Best and worst Mongoose Traveller product to date?

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

CSC is a bit of a bugbear of mine, a lot of the stats seem awry and my copy is now covered in amendments and corrections. Egil

Funnily enough Ive just spent the last few days using CSC stats to correct all the core book weapons pages which are all over the place. I havnt found anything much wrong with CSC to date other than two refs to PGMPs which should have been FGMPs. And I love the refs to SAP, AP and ST ammo and the way it treats grenades/stuns etc. Really all makes sense to me. Of course its worth its weight in gold just for the SMGs which have always been my favourite Traveller weapon for some reason.

I suspect that you took CSC to be the baseline for equipment, and upgraded quite a lot of weapons, whereas I took the Core Book to be the standard, and down graded a lot of weapons.

So, e.g., CSC rates SMGs as assault weapons (very generously, look at the ranges), auto rifles have been upgraded to "rifle" ranges, a number of rifles have gained extra + 3 dam, the ACR stats are substantailly different, zero-G weapons conflict with core book (and have become over complicated), some of the costs for weapon accessories are illogical, with some of the larger kinetic kill weapons no account is made for loss of power over range, FGMPs and PGMPs becoming magazine weaponss (with very limited capacity) rather than having their own generators (though I like the idea of limiting some of the lower tech ones to 1 shot per 2 rounds) etc etc.

ST, SAP and AP are fine, not sure about some of the fancy ammo type for small arms, e.g. a DSAP 5mm round that can generate a super AP effect.

Some of this, especially about weapons that don't exist (and may never exist!) is a case of style, but, IMHO, CSC seems to add inconsistencies and inaccuracies along with lots of new kit.

Egil

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

I decided to create a character in Scouts. I noticed something a bit odd with the skill allocation. Out of all the tables for the different branches there are only 3 entries for Engineer.

If one considers that this service primarily operates; 1: In space. 2: Aboard small star ships. 3: With small or one man crews. 4: Away from support bases. 5: And, it is THE skill that determines success or failure of Jumps. It SHOULD be a commonly learned skill.

No one in the Survey Branch can learn the skill. They must have a lot of problems out in the wilds of space. :lol:

Time to redo the tables. I should look at the frequency of the other skills in order to make sure they are logical.

Agreed, there are some very odd examples of over specialisation that occur in many of the career books. Another one I thought was odd in scouts is that not all would get a "gun combat 0" as a basic skill, would have thought that even the scientific desk jockeys and x-boat crews would have picked this up "in basic" .

Apart from an occasional dip into the HG career structure for the IN, tend to ignore the career tables in these books and use the core book.

Find the careers books more use as a source of ideas

Egil

 

[Prime_Evil]

I suspect that you took CSC to be the baseline for equipment, and upgraded quite a lot of weapons, whereas I took the Core Book to be the standard, and down graded a lot of weapons.

I'm kind of hoping that the upcoming revision of the Traveller SRD will clarify wether the weapon stats given in the CSC now supersede those that were given in the core rulebook. There are enough little differences that some degree of clarification is probably required.

 

[Bense]

I decided to create a character in Scouts. I noticed something a bit odd with the skill allocation. Out of all the tables for the different branches there are only 3 entries for Engineer.

If one considers that this service primarily operates; 1: In space. 2: Aboard small star ships. 3: With small or one man crews. 4: Away from support bases. 5: And, it is THE skill that determines success or failure of Jumps. It SHOULD be a commonly learned skill.

No one in the Survey Branch can learn the skill. They must have a lot of problems out in the wilds of space. :lol:

Time to redo the tables. I should look at the frequency of the other skills in order to make sure they are logical.

You don't need a skilled Engineer just to use your ship's jump drive. The Engineering skill check is Average difficulty, but it only adds its effect to the actual Jump check. The Jump check itself only results in a misjump if the Jump roll is 0 or less.

So, your average character with no Education bonus and no Engineer skill rolling a 7 for the Engineer check fails by 4, not enough to turn the Jump into a misjump unless they roll a 4, 3, or 2 on the Jump check.
If they roll a 2 on their Engineer check - the worst possible result, then the Jump check is going to be rough at -9, but it's still passable with a high roll (10 or above).

If they choose to take their time on the Engineer task and take 1-6 minutes then the roll only fails by 3 and they'll only misjump on a 3 or 2 with an average Engineering roll.

