Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
You are a convincing man, Far Trader Dan. No longer will I ponder the Suvival roll. I'll use it with either the original definition or the official optional rule.
You've made them make sense.
Failing Survival
- Thread starter Supplement Four
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You've made them make sense.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
You are a convincing man, Far Trader Dan. No longer will I ponder the Suvival roll. I'll use it with either the original definition or the official optional rule.
You've made them make sense.
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
I think I had you won from the start though S4, you're an old CT fan to begin with
It won't work for every group so if it doesn't, change it so it is fun. That's the ultimate goal. Our group had fun originally with the hard survival rule. And we had fun with the soft survival rule. It's only upon reflection years later that I see the differences clearer and notice what was lost
It won't work for every group so if it doesn't, change it so it is fun. That's the ultimate goal. Our group had fun originally with the hard survival rule. And we had fun with the soft survival rule. It's only upon reflection years later that I see the differences clearer and notice what was lost
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
I think I had you won from the start though S4, you're an old CT fan to begin with
It won't work for every group so if it doesn't, change it so it is fun. That's the ultimate goal. Our group had fun originally with the hard survival rule. And we had fun with the soft survival rule. It's only upon reflection years later that I see the differences clearer and notice what was lost
It won't work for every group so if it doesn't, change it so it is fun. That's the ultimate goal. Our group had fun originally with the hard survival rule. And we had fun with the soft survival rule. It's only upon reflection years later that I see the differences clearer and notice what was lost
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
btw...
fwiw...
My favorite character of all time (mentioned before in some post or other) was generated under the hard survival rule and is the one I refer to as my accidental Scout. The UPP rolls sucked so it was off to IISS to die a glorious death in career generation and roll up a new (better) character (I wanted a Marine).
After numerous rolls, many very lucky, he finally hit forced retirement after several terms. His UPP had improved measurably through rolls on the PD table and saves on the aging tables, he had a lot of skills, and most fun of all he had a type S to bum around in
I'm sure I had more fun with that character than I would have with some gung-ho, gun-bunny, ex-Marine*
No offense intended to all the g-h, g-b, x-Marines out there
fwiw...
My favorite character of all time (mentioned before in some post or other) was generated under the hard survival rule and is the one I refer to as my accidental Scout. The UPP rolls sucked so it was off to IISS to die a glorious death in career generation and roll up a new (better) character (I wanted a Marine).
After numerous rolls, many very lucky, he finally hit forced retirement after several terms. His UPP had improved measurably through rolls on the PD table and saves on the aging tables, he had a lot of skills, and most fun of all he had a type S to bum around in
I'm sure I had more fun with that character than I would have with some gung-ho, gun-bunny, ex-Marine*
No offense intended to all the g-h, g-b, x-Marines out there
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
btw...
fwiw...
My favorite character of all time (mentioned before in some post or other) was generated under the hard survival rule and is the one I refer to as my accidental Scout. The UPP rolls sucked so it was off to IISS to die a glorious death in career generation and roll up a new (better) character (I wanted a Marine).
After numerous rolls, many very lucky, he finally hit forced retirement after several terms. His UPP had improved measurably through rolls on the PD table and saves on the aging tables, he had a lot of skills, and most fun of all he had a type S to bum around in
I'm sure I had more fun with that character than I would have with some gung-ho, gun-bunny, ex-Marine*
No offense intended to all the g-h, g-b, x-Marines out there
fwiw...
My favorite character of all time (mentioned before in some post or other) was generated under the hard survival rule and is the one I refer to as my accidental Scout. The UPP rolls sucked so it was off to IISS to die a glorious death in career generation and roll up a new (better) character (I wanted a Marine).
After numerous rolls, many very lucky, he finally hit forced retirement after several terms. His UPP had improved measurably through rolls on the PD table and saves on the aging tables, he had a lot of skills, and most fun of all he had a type S to bum around in
I'm sure I had more fun with that character than I would have with some gung-ho, gun-bunny, ex-Marine*
No offense intended to all the g-h, g-b, x-Marines out there
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
I try to listen to people's point of view. I don't always agree, but I try to keep an open mind. I can definitely be persuaded if the argument is strong.Originally posted by far-trader:
It's only upon reflection years later that I see the differences clearer and notice what was lost
Your's is.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
I try to listen to people's point of view. I don't always agree, but I try to keep an open mind. I can definitely be persuaded if the argument is strong.Originally posted by far-trader:
It's only upon reflection years later that I see the differences clearer and notice what was lost
Your's is.
