[Traveller] A Little Ship in a Big Galaxy

[RossN]

Originally Posted by Mairien

As in, can you pool the ship shares? I believe so. In fact, the 'High and Dry' adventure encourages that, as it starts with the characters being supposed to retrieve a ship, and suggests that it could be a ship that the characters gained from their life path benefits.

Pretty much. I don't want to give away too many spoilers but 'High and Dry' is kind of a learn the ropes adventure (including for your humble Referee).

Depending on potentially life path rolled ships I may tweak the ship in the adventure itself to better suit the PCs.

[Mairien]

Updated my original application with a narrative around the rolled lifepath, stats and skills. I made a few mistakes with the skill levels and forgot some options in the dice rolling thread, so I've corrected those here.

[Remorazz]

I mean, I had my little plans, then I rolled poorly with one awesome skill.

Kinda decide to make a joke PC, to show that even with crap rolls you can make a nice adventurer.

The guy aces every roll after the attributes, has a better life than mine.

Now I'm not playing him out of spite for making me feel bad about myself.

[Drachenspirit]

Don't End up on the Drift Name: Arbelle Axtin Careers: Merchant Marine 2 Terms --> Scout Surveyor 1 Term --> Drifter Scavenger 2 Terms --> Rogue Pirate 1 Term Concept: Experienced Spacer who can fly and keep a battered ship up and running who's decent in a fight it needed, had a brush with pirates, and is a decent Broker with some persuasion and carousing skills. Equipment: Weapon - Stunner Weapon - Auto Pistol Weapon - Laser Pistol Armor - Vacc suit 12 Ship Share - Rogue Pirate Ancient Technology Item Benefits: - Free Trader: Was part of a crew of a Tramp Trader Term Events Term 1 Signed up for the Merchant Marines to get off her dull world. She got in some legal trouble quickly being something of a newb, but managed to get herself out of it with some detective work of her own. She almost went to prison, but came out smelling like roses at the young age of 20 and was promoted to Sr. Crewman and given instruction in Mechanics and Engineering to go along with her piloting role. Term 2 Signing up for another term in the Merchant Marines at 22 she picks up some decent skills with electronics dealing with ship life, suppliers, and spacers. She is promoted to the rank of 4th Officer at the age of 25. She decided to move on to more free lance work and took her payout of 40k credits Term 3 At the age of 26, she signed up with a Surveying outfit and spent a few years jumping from world to world and other than some boring times onboard ship, she picked up a Stunner and how to use it with some drunken and disorderly crew. These 4 years passed slowly. Term 4 At the age of 30, her contract ended and she found herself looking for work. She got a job with a Scavenger crew who drifted from one junk spot to another. It was also at this time that she moved her home of record from Sentark 4, to Station One per the needs of the job. She wore a Vacc suit more than she liked on this job, but stuck it out as it was interesting work on all sorts of things from Satellites to Station arrays that were being scrapped. She also learned some survival skills along the way. Term 5 At 34, she decided to stick with this crew and learned how to handle a laser pistol for use mostly in space. It was on one boring job, scraping some old ship debris off an asteroid that she discovered some old artifact that she's kept a secret - something older than the Imperium and even Humanity. She became a bit scrappier in a fight and learned a bit about Recon in the process. Term 6 At age 38, she took up with a group who she thought at first were scavengers who needed an experienced pilot, but quickly found out they were pirates. "So much for not asking questions ahead of time." Newest on the crew, she was chosen to represent them in a disagreement that was actually a slug pistol duel. A bit quicker than the other guy, she won and was the hero of the day. This gained her a ship share, some armor and some experience with slug pistols out of sheer need to know how to use them. She was also trained as a ship's gunner and used the skill one more time than she liked - which was once.   Contacts Name Relationship "Ghost Ghaez" Known Vargr Pirate who is rarely seen and spoke of like Black Beard. Ael-ghaez is her real name.   Stats Age 42 Attribute Total DM STR 8 0 DEX 12 +2 END 10 +1 INT 11 +1 EDU 11 +1 SOC 9 0 Skill Rank Broker 1 Carouse 0 Engineer 0 Electronics 3 Drive 0 Gun Combat (slug) 1 Gun Combat (energy) 1 Gunner 1 Investigate 1 Mechanic 2 Melee (unarmed] 0 Persuade 0 Pilot (small craft or Spacecraft 2 Steward 0 Survival 0 Vacc Suit 0 Vacc Suit 0 Connection Opportunities Term 1 - Merchant Marines crossing paths with just about anyone Term 2 - Merchant Marines crossing paths with just about anyone Term 3 - Drifter Scavenger bouncing all around known space Term 4 - Drifter Scavenger bouncing all around known space Term 5 - Rogue Pirate who likely crossed paths with folk on the fringe more than not.

