Should I Stay or Should I Go Now???

[tim_manley]

I've got nearly all the Trav versions (except Gurps...). My favorite is still CT. Each version has a different 'feel', a different emotion to it. Every change to the game changes the feel. I am still enamored with the first feel I got reading the first 3 books. None of the other versions have re-captured that. I *still* have that feeling when I pull out my CT books to start working up a new campaign.

I like the concept of Mongoose doing a CT redux, basically a 30 year make-over while trying to hold true to the original feel. But, while I haven't read anything but the samples they have on their site, I don't get the CT feel. Probably never will. Some things strike me as odd (like psi professions...).

The PDF is $28. I'm not too keen on paying ~$30 just to evaluate something that I may nor may not use. But I am curious as hell as to how they changed and how they stayed true to CT.

Question for the old CT hounds here... would you say buying the book is worth it?

 

[Andrew Boulton]

I'm massively disappointed with it. If you've only ever played LBB1-3, you may like it. If you play LBB4+, there may be bits you can use. Otherwise, save your money.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Two persons, three options

I like it. I have played MegaTraveller(MT) a lot and I also played GURPS Traveller(GT) quite a bit. Got my MGT by accident (Helped out an FLGS and he insisted on compensating me) and after reading through it I must say I would buy it!

Feels more "Traveller" than GT (due to the TechScale), better Chargen than MT (due to more careers/options and flexibel "point buy systems" as an alternate to "roll them up"(1)) At the same time the complexity is closer to MT than to the "800pf Gorillas" of TNE and GT(2)

For me it's the next incarnation of Traveller I will play/referee. HighGuard and Mercenary are ordered, Spinward Marches I'll only skip since I prefer QLI's "Gateway Domain" to what one player once called the "Boring Marches"


(1) My biggest dislike with MT and one of the reasons to switch to GT.
(2) One of the reasons I left TNE behind was the changes in engineering (They are further away from Traveller than any other game with their changes to drives and weapons) and the game system/combat system

 

[jimg]

Personally, I like the Mongoose rules. To me, it feels like a good updated version of the LBBs. I've been recommending it to friends who are new to Traveller or - like me - haven't played it in a couple of decades.

But if you are already heavily invested in previous editions of Traveller and have been playing regularly with these rules, I'm guessing that you would be disappointed.

As much as I like what they've done so far, Mongoose hasn't brought anything radically new to the table... the core rulebook is basically LBB1-3 and covers a lot of ground but only superficially. The new Spinward Marches book looks quite good to me after a quick scan, but again is just an updated version of things you already have. I haven't seen 760 patrons yet, so I can't comment on that.

A long list of other supplements is in the development pipeline, but again they mostly seem like reworked versions of older books. This works for me since I don't own the originals anymore, but for those of you with fully stocked Traveller libraries...

 

[Vargas]

Well, since you asked . . .

I own CT, MT and TNE with a sprinkling of a few GT volumes and T20 PDFs. Last Christmas I got the CT CD and thereby picked up a few of those rare items such as AHL and the Atlas that I missed years ago. I've personally reached a point where a new version of Traveller would have to do something truely amazing before I'd plunk down more money. From everything I've read, MGT doesn't meet that criteria for me, so I've decided to pass. My advice to anyone who owns earlier versions of the game and feel as though they are sitting on the fence about the latest rev is to buy the CT CD if you haven't already or don't have all the books. For the same cost as the MGT core book, you get all of CT which goes beyond what Mongoose will give you for the same price. (Or buy the JTAS CD, the first 20 issues alone are worth their weight in gold).

That's just my opinion, do with it as you will.

And as a closing remark, if you're looking for something in the spirit of CT you might want to try Thousand Suns, the PDF runs about $9. Don't expect a Traveller clone but rather a toolbox-style game which mirrors the original CT in intent.

 

[aramis]

Well... what is the same as CT:
Bk 2 ship design, expanded and contracted (they cap at 2KTd, not 5 as in Bk2, but have more options)
Stats
basics of Jump travel
Basics of World Generation

Differences:
Character generation
- more careers than Bk1, fewer than Bk1+Supp4
- no reenlistment rolls (low promotion rolls get you the boot)
- added event rolls
- background skills
- point based option
- Ironman Option: failed survivial kills, but each term is one reroll per session!
Task System
- an explicit task system exists
- the system uses a stat DM raning from -2 to +3
Travel -
- prices per parsec
- generation method of passengers, freight and cargo
- chances of misjump
- risks of jumping from within 100 diameters (much less dangerous than CT)
Equipment
- added cybertech
Combat
- All damage to End until End gone (Makes characters much more fragile, IME)
- armor reduces damage
- lots of xdy+z damage codes
- Amount of excess on to hit adds to damage
Worlds
- effects of Law Level expanded WILDLY (Essentially making anything over LL6 radically dangerous)
- a number of additional bits of information
- options for tailoring
Ship Design
- Basically bk2 but...
- sizes covered in core dropped to only 2KTd
- bay weapons added
- additional types of energy weapons added
- computers take no space
- bridge no longer formulaic; ≤200Td is 10Td, 201-1000Td is 20, larger is 60Td
- optional drive modes (and poorly executed, some of them)
Ship Combat
- not drive letter based for damages (but was in playtest - grab the playtest draft, it's better)

 

[Theoselk]

If the price is whats keeping you from considering this product...

