The Good Sandbox Thread [+]

[Bedrockgames]

I like Mongoose Traveller 2E. Its got the foundation of classic Traveller but a few modern touches just where they need them. Traveller doesnt have leveling in the D&D sense, so the system while mildly crunchy, wont change much on you once you got the basics down. If anything, there is an SRD so you can get a free peak at the 1E ruleset.

Hope you check it out, let us know if you do!

One of my friends just bought all the traveller stuff so I am hoping he runs us through it. My next purchase is definitely going to be traveller. Can I ask what the major differences between the original Traveller Books are and the Mongoose stuff (I always hear good things about Mongoose but I am curious if there is value in reading the originals too)

 

[Bedrockgames]

I like Mongoose Traveller 2E. Its got the foundation of classic Traveller but a few modern touches just where they need them. Traveller doesnt have leveling in the D&D sense, so the system while mildly crunchy, wont change much on you once you got the basics down. If anything, there is an SRD so you can get a free peak at the 1E ruleset.

Hope you check it out, let us know if you do!

Also do is Mongoose Traveller on Drivethru?

 

[payn]

One of my friends just bought all the traveller stuff so I am hoping he runs us through it. My next purchase is definitely going to be traveller. Can I ask what the major differences between the original Traveller Books are and the Mongoose stuff (I always hear good things about Mongoose but I am curious if there is value in reading the originals too)

Mongoose took care to cleave as close to the original as possible. Any adjustments are pretty minor, but that might be up to the eye of the beholder.

I think the best example is ship combat damage went from a complex system of single, double, triple hits and criticals, to a simple do 10% of hull damage and cause a critical. So, the core mechanics are essentially the same, but streamlined for ease of play and time savings.

For chargen, they added some universities and military academies, a few early life skills set ups, and adjusted a few of the entry, survival, aging mechanics. Chargen is mostly the same, but has a few touches to make more sense of it and the build out a lsightly more rounded PC.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Mongoose took care to cleave as close to the original as possible. Any adjustments are pretty minor, but that might be up to the eye of the beholder.

I think the best example is ship combat damage went from a complex system of single, double, triple hits and criticals, to a simple do 10% of hull damage and cause a critical. So, the core mechanics are essentially the same, but streamlined for ease of play and time savings.

For chargen, they added some universities and military academies, a few early life skills set ups, and adjusted a few of the entry, survival, aging mechanics. Chargen is mostly the same, but has a few touches to make more sense of it and the build out a lsightly more rounded PC.

Cool. Does this mean if one person has the Mongoose book and one person has teh Games Workshop book, they are basically compatible ?

When I have played it in the past, character creation was one of the aspects I really enjoyed

 

[AlexofBarbaria]

I've found the "tentpole" megadungeon to be the secret sauce for sandboxing.

A giant, easy-to-prep adventure site that serves as a base activity the PCs can return to when they're blocked or can't decide what else to do.

Helps massively with two common problems: (1) player analysis paralysis and (2) GM anxiety about not having enough content prepped.

Also pushes the GM to improve the quality of the other content via competition. I.e. your quests better be interesting or the megadungeon will just take over and become the whole campaign. Goody two-shoes fetch quests will be ignored with prejudice.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I've found the "tentpole" megadungeon to be the secret sauce for sandboxing.

A giant, easy-to-prep adventure site that serves as a base activity the PCs can return to when they're blocked or can't decide what else to do.

Helps massively with two common problems: (1) player analysis paralysis and (2) GM anxiety about not having enough content prepped.

Also pushes the GM to improve the quality of the other content via competition. I.e. your quests better be interesting or the megadungeon will just take over and become the whole campaign. Goody two-shoes fetch quests will be ignored with prejudice.

I know we are not debating terms but just for clarity at what point do you consider something to be a mega dungeon (I feel like my dungeons never quite rise to that level, even when I feel tempted to call them 'mega')

 

[payn]

Cool. Does this mean if one person has the Mongoose book and one person has teh Games Workshop book, they are basically compatible ?

When I have played it in the past, character creation was one of the aspects I really enjoyed

Probably not seamlessly compatible, but its certainly not like the gulf between 1E vs 5E D&D. While its ideal that most folks have their own rulebook, I've found the need to look things up in Traveller to be far less than the average RPG. So, having one or two copies for an entire group wont be an imposition that it might otherwise seem.

 

[Reynard]

I know we are not debating terms but just for clarity at what point do you consider something to be a mega dungeon (I feel like my dungeons never quite rise to that level, even when I feel tempted to call them 'mega')

I think the point of the megadungeon is that it is never done. Maybe you start with 200 rooms over 4 levels. Each of those levels gets bigger when the PCs get to corners of the map, and of course there are always new levels, new sublevels, new pocket dimentions, etc...

 

[Thomas Shey]

Also do is Mongoose Traveller on Drivethru?

Yes. I tend to think of their PDFs overly expensive at full price, but I also don't know what they're selling their hardcopies for (and yes, it does make some difference in my mind).

 

[AlexofBarbaria]

I know we are not debating terms but just for clarity at what point do you consider something to be a mega dungeon (I feel like my dungeons never quite rise to that level, even when I feel tempted to call them 'mega')

Agree with @Reynard -- big enough the players won't finish it. So it depends how long you anticipate the campaign to run. I ran a campaign with Tomb of Abysthor as the tentpole that lasted about 1 year of weekly play. It was slightly too small for that purpose (we nearly finished it). ToA has about 150 rooms and is pretty dense with content. So I'd say 200 rooms and up per year of weekly play.