Traveller General--A fistful of credits edition

Have a copy of 2008 Mongoose Traveller, and am going thru the process of designing my first campaign. I noticed there's a 2016 Mongoose Traveller now. Anyone know the compatibility between versions? Can I use the 2016 Central Supply Catalog with the 2008 core with minimal issues?

The problem isn't *as* bad, considering it's only a ring world around a gas giant, not a star proper. Begs the question of why though, and raises the even bigger issue of the ring blocking it's own sunlight.
Maybe change it to a small proto-star?
Still a lot of real estate though.

Ringworlds are pretty cool, it's just that it raises a bunch of internal consistency questions that your man outlined. Stuff like "why bother colonising other planets when we can just find an empty section of Ringworld to call our own?"
I guess you could have the Ringworld already colonised, but that's an imperial fucktonne of people.
Maybe do it like Stellaris does, where the Ringworld is organised in sections, only some of which are actually habitable. So instead of "3 MILLION EARTHS" you'd have like 10 big Earths at most.

Really, it depends on what you want from your game. If you're fine going full space-opera, then the Ringworld works fine because you can just not think about it.
If you're going for something more grounded you're either going to need to rework it or come up with some really smart answers to those questions.

Normally Traveller is more grounded, with crazy bullshit like Ringworlds normally being a Big Deal, but the system also isn't married to the setting. There's no reason you couldn't use Traveller for high flying space-opera if you wanted.

>Traveller is a classic science fiction system first released in 977

Fun fact: Basil II was fond of playing Traveller between Bulgar killing sessions.

>They too will be orbiting planets as well so of smaller scale.

Borrowing from three SF settings instead of just the one, these would be either "Orbitals" (a self-contained ring that is in orbit around a planet but does not encircle it), or "Halos" (like a ringworld but around a world instead of around a star).

The default Traveller setting has one unfinished ringworld, one semi-Canon Dyson sphere, one Canon Klemperer Rosette, and one no-longer-Canon finished combo-Ringworld and Well of Souls.

>I want space circle worlds but the big ones are too big

What about Bishop rings? No exotic materials needed, and the surface area is roughly equivalent to India.

Unappreciated

Banks' Orbitals and Bishop Rings are similar in placement, if not scale, in that they orbit something but do not encircle it.

>Because of its enormous scale, the Bishop Ring would not need to be enclosed like the Stanford torus: it could be built without a "roof", with the atmosphere retained by artificial gravity and atmosphere retention walls some 200 km (120 mi) in height
Yeah, the open-topped style is where you go from "lol nice space station, for babies" to "oh damn that's a nice place"

Ringworld-user here once more.

What was written here seems really good, and close to what I had thought about: A skeleton of an orbital around a gas giant with some (dozen or so) components. Some might be habitable but most are open to space and 50% contain weird and unexplored stuff.

Why around a gas giant? For fuel. [secret]The Orbital was intended by the Ancients to be a gigantic spacedock/refueling station for their craft but Ancients disappeared long before it was finished. The few living spaces are mostly for crew enjoyment and not for that large population[/spoiler]

Thought about the reason why no big kingdoms have occupied it: The Orbital was a cause for a war 100 years ago, but it ended in a ceasefire and now the Orbital sits in a middle of a Neutral Zone between the kingdoms. Of course it is full of pirates and other suspicious types (and spies) but officially neither Kingdom wants to be there too much as that would lead to another war. Of course the PCs can change things if they like...

So more Space Casablanca? That makes a bit more sense politically, and is pretty neat.
If you haven't already, consider putting it between three or more equally powerful polities. That way, if any one tries to take it, the others gang up on them. Make it an odd number to prevent equal alliances.

what about your aliens is so alien, user?

are the Droyne literally the ancients ? or was there regression?

