Or as I'm calling it for 2e, Profession: Naval Architect. I had a character roll exceptional success in designing a 600 ton starship, how should I reward this? Any thoughts?
Skill: Engineer (Naval)
- Thread starter Spartan159
- Start date
Several ideas:
Maybe he impressed the Shipyard engineers that his design in considered as IDP (Imperial Design Product).
If such status is achieved, it could bring lots of credits to him (akin of royalties), and achieving it could well be a hook for adventures (going to tests, convincing Imperial bureaucracy, bargaining with MegaCorps administrators, etc.)...
A lesser version would be he impressed enough a noble (or line manager) as to be interested in building one (or some) equal ships, paying him the Architect's fees.
Or he could have been able to use some standard parts so that the cost receives some (but not full) standarized bonus...
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Another possibility is to give the ship a bonus to one of the rolls for operating the ships. So maybe a bonus of +1 (or more, depending on how generous you are) to piloting/navigation.
If the ship is a trader, maybe a reduction in the time it takes to load and unload cargo (determine time taken normally, then take 10% or 20% off that time).
If the ship is a trader, maybe a reduction in the time it takes to load and unload cargo (determine time taken normally, then take 10% or 20% off that time).
The ship he designed isn't the one the PCs are using, correct? If so, the accomplishment occurred in his past. It's part of his backstory, it's not something which directly effects his day-to-day life.
You're looking at "rewards" like professional renown or contacts in certain circles. There could have a monetary reward/bonus from his old employers, but how much of that remains is another question.
The real question here isn't what the reward for that success in the past was, but how will you plausibly integrate that success into the character's backstory. The character used to work as a naval architect and was successful in the career, so why is he no longer doing it? Why are they now a Traveller? Why aren't they still working in their previous career?
All the various bells and whistles in MgT chargen are of no real use if they produce results which are not plausible for you and your players. It's akin to CT's sysgen; sometimes the system produces results that cannot be plausibly explained.
Remember, this plausibility hurdle applies to player characters. You have to explain why this particular character is plausibly part of this particular party. You don't need to explain NPCs in the same manner however.
Chargen produced all sorts of oddities for me over the years and I greedily kept some of the better ones as recurring NPCs. I've written about a "golden boy" ex-IN captain who earned a knighthood during his career. That NPC was rolled up with LBB:5's chargen and, while I felt he was implausible as a PC in the kind of campaigns I was running, I had no hesitation using him as a recurring NPC in several campaigns.
In a similar way, if the ship is a trader that carries passengers, you could apply a +1 bonus luxuries (no volume/money cost for it) or +1 DM to obtaing passengers (except low ones) due to the excellent layout he achieved in the passenger space making it more comfortable.
I'm leery of die roll modifiers for two reasons.
First, there isn't much "room" in 2D6. Once you add 2 or 3 DRMs, you might as well not roll the dice at all. (Brilliant Lances took the DRMs/Diff Mods for everything all the time mindset to such an extreme that they had to include a freaking slide rule to help the players keep track of DRMs and diff mods.)
Second, a DRM is a perpetual bonus. As such, the players will attempt to employ the DRM in any situation they can. Rather than roleplaying, the players will begin playing with their rolls and that in turn will force the referee to impose yet another DRM to negate the original one.
The character in question should be given a reward that he either must roleplay to use, like renown or contact, or one that will run out, like money.
First, there isn't much "room" in 2D6. Once you add 2 or 3 DRMs, you might as well not roll the dice at all. (Brilliant Lances took the DRMs/Diff Mods for everything all the time mindset to such an extreme that they had to include a freaking slide rule to help the players keep track of DRMs and diff mods.)
Second, a DRM is a perpetual bonus. As such, the players will attempt to employ the DRM in any situation they can. Rather than roleplaying, the players will begin playing with their rolls and that in turn will force the referee to impose yet another DRM to negate the original one.
The character in question should be given a reward that he either must roleplay to use, like renown or contact, or one that will run out, like money.
I'd suggest giving a 5% discount and/or a 10% time reduction for construction, assuming he's designed it for local build and it's actually locally built.
What this represents is knowledge of the cheapest local hardware that's up to spec, and just how much load it entails, and being able to put the orders in locally.
What this represents is knowledge of the cheapest local hardware that's up to spec, and just how much load it entails, and being able to put the orders in locally.