Add in Jack-of-All Trades and an Education modifier and your chance of misjumping goes even lower.

So yes, Scouts without engineers will usually not have very accurate jumps, but they will still be able to do their basic jobs.

 

[DFW]

You don't need a skilled Engineer just to use your ship's jump drive. The Engineering skill check is Average difficulty, but it only adds its effect to the actual Jump check. ... The Jump check itself only results in a misjump if the Jump roll is 0 or less. So yes, Scouts without engineers will usually not have very accurate jumps, but they will still be able to do their basic jobs.

:lol:

Not much else to say.

 

[OddjobXL]

After Core, and given my interests (default campaign with a Firefly flair), I'd say Scoundrel is the handiest. Folks can just make characters out of that book and be good to go. Also tons of information for creating interesting side adventures or less savory campaign angles.

As for least favorite, well, there's not a book I'm terribly upset with yet but I've only bought about half of the line. I know everyone loves the CSC but I wish it was more inclusive, not just weapons and armor, with all sorts of interesting little gadgets and bits of gear. I also wish Mercenary had more information on how battles are fought and more "fluff" around the basic mass combat/ticket generation rules to help folks make more sense of the scenarios and how to present them.

If I could keep only three books, though, they'd be the Core Book, Scoundrel and Spinward Marches. Scoundrel for fun. Spinward Marches for a ready to go default setting.

What's really missing are a world building/design book and an alien race/culture design book. I can live with or without robots and cyborgs and power armor but aliens are part and parcel of sci fi as are alien worlds.

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

After Core, and given my interests (default campaign with a Firefly flair), I'd say Scoundrel is the handiest. Folks can just make characters out of that book and be good to go. Also tons of information for creating interesting side adventures or less savory campaign angles.

As for least favorite, well, there's not a book I'm terribly upset with yet but I've only bought about half of the line. I know everyone loves the CSC but I wish it was more inclusive, not just weapons and armor, with all sorts of interesting little gadgets and bits of gear. I also wish Mercenary had more information on how battles are fought and more "fluff" around the basic mass combat/ticket generation rules to help folks make more sense of the scenarios and how to present them.

If I could keep only three books, though, they'd be the Core Book, Scoundrel and Spinward Marches. Scoundrel for fun. Spinward Marches for a ready to go default setting.

What's really missing are a world building/design book and an alien race/culture design book. I can live with or without robots and cyborgs and power armor but aliens are part and parcel of sci fi as are alien worlds.

Agreed, on pretty much every point (but I do not love CSC, see above!, but agree that more non-combat gear could have been included), though if I had to go for the "only three Traveller books allowed on the desert asteroid" would go for the Core book, Spinward Marches, and High Guard (but I like playing at spacecraft designer!)

Egil

 

[IanBruntlett]

Agreed, on pretty much every point, though if I had to go for the "only three Traveller books allowed on the desert asteroid" would go for the Core book, Spinward Marches, and High Guard (but I like playing at spacecraft designer!)

Egil

I would go for Core book, Spinward Marches and Traveller Campaign guide (when it comes out!)

 

[nats]

Agreed, on pretty much every point, though if I had to go for the "only three Traveller books allowed on the desert asteroid" would go for the Core book, Spinward Marches, and High Guard (but I like playing at spacecraft designer!)

Egil

I would go for Core book, Spinward Marches and Traveller Campaign guide (when it comes out!)

Is Spinward Marches worth getting then if you have the old Classic one? - I use mine but am aware that the planet trade decriptions are a little off. Does it have all the Spinward Marches subsector maps in it or is it just a descriptive book?

 

[IanBruntlett]

Is Spinward Marches worth getting then if you have the old Classic one? - I use mine but am aware that the planet trade decriptions are a little off. Does it have all the Spinward Marches subsector maps in it or is it just a descriptive book?

I don't have the old Classic Spinward Marches. The new book has got the sector mapped out as sub-sectors and background information about the 3rd Imperium - including influential organisations, For a relative newbie, Spinward Marches is one of the more useful books.

 

[locarno24]

I like the Warships of Babylon 5 book, but will happily admit that it's very buggy:

The deck plans have several decks missing on some ships (hyperion plan is missing two decks).

