Need simple alien/creature for my young son to play in a CT game

[nats]

Well what this game with the kids showed me above anything else is that - Classic Traveller combat is rather stale, I need far more characterisation of my characters and NPCs, and the adventures need a lot more work to make them interesting to kids rather than grown ups.

It didnt go too badly considering its the first time I've played in years and I was a bit rusty - I think they had fun, certainly my ten year old did. Although my four year old got bored after two hours (very good for him). He liked his glider wolf but I couldnt really get into description too much without him getting bored so I think he definitely needs to be older to fully appreciate Traveller!! No surprise there though.

My ten year old - she liked the adventure part and the exploration/drawing the maps etc but again too young to appreciate any real description and nuances, and too young to fully understand much of the science elements - but shes got time yet.

However after this attempt I have decided to get back into Mongoose Traveller - yes after slagging it off in comparison to CT, I have decided I was being foolish resisting change for emotional reasons. Classic Traveller IMO is just too old to compete with these new RPG systems. And MgT does have a lot that is better - especially the character creation and NPC development not to mention better combat and that the info is all in one place.

So although Classic Traveller will always have a spot in my heart I think I will have to bid it a farewell. I'm not selling my books mind! But MgT and the new era of traveller here I come (yet again). But this time I am going to be very selective about what exactly I buy!!! Last time I got loads of things that I didnt actually end up liking - CSC, Mercenary, Scout etc. This time I will get things I will actually use in my games. Starting with the core book and nothing else!

 

[sabredog]

CT combat stale? Huh, well that's too bad...still, so long as Mongoose works for you that's good. Only my youngest (and she started at 10) is interested in RPG's at all, and she got started only because she heard me describing to my ex in the car one day a bit about an animal I was cooking up for the game (turned out to be the Cheshire Cat).

SO Sarah comes to me later and asks if she could see this new video game I was talking about - she liked to watch me play Half-Life and the Fallout games, and was just starting Morrowind herself. I told her it wasn't a videogame and dragged out all the the stuff I have in a couple of boxes, and we sat down and i told her all about MTU and the rules, drawings, ships, characters, etc..

She rolled up Scout Lady Victoria Challenger and she and I played a sort of solo campaign. She likes to draw animals, real and imagined, so she'd come up with some drawing of what she thought a creature we'd roll up would look like. We'd both work out how it behaved and all by having her play in the game "observing" the critter and taking notes. Sometimes she'd get into a fight with pirates or really nasty creatures (Vicky's handy with a combat automatic shotgun), but mostly its a low-key game based on her interest in science and particularly biology and zoology (she wants to be a vet someday). My education in the same (derailed when i got a job as a cop to support my growing family) helps - as does a little imagination - which I use to coax details and get Sarah to reason out why the animals Scout Vicky discovers act the way they do, how they fit into the ecosystem, etc..

And I'm writing a never-ending story about her adventures discovering the planet Victoria (IMTU) and plugging into it her character's in-game experiences. Someday it'll be finished and I'll get it printed and bound professionally to give her as a present. I'll stick all her character's "field notes" in it and sketches.

Anyway...when your kids are older they'll get into the game more - it sounds like your 10yo is there already. Just ask her what she wants to do in the game and then do that - then sneak in all that "boring" stuff later.

 

[nats]

Anyway...when your kids are older they'll get into the game more - it sounds like your 10yo is there already. Just ask her what she wants to do in the game and then do that - then sneak in all that "boring" stuff later.

Yeah I guess I will need to find out what she is interested in. She loves doing lists for some reason, so I think she is a budding roll player at heart.

Its perhaps not that Traveller combat is stale so much as I am not a good enough referee to make it interesting past rolling dice and reducing stats. But I can remember thinking it was a bit dull years ago actually - very little substance to it really. I do think MgT has more going for it in terms of combat and other things with generally less spreadsheet checking. I think any game that can get more roll playing and less rule checking had got to be the kind of thing I want to play and that looks like MgT.

But like I say I love Classic Traveller for emotive reasons and always will. MgT has had issues (lack of quality, lack of direction, lack of care. lousy illustrations) in some of its products but I have to say that the core book is superb. And its not as if CT doesn't have its own issues either.

 

[sabredog]

If she likes listing and categorizing things then unless you are set on using the only the maps in the OTU I'd get her to help roll up and figure out what the subsector she plays in looks like. And design some ships. Make it a sort of joint venture in a way. Its just a suggestion (that you probably alreay know anyway), but its similar to Sarah enjoying the combat and ship designing less and the animal and world-building better so we split the difference so she feels more involved and gets what she wants out of the game.

I haven't tried MgT - probably won't either since my players are all as old-school as me when it comes to Traveller and my game is the only one in town anyhow. We just round robin at each others homes for either Traveller, D&D, or (God help me but a friend is a friend) Star Wars.

Anyway, sounds like MgT will work out better and its easy enough (so I've heard) to convert from CT to MgT any materials and back again so you'll find plenty of materials, adventures, and good natured squabbling on all the threads here! At least anything I post here or in Freelance is for CT, but the stats are easily converted and I try to keep it as generic (at least animal life and things other than firearms) as I can so it isn't specific to MTU.

Have fun!

 

[Nightwind1]

Oh, well then, the solution is obvious...

He should play a rank 2 Marine bat creature with shark teeth, a fin sprouting from his head and psionic abilities, who can breathe underwater. Oh yeah, give him several 'instant steroid' combat doses from mustering out!

(Single weapon, hmmm... Ah! Got it! Head mounted laser!)

No, that's "Giant frickin' laser!".