Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
Best: probably FF&S (1&2) and Supp7. I've used them *so* much over the years.
Your biggest waste of money?
- Thread starter Border Reiver
- Start date
Michael Schulz
SOC-12
I'd like to add another vote for First Survey as being the worst of the supplements. Even if they were usable, page, after page, after page of UWP is hardly an inspiring resource in my opinion. A little art and some substance (ie. adventure hooks, discussions of emerging polities, or unique cultures) would have gone a long, long, way to make that book palatable. The amount I impulsively paid for the book when I saw it used a few months ago still makes me cringe with shame.
I'd also like to add a vote to Path of Tears as the best supplement. Holy moley, that book should serve as a model for many an rpg product. Oodles of usable info, adventure hooks, setting info, and politics, written in a lively and engaging fashion, all without an imposing meta-plot makes the book outstanding.
I'd also like to add a vote to Path of Tears as the best supplement. Holy moley, that book should serve as a model for many an rpg product. Oodles of usable info, adventure hooks, setting info, and politics, written in a lively and engaging fashion, all without an imposing meta-plot makes the book outstanding.
Worst? Easy, T4. Period. Even the gems of that line, the incomplete and errata heavy Pocket Empires and Imperial Squadrons, shine mostly because of their proximity to the utter garbage that comprised the rest of T4.
Disappointing Purchases? Invasion:Earth, never got to play it against anyone and eventually gave it away. COACC, never got much work from the designs and never got to play the campaign which seemed very interesting and very different. I'd have to add AHL here too, but only just. Great game, but I didn't use the deckplans as often as I had hoped.
Have fun,
Bill
P.S. Ooops! I could I have ever forgotten the enormously wretched Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium? Or Shattered Ships of the Fighting Imperium? Or Utter Waste of Paper and Ink that Cannot Be Bothered to Follow It's Own Design Rules? FotSI is sooooo bad my mental mixmaster simply tried to edit it from my memory.
Disappointing Purchases? Invasion:Earth, never got to play it against anyone and eventually gave it away. COACC, never got much work from the designs and never got to play the campaign which seemed very interesting and very different. I'd have to add AHL here too, but only just. Great game, but I didn't use the deckplans as often as I had hoped.
Have fun,
Bill
P.S. Ooops! I could I have ever forgotten the enormously wretched Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium? Or Shattered Ships of the Fighting Imperium? Or Utter Waste of Paper and Ink that Cannot Be Bothered to Follow It's Own Design Rules? FotSI is sooooo bad my mental mixmaster simply tried to edit it from my memory.
jfetters
SOC-14 1K
I can understand why a surprising number of people liked COACC. There obviously was a good deal of thought and attention given to the product.
But as I remember it, at the time it was published, there was so little on the market for MT, especially anything that advanced the Metaplot, that I was REALLY pissed off by the time I finished reading it.
In fact, I am miffed by the fact that it is included on the frakkin' CD-ROM...
But as I remember it, at the time it was published, there was so little on the market for MT, especially anything that advanced the Metaplot, that I was REALLY pissed off by the time I finished reading it.
In fact, I am miffed by the fact that it is included on the frakkin' CD-ROM...
As far as offensiveness, that's got to be, for me, Aliens of the Rim. Dave's little snideness came across (and still does) to me as a direct slap in the face for wanting my aliens to be as alien as I can make them.
MT was, overall, a hybrid of wargame and RPG... in that scope, learnign how the Air forces and Interface forces interact with the navies was vital for the games I was running. Hence, COACC, which didn't directly advance the metaplot, one which I seldom use anyway, was no loss.
MT was, overall, a hybrid of wargame and RPG... in that scope, learnign how the Air forces and Interface forces interact with the navies was vital for the games I was running. Hence, COACC, which didn't directly advance the metaplot, one which I seldom use anyway, was no loss.
Mr. Fetters,
Then again, there was NOTHING published for MT that advanced the metaplot. You can make the same complaint about every other MT product. (No, I don't consider Survival Margin a MT product.)
They shot Strephon and that was it, the Imperium swirled around the drain for the next several years while nothing of any real consequence happened. In their aim to do away with the static orderly nature of the classic Third Imperium, they came up with the static disorderly nature of the Rebellion.
Big change, huh?
Have fun,
Bill
etherflyer
SOC-12
Biggest waste of money?
T20. It was expensive, contained no new material I didn't already have, and wasn't even a good adaptation of the d20 rules (the system used in d20 Modern would have been a better fit to Traveller, I think). I suspect I'll never use it.
After that? Some of the PDF supplements. Psionic Institutes was a waste of money, as was 76 Gunmen.
T20. It was expensive, contained no new material I didn't already have, and wasn't even a good adaptation of the d20 rules (the system used in d20 Modern would have been a better fit to Traveller, I think). I suspect I'll never use it.
