Traveller General: Who's an Ithklur gotta kill to get a drink around here? Edition

This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone...Mayday, Mayday...we are under attack...main drive is gone...turret number one not responding...Mayday...losing cabin pressure fast...calling anyone...please help...This is Free Trader Beowulf...Mayday...

Are there any sectors you want to play in, but haven't yet? If so, why those sectors?

We've all done the Spinward Marches, let's explore other spaces.

I heard that this game had tournaments of fleet battles with custom designed ships in the '80s and '90s i also heard about that guy who used a neural network that made tournament lists and he facerolled his way to victory.
I took a peak at the mega folder and i feel a bit confused on what to download, can i have a quick rundown?
I would like to download the wargame part of the rules and the rules for ship building

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The Lenat/Eurisko win is a great story that not enough people know about.
You want Trillion Credit Squadron, go to these directories

>01 Classic Traveller
>GDW Adventures
>CTA05 Trillion Credit Squadron

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The Eurisko story isn't quite what Lenat makes it out to be, although he's been dining out on it for 30+ years now.

Lenat's program didn't design or play better than humans. Instead, it hacked the HG2 design and combat rules. Through sheer repetition, it identified loopholes and mistakes in the rules later closed by errata and then flew a Tigress through them. Being a machine, ignored the intent of many rules while following the strict letter of the same.

Putting it another way, Eurisko was a programmed sperglord.

We will never abandon our love for such a wonderful Science Fiction classic!

Traveller the best!

THE

BEST

I'm currently running a game set in the Trojan Reaches. It's literally just downstairs from the Marches but I do enjoy it.

I'd love to play in a game set in Reavers Deep though, the sector just looks awesome with all the different groups.

My party literally just had 3 misjumps in a row.

We're playing in the Spinward Marches (because I couldn't be arsed to roll up a subsector/sector) and they were in sharrip. They were trying to get to lunion but misjumped. Since I'm a merciful GM (and dying in misjump is very anticlimactic anyway) I rolled d6 for every number they missed 8 by and rolled a d4 for the direction they were going towards.

After the first jump they ended up in Iron, after the second they landed in Orcrist. After the third jump they landed in Darrian. They made a journey that would have normally taken them 10 weeks in 3.

>After the third jump they landed in Darrian
>the planet of space elves/vulcans

So... that's where they really wanted to go in the first place, anyway, right?

We really need to get the word out that Traveller's really quite a good system. Even apart from the setting, the Classic and Mongoose (heresy!) mechanics are solid, simple yet flexible, but with enough background crunch to keep the most autistic of us happy.

After I told them that Darrian is a TL16 planet they sure as hell decided not to try to get back to the Imperium just yet.

Anybody ever tried to play Traveller one on one? As in one player and a GM? How it went?

>but misjumped.

Three in a row? Were they trying to misjump or something?

>Mongoose
I got introduced to mongoose, I'm playing mongoose (1e). It has it's flaws but none of them make it unenjoyable. There are also no wierd shit like in 2e like adding rad protection for armors because there are 2 weapons that deal radiation damage.

Wait, I have a screencap of one somewhere. Here we go!

>Anybody ever tried to play Traveller one on one?

I've played in and run 1-on-1 sessions. As always, it depends on the people involved.

There's a 1-on-1 adventure in the Classic folder called "Marooned Alone".

They lost their drive engineer and the backup was not really educated (drive engineer 1 with -2 EDU). So far his luck held but not this session.

>They lost their drive engineer and the backup was not really educated (drive engineer 1 with -2 EDU). So far his luck held but not this session.

How you run your games is your own business.

If I'd been the referee and they insisted on jumping in that condition, they'd be rolling up new PCs. Stupidity, especially deliberate stupidity, should be punished.

Well the group in general is made up of players who are completely new to traveller. Plus that mentality isn't exactly a healthy one either.

I'm not saying that stupidity should be let slide. Stuff when they decided to steal missiles by setting them on fire (PC logic) I didn't let them have it since that plan was dumb as hell. But TPK-ing the entyre party because of a roll that they had no choice but to make is a really stupid move.

> Congratulations on surviving the suicide mission you just went on, whoopsy daisy you failed your jump roll, new characters everyone!

That's not really a game I'd like to play in.

I suppose the main problem I see with playing Traveller one on one is PC dying from a first roll.

Quick question about character creation: how do I handle players getting rid of extra spaceships? Two of my players rolled a vessel in the character creation and I'm guessing they'll want to get rid of one mortgage ticking away their credits every month.

Do I just come up with a price and say that they manage to get enough money for the spaceship to pay off the rest of the mortgage? Maybe allow them to make a profit as dictated by the dice?

