CT Only: Character Advancement and goals

[aramis]

Well, I guess it's the reason I never became a game designer. That's really strange though, because it seemed like D20 came on like gangbusters, and is still around. Or am I not reading that correctly?

D20 sci-fi games struggled badly.

The only really successful Class/level/skill sci-fi have been T20, the various Palladium games, and the M&M superheroes.

D20 Sci-Fi has generally been meh -
T20 wasn't close enough.
D20 Star Wars wasn't a great Star Wars.
SWSE was prototype 4E D&D. It has its fans... Staunch, but not enough to renew the license...
D20 Fading Suns was a bomb-out.
Dragon Star went no-where, and fast.

 

[Brandon C]

what play system would you prefer?

My go-to system for over 20 years has been GURPS. However, since it may be a bit crunchy for some people, Fudge is a backup and I have a few other games I could go with if needed, but all are OOP.

 

[Condottiere]

Palladium seemed a copy of Dungeons and Dragons; the two primary franchises seemed to be RIFTS and MACROSS, which I bought as reference material.

Levelling up is both a simple goal and gives positive feedback.

I'd rather convert it to karma.

 

[Blue Ghost]

That's interesting about T20. When Hunter first tabled an offer to me to write for him, I .... I can't remember whether I bought the book because of our conversation, or whether I already had it and we were talking about ... but in any event, when I went through T20 it just didn't seem like the same game I grew up with.

It had a more teenage-friendly approach with the artwork, and the EXP system just seemed extraordinarily overly-complicated. The various classes, a type-T patrol cruiser that didn't look like the classic Type-T from CT ... just a whole host of things that made it seem like something from another world (no pun intended).

So I put it down, didn't introduce it to the gaming group I was with at the time, and just let it be.

In retrospect, it does seem curious that there would be such a fall off in interest. I guess now I know why.

 

[flykiller]

what play system would you prefer?

My go-to system for over 20 years has been GURPS.

oh. thought you were saying you didn't want to play more than single sessions until someone came up with a better way of playing traveller.

 

[Brandon C]

oh. thought you were saying you didn't want to play more than single sessions until someone came up with a better way of playing traveller.

That's getting into the "what is Traveller?" question. Is it the rules, the technological assumptions, or the 3I setting?

For me it's the tech. For others ... ?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Unfortunately, without a better improvement in play system, for me Traveller is just for one shots these days.

What's the play system part exactly?
Nevermind. I see GURPS mentioned. I used to like GURPS. I prefer computers doing it in games, rather than me doing it on pencil and paper.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

As for it being "big", I think it has a certain staying power, but in the last two conventions I attended I saw two games listed; one a demo of a card game, and another which was an actual session. I remember a time when Traveller won an award or two at some convention (Origins?), and won other notoriety outside gaming (I can't remember what ... Hugo Nebula? ... not sure, really).

It's around, and guys like the OP express an interest, which is cool.

Games win all kinds of awards when they're released. Same goes for movies. But which games are worth going into syndication? Traveller will always be syndicated. Forever in repeats.

Well, I guess it's the reason I never became a game designer. That's really strange though, because it seemed like D20 came on like gangbusters, and is still around. Or am I not reading that correctly?

Putting "d20 System" on your RPG cover is a death sentence since the late '90s. So glad Mongoose didn't use d20 for their Traveller. Checkout the T20 forum here and see how active it is compared to Mongoose and other editions of Traveller.

 

[aramis]

Games win all kinds of awards when they're released. Same goes for movies. But which games are worth going into syndication? Traveller will always be syndicated. Forever in repeats.



Putting "d20 System" on your RPG cover is a death sentence since the late '90s. So glad Mongoose didn't use d20 for their Traveller. Checkout the T20 forum here and see how active it is compared to Mongoose and other editions of Traveller.

D20 system wasn't released until late 1999. It was a selling point until 2004.

Look it up rather than misinform.

 

[aramis]

That's getting into the "what is Traveller?" question. Is it the rules, the technological assumptions, or the 3I setting?

For me it's the tech. For others ... ?

Tech assumptions, most especially:

• Jump Drives
• Inefficient by relatively inexpensive fusion
• Slugthrowers
• Battlesuit heavy infantry.
• No FTL Radio

and

• Speculative Trade
• Small tramp Cargo-haulers as PC scale ships

I LIKE the 3I, and any ruleset which fails to support play of the late 3I loses my vote on "Is it traveller?"... but it's not the sum total of what Traveller is.