hows about 1d6 damage for each point you miss the survival roll by? Then game out the healing process...who knows?..maybe the character will be earlobe deep in medical bills at the start of the game...
or how about gaming out the character's death to give an opportunity to go out in a blaze of glory?
dead guys become npcs later on.
or how about gaming out the character's death to give an opportunity to go out in a blaze of glory?
dead guys become npcs later on.
hows about 1d6 damage for each point you miss the survival roll by? Then game out the healing process...who knows?..maybe the character will be earlobe deep in medical bills at the start of the game...
or how about gaming out the character's death to give an opportunity to go out in a blaze of glory?
dead guys become npcs later on.
or how about gaming out the character's death to give an opportunity to go out in a blaze of glory?
dead guys become npcs later on.
Folks,
I strongly agree with Dan on this one. Both the survival roll and the aging table were put in place to prevent/limit/control high powered characters.
There's a game-within-the-game being played in CT chargen. In order to earn skills/stats/money/items, you must complete a term. The more terms, the more potential to gain the goodies you desire. With each term completed, you risk losing a character entirely through failed survival rolls. After a certain number of terms and even after making the survival rolls, you begin 'paying' for the skills you recieved by risking physical stats(1).
The later 'correction' to the survival roll still keeps this idea in play. If you fail your roll, you get no skills for that term, the term cannot be counted on the Mustering Out table, you age two years, and face aging rolls that much sooner. Again, you run a risk to gain the skills, stats, items, and money you desire.
Quite literally, your PC 'pays to play'.
Have fun,
Bill
1 - Stay in long enough and you risk INT too! IIRC, that begins at 66.
I strongly agree with Dan on this one. Both the survival roll and the aging table were put in place to prevent/limit/control high powered characters.
There's a game-within-the-game being played in CT chargen. In order to earn skills/stats/money/items, you must complete a term. The more terms, the more potential to gain the goodies you desire. With each term completed, you risk losing a character entirely through failed survival rolls. After a certain number of terms and even after making the survival rolls, you begin 'paying' for the skills you recieved by risking physical stats(1).
The later 'correction' to the survival roll still keeps this idea in play. If you fail your roll, you get no skills for that term, the term cannot be counted on the Mustering Out table, you age two years, and face aging rolls that much sooner. Again, you run a risk to gain the skills, stats, items, and money you desire.
Quite literally, your PC 'pays to play'.
Have fun,
Bill
1 - Stay in long enough and you risk INT too! IIRC, that begins at 66.
Folks,
I strongly agree with Dan on this one. Both the survival roll and the aging table were put in place to prevent/limit/control high powered characters.
There's a game-within-the-game being played in CT chargen. In order to earn skills/stats/money/items, you must complete a term. The more terms, the more potential to gain the goodies you desire. With each term completed, you risk losing a character entirely through failed survival rolls. After a certain number of terms and even after making the survival rolls, you begin 'paying' for the skills you recieved by risking physical stats(1).
The later 'correction' to the survival roll still keeps this idea in play. If you fail your roll, you get no skills for that term, the term cannot be counted on the Mustering Out table, you age two years, and face aging rolls that much sooner. Again, you run a risk to gain the skills, stats, items, and money you desire.
Quite literally, your PC 'pays to play'.
Have fun,
Bill
1 - Stay in long enough and you risk INT too! IIRC, that begins at 66.
I strongly agree with Dan on this one. Both the survival roll and the aging table were put in place to prevent/limit/control high powered characters.
There's a game-within-the-game being played in CT chargen. In order to earn skills/stats/money/items, you must complete a term. The more terms, the more potential to gain the goodies you desire. With each term completed, you risk losing a character entirely through failed survival rolls. After a certain number of terms and even after making the survival rolls, you begin 'paying' for the skills you recieved by risking physical stats(1).
The later 'correction' to the survival roll still keeps this idea in play. If you fail your roll, you get no skills for that term, the term cannot be counted on the Mustering Out table, you age two years, and face aging rolls that much sooner. Again, you run a risk to gain the skills, stats, items, and money you desire.
Quite literally, your PC 'pays to play'.
Have fun,
Bill
1 - Stay in long enough and you risk INT too! IIRC, that begins at 66.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
This appeals to me.
Already, in my game, we "play" through chargen. It's not a separate event. We I started my current campaign last year, our first game session was the one in which CharGen was performed. It wasn't a separate, boring thing. It was meta-gaming. We lived the characters' lives for several years, though chargen. It was fun. My players were role playing. One would say, "Hey, since we're in the same career now, maybe we met each other at this point in our lives."
