Supplement Four said:
But, just be aware that there is a differnent "atmosphere" to each game.
This has been true of every edition so far. It is also, as Rust points out, true for every table around which Traveller is played. Every time the basic assumptions of the setting come under inspection by a group of people, here or anywhere else online or in person, everyone in that discussion is playing a different game and approaching those basic assumptions from a different direction. They
all call it Traveller.
I'm sure there is a dual Katana wielding Vargr or two out there, even in the mythical structure we refer to as Traveller Canon, because Vargr can and will fall for anything with more charisma than their current situation, there are Vargr just about *everywhere* in known space (the 2000 Worlds being an obvious exception), and the fighting style of the Katana suits the generally lower physical strength and higher agility of the Vargr. A blatantly Japanophile Vargr sounds like a hoot. I certainly wouldn't disallow one, though I would draw the line at whole worlds of them.
There is at least one fallacy at work amongst the older fandom, in my opinion. Many people who
used to play seem to think that active games are still dominated by the Free Trader model, and anything that detracts even slightly from that is bad. On the flip side, a lot of the armchair admirals believe that the basis of Traveller is its wargames, starting with CT
High Guard and
Striker, and that anything that detracts from the wargame/simulationist model is a bad thing.
Mongoose is completely avoiding the simulations/wargame side of Traveller, so that automatically biases a bunch of the old armchair admirals, amateur economists, and gun-bunnies against this edition of Traveller.
The Third Imperium setting is not front-and-center in this edition, and that automatically biases another subset of old-timers against this edition, despite the FACT that they already have all the information they will ever accept as Canon already in their possession.
PrinceYyrkoon said:
Obviously, the question now is, whats the difference? Can I, say, use the Mongoose Traveller GM screen with the Classic books? Is it fully compatible? Can I use the adventures with no conversion work? I have all of the original sourcebooks, the supplements and some adventures and Judges Guild stuff. Recommend any books as necessary?
Fully compatible? No. Screens are going to be different, too.
Classic adventures will only require conversion of the hardware to an equivalent. The skill set and what the skill numbers mean will be virtually identical, since both editions are 2d6. Using MegaTraveller materials only really requires understanding what the MT Task block is telling you, as all of the
concepts within that task system are present in Mongoose.
CT ships can be used pretty much as-is if they are just window-dressing. If you are going to make a CT ship a central detail, then convert it, knowing that some details of the original may need fudging or were fudged in the first place.
Weaponry should be from, or get converted to, whichever basic rule set you are using. It will not usually be very difficult. You may need Mongoose's
Central Supply Catalog for a few things if you are converting towards Mongoose, and have CT
Mercenary and maybe
Striker if you are converting towards CT/MT.
Keep in mind that Mongoose does not have a fleet combat engine like CT's
High Guard. If you have a fleet action to resolve, you may want to stick to
High Guard, or resolve it ahead of time for your story purposes.
PrinceYyrkoon said:
What, exactly, are the differences?
"Exactly" will turn into a long list. In short:
Armor's role in combat is as a modifier to hit in CT, but as a reducer of the damage roll in MGT.
The skill "Task" system is implied in CT but demonstrated as a large set of examples and special cases, while it is more codified with flexibility in MGT. Characteristic modifiers to skill rolls are task specific in magnitude in CT, but static in MGT. Neither edition sets the relationship between a skill and a specific characteristic; both are task specific (This is almost unique to Traveller, by the way; most other games hardlink a characteristic to each skill).
The personal weapons list in MGT has a few omissions, most of which are covered in the
Central Supply Catalog.
Character generation has a few extra bells and whistles in MGT compared to Basic CT. The resulting character will generally have a few more skills than a Basic CT (Book 1, Supplement 4) character, but not as many as an Advanced CT (Books 4-7) character. Single-source your characters and you'll be fine, but that source can be any of the three.
The specific numbers of starship construction are different, and as noted there is no fleet combat engine in MGT. The core book for Mongoose is also without implied setting, and allows some construction options that CT does not. Stay with CT's options, which are the implicit assumptions of the Third Imperium setting in CT and MT, or throw caution to the wind and chart your own course.
I'm sure someone will be along with more.