If I recall, there was a regression. According to CT lore

Also the Aslan may have stolen jump drive technology making them a 'lesser race'

Space Casablanca it is indeed! You are true, probably third faction could be added for "balance of terror"

Haven't had _that_ much to think about the Aliens, but I do not like too humanoid aliens ffor this setting - the rubberheaded aliens will be just different subtypes of humankind.

I would express their otherwordliness by
1) Not being humanoid in shape
2) Different scale (huge/small), different environment (gas/water/hot), ways of communication ( light, even UV etc), weird lifecycles. Some of them have more advanced Tech as well.
3) Really difficult to communicate with. No universal translators
4) Having quite different morality (traveller has great examples of this)
5) Different mindsets. For example, one reptilian species in one of my settings was very focused on fight/flight reflex. Yet when they (once) lost to humans, they thought that they could not _ever_ win humans again due to them having proven their *species* superiority once and for all over their *species*. The humans had not yet understood this fact, however, and were just happy that the reptiles stopped raiding them after the war.
6) Due to the old human crusade, most of aliens see humans akin to interstellar rats - annoying but too numerous to wipe out. Therefore they will not deal much with humans, meaning that Alien - PC contact will be suitably rare in this campaign.

The Ancients will probably be original humans, probably called Ancestors by their descendants. Current humans are their leftovers of their Disappearance

Keep talking like that and you're gonna get dewclaw'd son

Recently saw a map of the Traveller Milky Way posted in a thread, and I was intrigued by the Core Sophonts, Essaray, Dushis Khurisi, and the galaxy in general. But googling didn't turn up much.

Just more excuses on your part with even less understanding. A ring circling a gas giant is going to be far less stable than a ringworld, need near constant use of attitude jets, have to deal with more "debris", and block it's own sunlight along with many many other issues.

You could use Banks' Orbital or Bishop Rings, if you'd ever heard of them before this thread. You could use huge Stanford Torii too. Instead, you simply must have a ringworld because it's cool.

There's no problem with employing the Rule of Cool to plop on or dozens of ringworlds in your setting. There is a problem, however, when you try to EXPLAIN their presence because the more you attempt to explain the stupider the idea becomes.

By all means, inflict a ringworld on your players. Take care to answer their questions with "No one knows" because there are no actual answers to their questions.

Someone posted the outline of the Galaxiad in a past thread.
Apparently the characters go about the place meeting all of them across the different seasons.
The only one I remember properly is that the Dushis Khurisi is a Vilani Empire made up of people who ran really really really far away for some reason

>are the Droyne literally the ancients ? or was there regression?

Neither. The Droyne existed before the Ancients, worked for the Ancients, and survived the Ancients. Putting it another way, the Droyne were minions.

The 1st Ancient, Yaskodray (Grandfather), was a mutated Droyne. Think super psionic super genius. He took control of the Droyne homeworld and used Droyne as servants & workers. Regular Droyne didn't prove good enough, so he made copies of himself, Children, and those Children made copies too, the Grandchildren. The Kids and Grandkids were then dispatched hither and yon by Gramps on various research projects taking ordinary Doyne with them as a work force. Certain ordinary Droyne were also possibly "uplifted" to Ancient or near Ancient status.

The family squabble know as the Final War begins, Gramps hunts down and kills all his Kids & Grandkids, retreats into his pocket universe, and the Droyne are left behind.

>attitude jets
Not ringworld-user, but surely running a whole bunch of M-Drives isn't going to be that power intensive, assuming really high TL reactors.
Debris can be dealt with with Traveller's normal "lol gravatics"
Also the idea of the place being under constant night is pretty cool. Could explain why most of it isn't habitable. You can't stray too far from the heaters and lights and all that.
Also seeing as it's space Casablanca it being constantly night-time gives it a real noir feel, which works thematically with it being a nest of spies and scoundrels.

>Recently saw a map of the Traveller Milky Way posted in a thread, and I was intrigued by the Core Sophonts, Essaray, Dushis Khurisi, and the galaxy in general. But googling didn't turn up much.