I'd say, "Ok, you served on the same ship." Then, one of the characters went off to another career while one stayed in the Merchants. It was a parting of friends.
And, it made so much sense, when I started the game, that these two knew each other--because that's how we had role-played it. It was much more than just the GM saying, "You knew in back in the day," because, for the players, this had really happened.
It added a lot of depth to the game.
Now, with the gambling nature you've pointed out (I'll probably use the soft Survival rule...only because I could spend several game sessions in chargen if I didn't), that just adds so much more to what I'm already doing.
Every player I have has said that our first game session was the best time they've had evercreating a character. Why? Because it wasn't pre-game admin work. It was actually playing the game.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
This appeals to me.
Already, in my game, we "play" through chargen. It's not a separate event. We I started my current campaign last year, our first game session was the one in which CharGen was performed. It wasn't a separate, boring thing. It was meta-gaming. We lived the characters' lives for several years, though chargen. It was fun. My players were role playing. One would say, "Hey, since we're in the same career now, maybe we met each other at this point in our lives."
I'd say, "Ok, you served on the same ship." Then, one of the characters went off to another career while one stayed in the Merchants. It was a parting of friends.
And, it made so much sense, when I started the game, that these two knew each other--because that's how we had role-played it. It was much more than just the GM saying, "You knew in back in the day," because, for the players, this had really happened.
It added a lot of depth to the game.
Now, with the gambling nature you've pointed out (I'll probably use the soft Survival rule...only because I could spend several game sessions in chargen if I didn't), that just adds so much more to what I'm already doing.
Every player I have has said that our first game session was the best time they've had evercreating a character. Why? Because it wasn't pre-game admin work. It was actually playing the game.
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
reposted from "GMing Traveller" thread:
For a Stellar [Wink] example of an alternate "Survival" rule, look at Poltroonery, Courts Martial, and the ICMJ in JATS #10.
Technically, this was designed as the penalty side of critically failing the Decoration roll, but I have often used it to determine the results of a failed Survival roll... especially in conjunction with the Unfit for Service table for failed Survival rolls in the Paranoia Press Scouts and Assassins book.
ICMJ = Imperial Code of Military Justice
For a Stellar [Wink] example of an alternate "Survival" rule, look at Poltroonery, Courts Martial, and the ICMJ in JATS #10.
Technically, this was designed as the penalty side of critically failing the Decoration roll, but I have often used it to determine the results of a failed Survival roll... especially in conjunction with the Unfit for Service table for failed Survival rolls in the Paranoia Press Scouts and Assassins book.
ICMJ = Imperial Code of Military Justice
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
reposted from "GMing Traveller" thread:
For a Stellar [Wink] example of an alternate "Survival" rule, look at Poltroonery, Courts Martial, and the ICMJ in JATS #10.
Technically, this was designed as the penalty side of critically failing the Decoration roll, but I have often used it to determine the results of a failed Survival roll... especially in conjunction with the Unfit for Service table for failed Survival rolls in the Paranoia Press Scouts and Assassins book.
ICMJ = Imperial Code of Military Justice
For a Stellar [Wink] example of an alternate "Survival" rule, look at Poltroonery, Courts Martial, and the ICMJ in JATS #10.
Technically, this was designed as the penalty side of critically failing the Decoration roll, but I have often used it to determine the results of a failed Survival roll... especially in conjunction with the Unfit for Service table for failed Survival rolls in the Paranoia Press Scouts and Assassins book.
ICMJ = Imperial Code of Military Justice
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
I did see that the first time you posted it. Just haven't read the article yet.
Would you believe it's sitting on my desk right now, though, opened to the page?
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
I did see that the first time you posted it. Just haven't read the article yet.
Would you believe it's sitting on my desk right now, though, opened to the page?
FlightCommanderSolitude
SOC-13
On a somewhat related note, I was starting a game of D&D with a friend of mine once, and his new character (a thief) ended up with almost no starting money. At first, he was really disappointed and wanted to reroll everything. I said whoa there, hombre, no-can-do, you're playing that poor bastard.
So he bought, I dunno, a knife and a cloak perhaps, maybe a few days worth of food, and decided to blow his remaining silver pieces in a tavern. (I think he might have "found" a few extra silver coins in there too, but he didn't want to push his luck with 1st level thieving abilities! And I wanted him to stay poor for a while, so made the risks seem to far outweigh the potential rewards.)
