Dear T. Craig:
In answer to your question about what rules to use from your
extensive collection, my advice is to "pick and choose".
That is, the rules are basically modular, and can be mixed and
matched with relative ease.
Consider using the following selection of game components:
As for campaign material, running your "virgins" through the
classic adventures would allow you to review the game in
general, and would give you time to study up on the new
stuff. Also, having run the material before, you should be
more masterful with it -- you and your players would probably
enjoy it more.
Character generation -- keep it simple. Since you are
dealing with beginners, it's better to just hand your players
a selection of premade characters (which would be easy for
you to arbitrarily throw together without using any system)
and let the players edit them a bit, rather than running them
through a grueling hours-on-end generation session.
Skills -- from any Traveller source. More skills to choose
from adds spice to the game, and to NPC's. The list in
MegaTravller's Players Manual is a good place to start.
Equipment from any of your publications. The more equipment
to choose from, the better.
Combat -- New era, if you have it. Classic, otherwise.
Note that in Classic Traveller, skill levels are valued in
relation to the 8 required for success rolled on two 6-sided
dice. Therefore, rarely should a character be allowed to
have more than a "3" in any skill level. A skill-level of 5
gives a 3/36 of failure, and a skill-6 gives a 1/36 chance of
failure, so avoid these high levels like the plague. In
later rules editions (especially New Era), a wider range of
probability for success/failure is used (20-sided die).
Ships -- forget designing your own unless you have loads of
time and are a glutton for punishment. Ship descriptions,
illustrations, and deckplans are strewn throughout the
Classic material. (Adventures 0, 1, 4, 6, 7, 10, 13, Double
Adventures 1, 3, 5, JTAS 1, 8, Challenge 25, and Supplement
5, and 7 all have ship deckplans in them). Classic also
contained juicy historical tidbits on the ships.
MegaTraveller, on the other hand, contains very few
deckplans, and even less background on the ships.
Worlds -- MegaTraveller developed the most space. There are
several sector maps besides the Spinward Marches that have
appeared here and there (in Digest Group's products,
Challenge mag, etc.). The Spinward Marches is still the most
developed area, however.
Aliens -- Aliens are virtually non-existent in MegaTraveller,
though there weren't all that many more in Classic.
Robots -- See 101 Robots, by Digest Group Publications. 'Nuff said.
Here are some playing tips:
1) Adlib (or gather or design in advance) some ALIENS for
starship, starport, and world encounters. Traveller
adventure material is notably devoid of alien encounters,
even though there are hundreds of alien species running
around out there. Interjecting aliens into game play and
exposing your players to aliens and alien customs can enrich
your campaign and provide lead-ins to interesting adventures
later.
The most likely places to run into aliens include: Alien
homeworlds, at starports (as starport personnel, travellers,
or starship crew) trade centers, in alien-ethnic parts of
town, taverns, mingling with the populace, and in space (on
the comm viewscreen).
2) Adlib (or prepare in advance) some ROBOTS into your
starport and world encounters. Robots abound on TL 12 and
better worlds. Starships would also make heavy use of them,
as would crews sent dirtside from such craft. Don't forget
that robots are a major feature in the scenery of starports,
cities, installations, etc., on most TL12+ worlds.
3) Go through the adventure you plan to run IN ADVANCE.
Prepare missing maps, floorplans, or deckplans of every place
you expect your players will go. Alternately, you could
canabalize appropriate layouts from already existing
published materials. The maps and floorplans are essential
for providing a common point of reference to base actions and
reactions, making the scenario much easier to visualize, for
you and your players.
4) Prepare your NPC's in advance, to give them more realism
in play. The more thought you give to their appearance,
personality, and background, the more like real people they
will seem to your players, and the easier it will be for them
to visualize and interact with them.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you found any of this useful.
Sincerely,
Roger Sanger