Jump 1 ships are pretty useless

[LeperColony]

Since Stewards deal with the passengers, you'd think they'd be one of the more role-playing intensive jobs.

Personally, as a GM, I'm always having a harder time finding things for the pilot to do.

 

[GypsyComet]

Steward is somewhat akin to Cleric. People don't want to play what they see as a one-trick-pony. Medic (not doctor) is much the same too.

I've never really had this problem. Perhaps it is my early exposure to Andre Norton's Solar Queen books, in which the "Supercargo" (another job covered by Steward) is the one frequently getting into the most trouble, and growing up watching Love Boat, a show almost entirely about the misadventures of Stewards and passengers.

 

[aramis]

I've never really had this problem. Perhaps it is my early exposure to Andre Norton's Solar Queen books, in which the "Supercargo" (another job covered by Steward) is the one frequently getting into the most trouble, and growing up watching Love Boat, a show almost entirely about the misadventures of Stewards and passengers.

Some of the most colorful characters in campaigns I've run have been Stewards. Especially when played by PNewman...

Fred Grande comes immediately to mind, some 21 years later. Wholesome down to earth type. Except that his homeworld has cannibalism as a standard practice... Murder's still a crime, but no sense letting easily digested meat go to waste...

 

[Condottiere]

Hand each middle passenger an iPhone has they come onboard: Siri is now your steward.

 

[Willie Dewitt]

Huh. I would think that for the most part a bit of steward skill is just that. Something a character that can do a lot of other things happens to have, and if they are the only ones in a party who have it they get elected for the duty. It is one of those required roles, but still kind of considered "candy ass."

Though in the military I imagine there are a lot of guys who are driving the general around, getting him coffee, maybe bartending his parties, often having others he might consider more useful to his life. Some real badasses with gun, blade, vacc suit may have had to do some steward duty in the military, but I bet few of them want it as a later career.

 

[atpollard]

Hand each middle passenger an iPhone has they come onboard: Siri is now your steward.

... Because when real world people have real world questions and problems, nothing makes them happier than talking to an automated tech support phone tree.

 

[creativehum]

My current campaign is totally based on the party having a Free Trader, and started and will probably end with them in a frontier cluster off the beaten track ( mega corps own industry on some suitable rim worlds in the area serviced by large corp ships, but there is always runoff for enterprising small potatoes traders in those cases. Some planets depending entirely on Free trade). Pretty much the kind of games I wanted; way off far from the cores but still with a lot of trade and some corporation presence.

They have already skimmed a system's giant to save fuel costs of an unnecessary stop to get to a desired planet a couple of jumps away. For my noob to CT players, that was an epic little adventure all in itself, knowing of the risks involved. That one jump lifestyle seems to have a nice flavor all it's own. Not sure I ever want to have Far Trader games. No need to traverse the universe. There's plenty to do wherever the characters are.

I just wanted to say "This sounds fantastic."

Exactly the kind of attitude and gameplay I would want for my players as well.

So glad your game is going great!

 

[flykiller]

Since Stewards deal with the passengers, you'd think they'd be one of the more role-playing intensive jobs.

especially during jump. most scenarios are located on planets, not on ships, and jump becomes just getting there. if the ship has game action, then the steward is critical.

Personally, as a GM, I'm always having a harder time finding things for the pilot to do.

it's all about where the ship has to go. "yeah, we're delivering the cargo directly planetside, clock's ticking." jump in, there's a hurricane going on at the landing site, but you have to land ....

"candy ass."

two "hands-off" noble retirees get into a serious fight over who's marine unit was better.

a sixteen year old female being sent off to a political marriage suddenly grabs a knife from the table and runs into her cabin, locking the door.

late at "night" the steward sees two of the passengers moving up the hall, both have sidearms out but don't realize the steward is up and haven't see him yet ....

sounds like adventure candy to me.

"the steward is the ship's first line of defense. for some minutes he may be its only line of defense." first day, first lesson, hotel academy.

Though in the military I imagine there are a lot of guys who are driving the general around, getting him coffee

"I made coffee during Desert Storm."

