I have learned in almost 19 years of Aikido practice that awareness is really the key to getting better at just about anything. I see it in lower-ranked students the first time they catch themselves in bad posture and make the correction, rather than needing to be guided. I feel it in myself in the same way, even if the “mistakes” are usually more subtle. I catch those mistakes because of years of building awareness. My teacher, with 40+ years of practice, has still finer awareness than me.
It is amazing that there’s so much advice out in the world for Game Masters. A lot of it is really good advice. One must be open to new ideas for prepping, running, and even thinking about one’s game.
But there is just no substitute for practice, and I’ll add to that – awareness.
I think I’m a better GM than I’ve ever been. When I came back to gaming in 2014 I expressed my amazement to my friend William at just how great his D&D setting and game mastering was. He responded that he’s spent the last 10 years (or whatever number of years he said) immersed in gaming, taking in new ideas and playing and just really thinking about it.
Being part of a group of thoughtful gamers and game masters helps build awareness. Sometimes it feels insane how much thought I put into this hobby, but you don’t get better at things by dabbling in them. I took William’s comments to heart, and I’ve immersed myself in the hobby, and that has paid off.
I’m not saying I’m an amazing GM. I’m saying I’m better than I’ve ever been and I credit two things for that.
Practice. You can’t read, listen, or watch your way to improving as a GM. You have to actively GM
Putting real effort into learning, through association with other people who want to improve, which builds awareness of the little victories and mistakes
I think it’s too bad Marc Miller didn’t just continue developing Classic Traveller. Not to second-guess the Emperor. I just think he got it right in the first place. A few things were missing, like vehicle combat. Omer Golan-Joel’s Quick and Dirty Vehicle Combat, now available officially as a Classic Traveller item from Mongoose, shows how to fit vehicle combat into the game in a way that really fits with it.
I know a lot of people really liked MegaTraveller. I don’t have it, but I believe it when they tell me it’s good.
Thinking back to my earliest Traveller games I was 15 and it was the summer of 1980. Star Wars was out, of course. The Empire Strikes Back had been released. We were playing Traveller that summer. I was late to join my friends in the world of gaming, and they had already been playing for about a year. We were lucky because our friend who ran Traveller played it with some older guys who really understood how to use the game. We benefited from that.
I just don’t remember feeling like the rules were inadequate. If there was no rule for something, our GM decided how to handle it. Example: if we were in vehicle combat, he’d just have us make attack rolls and we’d describe what we were doing. Honestly, it wasn’t complicated. I do like Omer’s rules. I’m going to use them. But I guess my point is that I’m not really sure all the later editions really “improved” the game. I’m not sure later editions do that much to improve any RPG. I think the game gets better as the GM and the Players get better in ways that go beyond the rules.
I’m glad Mongoose is doing some new Classic Traveller materials, or at least allowing official publishing via their TAS program. I’d like to see this continue. I’d like to see an alternate ship combat system, at least for “adventure class” ships, that is suitable for Classic Traveller. Omer, are you listening? haha.
Chris Enfors asked me this morning, via Mastodon, if I used Classic Traveller for my campaign. The answer of course is yes.
I started writing a blog post about why I prefer it to the current glossy, bloated, expensive version of the game, but then realized that calling it “bloated” might come off as hostile, so I decided not to say that. Full disclosure - I own a lot of the bloated version, but I don’t use it, because it is bloated.
Here’s the fanboy part…
Then I remembered this great post by Omer Golan Joel, On the Beauty of Classic Traveller. He pretty much expresses my sentiments without being a dick.
End of fanboy part.
If I were to use a more recent system I’d just the Cepheus Engine SRD and some of the supplements like the Vehicle Design Guide and Spacecraft Design Guide, as I think they are the closest thing to Classic Traveller available. They add some good systems without overdoing it. I like Cepheus Light too.