Very little is known about any of them. They're all T5 additions and any T5 materials apart from the core rules/game design kit have yet to appear. Don't hold your breath about getting anything anytime soon either. T5 took nearly 15 years and a few of the "inner circle" people who were able/allowed to help/push Miller along have died.

There has been speculation at COTI regarding the Essaray and a comment in an early version of T5 that they are responsible for the lack of life in the trailing arm. Using that tiny comment and adding in an event in AotI, one poster suggested the Essaray are some sort of von Neumann machines.

And, of course, any of the names you found could be linked in some way to the Black Fleets so cryptically mentioned in AotI.

>Not ringworld-user, but surely running a whole bunch of M-Drives isn't going to be that power intensive, assuming really high TL reactors.

Super Science or not M-drives & reactors need fuel while drives, reactors and gravitic "brooms" need maintenance, etc. ,etc. Niven's Ringworld "worked" because hidden Protectors kept nearly all the systems functioning.

More "explanations" simply create more problems.

Use a ringworld if you want to. Don't try to explain it because you cannot.

How about something like these guys for maintenance?

>More "explanations" simply create more problems.
Yeah, but that's true for all but diamond-hard sci-fi. All you need to do practically is be able to field most reasonable questions that could come up from your prospective audience.
You also need to factor in what people in-universe know. While its handy for the ref to know that the Ancients built their dyson sphere as part of a cosmic dick-waving contest (or whatever), it's not guaranteed anyone alive at the time of play will know that this is the case.

Hell, maybe the Ancients were planning to perform firefly-style helioforming on the gas-giant

>How about something like these guys for maintenance?

Motie Brownies for lack of a better term? All you need to do is "simple" shit like breed them, feed them, house them, train them, etc. for the thousands of years they've been "mindlessly" maintaining the structure.

>>All you need to do practically is be able to field most reasonable questions that could come up from your prospective audience.

You and the ringworld user can't even field simple & reasonable questions now so, unless the players a morons, you won't be able to field their simple & reasonable questions either.

>>You also need to factor in what people in-universe know.

That's true. You also need to factor in the IMPACT such a structure has on both the setting and the setting's inhabitants. If the structure are ancient enough, the "Why they were built" can be answered with a simple "We don't know".

However, seriously suggesting that a setting with dozens of ringworlds would also feature extensive interstellar exploration and outright wars for control of those structures is little more than idiocy.

How many real tons of mass does a Traveller d-ton equal? Is it based on liquid hydrogen?

>However, seriously suggesting that a setting with dozens of ringworlds would also feature extensive interstellar exploration and outright wars for control of those structures is little more than idiocy.

I've really quickly crunched the numbers, and came up with 100,800,000,000,000km^2 for each Ringworld, using the assumption that they're orbiting a Gas Giant the size of Jupiter at about the orbit of Ganymede, and using the circumference-width ratio of Niven's Ringworld. Does my maths check out?
This is approximately 50 Earths of surface area, which while massive, isn't as fuckheug as 3 Million Earths.
Assuming the other Ringworlds are finished, again maybe with Protostars, they'd definitely be a massive deal spacio-politically, but not enough to change Traveller's base assumptions a great deal. Also, Ringworld-user implied Humanity has been around for a long time in their setting, giving time for the Ringworlds in civilised space to be populated.

It should also be said that the other Ringworlds are apparently outside the scope of user's campaign.

>All you need to do is "simple" shit like breed them, feed them, house them, train them, etc. for the thousands of years they've been "mindlessly" maintaining the structure.

The older Keepers/Brownies take care of the training, duh. Plus the implants which allow central computer to fuck around with their brains. They live in designated hab zones, and are fed by the automated hydroponics, both of which are either powered by reactors running off fuel from the gas giant, or from massive solar panels on the outward rim

I do want to put out the disclaimer that this maths was done both using google as a calculator and while a wee bit pished. so definitely double check it if you smell bullshit

I'm pretty sure it's the amount of volume that 1 ton of Hydrogen displaces at a given temperature. While it's arbitrary, it makes fuel requirement calculations really easy

>isn't as fuckheug as 3 Million Earths.

