Proneutron
SOC-13
Not relevant for me. That is how I've GMed for decades. Very successfully too. And you cannot argue with success
I'll start my characters out at 6th level
- Thread starter Werner
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Not relevant for me. That is how I've GMed for decades. Very successfully too. And you cannot argue with success
Not relevant for me. That is how I've GMed for decades. Very successfully too. And you cannot argue with success
So I GMed with classic Traveller, so the players had no particular goal other than to get as rich as possible since they could not advance in level, and then they start hiring people, buying starships, putting together armies, marines, interstellar navies and start taking over star systems. A lot of the decisions were purchased needed for the military, building colonies and defending them from pirates and hostile powers. Did your campaigns go in that direction?
Proneutron
SOC-13
LOL. Yeah, I chucked the broken/unrealistic trade rules on Day one.
Well if you can't advance your character, you can advance your social status and wealth and put a lot of hired NPCs between your character and potential harm, so instead of having a super powerful character that you advanced to 20th level you have a commander of a private army, and your character spends his time plotting strategy in a back room and giving orders to his troops and his fleet. The player I had was looking for ways to trade up his flesh and blood body for something more durable so he would be harder to kill, instead of automatically getting more hit points as he was used to doing when he advanced a level in D&D.
Proneutron
SOC-13
Why can't your characters advance?
Well you could add to your skills in classic Traveller, there were no firm guidelines on how the GM should award skill points to characters and for what circumstance, if a character kills a thug in a back alley that tried to rob him, should he get a skill point for that? If he blows up a corsair pirate ship that attacked his scout ship in space, how many skill points is that worth? The rules aren't very clear on that.
Proneutron
SOC-13
THAT is why you need GMs. I GM isn't one who simply regurgitates RAW in a game. It is his/her job to make a living setting AND fill in rule gaps as required. Failures when combined with successes CAN be more educational than JUST successes. That's why I am glad it isn't codified in Trav.
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Well you can take it a step further and not roll dice relying on the GM to determine whether something succeeds or fails.
Proneutron
SOC-13
That IS sometimes the case but the players don't know it as their PCs wouldn't know it. I never disallow a try on anything. Even if impossible. Example: Player wants to try and pick a pick proof electronic lock. By examination the PC wouldn't know it was impossible. I let player roll and inform of failure.
As a GM, I want to be as fair and impartial as I can, that is what die rolls are for, I believe. One time while GMing a long time ago, I let a player character pick Emperor Stephon's pocket while he just happened to be passing through a starport at the time, he got the emperor's credit card and started buying starships with it, that was a case of poor judgement on my part, but I was in a rather silly mood at the time. The PC started putting together a "trillion credit squadron" with that credit card, for the rest of the campaign, the PC just sat back and gave orders to all his troops and ships he bought an paid with that credit card. Would it really happen in a more realistic campaign? Probably not! For one thing, I don't think the Emperor would have such a high credit limit, and I think he would have to get the expenditure approved by the Imperial Moot, rather than make a fleet purchase with his credit card.
I think I just wanted to test the Starship combat rules.
In a more serious campaign, I was the PCs to have a sense of accomplishment, and not just hand things out on a whim. In D&D there are tables determining how many experience points to hand out for a specific encounter, in D&D most combat is personal hand to hand combat, so experience points is determined by the level of the opponent, and PCs are assumed to have the usual weapons and magic items, in Traveller, it makes a big difference whether you kill a mugger with a personal weapon or a Starship weapon makes a big difference, so I figure equipment has to make a big difference in determining how many skill points to award, certain tasks are easier to accomplish with certain equipment available than without., so maybe if you have a Starship handy, that mugger with a knife is not so much of a challenge, but maybe if the player defeats him in a knife fight it might be worth a point or two.
I think I just wanted to test the Starship combat rules.
In a more serious campaign, I was the PCs to have a sense of accomplishment, and not just hand things out on a whim. In D&D there are tables determining how many experience points to hand out for a specific encounter, in D&D most combat is personal hand to hand combat, so experience points is determined by the level of the opponent, and PCs are assumed to have the usual weapons and magic items, in Traveller, it makes a big difference whether you kill a mugger with a personal weapon or a Starship weapon makes a big difference, so I figure equipment has to make a big difference in determining how many skill points to award, certain tasks are easier to accomplish with certain equipment available than without., so maybe if you have a Starship handy, that mugger with a knife is not so much of a challenge, but maybe if the player defeats him in a knife fight it might be worth a point or two.
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Proneutron
SOC-13
Absolutely. Context IS important. IMTU fighting people doesn't earn one generic XP. It earns you experience in that kind of fighting. Trav is a high tech setting. Skills in tech are time intensive to come by. Example: A relative of mine went into the USN Nuke power program in S.C. The Rate was MM Nuc. The training was over 24 months at 50-60 hours a week, class and lab and required homework Call that Engineering - 1 in Trav. More time in core class & lab time than a 4 year E.E. degree.
Want to increase that skill? Lots of time working in ship Engineer job AND training (time & some cost expended)
Treasure collecting is somewhat problematic sometimes. Lets say you are in a free trader and are attacked by a pirate corsair, your gunners destroy the corsair, and now the crew says, "lets collect their treasure!" The ships sensors depict an expanding cloud of debris where the pirate ship used to be. The ship's captain orders the crew to take the ship into the debris cloud. Some crew members don their vac suits and enter the airlock to go outside and collect the pirate's treasure. A bunch of objects bump into the ship's hull, a severed human head bounces off the bridge windshield. A sharp piece of metal punctures someone's vac suit as he flies into the debris cloud . Someone yells over the radio, "I got one!" As he holds a single gold coin in his gloved hand. The captain says, "look for more!" Someone screams over the radio, "my suit is punctured, I'm losing air!"
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
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