Supplement Four
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If you were to align yourself with one official Traveller game system (even if you use a hybrid game or many house rules), which Traveller system would you say you play most?
What type of TRAVELLER do you play?
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Border Reiver
SOC-14 1K
Mainly MT, heavily house ruled which is slowly evolving to a nonT4 T4 (ie lost the task system).
Supplement Four
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Border, I thought you were a UGM'er....?
Keklas Rekobah
SOC-14 1K
It's been mostly GURPS-based until recently, when I obtained the CT compact disc. Now that there's someone new in town who plays MT, I may be branching out further.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
CT - with bits taken from the other versions, and the UGM 
The main bits are:
rule of 4 and special duty from MT for character generation
T4/T20 hybrid armour as damage reduction
the UGM for resolution
The main bits are:
rule of 4 and special duty from MT for character generation
T4/T20 hybrid armour as damage reduction
the UGM for resolution
T20 without a doubt. The other rulesets I've seen are clunky and over mathematical when it comes to combat. D20 isn't ideal as a base, but in my opinion it's better than some of the alternatives.
Second choice would be Classic. Megatraveller and Traveller4 (Marc Miller's Traveller) don't get a look in I'm afraid.
The ideal would be using Eden's Unisystem, White Wolf's Storyteller system or Talsorian Games' Cyberpunk 2020. All very easy systems to get on with what's important, the roleplaying!
Second choice would be Classic. Megatraveller and Traveller4 (Marc Miller's Traveller) don't get a look in I'm afraid.
The ideal would be using Eden's Unisystem, White Wolf's Storyteller system or Talsorian Games' Cyberpunk 2020. All very easy systems to get on with what's important, the roleplaying!
M
Malenfant
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It's funny that most people so far have said they use strongly house-ruled systems. Isn't it a bit telling that few people use the games "as is"? I know people tweak other RPGs to an extent but it seems Traveller needs to get fiddled with a lot more before people will actually play it.
My latest campaigns were run with GT because I wanted to learn that system, but before that I used my own home-grown rules (Heltesagaerne (The Hero Sagas) as I called them back when I was trying to get them published. Much the best set of rules I've ever seen ). I'm thinking of going back to them when (if) I ever run another Traveller campaign. To me, Traveller is the universe, not the rules.
Hans
). I'm thinking of going back to them when (if) I ever run another Traveller campaign. To me, Traveller is the universe, not the rules.Hans
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The Shaman
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At the core we use original, "classic" Traveller, with BITS At Close Quarters for important combat encounters (a couple of travellers facing off in a bar doesn't usually merit the complexity of ACQ) and 101 Cargos for speculative trade. Our task system is the UTP as laid out in Grand Survey and Challenge (that is, the original Traveller version, not the later MegaTraveller or T4 versions).
There're some fiddly bits we added from other editions, fanzines, and fansites, usually to supplement what's in the core rules, rather than replace them: zero-level homeworld skills from MT, armor-as-damage-reduction from T4 (via ACQ), drive stacking for Book 2 starships from Freelance Traveller, some world generation bits from 4e GURPS Space, and more.
With the exception of ACQ and 101 Cargos, all of the additions are meant to expand upon what's in the basic system, not replace it - Traveller leaves quite a bit undefined, to the referee's discretion, which I consider a feature, not a bug.
There're some fiddly bits we added from other editions, fanzines, and fansites, usually to supplement what's in the core rules, rather than replace them: zero-level homeworld skills from MT, armor-as-damage-reduction from T4 (via ACQ), drive stacking for Book 2 starships from Freelance Traveller, some world generation bits from 4e GURPS Space, and more.
With the exception of ACQ and 101 Cargos, all of the additions are meant to expand upon what's in the basic system, not replace it - Traveller leaves quite a bit undefined, to the referee's discretion, which I consider a feature, not a bug.
Border Reiver
SOC-14 1K
I don't know, I think the question would be to as the tweakers if they play any game as is. In my case not really. At the moment WFRP is being played as is till we have its measure as is Mongoose Runequest but D&D, D20 modern, EABA, Starcluster, CORPS, T2K , 2300 and Harmaster are all being modified in some way. In fact back in the day our take on AD&D would hardly be recognised as the same beast and World of Darkness stuff we basically threw out the rules and made up our own.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
You know...I've never quite thought about it that way...but, you're right.
I tweak Traveller a hell of a lot more than I tweak any other game I've ever run in 20+ years of gaming.
For most games that I run, I'll tweak a thing here, add a rule there, but basically run the game "out of the box".
But, I've put a heck of a lot of thought and work into tweaking my CT game than I have any other game I've ever played.
Interesting.
-S4
M
Malenfant
Guest
And I don't think it's because Traveller is vaguely generic either... I know with GURPS I never modified the basic engine at all - it just worked fine out of the box, so I never had to. But with Traveller we seem to have people tweaking rules left right and centre.