All sillyness aside, the Mongoose stuff is really nice. Reading through the Core Rulebook Update recently I think it is a good system that provides a lot for the gamer. Overall it is a very complete system and is very solid. I have tried using the Central Supply Catalog recently, and found that I have to disallow almost all the armor and weapons from my game, and a lot of the higher tech stuff. Mongoose Traveller 2e is designed to better reflect current trends (and by that I mean post-1977 trends) in science fiction. But that’s not what I’m looking for.
It is nice for the players in our group to be able to look at a document and recall the essential happenings of each set of games. In a long-form campaign, a lot happens over the years and it is fun to look back and see all the crazy stuff that they’ve done.
I like to think our blog can be a simple example of how a Traveller game can be played. When I was younger I really didn’t understand the potential of Classic Traveller. I think a lot of people have trouble working with the science fiction genre unless they are doing Star Trek, Star Wars, or some other “property” they are already familiar with. Over and over I see people online trying to understand the Traveller canon, which is long, complex, and potentially overwhelming. I want to give them an example of playing the game as it was originally created to be played – without a published setting. For more on this, see the “Traveller: Out of the Box” series on the Tales to Astound blog.
I will likely think of ways to improve the Timeline, and do those things as I have time.
There’s so much you can do with those original three Little Black Books. Just add imagination.
So, I have a lot of the Mongoose Traveller 2e books. As I have said here and elsewhere, they are nice books. From what I’ve read, even from MT fans, if you dig in just a little bit you find a lot of errors and inconsistencies, but the books look good. They are nice, modern RPG books.
But they are of very little use to me.
The Central Supply Catalog is cool. I can’t unleash the armor and weapons in it upon my Classic Traveller game, but here is a lot of other cool gear in it that I’m allowing my players to pull from.
I simply prefer Classic Traveller and various Cepheus Engine resources.
I have to admit, I have a hard time thinking of MT as “really being Traveller.” That makes no sense, I know. But in my mind, if it isn’t from Marc Miller, it just isn’t Traveller. Hell, even that later versions of Marc’s work don’t seem like Traveller to me. To me, Traveller is the Little Black Books, the supplement books and adventures, the original Journal of the Travellers Aid Society, homegrown Traveller zines, and the stuff we (the players) cook up out of our brains from necessity.
The Cepheus Engine stuff is so varied. I find it easy to find CE material to easily drop into my game. The DIY nature of a lot of speaks to me in the language, if not the exact details, of Classic Traveller.
If I was invited to play in a Mongoose Traveller game (and I had the time for it) I’d certainly do it. I’d play and I’d enjoy it.
I keep thinking about this, I suppose, because as a gamer my tastes and preferences have changed so much over the years.
An admission.
I have a lot of trouble thinking of anything except Classic Traveller (1977 or 1981 or any of printing options of that version, like The Traveller book) as really being Traveller.
My friend Greg is creating some macros for use with Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition on Roll20. He’s shown them to me and a few other players. They are very cool. He has some good reason for wanting to automate some of the functions in his games. My next statements recognize this, and are not a criticism of such efforts.
Online RPG gaming, especially using various Virtual Tabletop Systems like Roll20 (VTTs) is fantastic. It give players the ability to join games with enthusiasts all over the world, and it allowed our game to continue during the pandemic.
I’ve been fiddling around with macros in Roll20 the last few weeks. I feel like in my case they are a waste of my time, and I realized that on a personal level I am opposed to having too much automation in my online sessions.
If you automate everything, I think players will not learn the way the game actually works.
To me, part of the hobby is learning the game. You learn to roll up a character. You learn what your character can do. You learn which dice to roll, and when to roll them, and why. You learn how skills work. You learn how combat works. You learn to use the rules, as given in the rulebook, to figure out what your success rolls are.
As a game master, you learn to build a game using whatever system you are using. You gain a feel for the game by – reading - the - fucking - rules. You create scenarios. You learn to organize your materials in such a way that they work for you.
