Traveller General: Stupid ship's boat, quit crashing already Edition

>I've always thought an explanation for the old school room-sized computers and whatnot existing side-by-side with more modern conventions would be cool.

The oldest "explanation" or handwave is that the computer tonnage doesn't refer to once device in one location but instead refers to multiple computers and workstations scattered throughout the ship. (Bridge tonnage is often explained the same way with sensors, comms, etc. being part of the volume.)

Sadly, sperglords being sperglords, computer volume is usually represented in deck plans as One Big Blob because everything MUST be taken as literally as possible.

MT addressed the issue by dropping computer volume by a huge amount, mandating 3 for redundancy/backup purposes, and then requiring workstations to meet the "control point" requirements created by all the equipment and systems aboard.

It's a more realistic system, but I can design a Classic stardship in 15 minutes or so while needing over an hour for MT.

>>One I came up with was that anything more advanced would corrupt through jump travel if it weren't shut off properly and shielded.

That's another old handwave and one borrowed from both Niven's "Mote in God's Eye" and Cherryh's "Downbelow Station".

>Also opens up some interesting plot points, such as how the corruption functions. Does it simply fry the device, or is it like an electronic version of Warhammer's warp?

Leave the Warp dipshittery in Warhamster, okay? Any effect would be either be a degradation of programming/memory or being outright fried.

Yeah that makes a lot more sense. Spergin' sperg etc.
More it's a mental exercise in explaining how old tech would be justified.
I'm pretty sure I've read at least one of those, probably where I came up with it. Gonna read or re-read both, so thanks for that.

I wouldn't have crap like "SUDDENLEE YUR COMPUTUUR IS DEMONNZZ. From the walls of your starship crawl a thousand gamboling forms hungry for your anus-flesh!"
Rather something like a virus-AI has infested the memory banks blah blah blah technobabble your computer's semi-sentient.

Suppose I should have said it wasn't for OTU though, that's not something I would mess with to such an extent.

>Rather something like a virus-AI has infested the memory banks blah blah blah technobabble your computer's semi-sentient.

That actually happens in the OTU, what with Virus and the Vampire Fleets.

Another explanation for the old computer tech was suggested in Felbrigg Herriot's podcast, Behind the Claw, with Dr. Hilda Ghiannov:

behindtheclaw.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/episode-005.html

Dr. Ghiannov invents a method to miniaturize computers using a silicon process, and gains a lot of interest from BIS, the big computer manufacturer, but then she and all her work disappear. Some folks think BIS stole her work and did her in, and plans to phase it in slowly to milk it, but smart money says the conspiracy has to be much bigger than that.
A fun one for a paranoid universe.

That is pretty damn cool. I like that. I also like that is a "real" thing within the OTU.
I really need to learn more about the universe. So many cool things in there.

>Rather something like a virus-AI has infested the memory banks blah blah blah technobabble your computer's semi-sentient.

So, a riff on Virus from TNE? Your players will either love it or hate it. I'd do it!

Cool, thanks for the support.
So long as they're not indifferent. That's the worst.

>So long as they're not indifferent. That's the worst.

Exactly. Loving or hating something means they're invested in the story. If their response is "Meh", you've got some real trouble on your hands.

Anyway, from what you describe, your players are going to be invested in the game you give them. One last thing, about this:

>>I really need to learn more about the universe. So many cool things in there.

There's forty years of materials available for Traveller. Several publishers, scads of writers, different versions, you name it. It's freakin' impossible to keep track of it all and you can "drown" your game and yourself really easily in it.

Use only what you absolutely need and think twice about adding anything else. A wise user in a previous Trav general wrote that "The best version of Traveller is YOUR version of Traveller."

Make the game yours and let all the rest slide.

That's really, really good damn advice. I definitely won't use it all, but holy hell do I love discovering new stuff and Traveller's backlog is going to keep me very entertained for a very long time.