There's plenty to do wherever the characters are.

good ref, good players.

 

[Whipsnade]

good ref, good players.

I wasn't a good ref. Serviceable? Possibly. Willing to do it? Absolutely. Prepared? Usually. Familiar with the rules? Sure. But not good by any stretch of the imagination.

I've seen and played with some refs at cons and elsewhere who were fantastic and I know I wasn't even in the same hemisphere they were.

My players were good too. More often than not they bought into the sessions and added to the story. Most often than not, they took care to play the game and not game the game. More often than not, they were thoughtful, creative, and played their characters rather than themselves.

The failure to take Steward seriously, the failure to see the potential, that was all on me. For whatever reason, I couldn't sell Steward to my groups. I couldn't convince them of the fun.

Our games missed out because of it. Just as they missed out by the lack of alien PCs, pisonic PCs, high level PCs, and other things.

 

[flykiller]

Our games missed out because of it. Just as they missed out by the lack of alien PCs, pisonic PCs, high level PCs, and other things.

well there's still time. let's see - alien, psionic, high-level - hey, who wants to run in a party of zhodani special ops who are trying to infiltrate the imperium?

 

[Willie Dewitt]

I just wanted to say "This sounds fantastic."

Exactly the kind of attitude and gameplay I would want for my players as well.

So glad your game is going great!

Thanks Creative. It does help to have great players, so those small moments within the grand backdrop I describe have some gravitas. I just wish we could play a bit more. We are really only doing it when certain players are missing from the ongoing D&D stuff. Maybe I should make a New Years resolution to step up and ask the entire group to agree to a bi-monthly (or something) Trav game as a change of pace (so far as a group in general we are lucky if we get two sessions a month).

 

[Willie Dewitt]

"I made coffee during Desert Storm."

"Sir, I was going to make you that cup of coffee you asked for, but we seem to be out of water!"

"No problem, private. Take this empty water bottle out on the street and collect some tears from the locals. Run it through the desalination unit before putting it in the coffee maker."

I know for "stewards in space" there are going to be a lot of situations that call for nerves of steel and quick thinking. I imagine for luxury liners and other such vessels you will get a lot of non-military stewards who come from upper middle class backgrounds and want to go into hospitality services. It makes sense that more dangerous, freewheeling deep space Free Traders would want stewards that have general military service, and not just white bread, lisping "Trevor" who had a couple years of liberal arts college and likes to spend his off days shopping for sweaters, and who will squeal and lock himself in the WC as soon as danger rears it's head.

 

[creativehum]

Thanks Creative. It does help to have great players, so those small moments within the grand backdrop I describe have some gravitas. I just wish we could play a bit more. We are really only doing it when certain players are missing from the ongoing D&D stuff. Maybe I should make a New Years resolution to step up and ask the entire group to agree to a bi-monthly (or something) Trav game as a change of pace (so far as a group in general we are lucky if we get two sessions a month).

If I can ask: How many planets hav your PCs traveled to? How many parsecs have they traveled? What would you call as the radius (in parsecs) of your setting of play? Are you in one subsector? Two? Several?

 

[Willie Dewitt]

If I can ask: How many planets hav your PCs traveled to? How many parsecs have they traveled? What would you call as the radius (in parsecs) of your setting of play? Are you in one subsector? Two? Several?

In all honesty, I have not mapped out the sector (yet, but I should soon), and my players haven’t really asked to see a map or anything (luckily). It’s pretty much just info in my notebook and in my head. I wanted most of the planets that might get visited within the confines of the little campaign to be all within 3 or less jumps from each other, and fairly close to a semi-frontier area . I have not put a ton of research into exactly what fully constitutes a sector, but I call the area “The Far Clusters” (not the most imaginative name…probably should have called it “The Cluster Marches” or something  ). The dozen or so planets I have in mind are in and around a certain part of the clusters I’m calling “The Harvest Belt” and are several systems that contain some under populated planets with wide areas of land conducive to farming of a variety of/or particular crop items such as corn, wheat, tubers, rice, meat products, dairy, etc. Before the last “Long Night” there were more larger general communities and civilizations, but currently it’s more about certain corporations designating entire planets to farming, with less cities and industrialization with the notion that these would be pure and unpolluted products than that might be grown on land of more populated planets, and marketed as such (“Mojato Industries – when you demand Purity!”). Also in the area is a planet with industry dedicated to alcohol products production, a factory world with installations of dozens of name brand manufacturers known well in more core worlds (“Balderdash Brothers, makers of Fine Spirits!”). Also a couple harsher planets with dedicated mineral mining concerns. More populace worlds not necessarily dedicated to full industry are generally at least 3 jumps away from the area, though along the frontier I also have a planet with a sort of forgotten civilization that is fairly isolationist, with a hostile military that indulges in a certain amount of piracy I want the characters to run afoul of at some point.

