Games with "terrible" follow-up editions
TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
So there is Gamma World, mentioned up thread.
1e and 2e remain the best editions. So many have come since, and some, like the gonzo D&D 4e inspired one have some fun stuff, and some are just terrible.
3e Gamma World probably is the most disappointing game product I have ever bought and tried to use.
1e and 2e remain the best editions. So many have come since, and some, like the gonzo D&D 4e inspired one have some fun stuff, and some are just terrible.
3e Gamma World probably is the most disappointing game product I have ever bought and tried to use.
aramis erak
Legend
Traveller has had this edition since 1981...
CT has 2 major editions: CT-77 or CT1E (released in 1977) and CT-81 or CT2E (released in 1981)... but no indicators on the covers tell which was inside the box. Layout and font are dead giveaways, as are weapons with damages not in whole dice (CT-77)
Fans of the 77 edition are often still playing CT77.
Most fans of CT-81 are playing either CT-81, MegaTraveller (MT), or Mongoose Traveller (MGT1 or MGT2). Moreover, the CT-77 nutters often can't tell which way a thing was set for without rebuilding it, but there are a few minor compatibility issues. The hardcover Traveller Book is essentially CT2.1, and Starter Traveller CT2.2. Minor differences from CT2 (aka CT-81) Little Black Books.
MegaTraveller really pissed off a lot of CT fans, but had a strong enough transfer and enough compatibility that many did make the switch. It does a lot differently. It does a lot the same. But you can instantly tell a MT character by which secondaries are figured and which weapon skills appear. Essentially, it's Striker with Character Gen and a separation of Penetration and Damage, with Striker design sequences increased to include ships... Striker was the CT2E minis game...
Traveller the New Era (TNE or TTNE) used a wholly different engine (albeit one derived from the same sources) from CT and MT. Different attribute list, too. 7 instead of 6. Different skill scaling. d20 for task rolls. Heresy! Less than 10% of CT fans made the switch, somewhere around the same for MT fans, based upon surveys at the time... but CT/MT fans accounted for about 30% of TTNE fans... so 70% of TTNE fans were new to traveller... and THEY LOVED IT.
GURPS Traveller (GT) was a port of the CT setting over to GT. Evil Stevie (SJ of SJG) proposed a second edition MegaTraveller. For reasons I cannot fathom, Marc said no. Loren suggested a GURPS edition; Marc said yes. Most TNE fans ignored it. Many CT and MT fans ignored it.
T4 aka Marc Miller's Traveller was the next "core traveller"... but set 1100 years prior to the CT, 1116 prior to MT, and 1210 years prior to TNE. Back to Classic attributes, but skills more numerous than in TNE. Many fans tried it and hated it.
It bankrupted the company formed to produce it. (Ken Whitman is widely suspected by fans of gross misfeasance and possibly even embezzlement; more charitable fans simply assume gross incompetence. Both interpretations seem sane after his failures on his kickstarters.) Most fans of the system were, again, new to traveller.
T20 was a licensed d20 Adaptation. (fair disclosure: I'm in the credits under lead playtesters; the actual role was bordering on unpaid additional development, for all of us listed as such.) It didn't grab a lot of new referees (GMs) but did get a lot of refs running for D&D fanboys. I found it good, but preferred to pull pieces into a MegaTraveller framework.
HeroTraveller was on the market for a few months. It has almost no fanbase. It was written for Hero 5E... but released just as 6E came out... but the license had to end due to....
Mongoose Traveller 1E (MGT1).... released in 2008.... Looks a lot like classic, but looks are deceiving. For many CT Refs, it is "close enough to borrow from"... but for those who have a mechanical bent, it's anything but. Aging is different. Ships are incompatible. Task labels are not the same as MT/TNE/T4/T20... and so on. It's got a HUGE fan base, a mix of converts from all the prior, and new fans. This edition, being wholly new design, was releeased under the OGL1.0a.... and 3pp pubs became common.
Mongoose revised the game a few years back. MGT2 is in the 90%+ compatible with MGT1 range. But they also took it away from the OGL, moving to a "Community Content Model"...
... Causing Jason Kemp to release Cepheus Engine... which is MGT1 spindled a bit to be much closer to CT. It's OGL. And it sits to traveller as Pathfinder does to D&D...
Each new edition was new mechanics, save CT1E to CT2E.
Each new editino pissed off fans of all other editions. Each also drew new blood.
aramis erak
Legend
L5R has diehards for 3E (like me until 5E came out) and for 2E...
5E, being very different mechanically, is also having issues with existing 3E and 4E fans badmouthing it. It does, however, seem to have a strong fanbase.... including me.
eyeheartawk
#1 Enworld Jerk™
In my circles Gurps Traveller was kind of popular at the time, since GURPS was more popular then, and it was the only place in town where you didn't have to deal with the Megatraveller or TNE setting changes. If you wanted a currently supported game set in the classic setting this was it. The ol' Lorenverse I think it was called.
Willie the Duck
Hero
I always considered T20, GURPS: Traveller and Hero System Traveller to be different games set in the same universe.
Mezuka
Hero
I played 2e back in the day. What is wrong with the 3e?
John R Davis
Hero
Got rid of all the bad words ( hell etc).
Lowered % chance to cast on already very very low % spells.
Utterly abandoned then the IP of my first n fav RPG
TwoSix
Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
I don't think the conversion from oWoD to nWoD in the early 2000s was terrible (in many cases, I thought the new games were better). However, rebooting all your old games with similar concepts but completely new lore and modified mechanics is definitely an A+ way to split your fanbase into arguing pieces.
eyeheartawk
#1 Enworld Jerk™
Classic TSR, gotta love 'em.
After buying the property, why not also take out the naughty bad-bad words to appease all those people who aren't your customers anyway.
Surprised James Ward didn't write a column in Dragon bragging about this too, like he did with AD&D 2E.
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