You play the game and you learn the rules to the point that you barely have to consult the rulebook, and you can play the game and have a great time with pencil, paper, and dice. All the rest becomes add-ons.
So my point?
I think one must be careful with the use of VTTs just like one must be careful with the use of hated AI. If you don’t watch out, all the helpful tools will have reduced your knowledge of the game, and you may become simple consumers of media rather than creative gamers.
During session 38 of our Classic Traveller campaign, the characters expressed some interest in going gun shopping and to look at other gear as well. While there is an equipment list in the Classic Traveller books, it is not super long or interesting. Well, I suppose it could be interesting, but of course it was written in 1977 and ignores a lot of ideas that have been generated since then. Normally I’d say that’s fine, but I don’t want to have to work out all this stuff item by item. I told them they can use the Mongoose Traveller 2e Central Supply Catalog. We’re going to use it for non-military grade gear.
My biggest issue with the Mongoose stuff is that the associated artwork doesn’t really mix with the retro-SF look and feel I want my game to have. For example, I don’t really want “tablet” computers in the game. I want it to say “hand computer” and look more like an Apple Newton than an iPad. So I want to make sure I give them good descriptions of the appearance of their gear.
Besides that stuff, I have long intended to adopt some better vehicle chase/combat rules. I wrote some years ago. They aren’t bad. I have been a fan of the rules presented in Cepheus Deluxe for a long time. Today I started going through the Cepheus Engine Vehicle Design Guide, and found that the CD rules are heavily based on them. Once again, the base CE docs are there when you need them. I’m going to spend some time over this weekend doing to test chases and dogfights. One fun thing – they include tactical rules in case a vehicle is moving at a relatively slow speed through a combat zone.
Full Disclosure. The rules in Mongoose Traveller are pretty close to these. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with Mongoose Traveller. I’m just drawn to the punk rock stuff.
If these rules work the way I want, I’ll probably grab the text and table to create some quick reference sheets for my players, as well as sort of an online Ref’s screen to keep open when we are playing a vehicle combat. Something that includes the basic rules, hit location charts, and whatnot.
Speaking of The Cepheus Engine, this PDF bundle on DriveThru RPG is an incredible value. The core rules, ship design, and vehicle design. Awesome. (this is not an affiliate link).
Something I’m not seeing yet is a CE version of the Central Supply Catalog. That would be nice.
We’re taking a week off from our Classic Traveller campaign this week. I need a bit of rest. I love running it on a weekly basis, but combining that with running a weekly D&D game and it’s a lot.
I’ve been fiddling around with various ideas of using experience points in a Classic Traveller campaign. I’m conflicted. I do think it is nice when characters can improve their skills. The original game made this very difficult. We’ve been playing this campaign for over six years, though we’re only coming up on Session 37.
I’m having the PCs each pick one skill to work on gaining or improving, or one characteristic to work on. The original idea was that they get an immediate +1 on that skill since they are actively practicing it (or have skill 0 for new skills for 6 months then skill 1), when after two years of in-game time that increase is permanent. It is clear to me that is too long. Six years into our campaign only 414 game days have elapsed.
Rather than go to an XP system, I think I’m going to just change from two years in-game to one year to make the skills permanent. I feel like gaining XP is kind of antithetical to Traveller. I don’t want them worrying about that. What I do want is for the process to be formalized so it isn’t just the Ref decreeing everything.
The real “power increases” in a long-term Traveller should be in the areas of wealth, political/social power, influence, and reputation.
My friend Todd has joined out Classic Traveller campaign, playing a retired bureaucrat.
He’s started keeping a journal written as the character, which I’m publishing on our campaign blog. I think it is a great example of why nearly any character in Traveller or the Cepheus Engine can be a great character to play. Super, super good stuff. It’s also a great example of why keeping a blog for your character is a wonderful way to enjoy the game even more.
On our Traveller/Cepheus Engine/2d6 SF podcast we are running a fun user participation event - Submit Your Alien Beast.
