Errata - Mustering Out Benefits

[Falkayn]

I've got two issues here:

1. Marines vs Navy
It seems the material benefits for being a Marine are much better than for being in the Navy. Doesn't seem right somehow. Perhaps the Marines should only get +1 INT and the Navy get +2 INT?

2. Benefit: Vehicle
Hooray! I've got Cr5,000 to spend on a vehicle, that would let me buy ... <flips to standard designs> ... a JEEP! That's all! C'mon, I've only got Vessels/Grav, what am I going to do with a cheap wheeled thingy?! Surely I can get an air/raft?

Perusing the costs on pg. 284 I notice that an air/raft is worth more than a suit of battledress! Also, I can buy 29 grav-belts for the cost of one air/raft (I always thought grav-belts were pricier than air/raft?).

May I suggest that the PC is either given the cheapest vehicle that meets their skills/feats, or (if they choose to cash it in) has the opportunity to roll again on the Cash table?

 

[Falkayn]

{Bump}

I'd still like to know how my character is supposed to afford a decent high-tech vehicle when he rolls one in mustering out ...

Thanks!

 

[Ellros]

TA3, which deals with vehicles and design rules, should be out in a few weeks. There should be some stock vehicles in there to choose from.

 

[endwarde]

I'd still like to know how my character is supposed to afford a decent high-tech vehicle when he rolls one in mustering out ...

Thanks!
===================

I'd say he could have one via a loan, like everyone else who wants a vehicle but doesn't have the cash. I'd probably run it like the loan for a starship.

 

[DrSkull]

You are absolutely right about the mustering out vehicle result. 5000cr (= jeep) is too low. I mean if you can get a mortgaged starship as a mustering out roll why not an air/raft? (I believe I even raised this question during playtest)

But, the thing is in print, so there's nothing official to be done about it now. You've just got to persude your GM to change it for the campaing. I'm going to increase it to 50,000cr per occurance of vehicle and allow players to club together.

 

[Rodrigo]

Why not treat it as a 'mortgaged' vehicle -- allow the player to take any vehicle up to 'x' cost and have a 5 or 10 year loan to pay off, reduced for multiple occurrences the same way a starship mortgage is.

 

[Kevin Livingston]

I have an issue with a Traveller's Mustering out benefit of "ship". What exactly kind of ship does he/she get?

 

[Ellros]

Originally posted by Kevin Livingston:
I have an issue with a Traveller's Mustering out benefit of "ship". What exactly kind of ship does he/she get?

Gm's choice actually. The descritpion at the front of the Terms section say it could be one of several different choices. Merchant, Yacht, Patrol Cruiser, etc.

 

[Kevin Livingston]

Originally posted by Ellros:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Kevin Livingston:
I have an issue with a Traveller's Mustering out benefit of "ship". What exactly kind of ship does he/she get?

Gm's choice actually. The descritpion at the front of the Terms section say it could be one of several different choices. Merchant, Yacht, Patrol Cruiser, etc.</font>[/QUOTE]Oh Oh Oh Oh Okie dokie. No "hard and fast rules" huh?
The referee could be "Monty Haul" or a complete jerk if he/she wanted to.

 

[Cleon the Mad]

Originally posted by Kevin Livingston:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Ellros:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Kevin Livingston:
I have an issue with a Traveller's Mustering out benefit of "ship". What exactly kind of ship does he/she get?

Gm's choice actually. The descritpion at the front of the Terms section say it could be one of several different choices. Merchant, Yacht, Patrol Cruiser, etc.</font>[/QUOTE]Oh Oh Oh Oh Okie dokie. No "hard and fast rules" huh?
The referee could be "Monty Haul" or a complete jerk if he/she wanted to.</font>[/QUOTE]Yes...and no. Remember, one roll of a "ship" means you have a brand new ship...and 40 years of payments on something that costs dozens or hundreds of megacredits. So in a way, if the GM is "Monty Haul" and gives out a big ship, unless he continues to be "Monty Haul" and give the players enormous amounts of credits to pay for this thing, they are screwed more then if the GM gives them a cheap rustbucket. Only way to get a truly free ship is to roll "ship" five times, once to get it, four more times to reduce the payments by 40 years...which means they now have a 40 year old ship with 40 years of wear and tear.

