IMTU reference charts

[daltoncalford]

I am getting ready for a game on sunday, and I realized that I have spoken about my game system and how it uses reference scale and the D7 pseudo bell curve to work out it's mechanics.

What I have never done is post the reference charts that I use for the game.

Is anyone interested in my posting the charts to COTI?

best regards

Dalton

 

[Ptah]

yes

 

[daltoncalford]

Ok,

Here are some random items grabed from what I am putting together. I will grab some notes as well.
Feel free to ask questions.
For those who are new to my stuff, alot of this came from my 'fun space combat' system that I put together back in september/october of last year.

All items are described in terms of Scale and Rating

Scale refers to the overall Size of the system.

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Human Reference Scale
Size Example
0 Sub-Atomic
1 Atomic
2 Molecular
3 Microscopic
4 Tiny
5 Small
6 Below Average
7 Average
8 Above Average
9 Large
A Vehicular
B Small Building
C Medium Building
D Large Building
E Titanic Building
F Mega-Complex
</pre>[/QUOTE]</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Starship Reference Scale
Size Displacement Range
0 Up to 6.75 cubic metres (Less than ½ dton)
1 From 6.75 cubic metres to 135 cubic metres (Up to 10 dtons)
2 From 135 cubic metres to 1350 cubic metres (Up to 100 dtons)
3 135,000 m3 10,000 dtons
4 1,350,000 m3 100,000 dtons
5 13,500,000 m3 1,000,000 dtons
6 135,000,000 m3 10,000,000 dtons
7 1,350,000,000 m3 100,000,000 dtons
8 13,500,000,000 m3 1,000,000,000 dtons
9 135,000,000,000 m3 10,000,000,000 dtons
A 1,350,000,000,000 m3 100,000,000,000 dtons
B 13,500,000,000,000 m3 1,000,000,000,000 dtons
C 135,000,000,000,000 m3 10,000,000,000,000 dtons
D 1,350,000,000,000,000 m3 100,000,000,000,000 dtons
E 13,500,000,000,000,000 m3 1,000,000,000,000,000 dtons
F 135,000,000,000,000,000 m3 10,000,000,000,000,000 dtons
</pre>[/QUOTE]Personal Vehicles are size 0 or 1 (bikes, grav bikes, scooters, cars, vans, small trucks etc.)
Commercial ground/interface Vehicles are size 1 and 2
Large Interface Craft are size 2 and 3
Most Stellar Craft begin at size 2 while most small interstellar craft are size 3.

Starship reference ratings

Ships have a scale, so a 100 dton scout ship would have a scale of 2, but so would a 10 dton fighter. So all ships have a reference rating that ranges between 0 and C.

The values of 1 thru A represent 10% increments between the scales so a 100 dton scout would have a size of A while a 10 dton fighter would have a size of 1.

The special values of 0, B and C represent smaller or larger things that due to extra durability or poor design, are rated in the current scale even though their size scale would put them in higher or lower scale categories.

All components are described by their scale and rating. So a power plant 5 designed for a scale 2 ship would be described as PP6(2)

All components can only take a single point of damage, so, they are installed with multiple levels of redundancy. Damage is either minor or catastrophic, minor damage is not cumulative, but can affect later operations.

All weapons/defensive systems are described by the type of system, system mount, scale it is designed to affect, its rating at that scale, and its power rating needed.
A point defence, dual twin-linked laser mount turret is rated as LSR-TUR-PTDEF-195 which means it is designed to kill scale 1 items, with a probability of 9 but requires the the minimum of a scale 1 power plant with a rating of 5.

Mount Types

Fixed Mount
Requires the whole vessel to be pointed at the opponent

Cupola
Small manned turret with limited firing arc - mounting weapons of a smaller scale than the current vessel - Can only hold one type of weapon

Turret
Manned or Unmanned.
Can hold up to three types of weapons, or two types of linked weapons. Limited Firing arc

Barbette
Small Bay or Large Turret weapon mounted on extended/reinforced platforms - largest firing arc with no limit to weapon type, limit to weapon size

Bay
Huge Directed weapon system with limited firing arc but no limit to weapon size.

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I will post more once I get home and finish dinner - if people are interested.
If you are interested, post questions.

best regards

Dalton

 

[daltoncalford]

Ok, I have a few minutes so I will give a brief update.

Back in the summer, our play group came up with a new task system.

We needed a ship combat system and I got some feedback from these forums and from the Traveller5.com forums.

