• Welcome to the new COTI server. We've moved the Citizens to a new server. Please let us know in the COTI Website issue forum if you find any problems.
  • We, the systems administration staff, apologize for this unexpected outage of the boards. We have resolved the root cause of the problem and there should be no further disruptions.

advice for refs

F

flykiller

SOC-14 5K
my initial games failed. I figured out why, and wrote some rules on how to make them better. they helped me a lot, hopefully they'll help someone else too.

The Seven Adventure Components

Every successful game has certain features. Here they are.

Action

Combat, the chase, evasion, recon, disaster, rescue, romance, moral dilemas, whatever. Something should happen that sets the stage for players to interact with your world. It need not be violent or earth-shaking as even small things can be very effective.

Player Choices and Multiple Approaches

Players should have options to influence the game, accomplish their goals, and write the story. There should be more than one way to get the job done.

Choice Effectiveness

Player choices should have an effect on the course of the game. The effects need not always be positive but the idea is for the player to be able to make a difference. This is the reason for and core of every role-playing game.

Possibility of Success

The game referee should not dispense success or failure at his whim, nor should he allow the players to do impossible things. But, given boldness, hard work, ingenuity, luck, or, perhaps, a little help from a friendly non-player character, the players should have an opportunity to succeed. Like the Bible says; "...desire fulfilled is a tree of life."

Game Responsiveness

The game referee should be ready to respond to any course of action the players take, and incorporate it into his game if possible. The referee is not the sole source of the storyline.

Color / Mystery

Each game session should have some interesting bit of local color or inscrutible mystery to it. It need not be profound, weird, or affect the course of the adventure, but it should leave the players feeling that they've been somewhere different from their normal world.

Carry-Over

The players should always look forward (with happiness or dread or simple curiosity) to things that will be happening in the next game session.

The Four Referee Approaches

Space is big. So is Traveller. No matter how much you prepare you will start each game with the realization that you are completely unprepared. Your players will constantly move in directions that you never expected and cannot control. Here is how to cope with that.

Set the Big Picture and Major Themes

Decide on the Big Picture for your universe, or rather the little corner of it in which the players start. What is the history of the area, who are the nobles and the corporations and the crime bosses and the other major players, what do they all want and how do they interact? Then when the players run off in an unplanned direction you will have some idea of how to procede. There is no need for any great depth to this, just an ability to expand and accomodate changes. Details will come later.

Set the Adventure Stage

Start with where the players are, and consider where they might go. Minimize rigid plans. Maximize opportunities for the players to act. Draw up important people - who are they, what do they want, and how do they think they can get it? Sketch important places - what are these places, what are they for, who and what are there? Place significant equipment, obstacles, and terrain. Schedual important events. Think of what the players will want and need, and make it available (though not necessarily obvious, of course). Your job is not to plan the adventure, but to set the stage. Consult the Seven Adventure Components. Is there action? Do the players have choices? Will their choices be effective? Can the players possibly succeed? If the players do something unexpected can you respond? Is there a bit of color? Is there enough going on and are there enough goals to last more than one game session? Put brief descriptions and sketches on paper (clearly written) and have this ready to consult during the game, along with any detailed information that might be necessary.

Let the Players Take the Stage

When the game session begins this should be the time you relax and let the players do all the work. Sit back and smile. If you have set the stage and have included the Seven Adventure Components in your preparations then the players will have everything they need to generate a successful adventure. Act the non-player characters, run the events, operate the stage - let the players run the game.

Usually you will find that much of your preparation is untouched, as the players never get to it. Just keep the materials and use them in a later game. Soon you will find you have more material than you can keep track of.

Let Your Universe Grow

Your first game universe will be sparse and thin, but every game session will generate choices, decisions, events, rulings, people, and thoughts that can be incorporated into the Big Picture to expand your universe. Keep a record of these. As you fill in the gaps you will find that each game session not only paves the way for the next but also suggests many other adventures.

The Seven Referee Practices

Being a game referee is hard work. Here is how to make it easier.

Roll the Dice

You can't prepare for everything. Every step of the way the players will ask for and attempt things you never anticipated. When they do, just roll the dice. "Do I overhear the conversation?" Roll the dice. "How many ships are docked at the port?" Roll the dice. "I steal the dump truck and crash it through the gate." Roll the dice. Occasionally roll them just to keep the players wondering what is going on. If the players are active you might be rolling dice once or twice a minute. Roll them behind your hand so the players don't see how you are interpreting them.

