Streamlined Traveller, and some house rules.

[Rerednaw]

Has anyone else done this?
Kind of like 'traveller-lite'

Due to a great deal of player confusion, I opted to implement a streamlined Traveller skill set.

Task resolution follows the stand 8+ with skill mod, stat mod (similar Mongoose but really from before that I've been doing this since Megatraveller) and a modifier based on difficulty.

Not exactly realistic but this allowed us to focus on story and moving things along rather than figure out which specific skill applied. And it made the character sheets fit on a 3x5 card again

Skills has been compressed in this fashion:

Engineers includes mechanical, electronics, gravitics. Basically anything 'Tech' that involves fixing things.
Science includes all sciences and medical.
Admin, Broker, Bureaucracy, Carousing are all social based skills and consolidated into Admin.
Tactics, Survival, Hunting, and Recon are combined.
Streetwise, Forgery and the like also combined.
Gun Combat has 3 categories: Archaic, slug, and energy.
Blade Combat is all blades, clubs, melee weapons.
Vehicles is all vehicles.
Heavy Weapons are all heavy weapons.
Vacc Suit, Zero-G, Battledress are Vacc suit.

YMMV but I found this cut back on the page flipping immensely.
If the above was too complex, I usually opted for another system like an Uncharted Worlds or Stars without Number.

I also implemented some house rules for 'EZ mode'
Low-Mid-High Passage were all consolidated into a cascade benefit. Armor, Weapon, or 10k cash. Duplicate rolls would be skill (Vacc Suit or Gun combat for example).
Re-roll all 1's and 2's on cash rolls.
If a survival/promotion/etc roll is failed, the player can opt for a complication instead and pass the roll. For example you ended up getting that promotion by using your connections...and the guy that got passed over and found out is now your Enemy. Or you got treated for the medical injuries (failed survival) but now owe some Corporation some major credits...or a favor. And so on. It's nice to create hooks right off and it gets the player engaged as I let them decide /invent what kind of complication.

 

[vegas]

I have thought a lot about simplifying skills along those lines and have looked at a many posters examples here on COTI and in other rpgs, but in the end decided it was easy enough (and more colorful) to just keep the hodgepodge of CT skills but liberally allow "near skills" to be used on tasks at 1 or 2 lower levels.

 

[willtron3030]

Stellagama has done something like that to varying degrees with CE-Faster-Than-Light and Cepheus Quantum. CE-FTL uses 30 skills. CQ distills it down further to the minimalist set of Combat, Knowledge, Physical, Social, Space, and Technical). I admit an urge to try CQ out in a con game room soon.

 

[Golan2072]

Has anyone else done this?
Kind of like 'traveller-lite'

I did something similar to this with the old Mongoose SRD with Cepheus Light and its even lighter versions Cepheus: Faster Than Light and Cepheus Quantum.

Task resolution follows the stand 8+ with skill mod, stat mod (similar Mongoose but really from before that I've been doing this since Megatraveller) and a modifier based on difficulty.

For a similar system, see Rule 68A suggested by Supplement Four on the CT forum here.

One thing you can do to simplify things further is to "divorce" skill and characteristic throws from each other. MGT1 uses this in Events and several other places: "Throw Gun Combat 8+ to succeed" and so on. Just throw 8+ with the skill added as a DM. I'd even suggest 6+ for average non-combat throws as it gives you more appropriate chances of success for a skilled professional. Then use characteristic throws for more generic matters, such as using brute strength (STR 8+) or shaking off a poison or disease (END 8+).

Skills has been compressed in this fashion:

Engineers includes mechanical, electronics, gravitics. Basically anything 'Tech' that involves fixing things.
Science includes all sciences and medical.
Admin, Broker, Bureaucracy, Carousing are all social based skills and consolidated into Admin.
Tactics, Survival, Hunting, and Recon are combined.
Streetwise, Forgery and the like also combined.
Gun Combat has 3 categories: Archaic, slug, and energy.
Blade Combat is all blades, clubs, melee weapons.
Vehicles is all vehicles.
Heavy Weapons are all heavy weapons.
Vacc Suit, Zero-G, Battledress are Vacc suit.

I did something similar with the Mongoose SRD with Cepheus Light. No cascade skills or specializations; only 30 skills total covering everything.

If a survival/promotion/etc roll is failed, the player can opt for a complication instead and pass the roll. For example you ended up getting that promotion by using your connections...and the guy that got passed over and found out is now your Enemy. Or you got treated for the medical injuries (failed survival) but now owe some Corporation some major credits...or a favor. And so on. It's nice to create hooks right off and it gets the player engaged as I let them decide /invent what kind of complication.

MGT1 does that, with the addition of the (wonderful) Event tables.

 

[Golan2072]

Stellagama has done something like that to varying degrees with CE-Faster-Than-Light and Cepheus Quantum. CE-FTL uses 30 skills. CQ distills it down further to the minimalist set of Combat, Knowledge, Physical, Social, Space, and Technical). I admit an urge to try CQ out in a con game room soon.

Wonderful! I would love to hear about your impressions from it after the con game. (CL/C:FTL/CQ author here ).

 

[kilemall]

I've squished down a lot consolidating LBB4+/S4 skills into general ones, and added MgT/CE skills to my basic CT tables.


Good example, squished Advocate, Intimidate, Liaison etc. into Persuade.
Admin gets Legal.
Combat Engineering includes itself and Demolitions.

Recon is also Forward Observer.
Gunnery is starship and crew served weapons.

Deception replaces and includes Bribery.


More examples if you like, but I do like a certain amount of differentiation. So Leader or Carousing is not merged into Persuade because there is more to leadership then persuasion, and carousing is more generating a feeling leading to cooperation.

 

[JMiskimen]

When printing up my 'heart-breaker/house-ruled' version of Traveller, I eliminated the skill descriptions, leaving them more open to interpretation and to be more flexible on a case by case basis.