The star-centered ringworld was 3 million Earths in size. Of course the gas giant ones will be smaller.

>>The older Keepers/Brownies take care of the training, duh

That's just part of the issue, duh. No recycling system is going to be 100% efficient so all the hydroponics, reactors, and whatever are going to need raw materials.

The longer your Keepers/Brownies are using those habitats, the more material inputs they'll need. Do the Keepers/Brownies fly ships? Trade for goods?

A ringworld or ringworlds, whether around a star or gas giant, and THE TECH NEEDED TO BUILD THEM should have a HUGE impact on any setting. Yet all you and the original user want to do is is derp about neutral zones, casablancas, unchanging organic sevitors keeping them working for eons, and other idiocies.

By all means, put them in you setting. Just don't be surprised when your players begin the point out the parsec-sized holes in your 'thinking".

>Do the Keepers/Brownies fly ships? Trade for goods?
That would actually be pretty neat. The Keepers/Brownies are capable of mining and awkward trading, but their entire mindset revolves around getting enough resources to their Ringworld

>THE TECH NEEDED TO BUILD THEM

...I didn't consider that. Especially if you have a bunch of Ringworlds, it wouldn't even be as big a risk to dismantle one to try an reverse-engineer all the high-TL shit required to keep one running. I guess if the technology required to build them isn't held on the Ringworld itself that could mitigate the issue somewhat, but even observing the Ringworld would give insight into the theory, along with aforementioned maintenance-tech being reverse-engineerable.

I guess you could have the big players in Near Space working on/basically worked out Ringworlds, but the tech hasn't propagated to the backwater where Ringworld-user's campaign is set? Hell, it could even be conducive to a Traveller campaign, because if the major powers are focusing all their resources on working out/building Ringworlds, they aren't going to be administering the border-regions as much.

I'll admit it's a massive stretch at this point, but I'm just trying to spitball reasonable solutions to Ringworld-user's problems.

>...I didn't consider that.

Believe me, it was obvious.

>>I'll admit it's a massive stretch at this point, but I'm just trying to spitball reasonable solutions to Ringworld-user's problems.

Seeing as Ringworld user isn't bothered to find reasonable solutions, why should you?

Ringworlds would fit nicely In a Vancian-style science-fantasy "Dying Earth"-ish setting where "magic" and "tech" merged long ago and the few people left only have a rote understanding of both. Nothing in those kinds of setting needs to be explained or accounted for, only the logical consequences need be handled.

>setting where "magic" and "tech" merged long ago and the few people left only have a rote understanding
One of the things I like about the rather odd setting used by Mike Kaluta years ago for the graphic novel Starstruck. High technic societies in some places, barbarians in old orbital habs in other places. Whether a really old setting or just an extreme case of the three generation rule, the variables make it an interesting read.

the three generation rule? forgive my plebeian-ness, but what's that

It's a rule of thumb originally from civil engineering.

Generation One grew up without a sewer systems and saw people dying of cholera, drinking water being fouled, etc. They deliberately choose spend the money to build a sewer system and then spend whatever money is needed to maintain it.

Generation Two grew up with a sewer system and only heard about the days of cholera, bad water, etc. They spend on maintenance for the system out of habit more than anything else. Towards the end, they skimp on spending and maintenance because the system is working.

Generation Three grew up with a sewer system and don't even know what cholera is. They see Gen 2 skimping on maintenance and think that's normal. They increasingly cut maintenance budgets, ignore the system which has always worked, then it suddenly doesn't anymore, and Generation 3 learns all about cholera.

The three generation rule is why highway bridges in the US collapse and why US/EU cities have water main systems with components dating to the 1880s.

Gen 1 - We need this!
Gen 2 - We already have this...
Gen 3 - What is this?

yup. Now apply that to really big orbitals. Tough and built to last at some level, but will accumulate mechanical issues while the population descends into savagery.

