Quote from: Pyromancer;900747The very same boon/bane/advantage/disadvantage mechanic was already present in Barbarians of Lemuria, which uses a 2d6 system very similar to Traveller.

Quote from: jeff37923;900749Interesting.

I doubt this was the source though, because Barabarians of Lemuria was never discussed to my knowledge during the playtest while D&D 5e was discussed.

Quote from: Caesar Slaad;900921It never occurred to me before, but the way that BoL does skill enhancement DOES map neatly to Traveller.

Guys, the MgT-BoL similarities are beyond superficial, and especially so if you assume a standard TN of 8 in Traveller:).
BoL's chargen ends up with PCs that have an average of 1 in every attribute, an average of 1 in every skill, and an average of 1 in every (non-combat) Profession. The standard TN is 9, with bonuses and penalties if it's harder or easier taking the place of MgT2e's TN adjustments.
So, in BoL, you roll Attribute+skill Or profession...for an average of 2d6+2>9 <=> 2d6>7 roll.

In MgT2, you can get a character with an average of 0 (assume you rolled 6 to 8 in chargen, and only got to improve those that were below in attributes, and an average of 0 in skills (you're likely to have a few skills at 1 and a couple at 2+ but it's not granted). Let's say you roll with a +1 in most cases, then you roll a 2d6+1>8 <=>2d6>7...again.
The top of the line is also similar, though in Traveller, you're should be getting +1 equipment bonuses to compare with a BoL character with a total of +10 on his rolls...a Traveller PC can hardly get more than +3 on his Attribute, though I believe a +5 skill is possible, and the TN is 1 point lower.

The mechanic for raising the TN is the same (penalties to the roll are mathematically the same as higher or lower TN). Given the above, are you surprised that they can also use the same mechanic? Mathematically, the two are the same!

The difference that makes one of these games a pulp and the other a gritty space opera are three-fold.
First, BoL combat, and especially damage, is much less gritty even before we account for the Hero Points - the lack of death spiral alone works wonders.
Second, BoL skills and professions are much broader, making for pulpier omnicompetent characters.
Three, both the players and the GMs expect different tones, and this is something that's often overlooked.

But still, the underlying mechanic is the same. So the Advantage mechanic will work in Traveller as well as it does in BoL. Believe me, it works just fine in BoL:D!
Whether it was copied from D&D or from BoL, makes zero difference to the math;).