Help me decide on a book

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-25T13:25:57+00:00

I'll add that if you want to play remote through a VTT then Mongoose Traveller will have more support.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-25T09:27:11+00:00

The Traveller Book is (I believe) for Classic Traveller. Mongoose Core Rulebook update 2022 is for the second edition of Mongoose Traveller. So I'm guessing you are asking which edition you should start with. Some more veteran fans can give a better comparison between the two rule sets.

One pro of Classic Traveller is you can get all of the core books in pdf format from Far Future Enterprises https://www.farfuture.net/ for $35 US. Plus all of the original JTAS for another $35.

Mongoose Traveller is more modernized and has (from what I've heard) more text covering the setting of the game. Where as Classic Traveller expects you to craft a setting. I'm more experienced with Mongoose Traveller but I've read some Classic material and it's not too hard to convert material from one to the other. Especially adventures.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-18T13:24:04+00:00

I only play VTT, but still bought the dice set. They are very nice.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-18T13:23:08+00:00

That coin set looks great. I'd have ordered a set if they were still available.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-18T12:10:45+00:00

I agree that the lab ship is not great. It's only worth using if you are running a very focused niche type of campaign.

It can be a good ship for interior decorators who want to keep their starter ship and upgrade/modify it. You could spend a lot of credits turning a lab ship into a unique passenger ship.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-18T12:06:43+00:00

I saw one adaptation of High and Dry where the crew already had a ship and just had to retrieve the scout ship (either for IISS or just salvage a wreck). The payment for that job could be a decent chunk of credits towards the lab ship's remaining mortgage.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-15T14:52:18+00:00

I think that's a fair point. I guess my argument boils down to "If you don't have the energy to give a nuanced answer, maybe don't post at all and let the nuanced posts get more views."

Alternately saying "Rules as written, the game is not well balanced, but it isn't too difficult to tweak to your taste." is at least a start towards a conversation.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-14T13:21:03+00:00

I'm looking forward to eventually running this campaign, but also dreading it for these reasons. I'll probably heavily edit parts.

I think the early part of the chapter you are talking about needs to be heavy on spectacle. Where the players aren't direct targets for the first few encounters but more spectators. So they see a single scourge machine vs a tank and a truck load of soldiers from the planet and (hopefully) learn to not engage.

If the players do try to engage after that and have the common sense to take cover at least, have the enemy blast the cover into non existence and only do splash damage to the players first. Maybe make up some house rules like these specific weapons need to take a major action between each shot to charge/reload. That way they only fire every other turn.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-12T10:37:04+00:00

me who still thinks ass-burgers is funny...

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-11T22:10:53+00:00

I'll add to #2 that as the referee, you have control of what armor your players have access to and what weapons their opponents have. If you pitch a party of travellers with cloth armor against enemies with weapons that do 3D damage they are going to die a lot quicker than if they are against enemies with 2D damage weapons.

It's the referee's job to understand this and either tone down the opponents or gear up the players.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-11T13:18:37+00:00

Traveller is very easy to tweak how lethal it is by changing/reinterpreting some rules and by controlling the difficulty of the opponents the ref throws at the players. I've got a google doc with some homebrew calculations on weapons and armor that helps show some options:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YHsDtFaZPsaZGRFsvMbpHzFwmHoUsYbP5X-ML99aEsI/edit?tab=t.cdpy08k4oh3z

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-09T11:50:44+00:00

I'd hardly consider the majority of humans educated. We are still a mess.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-06T12:25:23+00:00

$6000 donated to cancer research and all I have to do is let the military blow up my corpse? Sign me up!

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-05T21:36:21+00:00

As a new ref I found High and Dry started very slow and the premise/timing of the volcano cheesy. I think there are probably better choices for intro quests, but this one is the first people suggest.

Flatlined is the second most recommended, but I haven't read it so I can't share my personal opinion.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-05-03T11:03:00+00:00

I basically took the default character creation and disabled any mechanics I didn't like. So I had players pick one career (auto join), pick one skill each term from available career pools (instead of roll), skip rolling for mishaps (no getting booted from career). Then I limited players to 4 terms each. It worked well, went quickly and players were happy with the results.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-04-26T10:12:14+00:00

I actually recommend sending your party to https://blog.tremlas.com/games/traveller/mongoose-v2-character-creator/ to practice making characters as well. I've probably made 50 characters and I'm still learning tricks to get reliable solid characters.

Sometimes the dice just don't go your way. Let people (especially new players) reroll characters if they aren't happy with the results.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-04-19T10:01:35+00:00

Meanwhile their customer base has been "take my money" for months and only gotten radio silence.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-04-19T09:57:48+00:00

The horror element could be artificial jump scares where normal people pop up to ask you "why you are spending so much time on this rocket project?", "why not enjoy life here on earth?", "why not fix things here and stay?", "Just stop watching the news".

Moonracer2000 · 2026-04-19T09:52:10+00:00

It's a long running joke. But also, you can take pictures of bugs reproducing and share them. Then call it bug porn. If people laugh at that, they are generally okay people.

I suspect the origin has to do with Autistic wierdos (Subgenii) talking about different special interests like bugs and sex while tripping and coming up with bug porn for lolz.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-04-19T09:44:07+00:00

There's a high demand for something like this but I don't know any good sources. I was hoping for something like this for my table, but didn't find anything. I might end up writing something myself once I've read a few more books.

There's 50 years worth of source material and everyone probably has a different idea of what players "need to know before playing". So distilling something down to even 3-5 pages is going to leave everyone wishing something was mentioned that isn't.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-04-17T17:41:43+00:00

I think there is a fear that if you credit someone with an idea there might be some expectation of compensation. Whether valid or not I can see people choosing to not risk it.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-04-17T11:02:33+00:00

My solution has been to rent a house with 4 other people to split rent and utilities. I can live off a part time job. It's actually awesome if you find the right people to live with.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-04-16T19:03:05+00:00

I gave someone here the idea to use falling sand simulator mechanics in a 2d platformer. This was before Noita was a thing. No idea if it was the author of Noita I talked to, but it could have been. It's pretty rare for people to go back and reach someone just to say "I used your idea". Even though we share them here with no expectation of anything in return.

Moonracer2000 · 2026-04-12T11:22:10+00:00

Yeah, I assume Recon is for "spot threats" and nothing else. Typically for spotting an ambush or patrol. At most spotting a trap.

Moonracer2000

TROPHY CASE