First Thoughts after playing T20

[ElliottWJames]

Last night I had my first game of T20 and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the system. The group were all experienced role-players and had played CT in the past.

I must admit it was good to be back, starting in Glisten/Glisten in 1105.

The character generation worked out quite smoothly and we created characters that made a good deal of sense:

The MD who took ROTC to serve with the Marines before return to private practice.
The grizzled old scout who spent way too much time in the External Mapping Banch of the IGS.
The Nobleman whom the Navy realised was not really safe to be let loose in space.
The NCO Marine Grunt Gun Bunny - no group should be without one.
The achedemic who flunked his ROTC and ended be drafted into the Marines anyway.
The Navy deckhand with an attitude problem so he took up travelling.

Characters ranged in age from early 30's to late 40's and in level from 7th to 10th.

The first thing that struck me was that you get way more skills than I'm used to. As the human Scout who took the Professional route through college as a geologist I ended with well over 100 skill points to spend. By the time I had finished added ability modifiers my most of my skills ended in the 9 - 14 range with the specialisms of Sensors and Comms ending up as 18. The doctor who I help my wife create had a similar range.

This led me to the first thought - most skill checks seem pretty routine. OK so we've a 41 year old doctor who can do brain surgery so I suppose it's not too outragous. But by the time you've added in the other skills things get a little out of hand. For example my Scout whist the EW officer is also
Good enough to qualify as an Ace Pilot,
A good Astrogration officer,
A passable Starsip engineer,
Can rewire your house then fix you group vehicle or air raft,
Survey and prosepect a world,
Fight his way through paperwork,
Knows more about Consulate space than most people and Speaks Zhodani to boot!
The list seems to go one.

Are the characters we're creating too powerful? Granted most of us seem to put our highest rolls into Int so you get extra skills but it does seem a little unbalanced.

The combat system is a mess: individual, vehicle and starship are all lumped into one chapter without any clear demaration between them. This did slow the combat down whilst we flipped between pages.

I'm sure other things will crop up as we play but I'd like some thoughts from people who've more experience with the system

Big thanks to Dave for being the DM, Bob for oranising the even and for Gale, Chris etc for making such a fun evening.

 

[plop101]

The character generation worked out quite smoothly and we created
characters that made a good deal of sense:

Well, I'm glad the chargen was easy for you, because it hasn't been easy for me.
What a mess. I've spent the better part of a week and a half trying to figure it out.

Oh well, its going to get better. Hope springs eternal

 

[ElliottWJames]

Oh well, its going to get better. Hope springs eternal. Well, I'm glad the chargen was easy for you, because it hasn't been easy for me. What a mess. I've spent the better part of a week and a half trying to figure it out. Oh well, its going get better. Hope spings eternal.

I had similar problems. The following helped me get things streight.

http://www.travellerrpg.com/cgi-bin/Trav/CotI/Discuss/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=40;t=000079

Next thing. Stick to humans for your first constructs.

Hope this helps

 

[xloop]

I had problems with the character generation as well. My solution was to rewrite some of the rules. College is now treated as a service class with its own feats and class skills. I've also restricted what skills can be gained with each service class. The whole process just didn't make sense to me. People were spending alot of time in college and then joining a service but the character looked like they had been in their core class the whole time. seems like every game needs a little tweeking.

 

[rambler]

I took the T20 book over to a friend's place a couple of weeks ago so that he and a few other prospective players could have a look over the system.

We ended up generating characters for three of them right there, on the spot.

I hadn't anticipated that. You can imagine how it went, especially since I didn't have a good grasp of the chargen system yet.

Player 1:"What's a Natural Talent?"

Me: "uhhhhhh"

Player 1: "Maybe I'll just skip psionics and try something else..."

Anyway, character generation took, even for my D20-experienced players, quite some time. On the plus side, we get nicely-developed characters who can have some kind of background history. On the minus, I'll have at least one or two players unhappy with the randomized events in their background who can't make a character that's just like what they had envisioned. (Personally, I don't think they've really thought through the possibilities yet. It may come to them.)

Edited for formating and grammar.

 

[Jame]

I tried to generate my first character last night using T20 lite. The level system threw me, and since I have no D&D 3 books, I have no references for it. All that came to mind was "huh?" Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[rambler]

Originally posted by Jame:
I tried to generate my first character last night using T20 lite. The level system threw me, and since I have no D&D 3 books, I have no references for it. All that came to mind was "huh?" Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!

The truth of the matter is that you really do need a core rulebook of some kind - the D&D Player's Handbook, the Call of Cthulhu D20 book, the Star Wars D20 book, the Wheel of Time D20 book, or one of the others that Wizards of the Coast has out (have I missed any?) to get the basics of the level system.

That's the whole drive behind the OGL and D20 - it allows other people to put out their own games if they want to, but in the end it still drives a sale of a Wizards product. On the marketing side, it's pure genius, and on the technical side, it's really NOT a bad gaming engine.

 

[hirch duckfinder]

just wondering how much it really is necessary to have that core book ? i am familiar with older versions of d+d etc . is it just concepts required or is there lots of detail without which the game doesnt make sense? gratefull if anyone can let me know.

 

[Jame]

I'm sure that the system isn't bad. My problem is keeping it all straight. Pardon, but I'm not sure how to phrase my difficulty.

 

[trancejeremy]

Originally posted by hirch duckfinder:
just wondering how much it really is necessary to have that core book ? i am familiar with older versions of d+d etc . is it just concepts required or is there lots of detail without which the game doesnt make sense? gratefull if anyone can let me know.

Well, the t20 core book probably has all the info, but it doesn't explain how to level up a character. Not that it's particularly difficult. You just roll for more stamina points (in T20 anyway), then spend skill points on new skills.

 

[apoc527]

I would say you need at least one core rule book. If you don't want a D&D book, buy the new d20 Modern book. It's a great RPG in its own right and has what you need to play T20.

 

[GypsyComet]

Originally posted by xloop:
I had problems with the character generation as well. My solution was to rewrite some of the rules. College is now treated as a service class with its own feats and class skills.

Academic?

The reason there is no one class linked to *attending* university is that different courses of study produce different results. The people I went to College with varied across all the likely classes, with Academics and Professionals dominating (though I wasn't in the football dorm...), as well as a few Army and Marine types (ROTC roomies can be...interesting).

I've also restricted what skills can be gained with each service class.

You do realize that, like college, the military is a different experience for everyone, right?

The whole process just didn't make sense to me. People were spending alot of time in college and then joining a service but the character looked like they had been in their core class the whole time.

The example character in the book is a necessarily limited example of character generation, largely due to the constraints of the D20 license.

One concept that a number of people here have had trouble grasping is that, for the most part, the *Careers* and *Classes* are two different critters. What you got paid for and what you learned during a four-year term are potentially very different, which is why the prior service process generates EXP, but does not generally constrain your choices for spending it...