We’ve had a few submissions thus far, and I love ‘em all. I will be writing up a couple of mine for the upcoming Bestiary as well.
We’ve asked that people supply drawings but no AI Art if they wish. The thing is, we understand that people can submit a few lines of text and an AI can spit out a cool looking monster. That’s not the point. We want the Bestiary to look like an oldschool punk rock zine. That is what we’re going for.
I rolled up a Cepheus Engine character tonight to use as an NPC. Rolled it STRAIT. Stats in order as rolled. Only real option was scientist.
As much as I love Classic Traveller, the Cepheus Engine SRD really has the best breakdown of skills of any of the versions of CE or Traveller. I prefer it to Mongoose 2e and other CE versions.
Jones Cyrano
Retired Social Science Academic
B348D5
Mods:
S +1
D -1
E -1
I +0
Ed +2
SS -1
Homeworld - Medium Law, Hi tech, Hi Pop, Rich
Background skills (5): Gun Combat (slug pistol) 0, Coms-0, Streetwise-0, Carousing-0, Space Sciences-0
Scientist
terms: 2
commission 1st term + advance
term 2 advances and survives
term 2 survives and advances
term 3 survives and advances
term 4 survives and advances
rank 6
skills
term 1: +1 int, elec-1, animals-1
term 2: advocate-1, comp-1
term 3: sciences - 1, comp-2
term 4: science -2, admin-1
Skills:
Term Skills:
Elec-1, Comp-2, Animals-1, Social Sciences-2, Advocate-1, Admin-1
Service skills:
physical sciences 0, bribery 0, med-0 ,
Aging at age 34. Loses 1 STR and 1 END
Musters out with 25,000cr
Musters out: +2 soc, +1ed, Mid passage
Jones is a large man. Very strong, but clumsy and with poor endurance. Of average intelligence, Jones was a great student with real focus.
I had an interesting conversation last night with a friend who is working on a Traveller project. Can’t divulge anything at this point. It is all in the beginning stages.
We did talk a bit about what exactly the Cepheus Engine is. He honestly didn’t know, and I suspect a lot people who are fully into some version(s) of Traveller don’t know either. So, while I was not really involved in the Traveller/2d6 world when the Cepheus Engine rose from the ashes of Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition, I have a pretty firm grasp of its history now and the many versions and permutations of it that are available.
A quick search of “what is the Cepheus Engine?” on DuckDuckGo will start unravelling that question for newcomers. I think the best explanation is on the Traveller Wiki, and it is the simplest too, but it fails to mention that the main open source for the CE is Mongoose Traveller 1e.
Stay with me while I think out loud here…
So there’s a lot of history about why the CE was created in the first place, which I’ll not get into here. The main thing to know is that the CE System Reference Document, created by Jason Kemp of Samardan Games, is the base document from which the other versions have sprung. The online version of the SRD has an intro page with links.
Cepheus Engine is essentially Open Source punk rock Traveller, with a lot of different versions and creators involved.
All of this complicates the world of 2d6 SF roleplaying quite a bit. I get questions about it pretty frequently, so I’m writing this post and I’ll refer future questions here. Now yes, it does complicate things, but it also creates a hell of a lot of diversity in the 2d6 world. You have standard SF, systems tailored to mimic horror SF like the Alien franchise, etc. So there’s a lot to choose from. The easy interoperability of all the systems is cool. I’m running Classic Traveller, but I can pull in rules from Mongoose Traveller 2e and all the Cepheus stuff very easily and it doesn’t break anything. It enriches the experience.
Last night we played session 32 of our Classic Traveller Campaign, Into the Void. That’s the link to the session report. I also wrote up some Ref’s Notes for the last two sessions this morning.
I know I tend to go on and on about this, but Traveller and Cepheus Engine, with the 2d6 mechanic and simple but effective rules, make adventure creation and preparation amazingly easy.
