Whats the verdict on the supplements?

[Grognard]

Mongoose said they are considering to release sourcebooks on the different time frames.

Apologies, I wasn't clear here. I meant Traveller history in terms of the different editions of the rules, rather than the background setting. Taking the best of the rule ideas and elements from MT, TNE, T4 and building on them.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Taking the best of the rule ideas and elements from MT, TNE, T4 and building on them.

Here's the problem with that, try finding two traveller players that can agree which pieces of any of the rules set are the best. Every traveller player I've ever talked to uses a system that is a mix of 2-4 systems and their own homebrew. IIRC, even MJD prefers his own homebrew that resembles the BRP, a system never officially used for Traveller.

The game is OGL. There is nothing stopping someone from publishing their own set of "alternative rules" that just happens to borrow heavily from past Traveller editions.

 

[mlooney]

The game is OGL. There is nothing stopping someone from publishing their own set of "alternative rules" that just happens to borrow heavily from past Traveller editions.

Of course right now, only TMB is OGL, but TPTB have said that Mercenary and High Guard will have parts released under the OGL.

Having said that, as of right now only parts of the game are OGL. Oddly enough, the things that seems to be causing the most amount of bitching in other active threads (i.e. how much damage a Matter Disintegrater does, how much damage is stopped by what armor and what the various ranges are for weapons) isn't OGL, which means that if you want to say how much damage a weapon does in your TTL/FSL product, yeah, your are going to have to come up with "alternative rules". As the 8/22/08 version of the TSRD (version 1.1) the only "human scale" weapons that are given damages are animal attacks, robot's fists and/or treads and things that explode. I could be wrong but I don't think that the 50 to one ratio of starship scale to human scale weapons is in the TSRD. All the ideas/rules behind the weapon tables are OGC, but no table data. Same thing about trade goods. The column headings are OGC, but no table given. In database terms, the schema is OGC but not the data. I'm not totally sure how I feel about that right now. I suspect that I'm going to have a major arms producer on Exampli which will sell a wide variety of weapons. Exampli, of course, will be some place just over the line from Five Sisters in the Foreven Sector.

 

[hogscape]

Hi folks,

Looks like Mercenary doesn't rate too highly...

Traveller (CT) is the first RPG I played back in 1981... If I had been at the helm of Mongoose at the time of the latest Traveller revision, it probably would have looked very similar. I love the fact that it's mostly old-school with a breath of fresh air.

I probably won't buy the supplements that mess with the basic rules (Merc and High Guard) and I enjoy the 'game' of creating worlds and subsectors so I might not even buy Spinward Marches (although I have the original).

However, I did get 760 Patrons and immediately thought "none of these entries are actually Patrons in the Traveller sense". So I blew the dust off my original 76 Patrons - they weren't 'Patrons' either! It seems more useful for generating random passengers than adventures - still good though.

I notice the Mongoose Traveller occasionally comes under fire for not being perfect, not being old-school, being too old-school and so on; but I have to say that the 'Goose supports the game with free content and gives me a book that genuinly does not need a single additional purchase - ever.

In the same way that T4 sucked, MGT rocks!

 

[dmccoy1693]

Looks like Mercenary doesn't rate too highly...

IMO, Merc is good. The chargen options are great. The weapons are good, if you're not comparing it to a previous version of traveller or if you're not a gun expert (and in both cases I am not). The tech isn't the top of the line for the various tech levels the given tech levels, but you can easily explain it away as a bow and arrow in today's world. In the bow's case, we use top of the line materials and modern designs to make the bow more accurate, easier to use and much more reliable all at a price lower then the top of the line weapons. Someone could use top of the line tech to make a help a helicopter when grav ships are the top of the line at a price much cheaper then a grav ship and have it be a much better craft then older tech helicopters.

 

[mlooney]

Looks like Mercenary doesn't rate too highly...

IMO, Merc is good. The chargen options are great. The weapons are good, if you're not comparing it to a previous version of traveller or if you're not a gun expert (and in both cases I am not). The tech isn't the top of the line for the various tech levels the given tech levels, but you can easily explain it away as a bow and arrow in today's world. In the bow's case, we use top of the line materials and modern designs to make the bow more accurate, easier to use and much more reliable all at a price lower then the top of the line weapons. Someone could use top of the line tech to make a help a helicopter when grav ships are the top of the line at a price much cheaper then a grav ship and have it be a much better craft then older tech helicopters.

Yeah, the chargen stuff was pretty good. Why we need a whole chapter on rear bases is a bit of a question, and the personal weapons aren't bad, aside from the disk throwers. It's the support weapons that suck. Which tells me what my first TTL product will be.

 

[aspqrz]

Someone could use top of the line tech to make a help a helicopter when grav ships are the top of the line at a price much cheaper then a grav ship and have it be a much better craft then older tech helicopters.

Indeed, given the ludicrously high price of Grav Rafts in practically all iterations of Traveller, there really is no way a typical Free Trader would bother to own one. They'd make do with a plain old Jeep with wheels or tracks (even the ATVs are ludicrously overpriced for Free Traders)

Sure, Grav Rafts are sexy and all, but sexy don't pay the bills. And a 5000 Cr (or less) Jeep vs a 100kCr Air Raft ... well, with all those bills, it's financial silliness to go for the latter.

Phil

 

[weasel_fierce]

Hm, a pity on Mercenary, since military scifi was one of the things I was hoping for.

How well would the core book work for a Hammers Slammers / Vietnam in Space / Aliens / Fifth Foreign Legion sorta game?

 

[aspqrz]

Hm, a pity on Mercenary, since military scifi was one of the things I was hoping for.

How well would the core book work for a Hammers Slammers / Vietnam in Space / Aliens / Fifth Foreign Legion sorta game?

Not very well. That's not knocking it in any way, its a good system (not perfect, but at least a 7.5/10, higher in some areas), but it really isn't intended to create such a background ... nor were the original 3LBB ... as with them, Mercenary was supposed to provide that information ... and failed, possibly a 3/10, if one is generous

YMMV on that assessment, of course

Phil

 

[Travellingdave]

Someone could use top of the line tech to make a help a helicopter when grav ships are the top of the line at a price much cheaper then a grav ship and have it be a much better craft then older tech helicopters.

Fair enough and a valid point, but Mercenary lists the CarryAll TL10 Helicopter at 8Mcr. That's a LOT of TL8 Air Rafts (29). :wink:

 

[dmccoy1693]

Very valid point. I'd bump that down to Cr 800,000, but that's just me. I'd probably call its grav equivilent 8MCr.