TA5: Objects of the Mind - Comments Wanted.

[notagoodusername]

Hello fellow Travellers,

Now that TA5 has been out a while I was wondering if anyone has had a chance to play it and has any comments and feedback for me? I can only improve my writing with feedback.

So please post any feedback you have for me.

Thanks,

Shane

 

[binky]

I haven't actually had a chance to read it yet. And of course, I can't use it in my upcoming game

- Neil.

 

[notagoodusername]

Yeah you can, I can easily pretend to be dumb without a problem. Seperating player and character knowledge is a true test of RPing ability...

Shane

 

[shield]

Shane

have you seen the product reviews in JTAS and on freelance traveller?

Cheers
Richard

 

[Morte]

It was a doomed adventure, chez Morte. I bought it and read it and liked it and came oh so close to running it.

My initial problem with it was that it didn't make a good follow-on from The Kursis Charter, because it's set on a specific pair of worlds about twelve jumps away. The players would have had to spend a quarter of a million on fuel to reach a job paying tens of thousands. I decided to resolve this by just altering the map, putting New Kurdistan closer to the Linkworlds. First hurdle overcome.

It happens that I don't like psionics -- If I wanted magic, I'd play a fantasy RPG -- and I'd already house-ruled them out of my game. But in a display of conspicuous "brilliance", I failed to divine from the title and blurb that this adventure focusses on psionics. Yes, I felt pretty stupid. But in the end, I decided not to be a stick-in-the-mud about it and to run the adventure anyway. Second hurdle overcome.

Then my players moved back to France. This third hurdle proved insurmountable.

Apart from that, I thought it was good. It's an interesting read. The part of it which is setting rather than adventure would fit nicely in a cluster sourcebook.

It's a tricky, dangerous adventure which PCs will need their heads screwed on to survive. In fact, my biggest caveat is that a truly smart PC might pull out once the going got tough...

It's also well-structured, and it makes the EPIC format work better than I've seen elsewhere. I can see a goodly portion of the PCs who start it getting to the end without ever feeling railroaded, because the things that happen make sense. Detailing the NPCs' motives and saying "here's what they'll want to try at an appropriate moment" is an ideal approach, to my mind.

 

[notagoodusername]

Thanks for the comments Morte. I'm glad you liked it for the most part.

I knew using pisonics would be quite risky as many folks don't like overuse of psionics.

Thanks again!

Shane

 

[etherflyer]

Originally posted by Shane Mclean:
Hello fellow Travellers,

Now that TA5 has been out a while I was wondering if anyone has had a chance to play it and has any comments and feedback for me? I can only improve my writing with feedback.

Only what I wrote on my JTAS review.

If I may use a programming metaphor, what you wrote was a classic program -- go here, face a choice, follow the branch...

But what a detective adventure needs is an object oriented approach: when the players enter the bar, they trigger the following actions...

A lot harder to write, and with a lot of overhead (you have to handle many things that may never be tried by a particular group).

Because you can't cover every possibility, you should pay careful attention to NPC motivations (and knowledge). This will make it easier for the GM to decide how the NPC will react when the players try something you haven't thought of.

Plan for multiple paths that all lead, eventually, to the same place -- the players feel like they are in control, and the GM doesn't have to plan as many possibilities.

Include multiple ways to reveal key information. If they players don't notice something, then the friendly detective will mention the odd findings of the coroner's report a couple of days later...

 

[notagoodusername]

Hi Rob,

I saw your comments on JTAS and have taken from them for future writing efforts. Thanks!

Shane

 

[Nightshade]

Shane, I liked TA5 overall but I have some questions about the Psionicist Prestige class.

The Enlistment requirements for the Psi Prestige class states "an individual must have completed training with an institute or "psionic master."
This means that a character cannot start out as a psionicist at 1st level, right?

Also, bonus feats for the psionicist are listed on the Psionicist table at 3rd, 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th level yet on page 50 it says "Bonus Feats: At 16th level and 20th level ..." which are not mentioned on the table. Please explain these descripencies. That is, what are the bonus Feats listed on the table and why aren't the 16th and 20th level bonus feats listed on the table?

Are the bonus feats gained at 3rd, 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th level limited or can they be any eligible Feat?

Do Psionicsts not gain New Spheres of influence at their creation like other characters that have psionics?

 

[Morte]

Originally posted by Nightshade:
Shane, I liked TA5 overall but I have some questions about the Psionicist Prestige class.

The Enlistment requirements for the Psi Prestige class states "an individual must have completed training with an institute or "psionic master."
This means that a character cannot start out as a psionicist at 1st level, right?

You could take the "Psi Trained" feat as a level one feat to say the character was evaluated/trained at a psionic institute before age 18. Or take it at any point in prior history before going into the psionicist class. It costs a feat and replaces the "finding a psionics institute" stuff in classic random chargen.

Also, bonus feats for the psionicist are listed on the Psionicist table at 3rd, 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th level yet on page 50 it says "Bonus Feats: At 16th level and 20th level ..." which are not mentioned on the table. Please explain these descripencies. That is, what are the bonus Feats listed on the table and why aren't the 16th and 20th level bonus feats listed on the table?

Dang, I knew there was something I meant to hassle Shane about, but I couldn't remember it. Seems you beat me to it...

Are the bonus feats gained at 3rd, 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th level limited or can they be any eligible Feat?

Normal D20 practice is that class bonus feats are spent on the class bonus feats table, and other feats aren't. It doesn't say anything about an exception, so...

Do Psionicsts not gain New Spheres of influence at their creation like other characters that have psionics?

I would think that when you "learn to exploit your innate psionic abilities", either by finding a psionics institute during roleplay or by simulating it in prior history with a feat, you go through the business of determining spheres.

It's the event in the PC's life story that leads to determining spheres -- you could roleplay your marine 6/ mercenary 3 who mustered out years ago visiting a psionics institute and discovering his abilities, and determine spheres without levelling in psionicist (or anything else).

The Psi Trained feat simulates that finding of the institute in prior history, and imposes a price (one feat) in lieu of the roleplaying risks (finding the institute without getting lobotomised by an angry mob).

 

[notagoodusername]

Hi guys,

Whilst I can't officially comment on the Psionicist class as that is Hunter's work and not mine (I didn't see it until the same time you guys did), I can take a few guesses.

On the bonus Feat thing, I think maybe the table should be followed, and the 16th and 20th thing ignored.

As Morte so rightly said, level based bonus feats are taken formt he class feat list unless all class feats are already taken, then they can be used for any feat.

Spheres of Influence: Good question. I would myself impose a Psionic Training Feat requirement at level 1 and allow the Psion 1 sphere of influence at creation. For non-starting characters they must have been trained, so will already have a Sphere. An important point to note is that Psions don't pay Feats for thier new spheres, nor do they need to pay Feats for the abilities within those Spheres, like non-pure psions do. They can use any ability they have the skill level and sphere for. FOr gaining more at char gen, you have your starting Feats and can learn new spheres, though there isn't much point as you get them free later on. ANother way to look at it is that Psions don't get any spheres until 5th level, and the first 4 are the training time. Not ideal, but it explains the gap in the table.

Hopefully Hunter will pop up here and clarify/overrule what I have said, as rules are his area and background is MArtin's (to the best of my knowledge).

Hope I helped,

Shane