creativehum
SOC-14 1K
In another thread, Condottiere wrote:
I acknowledge I am naive in this matter: I look at the rules found in Books 1-3 and see rules that work, albeit with a mid-1970s RPG sensibility. One either buys into that sensibility of play, or one doesn't. (Referee dependent for rulings not rules; the game is a test of Player skill more than it is is of PC skills; and so on.)
Apart from the weirdly unexplained use of sandcasters and missiles in ship-to-ship combat, everything is there in the game and works.
Except, of course, for the people for whom the game doesn't work!
Reading Condottiere's statement made me curious: What am I missing?
People have been tweaking Traveller's rules for (literally) decades, either to fix Classic Traveller, or moving on to new editions of the rules.
So, question:
What, if anything, makes Classic Traveller not playable for you?
Ground Rules:
So, looking at just LBBs 1-3, what makes the game unplayable for you? What are the things that needed to be fixed, and so drove you to a different edition of the game?
I ask honestly for my own edification. I'm plan on running CT soon, and if there's a boobytrap in the rules I'm missing, I'd love a chance to think about it ahead of time.
I am aware that for many people each new edition is an attempt to finally get the rules "right."Traveller for me has always been the Third Imperium, and the rules tend to evolve in trying to make the game playable.
I acknowledge I am naive in this matter: I look at the rules found in Books 1-3 and see rules that work, albeit with a mid-1970s RPG sensibility. One either buys into that sensibility of play, or one doesn't. (Referee dependent for rulings not rules; the game is a test of Player skill more than it is is of PC skills; and so on.)
Apart from the weirdly unexplained use of sandcasters and missiles in ship-to-ship combat, everything is there in the game and works.
Except, of course, for the people for whom the game doesn't work!
Reading Condottiere's statement made me curious: What am I missing?
People have been tweaking Traveller's rules for (literally) decades, either to fix Classic Traveller, or moving on to new editions of the rules.
So, question:
What, if anything, makes Classic Traveller not playable for you?
Ground Rules:
- The question is, "Not Playable"... not "I don't like it." So, if there's something you like better than the rules found in LBBs 1-3, that's great. But that's not what we're talking about.
- We're not talking at all about Third Imperium. So, if something is "broken" about the rules found in LBBs 1-3 because the rules don't support the logic of the Third Imperium, that's not a problem for the LBBs, and not a matter for this discussion. I know people wanted game systems that better reflected the setting of the Third Imperium -- and that's awesome. But LBBs 1-3 weren't designed to support the Third Imperium, so let's leave that disconnect off the table.
- I suppose people will show up with "It's not realistic," or whatever. But I ask this really be held to a minimum. The fact that combat doesn't work they way you think it should is not the same thing as "unplayable." People can tinker with "realism" all day in RPGs. But I'm approaching Classic Traveller as an RPG game. It should be playable, but I'm not asking it to simulation reality. It's an RPG game. As long as my friends and I can have a great evening having tense adventures, using the rules to help shape and adjudicate choices and actions, then the rules are working. If we get stuck every time we try to use them, they're unplayable, and thus fodder for this thread. What, if anything, are those things for you?
So, looking at just LBBs 1-3, what makes the game unplayable for you? What are the things that needed to be fixed, and so drove you to a different edition of the game?
I ask honestly for my own edification. I'm plan on running CT soon, and if there's a boobytrap in the rules I'm missing, I'd love a chance to think about it ahead of time.