An Appeal for Simplicity

[Allensh]

When the Mongoose version of Traveller was announced I'm fairly certain that it was stated that the game was going to be heavily influenced by the original version of Traveller. The first playtest document really reflected this; there were tweaks and updates, obviously, but I felt pretty confident that this looked and felt like Traveller to me. I never got into Megatraveller because, aside from character creation, the rest of the game seemed too complex. It seems though that some people want to turn this into Megtraveller Jr. and I would really hate to see that. Those kinds of things (advanced combat, extended character creation, more detailed psionics and ship construction) are stuff for supplements, not core rules.

Allen

 

[AKAramis]

When the Mongoose version of Traveller was announced I'm fairly certain that it was stated that the game was going to be heavily influenced by the original version of Traveller. The first playtest document really reflected this; there were tweaks and updates, obviously, but I felt pretty confident that this looked and felt like Traveller to me. I never got into Megatraveller because, aside from character creation, the rest of the game seemed too complex. It seems though that some people want to turn this into Megtraveller Jr. and I would really hate to see that. Those kinds of things (advanced combat, extended character creation, more detailed psionics and ship construction) are stuff for supplements, not core rules.

Allen

Being a MegaTraveller Fan, I agree with you. MT was a bit too complex.

THose elements of MT I found needful have been incorporated already in Draft 1. Specifically a task system using 2d.

What I've seen, however, is a drive to turn it not into MT Junior, but TNE Junior.

 

[Allensh]

Being a MegaTraveller Fan, I agree with you. MT was a bit too complex.

THose elements of MT I found needful have been incorporated already in Draft 1. Specifically a task system using 2d.

What I've seen, however, is a drive to turn it not into MT Junior, but TNE Junior.

Either way, that's not something I can support. (I actually liked TNE...well, everything except FF&S, after awhile) but that was because I considered it a different game.

Allen

 

[PaulB]

Of course, this is all the idea of taking part in the playtest - so you can guide the game with your thoughts and feedback into the sort of game that works for you. No, you can't change it whole cloth into what you want - but if something has worked for you and you think it would make the game better, feedback and see how it goes.

PaulB

 

[AKAramis]

Of course, this is all the idea of taking part in the playtest - so you can guide the game with your thoughts and feedback into the sort of game that works for you. No, you can't change it whole cloth into what you want - but if something has worked for you and you think it would make the game better, feedback and see how it goes.

PaulB

There's a flip side of this, Paul: since the core rules will be stripped down to make the SRD, if we don't like how it turns out, we can use what we like, fix what we feel needs to be, and become the competition whilst still being compatible....

 

[Andrew Whincup]

I think Allen's got a point, but then I have found myself prefering simplicity over the last few years.

The second playtest as it stands is pretty much at the bleeding edge of complexity I'm willing to put up with. I'm running the second session of my playtest tonight and I can see myself having to force myself to include elements that I would normally ignore if I wasn't playtesting.

while I appreciate that MongTrav can't be all things to all people, I don't want to produce a game where I'll have to strip out a bunch of things to make it a game I want to play.

That said, it's just about inside that tolerance at the moment: complexity of character generation can be coped with because I only have to go through it once in a campaign and the complexity of the combat seems to be justified by the results.

Andy