After designing the combat system, we needed a ship design system. We went down the FFS style of super detail with tons of variables, needing all sorts of databases and spreadsheets.

Well, one of my buddies was reading book 2 between curling games, and said that the beauty of that system was that you only really looked at one variable - volume.

It was that simple statement that had us redo the whole thing.

So, as I start to copy and format the html code for the rule popups under screenmonkey, I am pasting some of the rules here to give the rest of you some ideas for your own traveller universe.

------------------------------------------

Sizing Power Plants

A power plant provide energy points equal to Rating*(10^Scale) so a size 3 scale 5 power plant provides 3*(10x10x10x10x10) energy points (300,000ep). Most people do not bother with detailed energy requirements as all equipment is designed on a base 10 scale, so a power plant rated as 1, in a scale of 1, will support 10 rating 1 scale 0 items. On smaller designs, you may be crunching numbers, but on larger designs, you will soon find that a single extra power-plant rating will handle all the smaller systems without trouble.

All equipment needs power rated on their scale/power rating. Needed power equals Power Rating * (10^Scale)

If you take all your equipment that equals the scale of the vessel, and you add up the power ratings, that gives you a total power requirement. If you add one or two points to handle the power needs for the smaller systems, you will know what power rating you need. You can install multiple power plants to handle the power requirements, or go to a powerplant for the next larger scale, but, redundancy is always a better way to go.

There are two types of power – sustained and instantaneous .

Sustained power is the power level needed to keep the minimal systems running -such as life support.

Instantaneous power is the power that is needed on demand and is not needed otherwise - such as maneuver and weapons.

Many ships have more instantaneous power demands than available power. Battle damage can also account for such descrepancies.

----------------------------------

Times up, more possilbly later.

best regards

Dalton

 

[daltoncalford]

Here is the text from another of the pop-up handouts I am working on
----------------------------------

An attribute is any part of the definition of a character or thing that has a game related value assigned to it. Attributes are used to compare different aspects of the game and to keep player conflict to a minimum. (This avoids the “my dad is bigger than your dad” scenarios between players).
A characteristic is any pertinent piece of information about a character that furthers the story but has no meaningful game assigned value given to it.
Attributes have a value ranging between 0 and 15. They also have a relative scale that is rarely listed, but is assumed to always be present. Relative scales are used when you want to compare a small motorbike to a Sherman tank. The tank is obviously much larger than what the 0-15 range can show in relationship to the bike. So, you may say the bike is strength 4 in relation to other bikes, and the tank is strength 4 in relation to other tanks, but, the tank is 4 scales larger than the bike (or conversely, the bike is 4 scales smaller than the tank).
If everything the players are dealing with is at human scale, then you would not list the scale of those items. Then when the players deal with the one or two items that are not human scale, you would put a superscript beside the attribute value listing is relative scale in comparison to everything else.
For example Tank strength 4+4 would state that in comparison to everything else currently going on in the game, the tank's strength is a factor of 4 larger then all other strength values. This affects the final outcome of most task rolls and is listed in more detail later in this section.
The scale values only apply to the one or two attributes they refer to. For example, a dinosaur might be one or two scales beyond human in strength, but not in intelligence.
Characteristics can have any value with no relation to anything else in the game except for storytelling purposes.

 

[daltoncalford]

And another chart

-------------------
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Attribute Natural
Level Ability Training/Experience
0 Handicapped, Disabled, Damaged Familiar with the concept
1-2 Physically Impaired Minimal Experience
2-4 Unfit Natural Ability Book Level Training
5-6 Below Average Trained with some experience
7 Normal average individual Professional Level experience
8-9 Above Average Extensive Experience
10-11 Beyond Average Specialist
12-13 Human normal physical maximums Expert in the field
14-15 Beyond Human known capabilities Theoretical Master </pre>[/QUOTE]

 

[daltoncalford]

Another Chart
----------------------
Task Difficulties
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Automatic 1
Easy 3
Average 5
Difficult 7
Formidable 9
Staggering 11
Impossible 13
Hopeless 15</pre>[/QUOTE]

 

[daltoncalford]

Yet Again
---------------------------

Result Level and Values
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Level of Success Result Value
Disastrous Failure -4
Complete Failure -2
Regular Failure 0
Marginal Success 1
Complete Success 2
Superior Success 3
Extraordinary Success 4</pre>[/QUOTE]

 

[daltoncalford]

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Final Roll = Die Roll + Dice Modifiers

