Have you tried to convert Classic Traveller expanded characters or Mongoose Traveller characters to MegaTraveller? If so, how did you handle it?
In particular, it looks like the skill levels are pretty close in distribution. Would anyone like to relate their experience here?
I haven't really looked at Mongoose Traveller - I have a number of the books, but I am not all that enamored with what they offer, so like everything else Mongoose makes, I have it, but only for completeness sake.
I have converted the following CT classes to MT:
Barbarians - "Sword & Stars" by Roger E. Moore - Ares Magazine
Courtier - "Courtesan" - Stuff Online.com" -
Journalists - "Journalism & the Stars" by Anders Blixt - Challenge #27
Law Enforcers - There When You Need Them by Stepen Birnich & James Schwar -Challenge #30
Naval Characters (Alt) - "The Traveller Navy Wants to Join You" - R.D. Stuart - Dragon #25
Rogues - "Rogues Of The Galaxy" - Igor Greenwald - Dragon Magazine #097 - Although by the time I was done with this, there was only a couple of sentences left of the original article.
Scientist Characters "Scientists" - William W. Conners - JTAS 29
Starport Authority - "Starport Authority" - John Ford - JTAS 19
Terrorist - "Terrorists in Traveller" - Kenneth Burke & William A. Barton - Space Gamer #046
And these "Basic Generation" Characters:
Athletes - "Intersteller Athletes" - Michael Brown
Clergy - "The Stellar Diocese" - Michael Brown - Dragon Magazine
Irklan - "Contact: The Irklan
Sword World Patrol Service - "Contact: The Sword Worlders" - Loren Wiseman, JTAS #18
My "Working On It" List:
Bounty Hunter - "Dead Or Alive - Bounty Hunter" - Diane & Richard John White Dwarf #70
Imperial Academy of Science and Medicine - Jeffrey Groteboer - JTAS #22 (Almost Done)
Noble - "The Traveller Politician" - Rick Stuart - Dragon Magazine #32 +
My "To Do" List:
COACC (Alt) - Air & Orbital Force Skill Charts for Traveller - Bill Paley - Dungeoneer #12
Imperial Secret Service - "Imperial Secret Service" - Robert McMahon - White Dwarf #27
Merchants (Alt) - "Merchants Deserve More, Too - Dennis Matheson - Dragon #53
Merchants (Alt) - "Traveller Merchants: An Expanded Character Generation System" - Ratrick Larkin - Judges Guild Journal #01
Merchants (Alt) - "Merchants & Merchandise" - Donald P. Rapp
Nautical Forces (Alt) - "Wet Navy Meets Space Fleet" - Bill Paley -Dungeoneer #11
Law Enforcers - "Star Cops" - Terrence R.McInnes - Dragon Magazine #113
Other Career - "The 'Other' Class In Traveller" - Bil Paley - Dongeoneer _#16
Pirates - "Letter Of Marque" - J. Andrew Keith
Rogues - "Scam" - J. Andrew Keith
"Secret Squirrel Agency" - "Space Age Espionage" - John Dunkelberg Jr. - Dragon Magazine #120
Scouts (alt) - "Scouts & Assassins" - Donald P. Rapp - "Scouts & Assassins"
Sorag - "Sorag" by Chuck Kallenbach II
And all of the Advanced Character Generation Systems in the Alien Books. The DGP Alien Books didn't have any Advanced Character Generation Classes in them.
Now, you may be asking "Why in the hell are you converting all of those classes that already exist in MT?"
Well, because they are different. Alternate characters classes end up with differing skill trees.
As an example, I use the the Alternate Navy for Minor Polity Navies (Like the Sword Worlders Navies) - or for characters that serve in System Squadrons as opposed to the Imperial Navy. Alternate Merchant classes I use for Free Traders, etc.
How I go about changing CT classes to MT Classes:
MT adds 2 concepts: Skill Cascades & the Special Duty Roll.
The first thing that I do is look at the corresponding basic tables - I use this to give me a feel for what the advanced table should look like. If there isn't one, I think about what the character class does. As an example - bounty hunters need research skills, legal skills, and admin skills. So when building out skill charts, I need to keep in mind that the Bounty Hunter interacts with law enforcement, the bureaucracy, the legal system, and they will also need some skills from the other side of the street.
Skill Tables: I convert 1 -3 skills to an appropriate cascade. If the skill list doesn't have as many items as the enhanced chart (and most don't), I'll add an extra skill or two.
Using the Minor Polity Navy as an example:
Going to the charts to compare the OTU to Alt:
Background Information doesn't change.
Enlistment - No reserve fleet or system squadron (I have been known to use the Minor Polity Navy to represent System Squadrons)
Branch Assignments - Confrontation Roll with GM - Higher roll gets to choose branch (Ship's Complement, Support Services or Security) - This represents working with your branch manager (at your equivalent of the Pentagon).
Survival is the same.
Decorations are the same rolls, but differing names for the awards.
Promotion as OTU
Assignments are different in the Alt Navy - instead of 1 assignment table there is 1 table for each branch. Viva la difference!
Assignment Resolution:
OTU - Training, Shore Duty, Patrol, Siege, Strike, Battle
Alt - Fleet Action, Raid, Anti-Piracy, Patrol, Refit/Repair, Planetary Support
Navy Life - Goes from 8 skills to 10 skills (to match the OTU skill numbers) - I added Vacc Suit, replaced Wenching with Vice (Cascade), replaced 1 physical skill with Zero-G Env (Cascade) and added Mechanical.
Now, the OTU Navy has Shipboard & Shore Duty service skill tables - but those don't exist in the CT article - I dropped them. Alt doesn't always mean better.
But the Alt Navy had more Special Assignments and they were arranged differently (Example - Cross-Training is for enlisted swine only) so I kept the Alt layout and swapped out a couple of skills with cascades.
Branch Skills tables have 6 subtables in the OTU (Line/Crew, Flight, Gunnery, Engineer, Medical, Technical) and 13 cascades but only 3 subtables in the alt CT Set (Ship's Complement, Support Services, Security) - I have added 11 cascades.
I average 1.5 cascades per table - that is about what the OTU skill tables use and that is the closest thing I have to a hard & fast rule.
In this example, I have a little over 1.5 cascades per table, because the Alt branch skills tables only have 1/2 of the OTU (3 vs 6).
If you go to the File Library under Forms & Charts, I have a thread called:
MT Style Book Templates
Post #10 has a zip file will the following MT Style Book Templates:
1. Sample Table of Contents & Front Piece.
2. Intro Page
3. MT Base Chapter
4. MT Blank Chart Form
5. MT Basic Character Generation
6. MT Character Template - Text (advanced character generation)
7. MT Character Template - Charts (see above)
8. This page left deliberately blank (You will want this when merging your completed PDFs)
An expanded version of this might make a good article in Freelance Traveller.
