tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post3328619928795887350..comments2024-03-28T17:48:19.196-05:00Comments on The Other Side blog: Review: MegaTraveller (1987)Timothy S. Brannanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02923526503305233715noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post-82148244045479987712022-05-18T10:26:26.042-05:002022-05-18T10:26:26.042-05:00"@Dick McGee, This is all great stuff. I am s..."@Dick McGee, This is all great stuff. I am so pleased you have been commenting on these posts since your Traveller knowledge far exceeds mine. I might have to dedicate some time to GURPS someday and include this one in the mix."<br /><br />Thanks, but you're nearing the end of my personal experience with the game. Once it got past GURPS I just stopped bothering to keep up with the new stuff and either stuck to GURPS or (more often) reverting back to LBB Classic. Haven't played much of any Traveller since 2010 or so. The closure of GDW was very disheartening for me and once Steve Jackson's license ended I really lost interest.<br /><br />I admit I've paid enough attention to the Mongoose version to at least know how to play it, although I haven't done so. That's mostly thanks to a youtuber named Seth Skorkowsky and his coverage of the game. Heartily recommend his eponymous channel for vids on Mongoose Traveller, among a variety of other roleplaying subjects. Dick McGeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14521293874696659063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post-90766913473663960332022-05-18T09:27:27.559-05:002022-05-18T09:27:27.559-05:00@Lance, Hope I helped!
@Dick McGee, This is all ...@Lance, Hope I helped!<br /><br />@Dick McGee, This is all great stuff. I am so pleased you have been commenting on these posts since your Traveller knowledge far exceeds mine. I might have to dedicate some time to GURPS someday and include this one in the mix.<br /><br />@faoladh, Thanks for these! Yes I have seen the games on abandonware sites. Thankfully, for me, my skills at getting old hardware and old software running again are pretty good. I am also not a fan of the Holloway art for this. He was great for Chill 1.0 and the absolute perfect artist for Paranoia. But not this.<br /><br />@rmckee, OH! Thank you for those links!Timothy S. Brannanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02923526503305233715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post-25260469127309717852022-05-18T06:48:18.636-05:002022-05-18T06:48:18.636-05:00Tim,
The CRPG Addict did playthroughs of both Meg...Tim,<br /><br />The CRPG Addict did playthroughs of both MegaTraveller games a few years ago. He usually posts throughout playing and then wraps up with a rating post. There may be a description of the ending before the rating discussion, just skip down to the word GIMLET and the numbered list if you are worried about spoilers. <br /><br />MegaTraveller 1: http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2015/01/megatraveller-won-with-final-rating.html<br /><br />MegaTraveller 2: http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2017/08/megatraveller-2-summary-and-rating.htmlrmckee78https://www.blogger.com/profile/09615862275814728575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post-40933061449571010302022-05-18T03:57:17.723-05:002022-05-18T03:57:17.723-05:00The basic Skill List in MT is definitely longer th...The basic Skill List in MT is definitely longer than that in CT, but it is a consolidation of the wide array of skills that existed in supplements and third party products, making the total list shorter than CT had developed into. Even so, I think that it could have done with a more complete rationalization and edit, but deadlines are deadlines and priorities are set thereby.<br /><br />I'm extremely fond of the streamlining that combat sees in MT, though I know that some people dislike the fact that it moves attribute adjustment to the end of combat. After being fixed for errata (which I believe the current PDFs have the errata already incorporated), it's really the best <i>Traveller</i> combat system outside of, depending on your preferences, <i>GURPS</i>.<br /><br />Quick note on the Task System: the various types of Task are intended, I believe, to make things easier on the Referee by providing suggested templates for resolving various situations and to give scenario writers a consistent framework. If a Referee wants to do something in another fashion for a particular situation that comes up in a game, they can do so and still be playing MT. You will find that there will be some small, semi-official variations on the Task System in later supplements, especially ones published by DGP. The idea of "cross-checks", not included in the main rules but very important in the <i>Starship Operator's Manual</i> from DGP, is a prominent example.<br /><br />Starship combat in MT is another area where deadlines and priorities conflicted with the ideal rules. I have long wanted to convert <i>Battle Rider</i> and <i>Brilliant Lances</i> from TNE into a space combat system for MT (HEPlaR thrusters and all).<br /><br />The boxed set of <i>MegaTraveller</i> also included the <i>Imperial Encyclopedia</i>, which in addition to providing a lot more background doubled as an equipment and vehicle catalog, with pre-designed ships and other vehicles.