Huh? Already stuck... character generation
- Thread starter Kilgs
- Start date
But then I don't play or hang with hard core, hard sci-fi Travellers either, mine are more D&Ders who let me test stuff on them.
Yeah, I was like that too, but then I started studying engineering. I may have been ultimately spared, choosing software engineering, but then I found Atomic Rocket(*), and there was no turning back
And speaking of which, this will give you the best short summary about it - with the EM Drive as a bonus! You'll understand my reaction finding it in a hard-SF work (T5's words!)
And that's the problem - it's a bit like giving ICBM to the Hittites, and to every tribe around. As is, there is nothing that can stop it, and you'll never be sure some other side fired theirs already. And anything that can stop it, your bronze-age infantry won't stand a snowball's chance on Venus against it. So either absolute offence (aka everybody's dead Dave) or absolute defence (aka boring). It is game-breaking, in some of the most literal way possible.
The top of this same page will sum it well.
Still, I think there are ways to neutralize it with careful application and recalibrating of handwavium, and it illustrates well one of the problems I would try to fix there. The fact that those aren't quite true reactionless drives may help.
I was thinking about Pulse Drive, but Nipped Drive is a pretty good one!
Atmospheric effects are external effects, though they would indeed play a role in managing waste heat.
The interesting thing is, well done, it is both interesting gameplay, a new twist in how to play space combat, and it makes it feel (and be) more believable, more grounded in reality. (The challenge, of course, is the "interesting gameplay" part).
For examples of successful (as in, interesting) waste heat management in other media, I recommend the Attack Vector: Tactical wargame, as well as the excellent Human Reach SF books.
For details on waste heat, why it is such a fundamental issue and what can be done, see here. (Yes, establishing a pattern here
)I'm actually pretty sure there are very interesting things to do with it gameplay-wise, though that wouldn't be a small endeavour.
I will have to start a thread for all that...
(*) Seriously people, read it. No, I'm not sorry.
I respond.
Dude, you act like I don't know from Atomic Rockets. Please, gimme some credit, I know all the good Internet time killers, the Register, TVTropes, Cracked and yes, Atomic Rockets.
Thing is, I am a Traveller mutant, I still play space opera with it. I like my space opera, hard science fiction is cool and all, but I play Traveller for the same reason I play any game, escapism. Not realism.
As to Grav Accelerated Planet Busters, I am okay with them. Then again I lived through the last decades of the Cold War so to me it has the same feel. Lots of people could start a war with such weapons but the retaliation is gonna be fierce. Ah, MAD...IN SPACE!
Still glad you liked the Nipped Drive. Feel free to run with it. If you want to credit me, even better. :
Dude, you act like I don't know from Atomic Rockets. Please, gimme some credit, I know all the good Internet time killers, the Register, TVTropes, Cracked and yes, Atomic Rockets.
Thing is, I am a Traveller mutant, I still play space opera with it. I like my space opera, hard science fiction is cool and all, but I play Traveller for the same reason I play any game, escapism. Not realism.
As to Grav Accelerated Planet Busters, I am okay with them. Then again I lived through the last decades of the Cold War so to me it has the same feel. Lots of people could start a war with such weapons but the retaliation is gonna be fierce. Ah, MAD...IN SPACE!
Still glad you liked the Nipped Drive. Feel free to run with it. If you want to credit me, even better. :
Yep. T5's convolutions are largely adjustments and retreats from the abuses the player base heaped upon the similar task system in T4.
Exempli Gratia:
The use of 1 die per task level resulted in skills being too low. So, Marc upped to 1 skill per year.
The combination of "Roll or pick" and 1 skill per year resulted in characters having (typically) 1-2 levels in 10-20 skills, and most attributes in the 10+ range, in the typical 3-5 term characters.
To counter this, in errata for T4, was added "This Is Harder Than I Thought." That's the extra die if skill is less than base difficulty.
Which resulted in lots of skill level 3 characters, because the odds on 4D vs 13 are under 50%, so most wouldn't bother.
So, Marc added the knowledge/skill distinction.
T5 is a cascade of issues that Marc's adjusted for from older editions.
CT remains popular because of misperceptions of it being light rules. The complexity of the rules for CT is well hidden inside the skill list.
Glad to read that! Believe it or not, but I've actually met quite a few serious SF fans that didn't know about Atomic Rockets. (Well, they do now.) So I don't assume either way in general, so don't take it personally
And maybe someone else will discover it reading that...Now, I shall have a thought for all those poor, innocent hours lost to the vast, uncaring might of the Internet.
I'm playing for pretty much the same reasons, actually, and I'm not longing for realism but believability, or consistency if you will. So I was fine with, say, Vorkosigan Saga with its magical artificial gravity and such, as at no moment it really broke consistency. Or even with pure space fantasy like Star Wars, because it is taking it all the way up.
So I'm fine with magic gravity drives and psionics, but as Traveller is attempting consistency, my mind won't stop following logic threads, even if it unravels the entire cloth. (Don't let me tell you about Avatar...)
And there are great stories to be made about MAD IN SPAAAACE! indeed. But I have a hard time conciliating them with the Traveller universe and tone.
Not saying it's not working as it is, simply that it isn't for me. If I'm the exception, then good for you all, don't catch my bad habits
I certainly will!
