A nice thread for 2d6 systems like Classic Traveller and Cepheus Engine.I just bought some Modern War and a supplement. I also looking at the CE SRD to make my own military surrealism game around mercs.Have you much experience or do you have any games going on anon?
Has anyone done much miniature combat with these systems?My last MGT campaign didn't really involve much and I quite like mini combat. I've seen some Classic Traveller minis on ebay but never seen examples of people playing on Youtube or anything.
>>98140967>Has anyone done much miniature combat with these systems?No, I figured a big part of Traveller was that you didn't use minis with it really.
Comfy travelling. Imagine loading some cargo at the starport, imagine wandering off while the rest of the crew loads, imagine smelling some street food and thinking "no one's going to mind if I get a little nibble before we take off", imagine seeing something that sets you off on your next adventure while you're chowing down on space noodles. Comfy.No travelling for me because we're stuck on a cyberpunk world but plenty of killing and espionage. Tomorrow they will protect the least likeable politician in the world during a political rally, and I have a long list of shenanigans the audience are going to get up to. It's gonna be good.
Is there anything to it besides rolling 2d6? Sell me on it.
How do you guys interpret Scouts by 1977 rules before the Imperium and all?Can't have an IISS without an Imperium after all, but like surely Miller and all had something in mind and it meant something.I somehow doubt it was meant to be boy scouts and girl scouts selling cookies to afford starships and base, but who knows.>>98140967>>98142046There's Striker, Snapshot and Azhanti High Lightning and stuff.
>>98140967Modern War doesn't use minis. The designer specifically says it's a military RPG, not a war game. Yes you play soldiers but a big part of its combat system is that most of the time you can't even see the enemy due to cover and concealment. If you can't directly detect them you're basically firing towards the area you think they're in and whether or not any of them were hit or not is uncertain until they're either incapacitated, retreat, or a bit of both.
>>98144991It's literally the scouts from the Jack Vance series collected as Planet of Adventure.
>>98145033Oh, cheers mate. I'll check that out. So much stuff marked as Traveller inspiration, I haven't gotten around to checking out everything yet, and the last Vance book I read didn't really make me want to read more tbf.
>>98145066It's mainly the Poul Anderson technic civilization stuff, Dumarest, and Vance's Demon Princes and Planet of Adventure stories (and more generally his sci-fi). Which was the last Vance book you read? Your answer will determine how I view you as a human being.
>>98142046It had a nice (pic related) 15mm mini line so seems unlikely. I wonder where that comes from? Some (most?) people play in a shorthand kinda of way that the books suggest, so maybe it naturally leads to treating combat in the same way.>>98143332On Traveller? It's pretty good man. Eh travels in space and doesn't afraid of anything.>>98145029That's interesting, I've been reading through the book, slowly. Some historical war games have a similar thing going on where you indirectly engage with infantry and you're really just rolling to pin/suppress rather than rolling to kill or remove models.>If you can't directly detect them you're basically firing towards the area you think they're in and whether or not any of them were hit or not is uncertain until they're either incapacitated, retreat, or a bit of both.I think you could represent that with miniatures of the right scale.>>98142655My last game died on a cliffhanger. We were coop DMing as a trio. We had been flying around in a ship that belonged to a criminal element. We totally wrecked the hull and had to drag ourselves back to beg after we missed payment and got sent to assassinate a union leader causing mass worker rallies that had begun to spiral into revolution.
>>98147246>My last game died on a cliffhanger.Shameful, cus it sounds pretty fun. Always fun to be the bad guys against your better judgement.
>>98147380Yeah I was excited for our best laid plans to go tits up and for everything to go horribly wrong.
I've got to say, Traveller might be the best system for running Star Wars I've ever played.It's the only system I've ever used for it where it truly felt like Jedi & Non-Jedi could exist in the same party without it being the adventures of PC man and associates.
>>98147476I mean, FFG Star Wars does that even better because the smuggler and diplomat have the same kind of tools that the Jedi has, and anything the Jedi has that would be perceived as a power advantage is held in check by various game mechanics. But we can't talk about that one because icky funny dice or something.
>>98147246>On Traveller? It's pretty good man. Eh travels in space and doesn't afraid of anything.On this ce4pheus system.
>>98144991>How do you guys interpret Scouts by 1977 rules before the Imperium and all?Another anon already mentioned Vance's Planet of Adventure. His various Gaean Reach books also have scouts called "locators".The 1977 rules Scouts before the Imperium are easily explained. They're still working for some sort of organization, just not the 3I. Could be a government, a corporation, a university, whatever. Some group big or small has handed them a ship. pointed them in a direction, and told them to go explore, survey, spy, patrol, deliver messages, etc.
>>98140967>Has anyone done much miniature combat with these systems?GDW were wargamers. Their RPGs get all the attention but the first thing they published was a wargame, the last thing the published was a wargame, and they published wargames even when Trav and Twilight were their big sellers. There are specific minis rules released for Trav and there are parts of Trav that lend themselves very easily to minis. Snapshot and AHL can use minis just as easily as chits. LBB:2 combat can use minis with range bands and you can use the LBB:4 campaign system to set up encounters you then play out with Striker or LBB:2. Hell, most of the ship combat rules are minis friendly too thanks to vector movement.
>>98149265Yeah, I didn't want to influence opinions and posts before getting some answers, but my thinking was, some sort of merger of multiple Pony Express type companies over time (for the "Courier" part), coupled with subsidies from planetary governments to keep maps updated (since we already know some of them subsidise merchants and couriers would be travelling a lot, why not), and somehow the scouts themselves wrestled control of everything and not remote non-scout administrators or corps or shareholders. As for the big payouts, well, it's them playing Travellers and heroes on the job, I figure.
Question for you guys concerning MongTraveller 1e/2eIs there a way through cybernetics/high tech solutions or even psionics at this point, to lose the requirement to breathe?As well as. Is there a way to ignore food/water needs?There's a biological vacuum protection augment, & radiation protection augment you can get so you can be exposed to space without much problem, but I want a character who could theoretically just chill in space. I literally don't care if it's an alien artifact or Ancients tech, I'm just hoping to find some rules allowing it
>>98143332It's comfy space travels & a mix of environmental danger, pirates & mercs, & making ends meet as you sail the vault of stars
>>98154068I am pretty sure there's a mention in 2e that human brains can be used for starships, and that the scout services use this, but eventually the brain goes nuts from being canned. But I've been skimming for 10 minutes and can't find it. I don't see why this wouldn't be possible though, or using an avatar.
>>98149677That's pretty much how I penciled it in for a non-3I setting I ran earlier this year. GDW did briefly mention a setting for the game that wasn't the 3I. It's in Classic's LBB:0 in the campaign section and amounts to all of a paragraph but it's piqued a lot of interest over the last few years.Anyway, taking that paragraph and fleshing iut a setting, I figured "scouts" was more of a job description and less of an organization - sort of like how the US Navy is also the 2nd or 3rd largest air force in the world. So you don't necessarily need to be in the air force to be a pilot. Accordingly, I took all the jobs scouts do and parceled them out to different organizations.There's a survey command with "scouts" that's part of the setting's navy. The setting's foreign service has "scouts" which handle inter-species contact and diplomacy. There are a bunch of public and private organizations staffed by "scouts" for message traffic. And of course all sorts of corps, governments, universities, and what not use "scouts" for all kinds of exploration.All scouts doing all scout jobs but scattered across all sorts of different organizations ranging from a branch of the navy to a "Wells Fargo"-type corporation to a government department to a tiny rent-a-research-ship outfit.
>>98154068>I'm just hoping to find some rules allowing itGet in the true Traveller, OSR, rulings not rules, mindset and create what you need for your game. All that matters is that you apply whatever you come up with consistently on PCs and NPCs alike.
>>98154197Robotics handbook, it's in the back somewhere under pilot brain I think?
>>98155205That was my guess but, even re-reading it now, it has vehicle brains and spaceship brains and none of them mention canned brains. Checked the 'Brains' section too. So unless it's hidden inside a distinctly non-canned option then my only guess is that I read it in a module or something. It's kinda driving me nuts, maybe I was the canned brain all along.
>>98155758Let me be an OG; Meatbox Pilot on page 241 of the Robot Handbook.
