A few thoughts, starting with skills.

[cym0k]

I am revising T5 so I know what I am doing when I try running it. (not revising as in changing, revising as in studying!)

I have discovered the "This is Hard!" rule (page 132). I have also seen that JOT (Jack of All Trades) offers some balance against this. I have also seen threads and DonMs house ruling ideas.

Question: Would you be happy in a game where TIH is offset with JOT, with JOT being open to all career paths? At the moment it covers about 4 careers.

On top of this, one thing I am struck by is the "toolbox" approach of T5. I liken it to AD&D: You have a shedload of rules, rulings and things on offer and you can use them if you wish. The point being "if you wish". My brain says this is a reasonable approach. We never used every single rule when running AD&D. There are newer systems that assume you are using all the rules and the systems break if you don't, but I am not feeling that with T5.

Thoughts?

 

[David Johansen]

I think what we've got now is the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide without the Basic Set, Monster Manual, World of Greyhawk, and a stack of Dungeon Modules.

 

[robject]

Question: Would you be happy in a game where TIH is offset with JOT, with JOT being open to all career paths? At the moment it covers about 4 careers.

That could work just fine.

You have a shedload of rules, rulings and things on offer and you can use them if you wish. The point being "if you wish". My brain says this is a reasonable approach. We never used every single rule when running AD&D.

A lot of these rules are even specifically "only as really necessary". And I apply that to every facet of the rules!

 

[cym0k]

Good good. It seems to be holding up as I work out what might be worth using, so that's okay.

 

[robject]

Absolutely.

That's exactly how I learned T5, in fact: one bit at a time, swapping out bits of CT as I went.

 

[Dagrill]

I have discovered the "This is Hard!" rule (page 132). I have also seen that JOT (Jack of All Trades) offers some balance against this. I have also seen threads and DonMs house ruling ideas.

Question: Would you be happy in a game where TIH is offset with JOT, with JOT being open to all career paths? At the moment it covers about 4 careers.
Thoughts?

Hi,

I don't see it applying to all careers. I see military training as too specific and functionary as not enough practical experience, besides it actually encourages player's to take the citizen career, which is a first.

I would be tempted to add Noble, as sprogs are given a chance to try different things, but I don't want to encourage my player's in that direction.

Kind Regards

David

 

[Draconian]

T5 still has old-school roots and this seems to me to be a problem. You have character design with little character control. You are hungry for the skill: Fighter and knowledge: Unarmed. You find an appropriate career, get your 4 term skills, choose the appropriate skill table, mutter the magic mantra, "Space Ninja! Space Ninja! Space Ninja!", but fail your d6 rolls and get Beam Weapons or Mechanic yet again. Better luck next year.

Maybe I'll house-rule and say if you burn 2 skill-rolls you get to pick flat-out any skill from any available table, fer-sure, no rolling.

 

[robject]

You are hungry for the skill: Fighter and knowledge: Unarmed. You find an appropriate career, get your 4 term skills, choose the appropriate skill table, mutter the magic mantra, "Space Ninja! Space Ninja! Space Ninja!", but fail your d6 rolls and get Beam Weapons or Mechanic yet again. Better luck next year.

"Space Ninja" certainly is something I as a referee long for my players to stumble into by following chargen. </sarcasm>

Yeahhh... I consider that a strength of Traveller.

There's nothing stopping (1) the referee from giving you what you want, or (2) you giving you what you want. The rules don't say that fiat is wrong.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Egads! Space Ninjas, Release the Space Pirates and head for cover!

T5 still has old-school roots and this seems to me to be a problem. You have character design with little character control. You are hungry for the skill: Fighter and knowledge: Unarmed. You find an appropriate career, get your 4 term skills, choose the appropriate skill table, mutter the magic mantra, "Space Ninja! Space Ninja! Space Ninja!", but fail your d6 rolls and get Beam Weapons or Mechanic yet again. Better luck next year.

Maybe I'll house-rule and say if you burn 2 skill-rolls you get to pick flat-out any skill from any available table, fer-sure, no rolling.