<br /><br />The MT computer games are pretty easy to find on abandonware sites. Getting them to run on a modern machine is another story, but it can be done. That said, a lot of abandonware sites have set things up so they can be run in a browser as well as downloaded, such as <a href="https://www.myabandonware.com/game/megatraveller-1-the-zhodani-conspiracy-y7" rel="nofollow">this one</a>. Here's a link to <a href="https://www.myabandonware.com/game/megatraveller-2-quest-for-the-ancients-17g" rel="nofollow">the sequel</a> at the same site.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post-91904280339047816692022-05-18T03:57:04.013-05:002022-05-18T03:57:04.013-05:00I do think that the Rebellion was in part Star War...I do think that the Rebellion was in part <i>Star Wars</i> envy, since the SW RPG was very much taking over the SF gaming world at the time. More importantly, though, I think that they wanted to dial back on the amount of control that the Imperium could exercise over the players in a given scenario in order to make a more free-wheeling adventure environment. I think the original intention was to take the <i>Hard Times</i> concept to its logical outcome and have a bunch of small "Imperiums" surrounded by wild, adventure-filled, lawless regions that the player-characters would attempt to bend toward some idea of justice. Then someone took the idea of making machine intelligence, as initially hinted at in <i>Signal GK</i>, a more significant part of the setting but they couldn't figure out a way to logically make it less cataclysmic, and so Virus became a thing around about the time that GDW was trying to shift everything toward a house system (which had developed out of design concepts originally tested in <i>Space 1889</i> and <i>Traveller: 2300</i>/<i>2300AD</i>, mainly).<br /><br />Personally, I am not fond of the Holloway art. I think it detracts from the tone that <i>Traveller</i> has usually had—though I don't have the same complaints about Donna Barr's art, so perhaps I am merely kvetching in this regard. Still, the Holloway art has always bothered me about MT.<br /><br />There is still a Survival roll in MT character generation, but actually dying as a result of failure is relegated to an optional rule. A good compromise was in <i>Traveller's Digest</i> issue 13, in which a failure was treated as a Mishap, with the resulting damage and possibility of having to replace limbs, organs, or whatever (that issue also had greatly expanded prosthetics/bionics rules, and was part of a series of articles expanding the medical system in MT).<br /><br />A significant change to basic character generation in MT is the introduction of Special Duty and the consequent increase in average number of skills for a character of a given age. This is necessary in order to accommodate the new Task System's small changes to assumed outcomes. By the way, CT never had a universal 8+ success assumption; that edition was really wild and all over, and multiple people came up with various codifications similar to the DGP Task System that became the basis of MT.<br /><br />(cont.)faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post-52985801769818444262022-05-17T20:38:17.811-05:002022-05-17T20:38:17.811-05:00"GURPS Traveller was released in 1998 for GUR..."GURPS Traveller was released in 1998 for GURPS 3rd Edition. It covers the same time span as MegaTraveller, but there was no rebellion. I guess the idea was to preserve the feel of Classic Traveller."<br /><br />The Rebellion metaplot (and even the idea of having a canonical metaplot at all) was not universally well-received by veteran players from the LBB/Classic days, and when New Era made it clear where that metaplot was intended to go there was a pretty widespread rejection of everything involved with it. GURPS Traveller was in many ways designed to attract players who'd turned their back on that timeline in disgust by punching a reset button. They're not at all subtle about it. Archduke Dulinor (the guy who started the whole chain of events by murdering "Emperor Strephon" - actually just a double) dies in a shuttle explosion in GURPS canon just before he would have attempted his coup, and it's clear that it was an Imperial black op to forestall him trying permanently. <br /><br />No Rebellion, no Civil War, no Hard Times, and most especially no Virus/Collapse/New Era/Star Vikings, for better or worse. Certainly appeased the fans of the classic, stable Third Imperium setting. If it had used the classic Traveller engine instead of GURPS I suspect it would have launched an OSR-style Traveller revival in 1998, but the unfamiliar system limited the number of old GDW players willing to switch over.<br /><br />Still, GURPS sold damn well for the store I was working for when it came out new, much better than anything GDW put out for New Era and (going by old sales records from before my time) a fair bit better than most MegaTraveller products outside of the core set.Dick McGeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14521293874696659063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post-81789870691271288032022-05-17T14:46:54.911-05:002022-05-17T14:46:54.911-05:00I bought a set of mega traveler, it was 4 books I ...I bought a set of mega traveler, it was 4 books I think, no box, a few years ago real cheap at a flgs. At the time I was still planning on getting classic traveler or the new reprints. But after doing some research recently I've decided not to because as you said the rules are pretty much the same, I like your analogy of a 2nd edition. I still haven't gotten a chance to run or play it though, gotta get a group for that...Lance Duncanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13817319325489613672noreply@blogger.com