Ah, so not to be overly /pol/

Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.

that about cover it?

Only if you see yourself as one of the "strong" and wish to blame the cycle on someone else. Which does happen, and can, in the context of this thread, be used to drive in-game politics, patrons, and thus adventure.

The trick to maintaining civilization is to not let too many of these cycles synchronize and hit the failure point all at once.

I'm not saying I agree with the phrase, I'm merely seeing synchronicity between the phrase and the above statement

That's cool. It was an abstract "you".

You don't want the archivist back any time soon, do you.

Ringworld-user here once more and probably for the last time.

This is getting quite tedious. I know my players well enough that I know that they will give questions about the Casablanca. However, most of the questions can be answered quite well with stuff what I and have came up with. Thank you!

The Casablanca is an skeleton of an Orbital built by the Ancients orbiting a Gas Planet. It is unknown how it works as there has not been sufficiently much research on it due the Neutral Zone. (Its TL is > than current human Kingdoms).

> Why it is here? How it works?
Not entirely sure, but some functioning components are collecting and refining fuel from the Gas Giant (reduced cost of fuel perhaps)
> How maintenance for it works
We humans really do not know much about that stuff. Some components are clearly suffering from lack of maintenance but at least the orbital is stable. The internal components.. not that much.
> Tech to build them
Only the Ancients had such tech, it has not been reverse-engineered successfully. (too big TL gap)
> Why it is not conquered?
The Casablanca War was waged 100 years ago about the Orbital and ended in a draw. Now it is the middle of three kingdoms and full of renegades, spies, corporations and all that fun stuff.
Also the further away Kingdoms have other orbitals to worry about. They are long distance away.
> Is it safe?
If you stay in the spaceport, it is rather safe although lawless. Go on lone expeditions to other components and nothing is certain.
> Can we the PCs profit from it
Yes, but it is risky and _many_ factions are interested in it as well. Have fun!
> Does this make a good hub for our adventures?
It is interesting, has a good spaceport, easy to dock, LOTS of patrons / contacts and cheap fuel. Why not?

In science fiction, you do not always have to answer everything, sometimes the mystery is the fun part :D
+ Rule of Cool is always great!

Why does that dickhead bother you weenies so much?

so, will the galaxiad ever happen?

>I know my players well enough

If you know your players are morons, go with it!

>so, will the galaxiad ever happen?

If I had to bet, I'd bet no. That makes me sad, but I must be honest.

Miller is SEVENTY years old. The fire, the drive, whatever you want to call it just isn't there any more. He doesn't need to sell Traveller materials for the kid's braces or college funds.

Miller took a year to write AotI, but that was after he'd been thinking about it for a few years beforehand. As good as AotI is, it's only about 300 pages and that if you also count the various indexes. I know authors who routinely produce 300 good pages in a few months.

Look at Crawford, how much gaming materials for SWN did he produce in a year? Core rules, supplements, source books, etc., he put out 1000s of good pages for a new rules set and setting in the time Miller took to write one novel.

Miller's collaborators and "inner circle" are beginning to die off too. All the people whom Miller bounces ideas off of, all the people who do various projects, all the people who push him along, there isn't as many has there used to be.

Greg Lee died this year. He was the ONLY guy so far who was able to release a T5 product; the "Cirque" setting an a tie-in novel. There's supposed to be another T5 product in the works, but there's been no hint whatsoever at COTI.

Loren Wiseman died last year after quite a long period of ill health. He wasn't available to toss ideas back and forth for most of that time. The year before that Don McKinney went in to the hospital for weight loss surgery and never came out. Don was one of those unsung guys. He ramrodded the errata projects for older versions, worked the timeline, tracked down all sorts of references in all sorts of canon, and did all the "little" labor intensive jobs Miller needed doing. Hans Rancke died not long after Don. His grasp of all canon was so broad he was given the title of Imperial Librarian.