I'm more of the sort to create most of my own universe on the fly than work within an established one, but there's just so much awesome available. Just glad the Internet's a thing.

Actually, speaking of the Web, how does it work in the OTU? I get that ships have their own network, and that those planets with the infrastructure will, but how do you imagine they would interact?
Particularly when they may have divergent OS, or one could be rampantly infected with viruses, malware and...

Now I've got a new story hook.
Pirate ship (or something that's supposed to look like one) jumps in, bombards a planet's system with malware, effectively shuts down the global network. Could even just beam an infected packet disguised as any number of things, since (as far as I'm aware) the only real method of updates anyone has is via travelers and other visits, perhaps from government vessels.

>Actually, speaking of the Web, how does it work in the OTU? I get that ships have their own network, and that those planets with the infrastructure will, but how do you imagine they would interact?
>Particularly when they may have divergent OS, or one could be rampantly infected with viruses, malware and...

I've always assumed it varies from system to system. Standardised software from the core worlds might be pretty good, but waiting six months for a corporate ship to reach your system to deploy the latest bug fix would suck. Worse, discovery of an exploit by crooks in your system would take at least six months for the home office to receive your reports, then they'd have to code a patch, and when it was done you'd wait another six months to receive it.
So I assume most worlds have their own codebases, vaguely incompatible with others to prevent an easily exploited monoculture.

Planetary networks would be fast and full of data, but data transmission between systems is essentially a slow email service, where the X-boats carry a whole bunch of data and beam it out the window when they get to the next system.

Pretty much how I envision it. My player who wants to be a computer science-cum-engineer gal is gonna be butthurt the first time I introduce UNIX to their Mac existence, in other words.

Off to my quarters bump.

I want to end an NPCs arc by having themselves sacrifice their life for the greater, but I cannot for the life of me think of a good scenario where the players won't just do it themselves

One of my players started with
>4 failed careers + 1 failed pre-career education
>mishaps
>two aging penalties

He's currently as 3 END and wants to focus on melee (fatigue yoohoo).
Should I allow him to reroll or do I somehow give him something to make up for it?

You could give him a combat arm, from the MgT2 central supply catalogue i remember the various TL versions have improved strength values. For example one of them has an effective STR of 15, so if the player used that for melee attacks they wouldn't be using their body stats.

Honestly equipment is the way to go when making an amazing fighter, stats only do so much.

If he REALLY insists on going into melee i would hand him a Stunbaton with the fiat, that they only tire you half as fast since the damage does not come from muscle work.

Traveller. i think he is playing 1e and there you can take as much melee attacks as you have endurance before becoming fatigued.

Fair play, would END enhancements be the way to go then? It'd put him in a lot of debt but its an option.

>He's currently as 3 END and wants to focus on melee (fatigue yoohoo).

It's time to have a serious chat with him. You need to "remind" him of the melee-endurance link and point out that, if he wants to focus on being a fighter, his PC sucks.

He may want to play a PC who thinks they're Chuck Norris while actually being Barney Fife - that's great role playing BTW - however if he really wants to be Chuck Norris you need to tell him he's Barney Fife.

>Should I allow him to reroll or do I somehow give him something to make up for it?

While I'd allow him to reroll if he wants to, I definitely wouldn't give him something to "make up" for his poor decisions for two reasons. 1st, I HATE snowflakes. Players should own their own fuck-ups. 2nd, you give him something and all the other players are going to want something too because it's only "fair".

I most certainly wouldn't "give" him END enhancements, cybernetic arms, or some of the other suggestions being made. I wouldn't give him those things IN chargen whether he pays or not. Instead I would allow him to earn those things IN play as they'd make for great motivation.

The players needs to face the fact that the PC is a loser and failure as they currently stand. The player might want to redeem the PC through play - and that would make for compelling role playing - but you as the GM shouldn't be waving some magic wand to fix everything.