It's odd how the PDF is 28$, when you can buy the hardcover book for 26.62$ (that includes shipping) from amazon. Its true!

But like you said before:

I'm not too keen on paying ~$30 just to evaluate something that I may nor may not use.

I'd take some time out to browse thru the actual book at a local game and hobby shop, its alot better than the preview makes it out to be.

 

[Gruffty]

Question for the old CT hounds here... would you say buying the book is worth it?

Yes, definitely and, from where I'm sitting, I get the old "I got a new Traveller book!" feeling from way-back-when when I read my copy of the Mongoose Traveller book/pdf.

It's CT for the 00s.

 

[daryen]

Let's put it this way: It is a good representation of Traveller.

If you are looking for a reason to like it, you will most likely end up liking it. If you are looking for a reason to dislike it, you will most likely end up disliking it. It has its issues, but as the current standard bearer for Traveller, we could have gotten a lot worse.

If you have your favorite version of Traveller already, this is very unlikely to change your mind. In such a case, just don't bother. It will only annoy you and piss you off.

If, however, you are willing to give it a chance and take it as it is, then it will work. It is a workable system that is highly compatible with CT and MT. It is also currently supported, which means that, after the "compulsories" are done (e.g. Mainbook, SM, Mercenary, HG, etc), any new material will use it as the foundation, not a prior version.

 

[jimg]

If you are looking for a reason to like it, you will most likely end up liking it. If you are looking for a reason to dislike it, you will most likely end up disliking it. It has its issues, but as the current standard bearer for Traveller, we could have gotten a lot worse.

If you have your favorite version of Traveller already, this is very unlikely to change your mind. In such a case, just don't bother. It will only annoy you and piss you off.

Nicely said, kind of what I was trying to say.

 

[Supplement Four]

My observation is that, generally, the old CT fans aren't that impressed with MGT. The people who currently play CT don't seem to be MGT fans. (Of course, there are a couple of exceptions, as there alwasy is.)

Those Traveller players playing other additions of Traveller seem to like MGT and are migrating that way.

If you were looking at a pie chart that represented the entire Traveller playing population, my observation is that the largest wedge (the CT wedge) is staying approximately the same size while the smaller pie pieces are filling in the MGT wedge.

 

[Eisenmann]

I ran/played my first game of Traveller (CT) last fall using the LBB reprints. It was a fantastic game! I loved how there was so much material on the 'net, both pay-for and free.

I picked up Mongoose's Traveller and love it even more. It feels refined and updated out of the box AND I still use all that same classic material.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I didn't have the LBBs when I was younger, just The Traveller Book. Compared to that, MGT has more detailed character backgrounds, but no Library Data, no beginning subsector data but a unknown detailed subsector map is included. The common spacecraft section is kinda haphazard. Psionics is about the same. I usually pass on World Creation. As far as the feel goes? Some of the artwork is a bit cartoonish, tho some of it is good. Other than that...

Bought it just as a collectible, but I might give it a try.

 

[mike wightman]

I'm still looking for anything in MgT that I will borrow for my house rules.

The main reasons I like it are:

it is in print and easily available

there are lots of supplements planned

it makes Traveller a living game again

 

[Eisenmann]

I didn't have the LBBs when I was younger, just The Traveller Book. Compared to that, MGT has more detailed character backgrounds, but no Library Data, no beginning subsector data but a unknown detailed subsector map is included. The common spacecraft section is kinda haphazard. Psionics is about the same. I usually pass on World Creation. As far as the feel goes? Some of the artwork is a bit cartoonish, tho some of it is good. Other than that...

Bought it just as a collectible, but I might give it a try.

Personally, I think the MGT book is very dense - packed full. It's not chocked to the gills with exclusive Traveller info because the book will be the core for a bunch of their other games.

 

[Vargas]

it makes Traveller a living game again

When did it die?

 

[leo knight]

If I still had my Classic Traveller stuff (lost and gone forever... sniff), I'd be playing that. But Mongoose is here, and in print, and close enough to the original that I don't mind the differences. My friends can go down to the FLGS and pick up a copy if they want. And if I ever get around to buying the CD-ROM, I can convert all of that material with minimal effort.

I will happily scavenge any GURPS material I can use, or Star Frontiers, or whatever. I say, whatever gets you and your players to the table, and keeps them there, is the right version.

 

[Allensh]

I'm massively disappointed with it. If you've only ever played LBB1-3, you may like it. If you play LBB4+, there may be bits you can use. Otherwise, save your money.

Of course the game hasn't been out long enough to have the amount of material equal to LBB4+ but apparently that doesn't matter.

Mercenary is just coming out soon, High Guard next month. It takes time to make this stuff and build up to the level of before...and there are already people who are complaining about the retreads and wanting NEW stuff.

I ran the game last night, actually RAN it, not just talked about it. Best time I have had running any version of Traveller in 10 years. THAT is the only thing I care about.

Allen

 

[Jame]

When did it die?

It wasn't dead, it was asleep!

 

[Allensh]

When did it die?

When T4 and Imperium Games went belly-up actually.

GURPS Traveller, D20 Traveller and Traveller Hero are the Traveller setting in other people's game systems. As a game in its own right with its own system, Traveller 4 was the last real attempt that wasn't just reprints.

Allen