So - why would you chose CT over MgT?

[Doctor_Rob]

As has been said elsewhere, you can get the whole CT canon from Mark for 30 odd dollars - an absolute bargain!

Rules-wise, if you want something a bit more 'sophisticated', then why not use MegaTraveller. Again, all of MegaTraveller for a similar amount.

Personally, I have used MagaTraveller rules to run a CT game with great success (not a huge fan of the Shattered Imperium).

 

[mbrinkhues]

As some others did l choose „neither" and go with Mega(MT). Some options l would consider:

MT system, TNE chargen (lMHO the best)
MT system, MgT chargen (better than MT in most aspects)
Using MgT „Livepath"
Adapting the flexible Skill-Attribute link from MgT

None a must since MT stands on it's own due to better levels of tech detail, integrated build&combat systems and HardTimes (best „in Print" background, Gateway is a tad better)

lf forced to choose l take MgT as the lesser evil Like choosing between Bonnie and Clyde - at lest Bonnie looks better

 

[snrdg082102]

First silly question for clarification: Is this about Mongoose Traveller or MegaTraveller?

If this is about Moongoose Traveller versus Classic Traveller the answer is what one feels best to you. However, I have actually played using CT rules and sad to say I have not actually been in a Mongoose Traveller game which probably means I talking through my hat.

 

[Poppyseed45]

First silly question for clarification: Is this about Mongoose Traveller or MegaTraveller?

If this is about Moongoose Traveller versus Classic Traveller the answer is what one feels best to you. However, I have actually played using CT rules and sad to say I have not actually been in a Mongoose Traveller game which probably means I talking through my hat.

Classic vs. Mongoose. And every time I think I've got it figured out, I find myself reading something somewhere in one of the game books and I think "Gah, the other one does this in a better way!"

Which means that, dread of dreads, I'll be forced to mix versions together. Anathema!

 

[mike wightman]

Lol - keep mixing, eventually you get your own homemade cake

Put another way you can easily find bits in every Traveller edition that you like and before you know it you have a hybrid system that is much better than any individual version.

 

[snrdg082102]

Thanks Mencelus for comfirming my guess that the question was concerning Classic versus Mongoose. I've found that one rule set has something that fills a need, okay a need in my mind, in another one. Which does cause headaches in designing.

Classic vs. Mongoose. And every time I think I've got it figured out, I find myself reading something somewhere in one of the game books and I think "Gah, the other one does this in a better way!"

Which means that, dread of dreads, I'll be forced to mix versions together. Anathema!

 

[tbeard1999]

Hallo all, it's been a long time. I'm cycling back into a Traveller phase, so this question seems like an appropriate place to re-enter the fray.

I was among MGT's most bitter critics when it came out. However, as I saw Mongoose attempt to make a credible product, I softened a lot. In particular, Mongoose impressed me with their willingness to move quickly to fix major screwups. And I even wrote a few downright nice things about some of the supplements. I mention this to declare my biases.

I would play CT over MgT for several reasons. The biggest reason -- which is inapplicable to new players -- is that I have 31 years of familiarity with CT.

The second biggest reason is that I really can't think of anything important that MgT does better than CT. Yeah, I know about the task system, but I just can't get too excited about that. Since the early days of CT, we've been buried with various task systems. IMHO, all this effort was expended to solve a non-existent problem. And for cripes sake, let's give it a rest.

This is not to say that CT is perfect. Far from it. For decades, I've used an alternate combat system. Books 4-6 produce*(IMHO) absurdly overpowered characters and I have had to fix that. Book 4 weapons shatter the CT combat system .

But CT was simple and elegant and allowed for easy modification. The problems that I perceived were easy to fix and I did so. I lack the patience and time to do the same for MGT.

The good news is that the two games are sufficiently similar that MGT can be a decent resource for CT referees. However, many liberties are taken with CT canon, which can be irritating.

CT was also written by serious wargame designers, so its military elements were generally very well done. Many MGT authors seem to lack such a grounding and it shows. (That said, Matt Sprange is a fellow wargame grognard).

 

[cperkins]

CT vs Other

Maybe saying what has already been said, but here goes...