In MgT2e, what does the Track weapon trait actually do? Is it just the same as the Smart Tracker weapon accessory? Does it give a bonus to attacks against tracked targets? Haven't found anything on that in any MgT2e rulebook

"Track" was part of the playtest and got removed later:

>Track: Through the use of guided control surfaces or high- precision targeting, this weapon has been designed to attack fast-moving targets such as aircraft. It ignores all penalties for Fast Moving targets (see Traveller Core Rulebook, page XX).

I agree that moving won't help this thread. It seems it'd be easier to put games together over something like that is all.

I should point out, the server room at my school is a couple of dTons volume-wise, and I probably don't have the oomph to calculate jumps, nor do I have the storage for the library data we're realistically be talking about.

That's a very good point, I'm far too used to the space opera-handwavey fantasy games and fiction I've been enjoying the last handful of months, so I made assumptions based on that rather than on reality. Silly, I know

The required storage capacity for basically the entire internet on most ships is actually quite staggering.

I imagine they store space wikipedia rather than the space internet. Still, that ship's going to need a lot of storage.

I thought there was also entertainment, games, documentaries, movies, shows, and the like.
Or am I confusing OTU for more of my own stuff?

Throw in the redundancy, and you quickly get multi-ton computers (as long as you disregard these little terminals we're sitting in front of)

Did you know, the venerable vt-100 'dumb' terminal had, as a CPU an Intel 8080 processor, the same CPU that the Altair used to launch the personal computer industry?

Nope, you've got it now. Space Wikipedia (lets say earth wikipedia * the number of systems in the known universe * 20% (because some of those would just be stubs), plus netflix's server farm, and any real data that needs to be stored to help the ship function.

I did not know that. That's a cool bit of tech-history I'm going to enjoy whipping out to make myself look knowledgeable.

That's kinda fucking terrifying. Thinking about how much physical space that points out will need redundancies for all data, and unless there's some definite advancement in compression, Traveller may actually be on the conservative side of their estimation.

The trick is to stop thinking about a computer as '1 cpu, some ram and some storage)'

Because odds are, the thing you're using to post here has a bunch of computers by that definition.

Yeah that's exactly how I was thinking, which is definitely not correct.

...

...

>The trick is to stop thinking about a computer as '1 cpu, some ram and some storage)

Exactly. It's completely understandable to read the volume requirements for computers in Classic and other versions literally. It's easily to quickly assume it all refers to "1 cpu, some ram and some storage" because you're busy getting all sorts of other things together like combat, chargen, and trade. After all, the game isn't about computer programming, it's about adventure in the Far Future.

When folks complain about computer volumes without first THINKING about what those volumes actually model, that's when the problems begin.

Look at the excellent recent posts in this thread by various anons regarding computers. One points to the size of his school's server farm, another asks to think about how much storage a planetary Wikipedia might need, still another talks about the needed redundancies & work stations. Those anons and all the others are actually THINKING about the requirements and what they mean rather than assuming it's just "1 cpu, some ram and some storage".

And because they're thinking, their games are going to be that much better.

>when you're in a traveller thread photo

...

Isnt MgT2e's Combat Arm cybernetic a bit too powerful for its price?

Maybe, I've yet to see it used in a game. And same goes for Mongoose, I bet

...

That's the base price, besides acquiring it via chargen a player would probably have to pay more in play to get one based on availability and the fact it might be restricted due to its military nature. Ultimately it's up to the GM

...

...

I talked my gf into playing an RPG (it's her first time). Should I give her some podcast with actual play to listen to (so she knows what to expect of it), or should we just jump into it, with me explaining things as we go? We're going to play Traveller.

>We're going to play Traveller.
Never would have guessed mate.

But to give you my answer I'd say give her a glimpse at least, though just make sure you don't show her a combat heavy game and then proceed to have her join a non combat game, or vic-versa.

