Reflecting on my House Rules for Mongoose Traveller (2008)

Mongoose Traveller (first edition 2008)

I'm digging deeper into my Traveller notes, as picking up the revised version of Mongoose Traveller (2022) has disturbed the embers of my love for the game. In the notes, I found the plans for the house rules that I would apply when running the game. Bear in mind this was written in 2009, and probably needs an update...

1. Clustered skills are rated at highest specialism ‐1.

This was to remove the over­restrictive clustering which is works much better with high skill versions of Traveller (ie not MegaTraveller, Marc Miller's Traveller). I'd retain this one.

2. Task DMs = +6 Simple, +3 Basic, 0 Average, ‐3 Hard, ‐6 Formidable

This gives target numbers of 2, 5, 8, 11, 14 which much more closely maps MegaTraveller & is less complex than the base rules. Not sure if I'd keep this.

3. Autofire – when you get the pool of dice, you can allocate as many as you want to each target within 6m. So you can make an attack roll with 1 dice, or with 4 dice, rather than the usual 2 dice for a task.

This increases the chance of a higher effect on a single target and is faster than multiple dice rolls. 

Need to check if it's still applicable.

4. Damage is replaced as follows: Weapon damage is always applied randomly against one of the three physical characteristics. It is calculated as normal. 

If one characteristic is reduced to zero, the character is knocked unconscious. If two are reduced to zero, the character is seriously wounded. Three, they’re dead. 

Recovery from Unconsciousness is as standard. First Aid and Surgery is as standard. Serious wounded status is removed once only one characteristic <0. Characteristic DMs are adjusted as the characteristic drops in combat.

This was done because I prefer the earlier edition mechanics as I think that they are much more brutal and elegant.

5. Starship combat damage rolls add effect from the to‐hit roll.

This was correcting an inconsistency in the rules. As the whole combat engine changed in 2017 this is probably no longer applicable.

6. The revised High Guard core mods for starship combat are in use.

I did some consulting for the first edition Mongoose Traveller High Guard (although bizarrely they credited me in the Scouts book!) and this was one of the elements that I slipped in with Loz Whittaker (see p47). This made Pulse and Beam lasers work in line with canon. It was suggested that it needed to go back into the core book but Matt didn't take that forward. I also wrote the reaction drive element, which was fun. This is probably no longer applicable with the updates post 2017.

I also planned to add in some additional house rules:

7.  Each characteristic has an aspect that can be tagged for +/‐ 1 DM. As a guide, tags are positive if the attribute is 8+, but referee’s decision final. System is based on FATE.

I'd probably do this still, but link it to boon/bane.

8. Armour will be re‐rated to match T4’s mechanic.

This needed a fair bit of work, and I wanted a way to do it without screwing around with stat blocks for weapons and armour too much (ie it needed to be done on the fly). Unlikely I'd do it now.

I also had an unwritten rule, which was to accept any previous Traveller starship design on the basis of the in game performance rather than the stats. In other words, I accepted the MCr cost, the jump performance and ignored the volumes etc.

REFLECTION

Looking at this list, the only definite house rules I'd take forward are (1) and (4). The clustered skills approach annoyed me as it stripped character competence and the damage rules from earlier editions work better with me in my head.

What would you house rule for Traveller? Do these resonate or would you play rules-as-written?

26th December 2021