>>98155968Thank you, you just alleviated like 8% of my mental resources for the week.>I stopped at Cybernetics every timeHave this rare cat paw as a reward.
>>98155758>>98155205>>98154197The Robots book has the Meatbox. Which is what you guys are talking about, but doesnt exactly do what im looking for which is to make an ambulatory guy able to survive in space without space gear.>>98155026I could very much go this route & probably will. Just charge out the nose for some kind of bioware/cyberware which removes the need to breath in space for xD days.
>>98155968Lol beat by a few minutes
>>98155985>>98155990Let none say I am stingy with rewards.
How broken would a device be, that was an Ancients Teleportation Suit, that let you use your Teleport Psi Talent [Formidible 12] to Jump a number of Parsecs equal to effect? You wouldnt be able to bring others or anything like that. Im toying with the idea of doing Tesseract jumps like from A Wrinkle in Time
If a zhodani goes to re-education but rolls max (they're exonerated and gain a benefit) can they continue their career?
>>98155985>>98156648Both the "No-Breather" and "Jump Suit" sound like they'll be a lot of fun on the tabletop. I'd make them mcguffins - that is objects of a campaign long search - rather than simple purchases. I'd also make use and understanding of them unsure at best. After all, Ancient tech doesn't come with an owner's manual or a 1-800-Tech-Support line.For more biotech ideas, check out GDW's 2300AD; in particular the Pentapod materials. Any of those could be worthwhile mcguffins.
>>98158039Why not? They were exonerated, weren't they?
>>98161734"Jump Suit" is a fantastic name. Im stealing it. And yeah I would be super special Ancients Tech, I was even contemplating making a "Path of the Traveller" Uplift path with the special ability [Tesseract Rank "n"] to basically be a Jump capable sophant borrowing a bit from Book 4 Psion Space Folding power. Whether a suit or a natural ability, i want to have a "Walker of Worlds" who is a guy sojourning from planet to planet without a ship. So im debating whether he needs to Jump in space or planetside. & if he travels from space then he will need a way to fly up there & to survive before making the Jump
Any suggestions for a good all rounder 500 ton ship with minimal crew?
>>98162214Among the many good things that resulted from Traveller getting the SRD treatment is the flood of 3rd party materials for the game. Many feature ship designs and even deckplans, but there's so much nowadays that's it's hard to keep up. I don't know of any 500dTon ships off the top of my head, but I'd be shocked if there weren't dozens of design out there. The Share Thread can point you to a Traveller trove to start looking. I'm afraid you'll either have to look around there or design your own.One word of advice: A 500dTon ship is big money wise. Not just the purchase price, but the operating costs and maintenance fees too. GDW built those costs into the game from the beginning to act as what they called "pulls", "pushes", and "hooks". Even if the PCs owned a ship free and clear, they were still going to be hustling for the money needed to operate it. A hired crew aboard a subsidized merchant as in The Traveller Adventure will earn "off route" time to go and trade as they please but they'll still need to buy fuel, life support supplies, maintenance items, etc. The bigger the ship the bigger those bills.
>>98166882Well I rolled d66-d6 in Comopolite Life Events so a very nice, very rich person gave my 14 year old Prodigy a ship. Completely paid off, up to 500 freaking tons.I was hoping to find a good all around ship built for big Jumps able to haul cargo for trade, since as far as I know, most games we play feature a Far Trader or a Scout as the party ship. Having the option for such a big ship is giving me pause on what to actually get since I dont want to have to hire a big crew to run it
>>98167335A big crew with their big salaries are another of those bills I posted about and big ships need one. Factor the big drives a high acceleration and/or high jump rating requires and you'll need even more crew too.You can square the circle by running what we now call a "domain level" game but that's very different from a wandering free trader game.
>>98162214Mongoose has an extended Subsidized Merchant in one of their supplements. Trades the Launch for a Ship’s Boat, adds an extra Stateroom and Low Berth, as well as an armored vault in the cargo hold. Same crew complement, but carries more cargo and has better auxiliary craft. You can probably take that, remove the vault and add a fuel/cargo container to enable a potential second jump (I think Islands in the Rift had a different modified Subsidized Merchant that had multiple compartments for this) and whatever weapons you think are appropriate for what you’ll be doing.
>>98168293>>98167589I looked it up. Thats in the Adventure Ships book, its a nice fat cargo hauler, I like it & the one after it with Jump 4. What do you guys think of the Zhodani Anzcho Frieghter?
>>98168662>Zhodani Anzcho FrieghterIf it meets the needs of your game then it's perfect. Do whatever will be fun for you and your players and then please tell us all about it!
Correct me if I'm wrong but taking Melee: Wrestling from Traveller Conpanion DOUBLES your skill ranks for a Grapple Check and then adds your Ranks as extra damage. So Monofilament Garrotte does 3d6+Effect+Wrestling Ranks as automatic damage each round.Lets say you have a decent Dex/Str of +1 and 3 Ranks which anyone dedicating skills to fighting should have around 3 Ranks.This means you Roll 2d6+7 as an opposed roll against guys who usually dont have much in the way of Melee Unarmed. Let alone Grappling. Meaning you get to keep most of that +7 as an Effect. This means your Monofilament Garrote attack does on average 10(3d6)+7+3= 20 damage in one grapple ignoring armor. That pretty much incapacitates anyone.You could even add the Melee Matters upgrades for something like a Thermal Wire which burns them for extra damage too. Making it a 4D weapon with FireMelee Weapons are allowed most everywhere and you could even disguise it in a bracelet/ring or the like with a decorative bit you can pull to reveal the wire held on a reel. I think that even out performs an Arc Blade, is MUCH cheaper and less conspicuous
I'm trying to figure out what I'm bringing to the table for my first traveller run as a backstory, as I'm running a Zhondani in the third imperium. 2e. We did generation and are playing next week. I was thinking he was a minor functionary despite his stonking psi rating used on a backwater in the demilitarised zone between the Imperium and the Consulate and did or said something that'd get him hollowed out by the thought police, then legged it. Any other suggestions?
>>98174926Well tell us what his background terms/stats/skills are and we'll see if we can help.
>>98174926>Stonking PSIHe never got a promotion and is bitter about it and now shit talks the caste system because he wasn't allowed to be the big dog
>>98174926My Zhodani is a strange animal. Im actually deciding he is a hybrid Zhodani/Solomani or Vilani since hes had such an odd life. I bombed Mishaps twice & got sent to Re-Education twice but was exonerated twice which was just crazy luck in its own right. His first term outside of University was a Guard Commando where he got trained to be a Thought Police. So next term I switch to that. Then on that term I rolled "Go undercover as a Prole" so when I rolled on the Life Events of that it was "Infiltrate Rogue or Citizen" so I picked Rogue & on the Life Events of that I rolled "Get Involved with a Gambling Den" thankfully I did not have to go undercover a third time.So my Zhodani is a guy who despite being a competent person, who joined the Commandos was sent to re-education (exonerated), then trained as a Thought Police, joined the Thought Police, was sent to reeducation (exonerated) then went undercover as a Prole Colonist then when he was there the colony leader sent him to go undercover with some pirates. He even earned the Nenj. But it painted a picture of a guy who despite doing all the correct things, just doesnt fundamentally belong or has something that rubs Zhodani the wrong way. So now hes a Traveller in Imperial Space with the rest of the players.
>>98177374Sounds like a prison break/double agent situation to me.He's been trained to appear to be someone who is getting away with it, so that he can be sent to bait out/lure in people who are actually getting away with it.Kind of a Thought Police Judas Goat situation
>>98177402That could work too, but I liked the idea that he didnt fit in & the Zhodani around him kept trying to trip him up. So I was just sharing that, just cause you have a zhodani character & you can actually be against the Consulate as a group even if youre a high Psi Noble or whatever. Figured it might help the anon. My character is actually interested in making an all Psi humaniti enclave that ISNT the Zhodani & isnt so invasive & controlling. Its kind of an unspoken thing in Traveller but it seems to me that Zhodani are like half Droyne & made to be like the droyne in some ways by the Ancients.
