CT Only: Very basic noob questions thread

[Willie Dewitt]

Having played a bit of Traveller back in the early 80’s, I decided to use Classic Traveller (exclusively using the 3 little books, or at least, PDF’s of such) as an easy alternate game for when my D&D group was low on players. My players had zero experience with the game (and I had forgotten almost everything about the rules), but we ended up having great fun with the character creation process. Many of the results seemed to have stirred their imaginations. I’ll probably have more questions as more games happen, so thought I might start a “noob” thread for help with my particular questions and anybody who wants to jump in with such.

Please keep in mind I only downloaded book 1 so far(and did not exactly memorize it). For our first session, and to see if everybody liked the game, it seemed like enough. So my first questions pertain to that.

First off, my impression is once you are unable to reenlist in service you cannot try to enlist in any of the others. Is this so BTB? I actually allowed a couple of players who’s promising careers ended early with a bad reenlist roll to try to enlist in either the Merchant service (with a minor modifier), Scouts, or Other.

My other immediate question is regarding getting a ship on mustering out. It seems like there is a really good chance of this happening when there are several characters getting rolled up. My memory of playing back in the day was mostly guys who worked passages and took odd jobs here and there that lead to adventure. But the decent chance of somebody getting a ship seems to me to indicate that the game assumes many PC parties are going to be pretty much working for the PC owner of a ship. One of my players ended up with a Free Trader. So with him needing to make a monthly nut of 150,000 credits he’s going to have to get out and earn big bucks, and the other PC’s are going to have to go along for the ride.

Is this a typical campaign? With one or more players owning a ship and having to hustle to pay it off? Also, is getting a ship that great a deal? You’ll probably, in the scope of the characters life in game, never pay it off. Multiple “gets” of ships knock off 10 years from the time payments are made, but that does not seem a great deal (unless most campaigns are meant to span many decades). A ship over a PC’s life is going to cost something like 70+ million over the payment periods. Could you not just buy a ship for around that amount and get in hock the rest of your life, rather than get “gifted” it by the will of the dice? Any further comments and ideas on this particular item would be most appreciated. Again, sorry if I missed something in the book on this.

 

[aramis]

Having played a bit of Traveller back in the early 80’s, I decided to use Classic Traveller (exclusively using the 3 little books, or at least, PDF’s of such) as an easy alternate game for when my D&D group was low on players. My players had zero experience with the game (and I had forgotten almost everything about the rules), but we ended up having great fun with the character creation process. Many of the results seemed to have stirred their imaginations. I’ll probably have more questions as more games happen, so thought I might start a “noob” thread for help with my particular questions and anybody who wants to jump in with such.

Please keep in mind I only downloaded book 1 so far(and did not exactly memorize it). For our first session, and to see if everybody liked the game, it seemed like enough. So my first questions pertain to that.

First off, my impression is once you are unable to reenlist in service you cannot try to enlist in any of the others. Is this so BTB? I actually allowed a couple of players who’s promising careers ended early with a bad reenlist roll to try to enlist in either the Merchant service (with a minor modifier), Scouts, or Other.

My other immediate question is regarding getting a ship on mustering out. It seems like there is a really good chance of this happening when there are several characters getting rolled up. My memory of playing back in the day was mostly guys who worked passages and took odd jobs here and there that lead to adventure. But the decent chance of somebody getting a ship seems to me to indicate that the game assumes many PC parties are going to be pretty much working for the PC owner of a ship. One of my players ended up with a Free Trader. So with him needing to make a monthly nut of 150,000 credits he’s going to have to get out and earn big bucks, and the other PC’s are going to have to go along for the ride.

Is this a typical campaign? With one or more players owning a ship and having to hustle to pay it off? Also, is getting a ship that great a deal? You’ll probably, in the scope of the characters life in game, never pay it off. Multiple “gets” of ships knock off 10 years from the time payments are made, but that does not seem a great deal (unless most campaigns are meant to span many decades). A ship over a PC’s life is going to cost something like 70+ million over the payment periods. Could you not just buy a ship for around that amount and get in hock the rest of your life, rather than get “gifted” it by the will of the dice? Any further comments and ideas on this particular item would be most appreciated. Again, sorry if I missed something in the book on this.

Failed Reenlist: Yes, You're done.