Feel free to overrule any die roll (one reason to hide die rolls), but letting them stand usually results in a better game.

Minimize Up Front Details

Trying to sound and act like non-player characters can be exhausting after a few hours, and most people aren't good at it anyway. As much as possible keep characterizations on a "he says this, he does that" level and don't try to act out anything unless it greatly enhances the game at a certain point.

Don't try to detail every building, every ship, every wilderness the players may find themselves in. You can't. Use general descriptions when possible.

Don't try to detail every NPC the player characters interact with. There are too many of them. Use general descriptions when possible.

Prepare Lists and Charts

Draw up and keep on paper large lists of names, characteristics, stats, skills, families, ages, and other game details that might be needed. When necessary during a game just point your finger and drop it onto the paper, or roll the dice and find the result, and there it is. This is much easier than thinking up such details on demand in the middle of a game.

Maintain and Read Game History

At the end of every game session write up a quick review of the recent events and keep it as a history of the players' actions. Use this to prepare the next session, and have the players review it from time to time. Sometimes many days pass between games and it helps to jog everyone's memory about what they were doing and why.

Be Straightforward

If the players wander off into an area for which you are not prepared, simply tell them that you aren't ready and that you will need to postpone that portion of the game until later. In the meantime perhaps there may be other action to be taken in the remainder of the game session.

If a major contradiction develops in your game, admit it and make the best repair you can. Then move on. Traveller is Shotguns in Space - it is not Accurate Adventures in Accounting.

Never hesitate to stop the game to think a minute. Such pauses make good snack breaks anyway.

After-Game Preparation

After each game session update the game history and immediately prepare the next session. Update the Big Picture Major Themes. Think of where the players are now and where they might go, consider their intentions and yours, and see if new details such as names, deckplans, or descriptions are warranted. Then reset the stage while consulting the Seven Adventure Components.

Have a Good Time

This is important. If you are not enjoying the game then chances are your players aren't either. Set up situations and characters that you find interesting, develop game themes that last from session to session. If the players do things you don't enjoy then try to work it out with them, or else set them up with another referee while you look for other players. If you get tired then see if someone else will referee for a while. Refereeing should be a hard-work hobby, not a hard-work job.
 
And don't forget KISS (Keep It Simple St*p*d)

One thing I forgot with an over ambitious campaign I had a few years ago.
 
For the overall campaign I always write a story arc that will help me track what is going on around the universe. Typically this arc is what will happen if no players are in the game and everything “goes according to plan”. All the major players are written up and as I do this various subplots and seeds will start coming to mind as I figure out how to engage the players.

Mind you, this is in a universe unrelated to the OTU and has been running for so long it practically runs itself now. A lot of NPC’s and player characters (some of whom have become NPCs when their player left) have been kicking around for game-decades so there is always plenty of things going on to make it easy to hook players in if they can’t come up with something on their own.

Once the players enter the game they go one of two ways: either they already have a plan to do something they came up with themselves (like trading, smuggling, exploring), or they take a job offered by a patron who gradually gets them into the overall story arc.

Along the way they can run off on tangents of their own making or mine, sometimes these sidetracks are created because somebody unknown to them might have his plans skewed by something the players did, that might create an enemy for them or an ally they might learn about later. It’s all pretty standard stuff really.

The key to making it all work is not to get so ego-involved in the story I wrote that I don’t let the players play the way they want to. My campaigns tend to freeze when the night is over because without the players keeping the wheels moving nothing can happen. This is because once they enter the game it’s like ripples spreading through the pond – all those neatly orchestrated events I originally wrote out start warping and changing as the players influence events one way or another, or set off “plot triggers” to get another ball rolling.

This way the players will always stay the focus of the game as opposed to feeling like they are just game pieces shoved around the way I want them to be. The campaign arc will always tell me where it starts and where it ends, but the players are always keeping the space between in flux and unpredictable. I have often thrown out an entire night’s planned game because what the players decided to do sounded more fun and interesting and ran it all off the cuff. Then it’s back home later to rewrite that new twist into the overall arc.

Stay flexible, be firm but fair and consistent, don’t make it a contest between the ref and the players but the NPC’s vs. the characters, and don’t be afraid to let the players “run” it sometimes. Some of the best games I’ve ever ran in any system were ones where I let the players just do what they wanted to and let the chips fall. You can always get them back on track next time.