Hey folks, I recently heard of the Pirates of Drinax campaign but I'm having trouble figuring out whether it's a three book series or a 10-adventure series or if the three book version is a consolidation of an earlier greater series. Hoping to steal some plot beats.
>>98179442The three book set is a consolidation.
>>98179495Thanks, appreciate the help.
>>98179524There are also a couple of books outside of the slipcase. Drinaxian Companion has a bunch of extra shit, and Shadows of Sindal is a 3 adventure mini campaign that takes place in the trojan reach (subsector that Drinax takes place in) that could be slotted in or could be used as an intro.
Has anyone ever played a K'kree and fucking why?Humaniti subraces fine, aslan and vargr furries of course, droyne are weird little space kobolds, awesome. Hivers are there to play the REALLY inhuman character & theyre just space wormbros. K'kree on the other hoof are just so bad. Genocidal, Vegan & even worse about it than a white girl from California with dreads, to fat to fit a spaceship & they panic about it too. How did these triple retards even get to space?
Am I misremembering or did one of the traveller editions have a babylon 5 supplement?
>>98184777Yes I think its a fan/3rd party thing. Its in the mega
I know I can always just pick something and flavor it however I want within reason, but are there any slutty Pulp Sci-Fi outfits? I want to wear tights and a codpiece with no shirt and maybe some tastful shoulder armor and bracers
>>98184777>>98185104It was first party, published by mongoose. I know this because Google is really fucking easy to use and it's literally the top result.
Anyone have vol 3 of Aliens of Charted Space? Doesn't seem to be on the mega.Also I'm sure I've seen a writeup somewhere, in some edition, of something that handed out a random psionic power if you touched it - some droyne artefact, but only worked for actual psionics. And if you weren't a droyne it had side effects. Anyone have any idea what I'm talking about?
>>98185267relax brotherman, there is no need to be such a little bitch
>>98190603>... something that handed out a random psionic power if you touched it...That's a somewhat common trope across all versions of Traveller and 1st, 3rd, and fan publications.
I have .5 tons free in the ship I'm building. What should I fill it with?
>>98192127Cargo.
>>98192371Nah thats sloppy. I have 140 Cargo already i want round numbers
>>98192127I think that’s about the size of a single low berth.
>>98192127Nazi gold, just in case.
>>98192127Three options spring to mind:Practical option: A small smuggler compartment, sure you won't be making the most cash off selling an extra half a ton of illegal pornography every trip, but it'd help.Based option: Tell the DM you add some extra wriggle areas and turn arounds to the crawl spaces so that any time you get boarded you can set the ships speakers to play "Welcome to the Jungle" at max volume on repeat before disappearing into themSupremely based option: High Guard Page 60: A hot tub requires 0.25 tons for each traveller inteded to use it simultaneously and costs 12000 per ton or Page 59: Microbreweries and distilleries appear at TL 10 and require 0.5 Tons to produce 10 litres of beer or liquour per week, each ton costs 0.1MCr
>>98192567Oh nice. Now the hard decision... hot tub for bitches or brewery for essentric noble vibes?I think a brewery would be nice. Im curious if there are rules for cost & quality. Converting a Free Trader into a Jumo capable a Tavern Wagon sounds like a fun campaign. Ill have to save that idea for a Sword World character
>>98193093Honestly, go for beer.If nothing else it'll be a quirk for the ship.Plus it gives you an excuse to sing 'The Rolling English Road' at the table.
Have you guys ever used the portfolio rules? The one where you trade your cash benefits for a business or estate stipend that makes monthly wealth.
>>98192109Well, damn. Want to point me at an example for 2e if you can, or something similar otherwise? It wasn't an entire talent, just a specific power from that talent.
Are there rules for going into manufacturing or distribution? My players want to set up a mining and refinement business.
>>98195228Check out Mongoose 1e Merchant Princes, which contains rules for creating Megacorps.They're a little abstract but you can always give your players bonuses based on their actions.
>>98194454I haven't seen much of MgT2e as my group won't use much of anything from Mongoose. Check out various adventures from CT, DGP's mags, the original JTAS, MT, and other similar sources. Having a "mcguffin" which gives a PC one specific psionic ability for longer or shorter periods of time shows up often enough.Of course you could just wing it as any good GM should be able to do. Pick an ability, dial it back power wise, make it intermittent, or both and let your players use it just as you would any other item. Don't let it become a "get out of jail free" card they can use in any and all situations without fear of failure or attendant risk. You already know how to balance your game. Trust your gut.
>>98195228Someone already mentioned MgT1e's Merchant Prince so I'll add GT's Far Trader. That splat was written by an economist and has a section on "high finance", stocks, LLCs, corporations, and the like. It takes to avoid game breaking and/or hacking results like CT's Infinite Money trade routes or any of the other Monty Haul mechanics too many other systems eventually devolve into.SWN's Suns of Gold is another splat that may help you for similar reasons as GT:FT.
>>98196872NTA but im vuriousCan non Droyne use Invisibility?
>>98196900>>98195315I found a ship in JTAS 3 that has the manufacturing tech im looking for but what book can I find those specific ship components? Im thinking of using a mix of the Portfolio Business rules in JTAS along with as much real physical infrastructure as I can find in the books. I know there was a base building guide somewhere too.
>>98197562I don't think there's any rules anywhere for learning racial psionics, but given that Droyne have trouble using psionics on non-droyne without special training it's probably expensive.I think Zhodani and Droyne is the only talent pair a player might actually want anyway. The Zhodani talent is the funniest way to eject boarders from your ship, if I recall - just teleport them outside.
>>98196900Is that the book that has "oh yeah you can invest your ship share for yearly money returns"?>>98196872I'm mostly just trying to stick to written items where possible rather than inventing wholesale. I'm alright, but I always like to use what's already written down instead of simply inventing things if I can manage it.Cheers.
>>98198319Its not technically MT2e but MT1e has a few cool ones. Time & Dimension hopping but they sadly arent much defined, what does going to another dimension do? Sliders stuff? But I LOVE the Psi-Ship stuff. Having a psionic power to Jump a ship with just your mind is cool as fuck. Its even instantaneous opening a portal to just fly through. Psi Ship Shields, & whatnot are cool. The K-Vault is nice so you can fill the ship with Psi Points during downtime so you can over spend during times it matters.MT2e Adventure Errant Lightning has some new psionic powers too. A Doppleganger power that let's you mimic people, an Antipsion blocking talent to interrupt other psions, & a plant based one thats niche but could be useful. You can do the standard entangle with vines, sense plants & camouflage yourself.Droyne dont actually have their own Talent like the Zhodani, Invisibility is in the Telepathy Talent so I figure theres some way for a Zhodani or talented Vilani to learn it
>>981449911977 fag here. What's an IISS?
>>98147476>take based Traveller>use it to run fucking Star WarsWhy though
>>98155026Good advice, just one nitpick:>All that matters is that you apply whatever you come up with consistently on PCs and NPCs alikeWhen you do that, it's more precise and less misleading to call it "rulings ARE rules" rather than "rulings OVER rules".https://youtu.be/3uiXgBASiNQ
>>98203925Nta but I'm assuming Imperial Interstellar Scout Service.
>>98203953>it's more precise and less misleading to call it "rulings ARE rules"Good point. As an example, I misread the armor rules in CT's HG2 and then applied it incorrectly as a GM for years. It didn't matter however because because I always applied the rules in the same incorrect manner. My "ruling" - which had been made in error rather than deliberately - became the "rule" in the games I ran and the heavens didn't fall.More GMs need to trust themselves and just wing it. As long as you're consistent it really doesn't matter.
>>98197562>Can non Droyne use Invisibility?Why not? Does it HAVE to be written in a rules splat? If RPGs are meant to spark creativity, why not show some? I played in a campaign once where the GM had a PC slowly develop a talent akin to Plateau Eyes from Niven's Known Space series. It was great watching the player slowly work out whats, whys, hows, and limits of that talent.If think it will be a good addition to your game, just fucking do it.
>>98203925>What's an IISS?The other anon has it right; Imperial Interstellar Scout Service. It's another result of the game's setting metastasizing across the game's rules.From HG2 onwards, the rules spoke more and more to the 3I setting specifically and less and less about the 1977 claims regarding a semi-generic sci-fi rules set. A couple of anons up-thread wrote about Classic's careers started out as skills gained in general job descriptions and morphed into skills gained as a part of setting specific organizations.