 

[creativehum]

I just came across this in Book 0: An Introduction to Traveller, and thought it might be of intent to the OP:

After you have been through a few scenarios, your players will find themselves becoming attached to certain characters and expressing a desire to let them continue from one scenario to another. A campaign need be nothing more than a series of scenarios, set agalnst a common background and using common characters.

After you have played a few scenarios, determine what your players want to
accomplish. Some groups will want to become pirates, some soldiers of fortune,
some merchants, some confidence men, some will want to carve out their own
empires, others will want to explore unknown regions of space.

Adjust the subsector you create to fit your players' desires. If, for instance they show an interest in exploration, don't start them out in the middle of civilized space, but put them instead on the fringe of known territory. Give your players obstacles to overcome in seeking their ultimate aims, but don't make these obstacles too difficult or the players will become frustrated. Conversely, don't make things too easy or they will become bored.

 

[Blue Ghost]

After playing a few game sessions, I am a little confused as to how to how to set goals for player characters. I am coming from the D&D world, where your
character starts out young and advances through the game. However, in
Traveller – one plays a semi-established character that is in their
20-50s. Career and mustering out builds the character and their
background.

Due to the latter, how should I view Traveller characters, advancement and setting goals? Is the main goal - money and equipment, since levels are
not used? Are Traveller characters throw away? Can the same
advancement/leveling goal setting love be put into an already established character like one does with an D&D from level 0-20?

Just trying to grasp how I should view character advancement and
further development and goal setting.

I want to get this thread back to your original question in terms of what D&D's intent is verse Traveller.

Traveller is about the character experience, whereas D&D is about building a legend out of your character (or for your character), as per Aramis' chart.

D&D assumes that you're in a classic mythic setting, usually akin to European or North European setting and backdrop (though not exclusively), and that as you enter abandoned fortresses, or "dungeons deep and caverns cold" to strive to some goal in a quest, that you're swinging a sword and bringing steel justice in the form of blood shed to those who oppose you.

Traveller is more or less exceptional characters meeting challenges, and if the session is fun enough, then you hopefully go onto another adventure.

I hope that helps.

 

[kilemall]

I would describe the bulk of the early Traveller adventures/mindset/genre as Space Noir, and I think it gave CT a unique feel along with the Shotguns and Starships motif.

Of course the system always had more going for it and several dozen pages devoted to exploration, trading and animal encounters supported many more, but I would peg Space Noir/S&S as a differentiating aspect of CT.

 

[Brandon C]

Tech assumptions, most especially:

• Jump Drives
• Inefficient by relatively inexpensive fusion
• Slugthrowers
• Battlesuit heavy infantry.
• No FTL Radio

My only partial exception to this is that I allow ships under 100 tons to use jump drives. The smallest jump capable ship to appear in one of my campaigns was 55 tons and J2. Despite this being inspired by Adventure 4's jump torpedoes, I never used them.

• Speculative Trade
• Small tramp Cargo-haulers as PC scale ships

I prefer exploration. Give me a fully crewed Donosev or even Scout/courier and I'll run a campaign with it.

I LIKE the 3I, and any ruleset which fails to support play of the late 3I loses my vote on "Is it traveller?"... but it's not the sum total of what Traveller is.

OTOH, I find the 3I stifling and constricting. An empire of 11 rather than 11,000 worlds is far more to my liking.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I would describe the bulk of the early Traveller adventures/mindset/genre as Space Noir, and I think it gave CT a unique feel along with the Shotguns and Starships motif.

Of course the system always had more going for it and several dozen pages devoted to exploration, trading and animal encounters supported many more, but I would peg Space Noir/S&S as a differentiating aspect of CT.

I think some of the B&W Keith art drawn in the later books had a Noir look to it. Like how Al Williamson drew his Blade Runner comic. Lot's of dark inks.

 

[Thanos]

D20 system wasn't released until late 1999. It was a selling point until 2004.

Look it up rather than misinform.

So what happend to D20 that it stopped being a selling point?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

So what happend to D20 that it stopped being a selling point?

D&D 3.5's rules were different enough to make d20 rules worthless.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I should probably post this under T20, but it might help the OP with his game and goal issues, and it's related to the offshoot discussion here in the last page or two.

https://youtu.be/cejnN3V2wpU

I've tried to get mister Wiegel to review T5, but no response. Also note that said video is from 2008, so it's nearly 10 years old.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I've tried to get mister Wiegel to review T5, but no response.

What's stopping you from posting your own T5 review on YouTube?

 

[Blue Ghost]

It's a long story. Read my "No Star Wars Fan Film" entry on my blog.

Otherwise I would have been shooting all kinds of footage as of last September.