Pioneer vs Traveller

Traveller = Far Future sci-fi set centuries ahead.
vs
Pioneer = Near Future sci-fi set decades ahead.

Some gamers want to play a setting where the Universe hasn't been explored, and mysteries and technical challenges await them.
 
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I would imagine that Pioneer will have a lot more rules governing the very near future than the core Traveller rules, plus real physics and engineering - rocket equation, deltaV, heat dissipation...
 
Why should I play Pioneer instead of Traveller (Which I already own), limited to tech 7?
I'll start off with saying that I've not seen the playtest rules, so this answer is speculation based on what's out there in the public domain.

TLDR. Pioneer saves you writing the setting and tweaking the rules yourself.

Pioneer does most of the background work for you if you want to run a game set in the Sol system 2045-55.
I'm assuming current organisations have been projected forward 20-30 years with character generation optimised to produce suitable characters. Possibly some new organisations as well.
Real-world physics spacecraft designs will be used for spacecraft design and travel. There may be a spacecraft design section.
There will probably be some included scenarios/seeds.

If you want to play a TL 7-8 single system based Traveller game set in the Sol system then there's no reason not to use the existing Traveller rules. However:
You'll need a few sentences on organisations and how to produce characters who work for them.
IIRC High Guard has options for chemical drives (?) so you'll need to design some spacecraft yourself if you don't want to use current space magic M-drives.
 
Pioneer will require its own bespoke ship construction rules if any. High Guard technology is not even close to real world physics and engineering.

No rocket equation, square cube law, any law of thermodynamics...

I'd be happy with a simple system, but someone will have to do a lot of maths behind the screen to achieve this, so I am doubtful if there will be ship construction. Unless it is a link to atomic rockets...
 
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