>>98205355Works for me. I am unfortunately a 3.5 D&D era gamer and we tend to think RAW. I didnt see anything against it, but I also know that a lot of Refs hate psionics, and so they limit them stringently
How do you handle Aslan territory rolls? It seems like almost every male aslan is going to have 0 territory - maybe 1 at most, which would come out at 1 SOC and force them to use Charm. Am I doing it wrong?>>98161735NTA, but I expect he means that it comes most often from a failed survival roll and the subsequent roll on the mishap chart.>>98205751>hate psionicsWhich is a little strange. Psionics aren't that powerful unless you're very careful with how you use them - you're probably not going to be incinerating annoying Aslan with a look. Very situational, but they can let you eat a lot of plots, I guess. "You'll never find the hostage unless you let me go!" "Yeah, I got it mate. Alright everyone, the hostage is at 123 fake street, tied up in the basement and will be there for the next two hours, let's go."
>>98207013I think psionics have moved out of the realm of sci-fi and more into the realm of fantasy, so a lot of people don't dig it because they view it as an attempt to shoehorn magic in their sci-fi game. Of course, this ignores the fact that psionics or psychics have always had a place in the kind of sci-fi that's in ttrpg dna.
>>98207189It's just horses for courses really
>>98140949I love the Third Imperium setting, but I hate the 2d6 mechanics. 2d6 is just too constricted, if I could go back in time and edit it in anyway I would transform it into a 2d10 system. I prefer a wider amount of variation between impossible to fail and impossible to succeed.
>>98182028I played as a k'kree. You're basically an unbeatable super warrior, but you need to comprehend how to use character creation to your advantage.The goal is to get 12-15 endurance, and enough points in the Outsider skill to guarantee you succeed the rolls. If you can get 2d6+6 on the rolls, you're basically good to go and the downsides are gone because there's no real way you're going to fail. Once the panic attacks are nullified, you're left just taking 50% less endurance damage, which turns you into an unkillable mega tank.You just have to make sure +Endurance is on your careers benefits table.That's from a mechanical perspective, from a roleplay perspective you get to be anything from a Worf to a Drizzt. Yeah, your people are retarded and incompetent, but it almost goes without saying that you're playing some imperialized exception.
By dent of some really cosmicly lucky dice rolls and the GM fudging things just a scooch you end up with FFFFFF-F and Jack of All Trades 3, you got fuck all for other skills except Broker 2, and some rank 1 junk from Rank skills like Persuade 1. Obviously my crew role is the Face in port, but what skills or talents should I focus on developing? Normally id try to train up a crew skill likw and a combat skill, but with this turn of events im sort of open to anything. Other crewmates are a low term Navy engineer and a droyne pilot. We are gonna have some shitty robots to plug other crew positions that might be needed. Don't even know if the game will last long, and id hate to see these godly rolls go to waste so im hoping to make it fun while it lasts, suggestions on equipment is also appreciated
>>98207013Enhanced Awareness can be pretty broken, and Aportation is a hilarious power on a starship, but the traditional "use your powers to do what a gun does" has always been the weakest to way to play a psion or wizard for that matter
>>98207222Personally I like that players can be consistently competent. If you want them to be able to shoot the long shots then use the luck score option. It'll give them the chance to really pin in some whacky rolls.
>>98208818They're either consistently competent or consistently worthless with a very tight middle ground. It's a rich setting, but the mechanical systems are extremely binary and shallow.
>>98208932>>98207222>>consistently worthlessIt's>I want to listen at the doornot>I roll to listen at the doorThe DM should be comfortable enough to adjudicate a success based on context. If there is doubt then he can ask for a roll. You need a DM that knows when things should be rolled and when things should be "auto-passed" (to varying degrees of success).
>>98208978If I didn't want to use the mechanics, I'd just be doing freeform roleplay. No offense, but this argument of "just fiat the bad mechanics away" is something I scoff at when D&D 5e cultists bring it up, and I'm still going to scoff at it here.No, I shouldn't have to use GM fiat to make the system work fun. The system should just be designed to work fun.As I said, good setting, bad mechanics. It didn't meaningfully evolve out of the 70s and it shows.
>>98209034Nta but he isn't saying "just fiat the bad mechanics away," he's explaining that part of the mechanical unpinning of traveller is that you shouldn't be fucking rolling all the time. Part of the game is the referee adjudicating situations without the need of a randomizer. That's a big part of why the referee exists in the first place, to make calls based on the current game state.
>>98209305
>>98209558While >>98209034 is most certainly trolling as only an innumerate assclown wouldn't comprehend the mathematical certainty of failure inherent in constant rolling, the point made by >>98209305 is correct. You should role-ing and not rolling, but too few GMs and players are able to grok that.
>>98203931If you've ever seen the actual Star Wars RPG, you'd know.
>>98210509Last time I've seen the Star Wars RPG was in 1988, I think. Not a fan.
>>98209558>>98209034 might be a troll, but it's also entirely possible that they actually think this. There are a large amount of people who think that the mechanics *are* the game, rather than an avenue through which one interacts with the game.
>>98210696>>98210480I'm not trolling. It's obvious to me that Traveller's mechanics are bad. I'm honestly flabbergasted you guys are disagreeing with me. I don't want to be a "troll," but I'm legitimately chalking it up to you being fanboy autists who can't take criticism.A 2d6 system has a very low amount of striation in the results. It just does. it only has results between 2-12, and in addition to that it's on a curve. The difference between a +1 and +4 is therefore gigantically massive. Yeah, saying "Just don't roll the dice then!" is psychotic and means you're ignoring the system to make it work, which is a red flag. Traveller is not well-balanced as a game. It just fucking isn't. It lives and dies on its setting alone. When your advice on running the game boils down to "ignore the system," that's fucking bad. You can insult me all you want, but advising people to not roll dice can't be spun as a positive for the system. I'm not saying you're wrong about needing to do that, I am saying that needing to do that is a massive indictment of the system's quality, not some kind of positive.It's like saying a gigantic truck is gas-efficient as long as you avoid driving as much as possible; inherently a fucking stupid statement if you're not huffing farts.In short, the system sucks. Cope. I'm not a troll, I'm just being honest about my opinions and you autists are being ridiculously obtuse.
>>98210947>Traveller's mechanics are bad>Only criticises the action resolution mechanicsI agree that the 2d6 resolution system is not the best around. But you'll have to do much more work of you want to support your general claim.Not only 2d6 is perfectly fine to generate ability scores, but all the other subsystems in 1977 Traveller are pretty good: Star map creation, world creation, alien creation, vector combat, personal combat, and so on.And even the 2d6 resolution system, while not great, is not game-breaking either. Traveller doesn't have much if any character ability progression anyway, so the fact that it has to work with small modifiers isn't as much as a deal breaker as you think it is.And no:>>98209034>It didn't meaningfully evolve out of the 70sJust because an RPG is new doesn't mean it's better than an older one. In fact, it's often the other way around.Last but not least:>>98209034>D&D 5e cultistsI don't like D&D 5e and I would never play it, but when you say stuff like that you're only outing yourself as a kid, a moron, or both.
>>98210947>The difference between a +1 and +4 is therefore gigantically massiveThat's the point. In skill levels it's the difference between a junior professional and a seasoned expert. Every +1 matters, because what the fuck is the point in a system where every +1 doesn't matter?
>>98211080>all the other subsystems in 1977 Traveller are pretty good: Star map creation, world creation, alien creation, vector combat, personal combat, and so on.what classic books (besides the first 3) do i need to get all this covered?I'm thinking solo play or just very low prep and not home brewing anything.is there a cepheus equivalent of the classic traveller selection?
>>98211827>what classic books (besides the first 3) do i need to get all this covered?The first three are literally all you need. Make sure it's the 1977 version, because all the later ones fucked up the random jump routes (picrel) by replacing with space lanes that you have to pull out of your own ass>I'm thinking solo play or just very low prep and not home brewing anything.This guy did exactly thathttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_z29m150g5rPg2ODKoiVK43I88kHmzOL>is there a cepheus equivalent of the classic traveller selection?Not really, no. If you have to check something out, the SRD = Core Rules are probably the ones that are closest to Classic Traveller, but there's still a bunch of differences.
