So I went and did it...

[Dragoner]

I bought the mongoose core and central supply catalog off of dtrpg.

At first read it seems much more game-ish writing, I miss the tech manual style of the LBB's, it felt more dignified; though maybe mong is made to appeal to a younger audience.

Any suggestions for other books, thoughts on rules?

 

[Spinward Scout]

Both the Scouts book and the Psion book have a ton of information.

 

[Dragoner]

Haven't heard much about psion, scouts seems to be about exploring new worlds?


Also...urge to house rule rising....int seems far more apt on initiative than dex, unless every situation is some gunslinger fastdraw kinda thing.

 

[aramis]

Haven't heard much about psion, scouts seems to be about exploring new worlds?


Also...urge to house rule rising....int seems far more apt on initiative than dex, unless every situation is some gunslinger fastdraw kinda thing.

psion is rather interesting... it also includes the rules for shell-people.

 

[sabredog]

So, will you have to do a lot of work to make your game work with these rules, or are they as CT friendly as I have heard? And as a corollary to that, how generic are they so they can be used with non-OTU games?

 

[Dragoner]

So, will you have to do a lot of work to make your game work with these rules, or are they as CT friendly as I have heard? And as a corollary to that, how generic are they so they can be used with non-OTU games?

They are almost totally CT friendly, char gen is some different, but the results are about the same, like this:

Crewman Naval (Crew) 1
UPP 7 7 7 7 7 7
Pilot (spacecraft) 1, Mechanic 1, Vacc Suit 1, Comms 0, Sensors 0
Toolkit, Snub Pistol (3d6–3)

So it is easy to wrap one's head around.

Combat is different but similar, armor subtracts from the damage, damage is done with two stats down is unconciousness, first damage is taken from endurance. As far as being generic, it has some of the old standby ships, I haven't totaly read through starship combat but it has vehicle combat in the core rules. There are vague references to the Imperium, but it has more character classes right from the start and some different tech as well, like cybernetics and dones/robots in the core equipment section.

Talking to various other players and GM's they like it, it does have an updated flavor and gets rid of the "age of sail" feel a bit for which I like, calling spacecraft, spacecraft for example. I have thought of mixing T5 in a bit, because a lot of parts will work.

 

[Leitz]

I *just* picked up something I think is Mongoose Traveller. Published in 2008 by Mongoose, it looks fairly close to the older mechanics. They added careers and some events, but most of the mechanics seem the same. That appearance may change as I read.

Leitz

 

[Spinward Scout]

scouts seems to be about exploring new worlds?

Yes, but also how the scout service and detached duty works.

 

[Dragoner]

I *just* picked up something I think is Mongoose Traveller. Published in 2008 by Mongoose, it looks fairly close to the older mechanics. They added careers and some events, but most of the mechanics seem the same. That appearance may change as I read.

Leitz

I am reading more of it as well, mostly I just read chargen and combat. Tell me what you think of it.

Yes, but also how the scout service and detached duty works.

So it is basically a career book? That is cool, I am thinking of picking some up more of them, but it sounds like it isn't giving extended world gen like the old scouts book.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Yeah, mostly a career book. Mainworld generation only. Nice chapter on First Contact and Survey.

 

[nDervish]

So it is basically a career book? That is cool, I am thinking of picking some up more of them, but it sounds like it isn't giving extended world gen like the old scouts book.

MgT Scouts does contain a "Mainworld Cartographic System" which generates extended system data, sort of.

The MCS takes up a little over a page and a half. It will give you a list of 2d6 orbits (1d6 within the star's jump shadow, 1d6 beyond it) divided between inner/habitable/outer zones. For each orbit, it will tell you whether there's a small rock, large rock, small iceball, large iceball, belt or gas giant there. That's the first half.

The second half provides three methods for deciding which orbit to place the mainworld in.

So, not, it's not "extended world gen like the old scouts book."

(Which I'm a bit sore over because extended world gen was the main thing I was expecting to get out of this book - the career aspects and writeup of Scout Service procedures are nice, but not really that important to me.)

 

[GypsyComet]

If you have one of the older versions of advanced planetary detailing, use it instead. Planetary detail is an entirely separate subsystem in all editions that impacts PC scale rules not at all.

One of the big reasons Mongoose has not done a Grand Survey/WBH scale extended system generator is that science has changed in the meantime, and a construction process for a non-Titus-Bode star system is going to be tough to put on paper.

Yes. I'm aware of the programs to do so. Not the point.

If you run Traveller as the period SF game it has been or with a bit more Pulp, the existing planetary subsystems work just fine. If you want to keep up with the Astronomers, it could be a long wait.

 

[Dragoner]

No worries, I have T5.

I was just wondering about it, but I am thinking that any holes in Mongoose can be neatly filled by T5.

 

[McPerth]

One of the big reasons Mongoose has not done a Grand Survey/WBH scale extended system generator is that science has changed in the meantime, and a construction process for a non-Titus-Bode star system is going to be tough to put on paper.

IMHO 2300AD has a fine system for this...

 

[aramis]

IMHO 2300AD has a fine system for this...

2300 uses Titus Bode.

Titus bode simply means

n(1)=a
n(2)=b
n(x>2)=((2^(n-2))*b)+2​

2300 just randomizes a & b, while traveller doesn't, setting a=0.4AU and b=0.7AU

Note that using Traveller's fixed starts, you get a reasonably close approximation of the Sol system's orbits.

Edit: note also that Orbit 0 should be 0.25AU, not the 0.2 listed in Bk 6.

 

[McPerth]

2300 uses Titus Bode.

Titus bode simply means

n(1)=a
n(2)=b
n(x>2)=((2^(n-2))*b)+2​

2300 just randomizes a & b, while traveller doesn't, setting a=0.4AU and b=0.7AU

Note that using Traveller's fixed starts, you get a reasonably close approximation of the Sol system's orbits.

Edit: note also that Orbit 0 should be 0.25AU, not the 0.2 listed in Bk 6.

There's quite a longtime since I read 2300AD, but, IIRC, each orbit was the previous orbit multiplied by a random number (about 1.2 to 2, IIRC again), not always the same multiplier as whould be in Titus Bode Law.

So (again IIRC), in 2300AD, if orbit 1 was 0.4 AU and the multiplier for second orbit was 1.5, orbit 2 would be 0.6 AU, but that wouldn't mean orbit 3 was 0.8, as Titus Bode Law would, but the multiplier had to be rolled again, as whould have to be rolled for subsequent orbits.