Super Characters for Classic Traveller

[gloriousbattle]

Part of the charm of Traveller was the relatively wimpy characters who had to think their way out of problems. There was really little there for the power gamer, though psionics was subtly very powerful, it certainly didn't allow you to run around blasting Imperial Marines with waves of mind power.

However, rules did exist for creating uber-Travellers, for those who were into that sort of thing, and they came up often enough that they must have had at least some popularity.

Curious who ever used any of the following:

Mutants: Dragon Magazine #109 had an article called The Double Helix Connection, that gave rules for mutations (some of which were quite powerful) for Traveller characters. The chances of being a mutant were pretty slim, but th ref could adjust this of course.

Super Services: Paranoia Press had rules for SORAG (Zhodani Intelligence) and an Assassin class that was quite deadly. There was also a Dragon article "IBIS: Profit and Peril" by Kenneth Burke Issue 35 pg. 7 for a service called IBIS (Imperial Bureau Intelligence Service) which had really James Bond-ish possibilities.

Weird Powers: White Wolf Magazine #39 had an article called The Powers of the Past, with rules for weird, semi-psionic training.

Upgraded Nobles: Relief for Traveller Nobility from Dragon #73 and Robe and Blaster from White Dwarf # each had their own take on giving nobles actual political and military power, rather than just a cool title.

Upgraded Psionics: Space Gamer Psionics in Traveller Kenneth W. Burke 2 Nov/Dec 78 SG 20 had rules for more powerful psionic abilities.

Super-technology: This was more common than you might guess. Even as early as 1,001 Characters and Citizens of the Imperium, they had come up with (brief) rules for such things as the Affinity Twin, the Lens (Yes, THAT one) and implants that allowed for super speed.

In several articles, even more were created. In the Dragon adventure "Canard" by Roberto Camino Issue 43 pg. 35 there were rules for alien tech, such as an impenetrable forcefield, a quantum black hole, and a device that could rip spaceships apart, or even attack other worlds, with gravitic force beams. White Dwarf #33 had rules for the plasma pistol (TL 16, obvious), the Wiper (TL17 credit card sized, wiped your memory, no save) and the Warper (TL18 could send an enemy or enemy group into a parallel dimension, again, no save).

Also, even canon Traveller had Twilight's Peak, where you could get unstoppable disintegrators and shimmer suits, as well as a ship that could travel in other universes. Except, of course, Grandfather takes it all away from you. Party pooper.

 

[Icosahedron]

I was never really into all that. As you say, for me, one of the main appeals of Traveller was that it tended to avoid all that galaxy-busting superhero stuff and concentrated on real people solving real problems. Give me Ellen Ripley rather than Flash Gordon any day.

Apart from a couple of games back at college, I've never played a Traveller game with psionics or even battledress. My fellow gamers at that time quickly realised the limitations of a high-powered shoot-em-up - yeah, now we've deposed the Galactic Overlord, what do we do for an encore?

 

[ShapeShifter]

My fellow gamers at that time quickly realised the limitations of a high-powered shoot-em-up - yeah, now we've deposed the Galactic Overlord, what do we do for an encore?

Groom ewoks?


:rofl:

 

[Chuck Anumia]

yeah, now we've deposed the Galactic Overlord, what do we do for an encore?

I had 2 solutions to this problem. One was more drastic than the other but easier to manage.

1. Provide more than 50 layers of additional missions between the characters and the Galactic Overlord. Like pealing an onion, the Characters go down the rabbit hole farther and farther and sometimes wind up getting distracted by their own actions as they become either more popular or less popular with the administrators of the Imperium in their area. There are dozens of minions to take down before reaching the leader. Whatever characteristics your characters have, the enemy always has more of the same or even better ones.

2. After wining the battle the characters either take the place of the evil overlord they just deposed (and thus become targets for others who desire to rule in their stead) or they roll up new characters and start another line of adventures (the most drastic course of action IMO). They start all over as a crew of free traders in a distant part of the galaxy.

 

[gloriousbattle]

I had 2 solutions to this problem. One was more drastic than the other but easier to manage.

1. Provide more than 50 layers of additional missions between the characters and the Galactic Overlord. Like pealing an onion, the Characters go down the rabbit hole farther and farther and sometimes wind up getting distracted by their own actions as they become either more popular or less popular with the administrators of the Imperium in their area. There are dozens of minions to take down before reaching the leader. Whatever characteristics your characters have, the enemy always has more of the same or even better ones.

Agreed. There does seem to be an attitude that a truly intellectual campaign with a lot of twists and turns is mutually exclusive with uber-characters, and anyone wha has read E.E. "Doc" Smith knows this is simply untrue. Kimball Kinnison is probably the ultimate in uber-characters, but he has to peal back many layers of evil before he finally reaches Eddore.

 

[Jeffr0]

Don't forget the totally rad terrorist characters from Space Gamer #46!

Flub your reinlistment roll and they might break your arms and legs, though....

 

[CosmicGamer]

I think playing all kinds of characters can be fun.

Part of the charm of Traveller was the relatively wimpy characters who had to think their way out of problems.

I do however have issue with players thinking their way through things their wimpy character wouldn't be able to. The opposite is true too. A GM who creates an elaborate scenario that a player has trouble figuring out even though their character is a genius.

 

[gloriousbattle]

I think playing all kinds of characters can be fun. I do however have issue with players thinking their way through things their wimpy character wouldn't be able to. The opposite is true too. A GM who creates an elaborate scenario that a player has trouble figuring out even though their character is a genius.

Which brings up the interesting question of how you play a character who is smarter than the player? I had one GM who allowed a single "I take that back" for any character with a 15 Int (which, of course, was very rare). Basically, you could take back some action that your character would have been smart enough not to do. "Hmm. Wonder what happens if I push this button right..." BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

 

[Gray Lensman]

Agreed. There does seem to be an attitude that a truly intellectual campaign with a lot of twists and turns is mutually exclusive with uber-characters, and anyone wha has read E.E. "Doc" Smith knows this is simply untrue. Kimball Kinnison is probably the ultimate in uber-characters, but he has to peal back many layers of evil before he finally reaches Eddore.

HEY, leave my handle alone :rofl:

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Mtu (tne)

I also played around with Psionics more than other gimics in the game.
I even allowed players to train in a minimum of 2 Psionic disiplines if they rolled successfully for even one and let them roll one and choose one in order to further tweak their character.

This helped them create a character they wanted to play and gave them many more options for problem solving while limiting them by the rules of psionics already in place so they could not easily overpower every obsticle.

 

[gloriousbattle]

HEY, leave my handle alone :rofl:

Sorry, your secret's out.

 

[gloriousbattle]

let them roll one and choose one in order to further tweak their character.

Neat idea. I may have to try that at some point.

 

[Enoki]

I never had problems personally with someone wanting to have or use their "super" character. I simply adjusted things so that the party more frequently ran into "super" problems. If anything the rest of the players would quickly figure out that the "super" one was a magnet for deadly trouble, got the attention of the media, cops, important people who wanted impossible favors, etc.
The best way to look at this the way Syndrome said it in the movie The Incredibles: "When everybody is super no one will be!"

 

[gloriousbattle]

Absolutely. If you are going to up the players, you have to up the enemy. Therein lies the fun.