The new EDITION of Mongoose Traveller is out...

[Treebore]

I've only read through the character creation and careers pages, but so far its is largely the same as Mongoose' original version, just this time its level of clarity is noticeably higher. They even included a flow chart to help stream line the process. I am not doing a rule by rule comparison, so I haven't really noted a blatant change as of yet, just better explanations with more detail in certain examples, such as what Social Standing actually means.

So far, I am not seeing why this is being called a new edition. The mechanics are still 2D6, Career paths look to be mostly, if not completely, identical. Mishaps look like they have been rewritten a bit, but still essentially the same kinds of results. This reads, so far, to be just a massive clean up of the old rules, and incorporating the new rules they already implemented in re-printings of previous books. So seems to me to be jsut a new printing, in the Troll Lords meaning of it, IE the core rule mechanics are still the same, but the periphery rules may have been tweaked.

Anyways, if anyone is interested in my sharing any further discoveries I make let me know, otherwise I'll just assume you have your own copies to read, etc...

[Traveller]

I haven't bothered with the new version, so clue me in. Don't forget to mention the lack of starship rules. They'll be another book.

[Treebore]

I haven't bothered with the new version, so clue me in. Don't forget to mention the lack of starship rules. They'll be another book.

Starship CREATION rules. A few of the standard boats are still given in this book. Which doesn't bug me, because I played and ran Traveller for years before I sat down and figured out how to create Starships from scratch. Plus, come to think of it, the Starship creation rules aren't in the "core" 3 books of Classic, nor Mega Traveller. Plus, the rules in MegaT are such crap, it wasn't a good system until you got the Errata document. So the rules not being in this core book don't bother me at all, since that has effectively been the "norm" for me.

[Traveller]

You're kidding, right?

In Classic, starships can be built in the core rules using a basic system of hull type, power plant, maneuver drive, and jump drive to a maximum of 5,000 tons. Book 5 uses a more detailed system capable of building ships up to 1 million tons.

There is precedent for not including the construction rules: TNE. But it wasn't well received back then, thus why would it be better received now?

Other than TNE and MgT2, all versions of Traveller had starship construction rules in the core rulebook.

[Treebore]

Despite Travellers problems with it, I am really liking the new rules set. Much better lay out, much better descriptions, I like the re organization, as well as even the formatting. Very glad I have participated in it.

The new, and last, version of the upcoming High Guard was distributed today. MUCH clearer ship creation rules, much better lay out, much better explanations. Just all around a great improvement over what has come before.

[Traveller]

It's not that I have a problem with it. I'd get it over Traveller 5 in a heartbeat. I simply would prefer a complete game in one book, so I have no compelling need to get the updated book. Of course, since I prefer Classic Traveller over all other versions, it's actually a moot point.

[Treebore]

It's not that I have a problem with it. I'd get it over Traveller 5 in a heartbeat. I simply would prefer a complete game in one book, so I have no compelling need to get the updated book. Of course, since I prefer Classic Traveller over all other versions, it's actually a moot point.

Thats a large part of why I like Mongoose Traveller, very easy to use my Classic and Mega Traveller materials with it. I am far from a purist, I House Rule my Traveller games about as much as I House Rule my Castles and Crusades games. Plus, I also used articles from Challenge magazine, and the TAS magazines, etc... So I liked that Mongoose compiled much of that into their version.

[Traveller]

I'm no purist. A purist would insist that you're not playing Traveller if you don't use the Third Imperium setting, and some of the real die hards will even insist that you need to be playing Traveller 5 in order to be playing Traveller. Somewhere along the line, the purists seem to have forgotten that Traveller is a game, which is why I am actually glad there is an alternative, i.e. Mongoose Traveller, that the purists can't destroy with their rhetoric.

Mongoose serves as a source of potential house rules for me. I won't switch from Classic however, because of the starship design system. Ironic, don't you think? While I believe Traveller should have a starship design system included in the rules, no version of the game since Classic has been able to reproduce the sheer simplicity of the Classic Book 2 or Book 5 design systems.

[Treebore]

I'm no purist. A purist would insist that you're not playing Traveller if you don't use the Third Imperium setting, and some of the real die hards will even insist that you need to be playing Traveller 5 in order to be playing Traveller. Somewhere along the line, the purists seem to have forgotten that Traveller is a game, which is why I am actually glad there is an alternative, i.e. Mongoose Traveller, that the purists can't destroy with their rhetoric.

Mongoose serves as a source of potential house rules for me. I won't switch from Classic however, because of the starship design system. Ironic, don't you think? While I believe Traveller should have a starship design system included in the rules, no version of the game since Classic has been able to reproduce the sheer simplicity of the Classic Book 2 or Book 5 design systems.

Yeah, but once I got the errata for it, the Mega Traveller version became my favorite. However, the new High Guard is looking pretty darn good now, so the next time I need to build a ship, I will see just how much I like it.

[Traveller]

Even with errata, the MegaTraveller design sequence is to me too complex and too focused on minutiae. For example, take a look at the TL15 Dreadnought on page 18 of "Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium" and ask yourself, "does the referee really need to know that this ship has 15 different forms of communication, nine types of sensors, and a holographic display for the computer?"

For space combat, all that's really needed is knowing whether the ship has long and short range communications, and long and short range sensors. All of that plus the holographic display can be folded in with the computer tonnage, since we know full well that my smartphone is more powerful than a Traveller ship computer. We have to explain the tonnage somehow.

The point I'm trying to make is that post-Classic, the design sequences for all the other editions of Traveller imparted needless complexity and detail to what, at its heart, should be a simple process. With Book 2, you had basic levels of detail in that you needed to know four variables: tonnage, power plant, maneuver drive, and jump drive. Book 5 naturally had more variables, mainly because it was for building much larger ships with armor, meson screens, nuclear dampers, and black globes. Both design processes were relatively simple, yet provided the referee and players with all the information they needed to use the ship in combat, whether that be vector combat, range band combat, or Trillian Credit Squadron combat.

[Treebore]

Yeah, at the time I needed the minutiae, because my players were asking those kinds of questions. So I got so used to it, I've stuck with it ever since.