Yesterday I needed to prepare the leader of a small Scout base, in case the team should go that way. I rolled some dice for the characteristics, decided to make her a 5-term scout, jotted down her skills and three personal traits, and I was done. No flipping through a massive rulebook for 20 minutes or logging into some online character generator. I knew what I needed for the game and it took me about 3 minutes to write out three or four lines that describe a fully developed NPC for my game.
Sometimes it is fun to really have high “mastery” of complex game systems. Some people really get off on that. It’s what they love. Decades ago I may well have been that person, but I’m not anymore. I want a system that has enough meat on its bones to get the job done, so we’re playing a game and not just “storytelling”, but otherwise gets out of my way.
I sometimes wonder if the complexity of other systems isn’t kind of a crutch for GMs and Players alike.
My other favorite system is GURPS. While you can make GURPS very complex, it need not be that way. I feel like if I ran GURPS more I could probably run it much like I do Traveller.
For the last few days my friend CyborgPrime has been running the yearly Mayday, Mayday! online celebration of the Traveller RPG. This is something I look forward to every year. He’s been kind enough to interview me a couple of times since I’m a Traveller/Cepheus Engine podcaster and I always have fun.
Age 30, Height 5'5", Weight 145lbs
Hair: black
Eyes: brown
8980 cr
Auto Pistol
Armor: Mesh (AR5)150cr
personal communicator 250cr
auto pistol 2d6 (mustered out with it) (15 rounds)
body pistol 2d6 500cr (6 rounds)
Blade 2d6 50cr
2 Auto Pistol clips +1 in gun (30r)
1 Body Pistol clip +1 in gun (40 cr)
Homeworld Skills
medium law/desert
slug rifle-0, survival-0, carousing-0
Jahn is a small man of somewhat limited intelligence from a desert world. While not that smart or dextrous, his desert background gives him a high END. While not very dextrous, he’s practiced enough with pistols that he’s at no negative modifiers with them. He’s good with a 9" Blade, the combat knife from his homeworld. He wears a mesh armor tunic, the exterior is blue-stained leather. He’s picked up some odd skills like Recon, Streetwise, and Electronics while drifting from planet to planet for 12 years, usually travelling by low passage.
Jahn is an idealist. He comes from nothing, but believes he can have a better life and will adventure to get it. He’s not foolhardy, but can be impulsive. He has a high sense of adventure.
This is the NPC I created for my Classic Traveller game last session.
The PCs were looking for a hacker. I didn’t have one when they asked, but about 90 seconds later I did. This is the strength of Classic Traveller (and really the other forms of 2s6 RPGs derived from it) for fast and loose improvisational play. Did I roll this NPC up? No. I knew what I wanted, and I’m the GM, so I just wrote it out. Well, lemme think. I did, in fact, roll up his stats and then just decided on the rest. I rolled up six numbers and arranged them as I saw fit. I am the Referee - I can do that.
Tahm Slykk
755B95
Admin-1, Comp-4, Bribery-1, Streetwise-2, Grav-Vehicle-1
Carries a body pistol inside his leather overcoat. Tall, with a high shock of red hair, round lens glasses tinted green, carries a portable electronics kit and computer in a black metal briefcase, with all he needs to hack on-the-go. More gear in his home/shop - the entire floor above a grav-vehicle repair shop. Drives a beat-up looking grav bike that is more than it appears to be (MAY be called the Thunderbolt GreaseSlapper). Tahm is a hacker for hire. He speaks with nervous speed and energy. Older than he looks. There’s no such word as “fail” to Tahm Slykk.
I actually kinda love this character. This is the kind of self-centered but good-natured dirtbag I’d like to play.
I’m not sure, but I think if I was running Sword of Cepheus for a fantasy setting I could create a good NPC just about as quickly. Sure I might need to look up a few spells, but it would be simple.
The PCs in my Classic Traveller campaign have all gained two skill levels over the course of several year of play, and are all currently “studying” for two more.
