House Rules for Streamlined CT Play?

[Stan Shinn]

One of the things I like about some retroclones of OD&D is that in many cases they moved away from having to consult tables (which were prevalent in the original game) for most common combat resolution rolls. Take Swords & Wizardry for example -- using ascending armor class and simplifying things like saving throws make it easier to run at the table. Stars Without Number is another example of elegant, simple combat resolution with a game modeled after the spirit of Traveller.

Question: Are there houserules out there that can streamline Classic Traveller combat to reduce or eliminate the need for table lookups when setting DMs and resolving combat rolls?

 

[Vladika]

One of the things I like about some retroclones of OD&D is that in many cases they moved away from having to consult tables (which were prevalent in the original game) for most common combat resolution rolls. Take Swords & Wizardry for example -- using ascending armor class and simplifying things like saving throws make it easier to run at the table. Stars Without Number is another example of elegant, simple combat resolution with a game modeled after the spirit of Traveller.

Question: Are there houserules out there that can streamline Classic Traveller combat to reduce or eliminate the need for table lookups when setting DMs and resolving combat rolls?

Screw the tables! Only the "rules warriors" are going to care anyway. The average Player doesn't know the GMs assigned difficulty for a given task anyway. Have them role some dice and go with what seems right to you anyway.

PCs high or low DMs, as well as high or low die rolls, should be taken into consideration but keep the action flowing and ditch the constant looking up on tables. Have a decent familiarity with them, don't do anything outragious, and everybody have fun.

 

[SpaceBadger]

One of the things we have done expressly to speed up play in the already-slow play-by-post game (I think Sabredog suggested it) is that the GM does most of the dice-rolling. Players just say what their PC is doing (and suggests any factors that should be success modifiers), then the GM responds with results.

We originally set it up that if a player wanted to roll their own dice, they should include one 2d6 result along with any action which might require a die roll, and three 2d6 results on any combat action or other complicated action which might involve factors unknown to the player. If the player does not include any die roll results, I just roll for them as GM. So far the players have almost always been choosing just to have me roll - even though I almost crashed their ship very early in the campaign .

 

[Supplement Four]

One of the things I like about some retroclones of OD&D is that in many cases they moved away from having to consult tables (which were prevalent in the original game) for most common combat resolution rolls. Take Swords & Wizardry for example -- using ascending armor class and simplifying things like saving throws make it easier to run at the table. Stars Without Number is another example of elegant, simple combat resolution with a game modeled after the spirit of Traveller.

Question: Are there houserules out there that can streamline Classic Traveller combat to reduce or eliminate the need for table lookups when setting DMs and resolving combat rolls?

Look at the Weapon Sheets thread, linked in my sig. It will make you smile! No more looking at charts!

 

[Stan Shinn]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone!

@Supplement Four -- the Weapon Sheets thread is very intriguing. I will be trying this out. You don't have a document with all the weapon stats like that do you, perchance?

 

[robject]

Also, Andy Slack's simplified Traveller rules are worth looking at (wherever they are).

 

[mike wightman]

My house rules:

Tasks:

don't roll a 2
roll 8+ including DMs
roll 12+ including DMs
roll a natural 12 and we'll talk

Combat - armour subtracts damage dice, lowest roll to highest until all the armour is used up or only 1d (the highest roll) remains, any remaining armour is subtracted from this.
Armour values:
jack 2
mesh 2(4 vs natural weapons/blades)
cloth 3
reflec 0[4 vs laser weapons]
ablat 2[3 vs laser weapons]
combat 6

 

[Supplement Four]

@Supplement Four -- the Weapon Sheets thread is very intriguing. I will be trying this out. You don't have a document with all the weapon stats like that do you, perchance?

I don't. During a game, when a character gets a weapon, I just quickly copy down the stats.

 

[leo knight]

I did something similar to Supplement Four's back in the day with Classic Trav. I would have the players copy the range modifiers on their character sheets next to the weapon, and apply them to their rolls. I would handle armor. Also, all my players, having come from D&D, disliked that weak or no armor gave pluses to hit, even when it gave them an advantage, so I only used the negative DMs on the armor table.

As far as tasks, I used 8+ for average tasks, 10+ for hard tasks, and 12+ for very hard tasks. I read the skills section, but never used any of it.

 

[Supplement Four]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone!

@Supplement Four -- the Weapon Sheets thread is very intriguing. I will be trying this out. You don't have a document with all the weapon stats like that do you, perchance?

Stan, check out two things. If you want to run Classic Traveller as-is, then take a look at the link in my sig to Rule 68A.

If you'd rather add a formal task system to Classic Traveller, I suggest two options. First, consider the task system used in MegaTraveller (it's officially called the UTP, or Universal Task Profile). That system will work easily with CT (and, the system was designed for CT first, anyway).

As an alternative, take a look at my sig for the UGM - Universal Game Mechanic. That's a task system I wrote specifically for use with CT, and it has become quite popular among some CT fans.

 

[aramis]

For me, CT needs one major tweak to streamline it: a unified task system replacing most of the seemingly randomly selected mechanics in the various skills.

My preference is for the DGP one - which was used in both 2300 and in MegaTraveller - complete with the changes to the to-hit mechanics from what's in CT, but then I used striker/AHL for personal combat from the moment I found it.

That said, the UGM is another reasonable CT task system, and Mongoose's isn't much worse, but both have issues with reduced flexibility. UGM makes up slightly for it with the granularity of attributes mattering.

Even the TNE one can be adapted easily enough - tho' one may wish to double the skill before adding it to attribute if using CT characters with the TNE task system. Same for the T4/T5 task systems.

 

[Stan Shinn]

All great comments! I will definitely adopt one of the unified task systems in my upcoming games

 

[Supplement Four]

All great comments! I will definitely adopt one of the unified task systems in my upcoming games

Go with your tastes, but I pref to make rolls up on the spot, in the CT way. Rule 68A I use a lot, but I also use other types of throws.

Then, again, I'm very comfortable coming up with throws on the spot like that. My CT games just hum...slick as grease.