Mongoose Taveller: which Version for a Campaign Like this?

I'm considering running a Military SciFi campaign with the Traveller rules, but the setting for it isn't within the Traveller verse. These are the details of my campaign:

• Timeline: the year 2175
• Setting: Set exclusively in the Solar System
• Key Setting Locations:
  
  - Post near-extinction Earth 50 years after the event, but less post-apocalyptic than similar settings due to advanced terraforming and nanotechnology.
  - Large, permanent settlement on the Lunar surface.
  - Settlements among a partially terraformed Mars.
  - Permanent settlements on some of the larger asteroids.
  - Permanent citizens of space stations in orbit around some of Jupiter and Saturns' moons.
• Genre: Military SciFi - forces of a religion-fueled crusade emerging from a recovering Earth are striking forces on Mars who are the descendants of rebels from a century ago rebellion.
• Other militant antagonists:
  
  - Security-military forces of an Earth mega-corporation which exercises extra-territoriality control over Asteroid settlements.
  - Space faring Free-booters based out of a massive space station orbiting a Jovian moon.
  - Descendants of those defeated in the Martian rebellion, now armed and eking out an existence in the less inhabitable regions of terraformed Mars.
  - The Lunar Spaceforce of Earth evacuees residing on the moon.
• Tech Level: Pre-stellar (Traveller TL9). At the outer bounds of pre-stellar, as stellar travel is about a century away.
• Species: Humans only. Some Humans are augmented/enhanced with nanotechnology (nanotech is in a sense the weird science/cybenetic augmentation tech of this setting.)
• Bestiary: It's light; some robotic, drone-like threats and a number of mutated Terran species.

So, I'm wondering if one of the Mongoose Traveller rulesets would be better suited for my campaign? I have a couple of players that are new to VTT RPGs, so the amount of crunch (preferably medium crunch at most) is a factor. Something that could possibly influence the decision, is that a gaming buddy has the softcover and PDF for something titled the Orbital Campaign Setting for MGT 1e. He says it's prestellar, set exclusively in the Solar System and would be perfect for my campaign - haven't browsed it yet, so I wouldn't know. I've also been told that there's something called Traveller 2300AD available for 1e, that may provide content that's more appropriate to my campaign.

Money is unfortunately a factor and I'm not in the USA, so the MGT 1e ruleset for FG is notably cheaper. I don't want to spend money I don't have to and certainly don't need what's new and shiney if it isn't going add benefits. I'm running FGC Ultimate just in case that might be a factor.

So if anyone could give me some feedback as to which ruleset might run my campaign better and a sentence or 2 as to why, I'd very much appreciate it.
As well, if anyone is familiar with Orbital or 2300AD book and could give some brief feedback, it'd love to read about it.

[Edit] Can't believe I spelled "Traveller" wrong in the subject line, but I did - doh!

MY recommendation is MGT2.

There is considerably more support for MGT2 over MGT1.

MGT2 does considerably more than MGT1, it has about 2 years of consistent development and improvements while MGT1 is mostly stalled (Mongoose wants the focus on the current edition). Also, if you plan for space at all, MGT2 is getting it now with a possibility of MGT1 getting it maybe someday...

If you buy both at the same time, you get both for the price of MGT2 so I generally suggest that route since it effectively makes MGT1 free (reduction applied at checkout).

Both rulesets offer a considerable amount of internal customization once you are used to how things work, however MGT2 has more features you can draw on like different ammo, better armor systems, lots of gear functionality, better skill rolls, better damage handling, and generally being better. For instance you could build an entirely separate set of skills, make weapons and armor that use those skills, and the automation will continue to function. It is quite a bit of work, but it can be done. I run a super customized hybrid of MGT2 and T4/5 that runs just fine with the MGT2 ruleset.

Hope this helps.

Many thanks for the info esmdev

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Originally Posted by esmdev

If you buy both at the same time, you get both for the price of MGT2 so I generally suggest that route since it effectively makes MGT1 free (reduction applied at checkout).

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I doubt I'd qualify for that buy-2e-get-1e-free deal though, because the MGT 2e ruleset is about $10 less in my country's currency if I buy it through Steam. That's because small storefronts like fantasygrounds.com can only offer it to me in USD, whereas Steam offers it to me in my own currency and in the process cuts out any VAT and tariffs that are excluded in our free-trade agreement. So TBH, I can't really see myself buying it from the FG storefront. Anyways, were I to move up to 2e I can't think of any reason why I'd continue to use 1e. I own a number of the 1e PDFs, but only own the 2e CRB - so maybe. From my impressions though, there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between the two. Admittedly though, I've mostly quick browsed and only done a thorough reading of a small portion of the MGT 2e CRB.

Is there actually much difference between the 2 editions? Is one addition better for new P'n'P players?

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I run a super customized hybrid of MGT2 and T4/5 that runs just fine with the MGT2 ruleset.

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Well that gives me some hope that a hybrid of MGT 1e and 2e is doable. With my campaign being firmly placed in a TL9 setting, it seems to me that being able to draw upon Orbital and possibly 2300AD, could be important.

I believe the MGT1 with MGT2 deal is only available on the FG store, but I cannot say for certain if it is or isn't on Steam. Maybe email support and see.

