It's been out for a while now. The pdf has been one of the 'hottest titles' on DTRPG for some time. But I haven't really seen a lot of forum chatter about it, and what I have seen has been pretty mixed. A few grumbles on CotI; not much that I've seen elsewhere.

Is it any good? How does it compare with MGT1e or prior versions of Traveller? It's a bit pricey but apparently is full-color and is supposed to have quality art (which sounds like an oxymoron for a Mongoose Publishing product).

I'm not sure if I'd be tempted to buy it - since I give MGP's products a pretty wide berth these days - so, call it idle curiosity.

I'll be following this one as well.  $29 for a pdf is past the impulse purchase for me.  I've been hemming and hawing over whether to get it or not.

I have been running a mongoose v1 game for a few years now, converted it over from classic Traveller, thus I have quite a few mongoose books, probably 90% of what mongoose published and a bunch from 3pp's. Someone sent me a copy of the playtest doc, I wasn't impressed, a lot of it seemed like what was described on CotI as changing things just to change them, and trying to slip D&D-isms in. I looked into the playtest forums and it just looked like driscoll trolling people who were commenting on the rules without there being an actual playtest. It also seems to have moved the closest to space fantasy of any edition.

Quote from: K Peterson;900680It's been out for a while now. The pdf has been one of the 'hottest titles' on DTRPG for some time. But I haven't really seen a lot of forum chatter about it, and what I have seen has been pretty mixed. A few grumbles on CotI; not much that I've seen elsewhere.

Is it any good? How does it compare with MGT1e or prior versions of Traveller? It's a bit pricey but apparently is full-color and is supposed to have quality art (which sounds like an oxymoron for a Mongoose Publishing product).

I'm not sure if I'd be tempted to buy it - since I give MGP's products a pretty wide berth these days - so, call it idle curiosity.

The forum discussion is all at Mongoose's site, as far as I know. The playtests and rule edits were all done with communications with Matthew for 4 months before the beta was released for 2 more months (with some more edits) before the game was released in January. There were some players that had no clue how dice work, and kept wanting to play D&D or Classic Traveller in the playtest. Matthew wanted to see us arguing, which was cool. 12 Angry Men. I mostly fixed typos in the book. It was crazy editing, back and forth with Matthew sending me and others new pages to work on. The book grew 80 pages in that time, I think. A lot of people complained that the rules for ship building were removed. It does have a lot of pre-built ships in the book which you can alter how you want. Matthew wanted, this time around, to have one set of ship building rules in one High Guard book. Before, there have always been two versions of ship building rules in Traveller.

I think High Guard is removing careers from its rules, which bugs me a little. Anyway, I see 2nd edition as just optional rules for 1st edition. 1st edition has more 3rd Imperium stuff in it. The chuckle heads that couldn't understand the rules in 2nd edition, are still to this day fixated on their own homebrew rules for Classic Traveller they were hoping Matthew would just insert into the new 2nd edition so that the game would work. Prozac does not mix well with playtesting.

We are still arguing about 2nd on the Mongoose general forums. The playtest and beta forums have been shut down I think. I'm no longer on COTI, so I don't know what kind of Mongoose talk is going on over there.

Quote from: RunningLaser;900686I'll be following this one as well.  $29 for a pdf is past the impulse purchase for me.  I've been hemming and hawing over whether to get it or not.

That's expected. Since the game is still new. The price will come down eventually. Add it to a wishlist and track it. I bought the hardcover. I don't use PDFs. The production quality is amazing. I wish Traveller 5 was published this way. 2nd edition is a heavier book than 1st edition. I was hoping for lighter paper used. But then there'd be bleed-though like in 1st edition.

I guess the main thing with 2nd edition this time around is that the book is aimed at players that are role-players that want a little wargaming included in the rules if they need it. Matthew wanted to keep games going, and not slow down with rules. If a game still manages to run slow, it's the players making it slow. Not the rules. Some players hate role-playing. They prefer instead to boardgame. 2nd edition doesn't do boardgame very well. Thank the gods.

The single most simplest die mechanic added to the game is a very huge issue with players that can't role-play. Either their brain doesn't work that way, or they just refused to try to understand the new rule, or they kept trying to compare it with D&D mechanics, or it was breaking their own homebrew rules they've used for 30 years. I've got plenty of YouTube videos talking about the Boon/Bane mechanic that has a lot of 300+ lb. fanny-pack grognards panties all in a knot. That's why Matthew put Rule Zero in the book. But no, that's not good enough for referees that can't play any way other than rules-as-written. Those guys were just looking for any excuse to beat their drums that Class Traveller is still the best version. They wren't really there to playtest or beta test. They were just their to agitate. Which is why Matthew invited them into the playtest, so he could see player dynamics going on. He knew our personalities and gaming styles already. Traveller 5's play test did not come close to this experience. That was a slow simmer for 8 years almost, where almost no one's input got used in the final product.

Quote from: K Peterson;900680It's been out for a while now. The pdf has been one of the 'hottest titles' on DTRPG for some time. But I haven't really seen a lot of forum chatter about it, and what I have seen has been pretty mixed. A few grumbles on CotI; not much that I've seen elsewhere.

