New Campaign and Maps

[equilibrium]

Hey there guys and gals,

I'll be starting a game of Traveller in the next few weeks. Its going to be my first campaign either using the Traveller ruleset or universe but I'm looking forward to it.

Essentially the setting is going to be slightly changed from the canon with the characters the first Solomani to have contact with alien lifeform. Basically Earth-bound humanity is making its first steps out in to the rest of the Galaxy having colonised Alpha Centauri A and B. Their jump drive capabilities have only given them access to stars 10ly out at this point (Barnard's Star, Alpha Centauri etc). The game starts with them aboard a prison ship with no explanation (thats up to them to discover/decide) or sign of their captors. What I'm curious about is the original Starmaps that plot the Vilani and Solomani territory around this era (First Imperium?). Do these kind of maps exist? I want to plonk them somewhere inside Vilani Territory and give them the "Journey Home" setup.

Secondly, I'll be using T20 somewhat begrudgingly as I also own the Megatraveller books which I was interested in running. Does anyone have any comments with regards to T20 vs MT rulesets? I thought that the character generation was a lot more satisfying in MT but wasn't too sure of the combat system. Is this a common complaint and how complicated is the MT system *in-play* (I play The Riddle of Steel a lot for reference).

anyway, looking forward to your collective advice.

cheers

JK...

 

[aramis]

I'm a die hard MT fan-boy from hell...

and my name is in the T20 book. It runs close enough tat it is recognizxably "Traveller"; closer, IMO than the Abomination known as TNE... (and by abomination, I mean RULES AND SETTING.)

Seriously, tho, T20 is quite playable.

If you want to instead do MT-tech... the SI calcs are there, and you can figure out the conversions... BTW, the conversion to ship armors is straaight from Striker.... or you could go the other direction... 1MT DP = 1d3 LB, 1d6 STM (Roll d6, read for both... )...

Realistically, MT and T20 both are VERY inclusive, in that you can reverse engineer stats into either and use them with tech-sequences from other editions... I WOULD HIGHLY reccomend the T20 Trade and commerce rules, tho, unless you want gory realism at the expense of playability, which then indicates GTFT...

Oh, wait... edit here... I just noticed you want to know relative merits and complexities...

For Players:
MT has one key mechanic, and you should photocopy the player's guide to tasks, and hand them all a copy. On the back, put an experience synopsis, the Life-Hits conversion table, and a table with armor vs pen, combat exceptional success effects, and the difficulty by range and type table; also useful is an Atten/Range Pen Multiplier table. Anything else is used only for some key short term bits.

Now, T20, player wise, has more intrusive rule mechanics... players need to know more about their skills and expected target numbers.... Class leveling is more intrusive, takes more knowledge about what you're doing, and is not related to in-play mechanics. T20 forces multi-skill characters (without an int penalty, you CAN'T make a 1-trick poni.)
The ship design system is portable; simpler than MT's, but has a very different paradigm of ship construction for J2 and longer-legged ships. Also, D20 players will be surprised, and Hackmaster players appauled, by the starting levels of PC's... If you players already have a mental invetment in D20, it might be the only solution, until they're hooked.

GMing wise, they're about the same. MT generates slightly more detail in all forms of vehicles, and certain semi-canonical extensions are hard to find...
T20 has less detail in craft design, better trade and commerce from a roleplaying standpoint, and a much better set of ship-combat rules for small ship engagements.

BTW, see my website for using personal/vehicle combat rules with starships... doable, and one of the MOST realistic sets of ship combat rules for Traveller, and based upon using the table in the PM...
Both are excellent frameworks. T20 tends to make swashbuckling look right, tho. (For chandelier swinging Starkly furious epic action tho, MT, changing Att Task DM's to div 3 from div 5, nd up difficulties by 1 point...)

 

[equilibrium]

Thanks for that really cool reply Aramis... I'm guessing that the player's familiarity with d20 is going to win them over in the end. I'll check out your rules for starships though.

Don't suppose anyone has any info on those maps in question?

cheers again

Jason K...

 

[BeRKA]

The maps for this time period can be found in galactic 2.4. Galactic 2.4 can be downloaded from the "eLibrary".

 

[equilibrium]

ahhh cheers for that BeRKA much appreciate the heads up

 

[equilibrium]

sorry for the double post..

which milieu am I looking for in the program?

 

[Antony]

Wow, somebody else in Western Australia who plays Traveller.

Incidently will Galactic run under Windows XP Home?

 

[Flynn]

From what I understand, Galactic will run under Windows XP, but you need to keep the directory on the root, because there's some nesting issues if you bury the directories too deep.

Hope this helps,
Flynn

 

[BeRKA]

The maps are in the "Interstellar Wars" galaxy, that shows the Solomani Rim Sector at different years.