[NoizePollution]

Originally Posted by Starflier

Also, I can attest to Traveller combat being lethal. Consider that your END + STR + DEX is your HP total (well, END first, the the other two in whichever order you want). Now consider that a run of the mill laser rifle does 5d6 damage per hit before Effect or other mods. Which is how the shiny new Pirates of Drinax character I spent hours making ended up 2 points from permanent death on the first attack roll of that game. Those END checks get tricky once you're at 0 END and are rolling at -3.

Maybe someone with more recent game experience can clarify this for me. Is there a reason, beyond character flavor, to opt for slug over energy on guns? Slug felt more appropriate to my view of the planet I envision my character coming from, but 5D is a massive boost over most slug guns.

Are we looking at purely a cost thing?

[Starflier]

Largely a cost thing, I think, but also practicality. A spare power pack is almost half the cost of the gun for most weapons and quite big (belt pack for pistols, backpack for rifles). Slug weapons have better range, and can offer other traits like armor penetration and auto fire. There are also other ways to deal with laser weapons, like Aerosol grenades and laser specific armour options like Reflec that can go over other armour. Lasers are good for zero-g combat, and can blind people, but I don't think the core rulebook actually explains that anywhere.

[Starflier]

Traveller 2024 update bundle from bundleofholding.com. 6 books, including the core rules, for under $20. I don't have any of the other 5 books in this bundle, so I can't comment on them.

[RossN]

Originally Posted by Starflier

Traveller 2024 update bundle from bundleofholding.com. 6 books, including the core rules, for under $20. I don't have any of the other 5 books in this bundle, so I can't comment on them.

Wow! Thanks for the link!

[ogamodyna]

Between holidays, a class in audiobook narration, and a hefty dose of promotion on the last two books I wrote and released, cash is tight. But that bundle timer has 35 days on it!! Thanks a ton for the notification there SF.

And in other more pertinent news! The "Audition" CS has been updated with a pic and a CS minus the rolls.

[Drachenspirit]

My app is up. A bit of a work in Progress, but there you go.

[A7ice]

Well, I like the idea for the game. I have limited experience with Traveller (I am currently playing one on RPGX and played once before). I am tempted, but I see in the advert:

Because character generation is such a key part of the game and because it depends so much on dice rolls I am looking more for concepts and what you are looking for from the game that completed characters. Please do not roll dice in this thread!

However, I see everyone doing full character sheets. Is it necessary? Or would a broad concept be enough to be considered @RossN, with the character sheet being something I could do later?

[ogamodyna]

There's a dice rolling thread with a link on I believe the 3rd page of this thread. The GM posted that link but he never said for certain that dice rolling was required at this stage. I'd have to guess that it might make a difference though in showing you're interest as well as speeding things up if you do get in.

Originally Posted by A7ice

Well, I like the idea for the game. I have limited experience with Traveller (I am currently playing one on RPGX and played once before). I am tempted, but I see in the advert:


However, I see everyone doing full character sheets. Is it necessary? Or would a broad concept be enough to be considered @RossN, with the character sheet being something I could do later?

[RossN]

Originally Posted by A7ice

Well, I like the idea for the game. I have limited experience with Traveller (I am currently playing one on RPGX and played once before). I am tempted, but I see in the advert:


However, I see everyone doing full character sheets. Is it necessary? Or would a broad concept be enough to be considered @RossN, with the character sheet being something I could do later?

Originally Posted by ogamodyna

There's a dice rolling thread with a link on I believe the 3rd page of this thread. The GM posted that link but he never said for certain that dice rolling was required at this stage. I'd have to guess that it might make a difference though in showing you're interest as well as speeding things up if you do get in.

