Starship Operator's Manual - Others for CT?

[collins355]

The splat books for the 5FW by MGT are largely useable with Classic Trav. Of course, many CT players will already have everything they need on that in "Spinward Marches Campaign", maybe topped off with the boardgame of the war.

 

[Longboat]

The splat books for the 5FW by MGT are largely useable with Classic Trav. Of course, many CT players will already have everything they need on that in "Spinward Marches Campaign", maybe topped off with the boardgame of the war.

I actually have the old boxed wargame, 5FW. Never played it.

 

[RogerMc]

If compatible to you means you can convert most things on the fly in seconds using common sense then most of MGT 1 and 2 is compatible with CT.

In that respect MGT is certainly more backwards compatible than current editions of RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu and Warhammer are with their predecessors because there are so many more skills, derived stats, bonuses, fiddly rules etc in those games than in Traveller.

If OTOH compatible to you means I must be able to use it without doing any work whatsoever then not just MGT but most of everything published for every iteration of Traveller after CT is of no use to you.

And come to think of it by that definition CT Books 4,5,6 and 7 are also incompatible with CT1-3 as regards chargen and ship design...

 

[RogerMc]

FWIW I am myself less than enamored of the most recent MGT version of High Guard and the ship books following it as the piling on of more and more options mess for me with key features of Traveller.

If for instance 'decreased fuel' is a thing then Great Rifts are meaningless as you can design a scoutship than can do two successive jump-4's without refuelling - plus every warship would have it as it is more weapons and more armour that win battles.

But Traveller has always been a game for house rules so you can just ignore those options or convert on the fly.

'Decreased fuel? Not IMTU! - your Reftbreaker can do a J-4 but then only a second J-3'.

 

[Terry Mixon]

FWIW I am myself less than enamored of the most recent MGT version of High Guard and the ship books following it as the piling on of more and more options mess for me with key features of Traveller.

If for instance 'decreased fuel' is a thing then Great Rifts are meaningless as you can design a scoutship than can do two successive jump-4's without refuelling - plus every warship would have it as it is more weapons and more armour that win battles.

But Traveller has always been a game for house rules so you can just ignore those options or convert on the fly.

'Decreased fuel? Not IMTU! - your Reftbreaker can do a J-4 but then only a second J-3'.

I played with the Riftbreaker scout and only managed to make it 1 J4 and 1 J3. Still, that would be good enough. I’ll see if I can manage a ship with 2 J4 but I’m not sure I can make it work.

 

[collins355]

I actually have the old boxed wargame, 5FW. Never played it.

That's a shame, as it is a good game for any Traveller player to try - it brings home the impact of the setting rule that communication only happens at the speed of Jump.
There is a gamebox for it on Vassal, so it can be played over the internet (which is actually a good way to play it as the game takes a while!)

 

[RogerMc]

I played with the Riftbreaker scout and only managed to make it 1 J4 and 1 J3. Still, that would be good enough. I’ll see if I can manage a ship with 2 J4 but I’m not sure I can make it work.

Yes - shouldn't the J-drive be 15 tons rather than the 10 in the book (10% of hull for J-4 + 5 tons) - which throws the whole design out even if you allow the decreased fuel rule.

Unfortunately with Mongoose if a ship design looks too good to be true it sometimes actually is.

 

[Longboat]

That's a shame, as it is a good game for any Traveller player to try - it brings home the impact of the setting rule that communication only happens at the speed of Jump.
There is a gamebox for it on Vassal, so it can be played over the internet (which is actually a good way to play it as the game takes a while!)

I'm not dead yet! It could still happen!

 

[Terry Mixon]

Yes - shouldn't the J-drive be 15 tons rather than the 10 in the book (10% of hull for J-4 + 5 tons) - which throws the whole design out even if you allow the decreased fuel rule.

Unfortunately with Mongoose if a ship design looks too good to be true it sometimes actually is.

I couldn’t get it to two J4. I’ll experiment with one of my pod designs to carry extra fuel and see if that can get me there.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Yes - shouldn't the J-drive be 15 tons rather than the 10 in the book (10% of hull for J-4 + 5 tons) - which throws the whole design out even if you allow the decreased fuel rule.

Unfortunately with Mongoose if a ship design looks too good to be true it sometimes actually is.

The Reftbreaker has 15t allocated to its jump drive, the fluff says it can do two jump 4s but it only has enough fuel for a jump 4 and a jump 3. To find enough room for the extra fuel, even with the reduced fuel drive option, you have to strip the ship of everything bar a 2 ton "stateroom".

 

[RogerMc]

The Reftbreaker has 15t allocated to its jump drive, the fluff says it can do two jump 4s but it only has enough fuel for a jump 4 and a jump 3. To find enough room for the extra fuel, even with the reduced fuel drive option, you have to strip the ship of everything bar a 2 ton "stateroom".

Nope - Great Rift book 1 page 80 says 10 ton for J-drive and has Decreased Fuel x2 where Decreased Fuel uses 5% less fuel per advantage number i.e. 80 x 90% = 72dt.

And it doesn't even have a stateroom but a 'cabin space':



Or are we looking at different versions of the same design?

FWIW my The Great Rift pdf was last updated 1/31/25 and I assumed that meant it has been revised?

 

[Terry Mixon]

Nope - Great Rift book 1 page 80 says 10 ton for J-drive and has Decreased Fuel x2 where Decreased Fuel uses 5% less fuel per advantage number i.e. 80 x 90% = 72dt.

And it doesn't even have a stateroom but a 'cabin space':

View attachment 4081

Or are we looking at different versions of the same design?

Cabin space isn’t for anything other than interplanetary travel. I pointed that out when I tried to make the design legal and failed to hit all the marks. I’ll grab a link to that post.

This: https://forum.mongoosepublishing.co...ross-the-great-rift.125325/page-3#post-997080

And this: https://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/threads/travelling-across-the-great-rift.125325/post-997118

 

[RogerMc]

Yes I do recall we already picked over this design two or three weeks ago and found it wanting....

 

[Sigtrygg]

Nope - Great Rift book 1 page 80 says 10 ton for J-drive and has Decreased Fuel x2 where Decreased Fuel uses 5% less fuel per advantage number i.e. 80 x 90% = 72dt.

And it doesn't even have a stateroom but a 'cabin space':

View attachment 4081

Or are we looking at different versions of the same design?

FWIW my The Great Rift pdf was last updated 1/31/25 and I assumed that meant it has been revised?

View attachment 4082

That is from the older version rather than the revised version. The revised version has a new cover.

 

[RogerMc]

It is however more the implications for canon that concern me here

If you can get Jump-8 or even J-7 out of an scoutship that costs 50 Mcr then for instance The Islands Cluster is far less isolated than depicted.

So IMO there needs to be some other reasons in the rules and the setting to make 'empty' hex jumps far more problematic than they are now.

 

[Sigtrygg]

 

[RogerMc]

That is from the older version rather than the revised version. The revised version has a new cover.

Wait I have to pay again for a revised version and one of the presumably very few things that actually got revised manages to still be wrong albeit for different reasons?

 

[RogerMc]

This is why I am less and less happy with Mongoose revising anything other than the core rulebooks and then expecting to be paid over again for them.

 

[RogerMc]

Also as recently as Feb 7 2025 Matt said:

'This is the custom 100-ton Modified Seeker, the Reftbreaker. At MCr52.375, it can make two jump-4 leaps while carrying a Pilot and Astrogator.'

But the revised version of the ship in the revised book he's presumably pitching there doesn't actually do two J-4's?

 

[RogerMc]

While as as old, old gamer I doubt I'll live long enough to see it roll on the third edition...