So that gave me a little sandox to play with, without the complexity of the characters tramping around the greater universe. More or less the players using their Free Trader to take some tonnage of corn from “Weber-Cornfield” harvest planet to the Alcohol Industry planet has made up the activities of around 5 sessions total the last year. Of course, living their lives (in one of the games the couple of female players had half the session be them having a “girls night out” of shopping and clubbing, another half the session was the entire party shopping for weapons and equipment and visiting target ranges to practice weapons), making friends, meeting the broker that worked with them on their corn haul, and hanging out with the rich and eccentric patron they sold the corn to on the Alchohol production planet and doing a couple of other small (more violent) jobs for him has been part of the nice little tidbits they get up to with all that space jaunt stuff as the general backdrop.

I know a lot of that stuff in the first paragraph above points to a certain lack of prep and research. But that was sort of intended from the get go. I knew this was just our alternative game that we would only do now and again, so I didn’t want to put too much time into prep (I’ve grown into the “One Page Dungeon” frame of mind the last few years when I used to produce pages and pages of notes before any kind of game I ran). In doing CT I also wanted to approach it like we did original D&D of the little brown books when we were kids; that is to say, wing it with only a certain amount of prep, notes, and with a lot of it existing purely in the GM’s head. Good players tend to help fill in any gaps, and leaving things a bit open lets you have the world around them react to their actions and create hooks for the future with minimum GM input.

Anway as far as the topic of the OP, as you can see, I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of a party of characters who only have a one jump ship!

 

[flykiller]

I know a lot of that stuff in the first paragraph above points to a certain lack of prep and research.

it's certainly an adequate framework. it gives you a good idea of how to respond across a wide range of possibilities, and frequently that's all you need to wing it for a short period until you prep and research areas your players are actually developing. looks good.

with a lot of it existing purely in the GM’s head.

make sure you write it down at some point in some form, even if it's just a bunch of jots. memory changes.

Good players tend to help fill in any gaps,

bingo.

and leaving things a bit open lets you have the world around them react to their actions and create hooks for the future with minimum GM input.

double bingo.

 

[creativehum]

I wanted most of the planets that might get visited within the confines of the little campaign to be all within 3 or less jumps from each other...

I know a lot of that stuff in the first paragraph above points to a certain lack of prep and research. But that was sort of intended from the get go...

In doing CT I also wanted to approach it like we did original D&D of the little brown books when we were kids; that is to say, wing it with only a certain amount of prep, notes, and with a lot of it existing purely in the GM’s head...

I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of a party of characters who only have a one jump ship!

Thanks so much for the reply... and those quotes above specifically.

The fact that you are satisfied with the use of a J-1 ship for your game makes perfect sense given your answers. And they are the answers I was expecting.

In short, you are using Classic Traveller as it was designed to be used. As the 1977 edition of Book 3 stated: "Initially, one or two sub-sectors should be quite enough for years of adventure (each sub-sector has, on the average, 40 worlds)..."

The purpose of the game (at first) was not to map out countless subsectors -- or even a whole sector -- which is a collection of sixteen subsectors. (The term "sector" did not even exist in the 1977 edition of the rules).

If the Referee begins with a subsector or less (a cluster of systems, for example) as you have done, a J-1 ship will be fine for weeks and weeks, if not months of play. The notion that one cannot "do" anything or influence anything unless one leaps across parsecs at a shot is strange, given that one can have a fine time influencing events in a cluster or a subsector. If the the worlds in a cluster or subsector matter, than the events in that cluster or subsector matters.