Maybe give her Close the Airlock, it was a pretty good Mongoose 1e campaign. It's not gonna beat out Behind the Claw for my favorite Traveller-related podcast, but it was fun.

archive.org/details/CloseTheAirlock

I'd say no to giving her a podcast to listen to (here's two hours of homework before we play) - maybe play one in the car sometime.

I would go through character creation, letting her make the choices, and explaining as it goes (especially if she's the sort who would like Traveller's chargen mini-game). Then, I'd build a scenario around that character - probably starting with "You've just signed the last of the paperwork, you're a free woman." Pick a starport you're comfortable doing, make sure there are a couple of on-planet events and situations for her to interact with, some off-planet (in system) events. Just have her spend an hour in the character, make something happen, don't kill her.

It also doesn't have starship sensors and related systems, if you're in an edition that doesn't have separate avionics & sensors.

>Should I give her some podcast with actual play to listen to...

Podcasts? God no. That's a horrible way to introduce someone to TTRPGs. It's completely passive and has no interactions, the exact opposite of TTRPG play.

What you want is a simple one-session intro adventure that lasts one or two hours at the most. Something where she will actually USE a PC in actual play. There are plenty of simple, introductory adventures in the archives above. The Freelance Traveller site also has a section of them called "Getting off the Ground".

Here's what I regularly do at my FLGS to introduce Traveller to people.

1st - Use pregen characters. I explain that chargen is game in itself, but you can't really what kind of PC you'd like until you play the game. I had out a stack of PCs and let the players choose the ones which catch their fancy. All Classic adventures and most in other version of Trav include pregens, so you needn't make up your own.

2nd - Simplify play. You want a gentle learning curve. There are a couple of good systems for Trav and MgT is one many current RPGs find to their liking. However, complexity puts people off and you got to crawl before walking etc. I use Classic with it's simple 2D6 8+ mechanism while explaining there are other systems they can learn/use later.

3rd - Use a simple adventure that has combat AND other actions. I generally strip down Classic's "Chamax Plague". It has the PCs saving someone aboard a damaged pinnace and then being hired to check on a science party which hasn't been heard from.

I strip away all the introductory stuff then start the session with the PCs already on the planet and ready to investigate the grounded lab ship. The players need to find a way into the ship, explore it, fight off the Chamax "bugs" and find the records explaining where the missing party went. The players get to both think and shoot at things. If a PC dies, it doesn't matter because the PC is just a "test drive".

So it's a no-no for podcast, just as i thought. I thought about it briefly because it's hard to explain TTRPG if one never seen it played. From few threads back I read that High and Dry is the best introductory adventure so I'm going to run it, with 2-3 NPC characters to complete the ships crew, provide all necessary skills for flying that damn thing (except those that she'll roll during chargen), and maybe to use them as plot hooks in the next adventures.
After that, we'll see if she likes it.

>except those that she'll roll during chargen

Don't do chargen. Do. Not. Do. Chargen. Trav combat is deadly and already there's a damn good chance that someone new to TTRPGs is going to have their 1st PC die before they get the hang of things. In my "New to RPGs/Trav" sessions I plan on a 50% death rate and am rarely disappointed.

If you make her spend 30 or 45 minutes on chargen only to see the PC die within the 1st hour of play, she's going to see the whole thing as a waste of time.

Instead, get her playing immediately. Explain that she can create her own PC later if she likes the game. Hand her a stack of pregens to choose from. If the PC she's using dies or is seriously wounded, there's no "attachment" and she can take over to a NPC she likes.

High & Dry is a good adventure because it mixes shooting & thinking. Take care to skip over the usual introductory stuff and get to the action right away. Give her something to do, some decision to make immediately.

I think that she'll have fun in chargen and really - what is the chance that the character will die during the High and Dry? The only parts when PCs can get injured is the wolf encounter and the ship crash, and even then (barring awful stats) it's definitely survivable. I'm not trying to dismiss your opinion but I'm still planning to do chargen (although I'd like to hear more reasons against).
Also - are there any short plots I could place on the ship that takes PCs to Walston in the High and Dry adventure? Something short and easy, with a few rolls to teach her how to roll tasks.
And anyway, thanks for the replies guys, I'm pleasantly surprised!