Re Ships: the wording "may add" allows players who don't want a ship to avoid taking one. Especially if the Ref allows deciding after seeing the roll.

I've often seen PC's pay off ships. One good score under Bk 2 and you can buy a whole new ship. So, you can afford to give back to the bank the old one, and build the new one for cash. (Not advisable in real life, as it ruins your credit scores, but....)

 

[Supplement Four]

First off, my impression is once you are unable to reenlist in service you cannot try to enlist in any of the others.

BTB, that's correct. You roll up the six stats, in order, rolling just two dice for each stat. Players cannot change the order or alter the outcomes of their rolls (at this point).

Next is enlistment. Players get only one chance at enlistment. If they fail at their chosen career from one of the six presented, then life threw them a curve ball, and they must submit to the draft. Roll 1D, with the result indicating which of the six careers the character is in.

There are arguments about the Survival rule. I am a huge supporter of the "hard survival rule" where, as the game was first designed, if a player ever fails a Survival throw, the character is dead. The player must start a new character (and the Ref should keep the old, dead character in his random NPC stack).

A player can try to kill his own character by attempting too many terms (and therefore testing Survival many times) if the player doesn't like the character. This is strictly the player's choice. And, it doesn't always work out. Sometimes, re-enlistment isn't possible, and a character must muster out. Therefore, the player plays that character, no matter what.

So, character creation is a game. And, as you discovered, can be quite fun. It's usually best for the Ref to have the character's home world created, or at least the UWP for the world, before character creation starts. Knowing the homeworld can help in skill selection when a player has a choice after rolling a skill (take into consideration the TL of the world, or the terrain, atmo, etc).

Depending on which version of Book 1 you have, there is an optional rule for mustering a character out after two years and no skills when a Survival check is missed. If you use this, though, you'll remove some of the charm of the character generation system. Your player group will end up with characters about the same in age--people will shoot for 3 terms, to get max skills and muster out before ageing rolls happen.

Use the original rule--the hard survival rule--and you'll get a more varied group.

Remember that Classic Traveller is a game where characters do not get a lot of skills. The characters are not rated in each area like a lot of other games. Think of the character's list of skills as the areas where the character excels.

The character can do a lot more than just what his skill lists reads. For example, a character does not need Medical skill in order to pull a berther out of Low Berth. He just has to roll the dice. No skill needed. If he does have Medic 2+, then he gets a bonus on the roll. Medic 1 doens't help him, and Medic 3+ doesn't give a bigger bonus.

Read all the skills to get a good feel of when to impose penalties for characters with no skill and when to just allow the character to throw. Every skill has an example of how to use the skill--but, also remember that you can change the skill's use. Skills are used in different ways in the game. There may be different throws for the same skill applied differently to different situations.

Sometimes, the "penalty" is just not having a skill, as with the Vacc Suit throw to avoid going out of control in a Z-G environment when a hazardous maneuver is attempted. Characters must throw 10+ to avoid danger (do a dangerous thing in Z-G, like jump from one spacecraft hull to another, you have to roll to avoid going out of control). The character can use +4 DM on the throw per skill level of Vacc Suit. So, at Vacc Suit 2, the throw is automatic.





I suggest that you get the Starter Traveller set. It used to be a free download on DriveThru. I'm not sure if it still is. That set of rules has go everything that the three LBBs have, plus a little more. Don't let the title "Starter" throw you. It's a fantastic set of Traveller rules.

Or, if you want the Cadillac of Classic Traveller rules, buy the hardback (or download the pdf) of The Traveller Book.

I also suggest that you buy The Traveller Adventure. Not only is this a HUGE adventure that will take you a LONG time to play, it also covers every aspect of Classic Traveller gaming (and, it's damn fun, too).





Also, take a look at the links in my sig. I've written several posts on several topics for the new Classic Traveller Ref. You might find something there that will help you with the game.

Good luck!

 

[Supplement Four]

BTW, I just answered a similar thread not too long ago. There, I wrote some more notes for a new Traveller Ref.

Click HERE to see four good points to remember about CT gaming.

Click HERE to see some notes on the hard survival throw.

 

[kilemall]

There are many sorts of campaigns, the Free Trader one is just one possibility.

With the LBB1 character gen, Scouts can get the Type S, which has far less overhead but also far less cargo/passenger capacity and has strings attached (it's a form of reserves ship and can be called back to duty).