MGT2 is basically a streamlined and more focused system then the earlier edition. The careers are pretty well fleshed out in the core rules and they haven't gotten into the careers spread out across a dozen books like in first edition. The skills are consolidated to to a pretty solid list that doesn't require adding more every other expansion, there were some reworking in the Companion but nothing huge, mostly just different ways to handle things like profession and science skills. Combat goes pretty quick and the FG ruleset really takes a lot of the workload on that and automates it.

There is minimal support for trade at the moment. Starships support has been light but increasing steadily over the last couple months, with High Guard on the near horizon. All of starship design for MGT2 was moved from core rules to High Guard, so the ruleset follows that same design, so pretty much everything related to ships ended up waiting for High Guard.

Also,it is still half a year or so away, but a new 2300 for MGT2 is coming from Mongoose, and while that won't help you today, MadBeardMan (the ruleset developer for the Traveller line, and others) has been chomping at the bit to get it and integrate it.

Thanks for explaining that esmdev.

Is it possible in the MGT2 ruleset for FG to build new craft and vehicles? I see in the preview screenshots that craft are there in the Library, which I'm assuming are those TL12 spacecraft that are in the CRB. The preview doesn't show a screenshot of the actual Craft window though. So I'm wondering if a Referee can used the standard drag & drop technique to make a copy that can be modded into a new vehicle?

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Originally Posted by kronovan

Thanks for explaining that esmdev.

Is it possible in the MGT2 ruleset for FG to build new craft and vehicles? I see in the preview screenshots that craft are there in the Library, which I'm assuming are those TL12 spacecraft that are in the CRB. The preview doesn't show a screenshot of the actual Craft window though. So I'm wondering if a Referee can used the standard drag & drop technique to make a copy that can be modded into a new vehicle?

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Hi.

At the moment support for spacecraft and starships is extremely limited. You can manually enter information but it doesn't do much.

The starship combat system has entered open beta, anyone with the ruleset can participate. High Guard is on the way with more robust ship design but I don't know exactly how near or far it is beyond it is in testing.

For more information about that, I wrote a brief history of the spacecraft situation here:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...l=1#post539097

So, I did a quick dive into 2300AD for MGT1 and compared it with MGT2. Note I have never actually played 2300AD under Traveller, only the older GDW system so people who have played it might have more information that I (there are a few here that play 2300 that will hopefully jump in). (HINT MBM...) :)

Weapons seem mostly comparable between the two editions. 2300AD seems to have more specific types of the same class of weapon but the damage seems near (but not the same). You could probably just translate the weapons directly to MGT2 and it wouldn't be an issue.

I am pretty sure that armor works differently between the two editions, it's been forever since I've played MGT1, but I seem to recall it worked differently. If you are using MGT2, however, it would be easy enough to translate the 2300 armor to have equivalent protection and resistance. I recall when MGT2 was first coming together 2300AD resistance types were included into the mix for just this situation.

There is a big shift in how tasks are calculated between the two editions. MGT1 adds or subtracts DMs based on difficulty whereas MGT2 just changes target numbers based on difficulties. It kind of comes out the same in the long run.

There isn't an option for Stutterwarp Drive in High Guard, so you'd have to fudge that. Since I've not seen the High Guard module I don't know how open it will be to adding non-standard systems. Hopefully it will be, as that will certainly make it easier down the road when the MGT2 version of 2300AD comes out (latest I've read is April of 2021).

It seems like it should be able to work. MGT1 and 2 aren't so different that translation isn't possible.

Combat and die rolling are handled pretty effectively by the ruleset. I have found whatever I can't do in the ruleset I can still resolve old-school tabletop by just breaking out the book and being a less lazy referee.

I feel like FG makes me a lazy DM compared to live games because it does all the system work for me, so when I'm running live games I'm like so much extra work... :)

Thanks or checking into all of that. My ruleset selection is still down to a choice between MGT 2e and SWADE + SciFi Companion.

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Originally Posted by esmdev

There isn't an option for Stutterwarp Drive in High Guard, so you'd have to fudge that. Since I've not seen the High Guard module I don't know how open it will be to adding non-standard systems. Hopefully it will be, as that will certainly make it easier down the road when the MGT2 version of 2300AD comes out (latest I've read is April of 2021).

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I'm taking my lead mostly from the Orbital Campaigns setting, which has a setting timeline of 2100. It's quite plain vanilla for drives in that all capital ships use the delta-V, or some variant of it, which is a NTR (Nuclear Thermal Rocket) with a fission reactor for a power plant. That book states that hulls are distributed, which is a bit of a problem for the setting I'm adapting, because it has at least 1 type of capital ship that can maneuver in atmosphere and deep Space. My campaign is actually set in 2170, so I'm going to go with Streamlined hulls having just come online. ;) OCS mentions that hulls are likely self-sealing and that computers are Model/1 or Model/2 (rare possibility of Model/3) and the Electronic packages <= TL11. I'm still struggling to get a grasp of all these rules around space craft construction, but slowly but surely.

My interest in 2300AD is for other content that I can milk. As I said orginally, the setting is Military SciFi and mostly focused around land forces. If I go with Travellers I'm going to use the OCS's redefinition of the Navy careers as Space Force careers and Citizen careers as labeled as Colony or Colonist.