Originally I simply accelerated the process in the Classic Traveller books for character improvement, but after a few years of real time play, without years and years passing in-game, I simply told them to make those skills they were studying permanent and to add two more to the “studying” list.
We start every game from the exact in-game date we left off, and as of right now 412 game days have passed - just a little over one imperial year.
I need to rewrite the improvement guidelines on my campaign blog.
Really, the players don’t seem to care that much. The game has been a lot of fun and they don’t seem so focused on advancement as you find in games where you level up or whatever. One thing I love about Traveller is that it isn’t a power fantasy in that way. Still, I think it’s good for the PCs to gain some skills over time. It’s not like they’re going to become super human or it’s going to break the game.
We often to talk about Traveller skills being “big”, that they often include subskills.
In my campaign, for example, one of the PCs has the skill Forward Observer-1. Now this is a battlefield skill, obviously, and would be used to call in coordinates for air strikes, artillary, or even bombardment/attack from orbit. BUT – it would likely also mean the character is good at sneaking around a battlefield and not being seen. Essentially it is stealth on the battlefield. A forward observer who is easy to see would not be alive and useful very long. So I allow the PC in my game to use the Forward Observer skill to stealth around battlefield-like environments.
If a player can make a logical argument why a skill applies to a situation, and it doesn’t break the game or render a more specific skill superfluous, I’ll allow it to at least some extent.
I think most players would be bummed to roll up “Steward” skill, but I think that skill is more than cooking and entertaining. A good ship steward would go all over a ship, be familiar with what everyone on a ship does, see what’s going on, and really know the nooks and crannies of a ship. They’d be great at knowing where to hide, even on a ship they’ve not been on before, where particular kinds of items would be likely to be kept, etc. It’s only a useless skill of the Ref never puts the PC in a situation where it can be useful.
Keeping with Omer’s assertion that a level of 1 is good enough to get a job with a skill, consider Streetwise-1. It has to be more than simply finding underworld contacts or talking your way out of being stabbed. It means your streetwise nature is enough to make a living. You are good at it. Streetwise 2 or 3 ? Hell, you can probably pick pockets, etc. One of our PCs was a retired Merchant with Streetwise skill. I made the ruling that HIS streetwise was more related to business dealings - how to handle himself when bargaining, knowing if he’s being cheated, etc. (I have the player the choice and he thought this was cool.)
I don’t think this theory would apply to every skill. There are a few where it makes no sense. Like Bribery. You will probably not make a living at bribery. I think it is probably just a discrete skill, though I’d still listen to an argument about some clever application of the skill.
I posted Ref’s Notes to the campaign blog for our Classic Traveller campaign.
As I stated in that post, I’m exploring the idea of converting to the Cepheus Engine SRD. There would be a few advantages to it.
I saw yesterday that Mongoose has published their first new book for Classic Traveller, Book 9: Pirates. I have to admit that while I don’t have a bad relationship with Mongoose as a Traveller podcaster (I don’t really have any relationship at all with them), I have not found myself drawn to their products or even the Mongoose Traveller community. It seems somehow separate from the rest of the Traveller/Cepheus Engine world. There are reasons for that which I’ll not go into. I guess I just feel a much stronger connection to all the CE publishers and Classic Traveller. However, they now own the entire Traveller IP, so they own Classic as well.
Anyway, I watched this video from Page121 about the new Pirates book, and learned that longtime Traveller guy and actual local Traveller friend Rob Eaglestone is one of the writers. Now, Rob has done some really good work on his own. I was happy to see a full-on oldschool Traveller player involved in this, so I have pre-ordered the book, and I have the PDF now.
It’s really cool. What I really like is that Marc Miller wrote a forward to it. That is cool. Apparently the physical copy will be in a size very close to the original Traveller books, which I also like.