Dice rolling isn't completely necessary if you are still thinking through general concepts. However a more complete character is a plus since it helps me plan ahead.

[Starflier]

Because Skills in Traveller character creation can be tricky, I wanted to share some (hopeful) clarity on them. Page 18-20 of the Core Rulebook will answer most character creation questions related to Careers. I strongly recommend new players read those pages thoroughly, multiple times, especially page 18. Given the sheer amount of information found on those 3 pages, the book really should have done a better job pointing players to them for answers.

 

Gaining Skills in Traveller

Core Rulebook page 18 Skills can be listed with or without an associated level. If no specific level is listed, then you gain that skill at level 1 if you do not have it already, or increase its level by +1 if you are already trained in that field. If a level is listed, then you gain the skill at that level so long as it is higher than your current level in the skill. For example, Gambler 0 would mean you receive the Gambler skill at level 0. This is of benefit to you only if you have no Gambler skill. Vacc Suit would mean you increase your Vacc Suit skill by +1 or gain it at level 1 if you have no Vacc Suit skill to begin with. If you have Vacc Suit 0, it increases to 1, if you have Vacc Suit 2 it rises to 3 and so forth. Streetwise 1 would mean you get the Streetwise skill at level 1. If your Streetwise skill is already 1 or more, then this is of no benefit to you. If you have no Streetwise skill, or it is only at 0, you jump straight to Streetwise 1.

Non-specialty Skills - Admin, Advocate, Astrogation, Broker, Carouse, Deception, Diplomat, Explosives, Gambler, Investigate, Jack-of-all-Trades (technically, but a special case), Leadership, Mechanic, Medic, Navigation, Persuade, Recon, Stealth, Steward, Streetwise, Survival, Vacc Suit

These skills increase directly without need to specialize. You might get Medic 0, then increase to Medic 1, then Medic 2, etc.


Specialty Skills - Animals, Art, Athletics, Drive, Electronics, Engineer, Flyer, Gunner, Gun Combat, Heavy Weapons, Language, Melee, Pilot, Profession (See Below), Science, Seafarer, Tactics

These skills have a base skill (ie Electronics, Engineer, etc) that never increases beyond level 0, but allows a traveller to attempt a skill check with any of the specialties for that skill. For example, someone with Gun Combat 0 can use Archaic, Energy, or Slug weapons equally well at level 0, while someone with Engineer 0, can attempt skill checks on J-drive, M-drive, Life Support, and Power.

When you get an increase in these skills, that level goes into a specialty. For example, a traveller with Electronics 0 who gains a level in Electronics must choose a specialty to increase from those listed in the Skills chapter (Comms, Computers, Remote Ops, Sensors). If they wanted to specialize in Comms, the traveller would then have Electronics 0 and Electronics (Comms) 1. Likewise, if you have no training in a skill and gain Electronics 1, you would be gaining Electronics 0 and a specialty at 1.


Profession

Core Rulebook, page 70 Unlike other skills with specialties, levels in the Profession skill do not grant the ability to use other specialties at level 0. Each specialty must be learned individually. Someone with a Profession skill of 0 has a general grasp of working for a living but little experience beyond the most menial jobs.

Basically, someone with Profession 0 can't make checks in specialties, such as Civil Engineering or Hydroponics, unlike with other specialty skills (like the earlier Gun Combat and Engineer examples).

Jack-of-all-Trades

Levels in this skill reduce the -3 penalty for being untrained in any skill. At level 1, you would make untrained skill checks at -2, instead of -3. At level 3, your untrained skill checks would have no penalty, meaning you in essence are trained in every single skill. Level 0 and Level 4 offer no benefit. This is a powerful skill, which is difficult to acquire, and can only be taken during character creation, not learned later like other skills.

[O2CXt3]

Wipes sweat off browWhew. I updated my character's details in this previous post. I'm tapping out after 6 terms. The Traveller character creation is no joke! It's definitely complicated, but I had a blast doing it. My original character concept is still largely intact

I should have time this weekend to add some descriptive text on the backstory, highlight connection opportunities, etc. I won't even try to do a full backstory - it would be a novel!