>>98212175> Make sure it's the 1977 versionthanks for this valuable info, anoni would probably think the 198x edition would be better. or "the traveller book">This guy did exactly thatGood old Mr. Wargaming. solid reference
>>98207013>How do you handle Aslan territory rolls? It seems like almost every male aslan is going to have 0 territory - maybe 1 at most, which would come out at 1 SOC and force them to use Charm. Am I doing it wrong?Use a regular social in Imperial space treat them as though their territory is 0 otherwise. Most aslan careers won't work if you're not inside Aslan space with a very high territory. Give him a shoulder Droyne that exists purely to prevent him from being ripped off because Independence is a right pain to get.
>>98210947>The difference between a +1 and +4 is therefore gigantically massiveYou're describing a feature, not a bug. Each +1 is supposed to be a big deal. That's the point.
>>98210947The setting isn't very good at all. Your opinions are basically the opposite of how most people feel. The resolution system is simple, immediately readable, and the math is incredibly transparent. "Roll 2d6, add or subtract some numbers, roll over 8" is easy to teach and easy to internalize. And, again, you're purposefully ignoring the point. We aren't talking about ignoring the system. The system is "you only roll when the situation is in doubt." Again, the resolution mechanic is not the game. It's a part of the game, but the game has other parts. I find this "2d6 is bad because it produces a small amount of results" such a weird, backwards way to look at game design. You're weirdly obsessed about the dice resolution without any of the context surrounding it. It's like people who get mad at any game who uses a d20. It's incredibly arbitrary.
I have a new player (my son) he wants to play a character thats good with robots. Obviously Electronics is important but what other skills/subskills should he be aiming for? Ive never much messed with robots rules, what equipment would he need to say, run a few engineering bots on the ship and maybe some gun bots/scouting bots when planetside? Is this a viable character or is it too expensive/messy?Ive mostly always done games with mechs and merchants, never really went deep into robotics
>>98207189Sci-fi and fantasy just used to be much more interlinked, if you picked random old sci-fi books, you'll see a lot of magic "nonsense" stuff people would today dismiss as fantasy and whine about. Their loss tbf.>>98207222Just play GURPS Traveller, you get 3 d6s to roll!
>>98212697>i would probably think the 198x edition would be better. or "the traveller book"I would recommend the space combat system based on range bands which is in the Traveller Book, that's about it.Apart from that, 77 does create a different feel from 81. Just the spacelanes immediately create "terrain" and Amber/Red zones by having unlinked systems, though I'd recommend fudging it a bit, I always feel like it links everything a bit too easily. And then well, things like space travel just being more dangerous overall, and pirates targeting (presumably richer) A and B starports rather than the fringes, which would be defended by just the planetary laser guns or only one or two small ships, rather than the gigantic fleets of battleships we see coming later.
>>98212697>i would probably think the 198x edition would be better. or "the traveller book"They do some things better and other worse. No Jump Routes is a deal breaker for me, though.
Do you roll SOC separately for every society? An Imperial in the Consulate, or vice versa, either has 11 SOC - what do they use in the opposite society?
>>98214177I don't use Imperium stuff.I only use one SOC score: A British Duke is a Duke even when he travels abroad.
>>98214177Zhodani, Solomani & Vilani are polities that have rough equivalents to each other across social structures. The only difference is that Solomani are a bit more egalitarian, though racist. Its like asking if the Holy Roman Empire would respect the noble ranks of the English. Of course they do, high SOC nobles get along better with foreign high SOC people than their own low SOC people
>>98214177These two posts >>98214194 and >>98214689 explain SOC neatly.People overthink SOC far too much; It's a single stat which knuckleheads link too many mechanics to and pile too many assumptions on. Why? Because the unimaginative autists who sadly infect modern RPGs need every little niggling detail explained to the Nth degree. Because SOC is used in ROLE play and not ROLL play.Reciprocity is another way to explain how SOC translates across different societies. High SOC individuals are going insist high SOC visitors are treated properly because that treatment reinforces both their own privileges and deference due to them.
>>98214177If they're undercover, roll a separate social score to go with their current persona. If they're not 'undercover' but just not talking about it, give them an effective social score equal to their current one if they dress and spend on lifestyle according to their normal one - like, say, a low-key Zhodani noble gallivanting in the Imperium without announcing who he is, or a Swordworlder who doesn't want anyone to know back home he's doing stuff in the Imperium that counts as "tending the home fires" - they're using their real identities, just pretending otherwise. Then deal with it if someone really goes and checks back home (or if the zhodie starts incinerating people with his brain).It's the Imperium, it's probably not hard to get status as an honour knight or Esquire anyway. You can pay a Baron to write a letter for the latter.
I have a group of friends who are used to 5e and I would like to pitch a Cepheus/Traveller game to them. If I had to choose a system between MgT2e and Cepheus Light, which would be the easier sell?
>>98218579I like MongT2e
>>98218579Because they're 5e players, go with MgT2e. It has the skills, stats, gimmicks, rules, and mechanics "bloat" they'll believe RPGs should have. CE is much more OSR-ish. It will have little of what they expect a RPG should have.A good way to understand the difference is to compare chagen between both versions. MgT2e has a Monty Haul chargen system which provides lots of skills, life events, equipment, cash, contacts, and what-not. CE has a chargen system which is much more bare bones along the lines of CT. Both systems are equally valid, but each requires a different mindset and attitude towards what a RPG should be or do.Case in point; the 1st Traveller campaign I ever played in used CT and lasted just over a year. I rolled a PC, failed to enlist in the Navy, and got drafted into the Scouts. The PC's stats didn't provide any survival DMs, so I exited chargen after ONE TERM during which time the PC gained THREE SKILLS. A similar PC in MgT2e would be a hopeless "cripple" but the same PC in CT worked out perfectly fine.It's a choice between "modern" and "OSR". Your friends only know "modern", so go with that. You and they will still have fun playing and that's all that matters.
>>98218579Are they going to be alright with the idea that they don't get to play a tailor-made character they get to build from scratch? If not, I'd go with Cepheus Deluxe, which has a version of the life path character generation with much less random chance. If they can handle the randomness, go with mongtrav.I'm serious about this, I had a promising game ruined because on player couldn't handle the randomness of charge. Really figure this shit out beforehand, you'll be saving yourself a lot of wasted time.
>>98220494*Randomness of chargen Fucking autocorrect.
>>98220494That is excellent advice. I forgot about the randomness in Mgt2e chargen, most likely because of all extra steps and rolls it requires along with all the bennies it grants.
>>98220592Just making a bunch of characters for fun I found that, unless you go out of your way and purposefully pick careers you're character doesn't have the stats for, it's very hard to make an out and out bad character in mongoose traveller, and it's almost the opposite, it's easy to make a character that is really, really good at one or two things kind of by accident. And any time I've tried to add a little more player determinism into the character generation (like point buy or packages) you get utterly broken characters.I'd much prefer something in between the simple minimalism of classic's character generation and the somewhat over designed mongoose version. Cepheus Deluxe is a step in a particular direction, but I wasn't too impressed by it.
>>98207013Speaking as a player in a (currently on hold) campaign with both a droyne and Zhodani psionic, that has featured other Zhodani as hostiles, my experience is that Psionics sucks at substituting for technology, and is absurdly, utterly game warpingly amazing at accomplishing what technology is incapable of doing, often without any possibility of meaningful countermeasures without delving into the depths of completely homebrew rules in a custom setting. Traveller's default setting just doesn't have any reliable answers to shit like teleportation or mind control or remote viewing or technomancy, so those tools can easily run roughshod over scenarios and let PCs equipped with psionics essentially play an entirely different game to mundane PCs in a way that 3.x era D&D veterans should be very familiar with.This is in addition to all the typical bitching about how Psionics doesn't fit into a scifi setting, which is much more debatable - personally, I've yet to see a psionics system in any game that doesn't just feel like a different flavor of magic, but that is its own discussion.>>98210947>>98211080>>98212869>>98212889MgT2e's sin is not that it runs on a 2d6 dice system. Its sin is that it uses that dice system while freely handing out bonuses like candy to a lot of checks, to the point that characters specialized into certain tasks are simply incapable of failing. Gun use is a pretty egregious offender in this regard - a person with a bare minimum of firearms training (+0) and average dex can trivially get to a +5 on their roll i.e. they only fail on a natural 2 before penalties (and they may or may not even notice penalties due to blast). For a less extreme example, my own PC in the aformentioned game is usually rocking about a +7 to their pilot check, which can be boosted in a pinch to a +9 via psionics. There's just too much shit to boost skills and attributes in the game.
