SILHOUETTE/TRAVELLER HYBRID
I’ve been working on a Silhouette system version of Traveller. I’ve used the Megatraveller Enhanced Character Generation and bolted Silhouette mechanics to MongTrav. The shorthand is that it’s worked really well. I’ve run two different Merchant Prince solo runs with Star Trader and those mechanics mapped really well.
Silhouette has rules for advancement that mesh well. I like the combat mechanic more and an integrated vehicle design/combat system. Not to mention, I like the probabilities better. It also works well with characters having more skills and room for growth. Utilizing the Megatraveller Enhanced CharGen provided the ability to get the characters the higher number of skills that I prefer in games. I added a number of skills and the system seems to be working so far. I like skills. Sue me. One thing that is a bit apparent though is that characters are competent a bit younger... early to mid-30's a Silhouette character is usually in fairly good shape for a beginning Traveller character. When you push into the 40's, they get very competent.
So I thought I would show folks the end result… and then I’ll run through some mechanics.
CHARACTER GENERATION IN GENERAL
Most of this is ginned from Megatraveller except Aging, Mustering and a few other things. The obvious stuff below is for those who play different kinds of Traveller without those mechanics/definitions.
Brownie Points:
These are used in Megatrav to get bonuses on rolls. They exist here and can be transferred at the end of the CharGen process into Emergency Dice for Silhouette mechanics.
-A BP spent reduces/increases a roll. Any amount of points can be spent on a roll.
-Any points left over from Attribute Point Buy become Brownie Points.
Cascades:
A cascade skill has subsets that gain rank-0 and can be improved separately. Ex: Engineer (Jump-1, Maneuver-0, Systems-0).
Clusters:
A collection of skills that a player may choose from when getting a skill.
Skill Levels
In Silhouette, the mechanic is attempting to beat a Threshold (Target Number) by rolling a number of d6 and keep highest roll. A. Your Attribute provides a bonus (+1, etc). Your skill level provides the # of d6 you roll. If you roll more than one “6”, you get a +1 (or + number of 6’s rolled).
So Bob has Cooking-2. If he has no Attribute bonuses, he rolls 2 six-siders. He gets a 4 and 2. His roll is a 4.
If he rolled two 6’s, his roll would have been 7.
I did institute 0-level skills as I like that aspect of Traveller.
DAMIL FIRSKALAV
Since this is an example, I’m going to build a small crew centered on a detached S-Type. For that, we need a Scout! Damil is going to be focused on getting himself one of them detached S-Types and all the skills needed to run it!
Step One, Attributes-Point Buy
The attributes for Silhouette map well with Traveller and add some additional aspects. The Attributes are, with Traveller analogs/substitutes in parentheses, Agility, Appearance, Build, Creativity (INT), Fitness, Influence, Knowledge (EDU), Perception, Psyche (Social Class), and Willpower. The attributes are fairly self-explanatory.
I removed Psyche completely and replaced it with SOC. I considered leaving it and having SOC a non-attribute but Traveller has considered it such since time immemorial. Also there are a number of mechanics/rolls that benefit from the use of SOC.
All Attributes are rated -5 to +5. With anything beyond +/- 3 quite extraordinary. In essence, if we ignore the 2-15 range of Traveller and focus on the Mong Trav bonuses, we’re in good shape.
Since Traveller is a Gritty game and there are opportunities to increase Attributes, I start with 20 Attribute points. Each Attribute starts at -1. I’m not going to list all the costs, just the ones I use here…
Damil Firskalav is going to be a Scout (hopefully) and eventually the captain of his own scout ship. A guy can dream… so we want him to be in good health, smart and resourceful. But I have room for improvement and want to start with some Brownie Points.
I don’t need a high SOC to get into the Scouts so we’ll leave that at -1. I want to ensure that all others are at least 0. For Influence, Creativity and Knowledge, I spend 18pts to get those at +1.
I have 2pts remaining and hold onto them as starting Brownie Points.
Step Two, Homeworld and Background Skills
As in Megatraveller, a character receives Homeworld and Background Skills based on origin system. I randomly pick (by scrolling real fast)… Nundishaag (Ley 1228)(A300A99-D). My Homeworld skills start at -1 (level 1). My background skills start at -0.