 

[savage]

I like the TNE type character generation where character groups can combine their shares into one vessel. If we look at Firefly, perhaps, an old rust bucket is not such a bad thing. Beats being visible.

Savage

 

[Cleon the Mad]

Originally posted by savage:
I like the TNE type character generation where character groups can combine their shares into one vessel. If we look at Firefly, perhaps, an old rust bucket is not such a bad thing. Beats being visible.

Savage

And....more endearing quirks, plus...as I stated above, probably less payments. If nothing else, you're not going to worry about cosmetic damage to the hull, in fact a new scuff or shallow gouge might add some extra character, or might even scrap off some rust that needed to be polished off anyway.

 

[dmoran]

Speaking of old rustbuckets...

Anyone have suggestions on how to actually create a ship that's had 40 years of wear and tear?

Apply some damage? Make up some quirks? Any systems out there floating about for such things?

Much more interesting to have that rustbucket with quirks..

 

[Cleon the Mad]

Originally posted by Fax:
Speaking of old rustbuckets...

Anyone have suggestions on how to actually create a ship that's had 40 years of wear and tear?

Apply some damage? Make up some quirks? Any systems out there floating about for such things?

Much more interesting to have that rustbucket with quirks..

I wish I could remember where I'd seen a list, but such does exist...anyone out there seen such?

Personally, I'd just think of things like old cars, old houses and so forth that were well maintained but had developed a "personality" of their own. Otherwise, what could I do to mildly amuse and/or annoy the PC's, but at the same time not hinder them...all the quirks didn't have a true game effect in the rules, they just...were there. Things like the deck plates right outside the bridge always creeked, a monitor for a computer in one of the staterooms never worked right, if the ship was bought used maybe there was a layer of paint, tacky paint (ever see a hot pink far trader?) under it, and of course guess which layer of paint always managed to stay intact no matter what sort of hull damage, minor or major took place...a drive that put out just a tad less then optimal (so a 2G drive might be putting out a maximum of 1.95G), or a tad more but that ran a bit hotter then normal, albeit still within operating parameters (so maybe they had a 2.05G drive...but one that could overheat in the wrong situation...maybe)...anyway, just use your imagination, and come up with maybe a list of 20 to 40 minor, annoying things that won't really hurt the PCs and that don't really have a true game effect, and maybe apply a couple. Maybe even leave a couple unknown until something is used. (If they never skim for fuel, how would they know that the fuel purification plant makes a horrid "chuga-chuga" noise that can be heard throughout the whole ship, until they actually do...)

 

[Cleon the Mad]

Oh, just thought of another one! Previous owners of the ship were Vargr. So thus, all the controls are programmed in Gvengh or Iriltok or some other Vargr tongue, the food processors only produce raw meat, with the exception of one in the passenger lounge, since they did take on human passengers once in a while, and even then it's something somewhat unpalitable like haggis or lutfisk...(Or a kid's food, like the 57th Century equivelent of Fruit Loops or popscicles), every chair has a notch cut out in the back for the tail, and so forth. Of course, all of this would be fairly easy to reprogram...but don't mention this to the PC's UNLESS they ask.

Use another race...imagine a ship that was customized for Bwapps...don't remember what they eat, but I do remember that they like everything pretty hot and humid, so the airplant might be pretty much making the whole ship just like a swamp, including a quarter inch of water of the floor in the crew lounge.

 

[snrdg082102]

Evening and Happy New Year to all,

For those who have access or know someone who has access to SJG's JTAS there is an article "Ship Asvantages and Disadvantages" by Thomas L. Bont and Bruce Jones. The article is based on GURPS: Traveller, but I am sure that the resourceful people here can make modification to make the suggestions work with T20.