>>98220915>Its sin is that it uses that dice system while freely handing out bonuses like candy Dunno, never played it. I've only ever played CT77 with some hadpicked mods and additions from later editions.But I'm not surprised, most published RPG books nowadays seem to be insufficiently or completely unplaytested.
>>98220915I do agree with your complaint, to a certain degree. I think it fucks the intended math that you add your skill and your attribute to a roll, it's very easy for a starting character to have a +4 or 5 to a roll at base. Mong1e handled this with a lot of situational modifiers, and mong2e handles it with a variable target number. I dislike both solutions.
>>98220915>There's just too much shit to boost skills and attributes in the game.I disagree. I think that once you hit those levels you should just assume the character isn't going to flub it most the time and instead focus on rolls where there's a chance they will.Characters being competent isn't a bug, it's a feature.
>>98221934Exactly. You go from just surviving regular space work, to being the guys who get to accomplish the long shots. Plus, lots of low skilled characters are always buying expensive stuff to make the DM check, while high skill characters usually just go with the basics
>>98222287>Plus, lots of low skilled characters are always buying expensive stuff to make the DM check, while high skill characters usually just go with the basicsExactly. If you're the pilot then you're the guy who can just get in the cockpit and do the job.Your engineer might be able to pilot +0 and get you by in some minor trouble, or be able to rig something up using a droid and some expensive gear that lets him do it almost as well as you, but when push comes to shove you're the guy they want at the wheel when shit hits the fan.It's honestly refreshing to play a game where characters aren't just fucked by RNG constantly, IMHO.
>>98222305Its always nice to see games where youre just GOOD at what you do. I dont want a 5% chance of always fucking up.Sure theres a small chance some dude is gonna get a shitton of Expert chips & a Wafer Jack, & a laundry list of tools & gear to juggle, but thats few & far between & even then, the guy who is the Pilot is gonna Pilot, no matter how stacked the asshole is, because Traveller is a crew game & its best when you stick to your role in the crew
>>98222388>Its always nice to see games where youre just GOOD at what you do.That's CT in a nutshell. Have one level in a skill? That's enough to be hired on a professional basis to perform that skill. One level is enough. You don't need multiple levels and a bucket of DRMs because, in CT, you aren't constantly rolling for what should be normal activities. And by normal I'm referring to stuff that's normal in the game's setting like piloting spacecraft, flying and air/raft, operating a fusion power plant, fixing a laser rifle, etc.The "bloat" that has infected most RPGs since at least the early 80s effects more than just skills, stats, "feats", equipment, and all the rest rest. That "bloat" directly effects die rolls too via all the DRMs that result. That turns what had been competent PCs with a few level-1 skills into PCs who are treated as incompetent despite their many multilevel skills, scads of equipment, and other geegaws all providing die roll modifiers.
>>98220915>Traveller's default setting just doesn't have any reliable answers to shit like teleportation or mind control or remote viewing...You really, really, REALLY need to look at CT's psionic rules. Seriously.GDW were wargame designers first, last, and always. They knew how to provide balanced rules, unlike too many RPG designers before and since. CT's psionic abilities are balanced in many ways like psionic strength costs, effect duration, recovery periods, ability prerequisites, talent choices, and others. Even finding an institute for training or any drugs a PC might need isn't a given. Then there's an effect of aging on inherent psi strength.ForEx1: A PC might successfully roll for the Teleportation talent and not have enough a high enough inherent psi strength rating to teleport. They'll need drugs which are 1) hard to source 2) hideously expensive, and 3) run the risk of permanently lowering their inherent psi strength.ForEx2: You got to roll for each talent cluster individually; telepathy, teleportation, etc. Trouble is the really "good" talent require really good rolls; teleportation requires a 9+. Then you only get to roll ONCE a lifetime. And each subsequent on the talent table incurs an increasing -1 drm. You can flub all your throws and receive no talents at all no matter what your strength may be.Tldr: Check out the real psionic rules and not the Monty Haul Mongoose shit.
Lot of Mongoose hate in this thread
>>98222287>You go fromWasn't Anon's issue that this happened right from chargen?
>>98223829No they said that a +0 skilled character can stack gear/situational bonuses to get veteran level bonuses. Reference >>98220915
>>98223586Good threads can only last so long before discord kids turn up
What is the civil war period like? From the outside a civil war within a massive star spanning empire without FTL communication seems really cool but from what I've heard people don't seem to be very big on it or megatraveller in general
>>98225415Didn't Mega Traveller just jump to the future & break all the polities into smaller shittier clumps?Empress Wave breaks the ConsulateCivil War or whatever broke the Vilani Imperium, Solomani still kicking around being small scale, other sophants are set dressing so they dont really change either.Im not interested in that type of setting "development". Lets see something like, Solomani develop space folding gates Ala Stargate & they largely abandon Jump travel, relying mostly on planet hopping on their Gate network. Have the Zhodani learn psionic space travel, & a new robot Singularity type polity pop up that uses wafer chips & substances transmissions to move around. They just send a signal out & download into a body already on the planet theyre at.Traveller is fine as is. If youre gonna push the timeline dont just shuffle the deck, do something wierd
>>98225632They just jumped a few years ahead of where Classic Traveller left off, when the major fleet actions die down and the players can potentially break the stalemate, and then the Hard Times supplement skips ahead a few more years to show what happens if the stalemate persists. The Zhodani aren’t visibly broken yet, and send another Coreward Expedition while everyone is distracted.TNE is the really big timeskip. They did something kinda like that Singularity you suggested with Virus, except everyone hated it because GDW used it as an excuse to nuke most of the setting and start with a (mostly) blank slate. And also because they got rid of the reactionless Maneuver Drives in favor of plasma thrusters.
>>98212733 ,>socialThat's an interesting idea. As others have said, most polities will - officially - recognise nobles visiting, even, may Allah forgive me for uttering this name, Zhodani, how you'd do it for defectors? Probably just roll a regular social as suggested to represent what they got up to in their time since arriving, but it makes me wonder if Deneb has a suspiciously bearded contingent of 10 soc characters who immigrate through the sword worlds and spend a few years being very helpful.Hell, the order of deneb is probably 50% zhodani who snuck in to get a noble title to live the high life while spying. The arch duke in charge of it probably has his son nearly killed and rescued by strangers every few days, it'd be an entire cottage industry for some pirates. They probably have brochures to display what sort of options they can offer for what pay, with what member of the archduke's family. Title not guaranteed, of course.
Playing or including zhodani which are so heavily painted with muslim & indian aesthetics makes me mad & endlessly irritated given how these "people" are in real life. They were written way back when people considered such cultures exotic & mystical & not horrible. Ive been debating replacing their culture & aesthetics with something else. Still keeping the core bits, like their rivalry with the Imperium, & psionics, but maybe make them Eastern Asia (China/Korea/Japan) im also tossing around the idea of making them pseudo "Atlanteans" with a greek/Mediterranean vibe.What do you guys think?
>>98227198It's the far-ass future anon, make them who you want but also don't let real life /pol/shit toast your brain.Being able to escape the bullshit is healthy and that includes the bullshit we put on ourselves on occasion.
