216 pieces of equipment

[robject]

I'm thinking about creating a "Gear Pick-Up Table" for general use when I need "random treasure".

I haven't decided on a format - six 2D tables, or just thirty-six 1D tables, or eleven (or twelve) Long Lists, I don't know -- but I do know that I'll need a couple hundred pieces of random equipment. Combat equipment, survey equipment, survival equipment, even vehicles, you-name-it. If it's been described in Traveller, it's a candidate.

Any suggestions?

Stuff from the Consolidated Equipment List

Survey Equipment

Hostile environment kit

Various drugs (antitoxin, slow, fast, medical, psi)

Rations

Blades, personal firearms, vehicles.

Low berth

Medikit

Pocket fusion module

Pressure tent

PRIS binoculars (lots of stuff from MT)

Solar energy module

Sursat

Survival bubble

 

[Black Globe Generator]

robject, do you have any of the Gamelords "environment" books? All kinds of goodies in those, and I'm pretty sure none of it is on the consolidated equipment list.

Excellent idea, by the way.

 

[robject]

Yeah, good point.

Actually, it was Darq's idea.

 

[flykiller]

robots, cybernetics, official and personal logs, research data, library/encyclopedia data, prospecting equipment, heavy construction equipment, vehicles, comm systems, entertainment systems.

 

[kaladorn]

Some things you've listed could be expanded...

Rations - Survival
Rations - Fresh Food
Rations - Luxury Food
Rations - Special Diet

Clothing could be broken out into piles of different examples. So could medical supplies.

Media should play a big role - all sorts of books, music, computer software, movies or their futuristic equivalents, media for entertainment and the transmission of knowledge relevant to alien races that don't work by sight, etc.

Alien ships might also have fairly different gear on them. Droyne would have coyns potentially, your Vargr would have Vargr modified weapons and clothing, your Aslan would have Aslan modified kit, Zho stuff might have psi-activated controls, etc.

 

[Jame]

Those low berths sometimes have people living (or dead) in them...

 

[mbrinkhues]

On the other hand to fine a list is boring IMHO. I.e I could list the contents of my Bergen as

+ Two pairs of socks
+ Two underwear shorts
+ Two underwear shirts
+ One field shirt
+ One field throuser
+ One field jacket

each with weight and price. Or I could list it as

+ One complete sets of uniform

The latter is more useful from a game PoV IMHO

 

[Darq666]

Interesting Alien artifacts that no one really knows what they do... hmmm the shiney red button...

I have been out of Traveller a while. Are there any "Random effects and attributes" tables for Alien Artifacts?

 

[far-trader]

What? No towel?? Ya gotta have a towel! A towel is about the most massively useful thing a Traveller can have.

 

[sgbrown]

Edit - Flykiller beat me to it - should have read more closely - but since my take is a bit more specific I'll leave it up.

Robots - not the android character kind - the mundane housekeeper or maintenance kind. Examples (Assume Party is investigating an abandoned ship hulk for salvage):
"On one side of the stateroom you note a standard janitorial robot. It appears to be in good condition, but is currently unpowered."
-or-
In the engine room, "There are Four Mark II Mechanic's Helpers Robots sitting in their charging bays on the starbord bulkhead."

How much these are a standard or an unknown element should of course depend on the setting.

 

[sgbrown]

Also, what about a "do nothings" and "knick nacks?" You know those abstract items/toys you turn the crank on and it just moves a two shuttles back and forth in the grooves with no real purpose? or the 5 pendulum balls in a line - where you drop one on one end and the one on the other end goes up?

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by Michael Brinkhues:
On the other hand to fine a list is boring IMHO. I.e I could list the contents of my Bergen as

+ Two pairs of socks
+ Two underwear shorts
+ Two underwear shirts
+ One field shirt
+ One field throuser
+ One field jacket

each with weight and price. Or I could list it as

+ One complete sets of uniform

The latter is more useful from a game PoV IMHO

Yes, this is probably true. Except that you might like to differentiate it into:

Uniform, BDU, Temperate
Uniform, BDU, Cold Climate
Uniform, BDU, Hot Climate
Uniform, Dress

Or something like that. Too much detail doesn't give much return. But enough detail can be interesting. Why is the Free Trader carrying Imperial Marine Hot Climate BDUs and Desert Survival kits? There isn't a Desert planet in their flight logs... ????!!!! (etc)

 

[sgbrown]

It might help to have a table with the generic items (One set uniforms, etc) and supporting tables with color that the GM can either choose from or roll on (Uniform, BDU, Vargr tailored - etc.)