I wonder if Traveller fans tweak other games that they play anywhere near as much. If they don't, then that implies that there's something specifically about Traveller that requires that it has to be modified to be playable, which is rather curious...
I wonder if Traveller fans tweak other games that they play anywhere near as much. If they don't, then that implies that there's something specifically about Traveller that requires that it has to be modified to be playable, which is rather curious...
I voted CT. In practice, it's "roll two dice and make something up".
I don't think I've ever really tweaked Traveller much, apart from ignoring the rules totally, in the way I mentioned above. I have mucked about with world generation a bit, in order to produce the setting I wanted. Oh, and I fiddled about with vehicle combat rules that were intended to be compatible with Book 1 combat.
So, OK, yes, I've done a bit of tweaking.
Have I done this in other games? Well, the only ones I ever would have bothered to do this with were DnD and the HERO system.
I never really bothered to tweak DnD's rules. While I spent a lot of time designing worlds, I pretty much always maintained the default assumptions of how things like magic worked and so on. I considered it too much effort, and potentially too destabilising in terms of game balance, to change these things. On the other hand I would routinely eliminate non-humans, reduce the frequency of magic items, and make other such setting related tweaks.
So, to summarise, tweaking DnD is too much effort.
HERO? Well, it's a generic system to begin with, so any game is going to involve choosing which rules to use, and which to ignore. House rules are more or less mandatory, in order to simulate particular genres. In fact, many of them aren't "house rules" so much as choices between officially recognised options. It's literally impossible to play HERO "out of the box" these days. You have to construct a game from its toolkit.
In the past, things were different. Champions, for example, was a specific game that you could have played "out of the box", but even there it was assumed that individual campaigns would vary wildly in terms of assumptions and balance. In those days I was much less likely to use house rules, although some of the ones I use these days would have made the game better.
I haven't really GMed any other games enough to have bothered to tweak them. Aside from Traveller, DnD and HERO, most of my games were "Roll two dice and...".
I don't think I've ever really tweaked Traveller much, apart from ignoring the rules totally, in the way I mentioned above. I have mucked about with world generation a bit, in order to produce the setting I wanted. Oh, and I fiddled about with vehicle combat rules that were intended to be compatible with Book 1 combat.
So, OK, yes, I've done a bit of tweaking.
Have I done this in other games? Well, the only ones I ever would have bothered to do this with were DnD and the HERO system.
I never really bothered to tweak DnD's rules. While I spent a lot of time designing worlds, I pretty much always maintained the default assumptions of how things like magic worked and so on. I considered it too much effort, and potentially too destabilising in terms of game balance, to change these things. On the other hand I would routinely eliminate non-humans, reduce the frequency of magic items, and make other such setting related tweaks.
So, to summarise, tweaking DnD is too much effort.
HERO? Well, it's a generic system to begin with, so any game is going to involve choosing which rules to use, and which to ignore. House rules are more or less mandatory, in order to simulate particular genres. In fact, many of them aren't "house rules" so much as choices between officially recognised options. It's literally impossible to play HERO "out of the box" these days. You have to construct a game from its toolkit.
In the past, things were different. Champions, for example, was a specific game that you could have played "out of the box", but even there it was assumed that individual campaigns would vary wildly in terms of assumptions and balance. In those days I was much less likely to use house rules, although some of the ones I use these days would have made the game better.
I haven't really GMed any other games enough to have bothered to tweak them. Aside from Traveller, DnD and HERO, most of my games were "Roll two dice and...".
Of all RPGs I'd say CT is the one I'm happiest playing "as is." I think I tweak other games to make them more like Traveller.
Traveller also seems to lend itself nicely to tweaking without unbalancing, and a community that can discuss tweaks in a mature manner. That may be why we see a lot of tweeking here, and some pretty good stuff to.
in d&d the rules are oriented towards the acquisition of powers. few will mess with that. traveller is not so oriented, rather the rules are simply the way the world is. in d&d there are rewards for following the rules as they are, so they are untouched. in traveller there is no such reward, rather only an appeal to reality (and one's opinion of it) - this invites tweaking and wholesale replacement.
where d&d did not follow its normal pattern of acquisition of powers there was plenty of tweaking. lots of people were very unhappy with the official monk class and tweaked it endlessly. the spell acquisition systems too were modified and replaced in various manners. where the rules made characters powerful, nothing was changed - who wants to subject their 9th level fighter to one-shot sudden death?
where d&d did not follow its normal pattern of acquisition of powers there was plenty of tweaking. lots of people were very unhappy with the official monk class and tweaked it endlessly. the spell acquisition systems too were modified and replaced in various manners. where the rules made characters powerful, nothing was changed - who wants to subject their 9th level fighter to one-shot sudden death?
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