With the Citizens of the Imperium book, a CT add-on character gen, there are a lot more 'free and clear' ships to be had, including Hunter ships (think safari/animal capture campaign), noble Yachts, pirate Corsairs, scientist Lab ships, and belter Seeker ships (asteroid prospecting).

The bank terms of the ships are such that it is indeed practically indentured servitude, very much a '10 tons what do you get/deeper in debt/ I owe my soul to the company store' situation.

No one will buy a ship with double it's value in debt service, so walking away, doing something stupid or desperate, or piracy starts looking good- exactly the point as a McGuffin to get players into trouble. Think Firefly in a 1970s RPG format.

But the game is wide open, you don't HAVE to go that route.

Those 8000 Cr mid passages or 1000 Cr low passage risks DO add up though without a TAS membership.

 

[kilemall]

There are alternatives.

Mongoose Traveller has the concept of ship shares, you could adapt the trader benefit to mean you are a partial owner of a ship but not the operator so the shares are more irregular pension benefit then campaign definer.

Get the player used to occasional bonus cash coming from profit shares or getting together to vote on ship/company matters like captain selection/major upgrades/routes, then have the ship stolen/pirated/mutinied/disastered and its an adventure for the part owner and his team to get it back, or at least revenge.

The trader benefit could mean you get to 'lease' a ship, someone else owns it but still has X years left on it and is too old to operate it themselves, lets someone else service the debt and they get some profits and a used ship at the end of the debt, you get a boat to make money with, without the lifetime burden.

The terms of a subsidized merchant applied to a free trader with an individual instead of a government would be a good model- fail to meet at least debt service though and you will likely be let go.

Another option would be to age the ship, give it character, and take 10% off it's value for every 10 years old.

There are systems and tables out there for such, but here is a simple one-

Roll against the LBB2 starship damage table once for every 10 years you are aging it.

For each 'hit', roll 1d6-

1- system is heavily damaged and inoperative, roll 2d6, x10 for percentage cost to repair/replace
2- system is lightly damaged and fails on attempted use at 9+, 1d6 x 5 for percentage cost to repair
3- system is quirky and fails on first use that week on 11+. No one can diagnose, total replacement or a high engineering role is required to fix.
4- system is quirky and functions at +1 rating/to hit on first use for a week on 11+. No one knows why. First hit/repair will lose this quirk.
5- system will operate at double capacity on attempted use at 9+. repair/replace will lose this.
6- system is highly tuned to double capacity at all times, known process to restore after repair, very individual to this machine and is lost with critical hit to system.

A critical hit means 1-3 the system needs replacement entirely, 4-6 it is upgraded permanently or has special unusual features (fuel gets maybe drop tank, cargo means configurable to handle special loads or cargobots, etc.).


It's your Traveller universe so you can do as you like.

 

[aramis]

The bank terms of the ships are such that it is indeed practically indentured servitude, very much a '10 tons what do you get/deeper in debt/ I owe my soul to the company store' situation.

I've repeatedly done the math to show that that's a misperception, if not outright lie, about CT.

Especially CT 1E. The Type A is more than capable of making payments on about 60% full of freight (not spec), and on even small pop world to small pop worlds (pops 4-5).

Where things go awry isn't the trade economics - it's the encounter tables.

 

[creativehum]

Where things go awry isn't the trade economics - it's the encounter tables.

Aramis, can you explain what you mean by that?
Thanks!

 

[kilemall]

I've repeatedly done the math to show that that's a misperception, if not outright lie, about CT.

Especially CT 1E. The Type A is more than capable of making payments on about 60% full of freight (not spec), and on even small pop world to small pop worlds (pops 4-5).

Where things go awry isn't the trade economics - it's the encounter tables.

Well darn few people are functioning on 1E.

I don't believe that's the case.

2 jumps plus month of fuel, 50 tons, 25,000 Cr.

Life support, 4000 Cr per month for staterooms, 200 Cr for low berth. 44,000 Cr.

Crew, 1 pilot, 1 engineer, 1 steward, 1 medic. 19,000 Cr.

So add that up, 78,000 Cr overhead expenses and 150,000 Cr debt service, for 228,000 Cr full operating cost.

Let's not even argue pop planets and probabilities, assume FULL maximized consists of all high passengers and a full cargo bay.