Is it any good? How does it compare with MGT1e or prior versions of Traveller? It's a bit pricey but apparently is full-color and is supposed to have quality art (which sounds like an oxymoron for a Mongoose Publishing product).

I'm not sure if I'd be tempted to buy it - since I give MGP's products a pretty wide berth these days - so, call it idle curiosity.

If you are going to buy MgT2e, pay as little as possible for it.

The Core Rulebook is bigger, with more pages, but less content because the page spaces are taken up by graphic arts layout nonsense - don't look for the elegance of older Traveller editions, including MgT1e. I find the artwork also questionable, especially the gumball looking worlds on their subsector maps and the useless isometric deckplans for ships.

Quote from: jeff37923;900690If you are going to buy MgT2e, pay as little as possible for it.

Like RunningLaser, I've balked at $29 for the pdf or $50 for a hardcover. Perhaps I'll create a saved search on eBay and just keep tabs on what shows up.

Is 2300AD supposed to get the same production quality change?

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;900689The price will come down eventually. Add it to a wishlist and track it.

I'll do that, thanks.

Ultimately it is yet another edition of Traveller. It not radically different from Mongoose 1st edition or Classic, but not 100% compatible. Think OD&D vs. AD&D 1st edition.

If you already have Traveller will this add anything? Probably not as far as rules goes. Adventures and Third Imperium supplement perhaps. If you are new to Traveller, then this is probably will be easier to follow than Classic or Mongoose 1st edition. Matt and Mongoose put some effort in trying to format it and layout it in a way that is more approachable.

I realize that I am damning this with faint praise. At this point with a dozen plus versions of Traveller and Far Future making the entire corpus available through their CD series, just go with whatever grabs your interest.

Quote from: K Peterson;900696Like RunningLaser, I've balked at $29 for the pdf or $50 for a hardcover. Perhaps I'll create a saved search on eBay and just keep tabs on what shows up.

I've spent more on gaming materials.  I just don't know if it would ever get to the table.  My friends and I mostly play D&D (now C&C) and Marvel Superheroes Advanced.  It's uncommon for us to stretch out legs into other systems.  If I knew that my friends and I would play it, I'd be willing for fork over my money for it.

Quote from: RunningLaser;900703I've spent more on gaming materials.  I just don't know if it would ever get to the table.  My friends and I mostly play D&D (now C&C) and Marvel Superheroes Advanced.  It's uncommon for us to stretch out legs into other systems.  If I knew that my friends and I would play it, I'd be willing for fork over my money for it.

That's the thing, is it a game you know will get a lot of play. Or will it just be a collector's book on the shelf. I only by games I know I'll be playing in a few weeks later. If it might be two years later before I play a game, that book will have wait until then before I buy it. 2nd Edition will be in print for 10 years still. 1st is out of print. Part of the reason why they did a 2nd edition.

I think it goes beyond the difference between OD&D and AD&D (the Monster Manual is pretty much OD&D and Greyhawk with OD&D is largely AD&D with some very minor differences, like fighters getting d10 instead of d8 and exceptional strength being different). Though definitely not as big a difference between the various GDW iterations of Traveller, it's fairly different, more like between T4 and T5.

It seems to introduce some stuff from D&D 5e - Advantage and Disadvantage, although under the name "Boon & Bane"

Traveller can't be compared with D&D, except for maybe Traveller 20. The rest can only be compared with each other, or with games that "borrow" from one of Traveller's 2D6 mechanics.

This forum is heavily slanted towards D&D. It's dripping with hit points and XP. As are most forums.

Quote from: JeremyR;900720I think it goes beyond the difference between OD&D and AD&D (the Monster Manual is pretty much OD&D and Greyhawk with OD&D is largely AD&D with some very minor differences, like fighters getting d10 instead of d8 and exceptional strength being different). Though definitely not as big a difference between the various GDW iterations of Traveller, it's fairly different, more like between T4 and T5.

It seems to introduce some stuff from D&D 5e - Advantage and Disadvantage, although under the name "Boon & Bane"

In spite of Driscoll's rambling, "Boon & Bane" are copied from D&D 5e's Advantage & Disadvantage mechanic. This was another point of contention between the playtesters and Mongoose. See, with the D&D 5e mechanics, it only gives a slight change in the probability curve of success. With the Traveller 2 rule mechanics, it greatly effects the probability curve of success. Mainly it is the difference between d20 rolls and 2d6 rolls.

Quote from: jeff37923;900733Mainly it is the difference between d20 rolls and 2d6 rolls.

Learn how dice work. Mother of creatures, great and small.

Also, if Boon/Bane is copying from D&D, and it doesn't produce anything similar to what Advantage/Disadvantage produces, then it isn't copying from D&D.

Matthew liked D&D's idea of rolling dice and removing a high or low die afterwards. That's where any similarity ends, though. "Oh! But MgT 2nd edition is just copying D&D's A/D roll! We don't like it! It doesn't belong in Traveller! Maths is hard! WWWAAHHH!"

Yeah, that was a thing that went on.

Traveller is not trying to do D&D rolls. To even go there means you have no fucking clue still how dice work.

Between the price barrier and the unimpressive changes reported, I too am skipping MgT 2e.