Where the heck is the Autodoc?

[Hotfoot Jackson]

I recall autodocs from playing Traveller way back in my yoof, but where are they in the CT rules? Can't seem to find any mention of them in the various LBB equipment lists or JTAS ship's lockers. Am I just missing them? I know you can build one using the Robot rules in Book 8 but I was sure that the autodoc was a regular bit of kit installed in a starship (my characters tended to spend enough time in one...).

 

[McPerth]

There's a full thread about an autodoc proposal in the ship's locker forum (as today, seccond thread on this forum).

There som rules regarding it were discussed and a proposal was made.

 

[Hotfoot Jackson]

Ah, now the one mentioned from "Merchants and Merchandise" sounds like the sort of thing I'm remembering, a bed enclosed in a cabinet, big boxy thing in the sickbay. Our Referee must have had access to that supplement. From the rest of the discussion it seems clear that there isn't an autodoc of that description in the LBBs.

Ta.

 

[bubbacleese]

"...fog and light, weightless, pain..."

"...sounds, drilling, pumping, gurgling, pain..."

"...light, bright, harsh, flashing, pain..."

"...sounds diminishing, pain fading, light bearable..."

"...lid swings open, hands reach in and pull me out..."

Memories from a good AutoDoc session.

 

[Dragoner]

IIRC, I think the Autodoc probably wandered over from Gamma World.

 

[selunatic2397]

I first read of the autodoc in Larry Niven's sci fi novels.

 

[Hotfoot Jackson]

Yes, they're in the Ringworld RPG (the pride of my RPG collection) and tanjing useful they are too...

 

[BytePro]

Gee, must be the Ringworld LBB! o:

I've only played CT (with only 6~8 LBBs) & MgT (which has autodocs)... yet autodocs are a staple since my earliest CT days in the '80's. Since I never had any other version or extra material, must have snagged it from Niven or any number of others.

I guess DIY mods can become so ingrained, one forgets what isn't actually rules as written...

 

[BlackBat242]

The autodoc was written up (with drawing) in the Paranoia Press "Authorized for Traveller" booklet Merchants and Merchandise (first printing January 1981)... but since I don't have written permission from the author/corporate heir [if any] to PP, the mods won't let me post a link to the scan of it.

However, RPGnow has PDFs of all 5 PP supplements for sale here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=78441&affiliate_id=196921

 

[BytePro]

Ah - never have seen that publication (among many others), but looks like FFE has rights to this. Its on the Traveller Apocrypha -2 CDROM.

 

[Hotfoot Jackson]

Gee, must be the Ringworld LBB! o:

I've only played CT (with only 6~8 LBBs) & MgT (which has autodocs)... yet autodocs are a staple since my earliest CT days in the '80's. Since I never had any other version or extra material, must have snagged it from Niven or any number of others.

I guess DIY mods can become so ingrained, one forgets what isn't actually rules as written...

Not a LBB, a honking big box with four books and handouts. Plus the Companion which had all the stuff they couldn't put in the starter box.

Autodocs in MgT? Really? Where? Couldn't see them in the Imperial Encyclopedia equipment lists. When I checked I found they seem to first appear in TNE.

 

[Jame]

Autodocs in MgT? Really? Where? Couldn't see them in the Imperial Encyclopedia equipment lists. When I checked I found they seem to first appear in TNE.

They're in the Equipment section of the Core Book. Classed as a robot (sorry; don't have it in front of me and can't give a specific page number).

 

[far-trader]

Autodocs in MgT? Really? Where? Couldn't see them in the Imperial Encyclopedia equipment lists. When I checked I found they seem to first appear in TNE.

They're in the Equipment section of the Core Book. Classed as a robot (sorry; don't have it in front of me and can't give a specific page number).

I'm guessing the confusion is from the abbreviation MgT (for Mongoose Traveller) being taken as MT (for Mega Traveller wherein exists the Imperial Encyclopedia).

 

[BytePro]

Yeah - should have spelled out Mongoose instead of using the abbreviation... o:

BTW: that's pg 95 of the Core book.

Sigh... which is officially (by Mongoose folk) referred to as The Main Book or Traveller Main Book in abbreviated form as TMB - its too bad nobody really consistently defined these up front. Core Rulebook is how the book is actually titled, unless you have the digest sized, where it is titled Pocket Rulebook on the jacket and 'Core Rulebook Pocket Edition' on the contents page (for my edition anyway).

I used MGT till I saw the original authors using MgT and being confused by MGT! And we can't call it 'Goose Traveller because of GURPS!

 

[FreeTrav]

Which is one of the reasons I always refer to RTT - Rikki-Tikki Traveller, after Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, who was a mongoose.

 

[BlackBat242]

Which is one of the reasons I always refer to RTT - Rikki-Tikki Traveller, after Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, who was a mongoose.

OK... where's the "like" button on this thing.

I use RTT as well.

 

[McPerth]

Also in TNE (page 333) there are autodocs described, if you have access to it.

 

[Hotfoot Jackson]

Got a LBB version Mongoose Traveller core book, I'll take a look, thanks for clearing up the confusion. Not got TNE, but a consolidated equipment list I saw once attributed autodocs to that range, now I know where they are.

It must have been the Merchants and Merchandise supplement our Ref was playing with to give us the autodocs in our CT games though (I note that the thread in the Ships Locker section has the stats for it, so got that cut and pasted).

And all these mongooses! Why we not have Meercat Traveller? Simples!

 

[BlackBat242]

I first read of the autodoc in Larry Niven's sci fi novels.

In the novel Ringworld (1970) on page 96 of the 1981 Del Rey paperback printing, there is a list of ship's equipment... which includes "autodocs".

Yes, they're in the Ringworld RPG (the pride of my RPG collection) and tanjing useful they are too...

Written in 1984... 3 years after the autodoc appeared in the PP CT M&M supplement.

 

[Hotfoot Jackson]

Hey, I didn't even know of the Paranoia Press stuff until recently. My Traveller campaign was played in '85 to '87 at Uni. Niven was one of the general inspirations for Traveller though, IIRC, and I'm sure other science fiction authors of the time had similar concepts so it was inevitable that they would eventually show up in Traveller, if not directly via the core CT rules. For all I know our Ref (who did have the Ringworld RPG) might have simply made it up himself without reference to Merchants and Merchandise- our party was rather heavy on the shooty skills, less so on getting ourselves patched up, so it may have been a case of necessity being the mother of invention.