To OTU or not to OTU?

[alanb]

I generally used the death in chargen rules. They were great for weeding out lousy characters: enlist them in the Scouts and keep reenlisting them until they died.

Of course, you lost some decent characters too, but that wasn't too big a drama, since the characters you ended up with were usually OK.

In retrospect it was an excessively time consuming way of doing things, of course, but it had its amusement value.

I guess the real problem is whether or not you are prepared to treat chargen as a separate game you have to play before the "real" game, or whether you want it to simply be a tool.

These days I prefer "probability guided design", aka "picking the results you want, while trying not to be obvious about it".

I still have vague ideas of playing an ATU campaign again in the future. While I would borrow details liberally from the OTU, I would ditch all the main stuff - no Imperium, no OTU aliens and so on.

Instead I would probably have a bunch of pocket empires and few, if any, aliens. Alternatively, I might have some kind of extremely loose interstellar authority, based on some of Jack Vance's books.

I just have to get around to laying out the main details of the setting... I'm not holding my breath.

 

[alanb]

I generally used the death in chargen rules. They were great for weeding out lousy characters: enlist them in the Scouts and keep reenlisting them until they died.

Of course, you lost some decent characters too, but that wasn't too big a drama, since the characters you ended up with were usually OK.

In retrospect it was an excessively time consuming way of doing things, of course, but it had its amusement value.

I guess the real problem is whether or not you are prepared to treat chargen as a separate game you have to play before the "real" game, or whether you want it to simply be a tool.

These days I prefer "probability guided design", aka "picking the results you want, while trying not to be obvious about it".

I still have vague ideas of playing an ATU campaign again in the future. While I would borrow details liberally from the OTU, I would ditch all the main stuff - no Imperium, no OTU aliens and so on.

Instead I would probably have a bunch of pocket empires and few, if any, aliens. Alternatively, I might have some kind of extremely loose interstellar authority, based on some of Jack Vance's books.

I just have to get around to laying out the main details of the setting... I'm not holding my breath.

 

[aramis]

I once had a player try the "Scouts as Suicide" option; 8 terms later (Term 8 due to mandatory re-up), and then get expelled (2 on re-up roll), he was a decent character.

I've had players with a good stat set get hit with "One term Weenie" issues. They, too can be fun. Especially if one uses an experience add-in to CT (or uses any other Traveller flavor).

I am thinking of a pocket empire kind of set-up myself. Mine's going to be 3D, and with VERY different (but HG variant detail level) ships and tech. (TL 9 jump drives taking 3% of hull, providing J1, and using 30% of hull volume in fuel.... TL 10 J1 takes 3% & 24%, J2 takes 5% # 40%, etc..). T&C to be modeled using T20...

Every edition has added something good:
CT: HG ship design, loads of setting, 76 patrons.
MT: Combat and Task mechanics, Brought Basic CG in line with Advanced.
2300: increasing cost with level of skill, career hoping, 1st OATU
TNE: Contacts, technical architecture, Initiative system
T4: 1 skill per year
T20: T&C, core rulebook with aliens, accessibility to a wider crowd.

 

[aramis]

I once had a player try the "Scouts as Suicide" option; 8 terms later (Term 8 due to mandatory re-up), and then get expelled (2 on re-up roll), he was a decent character.

I've had players with a good stat set get hit with "One term Weenie" issues. They, too can be fun. Especially if one uses an experience add-in to CT (or uses any other Traveller flavor).

I am thinking of a pocket empire kind of set-up myself. Mine's going to be 3D, and with VERY different (but HG variant detail level) ships and tech. (TL 9 jump drives taking 3% of hull, providing J1, and using 30% of hull volume in fuel.... TL 10 J1 takes 3% & 24%, J2 takes 5% # 40%, etc..). T&C to be modeled using T20...

Every edition has added something good:
CT: HG ship design, loads of setting, 76 patrons.
MT: Combat and Task mechanics, Brought Basic CG in line with Advanced.
2300: increasing cost with level of skill, career hoping, 1st OATU
TNE: Contacts, technical architecture, Initiative system
T4: 1 skill per year
T20: T&C, core rulebook with aliens, accessibility to a wider crowd.

 

[Theo D Lite]

Originally posted by Fritz88:
And, what, exactly, is wrong with cliches?

Well when you put it like that I suppose there's not too much wrong with them. It was just that when I weighed it all up I felt that MTU was a hotch-potch of other peoples ideas cobbled together against a set of UWP's of mine.

We had a couple of very solid CT referees in my original group and my history parralled one of these quite closely. I then stitched in a rebellion a la Star Wars, a ruling monarchy that were really just figure heads now, a loose Federation, a bunch of fifth columnists who were trying to overthrow the current regieme and reinstate the old "iron rule", oh and a handful of really special NPC's that might give a link to a bit of magic or psi or who knows what.

It was basically a bunch of ideas with limited coherance. It took a good espionage campaign after our finals lasting about 1 year of game time with the characters and the universe surviving for a number of linked one offs run in get togethers post graduation.

I still think that being more wordly wise (gross assumption there) I would do it differently now and would make a better job of it - who knows. I guess I won't unless I try!

 

[Theo D Lite]

Originally posted by Fritz88:
And, what, exactly, is wrong with cliches?

Well when you put it like that I suppose there's not too much wrong with them. It was just that when I weighed it all up I felt that MTU was a hotch-potch of other peoples ideas cobbled together against a set of UWP's of mine.

We had a couple of very solid CT referees in my original group and my history parralled one of these quite closely. I then stitched in a rebellion a la Star Wars, a ruling monarchy that were really just figure heads now, a loose Federation, a bunch of fifth columnists who were trying to overthrow the current regieme and reinstate the old "iron rule", oh and a handful of really special NPC's that might give a link to a bit of magic or psi or who knows what.

It was basically a bunch of ideas with limited coherance. It took a good espionage campaign after our finals lasting about 1 year of game time with the characters and the universe surviving for a number of linked one offs run in get togethers post graduation.

I still think that being more wordly wise (gross assumption there) I would do it differently now and would make a better job of it - who knows. I guess I won't unless I try!