I don't think there's enough time left given the decade-plus production process T5 required.

SCREECHcrash
>oh shit...
>oh it's okay, no-one will notice, this planet is a total backwater

Sod off, wankah!

Exactly!!!

This is why no one will play with you

That is not what is normally meant by lithobraking, but good effort.

shame, it sounds like suuuuch a cool idea

>shame, it sounds like suuuuch a cool idea

It does. I love the call backs to mythology, the "hero's journey", and all that. Given the example of T5's 10+ year "gestation" period plus Miller's age, I just don't see it happening.

It's sad really.

>This is why no one will play with you

This Sunday afternoon I'm refereeing a session in a heavily modified TTA campaign. The PCs should be contacted by the Jgd-ll-Jagd with information about a damaged/misjumped Kinunir in Vargr space. They were supposed to get the info last session but they zigged when I expected them to zag so I had to "reset" the rumor.

When we you play next and what will it be about?

Jump-1

Are there any quick reference sheets downloadable for mongoose 1st ed? I've been looking around for some time now but all i find is the damn gm screen for 2nd ed... (or can i use that with minor changes?)

I think there might be something in the archive?

There was a screen for Mongoose 1 released early on. Is it not in the archive?

now's a bad time to realize it if it's not, seeing how the archivist is gone for...the forseeable future

It doesn't really matter since we're about to lose it to an alien psion who turned it into the Ishimura, but we already had 13 MCr out of 32 paid off and were doing fairly well for ourselves. My character avoided all the horror shit by skipping off to plow some hookers after the psion gave everyone except him horrifying visions. As it stands, I'm wondering what insurance he and the other co-owner have on it and how we're gonna replace the NPC crew. I'm hoping it's a lot so I can buy a drone and join in on the adventures instead of sitting back with the ship.

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Wow, that campaign sounds wild! Please let us know how things turn out.

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Is there something like a space fantasy supplement for traveller?

also is there a way to play as a robot?

there's flynn's guide to magic in traveller, and several attempts to make sword & sorcery trav.

Crank up the recovery rate for expended psi points. Make the assumption that the loss of potential above 18 is mirrored by a gain in potential before 18.
Use the TNE version of TK, and the Dark Conspiracy book of exotic psi abilities.

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And for sentient robots?

Last thing we had to deal with was basically xenomorphs, almost had a total party kill because it was in close quarters. My character was especially fucked because he's almost a cripple, lots of trained skills though, and with a wafer jack that includes every last intelligence or education based skill.

>Is there something like a space fantasy supplement for traveller?

The aforementioned Flynn's guide, a few Vance/Dying Earth supplements, and others. As explains, it's basically a case of making psionics easier, faster, stronger, etc. Ditch the "lose points if untrained as you age" angle, buff the number of problems, buff recovery rates, lengthen how long effects last, etc.

>>also is there a way to play as a robot?

That's been available since Classic with robot rules in early JTAS issues and later LBB:8. DGP's work for MegaT included a robot PC, Aybee Wan Owen (AB-101) as part of their long running "4 Knights' campaign in their "Traveller Chronicle" mag. TNE had rules, mostly in Vampire Fleets, and other versions include them too. Mindjammer as a whole host of rules for this too.

Playing a robot has always been more a case of role playing ABILITY than specific rules which means many folks can't/won't be able to do it on the tabletop. Robots/androids should have certain limitations and limitations of any kind are, as the great Lew Pulsipher explains, something current players have no concept of or tolerance for. Take GURPS for example.

Disads and quirks in GURPS are meant to an integral part of PCs, providing them with built-in handicaps and personalities. Instead, they're completely ignored aspects the player took so they could buff other aspects. As a referee, I find myself constantly reminding players about their own PC's disads & quirks while they whine about having to deal with the disads & quirks they themselves chose.