>>98227198Well, if you wanted to keep the core 'aesthetic' they've some roman styling in their armour as well as english orientalist stuff, the spiritualists from the 1800s. You could slap turbans on romans and mix it with aniconic artwork, reserving actual artwork for the important stuff. Think the post-Caladan Atreides from the Dune movies rather than a swami.Instead of everyone rotting in their own heads their heads are regularly scooped clean of anything that might be harmful to the state or social cohesion because their own society is a very stable and self reinforcing cancer. It's very Chinese, or what i think the Chinese wish they could be. Still conformist, that way.Possibly give them some heretics for the morality path stuff - grecian pursuit of arete, for example, or since i have dune on the brain, something vaguely based on the zensunni catholicism that eventually develops. Gives you a whole societal undercurrent of mistrust and hidden warfare, and possibly even a prole class who despite having crap psionics have a church that inducts them and teaches them basic mental shield techniques like mimic. Maybe even non-psionic techniques, like those barbarians who get a form of awareness from one of the JTAS books.
>>98227198>>98227263Or, hell, really break out the crazy. I love Julius Evola but the man's a crank. The zhozho are already halfway to his ideas of a perfect olympian hierarchical society. Use Psi as a replacement for SOC entirely and implement his ideas on the nature of the soul whole as the metaframework for their social order.
>>98227263I was thinking of giving them a philosophy focused on Arete. Add in some old Chinese government stuff where the Emperor has a bunch of ministers & its a ton of bureaucracy, state control, personal duty & inherited life positions. I also think that greco-roman stuff works better with their clean white armor & ships. I was thinking they could even host a psionic Greek Forum where everyone opens their minds & debates.
>>98227755Chinese bureaucracy was hilariously incompetent and byzantine - the emperor was mostly responsible for rites and rituals, when he was allowed to be responsible for anything at all by palace intrigue. I guess if you stripped some of that out it might be funny.Nobles probably already do that sort of thing with the forum - check out the Darrian book, they've already got something similar going on for the Arete philosophy. Where virtue is, to steal a phrase, performative excellence rather than the more modern meaning of the word. You could adapt that with the appropriate bits and pieces to make it recognisably Zhodani while still altering their aesthetics to remove the bits you don't like.
>>98203931Because Traveller was originally designed as a generic sci-fi system and it still holds up really well when doing that.
Does anyone have a PDF of Behind the Claw for Mongoose 2e? I've been haunting the share thread for a while and no luck - the 616 trove is empty, and old links time out.
>>98229526Posted in the Share Thread: /d/k8fSNR
>>98229106>Traveller was originally designed as a generic sci-fi systemGeneric-ish. The whole "No FTL comms except for ships" thing precludes a lot of setting without a lot of GM kit bashing.
>>98230226It requires some homebrew, maybe, but not a lot. The 77 books definitely have an implied setting (same way the lbbs did for od&d) but it'd be pretty easy to change and/or omit stuff without too much of a headache.
>>98230355>It requires some homebrew, maybe, but not a lot.Not a lot? Let's use a Trek-ish setting for an example. Cost & volume of warp drive. Speeds & fuel/energy requirements of the same. Cost, volume, & ranges of various subspace "radios". Cost, sizes, & effects of various "phasers". Cost, volume, uses, & limits of "transporters". The list is far more extensive than you think. How do I know that? Because I actually tried to do it.There are tech assumptions baked right into the foundations of the game and those assumptions limit what you can do. Sure, you can rewrite entire swaths of the rules for Trek-ish tech but at what point is it just easier to use a Trek-ish RPG instead?
>>98230485My comment was in regards to the "no ftl comms" statement, but even then, the math is pretty transparent. It would take time, maybe, but it wouldn't be that hard.And, honestly, I wouldn't even bother getting into the nitty gritty of shit like that for a Star Trek system, but hard technical data isn't as important for Star Trek.
>>98230607*Because hard technical data isn't as important, fucking fat fingers.
>>98230607The main issue isn't technical specs but the adventure assumption that you don't have up to date news on a system until you get there, and ships can easily go missing without anyone knowing the cause. Planets are isolated and travel is dangerous. It's an age of sail vibe which isn't entirely generic but is common to a fair bit of sci-fi from the era like Dumarest and Space Viking.
Does anyone know where the optional rule for mt2e is that allows for training attributes?
>>98233487Its in Traveller Companion
>>98231461I don't disagree with you, but that's a gm prep side consideration, not a mechanical consideration. At most, it means populating tables differently, if you're married to the random elements of refereeing.
Do let your Travellers indulge in the wealth and high life living or do you keep them in only serviceable dwellings and fashion?
>>98234834Ty, guess I'm retarded. Might be easier just ti give them experience for attributes only and skills training as normal, not like they'll get more than one buff a campaign.
>>98236568I normally using high living as a way to strip the players of their wealth. I've played in games where the PCs' high social standing was used by the GM to "force" certain actions; i.e. "You need to go to colony X, look up Cousin Shufflebottom, find out what's going with him, and extricate him from any trouble."
>>98236724Thats what I was thinking. It seems like once youre reasonably competent and make loads on speculative trading, you can basically just be rich assholes dumping money in a custom yacht & tech, while being roped into adventure through obligation rather than cash reward.
lelWas looking at the Zhodani part of Aliens of Charted Space out of curiousity. I assume there's a misprint, because Prole events are weird, but an agent can theoretically of the thought police/tozjabr can theoretically roll an undercover assignment to the proles, then roll a prole assignment to be a pirate undercover or whatever and get as many as 4 skill rolls plus a pirate event if they got promoted as an agent in one term.
>>98237571This literally happened to my character.>>98177374He was the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude. Ultimately decided to let chance play a bigger role in his life (he got the Gambling Den event) he no longer likes Zhodani mono culture & wants to change it
>>98237157It's been a while since I looked at it, but the way the system is weighted, it's actually pretty hard to make a ton of dosh on speculative trading, if you're running it raw. There used to be an idiot who would talk every single thread about how he was going to rewrite the trading rules because his players were making too much money on it, and it turns out he was misusing the entire system completely, when we crunched the numbers it ended up that it was possible to get some golden ticket outliers, but not very probable.
>>98237728>This literally happened to my character. Seems like the Zhodani tables are terrifically retarded or overpowered. You have a new relationship, congratulations! Oh, and the next roll? Have +2 psi. Here, have it again! Win the psionic games, become a noble, have another 2 psi! Roll a 1 on a skill table? You scamp, have another psi. Join the guard? Have vacc suit 0 as a service skill.. and then vacc suit 1 immediately. Tards.
How fast is a grav belt compared to a spaceship?Are there any "wearable" jetpack type devices that have enough thrust for a maneuver rating?
>>98241051>How fast is a grav belt compared to a spaceship?In CT grav belts have the same operational characteristics as air/rafts; 100kph/60mph, surface-to-orbit time 1hr per world size numbers, and (here's the kicker) incapable of interplanetary travel RAW. In the game, gravitics only works within a gravity field.>Are there any "wearable" jetpack type devices that have enough thrust for a maneuver rating?After almost 50 years of Traveller I'd be surprised if someone somewhere hasn't written up such a device, but I've yet to come across one. TNE's FF&S may be a place to look at for "building" one.
>>98238543>Seems like the Zhodani tables are terrifically retarded or overpowered.That's a result of the "bloat" all RPGs have suffered over the decades. Don't like MgT's Zho tables? Then don't use MgT's Zho tables. Use CT instead
>>98241350Well, chuck out a trove and I'll have a look.
>>98238543Most events on the Event Tables will give you a skill, the only "problem" is the unorthodox cascade of Thought Police>Prole>Pirate that nets you extras.And given that Zhodani end up a bit MAD if they want psionic powers, not only do they have to level up regular skills but the half dozen psionic skills they might have, they also need decent PSI to use, I do t mind them having an occasional chance to get +2 PSI where a regular character would normally be unlocking PSI.
>>98238063>it's actually pretty hard to make a ton of dosh on speculative trading, if you're running it raw.Agreed. The trade system - in fact the entire game - was designed so that the PCs could not cover their bills and would have to look for risky jobs to earn the cash they need. That design motif got dialed back early on however and various aspects of the game were made "easier" or "gentler". A game using CT77 RAW is VERY different from one using 1982's TTB or 1983's ST. B7 in 1985 added Trader and Broker to the CT skill list and munchkins immediately began using both to hack the trade system. >>possible to get some golden ticket outliersYup. The so-called Golden Pair has been a problem from the beginning. I had a group spot a golden pair in a pair of subsectors I'd rolled up. They spent months of game time working their way to it while avoiding nearly all the encounters I'd created. Their plan was to shuttle back and forth minting megacredits with each trip. So much for adventure in the far future.