Background
As an Average Stellar TL citizen, I receive Grav Vehicle-0, Computer-0. I also receive one Combat Skill at -0 and I go with Defense which is pretty basic and important. Just in case I don’t pick it up somewhere.
Homeworld
Nundishaag is a High Pop, Industrial planet. So I receive… Streetwise-1, Trade (Pharmacy-1). I decide it’s pharmaceuticals because Dad is in the pharmacy business.
And… prior to the start of Damil’s career. Here is what he looks like:
Damil Firskalav [Pre-Career]
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: 0
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: -1, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 2
SKILLS
Streetwise-1, Trade (Pharmaceuticals-1)
Computer-0, Grav Vehicle-0
COMBAT SKILLS
Defense-0
Step Three, Damil’s Career Entry-Scouts and First Term
All of the Career Entry, Survival, and so on rolls I’ve kept as 2d6 per Megatraveller. The charts have been modified for new skills and such.
I use the notation [Term.Year] so the first term is 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4.
Career Entry-Scouts
So now Damil, at 17 years old, heads to the IISS recruitment fair. His planet is on an X-boat route but no Scout base. He should be okay since I have those Brownie Points for my roll.
I need to roll a 7+ to get into the Scouts. I receive a +1DM for being on an Xboat Route and a +1DM for my Creativity (+1). I rolled an 11, so no worries! Damil is recruited into the Scouts in the Field Division.
Year 1.1--Basic Training
I roll for his Branch Assignment and get Communications. He has been assigned to the Xboat network and receives his basic training. The basic training for all Field Scouts is Pilot (cascade), one Branch skill and Vacc Suit-0. He takes Pilot (Starship-1) since I plan on him being a captain at the end…
I roll under Communications for his Branch skill… Vacc Suit-1. I guess after a wild time in flight training he was set to scrubbing the hulls of berthed vessels to learn some patience.
Year 1.2
Now we have fun with the Expanded Character Generation from Megatraveller. Rolling on the Assignments, Damil gets sent on a Special Mission right away. Special Missions provide, if you survive, a bonus skill from the Special Mission table so it’s a good result. If you survive.
Checking the tables, we need a 6+ to survive and get no bonuses. A 9 keeps Damil safe! There are no promotions in the Field department but we beat a 6+ for a skill also.
Our Special Mission skill is rolled with a d6 and we get Animals (cascade). I don’t like that and note that the Espionage Cluster is the next entry so I spend a Brownie Point to get a skill from there. The Espionage Cluster allows me to pick from (Comms, Deception, Disguise, Interrogation, Security, Tradecraft). You can’t go wrong with Security so Damil goes with that. His Special Mission must have involved a break-in or protection of some asset.
For his regular Skill, Damil can choose between the following tables: Communications Branch, Scout Life or Field Department. He goes with Communications since it has good ship skills. He picks up [Small Craft] as an individual skill. This goes into his Pilot (cascade) but only for Small Craft. If he did not have Pilot, it would have been received as an individual skill and not a cascade.
Year 1.3
This time Damil rolls a Mission which provides no extras. He makes his Survival roll but misses his Skill roll by 2pts. I don’t have enough BP’s to change that and it’s a high price for one skill so we move on.
Year 1.4
He rolls Routine schedule for the last year of his first term. It started off pretty exciting but ended a bit monotonous. Survival is easy but, again, I miss the Skill (7+) roll by too much to alter it.
Term Completion
Upon the end of a successfully completed Term, a character gets a bonus skill roll. Damil can choose from the same tables: Communications Branch, Scout Life or Field Department. This time, he needs to round out a bit so he chooses the Field Department table. He rolls a 3, which gets him [Weapon] so a single type of weapon and no cascades. Seems like a decent time to add a Laser Pistol since he needs a weapon that can be used in vacuum.
NOTE: My intention is to somehow use the Events tables from Mongoose or my own to provide a basis for the Connections with other players. For now, it’s just a Bonus Skill roll.
Term Brownie Point
For completing the term, Damil also receives a Brownie Point so he’s back to 2.
And here is Damil after his first term…
Damil Firskalav, Scouts (1 Term)
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: 0
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: -1, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 2
SKILLS
Pilot (Starship-1, Small Craft-1), Security-1, Streetwise-1, Trade (Pharmaceuticals-1), Vacc Suit-1
Computer-0, Grav Vehicle-0
COMBAT SKILLS
Defense-0
Laser Pistol-1
I’ve been working on a Silhouette system version of Traveller. I’ve used the Megatraveller Enhanced Character Generation and bolted Silhouette mechanics to MongTrav. The shorthand is that it’s worked really well. I’ve run two different Merchant Prince solo runs with Star Trader and those mechanics mapped really well.