Look at how these things work IRL. You'll sell the mortgage to someone else in exchange for a portion of the equity you have put into it.
IE if you've paid off 500kCr of the mortgage, you could expect to sell the mortgage off for maybe 250kCr. The buyer takes on your debt and gets a ship at a 250k discount off market cost, you get to cash out a big chunk of what you paid in so far and stop worrying about payments on that thing. Everybody wins. (This is roughly what happens, though actual split will differ depending on market forces, and there's usually fees and stuff involved in the transfer)

Thanks, that does make sense. I'm a bit worried about loading the players with too much or too little money but I guess I'll learn as we go and I can drop some random encounter money on them if things get too horrible.

Here, have some music that doesn't seem very relevant
Klaatu - Calling Occupants (of Interplanetary Craft)
youtu.be/9URM_5R-vWk
Klaatu - We're Off You Know
youtu.be/O5grhuvcSes
Klaatu - December Dream
youtu.be/tPUWrLfp7y4
Klaatu - Dear CHristine (Sunset version)
youtu.be/I_9PoL8UiPg
(NSFW) Gavin Friday - Baltimore Whores
youtu.be/Yd03wRuVU1w
(Very NSFW, be glad he left out the verse on the cat) Loudon Wainright III - Good Ship Venus
youtu.be/kHEX9EpIL7o

Most editions allow the group to pool their ship shares, making it easier to pay off. Depending on how much cash you want them to start with, each ship share in excess of the purchase price gives you 1% of the ship's price in cash.
I don't like Mongoose2e's "it's 1mcr, not 1% of price" thing.
But, anyways, if you have multiple ships from benefits, I would say have the group choose one, then take the other, convert to ship shares and divide by two (round down). Then apply that the ship they chose.

>But TPK-ing the entyre party because of a roll that they had no choice but to make is a really stupid move.

They had choices. They just didn't know what they were and you as the referee didn't tell them.

Come on. THREE misjumps in a row? Three they survived? They're completely new to the game and what they've learned is that you can misjump without any consequences.

In Classic you have to try to misjump. You have to jump inside 100D or 10D, use unrefined fuel, slip maintenance. etc. The most common kind of misjump is no jump at all and not the "roll for direction/distance" too many referees automatically impose when they think misjump.

MT, TNE, T4, etc. didn't change misjumps that much. You had to basically try to misjump and the most common type was no jump at all. While I don't know how much Mongoose changed things, they couldn't have changed things that much.

You as the referee failed. You failed to remember that a misjump is most often no jump, you failed when you let them attempt to jump two more times, and you failed when you didn't punish their stupidity. You stepped in when they wanted to set missiles on fire, but let them safely misjump three times? Well done.

And now they're on Darrian thinking they can buy TL16 guns. Of course you've failed to tell them that Darrian mostly has TL16 relics from the pre-Maghiz era and they won't be able to pick up a FGMP-16 at the 7/11. Again, well done.

Actions have consequences, except, as your players have learned, in Traveller.

>lyrics can be NSFW

The whole 2e thing of 1MCr per share compared to 1% is something I could spend a good arguments worth of time discussing; on the one hand 1% is highly nebulous and depending on the ship you chose you could have 1% represent anything from 50kCr to upwards of 2MCr (Referee allowing for very expensive ships, of course). However with 1 ship = 1MCr at the very least the party can simply state without confusion the absolute amount of deposit on the ship (Or if they have enough to simply buy it outright).

End of the day I don't think it has too much of an effect on the game, and from most chargens that I see people never end up with many shares.

>last character I genned had 28 Ship Shares and I bought over 50% of the ship in one go, personally

Is there any interest in acquiring the rights to reproduce/remake traveller miniatures?

What happens if you wear a Vacc Suit without the Vacc Suit skill?
Penalties to every action?

Yep, that's right.

From CT:

>Default Skills: Often, some characters will have no skills
>appropriate to a given situation. A journey across a vacuum
>plain may be called for, and no one has vacc suit skill. In
>such cases, the referee may indicate that all individuals not
>otherwise skilled have vacc suit-0. A level of 0 for a skill
i>ndicates that the individual can undertake ordinary activi-
>ties, but is not experienced enough to try dangerous activi-
>ties or fancy actions. Level-0 indicates an orientation to the
>skill by an experienced person; i t should not be taken as a
>stepping stone to level-I. Skills appropriate for level-0 are:
>air/raft, ATV, forward observer, steward, vacc suit, and
>weapons.

But there's plenty of radiation environmental hazards. It's actually better in the long run to have rad protection statted for armor from the onset, just so you wouldn't have to go reference other stuff. Personally I think it's a good addition, and it's not that much more to write down.

>While I don't know how much Mongoose changed things, they couldn't have changed things that much.
Not him. It's similar. Making jump checks in Mongoose under poor circumstances levies penalties (as you say, jumping within 100D, poor maintenance, unrefined fuel) and basically should not be attempted.

Actually now that I refer to it, 2e just straight up states that misjumps of Effect of worse than -2 are immediately lethal except by referee fiat. In 1e more words were used in these sections, and in the various adventure books as well, and no jumps when attempting to misjump were indeed the most common result.

