How Crunchy do you like your Traveller?

[Darkwing]

I agree with the crunchy prep, not too crunchy play. But playability only trumps reality to a point.
I recently saw a Pathfinder thread about a dwarf overrunning two heavy warhorses. Had a player tried that in my game, unless he had a spell enhancing him or something else making him superhuman enough, I'd have just said "OUCH! aaand you bounce off the first horse, get stepped on, take damage".

 

[robject]

But playability only trumps reality to a point.

Agreed. And I admit that's a moving target.

 

[Cryton]

I voted middle of the road. Enough crunch to satisfy without swamping the game in useless calculations.

 

[Dragoner]

I voted average.

Though interestingly enough, about 3/4's of respondents self identified as liking average or less, which I did not expect. Granted the poll is a bit vague, but I don't want it to devolve into edition warfare, which is usually where it goes.

 

[Murphy]

Hahaha, good question. I can't choose. Probably "other".

Truth is, I like my sci-fi hard and technical but I like my rules flexible and fast. So I never, in fact, played by Traveller rules as written. Instead I used extremely rules-lite systems such as Risus, and later a system of my own creation using Risus character format.

What homemade rules I use today break down into a set of minigames for ground combat, space combat, ship design, repairing, hacking, skimming, plotting jump courses, etc. Since we are used to tabletop games as well, it works rather nicely.

Resolving social encounters is usually left to pure RP, but I can sometimes use the reaction roll system from CT.

Edited to add: what minigame I don't have yet is a Travelleresque chargen process, complete with deadly mishaps. Currently under development.

 

[Duke Craig]

Super Crunchy

Greetings,
I like super crunchy peanut butter and super crunchy Traveller.
I like to know:
- how long it takes to maneuver from the jump point to the planet based on the size of the local star.
- how much fuel is left in the tanks after a 20 hour 2G burn and the final velocity of the ship.

I like to imagine (for example) if elite crews can push a J2 ship to J3 with a "semicontrolled" misjump.


With the Astrogator and the Engineer on the edge of their bridge workstation, while the Captain is yelling "Get me to Victoria, Now!".
2d6x60 mins later, the astrogator telling the engineer, "I'll try feeding these jump parameters into the J-comp..." While the engineer is saying "Ya canna change the laws of physics, Captain! Aye, Aye, Captain."
When the ship lights are dimmed, the whole crew are yelling,"Arggg!"
(Then with a series of exceptional rolls)
A week later, "The engineer calls,"Jump precipitation in T-60.
And on the bridge, the captain calls "Astrogator, get me a position."

While the crew collectively breathes a sigh of relief...
Then 2d6 x 4 hours later, "Sir. We are on the edge of the Victoria system."
Crew cheers!

(I'm sure this has been done before...)

Incidentally I completely agree with Murphy.

 

[mike wightman]

The degree of crunch I voted for is other, because what I want changes depending on the needs of the moment.

If I am going to run a game set in a single or only a few systems then I will use GT4e Space to detail the systems and then convert to UPPs.

If I want to have a PC ship as part of the campaign then I will use FF&S to design it.

For more casual jumping from world to world such as my 'long night' campaign then basic Traveller UPP generation will do. If I want a ship at a moments notice then LBB2 or HG2 would be my choice.

I find the T5 makers ideal for modifying gear/weapons to produce unique effects for a game or two (and players are really happy when they obtain some new alien tech that their maker can disassemble and add its options to their database).

 

[The Pakkrat]

Traveller: Crunchy In Milk

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[Timerover51]

The poll says that I voted, but I do not remember so doing, and unvoting does not appear to change the results. My best answer is probably "Other".

 

[Whipsnade]

Sadly, Rocky Road isn't an option.

None of our personal Traveller versions have a uniform level of crunchiness or softness. No matter where we've turned the dial between Mush and Basalt, there are always spots which are softer and harder than the whole.

For example, I like my science on the crunchy side, but I still have jump drives, psionics, gravitics, light seconds weapon ranges, 50kg missiles pulling 6+ gee, and the like. It seems my crunch definitely has pockets of marshmallow fluff!

Pick any aspect of your personal Traveller versions and you'll have pretty much the same mixtures I do.

That being said, my game prep was always as crunchy as practicable. As our Absent Friend Hans always said "It has to make sense."

 

[whulorigan]

Sadly, Rocky Road isn't an option.

None of our personal Traveller versions have a uniform level of crunchiness or softness. No matter where we've turned the dial between Mush and Basalt, there are always spots which are softer and harder than the whole.

For example, I like my science on the crunchy side, but I still have jump drives, psionics, gravitics, light seconds weapon ranges, 50kg missiles pulling 6+ gee, and the like. It seems my crunch definitely has pockets of marshmallow fluff!

Pick any aspect of your personal Traveller versions and you'll have pretty much the same mixtures I do.

That being said, my game prep was always as crunchy as practicable. As our Absent Friend Hans always said "It has to make sense."

I tend to be "Average" leaning in the "Crunchy" direction - I think "Hard Space Opera" is an apt description of how I see Traveller.

But following up on your comments above, I think the farther removed one gets from TL8, the less crunchy I become. In other words, I prefer TL8-9 as good and crunchy, but as I move toward TL12 (and especially toward TL15), the crunchiness has to soften up somewhat, otherwise I find it difficult to suspend disbelief. At 7 TLs beyond where we are now at TL8, we shouldn't be able to explain technology well from our TL8 perspective.

 

[mike wightman]

I have always assumed that once you get to TL9 most machinery has so much digital assistance built in that all you need to be able to do is play an x-box (ok back in the day it was Space Invaders but you get my point).

 

[Hyphen]

Sadly, Rocky Road isn't an option.

None of our personal Traveller versions have a uniform level of crunchiness or softness. No matter where we've turned the dial between Mush and Basalt, there are always spots which are softer and harder than the whole.

Wow! Now I've got a real desire to rename "Wounded Colossus" to the "Rocky Road Mileau"...

<g, d, & r>

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

I wrote down "Other" because while I may personally like medium-hard crunch, I usually Referee so that means I have to tone it down for the Players. I try to not snap anyone's belief suspenders.

 

[cuTTer]

Other: Books 1-3, everything else very optional.

 

[Quint]

I think I would have said "Average" at one point, but these days I lean more ProtoTraveller, and that (IMO) means more "Space Opera" simply because it ignores much of the crunch that the game developed.

Though I do subscribe "It has to make sense" as well.

D.

 

[ACK]

I say Average because I read somewhere the aim was to keep everything within the aim of hard science with the mysteries of anti-grav and Jump drives being the only notable exceptions to the rule. I try when I have run games to kind of keep my Traveller games in that sphere avoiding the space opera elements a lot of players unfamiliar with Traveller seem to want. And they all want light sabers. They all just seem to want a shiny light sword of their very own.

 

[Jame]

As the OTU code implies, sort of middling, I guess, but, all else being equal:

playability trumps realism.

I like my science solid, and my rules fairly light.

I couldn't say it better myself.

 

[flykiller]

other. try to keep the natural science as hard as I can follow, but the tech science is unknowable and therefore amenable to gaming and roleplaying.

 

[Straybow]

To be more specific, it is: "Ouch, I broke a tooth on the Model 19 computer that fell into the peanut butter. I hope I didn't break the computer, since kCr 19.95 to replace it is more than I earn in a year."