Which RPG system do you use IYTU?

[G K Zhukov]

Howdy all - long time lurker here, first time poster...

Surely asked a million times before. If so, please any good Samaritan out there point me to the correct thread...

Which roleplaying rules system (not background, millieu, etc.) do you use in your Traveller Universe and why?

- Classic Traveller?
- Megatraveller?
- TNE/GDW House Rules?
- T4?
- T20?
- GURPS Traveller?
- Other system (which one)?

I am partial to TNE. Must be the wargamer and gearhead in me...

Thanks for your replies.

 

[Psion]

I use T20, primarily because of familiarity of my group, and some things make more sense in T20 (for example, that piloting skill can apply to different vehicle types)

I am also sort of fond of megatraveller because I feel its robust task resolution is the best of all travellers. I like the detail it adds to gear (like snesors), but starship generation is a little too complex (and GURPS is worse, IMO).

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

I've always used, and suspect I always will use, the Classic Traveller rules. Besides being emotionally invested in them - I first encountered them 22 years ago when I started gaming - I like the simplicity and breadth of the original game. I like having a lot of stuff left to the imagination, and while I can appreciate the gearhead aspect quite a bit - a whole game in itself! - I don't really want too much detail decided for me. When I GM it's pretty fast and loose - some of my best gaming sessions have spun out of a player's idle comment or from characters straying from the scenario!

That being said, I haven't run a Traveller game in a long time. If I were to run one today, I'd probably swap in some of the other Classic-era rulesets for combat, probably Striker or Azhanti High Lightning. But for the most part I'd stick with Books 1-7 and add Supplements where necessary.

 

[CarlP]

I like Classic Traveller, but found it was missing something. That missing something will be, I think, provided by the Shadowrun rules. Yes, I'm converting Classic Traveller over to Shadowrun. I started doing it after realizing that the adventures were usable, and the basic game system was similar enough. So far the conversion has been awfully easy. I'm hoping to start actual play in a few weeks.

 

[fredofmars]

IMTU I use a mix of CT and RuneQuest.
- Joseph

 

[robject]

I use Classic Traveller rules, spiced with supplemental material as needed from MT and T5.

Joseph, I would like to see how you mix CT with RQ. Our current referee has been wanting to do just that.

 

[Morte]

A rough mix of blatant fudging and T20.

 

[Flynn]

IMTU, I primarily use T20 for game mechanics, with nods to prior systems as needed for spice.

I, like Psion, feel that the best version of Traveller game mechanically was MT, but T20 is the only system where I've ever been able to create a long-term Face-to-Face Traveller campaign, so T20 wins just because of that very reason.

-Flynn

 

[Malenfant]

Originally posted by Joseph Kimball:
IMTU I use a mix of CT and RuneQuest.
- Joseph

Runequest? The BRP percentile based system, or the more narrative Heroquest version?

 

[jasper]

t20. Why? My group was tired of 3 or 4 dms and D&D all the time. So Since I had the t20 book and everyone was either/or/and comfortable with t20 or the traveller universe, I choose to run the campaign.
House rules. Aging from 3.5
Skill pts etc chosen after all the prior history is done. Yes this would change skill pts if person int changes during prior history.

 

[BrennanHawkwood]

I've finally convinced my gaming group to give Traveller a try (one of them had a bad experience with it a few years back...it's amazing how much a bad GM can ruin a good game).

We seriously concidered both T20 and GURPS (even originally built the PCs in T20) before I finally made us take a vote and settled on GURPS. I'm still setting the game in T20's general time period (actually 1003ish...just after the war but before things return to 'normal') and the Gateway Domain.

We were pretty interested in giving both systems a try, since several of us have the books from both T20 and GURPS:Traveller. Actually, that was the big reason we did not concider CT/MT/TNE/T4... I've got the only copies of those books.

In the end I think it came down to being tired of playing games using the D20-based mechanics. Just about everything else we've been playing lately are all D20 and we all decided that something different would be real cool.

 

[aramis]

I tend to use MT, with a couple of house rules (Att/3 insted of Att/5; tweaking th Pen vs AV component of damage calcs.)

I started on CT, but found CT confusing to run, with so many different resolution mechanics exemplified in the rules.

I have also used BTRC's EABA... difficulties and their TN's covert straight from MT...

If I had a group that liked D2, T20 would be an option;I do raid the T20 tade rules.

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

D2 - that must be the game system where you flip a coin?

 

[Prospero]

I prefer either CT/Striker or T4. I think of them as both pretty simple and easy to run. I'm intriqued by TNE but it is too complicated for my tastes...

 

[robject]

Originally posted by Aramis:

I started on CT, but found CT confusing to run, with so many different resolution mechanics exemplified in the rules.

Quite so; maybe reducing everything to a task will help T5. We'll see!

 

[G K Zhukov]

I have also used BTRC's EABA... difficulties and their TN's covert straight from MT...

Interesting. I am thinking about converting Traveller to BTRC previous CORPS rules ("GURPS-like, only better", they say).

I am also interested in the RQ/BRPS conversion someone mentioned above. I just love rollunder D100's!

Me gearhead... me bad...

 

[etherflyer]

I've run Classic Traveller, MegaTraveller, and TNE.

When I restart the game I'll be using a mix of GURPS Traveller (for the worldbuilding and vehicle creation, ie. the background stuff) and BESM/Tri-Stat for the gametime rules (because they are simple, fast, and free for players)

 

[ScottB]

I use MegaTraveller for all the character-scale stuff (character generation, task resolution, personal combat, that sort of thing), and go back to classic Book 2 for most starship-type stuff. I putter around with some of the Freelance Traveller Book 2 extensions for starship design to fill out my small ship universe a bit, and use other material drawn from a wide variety of sources for other elements (system/world generation, for example). But MT covers probably 90% or more of what gets used in a typical playing session, unless we're involved in a starship battle.

 

[aramis]

Personally, I find CORPS very un-GURPS-like...

CORPS is VERY deadly (making stock GURP look cinematic); by the same token, it covers all the basic character issues in a ch thinner rulebook, with simpler, clearer rules.

The Autosuccess rules are applied at all times, even in combat; I've had combats where the PC's never needed to make a ToHit roll.. as they autohit.

Bout the only reason I don't run CORPS for Traveller is hat my style of gme is "Chandelier Swinging Swashbuckling in Space", and is excessiely cinematic. CORPS tends to punish flamboyance in combat. Otherwise, it is an excellent system.

CORPS' VDS is similar in complxity to FF&S or GURPS Vehicles, but is somewhat less concrete than either as far as wht it is you're installing. (It is possible to make a low payload SSTO at "Modern Tech Level"... but the payload is pretty wimpy...)

 

[G K Zhukov]

Originally posted by Aramis:
Bout the only reason I don't run CORPS for Traveller is hat my style of gme is "Chandelier Swinging Swashbuckling in Space", and is excessiely cinematic. CORPS tends to punish flamboyance in combat. Otherwise, it is an excellent system.

I see you are true to your board handle.

Thanks for your overview of CORPS.