After that? Some of the PDF supplements. Psionic Institutes was a waste of money, as was 76 Gunmen.
Spinward Scout
SOC-14 5K
I keep looking through this thread an want to add something, but I don't think I have a Traveller book that I didn't like something about it. And the strange thing is all I can think of in answer when I look at the Subject of this thread is my marriage.
The big thing that bothered me about MT was that there was no book covering non-TL-15 merchants, scouts, and patrol ships. Stuff that one would be just as likely (if not more so) to encounter than the TL-15 ships.
Such a suppliment would also be useful for a homebrewed MT universe.
Such a suppliment would also be useful for a homebrewed MT universe.
jfetters
SOC-14 1K
Bill Cameron said:
And I ocmpletely agree about Survival Margin. It has a catalog number AFTER the TNE rulebook. So OTU, yes. MT product? Definitely not.
But that (and others) never materialized. In fact, I think that the only real product that came out that was an adventure set in the Rebellion by GDW was Knightfall.
Anyway, enough ranting. Safe to say, I was not happy with the lack of MT support out there.
Well, I slightly disagree in that IMO "Hard Times" did actually advance the plot, as it dealt with the ramifications of the factions' misbehaviors.
And I ocmpletely agree about Survival Margin. It has a catalog number AFTER the TNE rulebook. So OTU, yes. MT product? Definitely not.
And that is my big frustration. I seem to remember a lot of MT products that were "in the pipeline." Something like "Marc Miller's Battles of the Rebellion" or something that would enable players to experience the big events.
But that (and others) never materialized. In fact, I think that the only real product that came out that was an adventure set in the Rebellion by GDW was Knightfall.
Anyway, enough ranting. Safe to say, I was not happy with the lack of MT support out there.
Bob Weaver
SOC-12
Please forgive the question, I don't mean to start any arguements, I'm just curious as to others' perspective; to wit, what was so bad about the COACC book? Having purchased Striker well after buying all the MT stuff, it seems to me that COACC's design sequences were, like most of MT, a development of Striker. It's certainly not my favorite piece of published Traveller (HG 2nd ed gets that vote) but I found it worthwhile enough to use it in at least one adventure. The two PC's I had used their super-high tech aircraft to attack (and sink) a lower tech wet navy battleship. Pretty cool, I thought. So please indulge my curiosity, and tell me what was so bad about it. I expected a lot of the answers I saw given but not that one.
Cheers,
Bob Weaver
Cheers,
Bob Weaver
It's been a while since I have read it, and in it's own defense, it is a good stand-alone product.
I just didn't like the fact that, instead of expanding upon the Referee's Manual's (Ick) design sequence, it had an entirely new one.
I can't recall the stats that resulted. How would, say, the fighters from the different designs fight?
I just didn't like the fact that, instead of expanding upon the Referee's Manual's (Ick) design sequence, it had an entirely new one.
I can't recall the stats that resulted. How would, say, the fighters from the different designs fight?
Dear Folks -
First, if PCs play high-tech, then COACC might leave them cold, coming as it does primarily in the TL 7-10 space. Maybe there's not much they can use (for one thing, few PC's have flying skills)? "Wot, no spaceships?"
Second, the tasks are wrong. For example, many of them use Tactics as a primary skill. However, in MT, Tactics is a roving modifier that can be used on ANY task roll. Does that mean, for example, that you can apply Tactics as part of a task, and then apply the roving Tactics modifier A SECOND TIME?
What happened was that DGP wrote MT, but GDW didn't play it very much - and so were not up to speed with the rules.
Try reading Tiffany Star #31 for more details.
I think there might be a number of answers. (BTW, it's not my least fave book, I've already mentioned those. However, it is not a brilliant book, either).
First, if PCs play high-tech, then COACC might leave them cold, coming as it does primarily in the TL 7-10 space. Maybe there's not much they can use (for one thing, few PC's have flying skills)? "Wot, no spaceships?"
Second, the tasks are wrong. For example, many of them use Tactics as a primary skill. However, in MT, Tactics is a roving modifier that can be used on ANY task roll. Does that mean, for example, that you can apply Tactics as part of a task, and then apply the roving Tactics modifier A SECOND TIME?
What happened was that DGP wrote MT, but GDW didn't play it very much - and so were not up to speed with the rules.
Try reading Tiffany Star #31 for more details.
Shadowdancer
SOC-14 1K
Please forgive my ignorance, but what are Path of Tears and Survival Margin?
RandyT0001
SOC-13
Going by just the thread title:
AD&D 3 ed's PH, MM, DMG were my biggest waste of money.
As far as Traveller products go:
Judge's Guild star maps, low quality paper and product IMO.
AD&D 3 ed's PH, MM, DMG were my biggest waste of money.
As far as Traveller products go:
Judge's Guild star maps, low quality paper and product IMO.
