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I started a T5 Game and it's really fun.

Original_Carl

Original_Carl

SOC-12
I wanted to post and let you all know that I'd actually started a T5 game with three close friends -- all experienced RPGers.

We've completed one session, and our next will be this Saturday. We're all pretty excited to continue our adventure.

Rather than bore you all with RP session stories, I thought I'd post a little about the sessions themselves and what we're discovering about T5 along the way.

The first session was dominated by character creation. We opted to include character death as a possibility during creation, with a 6-6 result on the Risk roll resulting in death. In hindsight, this is a bit too harsh, and in the future I'll have the player roll another D6 in the event of a 6-6. If that third die comes up 6, the character will have died.

We ended up with Noble who went Rogue and made a LOT of money (1.2MCr, if memory serves). A Scout who bumped his C6 to G and went Noble, completing his career with the honorary title of Archduke. Finally, we had a humble Marine who ended up with some good vehicle and weapon skills.

The Noble Rogue wound up with a ship from his noble career, but we opted to table the ship building for the in-between session time. I've worked through building a Yacht for the group, but I'm going to go through the exercise (quickly) during the next session so all the players can see how a ship comes together. I think this will help them understand starship operations and combat a little better.

One of my players and I are working on a T5 application suite, and a ship builder is at the top of the queue -- we'll discuss this more on Saturday.

During character creation, I went out to RObject's T5 web apps page and built out 4 sectors for use as our Traveller Universe. The CSVs imported nicely into Excel where some quick searching revealed our Imperium capital as the world with the highest Importance out of all four sectors.

With all the characters on the capital world and their Yacht (the Totally Worth It) nearing completion at the shipyard, we have a few more items to complete before we all head out to discover this new Imperium.

  1. Yacht, Type-Y from a TL-F world
  2. Ship's Vehicles
  3. Ship's Crew
  4. Personal Equipment

Their first planned adventure is to travel to a high-TL world with no Government or Law Level. Our Noble Rogue wishes to have a Chimera constructed that will act as his bodyguard and he does not wish to secure permits or licenses for said Chimera. Again, quick searching of the sectors revealed such a place, so the captain and crew of the "Totally Worth It" will be plotting their course to reach this world.

We're having a blast. The best part of this campaign is discovering, together, the secrets that our TU holds. Once we found a TL-G world with no laws or government, our RP banter went into overdrive coming up with the reasons why and how such a place came to exist. To me, this could be the best part of the Traveller experience.
 
While you're working on your shipyard app, you can browse mine. It has a 500 ton Yacht, the Bakaal Sunflower, there and available for customization.

What are the Sector Keys for your generated sectors?

(By the way, the algorithm is still being developed, which means at some point the Sector Keys will probably no longer generate those sectors the same way... your sectors may become "irreproducible").

Yacht Y-EU42 Bakaal Sunflower MCr181.5 [Tukera]

Disposition: In Service

Built on a 500-ton TL14 unstreamlined hull, the yacht is a noble’s plaything for entertaining friends and undertaking political or commercial missions. It mounts drives giving it jump-2 and 4-G. Fuel tankage supports five months of power plant operations and allows two successive jump-2; it incorporates fuel intakes for refueling from a water source. Adjacent to the bridge is a Model/3 computer. Added to a basic sensor suite is a neutrino detector, stealth mask, and a standard proximeter.

The yacht is built around its luxurious staterooms, including one double stateroom suite for the owner. There are five hardpoints, but no weaponry is installed. There are three ship’s vehicles: an air/raft, a 30-ton ship’s boat, and an ATV. The ship’s boat is fitted to ferry the ATV from orbit to surface and back. Cargo capacity is 20 tons. The yacht is unstreamlined, and is capable of tarmac and water landings only. The yacht requires a minimum crew of four: pilot/astrogator, three engineers, and a steward/medic. In practice, it carries several more stewards.