With players using robots/androids as PCs, instead of getting a LCDR Data with his well known flaws and blindspots, you usually end up with a Superman who talks funny. Think twice about allowing robot/android PCs.

Crazy, absolutely crazy. Sounds like it was a lot of fun.

Are you looking for the wide variety seen in Star Wars, where even the little trash collectors are sentient?

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bump, also, Best minor race of Humaniti, and why is it Darrians?

Suerrat for me. They made it into space ahead of Vland, but never developed jump drive. Instead they had a "sector-sized empire" held together with STL generation ships before the Vilani contacted them. Much later, they led a rebellion against the 31 in the 400s which resulted in their homeworld's equatorial regions being "scrubbed free of life".

Better yet, they're only briefly mentioned in 40 years of canon so I can do whatever the fuck I want with them.

and what's your take on them, user?

It was actually pretty nerve-wracking; when Insaid he was almost a cripple I meant it, during character generation I started with like 7 STR and 9 END, thanks to a series of accidents and shit luck he dropped both to 3. I actually ended making him spend 8 years in prison before the game started.

Are you familiar with the post-WW1 Czech satire "The Good Soldier Svejk'? It's set before and during WW1 and feaures characters fighting in that war for an empire to which they have no loyalty. That's basically my take on the Suerrat.

Characters in the novel routinely engage in passive resistance towards the A-H Empire through both dumb insolence and passive aggressive behavior. IMTU, the Suerrat do th same towards the 3I.

The Suerrat get contacted by the Vilani and, because Vland has jump drive and they do not, get hammered into the Ziru Sirka while Vilani cultural norms are force on them. Over a 1000 years later, the ZS falls and the RoM takes over but the boot is still on their neck. The RoM then falls but the Long Night results.

Nearly 2000 years later, the brand new 3I comes calling, Suerrat worlds join up. Any hopes and dreams fade over the next few centuries as the 3I focuses development elsewhere, so a big chunk of Ilelish more or less peacefully revolts. While the 3I reacts more with economic and "soft" power to put down the rebellion, the world Ilelish itself gets "eco-cided" as punishment.

Nearly 700 years late, Dulinor shoots the Emperor and kicks off a war which leads to the destruction of Charted Space.

What is one of the sectors in his Domain? Ilelish.
What is the largest cultural grouping in his Domain? The Suerrat.

A STR and END of 3? Yeah, that's a cripple alright. of course have a wafer jack with EVERY skill based on INT and EDU more than made up for any physical problems.

I knew as soon as I read about wafers in AotI, munchkins and the like would take the centimeter Miller provided and stretch it out to a parsec.

Yeah, an aug that makes any nut aimed INT or EDU skill trained, or provides a +1 to anything trained above 1 is great because my guy gets a +1 from INT, so essentially I get 2 in all those skills. The problem so far is that like I said, I can't really go anywhere without getting fucked. Until I can get a drone I'm ship bound unless I want to risk death; though if we ever get an attack helo I suddenly become the toughest, hardest hitting fucker on the team since I have points in that. As it stands, the moment I get a drone is the moment I basically get a new body that's tougher than anyone else's and he best thing is that I hashed it out with the DM and he said I could control the drone with either a portable computer or the wafer jack if I pair it with a comm. I can basically mind control drones and seeing as another guy in he party is a bit of a hacker, if we ever fight some I could conceivably take one and turn it against its owners.

was Dulinor a Suerrat IYTU?

>The problem so far is that like I said, I can't really go anywhere without getting fucked.

Not exactly. It's more like you couldn't figure out to play a STR/END 3 PC in what sounds like a physically oriented/combat heavy campaign and your referee was too weak to point out that your character was flawed and have you create new one.. Naturally, the "solution" you both came up with - wafer jacks and possible drones - are overreactions which turn your PC into a superman. The "crutches" you've been given and will get doesn't just put your PC on par with the other PCs, it make him BETTER than the other PCs.