So I mentioned to him that some tavern patrons were playing games of chance, and this piqued his interest. I invented some dodgy dice game on the spot, one with crummy odds to boot, but he went for it, figuring that he didn't have a useful sum of money in the first place, so it wouldn't matter if he lost it. As it turned out, he made some downright improbable rolls of the dice, made a tidy parcel of cash, and we roleplayed the whole thing - patrons got angry and thought he was cheating, accused him of being a thief ("Why no sir - me a thief? Do I look like a thief to you?!"), he bought them rounds of drinks to allay their concerns, and maybe did a little more pickpocketing during the excitement!
Talk about a game within a game! What seemed to be a perceived deficiency for the character, turned out to be a real boon to the players - we parleyed a dumb, decidedly unheroic scenario into an afternoon's enjoyment, and it really added to the character's story and the player's motivation to play him.
So he bought, I dunno, a knife and a cloak perhaps, maybe a few days worth of food, and decided to blow his remaining silver pieces in a tavern. (I think he might have "found" a few extra silver coins in there too, but he didn't want to push his luck with 1st level thieving abilities! And I wanted him to stay poor for a while, so made the risks seem to far outweigh the potential rewards.)
So I mentioned to him that some tavern patrons were playing games of chance, and this piqued his interest. I invented some dodgy dice game on the spot, one with crummy odds to boot, but he went for it, figuring that he didn't have a useful sum of money in the first place, so it wouldn't matter if he lost it. As it turned out, he made some downright improbable rolls of the dice, made a tidy parcel of cash, and we roleplayed the whole thing - patrons got angry and thought he was cheating, accused him of being a thief ("Why no sir - me a thief? Do I look like a thief to you?!"), he bought them rounds of drinks to allay their concerns, and maybe did a little more pickpocketing during the excitement!
Talk about a game within a game! What seemed to be a perceived deficiency for the character, turned out to be a real boon to the players - we parleyed a dumb, decidedly unheroic scenario into an afternoon's enjoyment, and it really added to the character's story and the player's motivation to play him.
FlightCommanderSolitude
SOC-13
On a somewhat related note, I was starting a game of D&D with a friend of mine once, and his new character (a thief) ended up with almost no starting money. At first, he was really disappointed and wanted to reroll everything. I said whoa there, hombre, no-can-do, you're playing that poor bastard.
So he bought, I dunno, a knife and a cloak perhaps, maybe a few days worth of food, and decided to blow his remaining silver pieces in a tavern. (I think he might have "found" a few extra silver coins in there too, but he didn't want to push his luck with 1st level thieving abilities! And I wanted him to stay poor for a while, so made the risks seem to far outweigh the potential rewards.)
So I mentioned to him that some tavern patrons were playing games of chance, and this piqued his interest. I invented some dodgy dice game on the spot, one with crummy odds to boot, but he went for it, figuring that he didn't have a useful sum of money in the first place, so it wouldn't matter if he lost it. As it turned out, he made some downright improbable rolls of the dice, made a tidy parcel of cash, and we roleplayed the whole thing - patrons got angry and thought he was cheating, accused him of being a thief ("Why no sir - me a thief? Do I look like a thief to you?!"), he bought them rounds of drinks to allay their concerns, and maybe did a little more pickpocketing during the excitement!
Talk about a game within a game! What seemed to be a perceived deficiency for the character, turned out to be a real boon to the players - we parleyed a dumb, decidedly unheroic scenario into an afternoon's enjoyment, and it really added to the character's story and the player's motivation to play him.
So he bought, I dunno, a knife and a cloak perhaps, maybe a few days worth of food, and decided to blow his remaining silver pieces in a tavern. (I think he might have "found" a few extra silver coins in there too, but he didn't want to push his luck with 1st level thieving abilities! And I wanted him to stay poor for a while, so made the risks seem to far outweigh the potential rewards.)
So I mentioned to him that some tavern patrons were playing games of chance, and this piqued his interest. I invented some dodgy dice game on the spot, one with crummy odds to boot, but he went for it, figuring that he didn't have a useful sum of money in the first place, so it wouldn't matter if he lost it. As it turned out, he made some downright improbable rolls of the dice, made a tidy parcel of cash, and we roleplayed the whole thing - patrons got angry and thought he was cheating, accused him of being a thief ("Why no sir - me a thief? Do I look like a thief to you?!"), he bought them rounds of drinks to allay their concerns, and maybe did a little more pickpocketing during the excitement!
Talk about a game within a game! What seemed to be a perceived deficiency for the character, turned out to be a real boon to the players - we parleyed a dumb, decidedly unheroic scenario into an afternoon's enjoyment, and it really added to the character's story and the player's motivation to play him.
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