>I think that she'll have fun in chargen...

I used to think that too. Then I had new players lose a PC they'd just spent 45 minutes making, get pissed, and walk away.

Look at it this way: You're going to have to teach her chargen AND how to play.

>>and really - what is the chance that the character will die during the High and Dry?

You'd be surprised at the kinds of decisions people new to TTRPGs make the first time they play.

>>I'm not trying to dismiss your opinion...

It's not an opinion. It's experience. And most of that experience came with the much faster & simpler Classic chargen. You're going to have her wading through all tables, bells, and whistles of MgT.

Go ahead. Just don't be surprised when she either gets bored and asks when she can start playing or gets pissed/upset when her PC is seriously injured or dies.

>>Also - are there any short plots I could place on the ship that takes PCs to Walston in the High and Dry adventure?

How much time are you budgeting? Anything over 2 hours will be pushing it.

>just spent 45 minutes making

Must be Mongoose. Classic's Basic chargen is closer to five or ten minutes.

>Must be Mongoose. Classic's Basic chargen is closer to five or ten minutes.

You'd be surprised. Remember, we've been talking about someone who has never played a TTRPG before.

Imagine teaching someone a card game, but having to first teach them about the four suits and various symbols on the cards.

Now imagine showing them Trav's UPP for the first time: "These 6 numbers describe your PC. This is strength which allows/effects etc., this in dexterity which allows/effects etc., this is blah, blah, blah."

Then imagine having to describe the original 6 Classic careers. Imagine having to describe each of the skills are they're earned. Imagine having to to describe all the skills available in a cascade. Imagine having to describe how skills are used. Imagine having to describe how stats can effect occasionally skills and how stats drive which weapon you should choose.

And imagine having to do all of that for 3, 4, 5, or 6 people.

Beginning to have an inkling?

Well, I mean you don't have to go very in depth.
The physical stats are pretty self-explanatory ("Strength is how strong you are, Endurance is stamina and pain-tolerance").

INT vs EDU is less intuitive, but you could just sum it up as "Intelligence is raw intuition and cleverness, while Education is book-smarts. You'd use education to perform a complicated but by-the-book surgery, but you'd use Intelligence to work out how to perform surgery on an alien you've never encountered before.

Assuming you're using the third imperium/LBB implied-setting, you'd explain SOC as being where you stand in a very stratified society. "High Social Status means you're related to nobility, so you know how to carry yourself and act like a noble, so people will treat you according. Same for low SOC, but you're a gutter-rat/spaceways-vagabond, and everyone can see it"

When it comes to skills and careers, all you have to do is explain the concept of skills and cascades. Like "If you have Gun Combat(Energy Weapons) 1, that means that you are well trained in using Lasers and shit, but you still understand the basics of using other sorts of guns"

You don't have to go through and list every skill, just explain what sort of skillset you're likely to pick up from a given career

I guess everything else like weapon choice could come up contextually.

>You don't have to go through and list every skill, just explain what sort of skillset you're likely to pick up from a given career

No, you don't have to go through *every* skill, you just need to answer questions about *most* of them as your player or players are looking over the tables trying to decide which career to attempt. Look at the Scout tables in Classic's "simple" Book 2: Vacc Suit, Mech, Nav, Elect, JoT, Gunnery, Medic, Computer, & Pilot.

There are also two cascades, Gun Cbt & Vehicle, meaning you'll need to explain each option. Plus there's a Blade cascade in the mustering out table.

And don't forget mustering out. Should you go for cash or stats/skills? And then there's the all the "shopping". What should I buy with my money?

They could go through all of that and end up with a PC completely unsuited in skills & equipment for the session.

