Getting back to Travelling in Traveller

[Ulsyus]

We had another session last night. The crew were making their way up the main from Regina to Louzy, and from there they'll move to Jewell and into the Consulate (duh duh duh duuuuuh!).

I didn't want the whole thing to be just a narrative about going from system to system, and in character generation there was a lot of discussion about seeking a team that could operate a starship between them. There's some excellent rules for skill tests involved in space ops, but I wanted to codify them a little more so we had a process to work through.

This was partly driven by the previous campaign we'd played: The One Ring. Fantastic game, with a lot of emphasis on travelling as a group, the things that needed to be done when crossing a wilderness, and who did what.

I took the material in the MT Referees Companion to build a table as a guide, so that was all great. But, while it was fun the first couple of times, and could be used if a group didn't go very far very fast, we all agreed that it was a bit too much detail to use all the time. Save it for special/deadly occasions, that sort of thing.

So I modified it and, using the Jump Process info in the B³ p371 and some inspiration from TOR, wrote up a shorter process. We used it for a few jumps and it was a winner. I still have to come up with some mishap options, but winged it last night with flux dice modified by how badly the target number was missed on a roll. I might drop the difficulty levels (they were high as it was a single roll representing a pile of activities) but will give it a bit more play first.

Opinions? War stories? Bulls**t?

 

[pmelwhite]

Mixing 'The One Ring' and Traveller is a great idea! I look forward to hearing more about your system.

 

[Ulsyus]

Here's the tasks:

 

[Botcho]

Thank you for sharing. I am currently running a diceless game of traveller but your chart contains lots of narritive grist nonetheless.

 

[mike wightman]

Jumping from system to system in a well maintained, refined fuelled ship is supposed to be extremely safe.

As soon as you require dice rolls for any trivial tasks you introduce a much higher chance for mishap than should ever exit.

Travelling in Traveller should be boringly routine, an occasional referee dictated mishap to generate an adventure is one thing, but if you start down the roll dice for every trip space travel becomes anything but safe.

Now if the ship is using unrefined fuel, maintenance is being skipped etc then they deserve the risks to go up, then there are the various things that could attack them in jump space, hijacking attempts, medical emergencies, stowaways.
But again - the rarity is what adds spice.

 

[Ulsyus]

Thanks Mike, I'd think about adjusting the difficulty levels down some. I get what you say about interstellar travel being routine. There's enough trips done with enough technical and astrogation data collected over the centuries to build pretty good equipment and systems to prevent simple failures.

That said though, the task to verify one's automated Astrogation solution is not an easy one: T5 p371 doesn't make it a straightforward affair for jumps over 2.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Here's the tasks:

That's a great list. It looks a lot like the Starship Activity Checklists in MegaTraveller's Referee's Companion. I've been wanting to do something similar for MgT.

Thanks for posting it!

 

[Lycanorukke]

That said though, the task to verify one's automated Astrogation solution is not an easy one: T5 p371 doesn't make it a straightforward affair for jumps over 2.

For that you cough up 1000Cr for a jump tape. Plug it in and your jump is fine (at least for first use).

For legitimate' merchants and the like, it would be boring. No skimming gas giants, good (and certified) maintenance crews, jump tapes, landing at proper starports, etc. The ship isn't stressed hard.

Dodgy types (ie: PCs) apart from not being legitimate, quite often do things which strain the ship and crew.
*Skimming is dangerous (get hit by lightning, hit something, fly into a planet sized tornado)
*Skills are not professional but more ad hoc learning (a career astrogator would beat an average PC astrogator hands down),
*Landing on class E or X ports could damage the landinbg gear (see what happened when the Nostromo landed on LV426)
*Skipping regular maintenace (how often do PCs do preventative repairs as opposed to just annual maintenace?),
*Overdriving systems past recommended levels (Run away!).
*Personal modifications (um how did you hook up that bootleg Neutrino sensor?)
*Less groomed customers. They cant pick and choose passangers who may be suspect as they need money.

 

[Ulsyus]

That's a great list. It looks a lot like the Starship Activity Checklists in MegaTraveller's Referee's Companion. I've been wanting to do something similar for MgT.

Yup, that's where I derived it from. I built it for my group, who are posing as traders but working for the Ducal Office of Sector Communications, so needed to combine some of the elements from the trader and other lists. Is that department name sufficiently vague as to tell you little about what it actually does?

For that you cough up 1000Cr for a jump tape. Plug it in and your jump is fine (at least for first use).

Good point. 1000Cr isn't much. I'm sure they'll be willing to fork out for a new tape. Pretty sure anyway. Mostly pretty sure. They won't look at the astrogator and blame him for having to hand over a grand instead of him doing his job. Okay, maybe they might blame him a little. Pretty much might. Absolutely pretty much.