When you’re playing at the table it’s all about the task system. It’s about the interaction between the scenario the GM and the Players, and that just needs to flow. The stuff that you need, that you’re going to use in the scenario you should have in front of you as a GM for quick reference. If you can’t scan it, extract the info and use it there and then, then don’t have it in front of you. If you have to reference a book for a rule and you pause for more than about 15 seconds then just don’t bother.
MT’s task system is just made for this. I haven’t come across any other task system that’s better. You can just make a task up on the fly, it will be reasonable even if it isn’t as prescribed in the book, your player will understand it, they will understand the concepts behind it and working out the needed detail is child’s play. Roll the dice and off you go …
When your are not at the table a detailed description of what’s involved in doing certain things broken down into its various parts/tasks in a book/setting, like skimming a gas giant, gives you the feel and understanding of how this might work when you are at the table. If you expect it to come up in the scenario you’re going to play, have that detail available to refence (see quick reference scan above). If you don’t expect it to come up in the scenario and it _does_ come up you’re already gone through the detail before, you can make a task up on the fly and it will be reasonable …
Even better is that MT takes Classic Traveller and just bolts on a codified task system. Don’t have details of character gen for a Darrian in MT? no worries, just role it up in CT and they adapt exactly without having to try into MT.
Even better that that is that the good people of BITS put out their Task system that puts the vast majority of task systems against each other and maps them to every other so you can take any scenario and map it into MT without a problem.
Best regards,
Ewan
From: xxxxxx@simplelists.com <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> On Behalf Of xxxxxx@gmail.com
Sent: 12 October 2020 22:05
To: The Traveller Mailing List <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
Subject: Re: [TML] A quote I read about running MegaTraveller which I agree with
My too painful to do twice was Star Fleet Battles with 12 players with 3000 BPV per player. Turn one took 4 hours.
We needed multiple counter sets due to the number of drones and plasma torps on the board.
Just my tuppence.
When I want to play a highly-detailed wargame, I do. The most egregious sin on my part there was War in Europe, and nearly unplayable monstrosity that took for bloody ever to complete a single turn. Squad Leader and a lot of the Civil War era games were just about right for me.
When I’m playing a role-playing game, it’s usually more along the lines of a Space Opera where the story is the thing, not the nit-picky details that bog down the game. I’ve played games with pretty much every version of Traveller, but I always tend to drop things that just get in the way of gameplay. I’m not really interested in a hyper-realistic situation because most of my players are not astrophysicists, etc., and I’m long past the need to engage in or support that kind of time-wasting argument in my games.
However, others’ mileage may vary and that’s fine.
I'm definitely with you on this.
The more complexity was increased in Trav, the less playable the game became, IMO.
However, also IMO & from what I've gathered over the years, MM was an aficionado of the 'monster/complicated' wargame genre from way back.
(back then, I was too but I began to change my mind when SPI came out with 'Campaign in North Africa' where, literally, you kept track of every little thing, making the game virtually unplayable!)
Just compare the complexity 'tween SPI's monster WWII East Front wargame from the '70's, & GDW's.
BTW, I've also read that the initial impetus to form GDW was to publish that 'monster' game.
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Oh, one more thing... when in doubt, ignore everything except the task system, including previously defined tasks. The task system is the key to the whole game; let it guide you. Use the rules when they DON'T get in the way.
Having read Q&As out of DGP stuff lately, from Fugate and Co, they talked about often in-house ignoring the rules details and going with what felt right at the time and kept the game moving along. I've used this technique before even in D&D and found it quite successful. The DM in D&D knows hit points, ACs, etc. but does he really need all that? He knows roughly how much damage the critter can take and how tough it should be to hit and the sort of damage it should dish out... everything else is chrome. Same goes in Traveller to a fair extent.
If you can make up reasonable sounding task statements (or rolls if you are OST folks - Old School Traveller) and keep the game and combats flowing without too much document diving, you'll have a much more dynamic feeling game. It will have a sense of momentum.
--
“The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.” ― Aristotle
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