well, .O02 credits worth, TJ...
I defer to Hunters comment, regarding that the Three Books might not draw players, but for one point: I have never had a problem getting players using them.
Currently I am setting up a online game, using the three books, although I use the MT chargen charts...they are in every way compatable, but allow for cascades...this is to the benefit of the players, but I would have just as well used the basic 3. Everything else IS the basic three.In two other FTF groups I have run at the local store, I have had no problem getting players either.
D20 is what everyone is familiar with, and has become the industry standard IMO for the simple reason that the OGL is FREE, not because it is good.A brilliant marketing move, but it doesn't change a simple fact: If it was so hot, they wouldn't be giving it away, seems to me...and we all know it is at best mediocre. I will say no more on that subject as it doesn't bear further on my point.
Why? I am asked...very well...I enumerate...
Firstly, I play and run a GAME. With the possible exception of ships the PCs used, (custom or otherwise) I never once in 22 years used the high guard rules in any of my games because the ships the PCs played in were never that big, and if they were, they never fought them, they always ran away (a 400 ton trader against a destroyer? please! )Book 2 is adequate to the task.
The emphasis in all of my games is roleplay.... combat, encounters, or what have you the 3 cover nicely, and while there are more "up to date " systems, I like basic , straightforward mechanics...the 2d6 system is elegant and simple, and if the system has holes, they are not a challenge to tend to. A GM unimaginative enough to solve questions on the fly is the one who buys every last supplement, every dice rolling article, every new system. (this is only my opinion, and not a dig- I have always run "off the cuff" and am used to it, others may not be)
This is intrinsic to my attitude toward gaming: mechanics are the nessecary evil to be endured to allow play to occur, and should be minimal and I personally haven't a rodent's posteriors care about the subject, as players in my groups will tell you, I find such debates tiresome in the extreme. In face to face games I am known to invite players to kindly not return when they debate the vagaries of why they want yet another system over this one or that one.
now, I grant I have used the various supplemental adventures, Book 1, 4, and so on, but frankly, they werent nessecary, and with FFE rereleases, everything you really need is under one cover...I bought the Classic Books because my Hardcover Traveller Book (the best package GDW did for ease of use and utility) simply wore out.
To sum up- I think Classic Traveller has a place, even now...it is simple (and simple systems means one must make allowances), it is elegant (anyone can buy D6 in any grocery, and its a clean and simple system to implement) and quick. (its greatest virtue to my eyes)
Classic traveller is dated only in that it is old...any competent GM will find it useful, and concise. All else is fad, and while we all have our favorite systems, I still maintain simple is good..more complex and involved takes the load off, but then...if you aren't GM enough to just say "What the hell...thats a 2d6 roll on intel.." then all else is just an attempt to remove the decision making process, to make it easier for a lazy or unimaginative GM, or to put adjudication in the hands of the dice.
Currently, I run two games, one T20 , as the book, because thats what the players have, and a Face to Face with Classic, because after I handed the book around, that what the players preferred...that, more than anything else, I think, shows that Classic still has its place.
Just MY opinion,. and no one elses...
Bryan
Artist amd Gamer at large