Some ships aren't laid out in a way that matches their outside appearance (Dag'Kar's missile bays vs where the launch tubes clearly are) or are set up in a bizzare fashion (Nova's launch bay split into two - makes sense - but into ten fighters and fourteen rather than twelve and twelve).

Nevertheless, it's a nice book and more or less a given to pick up if you like the universe. The really big ships aren't too big a deal, but the lighter capital ships (like the Vorchan and Sho'Kos) are something players may have to deal with and the addition of the Sentri and Delta-V fighters are a good pick.



If you've got the Universe of B5 and Warships of Babylon 5 books, I heartily recommend picking up the Legacies of War campaign. It's a very interesting story and essentially finishes off the Crusade series that was abandoned halfway through.

 

[AndrewW]

Is Spinward Marches worth getting then if you have the old Classic one? - I use mine but am aware that the planet trade decriptions are a little off. Does it have all the Spinward Marches subsector maps in it or is it just a descriptive book?

Each subsector of the Spinward Marches has its own section including a subsector map.

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

Is Spinward Marches worth getting then if you have the old Classic one? - I use mine but am aware that the planet trade decriptions are a little off. Does it have all the Spinward Marches subsector maps in it or is it just a descriptive book?

I don't have the old Classic Spinward Marches. The new book has got the sector mapped out as sub-sectors and background information about the 3rd Imperium - including influential organisations, For a relative newbie, Spinward Marches is one of the more useful books.

Very much my take, having no CT experience the MgT Spinward Marches has been my starting point.

Egil

 

[nats]

Is Spinward Marches worth getting then if you have the old Classic one? - I use mine but am aware that the planet trade decriptions are a little off. Does it have all the Spinward Marches subsector maps in it or is it just a descriptive book?

I don't have the old Classic Spinward Marches. The new book has got the sector mapped out as sub-sectors and background information about the 3rd Imperium - including influential organisations, For a relative newbie, Spinward Marches is one of the more useful books.

Very much my take, having no CT experience the MgT Spinward Marches has been my starting point.

Egil

Its now gracing my Amazon wishlist/ Christmas List along with a few other Mongoose products! We will see what Santa brings and in case it isnt a MGT Traveller product I will be waiting behind the Christmas Tree with a Gauss Rifle at the ready.

 

[Bense]

Spinward Marches is not bad, but it only has detail on about two worlds per subsector. Behind the Claw from GURPS Travellerhad much more.
It does have some nice Third Imperium background material, which does make it good for newbies.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I never quite understood why Mongoose never made a hard back Third Imperium core setting book, really.

 

[nats]

I never quite understood why Mongoose never made a hard back Third Imperium core setting book, really.

I would be interested in seeing the historical development of the various sectors over the years, and it would have to touch on present navy distributions/ship types for all the differnet races. Also present galaxy hotspots (for potential adventure hooks), the various races customs, how to travel around the galaxy, places of interest to visit, popular trade routes, full sector maps showing travel/trade routes etc and the like - I suppose a travel manual for the 3I universe - that would be good, I would buy that!!

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

I never quite understood why Mongoose never made a hard back Third Imperium core setting book, really.

I would be interested in seeing the historical development of the various sectors over the years, and it would have to touch on present navy distributions/ship types for all the differnet races. Also present galaxy hotspots (for potential adventure hooks), the various races customs, how to travel around the galaxy, places of interest to visit, popular trade routes, full sector maps showing travel/trade routes etc and the like - I suppose a travel manual for the 3I universe - that would be good, I would buy that!!

Yes, but think how BIG such a book would be! More like a whole library.

Egil

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

I never quite understood why Mongoose never made a hard back Third Imperium core setting book, really.

Considering the wear my copy of Spinward Marches is having, hardback might have been a good idea. Perhaps Mongoose thought that it would become too expensive and so fewer customers.

Egil

 

[IanBruntlett]

I never quite understood why Mongoose never made a hard back Third Imperium core setting book, really.

Considering the wear my copy of Spinward Marches is having, hardback might have been a good idea. Perhaps Mongoose thought that it would become too expensive and so fewer customers.

Egil

Maybe they should just wait for a while and collate all the different pieces of info about the Spinward Marches and then do a reasonably comprehensive 2nd edition, as a hardback? After all, they're going to do an expanded hardback edition of 760 patrons.