That's why I used pregens. The PCs are going to fit the session. No one isn't going to have useful skills, no one isn't going to have the equipment they need, no one is going to be a stat cripple. They PLAY almost immediately and learn how to PLAY without a handicap.

Chargen is fun but, IMHO, including chargen in someone's 1st ever session simple adds to the learning curve while running the risk of creating a less useful PC.

Your mileage may vary.

Aye, I definitely get that.
Now that I think about it, I do cleave to the "pre-gens for newbies" rule pretty hard.

Just stick them in something like pic-related by way of space station 13.
As in "Yous are average joes crewing a cargo freighter when something goes wrong!! *cue spoopy theremin music*"

Bonus points if you set the tester session in the same verse as your actual campaign, and have the remains of said cargo ship as a possible random encounter

>Now that I think about it, I do cleave to the "pre-gens for newbies" rule pretty hard.

Yup. It's a learning curve thing.

Let them play first. Let them shoot at shit, use their skills, bumble around. all of it. Let them have a test drive. They don't need care or worry about the PC. They don't need to think about what shit they should have bought. They don't need to choose a career. All they need to do is play.

After all that initial fun, they'll turn to you and say "Next time, it may be fun to play a...".

That's when you pull out chargen in all it's glory and tell them "Sounds great. Let's starting building one!"

You guys have any advice? New referee about to host my first traveller with four steam friends (we're all from /v/ and have been interested in the game for a while).

I've set up some tactical maps on roll20 and stuff and we've read the book, made characters etc. Any advice for me before we start? I wanna make sure it goes well because it SEEMS fun, but we don't have much experience with tabletops at all.

tl;dr new referee seeking advice you may have

As with all tabletop games, if yous are unsure of a rule mid-game, it's generally better for the GM/Ref to make a ruling on the spot than look up the book and kill the pacing.
Just make sure that it's consistent with what's been established before, and that it's applied fairly (as in it applies to both NPCs and PCs the same).
It's also helpful to come clean at the end of the session and compare the ruling you made to the actual rule, and either use the actual rule from now on, or let consensus decide whether you'll use the actual rule or your ruling from now on.

Eg, if your players suddenly end up exposed to vaccum without their vacc-suit helmets on. If you stop for a minute to find the rules on vacuum exposure you're going to kill the tension, so just make up something reasonable.

There are exceptions, especially out of "heat-of-the-moment" situations like "how long will it take us to get to Gasius Giantus IV", where it's not going to kill the pace if you look up your notes.

Does this make sense?

Favorite Movie/Show/Book Inspiration for Traveller? I am looking to get inspired while I work on setting up a campaign.

Pic Semi Related

To those anons who rock Classic Traveller: What are your favourite/the best additions beyond the LBBs?
If possible, from both the player and ref perspective would be fantastic.

I like to listen to heroic full orchestral score from old 50s bible films like Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, and Spartacus. Though Bernard Hermann did quite a few spooky Hitchcock film scores.

Citizens of the Imperium is a great expansion, with new careers using the basic chargen. Some of the skills come from Scouts or Mercenary, but you can just swap 'em out for the stock LBB ones or just roll with it.
76 Patrons is super handy for refs, for when you need to come up with something quick -- tons of short flexible plot seeds in a concise format.
Traders and Gunboats is nice to have on hand for reference when you need to know something about common spaceships.

The Animal Encounters book is useful if you do that sort of wilderness thing -- I prefer urban adventures, but it's got encounter tables for various environments on different worlds.

Beyond that, read Rule 68A, and maybe check out the simple vehicle combat rules presented in Double Adventure 2's Across the Bright Face.

Also wondering how many players you tend to have, and your standard crew sizes. Do you have the players halfway control the NPC crew, or just handle them as any other NPC?

Cool will do, cheers!