Silhouette has rules for advancement that mesh well. I like the combat mechanic more and an integrated vehicle design/combat system. Not to mention, I like the probabilities better. It also works well with characters having more skills and room for growth. Utilizing the Megatraveller Enhanced CharGen provided the ability to get the characters the higher number of skills that I prefer in games. I added a number of skills and the system seems to be working so far. I like skills. Sue me. One thing that is a bit apparent though is that characters are competent a bit younger... early to mid-30's a Silhouette character is usually in fairly good shape for a beginning Traveller character. When you push into the 40's, they get very competent.
So I thought I would show folks the end result… and then I’ll run through some mechanics.
CHARACTER GENERATION IN GENERAL
Most of this is ginned from Megatraveller except Aging, Mustering and a few other things. The obvious stuff below is for those who play different kinds of Traveller without those mechanics/definitions.
Brownie Points:
These are used in Megatrav to get bonuses on rolls. They exist here and can be transferred at the end of the CharGen process into Emergency Dice for Silhouette mechanics.
-A BP spent reduces/increases a roll. Any amount of points can be spent on a roll.
-Any points left over from Attribute Point Buy become Brownie Points.
Cascades:
A cascade skill has subsets that gain rank-0 and can be improved separately. Ex: Engineer (Jump-1, Maneuver-0, Systems-0).
Clusters:
A collection of skills that a player may choose from when getting a skill.
Skill Levels
In Silhouette, the mechanic is attempting to beat a Threshold (Target Number) by rolling a number of d6 and keep highest roll. A. Your Attribute provides a bonus (+1, etc). Your skill level provides the # of d6 you roll. If you roll more than one “6”, you get a +1 (or + number of 6’s rolled).
So Bob has Cooking-2. If he has no Attribute bonuses, he rolls 2 six-siders. He gets a 4 and 2. His roll is a 4.
If he rolled two 6’s, his roll would have been 7.
I did institute 0-level skills as I like that aspect of Traveller.
DAMIL FIRSKALAV
Since this is an example, I’m going to build a small crew centered on a detached S-Type. For that, we need a Scout! Damil is going to be focused on getting himself one of them detached S-Types and all the skills needed to run it!
Step One, Attributes-Point Buy
The attributes for Silhouette map well with Traveller and add some additional aspects. The Attributes are, with Traveller analogs/substitutes in parentheses, Agility, Appearance, Build, Creativity (INT), Fitness, Influence, Knowledge (EDU), Perception, Psyche (Social Class), and Willpower. The attributes are fairly self-explanatory.
I removed Psyche completely and replaced it with SOC. I considered leaving it and having SOC a non-attribute but Traveller has considered it such since time immemorial. Also there are a number of mechanics/rolls that benefit from the use of SOC.
All Attributes are rated -5 to +5. With anything beyond +/- 3 quite extraordinary. In essence, if we ignore the 2-15 range of Traveller and focus on the Mong Trav bonuses, we’re in good shape.
Since Traveller is a Gritty game and there are opportunities to increase Attributes, I start with 20 Attribute points. Each Attribute starts at -1. I’m not going to list all the costs, just the ones I use here…
Damil Firskalav is going to be a Scout (hopefully) and eventually the captain of his own scout ship. A guy can dream… so we want him to be in good health, smart and resourceful. But I have room for improvement and want to start with some Brownie Points.
I don’t need a high SOC to get into the Scouts so we’ll leave that at -1. I want to ensure that all others are at least 0. For Influence, Creativity and Knowledge, I spend 18pts to get those at +1.
I have 2pts remaining and hold onto them as starting Brownie Points.
Step Two, Homeworld and Background Skills
As in Megatraveller, a character receives Homeworld and Background Skills based on origin system. I randomly pick (by scrolling real fast)… Nundishaag (Ley 1228)(A300A99-D). My Homeworld skills start at -1 (level 1). My background skills start at -0.
Background
As an Average Stellar TL citizen, I receive Grav Vehicle-0, Computer-0. I also receive one Combat Skill at -0 and I go with Defense which is pretty basic and important. Just in case I don’t pick it up somewhere.