That's two trips, 160,000 Cr of High Passenger, 20,000Cr of Lo Passenger and 164,000 Cr of cargo, for a full capacity profit margin of 156,000 Cr per month.

Now then, going to a pop 5 to pop 5 route, we get an average of 3.5 high passenger, 3.5 mid passenger, 7 low passengers and on average 45 tons major, 28 tons minor for a total of 73 tons.

We'll even that out to 3 high passenger 5 mid and 75 tons. That's 140,000 Cr, 14,000 Cr and 146,000 Cr, for a monthly profit margin of 58,000 Cr (well, add 2600 Cr for the unused low berths, so 60,600 Cr).

The real hit comes when you touch a pop 4 or lower world, on average that's going to hit your passenger trade hard, -3 each category on two trips so 30,000 Cr 24,000 Cr and 6,000 Cr- a hit of 60,000 Cr. Whoops, there went the profit margin. Yes costs go down so there would be a bit of profit in there, but the trend is ugly.

Oh man, cargo too- major hit, 45 tons pop 4 destination world. Plenty of exports though, in line with what you would expect of a hardscrabble colonial outpost.

Heh, at the rate people leave pop 4 or less worlds versus go there, the pop 4- planets should be depopulated in just a few months.

Oh wait, there is that one expense no one ever thinks of- the yearly maintenance. .1%, so 37,000 Cr- the more important part is the ship is out of revenue for two weeks while crew and debt service costs continue, figure 160,000 Cr roughly for revenue loss and the above crew cost 9500 Cr, so something like 18,000 Cr per month setaside to pay for this.

Berthing is a very low cost in CT, so hardly bothering.

So in a sense you are right for populated lanes, but wrong for frontier, and definitely little margin for anything going wrong, whether it is piracy or solar flares or breakdown.

 

[Willie Dewitt]

Thanks for the comments so far guys, and lots of good food for thought. I clearly need to read the skills thoroughly, as I was just assuming that if you don’t have at least VACC Suit – 0 you could not be able to put it on and propertly operate it at all (with the possible exception somebody on a radio comm walking you through it. I do like the idea that anybody can do anything, but the chances of catastrophic failure are high if you fail. Didn’t correctly close the seal on your suit? Oh oh, Spaghetti-O’s.

I’ll need to download book 2 next and get a feel for ships. I remembered the game enough, plus I had read a few of the Dumarest books back in the day, to get the game going with minimal info. No assumed “empire” or greater government power as in Dumarest, though I may go there at some point and flesh that out. Sentient alien life is more urban legend than accepted fact. With no real idea of the direction I wanted to go with it all I just started the characters on a trade vessel with a friendly old, seasoned captain operating it. Couple of them working passage, and a couple of them (high Social and lots of money) paid passage. With only the barest of an idea of the adventure for the night I just had them going to a near-frontier corn harvesting planet. Starport that appeared like a ‘C’ but was actually a bit better. When the merchant service character mustered out with a ship, I hit on the idea of having the older ship they were on being the ship the character was going to get after some dry docking and maintenance (and will probably knock off some of the price as suggested above).


I actually had The PC with the ship, and the more wealthy others have their main money and such held up for whatever reason so I could do a couple games of them doing dangerous grunt work on the planet for a patron of some kind. I had a CEO of an emergency cargo loading company at the ‘port need help because his favorite assistant in charge of the large petty cash reserve ran off with an ex-con loader worker and his armed cronies and he doesn’t want the company to know he dropped the ball, so he hired the PC’s to get the girl and money safely back, and to make sure the others aren’t “around anymore.” With ten minutes to go before we had to wrap up, I just put the gun guys in a row, put the players in a row at a distance, and let them shoot it out. Could have been bad with no cover or tactics opportunities I know, but the players wanted to experience a bit of combat after all that character creation and role-play. It went very well for them and they mopped up the other dudes and finished the job. Next such combat I'll be ready and have the time to set up cover and various modifiers. I like the idea of being able to wing it on that stuff a bit.

In a game or two I guess the adventures will go in the direction of the PC’s Free Trading. That it is corn harvest time in their hemisphere they will immediately have a chance at cargo hauling, though passage payments will probably be light. One of the PC’s mustered out with around 70,000, so there is a chance he can get involved on the investment/speculation end. I think it will be a fun way to go. I’ll want to keep the math light as we will only play it occasionally.

