Game Report: Part Two.

[loudriver23]

So this time as I hoped went better than last time, thanks mostly to the suggestions of you good folk here. My practicing how skills, combat, and DM's work, made ALL the difference in the world. Even when the players wanted to do something I couldn't find a direct rule for I was able to improvise which skill/trait, or combo it fell under, and was quickly able to resolve their action request.
Tonight's progress of the story line was mostly hindered by a long series of mis-jumps. Actually they kept BADLY failing the power phase of the jump to the point I decided to start breaking their ship. They didn't want to pay for fuel so I had them skim gas-giants, and after several badly failed piloting attempts I had their fuel-scoop require repair. They spent a great deal of time waiting in star-ports looking for parts/technicians to fix their ailing ship. This is when the decided they wanted to get into trading, which was fine, only they were harboring a known fugitive, and had a time sensitive deadline on delivering him to a distant system.
So they decided speculative trade was NOT for them after all, so they decided to be "Mail Couriers"
Tonight's episode had a few red-herrings I tried to plant, but the players sniffed those out and didn't fall for those. I didn't want to railroad them into following the storyline so I wanted to give them options. They chose to stay on task of their own accord.
Tonight had very little combat, although a small gunfight did breakout in a deserted spaceport dock. No one was killed, and the bad guys got away.
Anyhow, that's about all for now. I think next week I'll surprise them with a Beaker Monkey, or some other pet/mascot. I really like that idea a lot.
I have some other questions about some specific rules, and ideas, but I'll put those in another thread.
If you made it this far, thank you.
Louis

 

[Hemdian]

Thanks for sharing. It sounds like your group are reasonably well disciplined, I seldom had to bother with red-herrings with my last group as they were too busy inventing their own. o:

 

[saundby]

Well done!

Sounds like things went very well. Often the adventure will be "let's try getting ourselves out of the hole we've dug" for the players. In many cases, I'll give them a bye on trouble that should occur just to keep the adventure from getting tedious. Though I make a note of it for later.

Sometimes it'll crop up at the next refueling or maintenance--"The technician gives your ship a critical look, then tugs at one corner of the fuel scoop. About two tons of your starship fall to the ground with a thundering crash. The technician purses his lips, shakes his head, and about the time your hearing returns says, 'Good thing that didn't happen before you touched down. Still, it's going to be the Dickens to fix.'"

Gunfights without clear resolution in Traveller are a good thing. Too often too much is at stake in a combat, and one where neither side presses for conclusion is often a win for the PCs and the adventure as a whole. Besides, this way the PCs get to build a galaxy full of enemies with unsettled grudges.

Something I try to at least think about before each game is what to do if any of the PCs gets offed. I try to make sure there's a key role for each PC in the adventure, but I usually have some NPCs around who can cover if a PC dies and the replacement character is either not there yet or doesn't have the prior PC's ability. In some cases I've used "bad guys", either unwittingly helping the party or turning against their own people, or whatever, if there aren't any "good guys" to do the job.

I look forward to hearing about your next session.

 

[loudriver23]

Thanks guys, I do feel lucky to have the players I have. They make a good blend of experience, but not rules lawyers, and some new blood. They are definitely a bit defensive with their playing style right now. A little bit too much trying to WIN, or at least not die. But they are making sensible decisions that seem reasonable for the characters they have chosen to play. That itself makes me happy.
I like the idea of making a note of such failures and have the ship fall apart in the starport rather than leave them adrift in space while the adventure stalls out.
I realized early on that gun play in Traveller is very deadly indeed after an NPC was taken out rather easily by some laser pistol blasts.
As for what will I do if a PC dies during a game, I actually kind of broke my own rule sort of.
That is someone here mentioned that with a small group have each player create 2 characters.
One High character (Pilot, Engineer, Spacer)
One Low character (Marine, Agent, Rogue)
When in space the low characters can act as muscle in case of a pirate attack, which hasn't happened yet. But otherwise stay out of the way.
When in spaceports, or downports I have the Low characters doing all the heavy lifting, with the high characters taking care of on-board ship maintenance. It's worked out pretty well so far.
As I get more familiar, and competent with space combat, I will have them raided, or perhaps perform a raid themselves as they are rapidly becoming outlaws in the Jewell subsector.
Anyhow, thanks again for the kind words, and I'll keep posting my reviews, mostly to help new referees avoid the mistakes I'm currently learning from.