Help! Sons want to play!

[Mithras]

My sons have seen me running a few solo trading games, but more importantly seen me playing EVE Online (http://www.eve-online.com/) and I flippantly said that Traveller was alot like EVE, with the trading, asteroids, jumps, stations and stuff. And now they want to play. They are 12 and 9, and if I run Classic Traveller for them, they are going to be mightily disappointed.

What do I do? THey seem to be interested in salvaging wrecks and fighting pirates, what should I do!!!

 

[Supplement Four]

What do I do? THey seem to be interested in salvaging wrecks and fighting pirates, what should I do!!!

T20? Do they play D&D?

 

[Mithras]

D20? Oh no, we have played lots of RPGs, but very simple rules-wise so I can keep up the flow... the CT rules will be fine for them, but what do I get them to do that will get them interested? Dare I write up some rules for asteroid fields, mining and salvaging that will satisfy them???

I don't really want them ging around blowing people away dirtside...

 

[Supplement Four]

D20? Oh no, we have played lots of RPGs, but very simple rules-wise so I can keep up the flow... the CT rules will be fine for them, but what do I get them to do that will get them interested? Dare I write up some rules for asteroid fields, mining and salvaging that will satisfy them???

The JTAS (early one, I think. I could look it up) has rules for asteroid prospecting. You could run that.

They probably want to get into some nifty gun battles, though. So, why not go through chargen, then just set them out on a world and let them romp. The moment they get their exit papers from the Army, they head to startown for some fun...and these three rough looking types approach them. "Hey! Gimmie all your credits." Wham, you're in Brawling Combat.

If it were me, I'd just put them into some basic situations. I'd figure a simple plot with a lot of action and science they can understand. (And...I'd be sneaking about using the game system to teach them math and some science.)

I'd also set the game on Terra--a place they're familiar with. I'd ask them what their teacher taught them about the planets in the solar system. And, I'd play on that. Who knows, it might ignite their interest in these things.

 

[aramis]

Well, then, given the idea that they want to mix mining and combat, there is the old Asteroid Boxed Set. A busy belt complete with claim jumpers, pirates, and drunk miners.

It should be on the CT CD....

 

[Supplement Four]

It should be on the CT CD....

I don't think it is. Or shouldn't be. Asteroid wasn't a Traveller game. It was just a GDW game. Totally different universe.

 

[Mithras]

Thanks for the reply S4.

Now they are pretty good RPers, we've run Viking fantasy, Celtic Druids, Basic D&D and a couple of Star Wars games (homebrew).

Chargen will be a breeze, combat equally easy to run. Commerce - those percentages might be tricky, but I can run them through that. I think they're enamoured of the space stuff, not the dirtside aspect, and I noticed that other than space combat, there's not much going on up there! I saw the JTAS article, but it is fairly bare bones - I'd use it to make my own RP version for the boys, if I had to. Plus the reprint mangles the printing so I have no arrows on my copy ???!!??

Fighting robots or aliens is preferable to blowing people away. They have some familiarity from clips and comic books of Gigers Aliens, and for aliens, I fancy pitching Vagr as wolves of space, terifying, questing, blood-thirsty, scary.

Salvage, thinking about it is easy. I roll to see if there is a wreck, roll for amount salvageable, and again to find out to what lengths they need to go to get at it.

Mining. If they find an asteroid, why not spend 6 months mnng that lucrative rock? I want fluidity, always moving, always prospecting... how would that work? With few rules!!

 

[Mithras]

We're not talking about Beltstrike here are we? That was certainly a Traveller product. I'm not going to buy anything new for this venture, should it go ahead....

 

[Mithras]

S4 - the last 2 links in your sig don't work ...

 

[Foxroe]

If you don't want to encourage them to blow away the bad guys, encourage them to overcome the enemy in other ways. Give them access to "stunners" and tranq weapons, reward them for turning their foes into the authorities, have the bad guys demoralize and run away frequently, etc.

If you have any of the classic adventures, I'd say you are well on your way. There's plenty of salvaging opportunities, and most of the bad guys can be changed to pirates, robots, or aliens (kids like robots and aliens, and they're better to shoot at than real people). If they like asteroid mining, then definitely take a look at Beltstrike (asteroids, salvaging, and pirates... oh my!).

I think that the most important thing is to just play. I think that you will find out what they like as you go, and you can adjust your game accordingly.

(EDIT: I see that you already touched on the pirates, aliens, and Beltstrike while I was typing up this post... must learn to type faster... )

-Fox

 

[Supplement Four]

We're not talking about Beltstrike here are we? That was certainly a Traveller product. I'm not going to buy anything new for this venture, should it go ahead....

Naw. Asteroid was an early GDW game. Take a look at your JTAS reprints. There's some variant articles written in the early issues. It's one of the few non-Traveller games ever discussed in JTAS.

