LBB06 SCOUTS...Your Impressions?

[ShapeShifter]

I've been studying the text for Book 6 Scouts and, although I'm looking for something more detailed than the basic world gen, I'm beginning to wonder if the huge amount of rolls and figuring will be worth it to my players to have all that extra detail. What are your experiences using LBB 6? Do you like it and use it often? Do you only use certain parts of the creation process and discard the rest? Have you found any bugs in the system that need to be addressed? And...discuss!

 

[Vargas]

I like it but no longer use it often, primarily because I don't play a lot of Traveller any more.

I think its an excellent system for generating planets and systems for gaming. (I'm not concerned with scientific accuracy per se, its just the set the characters will play upon) I use it when I want something not influenced, consciously or not, by my preconceptions and preferences. Like a lot of people I've gone "rules light" as I've gotten older so I'm not concerned with working out the albedo or the like, mainly because it never seems to get used in the games I play anyway.

 

[the angle]

I found that particular book to be waaay overdone. By the time it came out, I'd lost interest in the expanded character generation, and the star system/planet gen ... whoa. Nothing it could produce was worth that amount of struggle. Of the first six books, it got the least airing in my games. And it was really a shame, because I've always made big use of the Scouts. Just not like that.

Steve

 

[impala]

What I really needed for any given world was much better handled by DGP's "Grand Census" than Book 6, because it was the people living living there that made things interesting... just like in Star Wars, it doesn't matter how spectacular the setting is if there is no conflict. Sure, the occasional survival scenario is good, but mostly its the guys living there that are important!

 

[BlackBat242]

I have used B6 system/planet generation quite a bit, and there are a couple of things not in that book that are covered by DGP's Grand Survey.

For example, GS allows worlds of differing densities, and calculates surface gravity by comparing density & diameter... so you can have "light-G" and "heavy-G" worlds of the same diameter, in addition to the standard-density worlds B6 gives you.

There are a couple of other things that I can't remember right now, and I don't have the time to look them up right now.

 

[aramis]

I loved it until MegaTraveller revised it. MT + WBH was my sweet spot. (If you look, I'm STILL using its basic procedures, with variations, in my MGT campaign.)

 

[Icosahedron]

I have mixed feelings about LBB6.

On the positive side, it provided a lot of background information that couldn't easily be obtained elsewhere (it was very good in its day), it allowed for expansion from the basic world creation of LBB3, and the rules are fairly clear and concise.

On the negative side, RL astronomy has overtaken it, it requires a huge investment of time to generate worlds (even if you can find one of the very few fan-developed software aids to automate the number crunching), and its over-random system produces far too many 'anomaly worlds' (several if-then type improvements have been suggested by people on this site, but they're not included in any of the automations).

I see the 'hard science' vs 'every world habitable' debate as a separate issue. Clearly, the Traveller system falls in the EWH category, and if that's not to your taste then it's up to you to houserule.

I still use it, but only rarely, because I want to minimise the hassle. IIRC, it is the basis of all the current automatic sector generators, so if you reject LBB6, you're down to either building planets one at a time by hand, or going with a totally non-Traveller system.

Of course, AFAIK, all the current sector generators create standard 2D sectors so if, like me, you prefer a 3D TU, you're struggling anyway.

Summary: If you show me something better, I'll use it. Pleeeeze show me something better, it's been 25 years...

 

[Signal]

Had it once, never used it. TTB is all I need.

 

[Vargas]

(even if you can find one of the very few fan-developed software aids to automate the number crunching)

I thought Heaven and Earth, http://www.downport.com/wbd/HEAVEN_&_EARTH.htm , was pretty much the software aid based on Scouts and its fairly accessible.

 

[ShapeShifter]

Thanks for the heads-up with Grand Survey. 'Til now I had never heard of it. I'll look into finding it. Finding a program that could speed up the gen process would be great, but I'm very chary about DLing any .exe stuff into my system (bad experiences).