When MgT came out I bought it looking for a better Traveller, and was very disappointed. Then I got TNE to the same end. Then came T4 and while I loved a lot of the more technical number crunching (especially by Greg Porter's contributions) and had a lot of fun designing vehicles and such, I didn't like the way it played (I definitely had more fun preparing for a game than playing it). Then I spent a whole bunch on GURPS Traveller products and while they were great for the background info it still played like GURPS, not CT (IMHO GURPS is great for some games, but not Traveller). Finally discovered FFE and bought some CDs where I got those books I was missing (and thought I couldn't get anymore) and the only Traveller for me since then has been CT. I haven't bought any Mongoose products to date but have used some reference material presented in Signs & Portents.

I don't regret the hundreds I have spent on the other versions (they can be great resources), but I could have lived without every one of them.

I like supporting FFE directly as I have almost 33 years playing CT, I like the nostalgia and I like introducing my kids to a classic RPG. I can't wait until my grandson is old enough to join our campaigns. I also really like the classic sci-fi atmosphere one seems to get with it as I grew up reading the masters of the sci-fi golden age.

That is not to say that CT is perfect, or the perfect system, but it is arguably one of the most fun systems to play (and it encourages true role playing instead of being a rules heavy semi-wargame; assuming one doesn't use Striker of AHL, etc.).

One of the great things about CT is that if you want, or need, a new vehicle or weapon you can just make it up. The only rule I use when making stuff up on the fly is the straight face test. If I have time I sometimes use Guns! Guns! Guns! or Stuff! for new weapons and such, but I don't need to. Either way I don't have some nagging need to check my device against some design rulebook.

I do incorporate advanced chargen rules from Mercenary, High Guard, Scouts and Merchant Prince because I want heroic characters (my campaigns tend to lean toward space opera without too much campiness), though we have our share of COTI characters.

I have added new Bounty Hunter, Intelligence Service and TAS Employee careers and also have included a few new skills and house rules, but these were for flavor. For one, when a player rolls Jack-O-T they have the option of rolling on a d66 (6x6) table of skills that wouldn't normally be available for their career (giving a more realistic(?) Jack of All Trades feel to the character). I have also added a cascading Science skill with numerous disciplines and reworked the Scientist career skill roll tables so that I can get a more usable Scientist character (that way a High Guard engineer wasn't more of a scientist than a Scientist). Other than that I use most of the rules as written.

Guess I'm rambling a bit, but I hope I have made an adequate and coherent point why I am using CT.

 

[aramis]

@CPerkins:
MgT=Mongoose Traveller.
MT = MegaTraveller.

You appear to have gotten it backwards.

 

[hdan]

I actually just started a CT game, and my reason was simple - the players in the campaign, while generally experienced players with games like D&D and Savage Worlds, were not very experienced with Traveller, and showed a certain reluctance to read the rules to yet another RPG system.

I decided on CT over MgT because of CT's simplicity AND its stark contrast to other RPGs in terms of combat sequence, damage handling, and well, just about everything except for basic statistics. In particular, I'm using LBB1-3 only, so the number of skills per character is limited. MgT is still "Traveller-y", but it also brings in some elements from modern RPG thought, like initiative rolls and such.

To go with this "Traveller isn't like D&D" theme, I'm attempting a bit of an "old school" one-shot adventure experience. The characters are all pre-generated and will likely not be used past this adventure, even if they survive. Then again, I have one player who's already asked if she can keep her character if we play future games, so who knows? My view of "old school CT" allows characters to come and go with relative ease, and players can switch characters between adventures if they aren't happy with how things are working out.

I really do like MgT's character generation system - it's very flavorful. But it also makes characters feel a little more "permanent", which doesn't always mesh well with the deadliness of Traveller combat.

 

[Baron]

Hah! I thought you were talking CT vs MegaTraveller! Mongoose, reallY?

I use CT for all the reasons already stated by other folks. There isn't junk I have to cut out or re-write. I like the basic, "roll an 8" or whatever it is, to succeed. Simple. No, "oh now I have to assign a subjective difficulty rating to change your roll" step. Roll the dice and just get on with gaming.

One of my very favorite games. Why would I buy a re-write from a licensee?

 

[saundby]

I'm presently running a Mongoose game with a fair bit of CT and T5 thrown in, but mainly for campaign level stuff.