That would allow the benefits of simplicity and still provide enough seeds of thought to allow the ref to quickly give color to the description.

Steve B

 

[Lochlaber]

Rather than write out specific lists when my players are tossing a room or living space, I just use what I have in my house, modernize it and tell them things like, "You've found this spacer's collection of Vaygr ⌧" or a collection of old 2M video books, that sort of thing. I only write something specific down if it is useable and/or valuable enough to be worth stealing/looting/liberating.

 

[Jame]

100000 little metal miniatures, ~35700 painted.
1000000 little plastic miniatures, all painted but many worn.

Pajamas, pillows, pillowcases. A belt, 3.5 pairs of socks, 1 really really really minging underpants, hot pants (ooh, is that blood?).

Notepad, complete with incomprehensible writing. Also, complete with incomprehensible writing in and of itself and three (or more, or less) empty cardboard boxes.

Desktop computer, working or not, TL of your choice.

 

[toddaroo]

Several years ago I ran a Necromunda campaign that lasted a couple of years (game background from warhammer 40k) and through that, I have about 12 pages of various lists of random stuff that could be found. It was an ever-evolving work that even now I find myself adding to.

Something that I started doing right off the bat was personalizing things to give it more flavor:

Its not just a Body Pistol, its a Holstec-7 PDW.

Its not just a vial of psi drugs, its a 7cc vial of Admylladoxin with a 'restricted!' warning label and biohazard symbol.

For my players, it seemed to add a lot. And almost every game they would each come with a couple of additions to the lists as well. It was sort of a between game project that we all benefited from, that seemed to add a lot to everyone's enjoyment.

And its something that I plan to continue doing with my Traveller game as well.

 

[Arthur Denger]

Originally posted by toddaroo:

...Something that I started doing right off the bat was personalizing things to give it more flavor:

Its not just a Body Pistol, its a Holstec-7 PDW.

Its not just a vial of psi drugs, its a 7cc vial of Admylladoxin with a 'restricted!' warning label and biohazard symbol.

For my players, it seemed to add a lot...

It can often be hard to know what level of detail is too much. Probably, it depends on the players' attention spans. Personally, I like the generic descriptors of CT; I think it allows the players to use their own imaginations to a greater extent. That said, some people are naturally more imaginative than others, so some will likely benefit from more detailed equipment descriptions. If it can be done without bogging down the action, I say go for it!

I've always thought a good mix of basic, functional equipment, exotic/luxury wares which may be useful, and exotic/luxury wares/artifacts which appear useful but are really worthless/useless works well. An example of the latter might be a high TL hand computer, obviously in prime condition and possibly containing terabytes of valuable library or other data, but requiring the owner's access code (retina scan, DNA code?) to activate. Or with an integral powerpac which has ceased to function but could be replaced, however that model has not been manufactured in 30 years, and finding replacement parts is now extremely difficult; you get the idea.

Finally, if one really runs short of ideas, just surf eBay for a few minutes, maybe even search a keyword for the type of random gear you want, and see what turns up. This can prove fruitful, and is often quite entertaining, in its own right!

 

[robject]

Originally posted by toddaroo:
[...]

Something that I started doing right off the bat was personalizing things to give it more flavor:

Its not just a Body Pistol, its a Holstec-7 PDW.

Its not just a vial of psi drugs, its a 7cc vial of Admylladoxin with a 'restricted!' warning label and biohazard symbol.

For my players, it seemed to add a lot. [...]

A little color does wonders for any chunk of equipment in games.

Hmmm, I wonder if there's a way we can gather these Traveller-friendly name-labels into one place for easy reference...

 

[parmasson]

Try using Latin or Greek root words and slapping your own endings on them for fun. The proliferation of online translation programs make this easy.

Or the Vilani lexicon is fun to play with. Lets you generate those wonderful unpronounceable words.

A person with web-fu might be able to create some kind of standardized on line form.

 

[MikeNGina]

Sorry for reviving a dead thread but.....

Why is the Free Trader carrying Imperial Marine Hot Climate BDUs and Desert Survival kits? There isn't a Desert planet in their flight logs... ????!!!! (etc)

That is easy to answer. If the Imperial Marines are anything like the United States military, they are probably taking them to be issued at the coldest planet around. The desert planet will be getting the Uniform, BDU, Cold Climate uniforms.....

Mike