 

[Icosahedron]

Vargas:
H&E is the dog's knees at present, but IIRC it's not customisable. I am gratefully fortunate to have scrounged a spreadsheet from another citizen here that automates the process (for a single system) and allows me to tweak the formulae to suit my houserules. I don't know of anything else that does that, but the spreadsheet can't generate a whole sector.
Perhaps when Universe 2 arrives it'll be customisable?
There is certainly a gap in the market for a good Traveller-compatible sysgen product that can be customised for hard science, logical worlds, etc. But that doesn't mean the gap would be profitable...

Shapeshifter:
AFAIK, Grand Survey is one of those darned DGP publications that are only available for silly money on ebay. However, IIRC most of the content is available in World Tamer's Handbook (someone will correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't paid much attention to DGP stuff, cos I don't like being held over a barrel. )

 

[aramis]

Grand Survey and Grand Census are 99% duplicated in WBH; there are a few dropped bits, tho.

 

[Grognard]

DGPs Grand Survey and World Builders Handbook are much better.....but After buildin a few wolrds with these I find them overly done.

I dont need that much data.

They are useful to identify what a planet may be like from known data, but Ive found much of the Spinward Marches worlds donttranslate without some fudging (Its impossible to have earthlike worlds in some star systems...)

FWIW: Do what you like. I like having the tools, but dont need them.

 

[Icosahedron]

Are we talking World Builders Handbook (another DGP product?) or World Tamers Handbook (a TNE product?) here?
I have only WTH and I've been under the impression that this contained most of the useful stuff from the DGP books. If it doesn't, I'll do without.

 

[aramis]

Are we talking World Builders Handbook (another DGP product?) or World Tamers Handbook (a TNE product?) here?
I have only WTH and I've been under the impression that this contained most of the useful stuff from the DGP books. If it doesn't, I'll do without.

Builders'. Builders' is missing (IIRC) about 2 small detail tables from the combination of Grand Survey and Grand Census.

Tamer's is worth having as well, but doesn't really overlap with WBH nor with Grand Survey/Grand Census.

 

[the angle]

Or, as some have pointed out, download a copy of Heaven & Earth and let it do the work. It's true that you can't customize things much, but you can just let it generate a few dozen systems and flip through them until you see one you like. Takes far less time than generating just one system using any of the hyper-detailed dicing methods and saves much wear and tear on your wrists.

Steve

 

[impala]

Does H&E have all the interesting social stuff like Grand Census did? That is really what I am after... I took a head injury at work around the beginning of the year, and the anticonvulsant medication have taken the edge off my creativity. So while six months ago it was no problem to create three unique cultures in a night, now my blank page mocks me for weeks at a time and I just need something to give me that little nudge. I remember Grand Census had some interesting charts that would be REALLY helpful about now...

 

[Icosahedron]

Builders'. Builders' is missing (IIRC) about 2 small detail tables from the combination of Grand Survey and Grand Census.

Tamer's is worth having as well, but doesn't really overlap with WBH nor with Grand Survey/Grand Census.

Ah, right, thanks Aramis. In that case, if I see a copy of WBH in a junk shop for under a tenner I'll buy it. That's usually my limit for secondhand rulebooks.

 

[aramis]

Ah, right, thanks Aramis. In that case, if I see a copy of WBH in a junk shop for under a tenner I'll buy it. That's usually my limit for secondhand rulebooks.

If you have Grand Survey and Grand Census, you have more than WBH.
If not...

WBH is (and GS/GC are) for detailing out the physical and social environment of a world given the extended UWP data from MT extended (or Bk6) generation.

WTamersH is about colonization, economics and using the colony as a campaign. They compliment nicely...

And if that's a £10, it routinely goes for twice that.... $30 is low-end from what I've seen.

 

[the angle]

Does H&E have all the interesting social stuff like Grand Census did?

I'm not familiar with Grand Census. H&E includes the types of info that WBH provided, which is more than enough, IMO -- weird cultural quirks, social structures, restrictions, that sort of thing, in brief form. Whether that's more or less than what Grand Census did, I couldn't say. There's a lot of detail that can be toggled on or off.

Steve