TheDS
SOC-13
My first RPG was MT, shortly after it came out, and the GM didn't really adhere to it because he was still operating mostly in CT mode, so I suppose my games were really more CT than MT. I found the background interesting to read, but there was way too much to memorize it all to run a game from. I did run a game of MT, and considering it was my first, I admit it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't all that great either. Did a few sessions, and only used the basic background and made everything else up.
I still have not read the vast majority of Traveller stuff, though for a time I considered myself quite well-versed in TNE (despite never getting to run a game in it, and would not do so now), since I read all of that I could get my hands on (which was all of it, as far as I knew).
I've since run a couple dozen sessions of Pathfinder, and knew virtually none of the background (until the Kingmaker CG came out), I just made it all up (though with the help of some old 4-page adventure modules a friend wanted to try out to get my imagination going). I still know pretty much none of it, nor do I know any D&D background, other than a couple names here and there because of other games that reference them (Lords of Waterdeep, a couple of boardgames based on Ravenloft, that kind of thing). Not knowing the background has never really hampered me, probably because the people I was playing with also either didn't know or didn't care that much.
I was surprised to learn that the great mass of published Traveller material was considered a roadblock to new players, and was one of the reasons Dave wiped out the Imperium for TNE. That great mass had never been an obstacle to me, I didn't even know about it. Sounded like a lot of GMs were doing their new players a disservice. Or maybe too many OCD people were picking up the books and thinking they had to Catch 'Em All. But simply publishing under a new name and art design would've told those people they didn't need to care about the old books any more.
I still have not read the vast majority of Traveller stuff, though for a time I considered myself quite well-versed in TNE (despite never getting to run a game in it, and would not do so now), since I read all of that I could get my hands on (which was all of it, as far as I knew).
I've since run a couple dozen sessions of Pathfinder, and knew virtually none of the background (until the Kingmaker CG came out), I just made it all up (though with the help of some old 4-page adventure modules a friend wanted to try out to get my imagination going). I still know pretty much none of it, nor do I know any D&D background, other than a couple names here and there because of other games that reference them (Lords of Waterdeep, a couple of boardgames based on Ravenloft, that kind of thing). Not knowing the background has never really hampered me, probably because the people I was playing with also either didn't know or didn't care that much.
I was surprised to learn that the great mass of published Traveller material was considered a roadblock to new players, and was one of the reasons Dave wiped out the Imperium for TNE. That great mass had never been an obstacle to me, I didn't even know about it. Sounded like a lot of GMs were doing their new players a disservice. Or maybe too many OCD people were picking up the books and thinking they had to Catch 'Em All. But simply publishing under a new name and art design would've told those people they didn't need to care about the old books any more.
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