by this you mean the little black pocket core rules book because the large core rules book has a hard cover and is sturdy enough. I wouldnt get the small book except as a second book because you will miss all the fascinating footnotes.

 

[McPerth]

Stats - character, starship and world seem to be fairly compatible (there are some differences, but they are fairly easily dealt with) and TLs are equivalent, IIRC. However, weapon stats aren't as much, as the mechanics are quite different. (Cr are probably different - shrug).

I don't see starships as compatible as you say, and even less starship combat, as something as important in MgT starship combat as is armor is not covered in CT (it is in HG), and its use is quite different (though I agree it may be adapted, but, al last, you'd have to choose one system or the other). Also crews to be quite larger in MgT (at least if you want the same crew level).

About TLs, since MT there have been some changes. In CT, TL 8 had gravitics and fusion power developed, while in MT (and latter, AFAIK), both were developed at TL 9 (I guess as RW closed to TL 8 they changed that). True that this won't apply to most campaigns, as characters have access to higher TLs. Also PA turrets are lowered in MgT to TL 8 (though you need the TL 9 to mount them, as rules are written) from the TL 14 they were in HG (and MT).

Also some skills (engineering being the most critical, IMO) are trated differently (mostly by having specialities, being effective skill 0 in other specialities).

Aside of those points, I mostly agree with your entry

 

[Thanos]

Ordered from Amazon. Used for $8.99. Very excited. Was going to pick up High Guard and Mercenary but figured I'd go through the main book first and then decide what to get next. Thanks for every one's input. I'm sure I'll have more questions once I get the book!

 

[Kilgs]

Are you planning on playing in the Third Imperium? If so, I would suggest you pick up the main book, High Guard (for ship expansion rules, small craft) and Spinward Marches. SM does a great job of giving you the lowdown on the 3I even if you don't play in that Sector.

Next purchase would be Central Supply Catalogue.

Do not. Do not. Do not buy the vehicle books. Huge rip-off. I would wait for reviews on any 2nd edition before purchasing it also.

However, I would throw out a few things...

a) GURPS Traveller books are incredibly detailed, cheap to find on Amazon/Ebay, and 100% transferable if you're looking at different sectors. The same goes for (GREATEST BOOK EVER) the Gateway Domain book by QLI available here on COTI.

b) If you're thinking of creating your own setting, I would buy Central Supply Catalogue instead of SM.

 

[Thanos]

I can plot like a Mother F***er but settings are not my forte. So I will be using the 3I background. Good suggestions.

 

[saundby]

I started out with the core book and the CT CD. Worked very well.

Of the Mongoose books I'll echo the prior sentiments on HG, plus I like Beltstrike sans the adventure in it. Instead of Merc, if you want mercenary/paramilitary games get Hammer's Slammers, and the Merc SRD for backfill info as req'd: Mercenary SRD

Get the Spica books for more character careers when you're ready.

I've also run a Babylon 5 traveller campaign. I liked the B5 equipment, and use it outside B5 with different names and descriptions to suit. I also like the B5 psionics and psionic careers and use those in regular Traveller campaigns, obviously with the B5-isms scrubbed off.

 

[Thanos]

It's finally here! W00T! Now I have to read it. Get ready for questions.