Who PLAYED IT but doesn't like it. (MegaTraveller)

[CosmicGamer]

I'm curious. Who has PLAYED MegaTraveller, not people who have only read about it in forums, play tested it but never played the released version, not people who saw a friends copy, or got a copy someone was going to throw away and gave it a cursory glance, but who has PLAYED MegaTraveller with a group of people in person or on-line and what are the things you don't like?

Has the experience caused you to
A) stop playing Traveller all together
B) play a different version of Traveller you own
C) go out and buy a different version of Traveller
D) keep playing - possibly making house rules and not use things you don't like

 

[Whipsnade]

CG,

Owned and played it. Used large portions of it, like chargen and the task system, and binned the rest, like ship combat.


Regards,
Bill

 

[Supplement Four]

MegaTraveller is one of Traveller's best rule sets, errata and all.

It's not as good as Classic Traveller, mind you, but I do, indeed, understand what people see in MT.



I've got years of experience with MT, having played it, on and off, the entire decade it was in print.

 

[Gallowglacht]

Was the first version I played. Enjoyed character generation. Couple of failed attempts to get a campaign going, but we didn't really get into it. Some bits seemed too complex and the setting didn't grab us.
In its defence, we were young and didn't get into it enough to give it a real shot. Swapped for TNE.

So C) I guess.

 

[beowulf2044]

Mega Traveller was the one that put me off Traveller altogether for a number of years. From the rules like using fractions in calculating combat damage, to converting stats into hit points, and then back again to determine damage. Ship design produced ships with less performance than Book 2 or High Guard. Typos ("Hey, the Broadsword class ships got a lot slower, but man, check out how fast a Yacht is now!").

Then there was the setting, which I didn't like. And liked less and less the longer it went on.

It seemed like every time I looked into it, something else was weird. Like when the planet Gushemege suddenly got transposed to a different location altogether. What was up with that?

MegaTraveller was anounced to be a consolidation and streamlining of the original Traveller. My personal feeling was that I was lied to. But gods, I tried to use it as best I could.

 

[mike wightman]

Played it loads and lots from it made it into my CT+ house rules.

Not a great fan of the whole rebellion setting until Hard Times came along. That setting is my favourite of the lot.

 

[Zparkz]

MT was my first version of Traveller. And my first Roleplaying game. However, I soon learned that the basic MT books didn't cover the whole truth. There was other books out there which was necessary. Thus my hunt for Traveller books started. Now I got most CT books and suplements ever produced, even a few very hard to find.

However, after some time I got issues with the MT ruklesystem. Primarily, starship combat and combat in general. I even tried to use High Guard, but it made even less sense.

I loved the task system, it made it easy for a rookie like me to get the grips on how to handle the rules pretty well.

The second major hurdle was the setting. It was large, too large for a newbie. I even now find it too large and too limiting in many ways. I got my nose bruised often in setting discussions in both HIWG and on the TML as I did not have everything or managed to digest the vast quantity of information.

Then came TNE, never looked back, however I do play in a CT setting most of the time but I use my own variants.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Somewhat disagree with the size. MT's shattered empire, even more so in the HardTimes makes for rather small entities where one can put the adventure. Sure the larger background is there and can slowly "seep in" but players can easily start concentrating on 5-10 worlds and still have a good set of adventures (Assignment:Vigilant is a nice example)

 

[the angle]

Owned and played it. Used large portions of it, like chargen and the task system, and binned the rest, like ship combat.
...
MegaTraveller is one of Traveller's best rule sets, errata and all. It's not as good as Classic Traveller, mind you, but I do, indeed, understand what people see in MT.

My sentiments exactly. I had no complaints against the fracturing of the Imperium. CharGen was the best it's ever been. I seldom bother to design my own vehicles, so those problems didn't bother me. Some of the DGP supplements were outstanding. And Hard Times is up there with The Traveller Adventure as one of the great Traveller campaigns. Supplements are not the game, of course, but Hard Times, Starship Operator's Manual, and World Builder's Handbook dang near excuse all other problems with MT.

Steve

 

[Zparkz]

Somewhat disagree with the size. MT's shattered empire, even more so in the HardTimes makes for rather small entities where one can put the adventure. Sure the larger background is there and can slowly "seep in" but players can easily start concentrating on 5-10 worlds and still have a good set of adventures (Assignment:Vigilant is a nice example)

For a Traveller Rookie with only the boxed starter edition it doesn't give much to play in when it comes to the background setting. Even understanding the Rebellion was pretty hard. And the support GDW and DGP gave Traveller and the Rebellion in particular was miniscule at best.

So the first few years I had to write my own stuff to game with.

So even for its beauty in many ways MT was a failed product.

 

[robject]

So even for its beauty in many ways MT was a failed product.

They had the right idea, but I felt frustrations similar to your own.

 

[lucasdigital]

Well I just thumbed my way through the basic rules again, I've sold my Rebellion Sourcebook and COACC and Fighting Ships during my "fallen years". The books felt austere and business-like. For die-hard Traveller players this felt like it was getting straight down to business, but I think it was a terrible way to introduce new players.

I was gutted when COACC arrived, this felt like an indulgence. Terry McInnes did an outstanding job, but this was the MegaTraveller supplement that nobody asked for,or wanted. Not until Rebellion Sourcebook and Referees companion did I feel the product line was being driven properly.