I will for sure get the other two books, plus the Trav Starter mentioned above. I really want to keep it simple as possible, without having to expand to the other books. At least for this campaign, I think it will be a lot of jumping around harvest and factory planets looking for the most lucrative cargos, staying in this pre-frontier neck of the galaxy. Focusing on the feel of far, lonely places and the vasty nothingness of space. I envision some planetside adventuring, and also a lot of on-ship stuff. Maybe use old Trek for ideas. I’d love to do my own take on invading entities, from energy beings to space hippies.

Thanks for the ideas guys, and please keep them coming!

 

[aramis]

Aramis, can you explain what you mean by that?
Thanks!

One hostile pirate encounter sends the ship over the edge finacially, unless they manage to hit the pirate's guns before the pirate hits them. Even small repairs are tenth-million credit hits to the pocketbook.
A hit to a jump drive is a minimum MCr0.2 if you can't field repair it, for example.

@Kilemall - You missed the extra 20K from 5 tons of cargo being converted to mail. Mail is paid as long as you have the gun and gunner, and 5 tons of mail locker. Even if it's empty.

And also, usually the pilot is also the merchant with the ship, so that's KCr5/month he need not pay.

Most also use unrefined fuel. Cut fuel cost by a factor of 5.

Keep in mind also - it's 12 payments per year, but 13 months per year... on the imperial calendar, at least. So you don't have to pay downtime payment on the maintenance month. which means you can get one extra run a year with a huge bonus. (KCr150 bonus, really.) More than makes up for the cost of annual maintenance.

Where do I get that the 13th month isn't due a payment? 40 years 480 payments (Bk2), but 40 years is 520 imperial months (Sup. 12 Forms and Charts.)

 

[creativehum]

One hostile pirate encounter sends the ship over the edge finacially, unless they manage to hit the pirate's guns before the pirate hits them. Even small repairs are tenth-million credit hits to the pocketbook.
A hit to a jump drive is a minimum MCr0.2 if you can't field repair it, for example.

Cool. That's what I thought. Thanks.

 

[aramis]

Cool. That's what I thought. Thanks.

It's also worth noting that, if you add Bk7 skills (Namely Broker and Trader), the Bk 2 spec trade suddenly becomes VERY VERY useful. Selling without a broker is just plain dumb. And Trader allows you to roll one die before selling. Trader 1, specifically, allows you to land, and roll die one (of two) before committing to selling. It also applies when buying.

So, if the purchase die is ≥3, don't buy. if the sale die is ≤2, you need to do some math, but can make an informed risk decision.

With Trader 4... you can predict sale price before purchasing. So you get both the buy and sell 1st die.

That was SO powerful at turning Bk2 into a loads-o-cash that, for T20, we made it one die of 3d instead!

 

[kilemall]

@Kilemall - You missed the extra 20K from 5 tons of cargo being converted to mail. Mail is paid as long as you have the gun and gunner, and 5 tons of mail locker. Even if it's empty.

The mail contract was for the subsidized ships, don't believe that was open to anyone that showed up. Yep, there it is, LBB2, page 9, 'subsidized merchants may receive mail contracts'. Other requirements are regular routes and gunners- NOT the purview of Free Traders.

And also, usually the pilot is also the merchant with the ship, so that's KCr5/month he need not pay.

That is a possible cut in cost, yes. Merchant First Officer gets Pilot, so the character won't be getting the ship roll without the skill in CT.

Most also use unrefined fuel. Cut fuel cost by a factor of 5.

Dice with death right there. All those low berths are almost guaranteed a workout within a year. Sort of thing to do with 'cash flow' problems, not a regular operating risk.

You're also dodging the pop 4 issue. It's economic death for anything short of a subsidized merchant to go out there, or the scout who is just looking to earn enough for their bar tab.

Keep in mind also - it's 12 payments per year, but 13 months per year... on the imperial calendar, at least. So you don't have to pay downtime payment on the maintenance month. which means you can get one extra run a year with a huge bonus. (KCr150 bonus, really.) More than makes up for the cost of annual maintenance.

Where do I get that the 13th month isn't due a payment? 40 years 480 payments (Bk2), but 40 years is 520 imperial months (Sup. 12 Forms and Charts.)