Of course, after a while the crew of a J-1 ship might have a hankering (or need) to leave the stomping grounds of their Jump-1 limits. They would then need to work to get a ship with Jump-2 or even Jump-3 to explore areas of the subsector they cannot yet reach.

The limit on Jump-1 ships offers the Referee a chance to build up his campaign, and provides a carrot (Jump-2 and above ships) for the Players to pursue. This is a fine structure for RPG play, of course. Your comparison to original Dungeons & Dragons is apt in this regard. The Players begin exploring areas, and as these areas are "mined out" for novelty and adventure, the Referee expands the setting and the areas for adventure. In the same way, the Referee in Traveller was expected to begin as needed with an area bound by the capabilities of a ship or the pocketbooks of the Players. But as they gathered more resources, just like adventurers in original Dungeons & Dragons, they could go further afield and explore new areas.

Congrats on having a great time with the game.

 

[Willie Dewitt]

Thanks so much for the reply... and those quotes above specifically.


Congrats on having a great time with the game.

Thanks!

One of the main issues with doing a game other than D&D is, well, I usually get my groups together as a D&D Group. Then I after some months I get a hankering for other genres. Since I was a teen in the early 80's my top three favorite games to run have been AD&D 1st ed, Champions (Hero System), and Call of Cthulhu. In the 90's I actually did long successful campaigns of those non-D&D alternatives (usually dragging my D&D players kicking and screaming, with them ending up loving the other games and often requesting them).

I took around 2000 to 2008 off from gaming for the most part. Then fell ass backwards into running for a local D&D group. By then the "OSR" was going on, and I would occasionally get a hankering for those old games. So in any particular year I would talk them into doing old Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, even Metamorphosis Alpha (they thought we were doing Gamma World then later found out then were on a ship). These alternatives would last for a few months, then we would have changes in the group, or they would desire D&D again, so it was back to that. I would dearly love to do a years worth of CT twice a month, but as long as my groups are D&D centric, it's going to be a passing fancy I'm afraid. It's hard enough getting a group together for the most popular game out there, D&D. (1st edition no less). To get a classic Traveller group together long enough for long term play and goals of characters, well, it's a pipe dream I'm afraid. But I'm very glad to have a chance to touch on a game from my youth for sure.

Anyway, sorry about derailing the thread a bit!

 

[creativehum]

Anyway, sorry about derailing the thread a bit!

Again, I don't see this as a derailment of the thread at all. You're playing the manner the rules of Classic Traveler Books 1-3 were meant to be played -- and in doing so find that a Jump-1 ship works great in play.

Your game is a terrific illustration of the game working properly. That's right on point.

 

[mike wightman]

It's probably grannies and eggs, but you can expand even a small setting by adding more worlds and features to the systems you have already.

You do not need LBB6 to add stuff to a system, just remember that the world you have already generated is the most important one in the system (probably).

You can always add small worlds closer to the star, an asteroid belt to give belters a home, or even have moons of the local gas giants with populations.

Just use the rules as written and modify as you see fit - restrict the world size, population, TL - that sort of thing.

You may even generate these additional worlds at random and find one 'better' than the established mainworld, so you now have something interesting to explain.

I've used this method to flesh out whole systems - in some cases the players just jumped between the world in the system, never actually leaving it unti a lucrative cargo transaction took them to a the next world/system.

 

[flykiller]

It's probably grannies and eggs, but you can expand even a small setting by adding more worlds and features to the systems you have already.

mining colonies, counter-culture colonies, prisons, research stations, belter operations, minor alien populations.

drawing up gudak I find it is 42ls inside the star's 100d, so the planet outside the 100d at 01 will be named "welcome". center for xboat/transit ops, cargo and tourist receiving ops, population of rebellious males living in the volcanic icelands.

and that's not even counting all the things that could be happening on-world. there's a whole world right there, it's not just a starport. imagine if you had your own ship and could go anywhere on earth you wanted in an hour ....