CT Only: Mishaps and Events tables

[PeelSeel2]

One of the big appeals to me about Mongoose Traveller 1st edition is its character generation with the mishaps and events tables. For my upcoming CT games, I am going to use them.

My question is has anyone made this product for CT? For Book 1 and Supplement 4? Or has anyone made them for Cepheus Engine besides Clement Sector? Just a specific supplement of Mishaps and Events.

 

[Fovean]

Not exactly what you’re looking for but the first Career Book from Spica Publishing had expanded D66 event tables for most of the MgT 1e careers. But they did some of the basic ones as Mongoose published the expanded career books. They’re a great resource but you’d have to make sure the skills line up for CT.

 

[Supplement Four]

One of the big appeals to me about Mongoose Traveller 1st edition is its character generation with the mishaps and events tables. For my upcoming CT games, I am going to use them.

My question is has anyone made this product for CT? For Book 1 and Supplement 4? Or has anyone made them for Cepheus Engine besides Clement Sector? Just a specific supplement of Mishaps and Events.

With CT, I've always made up a story by "reading the dice" as a character was created. I'll do this in tandem with a player, if the character is a PC, with both of us coming up with ideas and allowing the player veto power on my ideas if he doesn't like them.

An example of such, with an NPC, starts on Post 7 of THIS THREAD.

I've done this for about as long as I've played Traveller. I thought most people did this, too, but I am surprised at how many people don't and then are amazed at the Mongoose tables.

 

[Vargas]

With CT, I've always made up a story by "reading the dice" as a character was created.

Everyone I've played with has pretty much done this automatically while doing char gen.

 

[Timerover51]

One of the big appeals to me about Mongoose Traveller 1st edition is its character generation with the mishaps and events tables. For my upcoming CT games, I am going to use them.

My question is has anyone made this product for CT? For Book 1 and Supplement 4? Or has anyone made them for Cepheus Engine besides Clement Sector? Just a specific supplement of Mishaps and Events.

I have done some work on the mishaps and events tables for Attack Squadron: Roswell, mainly because it is a timeframe that I have a fair amount of data on, basically air warfare and technology between about 1935 and 1953.

I might use such a set of tables for NPC generation, as I am working on my own modification of the Cepheus Engine rules, but I tend to think that players will come up with their own back story, rather than my handing them one.

 

[mike wightman]

I have occasionally used event tables to add some quick details to an NPC, but I encourage players to come up with their own back stories based on their character generation dice rolls.

 

[Limburger59]

The Traveller Logbook, published in 1979 by Judges Guild, included a number of tables to flesh out the background and motivation of a character. Some were kinda hokey, but I still keep those tables handy.

 

[Timerover51]

The Traveller Logbook, published in 1979 by Judges Guild, included a number of tables to flesh out the background and motivation of a character. Some were kinda hokey, but I still keep those tables handy.

The book is on the Aprocrypha-2 CD from Marc. I checked my CD and it is there.

Thanks for mentioning it, as the CD gives people a way of getting it.

 

[Timerover51]

Looking over the Judges Guild book, that is a reasonable way to flesh out a character.

I never really looked at the Mongoose 1st Edition book, except for what I needed to figure out how to use Attack Squadron: Roswell. I am not sure about the idea of having an event roll for every term, or the idea that failing the survival roll will trigger a roll on the mishaps table. Some of those mishaps are a bit nasty, especially if that happens in your first term. Having the option of rolling on the events table would seem to be more reasonable, as then the player is voluntarily taking his chance.

The other thing is simply spending the time to write up a mishaps and event table for every character career. That takes a lot of time to do if you do not want to start having all of the mishaps and events sound the same. Putting together an alternative events table for Attack Squadron: Roswell was a bit easier. Paul did a good job, but he was not aware, being English, of all of the possibilities for a pilot in the U.S. during the 1930s and 1940s. If you wanted to be an aerial mercenary, you had a number of possibilities, including flying for Israel in the late 1940s.

 

[Timerover51]

One of the big appeals to me about Mongoose Traveller 1st edition is its character generation with the mishaps and events tables. For my upcoming CT games, I am going to use them.

My question is has anyone made this product for CT? For Book 1 and Supplement 4? Or has anyone made them for Cepheus Engine besides Clement Sector? Just a specific supplement of Mishaps and Events.

Thanks for asking the question, as it got me thinking, and doing some reading. In Attack Squadron: Roswell, Paul Elliot put in a series of Event Tables to build a background for fighter pilots flying in the U.S. Air Force just after the Korean War. I had spent some time putting together an alternate set of tables, but never really finished them.

However, this did get my thinking about tailoring something using the Cepheus Engine rules for my new sector. Last night my brain saw chugging away, and here are some of the ideas that I came up with for my Sailor player character, who is "wet merchant shipping". I understand that some additional explanation is gong to be needed in the final version.

2 You have been hired on by a movie company to sail a ship for a remake of Moby Dick, hunting actual sperm whales. Gain 1 Sailing Ship Skill Level. You may roll on the Service Skill Table as well.

3 While sailing in unfamiliar waters, your ship is caught by a storm, driven on a reef, and wrecked. You make it to shore with some of the rest of the crew, and are picked up by another ship 1-6 (roll D6) weeks later. Gain +1 Endurance and 1 Survival Skill Level. You may roll for promotion.

4 After several months of serving under a partially insane captain, you lead a mutiny and replace him. The ensuing Admiralty Court action finds the mutiny fully justified, and honorably acquits you. Gain 1 Leader Skill Level and + 1 Social. You may not roll on the service skill table.

5 Your ship is caught in a severe storm and several crewmen are injured. The captain hands you the emergency medical handbook and the ship’s medical chest, and tell you to tend to them. You spend the rest of the voyage tending to their injuries, with considerable success. Gain 1 Medical Skill Level and + 1 Social as a result of favorable news reports. You may roll on the Service Skills table.

6 Your ship suffers from an at-sea fire. In the course of putting it out, you suffer some lung damage from the smoke, and you loose 2 Endurance. You may roll on the Service Skills table.

7 You are serving under contract to the Rim Scouts to sail a vessel for them in the course of investigating a planet. Gain 1 Propulsion Skill Level, 1 Communications Skill Level, and 1 Gun Skill Level. You may not roll on the Service Skills Table. You must have at least a 2 Sailing Ship Skill Level.

My idea is that the players can roll on either the Event Table or the Service Skills Tables. The Event Table may have skills not available on the Service Skills Table, and some events will also allow a Service Skills roll. The overall technology level of the sector is lower than normal, with a lot of Tech Level 5 and lower worlds, so some of the higher Tech Level skills, like Electronic Communications, Nuclear-Electrc Propulsion, and Computer, for examples are not typical skills.

I am not sure if I will do this for all of the player character types in the sector, but I will be doing it for some. Some of the Sailor ideas should transfer to the Surface Navy in Supplement 4 and the Watercraft Skill in tThe Traveller Book.

 

[PeelSeel2]

Thanks for asking the question, as it got me thinking, and doing some reading. In Attack Squadron: Roswell, Paul Elliot put in a series of Event Tables to build a background for fighter pilots flying in the U.S. Air Force just after the Korean War. I had spent some time putting together an alternate set of tables, but never really finished them....

Awesome stuff! I have been debating on whether to do something similar. My problem is laziness and not even wanting to go through the work that you have done. I would rather pay for other peoples work. Thus the thought of knicking wholesale the tables for relevant careers from mgt1.