Hmm, it was 28 day months as I recall, and one holiday.

Ya, that's it.

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Imperial_calendar

Actually pretty sensible, I would be good with that in RL, and an extra leap year holiday day every 4 years.

The actual rule reads 480 payments, one per month, and then tags on the 'over 40 years' line. Assuming a '13-month' payment plan, you would be done in 37 years.

So, might be reasonable to have your payment holiday month, for having some 'give' built into the payment cycle for maintenance and down business times and ensure the payments keep coming, although I doubt VERY much the Imperial calendar was in existence when the payment plan rule was written, and the calendar likely was not reviewed against the starship economics effects.

For my part, I still have the current calendar IMTU so I won't be having the eminently sensible future calendar and therefore 12 monthly payments in 12 months.

Course I have a radically different IMTU, with a whole lot of those pop 4 outposts, a jump cycle that means you can cram 3 jumps in a month (but have a mutinying crew pretty quickly if you keep it up), J-2 routes for J-1 craft with fuel stops in deep space/Oort clouds, an interstellar polity that is flirting with the idea of variable market rates for passenger and cargo traffic, and shady shipping schemes that undercuts current rates and safety regs and insurance, and moves a lot of smuggling items.

 

[aramis]

For my part, I still have the current calendar IMTU so I won't be having the eminently sensible future calendar and therefore 12 monthly payments in 12 months.

then you also have 2.1 to 2.2 jumps per month...

 

[kilemall]

then you also have 2.1 to 2.2 jumps per month...

Yes.

And.

Things Go Wrong.

 

[salochin999]

1. If a character drops out of chargen early with very few skills there are experience rules buried somewhere that allow them to improve.


2. Maybe worth deciding in advance whether you want them to have a ship as that way you can drip feed the rules. Alternatively as you suggest allow it but make it delayed and run a few sessions without first.

Another alternative might be a bureaucratic mistake and your ship is on the wrong planet so you have to get to it first.

Now I think of it that would actually be a cool reason for a Dumarest style campaign - never thought of that before.

"Pardon me Squire Jamieson but who told you Regina - the database says your ship is waiting on Glisten?"

 

[Willie Dewitt]

1. If a character drops out of chargen early with very few skills there are experience rules buried somewhere that allow them to improve.


2. Maybe worth deciding in advance whether you want them to have a ship as that way you can drip feed the rules. Alternatively as you suggest allow it but make it delayed and run a few sessions without first.

Another alternative might be a bureaucratic mistake and your ship is on the wrong planet so you have to get to it first.

Now I think of it that would actually be a cool reason for a Dumarest style campaign - never thought of that before.

"Pardon me Squire Jamieson but who told you Regina - the database says your ship is waiting on Glisten?"

I had actually thought about having to retrieve it, before I (actually me and the player seemed to have the idea of the ship they were on, which I had already decided the captain was retiring after this landing, that it could be the ship he was to get at the same time) had the idea the ship was already around. I'm cool with how it all went, because this is an instant campaign. All the characters have skills to bring to the table as far as running a ship. One of them had mustered out of the navy at a very high rank, was a "Marquis" due to social, and came out if it with nearly 100 grand in creds. The player who is to own the ship immediately asked him to captain it for him. Those big credits might come in handy for investing in cargo to try for big payoffs.

The most interesting character, who only made it one or two terms in the navy, had an 11 EDU and INT. Such a promising young girl. The player decided she was of course highly disgruntled at her career coming up short, and that it was due to being blackballed by a high ranker who had sexually harassed her. She said she wanted to join the scouts in her anger, and I went with it. So after a couple terms of scout (no character in any of their terms failed survival, which I was most likely going to call an "injury") she came out of it with, among other things, Jack of Trades which kind of goes with her high intelligence. So we sort of assumed she got prepared for all that by going to college at 14 or 15 years old (one of those early college whiz kids) before deciding the navy would be a great career choice. Heh heh, it wasn't to be.

It really is interesting how the results from such a simple little system can pay dividends in great ideas for character development. Though you have to figure lots of ex-military, young ones anyway, are disgruntled because of their careers ending early. Another on in my game (the guy who got the ship after I let him enter the merchant services) had a promising (to him) army career, which ended after exactly one term!

