As someone who's never played any version, is there any reason to go with CT over MongTrav?  I've heard it's easy enough to convert material from one to the other, but I wasn't sure if there were any significant differences that alter gameplay in any meaningful way.  

Part of the reason I ask this, is because apparently the original LBB + additional corebooks are available as a single-book volume for relatively cheap (even compared to the MongTrav corebook).

So does anyone have any experience with either or both of these editions?  Is the corebook all I need for MongTrav, or will I be sucked into buying supplements to get the "good" stuff they left out of core?

I've been playing since Classic Traveller, and run Mongoose Traveller regularly.
If you'd like to see an actual play of a campaign I ran in the game, see here:
http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=13171

For the most part, MongT achieves most of the same things that Classic Traveller in a slicker fashion, resorting to fewer tables and with a flexible consistent skill system instead of an array of ad hoc rolls. This extends to combat... CT has an weapon vs. armor type cross reference table with modifiers to hit, while in MongT, they use the much easier to use "armor reduces damage" convention.

I like character generation in Mongoose Traveller better. MongT has an event system that adds color to characters in a way that is easier and less time consuming than the CT advanced chargen systems, and the skill package system makes it less likely you'll have an unplayable party. Finally, the "0 level skill" thing that was sort of an after though/informal supplemental rule in CT adventures is formalized in MongT.

CT still has some advantages. If you like big ships, CT high guard is much easier to use and better designed than MongT High Guard.

In general, the CT Supplements are a little better focused. Given their small size, they don't present you with as much rules fluff you can't really use as the MongT supplements do sometimes.

I would recommend Mongoose Traveller. You really only need the rulebook.

If you do want supplements, then get the Central Supply Catalogue. In addition, the expanded career books are pretty balanced with the core rules.

If you get Classic Traveller, be aware that the power creep starts with Mercenary and goes up. A character made in Mercenary is straight up better than any character in the Classic core rules.

Well, in character creation MongTrav hands out packages of campaign skills resulting in somewhat more competent characters and there are the afore mentioned events.

In personal combat CT has similtaneous combat and armor that makes it harder to hit while MongTrav has damage resistance.

In space combat CT has vector movement and is really a stand alone miniatures game, in MongTrav space combat is lame and dull.

For all that I'd go CT or better still T4 every time.  Just be sure to get Citizens of the Imperium, Mercenary, and High Guard for the extra gear and the two Library Data volumes for the setting.

I don't know, MongTrav just puts me off, maybe it's the bloody notion of ruining the character generation with skill packages or the stripping away the vector based space combat game.  Or maybe I just like the huge room sized computers that can't run two programs at the same time

Aaahh! How can you recommend T4 to anyone?

The only T4 book worth anything is Milieu 0 (and it's pretty good).

Quote from: danbuter;450948Aaahh! How can you recommend T4 to anyone?

The only T4 book worth anything is Milieu 0 (and it's pretty good).

T4 is a pretty solid concept that was executed poorly. Even though it may be the most hated version, I still think it is better than Megatraveller.

Quote from: Peregrin;450940As someone who's never played any version, is there any reason to go with CT over MongTrav?  I've heard it's easy enough to convert material from one to the other, but I wasn't sure if there were any significant differences that alter gameplay in any meaningful way.  

Part of the reason I ask this, is because apparently the original LBB + additional corebooks are available as a single-book volume for relatively cheap (even compared to the MongTrav corebook).

So does anyone have any experience with either or both of these editions?  Is the corebook all I need for MongTrav, or will I be sucked into buying supplements to get the "good" stuff they left out of core?

I would recommend Mongoose Traveller, but if you can afford it, then you should really buy both IMHO. All you need is the Core Rulebook or LBBs for either version to have years of great enjoyable gameplay.

Also, you should create your own setting because that is half the fun and the rules are "toolkit" based to allow this with little trouble.

Dunno why but the term 'skill package' just turns me right off... sounds like some kind of business-speak.

If you took the soul out of something, but kept its hull, that would be like MongoTrav.

Quote from: Settembrini;450964If you took the soul out of something, but kept its hull, that would be like MongoTrav.

Mongo... Trav?

I'd get both if you have the money.  You can get the entire set of CT books from Far Future Enterprises on CD-ROM for about $35.  When I run Traveller, it's a hybrid of CT and Mongoose Trav, as both have fetaures I like.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;450965Mongo... Trav?

That would be fun.

Quote from: KenHR;450969I'd get both if you have the money.  You can get the entire set of CT books from Far Future Enterprises on CD-ROM for about $35.  

I've been tempted by the Traveller and 2300 CDs.  Do they have OCR so they're searchable or is it just images?

An old hand at CT, here. I have looked through MongT books, but not lately.

There is a Mongoose Traveller Developer's Pack with OGL SRD, which IIRC is short on careers but gives a good look at the game system. It's a free download here.

I already have plenty of CT stuff, so I am in no hurry to buy MongT. However, if I were starting today and money were not a big issue then I would seriously consider it.

The new character generation system looks like it adds interesting bits (such as explicit events and skill choices) to the old abstract and highly (sometimes comically, if one really thinks about it) random system. There's a method for establishing previous relationships among PCs that seems tailor made for the way an awful lot of people play RPGs these days.

There appear to be a lot of gadgets and vehicles written up for a single system, and the books look to be packed with the sort of additional color that one formerly found in magazines such as JTAS, Travellers' Digest and Challenge. Mongoose has released volumes on Babylon Five, Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog, and I'll bet there's even more cool stuff from third parties.

The MongT combat systems are pretty different from CT, and weapon and vehicle and starship stats are different, but...

Different from what?

For personal combat, CT has Book 1, Snapshot (basically the same, but with one table in place of two and other refinements), Azhanti High Lightning (different), and Striker (even more different, but closer to AHL). Only Striker has rules for vehicles, and it pretty much leaves you to design your own.

For spaceships, CT has Book 2, Book 5 (High Guard) and Mayday. These are different in particulars, from TL availability and performance and cost, to stats, to the combat systems. (There's also Trillion Credit Squadron, basically a strategy game in itself.)

The difference between "basic" (Book 1 and Supplement 4) and "advanced" (Books 4-7) character generation has been alluded to. The advanced system is more time-consuming and detailed, going year by year rather than in 4-year terms and usually yielding considerably more skills.

Here's a nifty way to close the skill gap, an Extended (or Expanded) Character Generation System for Book 1/ Citizens of the Imperium characters: Freelance Traveller GECGS.

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MegaTraveller was an attempt -- rather like Advanced D&D -- to consolidate the CT material into a single system. There was at least in theory some "streamlining of mechanics". It also added new twists of its own, though, and some parts (such as starship design) may have become more complicated in practice.

"T4" -- Marc Miller's Traveller -- had rules that might be spiffy, but too much errata and clumsy presentation. Whatever interest we Traveller veterans may find in it, I cannot recommend it to a newcomer.

Then there's Traveller: The New Era, which grafted Traveller concepts onto GDW's new "house rules system" (derived from Twilight: 2000 and 2300 A.D.). I own it, along with Fire, Fusion and Steel and Striker II, but have never played it. I might finally get around to running it this year or next, but we'll see how schedules go.

Quote from: Nicephorus;450970I've been tempted by the Traveller and 2300 CDs.  Do they have OCR so they're searchable or is it just images?

They are OCR'd...not the best job on some of them (I know they've been working to correct them but I don't know if that project has ever been completed).

I did use the scans to make my own Traveller rulebooks using extensive copy-and-paste, incorporating stuff from Mongoose's rules and my own house rules.  My group declared me insane.