As I've had two new power gamers come into my game to replace my old power gamers (somehow that always seems to happen), I've had a reason to regret using Mongoose Traveller:

Every time they look in an add-on book and go "Oh, wow cool!" I have reason to cringe.

Because I know I'm going to have to tell them "no, you can't have one of those."

Now, if I was running CT I'd go with LBBs1-3 only, with my own additions and perhaps a few other hand-selected items, but not the extended chargen.

 

[mike wightman]

Hah! I thought you were talking CT vs MegaTraveller! Mongoose, reallY?

I use CT for all the reasons already stated by other folks. There isn't junk I have to cut out or re-write. I like the basic, "roll an 8" or whatever it is, to succeed. Simple. No, "oh now I have to assign a subjective difficulty rating to change your roll" step. Roll the dice and just get on with gaming.

One of my very favorite games. Why would I buy a re-write from a licensee?

If you use the 'roll an 8 and move on' method you are:

a)using a common house rule that was first in print in an Andy Slack article in White Dwarf

and

b)cutting out the entire skills section

 

[nats]

I think its often the case that people like to reinvent the wheel to continue making money. Traveller has definitely suffered from this. IMHO the best version by far was/is the first one and nothing since has bettered it. Its simple, its rules light, its got a great feeling, its immersive and its extremely flexible. I love it and the more I think about it the more I love to just play Traveler with mainly books 1-3, a few adventures, and forget everything else as being completely unnecessary, overly confusing and distracting. I mean do you actually need anything other than books 1-3 for the bulk of Traveller adventuring ? No you don't. Its these bloody authors and publishers that try to convince you that you do. Ignore them and you will enjoy your Traveller games a heck of a lot more!

 

[ShapeShifter]

CT has the benediction light of the Church of the Universal Brotherhood*.
MgT can't boast of that!





_________________
* For those not in the know, it's a Dumarest of Terra reference.

 

[Baron]

Your reference made me smile, ShapeShifter. I'm a huge fan of Dumarest. It's why Traveller was my first rpg.

 

[77topaz]

Is that a Traveller adventure or something? Or an "independent" sci-fi publication?

 

[Baron]

Dumarest of Terra is a series of SF novels written by EC Tubb. A significant inspiration for Traveller, it presents a number of details any Traveller player would recognize. Google-fu will illuminate, for instance, see http://everything2.com/title/Dumarest+Of+Terra .

 

[ShapeShifter]

Dumarest of Terra is a series of SF novels written by EC Tubb. A significant inspiration for Traveller, it presents a number of details any Traveller player would recognize. Google-fu will illuminate, for instance, see http://everything2.com/title/Dumarest+Of+Terra .

Yup. The Dumarest books ooze with CT goodness: gritty, cynical, harsh, a vast fading interstellar civilisation full of despair, corruption, and lots of opportunity for those fortunate enough to travel....
Tons of references to Low and High Passage, air/rafts, and other stuff. Good reads.

 

[Marchand]

Been a while since I posted on these boards. However this thread asks a question I've been asking of myself. Why does clunky old CT excite my creativity and MgT doesn't?

I think partly it's because CT's stripped-down simplicity leaves more scope for my imagination. Take chargen. In CT, I haven't rolled up an event for my character every term (as in MgT) - I've had to think it up for myself (or not if nothing suggests itself). He made his injury roll by 1? - he was doing something dangerous. I don't need to roll "you do something dangerous" on an event table to tell me. Even moreso, I don't have to rationalise to myself why I rolled 12 for survival and still rolled an event of "you were doing something dangerous".

There are a few personal preferences weighing - aesthetically, I greatly prefer CT's clean, adult presentation to the semi-comicbook MgT style. I like shorter skill lists. If skill-1 represents two to four years of experience, I should be able to do plenty with it - Electronics-1 means I can do sensor ops and comms on the ship's bridge, and then jimmy a retina-scan door lock once we hit planet.

No-one has yet done a more efficient and satisfying world generation sequence than Book 3, for my money. No offence to Thousand Suns, StarCluster or Stars Without Number (if anyone knows them) - all fine products, but which have tried to do the same thing and throw up even less satisfactory/internally consistent results, in my view. (GURPS Space generates more plausible outcomes, but who has the time?)