Anyway, I like that Mongoose isn’t just sitting on the Classic Traveller IP and doing nothing. As a Traveller/CE/2d6 podcaster I own a lot of their 2nd Edition stuff. I feel like I need to be familiar with it, even if I don’t use it. It’s all very nice. The books are all beautiful, the layout is great. Still, I prefer the concise and compact format of the Classic Traveller books. That’s why I LOVE the Traveller Facsimile Edition. No matter how nice a set of rulebooks is, I hate lugging them around. Yes, of course you can get them on your tablet or laptop, but I also like having the physical book at the table.
I’m rambling now. Summary – Pirate book is cool. Rob Eaglestone does great work. Marc Miller is cool. Small books are cool. Mongoose producing new stuff for Classic and having a true fan and expert on it like Rob as a writer is cool.
We played our Traveller campaign yesterday. Four hours of fun on Roll20. So happy to be back at it.
Tonight I watched the Boys from the Baltic Star actual play Traveller stream on Twitch while I fiddled around on my own campaign. I like these guys. They are the only actual play I can even watch. It was nice, and really helped keep me inspired after a day of work and house cleaning.
Honestly, I find most actual play streams overly performative. The Boys are just dudes playing a real campaign. They keep it real.
Not surprisingly, the HTML version is simply easier to use on the iPad and on the computer. HTML resizes for screen size by its very nature better than PDFs. The other two documents are great, they are well-designed for print, but for older eyes like mine I find them a bit harder to use. I don’t really like having to constantly resize the PDF. Maybe it’s just me. Now, they are usable. I’m not saying they aren’t. They are both well-bookmarked. It is fairly easy to move to desired sections in the documents. It’s just the reading.
Full disclosure - I love all three versions. I understand that no one is getting rich off publishing these documents. They are pretty much doing a public service, which is much appreciated.
Stuff I like and stuff I want
I’ve got pretty much every version of Cepheus Engine, Classic Traveller, and both editions of Mongoose Traveller. Running my Classic Traveller campaign one thing I had to invent was a system for vehicle combat. So I invented one, and it worked really well, then I found Omer Golan-Joels vehicle combat stuff on his blog Den of the Lizard King as well as his versions in Cepheus Light and Cepheus Deluxe and some other systems. Mine is pretty good, but these other systems are all better. Not my fault. I was just getting started on all this!
But I’d like to see a vehicle combat system actually added to a base Cepheus Engine SRD. Given the importance of vehicle chases, combat, and dogfights in SF movies, it was kind of conspicuous in its absense from Classic Traveller. To me it should be part of the core of any SF RPG. Now, since it is all based off the Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition SRD, I have no idea if it is possible to add stuff. I’m just blabbering.
So I have downloaded the MS Word Version of the Samardan Press’s version as well as the entire HTML version available from GitHub. When I have an extra month in my life I’d like to add vehicle combat to a core SRD.
Skills
Thus far, comparing skills between Classic Traveller, the SRD, and other versions, in general I prefer the SRD as an improvement on Classic Traveller. I think they (Mongoose, I suppose) got it right in this version (Right for me, at least. To each his own). In particular, I like the way they adjusted the various weapon skills, other cascade skills, and the background and service skills. The addition of all service skills at level zero makes a lot of sense to me. I like that Engineering includes all the major ship systems. For me that is the right level of granularity.
To me, if you have Engineering-3, you are at Montgomery Scott Miracle-Worker level. You should be able to fix anything on the ship. How do I arrive at this conclusion? In the old Citizens of the Imperium supplement, the writeup of Darth Vader gives him Pilot-3. If Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader is Pilot-3, then I feel that Engineer-3 should be Mr. Scott. Honestly, I kinda play it like this. Level-1 = bachelors degree. Level-2 = master’s degree. Level-3 = PhD. Anything over level 3 is super grandmaster overlord level (Vader is given Blade Combat -5 in CotI).
Well, I’m rambling here with my not-that-well-thought-out opinions.
