MT Starship Operators Manual and Mongoose Traveller...

[kristof65]

Given how fractured Traveller has become over the years, I really wasn't planning on buying into Mongoose's version, as my CT/MT rules have served me well. However, a friend recently gave the core book to me for my b-day, and I must say I'm intrigued by it.

Two of my favorite source books from MT are the Starship Operator's Manual and World Builder's Handbook - using the sensor and task rules/guidlines from those books at the right points in my campaigns has made for some great campaigns. I've done some preliminary examinations of Mongoose Traveller, and it appears that for the most part, converting those things over to the new system shouldn't be hard at all.

However, I wanted to ask about it here, and see if anyone had any advice for doing so, and/or pitfalls to watch out for?

 

[MrUkpyr]

MT's Starship Operator's Manual and World Builder's Handbook both rocked!

Starship Operator's Manual
The book is almost all flavor text, with very few hard "rules"

You will want to tweak the skill rolls a bit. Make sure you double-check what skills are being called for. Also, and equally important, check to ensure that the players had a reasonable chance to acquire the needed skills during character creation.


World Builder's Handbook
I've used this book to turn planets from "a place to stop for a bit" into "a full NPC". It really can make a planet come to life.

That said, the book does have a lot more "rules" in it.

Again, check the skills that various tasks call for and what difficulty they are listed as.

I've not double-checked the ship section yet, but always loved the Kinnekur (sp) G-Carrier.

Most of the section on planets can be used as is. They can add huge amounts of detail to a planet, especially the sections on Tech Levels and Cultural stuff (merchants must conduct major business dealings over a shared meal).

One adventure I ran had the players going to a planet where the wearing of blue was one of the greatest taboos, because the planet had been conquered for 1000 years by an alien race which wore blue uniforms. Players forgot to check the Library Data on the planet (which mentioned the taboo), and then debarked their ship wearing blue jumpsuits. They could not figure out why *no one* would talk to them, serve them, service their ship, unload their cargo, etc etc etc. It was an amazing game, and it really made the fact that they were on an alien planet come to life.



Hope this helps.

-MrUkpyr

 

[kristof65]

If you are using MegaTraveller anyway it would be easier to replace the character generation from MT with the one from Mongoose and keep the rest since rules-wise I can't see any benefit from using Mongoose

For me, the benefit of using Mongoose Traveller is one of perception among new players around here. CT/MT, despite the fact that it now has all it's materials available are perceived as "old & unsupported", while MgT doesn't have that stigma attached to it. There seems to be some growing community excitement about Traveller here in my area, thanks to MgT.

MT's Starship Operator's Manual and World Builder's Handbook both rocked!

Starship Operator's Manual
The book is almost all flavor text, with very few hard "rules"

You will want to tweak the skill rolls a bit. Make sure you double-check what skills are being called for. Also, and equally important, check to ensure that the players had a reasonable chance to acquire the needed skills during character creation.

Thanks - I was thinking this might be the case, good to have confirmation.

Hope this helps.

-MrUkpyr

very much so, thank you again.

Since IIRC the WorldBuilders HB is basically "Out of print" (since it is DGP stuff) you might also want to take a look at the TNE "World Tamers HB" (Availabel as a PDF)

I have the World Builders handbook, and I think buried around here somewhere I have the World Tamer's HB as well, so no issues there for me.

 

[AKAramis]

Since IIRC the WorldBuilders HB is basically "Out of print" (since it is DGP stuff) you might also want to take a look at the TNE "World Tamers HB" (Availabel as a PDF)

Not the same kinds of detail. WTH is essentially rules for running colonies.

 

[EDG]

Since IIRC the WorldBuilders HB is basically "Out of print" (since it is DGP stuff) you might also want to take a look at the TNE "World Tamers HB" (Availabel as a PDF)

Not the same kinds of detail. WTH is essentially rules for running colonies.

IIRC its worldbuilding stuff was similar in detail to WBH or MT - I remember getting it when it first came out, looking through it, and thinking "huh, this doesn't give me much more than I had in WBH already". Not that WBH is actually particularly accurate in itself, though, but it's more detailed than CT.

The colony building stuff and other material in WTH however, is excellent, and well worth getting the book just for that. I had a look at that again recently and wondered how the heck I failed to appreciate that first time around.