Oh, and ALWAYS hide your dice rolls and roll the dice even if you know what is going to happen anyway…it makes it easier to fudge the rolls and keeps the illusion of an impersonal universe and unpredictable luck. Sometimes I’ve allowed for such audacity and heroic daring to be rewarded by survival (even if just barely alive and in cold sleep till a hospital can be found) that I think somewhere in the galaxy an entire planet blew up because the players used up the entire population’s luck in one dice roll.
 
I like it too... and with a little tuning or (if you think it's needed) updating, it could be crafted like a Traveller version of Robin's Laws.

I was also hoping to see Seven Deadly Disasters of Refereeing...
 
thanks for the feedback, I'm glad it turned out to be useful. I've put up some things over the years and frequently wondered if they ever meant anything.

with a little tuning
Click to expand...

player orientation as to how the referee is planning to run the game. seen a lot of games start and immediately bog down over differing expectations.

also perhaps a little judicious asking what your players want and expect. can be a can of worms though.

Seven Deadly Disasters of Refereeing
Click to expand...

not enough coke and pizza is right up there.
 
Help for a Traveller noob

This thread has been, by far, the most helpful thing I've read on these forums. This is an... odd place. You can:

  • Read semi-scholarly dissertations on obscure details of OTU history
  • Watch people bicker over the nuances of fictional technologies
  • Hear people badmouth the people who created and/or own the game IP
  • Etc.

What you don't see much of is people actually talking about PLAYING the game.

So if the community wouldn't mind helping out a new ref/player, let me ask some questions about running Traveller games...

How do you do it?

Most RPGs I've played have lots of "examples of play" sections, but even the latest MgT is very thin in this regard. I find myself wondering...

"If my players jump into a system I have not thought about yet, what steps do I need to take?"

  • It seems I need to figure out where the jump landed them (I think I read rules for this).
  • If they didn't come in pretty close to the starport, I need to figure out if any bad guys try to ambush them on the way there. More likely in Red and Amber zones, but how do I tell?
  • How tough are the bad guys? Do I make this up? I don't want to tailor every encounter to the current state of the party (this feels artificial), but I also don't want to confront their little scout ship with an overwhelming force which wipes the floor with them in an instant and makes off with their ship (they can play Eve if they're into that sort of thing.)
  • I need to decode the UWP for the system to figure out what they should expect when they get there. But this is challenging too. What reception can they expect in a system which has allegiance to the Zhodani, is 85% water, has 4 billion people living in a full-fledged police state at tech level D? I suppose it's helpful to know that there are two asteroid belts in the system (not). Err... where do I even start with this?!
  • I need to figure out what is happening at the starport. UWP helps somewhat, but it seems like the starports are going to start running together like so many D&D taverns.
  • I need to figure out if there are interesting folks at the starport, and how or why they would interact with the group. The party doesn't know what to do in some strange new starport, so how do I prevent them from topping off the tanks, rolling for cargo and moving on? Why would any of the locals even care about the nth ship to dock at their starport today?
  • Lots of talk about politics, but how to hook the characters into this? Why would they care? I've used most of the old tropes (party gets arrested on trumped up charges, character stumbles into a kidnapping while looking for the bathroom, etc.) These can start to feel artificial. How do I make the characters even care about what is going on in this world?

I've been GMing games for decades, but never Traveller. And I've not played in a Traveller game either. So I don't have a sense of the "flow" of a Traveller game. I can work out the mechanics of personal/vehicular/ship combat, I can read trade codes and generate cargoes, but how do I introduce variation into the game when the characters go somewhere I haven't prepared?
 
Do I make this up?
Click to expand...

yes.

I'll answer this better later, but for now, here's a basic suggestion. it's not always necessary for something dramatic to happen immediately, or even at all - the game action lies with what the players do, not just with what the referee throws at them (assuming of course that your players are active and not passive). sometimes you can let them find something to do. this lets them set the course of the game and gives you a chance to think.
 
I'm looking forward to flykiller's response to your questions. (He's very smart about this stuff.)

But to second flykiller... yes, you can make a lot of it up.

I myself like using random die rolls for encounters and such. It allows me to be surprised as well as the players, and takes play in unexpected directions.

I'm not familiar with MgT starship combat system, so I can't address issues of scaling enemies. (I am more familiar with Classic Traveller.)

Some quick answers:

For encounters when arriving in a system pages 139-140 of MgT1 has random tables for distance and encounters when traveling through a system. What happens when the PCs encounter something depends a great deal on what the goals of the PCs are, what they need, and what they've already been through in other play situations.