Homeworld
Nundishaag is a High Pop, Industrial planet. So I receive… Streetwise-1, Trade (Pharmacy-1). I decide it’s pharmaceuticals because Dad is in the pharmacy business.
And… prior to the start of Damil’s career. Here is what he looks like:
Damil Firskalav [Pre-Career]
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: 0
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: -1, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 2
SKILLS
Streetwise-1, Trade (Pharmaceuticals-1)
Computer-0, Grav Vehicle-0
COMBAT SKILLS
Defense-0
Step Three, Damil’s Career Entry-Scouts and First Term
All of the Career Entry, Survival, and so on rolls I’ve kept as 2d6 per Megatraveller. The charts have been modified for new skills and such.
I use the notation [Term.Year] so the first term is 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4.
Career Entry-Scouts
So now Damil, at 17 years old, heads to the IISS recruitment fair. His planet is on an X-boat route but no Scout base. He should be okay since I have those Brownie Points for my roll.
I need to roll a 7+ to get into the Scouts. I receive a +1DM for being on an Xboat Route and a +1DM for my Creativity (+1). I rolled an 11, so no worries! Damil is recruited into the Scouts in the Field Division.
Year 1.1--Basic Training
I roll for his Branch Assignment and get Communications. He has been assigned to the Xboat network and receives his basic training. The basic training for all Field Scouts is Pilot (cascade), one Branch skill and Vacc Suit-0. He takes Pilot (Starship-1) since I plan on him being a captain at the end…
I roll under Communications for his Branch skill… Vacc Suit-1. I guess after a wild time in flight training he was set to scrubbing the hulls of berthed vessels to learn some patience.
Year 1.2
Now we have fun with the Expanded Character Generation from Megatraveller. Rolling on the Assignments, Damil gets sent on a Special Mission right away. Special Missions provide, if you survive, a bonus skill from the Special Mission table so it’s a good result. If you survive.
Checking the tables, we need a 6+ to survive and get no bonuses. A 9 keeps Damil safe! There are no promotions in the Field department but we beat a 6+ for a skill also.
Our Special Mission skill is rolled with a d6 and we get Animals (cascade). I don’t like that and note that the Espionage Cluster is the next entry so I spend a Brownie Point to get a skill from there. The Espionage Cluster allows me to pick from (Comms, Deception, Disguise, Interrogation, Security, Tradecraft). You can’t go wrong with Security so Damil goes with that. His Special Mission must have involved a break-in or protection of some asset.
For his regular Skill, Damil can choose between the following tables: Communications Branch, Scout Life or Field Department. He goes with Communications since it has good ship skills. He picks up [Small Craft] as an individual skill. This goes into his Pilot (cascade) but only for Small Craft. If he did not have Pilot, it would have been received as an individual skill and not a cascade.
Year 1.3
This time Damil rolls a Mission which provides no extras. He makes his Survival roll but misses his Skill roll by 2pts. I don’t have enough BP’s to change that and it’s a high price for one skill so we move on.
Year 1.4
He rolls Routine schedule for the last year of his first term. It started off pretty exciting but ended a bit monotonous. Survival is easy but, again, I miss the Skill (7+) roll by too much to alter it.
Term Completion
Upon the end of a successfully completed Term, a character gets a bonus skill roll. Damil can choose from the same tables: Communications Branch, Scout Life or Field Department. This time, he needs to round out a bit so he chooses the Field Department table. He rolls a 3, which gets him [Weapon] so a single type of weapon and no cascades. Seems like a decent time to add a Laser Pistol since he needs a weapon that can be used in vacuum.
NOTE: My intention is to somehow use the Events tables from Mongoose or my own to provide a basis for the Connections with other players. For now, it’s just a Bonus Skill roll.
Term Brownie Point
For completing the term, Damil also receives a Brownie Point so he’s back to 2.
And here is Damil after his first term…
Damil Firskalav, Scouts (1 Term)
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: 0
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: -1, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 2
SKILLS
Pilot (Starship-1, Small Craft-1), Security-1, Streetwise-1, Trade (Pharmaceuticals-1), Vacc Suit-1
Computer-0, Grav Vehicle-0
COMBAT SKILLS
Defense-0
Laser Pistol-1