No problem!
Oh, I left out a big one for me: the ship movement and combat rules from Starter Traveller. They're way simpler than the vector-based ones in the basic books. It basically makes ships work kind of like personal combat does, with range bands.

Speaking of personal combat, if you want to make it a little more detailed, Snapshot is a cool little add-on that swaps the range bands out for a grid, and a point-based movement system. It's otherwise pretty much identical to the abstract rules, which is nice. It's a lot of fun for shipboard gunfights.

Interesting question. 1st, I never saw all 8 LBBs until much later. No web in the 70s/80s, naturally. You had to purchase stuff at the few FLGS that were around or buy by mail. Most times you weren't even aware of certain products! I didn't see Classic's Merchants book until MT was already out and didn't see Classic's Robot book until FFE began selling the Reprints.

Apart from the LBBs, "The Spinward Marches Campaign" (SMC) and "The Traveller Book" (TTB) helped me the most. The campaign in SMC sucked, but all rest more than made up for it. It was also the 1st real sector book as S:3 simply couldn't compare. TTB was what we now call a "core" book. All the rules were in one place instead of scattered about. That was very helpful.

The added careers in "Citizens of the Imperium" were good to have. I had players use some of them despite being "skills lite" compared to the advanced chargens in LBB5, 6, & 7. The "76 Patrons" books showed me how amber zones and adventure seeds worked. That really helped me fashion my own. "The Traveller Adventure" (TTA) was great too. As with SMC, you could ignore the campaign, still run the scads of side adventures, and have a nicely detailed subsector to boot.

Let me also echo 's advice and tell you to check out Rule 68A. I loved the MT/DGP task system when it first came out but now I view it as overly fiddly and time consuming. 68A just makes things faster IMHO.

>I've always thought an explanation for the old school room-sized computers and whatnot existing side-by-side with more modern conventions would be cool.

You've heard how by the end of it's lifetime, the computers in the Space Shuttle were outdone by your smartphone? Ever wonder why they didn't replace them?

Did you know that NASA makes it's own hardware? They don't use off the shelf computers in their craft, they make their own chips and processors to make it ounce for ounce more radiation resistant than anything earthbound. It makes things bulkier, but space weather is less likely to fry it.

I think it's safe to assume the same thing for Traveller computers. When the crew takes a RAD hit from a near miss with a nuclear weapon, the computers are still going while your weak little smartphone probably got half it's files corrupted.

Blake's 7!

Supplement 9: Solomani Rim, for the perfect setting
Broadsword, Safari Ship and Leviathan are my favorite adventures

Just woke up, so apologies if I don't totally make sense.

I was going to ask where the alternate ship rules were, and Snapshot is something I'll have to look at- I'm considering some underground or superstructure exploration so that may help out a lot.

As someone born in the early 90s into a tech-heavy home, I cannot imagine life without all the comforts provided by the internet.
Have all those on the list now, all the setting stuff will help a lot, and the rules stuff should be a real boon.

Solomani Rim and the adventures have been added as well!

That's really neat. I actually didn't know NASA builds all their own hardware, but that makes a lot of damn sense. Particularly the RAD shielding. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the smartphone gets totally fried.

Are you sure about the nasa chips and processors? The references I've looked at (which is old) is that they buy 'hardened' designs from chipmakers (like intel or TI). I don't think they have their own fab (or didn't for ICs) - (for example, the rad-hardened RCA1802 variant on the Galileo) - it's a niche market, but like the space pen, was made by the private sector.

On a related note, the code for the Apollo LEM's guidance computer is out github.com/chrislgarry/Apollo-11 - it's a fun excercise to go through the machine code against the processor reference - it's simple enough of a chip that the command set isn't too overwhelming)

Most people enjoy traveller's chargen, but don't hit them with it when they're new. I wouldn't even make a big deal of the UPP, and put the array as statistics on her sheet.

If she asks about them, explain that they go from 1-15, and 7 is average, and that skills vaguely represent years of experience in that skill.

