Game Recommendation Thread

[jdrakeh]

Are either Mongoose edition the one I am looking for? I would prefer to use Fantasy grounds since that is my VTT of choice and it has both Mongoose editions available.

Kind of? They do similar things to Cepheus, but several of the Cepheus Engine games have been specifically tweaked for genre and to highlight things such as slower, equipment-based advancement (Sword of Cepheus, for example, a fantasy variant, now has two editions and you can plug in future tech from other Cepheus Engine products as needed). Use Mongoose Traveller second edition, if you decide to use official Traveller, just to get the most current version of the rules.

 

[Bunch]

Kind of? They do similar things to Cepheus, but several of the Cepheus Engine games have been specifically tweaked for genre and to highlight things such as slower, equipment-based advancement (Sword of Cepheus, for example, a fantasy variant, now has two editions and you can plug in future tech from other Cepheus Engine products as needed). Use Mongoose Traveller second edition, if you decide to use official Traveller, just to get the most current version of the rules.

And Mongoose 2e has better and continuing Fantasy Grounds support. I think Mongoose T2 will be close enough for @reynards needs.

 

[500 Toads]

What is the "power" range between pointy sticks and beam rifles in Traveller? That is, how steep can progression feel via gear only?

In Classic Traveller, the included equipment lists include spears, cudgels, broadswords, shotguns, submachine guns and laser rifles all in the very first book.

A cudgel, for instance, is in the "blades and polearms" section. It gets modest penalties to hit against anybody wearing mesh, ballistic cloth, or ablative (vaporizing anti-laser) armor, and drastic penalties against (high-tech) combat armor. If it does hit, the hit is 2D... which can be dangerous if the target has a particularly low characteristic score which takes the hitm, but otherwise may be bearable. In a long fight, melee weapons become harder to use due to fatigue (especially if the character was already wounded before the fight began), too.

A laser rifle is a high-tech weapon that has minor bonuses against targets wearing lower-tech armor, but is significantly penalized vs. reflective armor and ablative armor, as well as combat armor (but high-tech combat armor is good against almost everything). It also inflicts 5D wounds, which is extremely severe. Would strongly recommend against being hit by one.

FWIW, the PDF for the "Facsimile Edition" of Classic Traveller is free on DTRPG ( https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/355200/classic-traveller-facsimile-edition ). It's basically a scan of Books 1-3.

If you want other ordnance, there's stuff like the "Mercenary" book (Book 4 for Classic Traveller). Slug throwers, man-portable fusion guns, field artillery...

So, upshot is that it's meant to cover a very wide tech range, since players may travel amongst worlds with drastically different 'tech levels; and as noted by others, there's very little progression aside from equipment and wealth. There's nothing like "experience points", and skills are largely set -- characters are essentially assumed to be at the end of a fruitful career at which point they've either retired from service or been kicked out, and have chosen to do something else. Improving skills is difficult and slow.

That said, for CT the bias leans towards the characters having been in spacefaring society for a while. It is entirely possible for a character to be generated owning a spaceship (and a giant pile of debt before it's fully clear), for instance. It is not meant for characters to begin only in a relatively low-tech, primitive society and somehow work their way up; and thus, the focus of the rules and equipment focus more on that. It is more likely that their aspirations will involve going from moderately-advanced but not-terribly-wealthy folks to being able to afford a starship (or more than one) of their own custom design, heh (which will take an enormous amount of wealth, and time to have it constructed); and/or owning and operating some major enterprise making them filthy rich.

 

[Reynard]

In Classic Traveller, the included equipment lists include spears, cudgels, broadswords, shotguns, submachine guns and laser rifles all in the very first book.

A cudgel, for instance, is in the "blades and polearms" section. It gets modest penalties to hit against anybody wearing mesh, ballistic cloth, or ablative (vaporizing anti-laser) armor, and drastic penalties against (high-tech) combat armor. If it does hit, the hit is 2D... which can be dangerous if the target has a particularly low characteristic score which takes the hitm, but otherwise may be bearable. In a long fight, melee weapons become harder to use due to fatigue (especially if the character was already wounded before the fight began), too.

A laser rifle is a high-tech weapon that has minor bonuses against targets wearing lower-tech armor, but is significantly penalized vs. reflective armor and ablative armor, as well as combat armor (but high-tech combat armor is good against almost everything). It also inflicts 5D wounds, which is extremely severe. Would strongly recommend against being hit by one.

FWIW, the PDF for the "Facsimile Edition" of Classic Traveller is free on DTRPG ( https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/355200/classic-traveller-facsimile-edition ). It's basically a scan of Books 1-3.

If you want other ordnance, there's stuff like the "Mercenary" book (Book 4 for Classic Traveller). Slug throwers, man-portable fusion guns, field artillery...

So, upshot is that it's meant to cover a very wide tech range, since players may travel amongst worlds with drastically different 'tech levels; and as noted by others, there's very little progression aside from equipment and wealth. There's nothing like "experience points", and skills are largely set -- characters are essentially assumed to be at the end of a fruitful career at which point they've either retired from service or been kicked out, and have chosen to do something else. Improving skills is difficult and slow.

That said, for CT the bias leans towards the characters having been in spacefaring society for a while. It is entirely possible for a character to be generated owning a spaceship (and a giant pile of debt before it's fully clear), for instance. It is not meant for characters to begin only in a relatively low-tech, primitive society and somehow work their way up; and thus, the focus of the rules and equipment focus more on that. It is more likely that their aspirations will involve going from moderately-advanced but not-terribly-wealthy folks to being able to afford a starship (or more than one) of their own custom design, heh (which will take an enormous amount of wealth, and time to have it constructed); and/or owning and operating some major enterprise making them filthy rich.

Thanks for the detailed reply.

The spaceship stuff is not important for the idea at hand. I am mostly interested in characters that gear up as they get deeper into the adventure. They start by fighting post apocalyptic bandits, and end up going toe to toe with giant maser-blasting robots.