And the skies opened above me, and a booming voice above said...
Yeah, let's cut the crap and get it together, shall we?
I have been gaming since '85 in systems such as Top Secret,
AD&D, Gamma World, 2300 AD, and recently GURPS, and about 2 years
ago, I managed to lay my eyes on what I thought was gonna be the be
all/end all of science fiction role playing games. I'd heard of
Traveller, and it was recommended as THE system to get. MegaTraveller?
I thought that it was gonna be clear, concise and easy to learn.
HAH!
I have spent 2 years trying to decipher the rules books and try to
get the game mechanics finely tuned, most of my attempts ending in failure.
Until I subscribed to this mail list, I was totally lost. Now, I am only
partly lost. Substantially large improvement, don't you think?
And then I read Metlay's comment. Right-o!! Agreed. The packaging
stinks... (Not meaning to offend any GDWers, but it's true.) And as for
continuity, well, at least we could make sure all the background info
is actually part of the rules books. I tried building ships and vehicles
by the given rules. What a mess. None of them worked worth a damn. Then
I got the TYPO list. I spent two days correcting parts of my books.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is... No wonder MegaTraveller
ended up as such a big flop! It scares the hell out of all novice GM's it
comes in contact with! You open the cover, and nothing fits! And forget
about running the complex politics of the Rebellion when personal combat
still makes you cringe!
But, I'm losing my cool. Sorry. Only purpose of this was to say,
"way to go, Metlay!" In the meantime, I have a lot of work on the system
in order to get the game to a state where I can run it - comfortably.
Oh, and somebody asked a little while ago as to whether anyone had ever
tried to run a cyberpunk twist in Traveller. Yeah, I tried. It was such a
farce that I burned the character records that were used for that
particular game. (And the players cheered me on...) In short, it's a real
bad idea, at least if you try to convert the GURPS material. Maybe at TL16+,
but not at present Imperial level.
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Anthony Neal |"Lets bring up the cargo manifest. 2300 laser
[email removed] | pistols, 1600 laser rifles, 1 ATV, 67 suits of
Memorial University Of | combat armor and... What the hell are
Newfoundland | 'tribbles'?"
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