 

[Willie Dewitt]

OK, a couple sessions in and all is well. So far planetbound as I was just using book 1 so far, and going off of old memories of childhood Traveller games and what I could read here and in other places. But I have Traveller Starter now and am reading up on trade because a character has a Free Trader.

Keeping in mind I have yet to study cover to cover, the issues regarding cargo is a little confusing, or at least I am making it so. It seems to talk about amounts of cargo in terms of major and minor loads, and indicates a value of 1,000 credits per tonnage generated with random rolls. Is this what the Trader is paying for the loads or what it is expected to be worth? I know It depends on various factors of point of origin world and destination, but more clarification of this would be appreciated (keeping in mind I don’t really intend to buy any further materials; just running with the basics).

I assume most of that is wargame-type stuff for when you need random, hard numbers, and that GM’s will make their own adjustments in terms of role-play. For example: the party came to a corn harvest planet along the Harvest Belt of a remote-ish sector (that I have barely fleshed out yet, so far focusing on this one planet). One of the PC’s mustered out of Merchants with a Free Trader. I had planned to hold off on his possession of that (in addition to large sums of money the PC’s would eventually have access to from their mustering – all until I decided what direction I was going with this. Honestly, I was winging it the first game or so). Since I had already decided the ships captain was retiring on the planet (so they would have to stay awhile) and then me and the merchant player decided that older ship was what the player was going to get title too. While that stays in port for a couple weeks getting it’s annual maintenance and clean up, the party got a small (but violent) job from the manager of a freelance cargo loading company who was satisfied with the job, so much so he gave them a couple weeks use of his lakeside vacation house in addition to the modest reward. In the next game, the party is going to meet a friend of that guy, a young harvest broker with a personal job he’ll want done who is then going to be a potential contact for when the ship is ready to move cargo.

Saying all this because there are a couple of valuable contacts among the NPC’s being encountered/worked for already, and it seems they would come in handy for when negotiations are being made. So I’m wondering if/how other GM’s would integrate this. A planet with harvest (corn) coming in, a loader company contact, and a brokerage contact (not to mention the merchant with the ship now being friends with the retiring captain who can give advice) would certainly at least give good mods to the trade issues at hand, right? And would this be common in many games, helping adjust trade profits for the players? Any insight and ideas would be appreciated.

Oh, also a couple of questions about the ship. I had decided it was around 20 years old. I imagine that means the new owner only has to pay for 20 years? Would those still be full payments as if it was newer? I would not mind if the payments were lower so the party would not have to focus constantly on moving product to make the monthly nut, and could lay back a bit for longer planetary adventures. Also, for a Free Trader that spent 20 years often in lawless sectors, is it a given that the captain would have had offensive and defensive gunnery installed? I have plenty of my own ideas for all this, but I want to try and hew to the basic concepts of Classic Traveller as best I can and not paint myself into any corners if this turns into a long campaign.

 

[atpollard]

OK, a couple sessions in and all is well. So far planetbound as I was just using book 1 so far, and going off of old memories of childhood Traveller games and what I could read here and in other places. But I have Traveller Starter now and am reading up on trade because a character has a Free Trader.

Keeping in mind I have yet to study cover to cover, the issues regarding cargo is a little confusing, or at least I am making it so. It seems to talk about amounts of cargo in terms of major and minor loads, and indicates a value of 1,000 credits per tonnage generated with random rolls. Is this what the Trader is paying for the loads or what it is expected to be worth? I know It depends on various factors of point of origin world and destination, but more clarification of this would be appreciated (keeping in mind I don’t really intend to buy any further materials; just running with the basics).

There are two basic types of cargo ...
FREIGHT: This is like a long distance trucker. You own the truck and agree to haul somebody else's boxes of WHATEVER IS IN THEM from Planet A to Planet B for 1000 Credit per ton. This is where the Major and Minor Cargo comes in and is located just like passengers. If you have ever seen the TV show 'Ice Road Truckers', the drivers all go into that small building to find out what cargo the cargo master has for them to deliver. In Traveller, Administration Skill is a bonus on locating cargo (freight) to haul.

SPECULATIVE: If you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket, you can buy some stuff (from that long list of cargos) and ship it yourself with the hope of selling it for a profit at the destination. With some lucky rolls and the right skills and worlds with the right trade codes, this can be very profitable.

Either of these game mechanics have been used to generate adventures.
Good luck