Actual volume: 490.5 tons
Crew comfort: -1
Passenger demand: +5

Code: 
    Tons Component                          TN     MCr  Notes
-------- ---------------------------------- -- -------  --------------------
     500 Unstreamlined Hull                 12      17  U
       5 Flotation hull                     14       5  
       0 AV=7. 1 Kinetic Organic            14       0  
     166 Jump Fuel (4  parsecs)             12       0  J4, 41t/pc
    82.5 Plant Fuel (5 months)              12       0  5 months
       1 Fuel Intakes 40t/hr                8      0.1  40t/hr
       1 Fuel Purifiers 4t/hr               8        1  4t/hr
      19 Maneuver Drive-4 (K)               14      38  4 G
   10.23 Adv PowerPlant-4 (K)               14      31  P 4
     9.9 Adv Jump Drive-2 (E)               14      30  J 2
       0 LR Surf Neutrino Detector          14     2.5  
       0 LR Surf Stealth Mask               14     2.5  
       0 G Surf Proximeter                  14     4.1  
       0 LR Surf EMS                        14     2.5  
       0 LR Surf Communicator               14     2.5  
       0 LR Surf Scope                      14     2.5  
       5 AR T1 Empty (5)                    12       1  #5 
       3 Computer Model/3 std               17    10.5  
       4 Life Support Long Term (2)         14       4  #2 40 person-months
       1 Life Support Luxury                14       1  10 high passengers
      16 Spacious Controls                  16       0  
      16 Crew Single Stateroom (8)          14     0.8  #8 1 crew
       2 Crew Shared Fresher (4)            14       2  #4 4 crew
       8 Crew Lounge (2)                    14       0  #2 
      20 Cargo Hold Basic                   12       0  
      12 Owner's Suite                      14     0.8  1 passenger + fresher
      42 Luxury Suite (7)                   14     2.8  #7 1 passenger + fresher
      28 Passenger Lounge (7)               14       0  #7 
       4 Air/Raft Enclosed                  9      0.1  
      30 Fast Boat                          14      14  
       1 ATV                                9        1  
       4 Vehicle Brackets                   14       4
 
Sounds like a great game. I like the idea of running through the ship creation so the players get a better understanding of its capabilities.

Cheers for the positivity :)
 
Original_Carl said:
Where do I find those sector keys, RObject?
Click to expand...

Well, if you were using the page I think you were using --

which is http://eaglestone.pocketempires.com/survey/t5-prog/t5sysgen.pl

-- then the Sector Key (or Sector UID) is up at the top left. You might also see it in the <meta> tag heading the sector listing, in this format:

<meta sectorUID="mw-orion-4993"

The suggested form of the key is [galaxy]-[arm]-[offset] -- but anything will work. The key is the seed* by which the random numbers are generated: use the same key, get the same results. That way, if you use one of those sector listings, you can share it by sending the sector key and the URL to anyone, and they can generate an identical listing.


* Note for programmers: the key is treated as a string input into MD5; the first half of the MD5 is used as a 32-bit seed into a slightly modified version of the small noncryptographic pseudo-random number generator.
 
F normally just as there is for other stats and thats not taking into account that some of the noble titles have Capital letters and lower case letters, Baron C, or Baronet c.
 
Draconian said:
G?? Isn't there a cap on the characteristic for a starting character?
Click to expand...

It's a good question, and yes, F is normally the cap on a characteristic for a starting character.

I opted to let starting characteristics go higher with the understanding that F is the human physical maximum and values beyond that were due to some kind of enhancement. That could be either cybernetic or biological. There may be implications because of that later on, but this is all so new that we decided to table the issue until a later date and just see how the game plays out.

I'm a firm believer in the Monty Haul game. The trick is to make the challenges commensurate with the power the characters have, but also to respect that they are powerful and some tasks will just be easy for them. This is not for everyone. Many Referees prefer more tightly-controlled, low power games and I respect that. Those games aren't as prone to the boredom factor because very little is actually "easy"

In the case of my Archduke, his title is an Honorific. He does have an estate and a Grant on his homeworld having joined the Moot for one term after completing a highly-successful Scout career. Unfortunately, he was exiled, and then left politics. He does know the Emperor and every member of the Moot knows of him, if not actually knowing him personally.

