Forgive me for sounding a bit on the bewildered side, here, but
the common thread throughout the discussion here about the two games seems
to be that you have to take them all-or-nothing. I just joined recently,
haven't played Traveller in a loooong time, and that was with three little
staple bound books. I'd picked up both MT and TNE to try to get up to
speed on what the game was like now.
There are things that I like about both systems; why not combine
them? Pick what you like from MT and add what you like from TNE? From
what I've seen on this list, most people have problems with the Virus and
subsequent crash of the Empire(s), and therefore chuck TNE. IMHO, the
characters generated with the TNE system are far and away superior to
those generated with MT; the biggest problem I've ever had with Traveller
is that the characters all tend to be rather two dimensional; you're a
scout, a marine, a soldier, or navy, sometimes a merchant. The characters
of TNE place you into a far richer universe of real people.
OTOH, the universe as laid out in TNE is absurd...if the Virus
moved as fast as communication, NO ONE could have possibly escaped the
effects, everyone is blown back to the stone age, the end. I'd much
prefer a TNE Character in a MT universe...so that's what my campaign is
going to be. You want to be Han Solo, go ahead, have at. Just because GDW
sayeth, doesn't mean I have to followeth. Or maybe I've been dealing with
TSR for far too long :-) I tend to take any 'official' product with a
grain of salt.
Oh, and don't worry, my universe will have Virus...where do you
think the Borg come from? ;->
There...glad to get that off my chest.
Bruce Johnson
The University of Arizona
[email removed] play
[email removed] work
My opininons, Mine, Mine, all Mine! Bwahahahaha!