Which Traveller Version Has Best Ship Design?

[Marchand]

I hope the title is self-explanatory!

I'm sure the answer is "depends what you're after". The problem is, I'm not really sure yet as my play experience is quite limited. So I was hoping those more experienced might provide a few pointers in the form of pluses and minuses of different ship design sequences from the point of view of different play styles. My preference would be for a fairly abstract, rules-light space combat system.

I have worked up some MgT examples and am currently wrestling with producing my first design in MT. But I only have an entire bank holiday weekend! (joke - although I should be able to squeeze in a couple of hours to mess around with it tomorrow...)

Edit: pls feel free to point me to other threads where this may already be discussed - couldn't find it.

 

[robject]

Depends on what you're... oh you've already covered that angle.

CT, Book 2 is good for player-character ships and for having typical adventure-style encounters. It's fast and covers the basics.

CT, High Guard is good for wargaming.

MegaTraveller is good for vehicle and smallcraft design, good for starship accessories, and good if you need to design TL 18 uber-high-tech craft.

 

[far-trader]

...currently wrestling with producing my first design in MT.

As in MegaTraveller? Yep, wrestling sounds about right.

As you mention having Mongoose Traveller and already done some with that, I'd suggest stay with it. Should suit your wants as good as the other suggestion I'd make for abstract and rules light, with time constraints. Which would of course be Classic Traveller LBB2. Very similar to Mongoose Main Rulebook design and play.

Or you could snag a very fine program design aid for Classic Traveller High Guard (a little more complicated but not much than LBB2, also incorporates T20 in some versions, and blends LBB2), Andrew Moffatt-Vallance's "High Guard Shipyard" and be designing and tweaking more detailed ships in no time (though having High Guard to know what you're building is almost a requirement). The program is here:

http://www.downport.com/amv/software/hgs.html

 

[aramis]

Most realistic: T4 FF&S2
Personal preference: T20

Why T20? well, it produces ships compatible with CT Bk5, MT, and T20. It includes some of the nicer bits from TNE and T4. It requires no calculator, and is practical with just a 4 function calculator and some paper.

More options than CT, less hassle than MT (and MT is less than TNE/T4 in the design department)

As for what you're looking for, MGT is as light as Traveller gets on space combat; picking up mayday for the counters and combat rules will give you compatibiliy with MGT Core Rules designs, but not with the combat rules.

Using the Mayday movement and combat rules with MGT designs requires developing equivalents for CT style hits; essentially, that's in the SRD for MGT High Guard already.

Also plausible is using mayday for movement, maps and counters, but MGT for all other ship combat aspects.

 

[Starviking]

Personally I loved the TNE FF&S design system. It was a pain with the maths* - but it seemed much more 'realistic' and the granularity level was high enough that you could produce really distinct ships - but flesh out lots of different design philosophies too. IMHO, of course.

*Post FF&S I could ace any maths segment of whatever job I applied for. Sadly the other segments usually defeated me

 

[Marchand]

Many thanks for all the advice. I wouldn't say I had the hang of MT yet but I'm starting to get a sense for the size of the wood I'm in through the trees... can appreciate the range of options it offers, too.

Further question: is TNE ship combat tabletop or abstract?

 

[skyth]

One thing about MT ship design...Understanding HG ship design makes it easier (To some extent)

 

[aramis]

Further question: is TNE ship combat tabletop or abstract?

Yes.

the core rulebook is abstract, but detailed.
The Brilliant Lances game is the same system adapted to a grid.

 

[mbrinkhues]

For "background" ships (little/no combat planned) I prefer GT + Starships due to the large amount of "civilian gadgets"

For general building it's still MegaTraveller with an eye to the reactor fuel problem

 

[Jame]

One thing about MT ship design...Understanding HG ship design makes it easier (To some extent)

Not to me!

My personal preference for small-ship building has become MGT; my preference for large-ship building is CTHG.