During character generation, I considered forcing him to go through the c -> C etc. progression, but that seems to only apply to nobles who advance in the Noble career.

The Social Standing issue is a tricky one. All things considered, it's pretty easy to raise C6 (or any other) up to F (or higher) -- especially for Scouts. That career seems tailored to boosting characteristics with 8 skills per term.

When I was running an AD&D campaign I had a spreadsheet for my cities that calculated exactly how many of what level of class existed in each one. This gave me a standard by which I could measure the player characters power in relation to the non-player characters in the world. For example, you're a 6th level fighter. Are you stronger than the average captain of the guard? What about the Prince?

I have yet to do something like that for Traveller. I suspect that there would be a lot of Dukes coming out of the Scouts.

In the end, my Traveller Universe is still firmly in the prototype stage, and because of that, I'm inclined to let the dice determine what is and is not, and just deal with the consequences as opportunities for adventure.
 
Original_Carl said:
. . .During character generation, I considered forcing him to go through the c -> C etc. progression, but that seems to only apply to nobles who advance in the Noble career. . .
Click to expand...
Ah. That explains it. I am almost certain that everyone is suppose to progress through the c -> C progression method, nobles or not.

That's not to say you can't decide to do it differently. It is your game after all. Just that I'm pretty sure the intended route is with the in between steps. After all, it seems silly that it would be easier for people to gain noble rank by not being nobles.

The Social Standing issue is a tricky one. All things considered, it's pretty easy to raise C6 (or any other) up to F (or higher) -- especially for Scouts. That career seems tailored to boosting characteristics with 8 skills per term.
Click to expand...

I think all the careers have a column that will always add one to a stat (with the exception of Nobles where the column will add one to a stat five times in six). The only real advantage the Scout has is that he gets more rolls. However, if he's concentrating all his rolls on that column he's not going to have much in the way of skills which will really hurt with the 'This is hard' rule.
 
With 8 skills per term, though, you don't have concentrate on that column to get lots of increases. Even if you take four rolls per term on Personal Development, you're still advancing the rest of the skills at the same rate as characters in other careers.

I don't much care for the lower-case/upper-case social status thing. I went ahead and extended Soc with eHex numbers. That way, there's no ambiguity about whether that's a c or a C (many roleplayers, including myself, have atrocious handwriting), but it also means that CT nobles need a conversion in order to retain their rank.

I like that your players help to expand the universe by proposing reasons for unusual situations, like the high-tech anarchist world. I should give my players a freer hand for that kind of thing.
 
Said it before and am saying it again...

esampson said:
Ah. That explains it. I am almost certain that everyone is suppose to progress through the c -> C progression method, nobles or not.

That's not to say you can't decide to do it differently. It is your game after all. Just that I'm pretty sure the intended route is with the in between steps. After all, it seems silly that it would be easier for people to gain noble rank by not being nobles.

/snip/
Click to expand...
I too only use the upper and lower case Social Status for Nobles, everyone else just goes up with the upper case Soc.

And dangnabbit you only get to be a Noble if you go through the Noble Career, otherwise you just have a high Social Standing. It is the difference between say Bill Gates or George Soros and Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II or say her son His Royal Highness, Prince Charles. The former are merely wealthy beyond sanity, while the latter are the Font of All Honors and Hier to the Throne of the British Commonwealth. Big fanarking difference.
 
Magnus von Thornwood said:
And dangnabbit you only get to be a Noble if you go through the Noble Career, otherwise you just have a high Social Standing. It is the difference between say Bill Gates or George Soros and Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II or say her son His Royal Highness, Prince Charles. The former are merely wealthy beyond sanity, while the latter are the Font of All Honors and Heir to the Throne of the British Commonwealth. Big fanarking difference.
Click to expand...

