Short answer:
I bought the MGT books I did because I found things in each that made it worth it to me. I run it because my players like the mechanics with my game (they're not sold on the Imperium, though, so I've dropped it.)
Long answer:
Until a short while I owned the 3 1977 LBBs. Period. Great game, used with my own shipbuilding system, drive rules, and techniques of fleshing out a system and creatures in a system. I never bought anything else back when because my first exposures to HG and Mercenary were very negative, so I wrote all additional materials off and just stuck with what I had.
Then I picked up the CT and JTAS CDs a short while before MGT playtest was announced to get more pregen stuff for my game. These disks are a treasure trove, I plan to buy more of the CDs.
The material, however, had the inevitable tendency to pull my campaign more toward a standard Imperium milieau, since that's what the bulk was written for. After working on some conversions, I started planning to run a short campaign in the Imperium to see whether this would work for me and my players.
Also, a side job had entered my life allowing me some "mad money" to buy the CDs and generally increase the money I could spend on gaming without guilt. The Traveller CDs and a copy of the new Talisman were the first fruits of that.
About this time the Mongoose playtest came along. I suggested giving it a try to my players. Not all wanted to interrupt our current CT game, since it was nearing the dramatic climax, but the consensus was to go ahead and try it over the holidays since attendance was going to be spotty anyway.
We ran it, and my players liked it. The most positive response came from those who least wanted to interrupt our present game, my core group. I had no strong feelings one way or the other, but I felt it worthwhile to plan to buy the core book and run my Imperium campaign with it, even if it meant trying out two things at once, more or less.
I then went on to buy most of the books as they came out. In each case I felt that there was something worth buying the book for. Each is a mixed bag, but I never came away feeling "robbed" (as I had with MRQ.)
Core book:
Crappy art (which I understand has been changed), adds a task system I like better than the Fugate/DGP system I got on my JTAS CD (which I've only recently read. The purchase of the CDs did not result in an index download to my brain, after all.) I've come to like the personal combat system, despite initial misgivings and plans to go back to a more CT-like combat that I originally had.
Mercenary:
Didn't turn out as useful as I hoped, turned out a few characters with the new generation system. I don't like the results the book gives but using it gave me a template for my own expanded career tweaks. Enough of the new equipment is usable as-is to make the book worthwhile.
High Guard:
Big ships are presences in my campaign rather than characters, so I just use the simplified building rules and pre-gens to get generally logical big ships for the game. HG gives me enough to buy it for that. The careers are also better than those in Mercenary.
760 Patrons:
Roll-your-own Amber Zones. I like to use it for sub-plots, red herrings, and fleshing out NPCs quickly in a way that doesn't let my players typecast my NPCs too quickly. Some of my players have played with me for about 20 years, as original as I try to be each time, there's a limit. I also use the CT sources. The more, the better IMO.
Spinward Marches:
By itself it wouldn't have done it for me. With the CT materials it was very useful. I also didn't have to print it out myself. Turned out even more valuable than I expected.
Universe of B5:
An abomination of a book, but with enough good info in it to make launching a B5 campaign a whole lot easier for me. I have a lot of problems with this book, documented elsewhere here and on Mongoose's forums, but it was still worth the money for me.
I've just launched a B5 Traveller campaign using MGT and the players are very happy. I've come to like MGT a lot more than I did initially. Each book has been valuable to me, in spite of problems. As testament to this, I've been having to put off sending back Mercenary and HG to Mongoose for replacement until I can do without the books for a week or two (I expect to send them back in the next couple of weeks.)
I spent money I could afford to spend, and actually enjoyed getting to spend it at the FLGS--much of what I like to buy for gaming isn't carried by Alliance.
Now, I also bought a copy of T4 last week at a local used book store. From my CT-centric viewpoint, I'm seeing where a lot of MGT comes from in that. However, the task system isn't 2D6, and everything is roll-low rather than roll-high. But I like it even though I'm not likely to ever run it. I think the book itself is great even though the art panels aren't the greatest (the Elmore stuff. Where did that rubber-mask alien PC come from?
) I also find Foss's art in the plates too far on the space fantasy side for my taste with Traveller--in general I like his stuff--but the presentation on plates is much nicer than mixing it with the content or putting huge borders on the pages with lots of fancy salad to build the feeling of atmosphere.
Even with the flaws and the fact that I'll almost certainly never use it live, the T4 core book was well worth it to me. It's a joy to read, even if it does have about as much errata as an MGT book.
Now Bill, I think I've done my part to justify my purchase of MGT. People spend a heck of a lot more money on things I see a lot less value in. Satellite TV sports packages, frex. You buy one package, but if you
actually want to watch the games you have to spend more per month on yet another programming package than you pay for everything else.
And enough dollars get spent to buy everything ever published for Traveller well before the season's out. I'll read box scores on the internet and buy books, thank you.
I bought it and play it because I like it, and it works for me. I'm pretty sure I'm not stupid, and not just because I've got pieces of paper like the Scarecrow. I understand that you like other Traveller rules better--CT in particular if I'm not mistaken. Great! CT is wonderful, and the CDs for it and other editions are great bargains. Same goes for MT and the others. Saying good things about MGT doesn't invalidate that. I'm sure you can see that one ruleset doesn't have to get praise at the expense of another, and that where comparisons are drawn they're to illustrate a personal preference, not as an absolute statement of virtue as fact.
Anent comments about character career events, this has been responded to. Going on about it further isn't going to convince anyone that the MGT books are bad just because chargen gets more flavor text. There's no perfect puritanical standard for creating characters when a wide variety of players is involved. Different things work for different people, and my experience is that MGT chargen draws in some intelligent, capable, imaginative people in a way that CT chargen doesn't. And the extra hasn't hampered anyone who did well with CT--they know I'm willing to work with them if the want to deviate from the description in the book--though they'll still want a shot at picking up a positive DM from the entry on the table.
The same goes for task systems. The target numbers can change without nerfing the game. Pretending otherwise is sophistry.
I'm also not at home to arguments that MGT may work fine for a highly skilled and experienced ref like me (is my halo showing?
), but what about some hypothetical poor lesser being who blindly reads the words and plays them as written?
Assuming I believed in such a being, OJT and learning to use what works, ditch what doesn't, is what being a ref is all about. And if some kid blows his summer earnings on the full set of MGT books, I can think of worse places it can go--MWM gets something out of it, after all. If they find COTI and ask some questions, I'll bet sometimes the answer is gonna be that they consider picking up some non-MGT Traveller materials. Two lawn mowings will cover the cost of a Traveller digital library on CD from FFE (or once across my 2.5 acres with money left over.) Even if not, so what? It's their money.
Yeah, MGT ain't perfect. Whether it's worth the money is something I'm willing to leave up to the individual. I'm interested in specific discussions of its flaws and strengths, and people's likes and dislikes--as I am for any ruleset in which I have an interest. But there comes a point where repetition of prior arguments and strawman arguments turn considered opinion into something less valuable.