 

[Supplement Four]

S4 - the last 2 links in your sig don't work ...

Interesting. Thanks. Golan, over in Israel, was hosting that for me. I haven't spoken with him in a long time. Thanks for the update.

 

[Mithras]

Another thing that makes me reticent is potentially ramming 'real science' down their throats as opposed to the Attack of the Clones SF they're used to. After I saw Star Wars in 1977 I just lapped everything up, from Space: 1999 to Star Trek, Zardoz, Barbarella, the Black Hole ... in a word ... everything. Plus any spece news and documentaries. You know, I'm sure you guys were just the same!

My boys don't have that 'grounding' (?? did I say that!!). THen again, to be fore warned is to be forarmed I suppose... CT isn't exactly NASA science, is it!

 

[Foxroe]

Another idea (although it may be a bit too corny):

Pre-generate some events and write them down on small pieces of paper (things like: "You've found gold ore! You earn Cr50,000", "You're attacked by a passing pirate ship!", or "You've stumbled upon an abandoned mine, with a salvageable Seeker trapped inside"). Fold them in half and then crumple them up until they look like "asteroids", then spread them around your playing surface. Have your sons pick through the asteroid field and uncrumple the notes to see what happens next. Role-play out the results.

Just a thought.

-Fox

 

[Mithras]

Nice one Foxroe!!

I like it - or something similar to it. More mundane asteroids can have a value attached, and they can mine that asteroid to get the ore. Higher values are deeper, or more tricky to extract - with more difficulties. Go for easy values? Go for high prizes? ONly look for the salvage items???

I like it!

Another idea (although it may be a bit too corny):

Pre-generate some events and write them down on small pieces of paper (things like: "You've found gold ore! You earn Cr50,000", "You're attacked by a passing pirate ship!", or "You've stumbled upon an abandoned mine, with a salvageable Seeker trapped inside"). Fold them in half and then crumple them up until they look like "asteroids", then spread them around your playing surface. Have your sons pick through the asteroid field and uncrumple the notes to see what happens next. Role-play out the results.

Just a thought.

-Fox

 

[Foxroe]

I like it - or something similar to it. More mundane asteroids can have a value attached, and they can mine that asteroid to get the ore. Higher values are deeper, or more tricky to extract - with more difficulties. Go for easy values? Go for high prizes? ONly look for the salvage items???

Glad I could help!

I like your idea better, though. Maybe use different colored or size pieces of paper, so your sons know which are easy and which are tricky.

-Fox

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

Crew vs. crew is also a good idea, or a frantic "Claim Race", where several teams vie for the best prospecting spots on a first-come, first-served winner take all basis. Then you could fit mining, combat, wrecked ships, and having to outwit other teams to get the best claims.

Then you could get into fighting off claim jumpers and all other sorts of subplots.

I found that with my young kids playing Traveller, keeping it loose was key. They seemed to really pick up on the idea that anything could happen, and that sparked them off on all sorts of "Ok, here's the plan..." sort of adventures basically of thier own devising.

Visual Aids help a lot too. For us it kind of started with some system and planet maps. They "saw" these places and wanted to "go" there. A very rewarding experience for a Referee.

 

[aramis]

I was intending to recommend Beltstrike.

I loved it at age 15....
...then again, I was the GM at the time...

 

[casquilho]

At the sake of being branded a blood thirsty, horrid father; I would say let them do at least some “run around and fight” type games.

I think of the first games I played at a 12 year old and contrast them to the games I play today as an adult. You can see a progression from “dungeon crawls” where we kicked in the door, killed what was inside, took the treasure, to much more cerebral games (with some combat) centered around three dimensional characters.

I have watched a couple friends try and start their kids on the “high” road fearing the shoot and take games. In every case the kid lost interest in RPGs. I think you should allow your child (in my case I have one boy) to progress through the role playing experience like most of us did.

Now to be clear I am not saying have whole sale butcher games. But I would not try and stop the SciFi version of the dungeon crawl either. Let them have a ship to ship battle just because the other ship is filled with the “bad guys”. Let the sides be black and white. Clear evil and good. Allow them to enjoy that level and later help them find the world of shades of grey.

Just my .02

Daniel

 

[casquilho]

Another idea (although it may be a bit too corny):

Pre-generate some events and write them down on small pieces of paper (things like: "You've found gold ore! You earn Cr50,000", "You're attacked by a passing pirate ship!", or "You've stumbled upon an abandoned mine, with a salvageable Seeker trapped inside"). Fold them in half and then crumple them up until they look like "asteroids", then spread them around your playing surface. Have your sons pick through the asteroid field and uncrumple the notes to see what happens next. Role-play out the results.

Just a thought.

-Fox

This is a wonderful idea. I think this would even work with the older gamers as well. Very visual and you can allow the experiance to play out as it comes.

Well done Fox!

Daniel