2300AD - A suggestion

[Azgulor]

Actually, while I have you all...

One of my peeves/issues with 2300AD is that, unless you are familiar with the 2300AD universe, it is not always obvious to newcomers as to what characters should actually do. You have the corporate/government troubleshooter kind of role, there are military-style campaigns, but I always felt that this was a little niche and should not be the 'default' (in the way that shady traders are the 'default' in Traveller).

What are you guys doing for character/party roles in 2300AD?

I like the more grounded take that 2300AD brings to the table. That said, slavish devotion to the older editions is a mistake, IMO. A heretical view, I'm sure.

While I like the more grounded take of the setting, it still needs to be about adventure. My 2300AD universe takes a lot of inspiration from The Expanse, Netflix's Lost in Space & Altered Carbon, Outland, Alien & Aliens, the Starfield video game, Cowboy Beebop (the real one, not the Netflix one) and other 'near-future' influences. Establishing outposts, colonizing worlds, troubleshooting, space western, bounty hunting, cyberpunk in the core, etc.

Basically, I want to play Traveller - just not in the Imperium.

While I like the vertical deckplan layouts and the lack of gravitics, my players want horizontal deckplans and artificial gravity. I hate the idea of combat at stutterwarp speeds, and my players bounced off the 'nuclear-pumped laser warheads' HARD.

The sheer volume of 'regular' Traveller stuff makes the limited selection of 2300AD gear seem lackluster in comparison. So, in my 2300AD, I'm mostly using Traveller Higher Guard and CSC material and supplementing with 2300AD personal gear that fills in gaps and vehicles. I want to be able to use my Traveller catalog but strip out anything above TL12, gravitic vehicles, and anything Third Imperium-specific. I like having some setting differences that justify some rule variants in 2300AD (computer tech, lack of gravitics, variant careers, different aliens), but it should be 90% 'default' Mongoose Traveller 2e (unified personal equipment, vehicles, spaceships). There should be variances or options to highlight the differences. They shouldn't be incompatible rules.

I realize I'm probably in the minority of 2300AD fans, but I like buying your Traveller products (across both lines) and using them. So, if 2300AD is going to lean even further into its origins and its original rules, I understand. But my campaign is probably going to look a lot more like a "my Hostile setting powered by Traveller 2e", than a "my 2300AD" campaign in the end.