>>98241296Dang. Maybe I can force a very high TL device with advances/reductions in power & whatnot to get a sub-1 ton space bike
>>98241384Courtesy of the anons in the Share Thread;/traveller_616You're looking for Alien Module 4 in the Classic section. This is CT remember. CT was OSR decades before that label was even dreamed of. Chargen isn't going to produce the Monty Haul bonanza of skills, stat buffs, equipment, cash, and other geegaws that MgT does.As mentioned upthread, look at CT's psionic rules too. Psionics in CT is useful, not a world beater. The rules are far more balanced than they are in newer versions.
>>98241569Oh, I have that one, my bad. I thought you meant Cephus Traveller.
>>98241581>Cephus TravellerCepheus doesn't have Zhodani, more the pity. The assclowns at Mongoose own the OTU now and only they can publish in it. There could very well be some free fanon out there which uses Cepheus chargen for the Zhodani, but what would the quality be like?
>>98241514You're the GM. Just do it. Write down the bike's characteristics, add a couple of quirks, and have a player find, salvage, or otherwise gain possession of it. Just don't have your player walk into the 57th Century version of Harley-Davidson and buy one off the display floor.
>>98241581>>98241650Is there a Cephas trove?
>>98241490>A game using CT77 RAW is VERY different from one using 1982's TTB or 1983's ST. B7 in 1985 added Trader and Broker to the CT skill list and munchkins immediately began using both to hack the trade system.I think the "worst" part (well I say that but I like it) is that iirc by RAW in CT you can only find one lot of goods on sale per week at the most, and it's not even guaranteed to be one that would be sold cheaply by the planet you're on, unlike further editions where you can just land on any Ag planet and buy food to sell on an Na planet or what.>>98242780I don't think there is anymore. Just put requests in the pdf thread.
>>98242780>Is there a Cephas trove?/RikkiTikkiTraveller is one of the better ones.
>>98243314It's not maintained anymore though is it?
>>98243336It's still there with all the files.
>>982433362.24mb of free Cepheus Engine material and you're bitching? Now I understand why the Share Thread anons call people like you "choosy beggars".
>>98244681>>98243314This works for me so thank you very much.
Had an idea.Could a planet have a handful of space stations using powerful grav tech, to artificially expand the 100 diameter window?I figure it would be a cool way to trap ships. I could of course just say "it works like this" but I was wondering if regular grav tech does this or if id have to create something new.The books say that grav plates create 1G downward to create artifical grav in ships so I figure it would be like reverse M-Drives that create a gravity well. The planet authority would seed these stations around its regular 100d range, so they can be activated at a moments notice. Each space station would also house a contingent of smallcraft to engage any runners
>>98247646Miller, the creator of the game, has steadfastly maintained that the 100D limit has nothing to do with gravity. He has also steadfastly refused to explain the 100D limit in any other manner.And life goes on.IMHO, you should do whatever you believe will make for a fun game for you and your players.
>>98247719>grandfather's entire war was because one of his kids set the limit to 100 and refused to adjust the switch>cosmic war because of cosmic thermostat
Okay, here's how my Worldwalker stuff is turning out.A prototype "Jump Suit", this suit is effectively a Teleportation suit fitted with the bare essentials of a K-Interface (+1 to 6 depending on TL/cost), though the psion will need a neural jack/wafer jack & nerve plug response rig to fully integrate & use it. This would allow a Psion to use the Fold Space & Far Seeing powers as if in a PIC.I imagine the first prototype one would give a more extreme -DM to the roll, as well as be a bulky mess covered in wires & big bulky wrist computers. As the idea gets refined you basically get a nice svelte skinsuit type affair.I figure the math would be something like, 4 skill ranks in Ship Intigration so the user gets 4+Psi (let's assume +1) to his Far Seeing roll to Astrogate. So 7+5=12, sonthey get +4 Effect to the Fold Space roll which would be 7+5+4-8 (folding space on planet)=8. They barely pass. With the K-Interface, you get to double dip a bit with the bonus adding to the Effect of the Far Seeing & the Success of thr Fold Space Roll, so your chances of succeeding go up as well. Of course, you could only teleport the things on your person, so its not like you could carry cargo
>>98248072Looks real good. Jut what use will you as the GM put it to in your campaign? Is it a mcguffin the players are searching for? Is it a deus ex machina that the players can employ to save the day? What's the metagame reason for the device to exist in your game world?Whatever your answers, I'm sure the Worldwalker Jump Suit will add a shit ton of fun to your game!
>>98249850Its gonna be an item worn by an psionic man that serves as a "odin/zeus, homeless guy with mystic powers" trope.So he at first appears as a odd drifter with a mad scientist vacc suit full of wires, with a poncho over it. Then theyre gonna meet him later & the suit is gonna be more improved. & then later & later, as they meet him in more strange places & the suit will get refined to something that doesnt give mad scientist vibes.The idea is to just passively seed him in different locales where he might grab their attention, maybe give them a bit of telepathic insight or cryptic guidance. I want to give him the air of someone who could maybe just maybe end up space hitch hiking from Starport to Starport but eventually hes gonna meet them on some uninhabited world & the players will probably feel the need to confront him about how hes popping up.
>>98250062>Its gonna be an item worn by an psionic man that serves as a "odin/zeus, homeless guy with mystic powers" trope.That's going to be great! It's going ot be so much fun for you when you watch the players slowly realize that there's something WEIRD about that guy:"Hey, didn't we see that old bum on Mora three weeks ago? WTF is going on..."
>>98250062>just maybe end up space hitch hiking from Starport to Starport but eventually hes gonna meet them on some uninhabited world & the players will probably feel the need to confront him about how hes popping up.You could fuck with them by giving them the true and honest details.. and then leave a little evidence that maybe a hobo was living on their ship with a perception filter up.
>>98251639>hen leave a little evidence that maybe a hobo was living on their ship with a perception filter up.That is a delightfully nasty idea.
>>98251639He wont stowaway, he has no real need. I figure i do a few portside interactions of him chatting with them, maybe showing just a little too much knowledge on a situation or two, just enough to raise their suspicions in-between the rambles. Then im gonna sit on him until either the players really need help, or just before they undertake something dangerous. Then he will show up inexplicably with maybe some survival gear, or a medkit, or just some good advice.>>98250143I hope it goes well. Mysterious NPCs tend to end two ways with this group, captured, interrogated & murdered, or instantly befriended & borderline adopted.
>>98252302>captured, interrogated & murdered,>instantly befriended & borderline adopted.I like the way your players think. You're going to drive them CRAZY with this guy!
>>98252302>He wont stowaway, he has no real needHe doesn't have to. You're just gaslighting them.
Does anyone know of any art in the books of Ancient items? Artefacts, actual gear, toilet paper, whatever.
>>98257152Secrets, Mysteries, & Wrath of the Ancients.
>>98257152The stuff you're asking about is scattered from hell to breakfast across nearly 50 years o canon. All publishers from 1st rank to licensees to 3rd party to fanon loved to milk the Ancients and toss out a geegaw or three.MgT's Ancients trilogy probably has the most stuff in the fewest books. CT Zho and Droyne AMs have items. CT's TP and SotA are Ancient focused but many other CT products touch on them at least briefly. DGP featured Ancients and various items in their TD fanzine which spanned CT and MT. MT discusses them sparingly, there wasn't a Zho or Droyne AM for MT. TNE mentions them in the Regency splat. I'm both T20 and 1248 must mention them, but I know little about those lines. GT has a large Ancient section in it's Droyne AM.There's a shit ton of stuff scattered across decades of materials, but there's nothing like a master list.
>>98238543Well, psionic community is clearly not meant to be used by zhodani - maybe a psi monastery somewhere, or a children of the corn thing - but it's strictly superior to baseline Zhodani psi training. Costs a term though. They probably needed more low powered community stuff that doesn't cost a term. Something like the 2+edu dm level 0 skills but not.
>>98258929This is true, if you have decent PSI & go backwards doen the talent list youre basically just making a DC8 check for each power. If you have +1 or especially +2 PSI, you can scoop up most talents