A big difference. In the 21st Century, where nobles and royalty have been shorn of much of their power, one might argue that they belong to the same social class, although I think some people would still disagree (After all, Bill Gates doesn't give audiences to Queen Elizabeth). But in a society where royalty and nobility essentially run it because of their titles, they wouldn't be the same social class at all. Mere riches just wouldn't get someone up in the same class as the nobility back in the 19th Century. Unless they used their wealth to acquire a title, of course.


Hans
 
rancke said:
A big difference. In the 21st Century, where nobles and royalty have been shorn of much of their power, one might argue that they belong to the same social class, although I think some people would still disagree (After all, Bill Gates doesn't give audiences to Queen Elizabeth). But in a society where royalty and nobility essentially run it because of their titles, they wouldn't be the same social class at all. Mere riches just wouldn't get someone up in the same class as the nobility back in the 19th Century. Unless they used their wealth to acquire a title, of course.
Click to expand...
Which, outside of Russia, was usually sufficient... either by buying an heiress' hand in marriage (sometimes over her own objections), or by bribing the crown to grant you either an abeyed title or a new title.

In Imperial Russia, you just had to rise through the ranks of either Civil Service or the Military... Any officer was styled a Lord by default. Army Captains and Navy "Captains 3rd Grade" (~Lt. Commander) (And at the end of the Imperial era, Senior Lieutenant) were granted hereditary noble title.

Traveller's Nobility isn't so "automatic", but it is pretty well a good mirror of the practicalities of most continental militaries... more nobles in high ranks than in field grades and company grades
 
Magnus von Thornwood said:
And dangnabbit you only get to be a Noble if you go through the Noble Career, otherwise you just have a high Social Standing.
Click to expand...
In this case, you create a conceptual problem with CharGen for the Noble Career.

In the Noble Career, acceptance into the Career is automatic for anyone with C6/Soc=B+ (Errata corrected). This means either:

1) If C6/Soc=B+ is always Noble (based on stat alone, regardless of Career choice), then the Nobility does not necessarily carry with it a particular set of government responsibilities, but is rather an indicator of belonging to a particular “exclusive” Noble class of society with certain privileges. This would not be unlike England in the 18th-19th Centuries, where a Noble title did not automatically carry with it a particular government posting (it was a social/class distinction), but certainly did open the door to certain royal/governmental posts due to the status of Nobility. A Noble might be involved in government, or might be involved in some other service/career/pursuit, etc. But career and status were separate.

2) In the case of C6/Soc=B+ NOT automatically granting Noble status & title (as in your comment above), then you have the awkward situation in which a “commoner” of high C6/Soc=B+ can effectively “demand“ from the Emperor a Noble Title and position (remember, entrance into the Noble Career is automatic with the proper level of Social Standing): “Excuse me, your Imperial Majesty, but I am an extremely wealthy commoner of C6/Soc=C who has decided to pursue a Noble Career. Please let me know what Baronial Title you plan to give me, and what Land Grants I will receive”. In the case of a high Soc (common) character entering the Noble Career after a prior career, I find it difficult to imagine such high Soc commoners posting their resumes on the "Nobles recruitment website".

To put it another way: One does not become Noble by "entering" the Nobles career; rather, one has the opportunity to enter the Noble Career with its associated duties/responsibilities because one already is a Noble.
​

As a House-Rule suggestion, perhaps you could permit high C6/Soc=B+ Nobles who are not in the Noble Career to have their Noble Title and only "Local Hex" (outright owned) properties. This would grant them some property appropriate for their station, but no automatic "income", unless the character in question chose to rent it out or engage in land speculation (which would be in-game role-playing situations to be worked out in consultation with the GM). They would still have their "Moot-votes" (being Peers) should they choose to exercise the option. This would correspond to the Honour/Ceremonial Noble of older canon (or to Local Noble heirs of ancestral title-recipients).

The Rank Noble of older canon would also be as above, but would correspond to individuals with high C6/Soc who enter the Functionary Career.

The "Terrain Hex" Land Grants might then only be allocated to Nobles who have chosen to pursue the actual Noble Career (who are thus involved in politics and governance at some level), justifying their right to influence economies within said territories and draw income from them as a result of interworld trade. This would correspond to the "High Noble" of older canon.