As for your concern about starports, it's a good one! You might want to look at GURPS Traveller: Starports, which will be chock full of ideas to fire your imagination about different kinds of starports.

Something I'm focusing on these days: Quick Sketches. A few key words or "tags" of vivid imagery, and then moving on. If I can't get the key details down for a starport on an index card, then I'm doing it wrong.

For example:
"Four Hollowed, Large Asteroids. Linked by Manmade Scaffolding."
"Decrepit Old Shell. Metal Sheets Welded Over Old Joints."
"One half still under construction. Significant Medical Clinic Onboard."
"One Section Shattered by Explosion. Three Gun Ships Orbit the Starport."

Using these as spurs to my imagination when needed, I'll then grow out details as they are required and as the players poke and prod the environment. The trick is to do no more work than is required, but still arm my imagination with something interesting that will also form an interning image in the imagination of my players. Something for them to grab onto and focus on.


Finally, for several of your points, may I recommend Rumor Tables. Here is a Rumor Table from The Traveller Book from Classic Traveller. (As far as I know MgT does not have a rumor table):

screen-shot-2017-01-20-at-10-20-38-am.png


The idea is that each Letter corresponds to a specific Rumor you have established for specific worlds, or for a general cluster of stars, or the subsector you are starting in.

I would give each character starting play one randomly rolled rumor. And then, if the party spends a week on a planet trying to find rumors, another (single) roll is made.

The idea is that this feeds the Players things you are already interested in (the Rumors, of course, lead to situations, NPCs, and places you already care about and what the PCs to encounter).

But more importantly they give the Players focus and choice. A large sandbox like Traveller can be overwhelming, with no clear direction and not enough information at the start to make any choice valid. By giving the Players a selection of Rumors about the planets and systems off the bat, you are offering them a selection of items to prioritize and pursue as they wish. You are winnowing down the massive amount of possible pursuits (that they don't even know about yet!) into something they can mull and manage.

Moreover, your Rumors can create mystery and agendas. If the Rumors don't just provide facts, but tantalize with being somewhat incomplete, it can lure the Players toward those things because they want to know more.

All of this is great stuff as it tells you what (off the list you created) they are most interested in, and thus what you should begin prepping as a priority. In other words, from the list you offer, what do they care about? What do they want to pursue? What intrigues them?

Instead of you trying to jam them into one scenario or another, or having NPCs rushing upon to them with missions, the PCs are now in the driver's seat. There's no railroading, just opportunities. (The Players are free to blow off the Rumors as they wish!)

Here's an example of the rumor table I used to kick of the fantasy game I'm running. Not only did it establish lots of mysteries and intrigue for the Players to pursue, it also did a lot to establish the kind of setting we're playing in.

This goes even more so for Traveller. With a solid Rumor Table, the rumors will inform the PCs/Players as to what the political situation is, who the players are, what the mysteries that people talk about on their down time. The Rumor Table is the buzz of "what everyone is talking about" and so can establish the setting without a huge info dump on the Players.
 
Last edited:
...and I've copied Flykiller's post into my gaming notebook. And as mentioned - there are a lot of good things in this post from a lot of sources.

Although I do like to do a lot of prep work, but that's me playing at Traveller vs playing.

I'll re-read and think about my current game - my players are fairly passive so its been hard to get things going at times.
 
Another source for random adventure idea that I use a lot are the patron and NPC encounter tables.

I don't take any notice of the 'roll once per week' bit - rather I roll one to three times on the random persons table and one to three times on the patron table and then make a rough outline of the encounters and how they will flow together. If the PCs do something interesting and I think one of my rolled encounters fits in at that point then I use it as it fits the story.

I have written a couple of examples of this over the years but I don't think I ever saved a copy to file.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Ezra
Adventure Game vs Roleplay Game?
2 3
Replies
47
Views
2K
Badenov
Badenov
B
General Small win for the ref
Replies
3
Views
1K
gchuck
gchuck
A
One Damn Thing After Another (Play Reports)
2
Replies
29
Views
905
AlHazred
A
Prodromoi
General Hello (again)
Replies
7
Views
589
casquilho
casquilho
F
Looking for players for a gritty Mercenary campaign [Traveller MGT2E] [Paid] [Online] [Tuesday 1.30 PM GMT/8:30 AM EST] [LF2M] [Foundry VTT]
Replies
0
Views
570
Frenesires
F
Back
Top