PCs need to fit the campaign. A pure combat monster with no ship skills has no place in a free trader campaign, a jump navigator has no place in a planetside merc campaign, and your PC has no place in whatever campaign your referee is running.

And, of course, the possibility that you can hack other drones while no one is able to hack yours in return is 100% pure munchkin.

>was Dulinor a Suerrat IYTU?

No, he's still from Dlan, isn't a member of the planetary religion there so has to wear black, and all the rest.

The Suerrat, near Suerrat, and the "dumb insolence" mindset they promote helped set the stage for Dulinor and his rebellion. While they didn't choose him, overtly plot with him, or anything like that, their "who gives a fuck", "not my job", and "why bother" mindset meant the 3I in Dulinor's Domain was and was seen to be more incompetent, corrupt, out of touch, oppressive, etc.

Putting it another way, the attitudes of the Suerrat staffing the various Imperial bureaucracies and organizations in the Domain turned Imperial governance there into a giant Department of Motor Vehicles. After generations of dealing with an imperium like that, the people of the Domain didn't need much coaxing to rebel.

>physically oriented/combat heavy campaign
It actually isn't combat heavy, we've only really had 3 major fights, the xenomorphs, a ship fight, and currently the necromorphs, and the first one screwed over everybody because it was at such close quarters and no one was specced for melee combat, the second my guy handled just fine because he's the pilot. For the most part a lot of it has been business meetings and parcel delivery, the former only one guy is actually specced in, and the latter I can do because my guy can drive.

>make him BETTER than the other PCs.
It won't, all of us are pretty specialized in whatever roles we've got, two of the other PCs are specced for gun-combat and are already pretty heavily armed, by the time I can actually afford a drone they'll be able to exceed it when it comes to firepower and versatility of weapons plus have enough armor to closely match it for toughness. The only drones that I know can exceed them in firepower and toughness are so far out of my character's budget that they're a complete non-starter.

>possibility that you can hack other drones while no one is able to hack yours in return
I can't hack, the third guy is specced for that and business shit, and if we do fight drones then there's a pretty good chance he'll be too busy shooting at them to hack. Plus, our DM has been pretty good about rolling against hacking attempts

>It actually isn't combat heavy,

Not combat heavy. You had a near TPK against xenomorphs and you been complaining that your PC is so weak he'll be killed if he leaves the ship. but the campaign isn't combat heavy at all. Makes sense to me.

>> two of the other PCs are specced for gun-combat and are already pretty heavily armed,

Two min-max munchkins specced for gun combat, but it's really not a combat heavy campaign. Sure thing.

>>I can't hack, the third guy is specced for that and business shit, and if we do fight drones then there's a pretty good chance he'll be too busy shooting at them to hack.

So you can't hack and the guy who can will be too busy? Tell me again how that is any different than drones being hack proof?

>>Plus, our DM has been pretty good about rolling against hacking attempts

How is he for rolling NPC hacking attempts? You know, the guys who are going to want to hack your drone before it shoots their asses off?

So your cruppled PC needs a combat drone to keep up with the other 2 gun specced PCs in your non-combat heavy campaign? And there's no chance of anyone ever hacking your drone? And you've got a wafer jack giving you two levels in every INT & END skill?

And you still think your PC is a cripple?

>Better yet, they're only briefly mentioned in 40 years of canon
Contact article in the rare T4 era issues of JTAS, and some coverage in GTIW. Other than that just mentions in library data.

>article in the rare T4 era issues of JTAS
>>some coverage in GTIW.
>>just mentions in library data.

I think all that counts as "brief", don't you?

That T4 JTAS article said their STL generation ships had huge trees running the length long axis.

I've never found a good set of robot rules. I just go with "you're mechanically a normal character, say beep boop a lot, may be social consequences at the imperial or local levels, who knows, work it out, also at times of extreme need you might be able to function as a bare-minimum starship computer, the same way an organic crew could spend a week plotting a jump by hand if their computer was fucked, and then have someone hopped up on spice do the piloting work."