However, I do agree with the sentiment. The ref should impress upon the players that making a jump under less than ideal circumstances is an inherently stupid idea, and not one that should be taken lightly, if ever, given other options. Hire an engineer.

The old Citadel/RAFM 15mm line is still available, and Ad Astra has licensed ships.

Have links for those?

rafm.com
and
adastragames.com/products/?category=Miniatures

How it went?

What does the wise Veeky Forums think of starship weapons? What weapons should be available? Sandcasters, missiles and lasers for turrets, for sure. But should there be autocannons or other more primitive weapons? How about bay weapons?

How about the Mongoose 2ed Power Points? Are they the best way reactor sizes have been done, or has there been a better way to do ship design in the past?

...

Why is he attached to an umbilical? Why are there atmospheric turbines on that thing?

Why is the head shaped like a WW2 sea mine?

This is the entire section on misjumps in core. High guard has nothing on it. Well gee sorry that I'm using the rules of the system that I'm playing and I don't think a TPK due to bad luck (since their ship was perfectly fine they just had 6 very shitty rolls in a row). Sorry for not being autistic I guess.

> Of course you've failed to tell them that Darrian mostly has TL16 relics from the pre-Maghiz era

I'm not a fucking encyclopedia. I looked at the map saw the TL16 marker usually that means that there are TL16 stuff available there. Since then I have read up on it a bit and yeah I'm not going to let them just shop freely but I guess since I'm supposed to be a fucking computer I should know that too.

You may be literally the most retarded person I've talked to about RPGs (referring to the first user, the 2nd one is reasonable).

>I'm not a fucking encyclopedia.

No, you're just a piss poor GM. Everything you needed to know is FREE and ONLINE.

>>I guess since I'm supposed to be a fucking computer I should know that too.

Because you're using them you are supposed to know the rules and, because you're using it, you're supposed to know the setting too. Not down to some "I won the Trav trivia contest at GenCon" level, but at least have some idea of what you're fucking doing.

>>You may be literally the most retarded person

I'm retarded? You're the assclown who let his players successfully MISJUMP THREE TIMES IN A ROW, but I'm retarded? Sure, okay.

The entire 40+ years of the game is up in that archive for free. You didn't need to read the entire thing, no one has or needs to. However, after the FIRST misjump and you're "I feel sorry for them" decisions, you could have downloaded Classic's starships book and read all of three paragraphs to learn what you should do next time. But you didn't because you're a shitty GM.

Your players end up on Darrian - through your piss poor GMing I should add - but you don't bother going to travellermap DOT com and reading up for FREE what Darrian is like? Of course not, because you're a shitty GM.

I'm retarded for telling you you're a shitty GM? Guess what? You're still a shitty GM and your players will think Traveller is a shitty game because of your shitty actions.

Well done, user, well done.

As already explained, there are known companies with proven track records already producing Trav ship minis.

FFE isn't going to listen to someone they don't know with either no or limited business experience.

Ask the artist.

GMing my first session in a Reft Sector campaign today.

I like generation ships. Like, I reeeally like generation ships

I would recommend you check out that latest magazine edition on freelance traveller it has a section on a large family/company that live in massive ships and do terraforming!

Okay so I'm supposed to TPK at random intervals and stop the game to go read a fucking wiki. The travellermap site is a map and it only gives you the world code of which lists darrian as TL16 without any explanation (and which I used RULES AS WRITTEN). I should also stop the game whenever there's something that I'm not 100% sure of because the only way to play traveller is to follow ALL the rules of ALL editions because sticking to one (and actually following what the fuck is written down) is wrong.

But anyway it seems that according to you we shouldn't have any fun while playing this game. It should be a miserable experience with characters falling left and right because that's how life is. Heart attacks, car accidents outside their control anything and everything that is completely random and can kill them should kill them.

Seriously what the hell is wrong with you? I can understand your dislike of my handling of misjumping sure 3 times in a row is extremely bad luck they should be dead allright. But since I'm playing RPGs to have fun and TPKs due to a roll that the players have no choice but to make unless they want to be stranded in a relatively empty planet doing jack shit until GMPCs show up to save the day is not fun.

PCs ending up in a place that they would never even have thought of of going to due to random rolls that are relatively harmless but still problematic is fun.

Are you having fun?
Are your players having fun?
That's all that matters.
Every Traveller universe is supposed to be different based on your groups needs. How you have handled misjumps is fine, even if it's not how most other people would do it.

Can confirm having fun is best measure for a good game.

Everyone should chill and listen to Homeworld music.

Free plot idea: the PC's ship is the only one the that can do this trick with misjumps. Cue sector wide interest in 'acquiring' that ship.

Well I kindof had an idea to do something of that sort. Just the fact that a perfectly fine ship misjumps during 3 consequent jumps is something that's astonishing on it's own.