MegaTraveller Ship Design

from UXC.CSO.UIUC.EDU::danilenk
>Does anyone out there feel that the Megatraveller ship design system
>actually works? In the process of writing the adventure for Traveller's
>Digest, I finally had to learn the new systems for design and combat.
>I hate to say it, but I don't like them. Call me a relic from the
>old Traveller days. I don't care. I think that a) the rules need to be
>edited and text added to explain the design process

I agree.  In order to create a large merchant ship I spent 2-3 days poring
over that information.  At the end, I got a useable ship but I find that
it has quirks in that I made it more powerful than any merchant ship has
any right to be.  Guidelines along "this constitutes a merchant", "this
constitutes a pirate corsair", "this is a blockade ship", etc would be
nice.

It would also be nice if, for interior design, there were some templates
for the engines, jump drives etc.

>and b) the added
>complexity is not worth the added realism. I think that grafting on the
>sensor rules onto High Guard and cleaning up the combat system would
>have been a much better way to go.
>

Well, I don't mind the complexity as long as it isn't something you
have to do on the spur of the moment.  Imagine trying to do it while
adventuring :-)   I haven't tried the combat yet.  What is it like?

>As a result of all this, I think that I will henceforth playtest the
>adventure using old Traveller and then convert it into Megatraveller
>for publication. Opinions?

My gut feeling is that it will be painful.  I am currently running
"Murder on Acturus Station" as a MT adventure and it took too long
to map the Traveller descriptions, needed rolls, etc into MT tasks
and so forth.
>				Jim Cunningham
>				Traveller Relic

Arturo Perez