My birthday's coming up, and I have to make a choice:

Mongoose Traveller or BRP?

I'm gunna be running something soon, and I think I'd like to take a break from my go-to's (Savage Worlds and nWoD).

I've been looking at both of these and now I can't make a decision.

What do you think? And optionally, why do you think it?

Both are good systems, reasonably detailed to give you quite individualised characters, and pretty simple in play.

BRP will let you play a wide range of genres of game. MGT will let you play Traveller. So really it's about what you're after.

I would go for MGT, because if you go for BRP then when you talk to your group there'll be a big long argument about what to play. But if you have MGT, then you can say, "we're playing Traveller" and everyone will go along with it.

Thanks, Kyle. That's a good point.

If you like Traveller go with Mongoose Traveller, its very similar to the Classic little black books and expands character creation by adding enough sills to have a useful stand alone character.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;270620I would go for MGT, because if you go for BRP then when you talk to your group there'll be a big long argument about what to play. But if you have MGT, then you can say, "we're playing Traveller" and everyone will go along with it.

If you're stuck for time then Mongoose Traveller. BRP doesn't have a background, and it might take a while to write one up, whereas the Imperium lives on in all its incarnations, despite Strephon's death and other dooms.

I was recently thinking about running Traveller with the BRP rules and even went so far as to work out some conversions-

http://www.hackslash.net/?p=302

But after doing that and reading through the rulebook again, I fell back in love with Mongoose Trav.  The BRP rules are broader and more robust, but it's just easier to use the Traveller rules.

My familiarity with Mongoose's Traveller is limited mostly to all incarnations of its public playtest documents and a couple of cursory scans of the final book, and almost the same to be said of my familiarity with the new BRP book.  My recommendation is based primarily on what you want to present to your game group.

If you're looking for an open-ended toolkit system that will be readily adapted to any number of settings you and your group cook up, then definitely go for BRP.  If anyone gets antsy and the prevailing opinion turns to switching campaigns, then your BRP book can be easily re-tooled to accommodate a new plan.

If you're looking for a semi-generic science fiction ruleset with an emphasis on space travel, then Traveller might be your huckleberry.  Of course, BRP can do this, too, though it's not nearly as front-loaded to do so straight out of the book.

So, basically, what Kyle said.  Traveller if you want to play Traveller; BRP if you want flexibility to create your own campaign setting.

Personally, I like the classic BRP system better than the updated Traveller.

!i!

You can't go wrong with either.

To the above, I add a THIRD option:

CT reprints from Far Future Games.

Just sayin'.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!;270798To the above, I add a THIRD option:

CT reprints from Far Future Games.

Just sayin'.

Yah...the CT CD-ROM is an incredible value.  I love that and the JTAS CD.

jswa> You've already got two generic systems. If you want a third, go with BRP. If you want something a little more sci-fi specific, go with Mong Trav.

I'll go out on a limb here. I own both. BRP is pretty cool, but Mongoose Traveller is a much better game.

I play Traveller with BRP rules, but using Traveller character generation. As MGT is generally acknoledged to have the best character generation of any Traveller iteration (not to mention the Spica Career Book 1), I would go for ... both!

And I have.