The vast amount of errata never really bothers me too much, so long as its corrected, these are complex products that are hard to spot problems with until they really start to be used in anger, although there aren't too many game systems released that don't have their fair share of errors.

My memory of play was that it ran pretty well, it felt like Classic Traveller, and mostly played like Classic Traveller. Where it had changed, it always felt like an improvement.
In the end though, 2300AD took me away from MegaTraveller.

 

[mctesla]

Love it.

I started with Starter Traveller after being exposed to the game via a friend- I liked it, but it was always competing for gaming time with Star Frontiers, Space Opera, and some others. When MegaTraveller came out, it was like a breath of fresh air- we played the heck out of it, until for a few years we were playing MegaTraveller and 2300AD almost exclusively. Most of that original gaming crew moved on, but I've run MegaTraveller quite a few times since then as one offs during the intervening years, and it's always my version of choice (and I've since amassed a pretty large collection of just about everything published for CT, MT, TNE, T4, and 2300AD-- plus all the CDROMs).
mega:

 

[Blue Ghost]

I'm curious. Who has PLAYED MegaTraveller, not people who have only read about it in forums, play tested it but never played the released version, not people who saw a friends copy, or got a copy someone was going to throw away and gave it a cursory glance, but who has PLAYED MegaTraveller with a group of people in person or on-line and what are the things you don't like?

Has the experience caused you to
A) stop playing Traveller all together
B) play a different version of Traveller you own
C) go out and buy a different version of Traveller
D) keep playing - possibly making house rules and not use things you don't like

The only thing I really didn't like about MT was the involved vehicle design rules. At the time my mental juices were aimed at the arts, and my science/engineering side were essentially turned off. As such the rules just really boggled me. But the combat and character aspects of the game were appealing. I also thought the milieu was also very intriquing, although our group never really explored the whole rebellion thing.

 

[DonM]

I've run several campaigns using the MT rules, although I'll completely confess that I've come to regard MT as the structure to fit my tweaks in, rather than running it strictly by the rules.

Although, as I identify more errata, it dawns on me how great the design was, and yet how much that design eluded the designers. I really do want to see an MT with all the kinks smoothed out.

Unfortunately, odds are that many of us would disagree about the kinks...

:rofl:

 

[Psion]

MT was my mainstay back in the day. I still regard the MT task system as the best the game has ever seen. And that goes to anything that rode on top of it (ship combat, etc.), and prefer its interpretation of tech to any other edition.

Chargen was improved, but still had a ways to go.

One thing that I liked at first glance but have come to realize wasn't the greatest idea was basing the ship building system off of striker.

 

[TWTP]

.... Unfortunately, odds are that many of us would disagree about the kinks...
:rofl:

I Liked the Kinks they were a good band.



However the kinks in MT were very distracting. I was disappointed with the product as a whole,. But what really turned me off to traveller was the lack of supplements and adventures that were produced for MT by GDW. Not very many, and the quality was not very high. But I do love the Rebellion source book.
TNE was just terrible in my oppinion. One of the selling points they made for it at Gen Con 92 was that it was educational. IE: it would teach you science... well it did attempt to teach me math as in advanced trig etc but why would a newb in high school or earlier want to play a game that even hinted at being educational?
also if you look at all the pictures drawn for TNE all the NPC's look angry. Not a single one looks happy.
Oops this is about MT so I'll stop my rant about TNE.

CT was the best and most flexible, MT Did try to clean it up but the Kinks! oh the Kinks!

 

[rust]

B) play a different version of Traveller you own

Another version we mined for ideas, but never really liked, so we returned
to our houseruled Classic Traveller.
Strangely I do not even remember why we disliked MegaTraveller, somehow
this version left no impression at all.

 

[Jason]

MT was my introduction to Traveller, and is the incarnation I have played the most. I designed MT ships anytime I had some spare time all during High School, and worked out tricks to give the ships performance closer to their CT forefathers once I had those books as well (like dividing up the power plant fuel requirements and giving only a limited time at full power for combat).
I loved the DGP alien modules and the Starship Operator's book and the Digest/Journal - it's really a pitty they never finished the line.

 

[Stargrove]

Traveller...

I was introduced to and played a little CT in 7th grade (1982-ish) but never really got into it much. Later in the 80's, MegaTraveller came out and I bought everything I could find. CT was, and still seems today, to be a very sterile game...small black books with very little art. But MegaTraveller was a whole new experience. Much of the role-playing stuff I own I bought because of the artistic quality of the product. I think that is what first really drew me to MT. It was the first role-playing game that I actually GM'd for friends. I wish I knew people that still played it today. Unfortunately I never really got to play since I always ran the game. But I still love the setting.

We never really realized there were so many problems with the game other than typos and such. I mean, the eratta at FFE.net is almost 60 pages. I realize that incorporates stuff from magazines and other supplements...but wow, 60 pages.

We mostly played the game with a little combat and more pure role-playing and skill tests. I saw that someone else here used to design ships while in school...yeah, I remember those days. Over the years I picked up as much Traveller stuff as I could afford; CT, MT, TNE, T4. But I always come back to MT...It has a special place in my heart.