When the first check comes up, explain how checks work, and the pieces that go into that one.

Teach it as you go - try to relate as much as possible to real-world frames of reference.

So combat - talk about initiative, you've already covered checks, all that's left is damage & armor (but try to avoid combat where the opposition wants her dead - it takes the stakes out of losing some, and in Traveller, folk who reach for their gun first usually have short careers). I like a good fist fight or struggle as a frame for the basics.

Medic Check!

Yeah it does.

How exactly do most people go about using maps for traveller on roll20? Do you just use like splash screens for a background of their current area or..?

Also, when we actually begin the game should I just make up a scenario for them, or just drop them on a space station and let them decide?

I'm sure there should be at least some hook to start them off with, maybe they were all hired for the same job?

Also, first-time-Traveller GF user here. I Will play this Saturday, and surely tell yall how it went.

Does anyone have a scan of Orbital 2100? I can't find it in the Mega folder, but it could very well be there and just someplace I missed.

>using maps

I'd maybe have a couple of ship deck plans and maybe a bar and a street corner map. For ship-to-ship combat I like to have the player's deck plan up and just tell them everything else via sensors, and then they can run around the ship attempting repairs or repelling boarders or whatever.

>when you begin

If you want to do "right" then this is a handy overview:

batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-make-traveller-sandbox.html

If you use a pregenerated sector map, like the OTU ones, you can skip the first step, which will save a big chunk of time.

If you're pressed for time or don't feel like it, set up just the local planet, and don't let them have a ship just yet. If they roll up a ship, have it be impounded, and just run something on planet for a session so you can figure out what to prep for next time.
Also if want to keep them busy, a good old fashioned bar fight is a classic first session starter that lets players get a feel for how the combat works in a nice, non-lethal conflict.
>"Hey, you [insert service here] guysh think you're sho great! Me and my.. uh.. [different service branch] buddys can kick your stupid buttsh anyday!"

It is. It's in one of the Mongoose folders (I think the 2e one). Lemme check real quick.

Mongoose Traveller (2008)/Settings - Other
It's there near the bottom.

Archivist here, I don't have 2100 yet.

...

'Night all.

...

...

So what are some things you use to add flavour to your games? Pic semi-related.

Mageguru over at the PDF share thread just posted These Stars Are Ours, a Terra-centered setting book for the Cepheus Engine. I guess I'll have to make a Cepheus Engine folder.

Does Mongoose Traveller 2e have rules for fleet-sized space combat?

>Does Mongoose Traveller 2e have rules for fleet-sized space combat?

MgT2e has 2e version of High Guard2e but like 1e the system is "meh" at best.

Fleet-scale combat is something Traveller didn't really focus on. As an RPG, PC-scale ship combat saw more development and rightfully so.

Classic had HG2. Love it or hate it, it's been a touchstone for 35+ years now. It's also very bare bones and very streamlined. Classic had wargames featuring fleet combat like 5th Frontier War, Imperium, and Dark Nebula, but you can't put ships you designed into those games.

MegaTraveller had no real fleet-scale combat, just an updated version of HG2 and TNE had the fleet-scaled "Battle Rider".

One of the worst versions, T4, had the TWO fleet scale games: Pocket Empires and Imperial Squadrons. You "build' fleets in those games, not individual ships.

>Classic had HG2

You mean Trillion Credit Squadron?

I will pay for someone to receive a copy of Orbital 2100 if they scan it properly so that every important table for Ship Creation isnt missing.

>You mean Trillion Credit Squadron?

No. I mean High Guard 2. (HG2)

Classic had two versions of High Guard. The 1st was quickly replaced by the 2nd. HG2 contained advanced naval chargen, ship construction, and a ship combat system.

Trillion Credit Squadron has NO combat system. It's a minimal set of strategic rules grafted on to HG2. It covers things like interstellar movement, refueling, taxation, and the like. TCS uses HG2's combat system.