Once again, I think all of you are both right and wrong. Black Vulmea is correct in saying that the characteristic mods have an effect on task resolution and TrippyHippy is correct in saying that they have been balanced and standardized. In Classic Traveller, each skill was treated as a separate unit like estar says and most did not have a characteristic as a modifier but had skill and situational modifiers, you added this string of modifiers up and connected that to an 8+ roll on 2D to find the target number. Mongoose Traveller 1e does something similarbut includes ability score modifiers and also tends to raise the target difficulty number as well, so you are combining two separate strings of mods, one for the roll and one for the target difficulty number. Essentially the same process, but different numbers are the outcome with the averages in MgT1e being slightly high than in CT.

I also agree with estar in that I prefer a unified task resolution mechanic  in MgT1e to a bunch of smaller separate task resolution mechanics as in CT. It is not a big change, but the game does run smoother for it.

Quote from: CRKrueger;939775Ok, so some homework for Jeff and Rob:

List every Original Traveller module that Mongoose has reprinted and tell us which one to get for each.
Thanks in advance.

OK, here goes.

Beltstrike - get the CT version, the MgT1e version updates much to that version but forgets some needed tables on asteroid mining

Prison Planet - get the MgT1e version, the CT version is very brief and the MgT1e version has page after page of NPCs that can be used elsewhere with ease

Trillion Credit Squadron - get the CT version because it is concise and clear, the MgT1e version has a large chunk of filler which is weird starship designs and barely legible deckplans balanced out by important ship's equipment such as underway replenishment gear

Secrets of the Ancients, Aramis: The Traveller Adventure - I've already gone over both of these

Traders and Gunboats, Fighting Ships - get the CT versions, the MgT1e versions have a bunch of designs and deckplans but both are goofy looking and defy logic in many cases (as an aside, if you pick up a Mongoose Traveller starship book check the inside for illustrations, if Ian Stead's name is not there then do not waste your money on it)

Central Supply Catalog - buy the MgT1e book, the T4 version is good too but this one has all of those technical toys and weapons that your players crave

3I - Alien Module 1: Aslan, Alien Module 2: Vargr - these are good in both CT and MgT1e, mainly because Dom McKinney was involved in quality control of both although Mongoose still continues its practice of crappy starship art and deckplans

The Spinward Marches - buy the MgT1e version, this is Martin Dougherty's corrected work and while it does not go in to detail on every world it does concentrate on 2-4 in each subsector and give a solid overview of each subsector

sp87 - Death Station, sp93 - Annic Nova - these are just near word-for-word copies of the original adventures updated to the MgT1e rules

I hope that helps.

Dude, this was one of the earliest RPGs I owned:



Plus a few of the other little booklets.
I played old-school traveller quite a bit, several games in my teenage years.

If you want to nitpick minutiae, fine. They're still pretty much the same game. The differences between old-school Traveller and Mongoose Traveller are not even as vast as the differences between 1e AD&D and 3e D&D. They're closer to the differences between 1e and 2e AD&D.


Wish I still had that set and all the extra booklets in it, though. Not sure what became of it. My brother probably sold it for pot money or something.

Quote from: RPGPundit;941459Wish I still had that set and all the extra booklets in it, though. Not sure what became of it. My brother probably sold it for pot money or something.

Everyone in our group had different printings of the game. Thank the Gods there were no rules lawyers in the group.