 
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Ah, the joys of ATUs.

whulorigan said:


In this case, you create a conceptual problem with CharGen for the Noble Career.

In the Noble Career, acceptance into the Career is automatic for anyone with C6/Soc=B+ (Errata corrected). This means either:

1) If C6/Soc=B+ is always Noble (based on stat alone, regardless of Career choice), then the Nobility does not necessarily carry with it a particular set of government responsibilities, but is rather an indicator of belonging to a particular “exclusive” Noble class of society with certain privileges. This would not be unlike England in the 18th-19th Centuries, where a Noble title did not automatically carry with it a particular government posting (it was a social/class distinction), but certainly did open the door to certain royal/governmental posts due to the status of Nobility. A Noble might be involved in government, or might be involved in some other service/career/pursuit, etc. But career and status were separate.

2) In the case of C6/Soc=B+ NOT automatically granting Noble status & title (as in your comment above), then you have the awkward situation in which a “commoner” of high C6/Soc=B+ can effectively “demand“ from the Emperor a Noble Title and position (remember, entrance into the Noble Career is automatic with the proper level of Social Standing): “Excuse me, your Imperial Majesty, but I am an extremely wealthy commoner of C6/Soc=C who has decided to pursue a Noble Career. Please let me know what Baronial Title you plan to give me, and what Land Grants I will receive”. In the case of a high Soc (common) character entering the Noble Career after a prior career, I find it difficult to imagine such high Soc commoners posting their resumes on the "Nobles recruitment website".

To put it another way: One does not become Noble by "entering" the Nobles career; rather, one has the opportunity to enter the Noble Career with its associated duties/responsibilities because one already is a Noble.
​

As a House-Rule suggestion, perhaps you could permit high C6/Soc=B+ Nobles who are not in the Noble Career to have their Noble Title and only "Local Hex" (outright owned) properties. This would grant them some property appropriate for their station, but no automatic "income", unless the character in question chose to rent it out or engage in land speculation (which would be in-game role-playing situations to be worked out in consultation with the GM). They would still have their "Moot-votes" (being Peers) should they choose to exercise the option. This would correspond to the Honour/Ceremonial Noble of older canon (or to Local Noble heirs of ancestral title-recipients).

The Rank Noble of older canon would also be as above, but would correspond to individuals with high C6/Soc who enter the Functionary Career.

The "Terrain Hex" Land Grants might then only be allocated to Nobles who have chosen to pursue the actual Noble Career (who are thus involved in politics and governance at some level), justifying their right to influence economies within said territories and draw income from them as a result of interworld trade. This would correspond to the "High Noble" of older canon.



Click to expand...
Yep, entry to the Noble Career is automatic if the character has Soc B+, but again just having a Soc B+ doesn't make one a Noble it merely means the character can become a Noble. But I do have an ATU so I can be annoying about that rule with no prior Canon to worry about.

I blame CT Supplement 4: Citizens of the Imperium for bringing the concept of a Noble career meaning only those who go through the career get to be Nobles. Also, the stat is called Social Standing, not Noble Rank.

So, when I run Traveller no Noble Career, no Titles and no goodies. Also, I don't see it as such a big deal. If you want the goodies, then you do the work (the Career) otherwise you just get to be rich. I don't see a problem. But again, I am weird and think you should have to work if you want something even if that something is a noble title. TANSTAAFL, kids! Learn it, live it, love it.
 
Risk and Reward.

Reading the posts again, I think that people are confusing getting into the Noble career with instant Elevation. Remember, you only get Elevated if you succeed at Risk and Reward (a successful Intrigue) and make a roll greater than your current Social Standing. Otherwise, you remain a Knight (of Example Order) and are possibly Exiled.

So, sure you can get into the club, but progressing past Knighthood is a bit more difficult.

And another thing, said one of the hijackers, when do we get an update on the OP's game? :D
 
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Coolie beans.

Well, have a great game.

And then tell us about the gory details, I am curious to hear about how it runs for other people.
 
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