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This is part two of a series of reviews of Megatraveller; the first review was for the Players' Manual. Subsequent reviews will be for the Imperium Encyclopedia and the Rebellion Sourcebook.
The Referee's Manual is a perfect bound, softback, a 104pp book with cover art by David Dietrick, undoubtedly the best of the three books that make up the boxed set and, sensibly enough, was also the art included on the box cover. As per the other books, the text is dense, the style formal, with two-column bordered layout in sans-serif font. As per the Player's Book, the book is poorly organised and without an index, although this is alleviated by the detailed table of contents. The quality of the interior art remains the same (average at best), although I was charmed by the family playing an RPG on their spaceship on p8. The occasional typographical errors continues.
The Manual begins with several pages explaining the responsibilities of a Megatraveller referee and how to administrate an adventure. Interestingly, this advice concentrates heavily on managing the scenario and resources, rather than players and player styles. This is a theme that continues throughout the manuals, giving the impression of game where highly detailed star systems, craft and characters are created more than played. It is a little disconcerting to imagine.
Following this is the Referee's "Guide to Tasks", which continues the error from the previous manual on the boxed summary of the UTP which strongly implies that one subtracts the time taken from the die roll. As the text indicates this obviously is not the case, but it the error does serve to confuse rather than elucidate. The chapter also discusses other modifications for example, the effects of computer augmentation on task resolution, differences in tech level and so forth, and the resolution of uncertain tasks (player and GM both roll with relative knowledge generated by comparison). Why the bulk of this is not in the Players' Manual is unfathomable. There is absolutely nothing here which is necessarily referee's knowledge.
The next thirteen pages is dedicated to generating worlds and star systems, the former representing a basic generation and the latter an extended system. Like characters, worlds have a profile, in this case a "Universal World Profile", specifically Starport, Size, Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Population, Government, Law Level, Tech Level, with extra categories for Bases, Trade Centres, the type of Travel Zone, Population Multiple, Planetoid Belts, Gas Giants and finally allegiance. The example for the world Roup is C77A9A9-6 S Hi In Wa A323 Im, which indicates that attempts to summarise a world and the system it is part of in a single line might be more trouble than its worth.
In the main, there are no serious errors in the physical side of world and system generation, although Megatraveller takes a significant departure from nearly all other sf RPGs in calculating the ability to jump or throw based on surface gravity. Whereas as most games will simply use the surface value, Megatraveller uses the square root of the G Factor. For example, in most games jumping and throwing on a 2.0 gravity world would mean that the effectiveness is reduced by 50%; whereas in Megatraveller it is reduced to 71%. Whilst I am not a physicist by profession or vocation, but I'm pretty sure they've this one wrong. This aside, the world and star system generation is quite comprehensive and follows the usual classifications used by astronomers and planetologists.
Some of the social profiles seem a little strange however. For example, the relative oppressiveness of a legal system is defined by their permissiveness of weapon prohibitions. Within governmental systems, the range seems is from "none" to "totalitarian oligarchy" - with a corporate government is considered closer to "none" than any other system and a "religious autocracy" is less severe than a "totalitarian oligarchy", which evidently can't include a corporate version. Another interesting claim is that the higher the population of a world, the less probable it is to have a representative or democratic government; indeed in the highest band of population, it is impossible. Finally, world allegiance is defined as either Imperium, Aslan, Vargr or Zhodani. This seems very, very, wrong given the fact that the key plot device for the setting has been the fracturing of the Imperium.
Following the world and system generation are chapters on animals. encounters and interpersonal tasks. As can be expected, the former is described in generic terms, such as what world the critters come from, where in that world, what and how they eat, and the hits, armour and weaponry. Strangely, natural events such as earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions are also included here. The encounters chapter is three pages of text and four pages of tables which is mainly various random encounters according to type and locale. The interpersonal tasks chapter is very short (two pages), describing the UTP for characteristic estimations, interpersonal negotiation and bribery, interrogation and impersonation. There are not suggestions for reputation or respect and NPCs seem to be invariably treated as strategic opponents rather than orientations towards co-operation or mutual understanding.
Like its predecessor, trade is a very big deal in the Megatraveller universe. Would you be terribly surprised if I mentioned that cargo has a profile as well? This one consists of origin Starport type, Tech Level, Trade Classifications and Cost, so a bit simpler than the others. However the code does not necessarily equate with the goods themselves, rather it is more the type of world that it came from. For example, the Agricultural Classification could be natural resources, processed resourced, manufactured good, information or novelties. Each of these has its own table to determine specifically what sort of good is being carried (e.g., livestock, raw crystals, nitrogen compounds, paper records) etc. This concludes with even more tables and a five part process to determine cargo cost, and seven part process to determine price. Surprisingly this does all seem to sit together quite successfully.
(Special note for gamist players: The path to wealth seems to be being an Aslan merchant, leaving from industrial worlds with good starports, actively cooperating with other traders, and selling to Zhodani buyers on a water world with a good starport with a good bribery skill. I guess this is why the Spinward Marches, located between the Aslan and Zhodani, is such a popular Traveller locale. Or maybe that's just pure coincidence.)
Taking up almost half the book are the chapters on starcraft design and combat. The actual text for design and design evaluation is less than a 1/3 of that which is dedicated to tables, tables, tables and more tables. Simple formulae could certainly have saved a lot of space. In any case, craft design begins with the hull, then power supply, locomotion, communicators, sensors and electronics, nine pages of weapon charts, screens, bridge, accommodation and fuel, all of which seems perfectly in order and the couple of spaceships I've designed don't seem to collapse under the weight of their own contradictions. The general combat system is, surprisingly, very similar to personal combat with tactics, initiative, surprise and interrupts following the standard procedure. Damage tables requires cross-referencing attack factors versus defense types to determine the penetration number which, if successful, requires a further roll on the damage chart which may require a further roll on the critical chart. Easy really.
Like the Players' Manual, the Megatraveller Referee's Manual is a product of significant substance and fairly good scope, but hampered with an inaccessible style, disorganisation, significant authoritarian, militaristic and antagonistic biases, and an overabundance of tables (even more so than its contemporary, Rolemaster). If a referee loves sitting at home doing pre-game preparation, rolling lots of dice and looking up lots of tables, this is an ideal product. However, I rather suspect this is not how most GMs like to spend their free time.
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