You write as if this was a bad thing. I find the random roll for Skills (and Knowledges with T5) part of the charm of Traveller CharGen! Always has been, hell its lack in GT along with the metric system one of the major flaws of that edtion. I can't lie players and even me as Ref on occasion like the new CharGen's lack of a Survival Roll that kills you, but that had a charm too, or at least for us Referees.

 

[cym0k]

"Space Ninja" certainly is something I as a referee long for my players to stumble into by following chargen. </sarcasm>

Yeahhh... I consider that a strength of Traveller.

There's nothing stopping (1) the referee from giving you what you want, or (2) you giving you what you want. The rules don't say that fiat is wrong.

I'm in this camp. Do either, if you can't roll it, fudge it. Or play something that isn't what you thought you wanted and see what happens.

 

[Dagrill]

There's nothing stopping (1) the referee from giving you what you want, or (2) you giving you what you want. The rules don't say that fiat is wrong.

If you use Mongoose T, at the end of Char Gen the group get's to pick skills from a "skills package" to make up for any weak areas.

Regards

David

 

[tinker123]

One of my friends had a lot of AD&D monk characters, and a reputation for complaining. Just imagine him rolling up his target space-ninja, and getting drafted into the merchant service. He'd be determined. The character would have the grey outfit and the throwing stars, even with no skill levels. He'd be the steward who tops up your drink without you seeing him approach with the bottle. He'd complain constantly about being posted to a freighter with no suitable dojo to practice unarmed combat.
In short, he'd have so much personality that he'd liven up any game session. What more could you want?

 

[robject]

One of my friends had a lot of AD&D monk characters, and a reputation for complaining. Just imagine him rolling up his target space-ninja, and getting drafted into the merchant service. He'd be determined. The character would have the grey outfit and the throwing stars, even with no skill levels. He'd be the steward who tops up your drink without you seeing him approach with the bottle. He'd complain constantly about being posted to a freighter with no suitable dojo to practice unarmed combat.
In short, he'd have so much personality that he'd liven up any game session. What more could you want?

:file_21:I would want to watch the fun ensue. It sounds like that would be a fun game... challenging for some referees, maybe, but then it's a rare bunch that offer no challenges.

So that prompts me to share. Background: I referee Traveller, and seldom get to play an actual player character. Therefore, I've had to live vicariously through occasional NPCs, and two of them had interesting personalities. Both were randomly rolled.

One, Daashuulinta "Dash" Ushikukaadaruma, had steward skill. So, I made him a shugilii who had been disbarred from the Vilani Academy of High Cuisine (for accidentally poisoning some visiting dignitaries... it's complicated). He went to extremes when procuring and preparing exotic meals which often repulsed and concerned the player characters. For example, coming back to the ship with something long dead from the market, fully intending to serve it for dinners. Exposing meals to hard vacuum for just that right "something" (dryness?). Odd flavors that seemed vaguely industrial. Creatures served for their flavor... and not their digestibility. And vice versa.

The other was the kid sister (Zelda) of the captain (Cirban Cuillenescu), rescued from an illegal research facility on the border of the Imperium. She was, essentially, River Tam from Firefly... two years before Firefly came out. And my NPC River was a gunner. Imagine a psionic pre-teen girl who swivels the turrets around while in port. (I only did that once, just to give back to the player who so often gave me the headaches).

 

[Draconian]

One of my friends had a lot of AD&D monk characters, and a reputation for complaining. Just imagine him rolling up his target space-ninja, and getting drafted into the merchant service. He'd be determined. The character would have the grey outfit and the throwing stars, even with no skill levels. He'd be the steward who tops up your drink without you seeing him approach with the bottle. He'd complain constantly about being posted to a freighter with no suitable dojo to practice unarmed combat.
In short, he'd have so much personality that he'd liven up any game session. What more could you want?

I like that.

The spacer is intimately aware of their ship, wants to hear the correct mix of sounds: the whoosh of the air to ensure ventilation is properly circulating to all parts of the ship, the recycler pumps to convert the deadly COx's (carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide) back to oxygen, the pressure-equalizers and temperature-equalizers -- and the occasional "Ow!" from the Fighter: Unarmed-0 character whacking himself with his nunchuks again during practice. THAT's good for at least a year in T5!