If Die Roll = Target Number then result is Marginal Success

If Final Roll => Target Number then result is Complete Success

If Final Roll < Target Number then result is Disastrous Failure

Complete Success combined with

Final Roll => Primary Attribute equals Superior Success

Superior Success combined with
Final Roll => Secondary Attribute equals Extraordinary Success

Disastrous Failure and
Final Roll < Primary Attribute equals Complete Failure

Complete Failure and

Final Roll < Secondary Attribute equals Regular Failure</pre>[/QUOTE]

 

[daltoncalford]

Scale Changes
+ or – 1 Dice Modifire per scale level difference for either protagonist or antagonist

+ or – 1 Difficulty per two scale level differences for either protagonist or antagonist

 

[daltoncalford]

I am going to go get the combat charts formated up, is anyone still interested or am I just wasting space on the boards?

best regards

Dalton

 

[Spinward Scout]

Looks good to me - I know there's a couple of those charts I'm going to save. Thanks!

 

[Berg]

I download it all and it filters into my games...
Subconciously even

 

[Ptah]

Wow. Great stuff. Keep going if you wish. Who knew what one small yes could do. I've set up a folder just for this Dalton and would love to see more.

 

[daltoncalford]

Some more before breakfast

------------------
Tasks
Every time a part of the ongoing story requires an element of the unknown, the referee describes the elements of the current action using a `Task Descriptor'.

The `Task Descriptor' (or TD) includes a description of what is being attempted, how difficult a competent person would find the task as well as how long on average the task takes and what is required (in game terms) to perform the task. The TD is put into a standard text block that makes it stand out for easy reference by the players during a game.

Task Description
Difficulty[type] Time Fatigue
Attributes
Results

For example

Convince the bartender to introduce you to the person at the end of the bar
Difficult (opposed 4) 5 minutes
Bearing, [Streetwise,Liaison(-3), Credit(5)]
Disastrous Failure (-5) Bearing
Complete Failure (-3) Bearing
Complete Success (+1) Bearing
Superior Success (+3) Bearing
Extraordinary Success (+5) Bearing (+2) Charm

**Note : Bearing, Streetwise, Liaison and credit are all attributes that are detailed in another handout. Charm is in reference to a modifier to another TD caused by the success in this TD

 

[daltoncalford]

GAME MECHANICS
This section covers the most important rules in the home edition rules, conflict resolution and action resolution.
Conflict can be a simple matter of a player character attempting something that the referee or other players say is not possible. Other conflicts are when everyone knows that something is possible, just not probable (or perhaps not practical).
The general approach is that the player states what they are trying to do. The referee (with possible input from the players) states how difficult it is. The player tries to explain to the referee how their characters abilities, skills, equipment or preparation should make it easier to accomplish the goal in some way.
Once all the players agree as to how hard the task is, and what modifiers apply to the dice roll, the player whose character is trying to perform the action, rolls two normal dice and adds the results together, giving a value that ranges between 2 and 12 but mostly averages out between 5 and 9. The result from the die roll, combined with any die modifiers that the players agreed upon, is the final result.
The player and referee compare the final result with the tasks difficulty to determine if the player succeeded or not. If the final result is higher than the difficulty value, then the player succeeded, but if the final result is less than the difficulty value, then a horrible failure has occurred.
The player with the help of the referee looks to see if they have any abilities or skills that can increase the level of success or decrease the amount of failure for the role.
Overall, most of the task mechanics come from the interaction of the players , the attributes of the characters and the overall story telling of the group.

 

[daltoncalford]

Type

Most tasks are a simple YES/NO affair, but, sometimes a task might be opposed such as a arm wrestle or cooperative such as a team effort to solve a problem. When dealing with Tasks, the players must remember that the TD system is a level of abstraction that can be simplified or extracted out to many levels of detail. It is up to the referee and the needs of the story to determine how a TD is to be interpreted.

Simple Tasks

Simple tasks are those actions that have an absolute set of parameters and the outcome is mostly a yes/no affair (did you jump over the fence, no you tripped and landed on your face....).
If a Task Descriptor does not state the type of task, it is assumed to be a 'Simple' type of task.

Complex Tasks

Complex tasks are those tasks that require multiple tests in order to accomplish a goal. Unlike a series of simple tests, a complex test has a value that represents the total number of success needed to complete the task. When you have enough accumulated successes, you reap the benefits of your work, but, you loose successes for every failure. In fact you may find that after a series of failed tasks, you are back where you started, or even worse off.

Opposed Tasks

If it is just a question of your ability and skill, performing an action is a simple affair, but, when you have someone or something actively opposing your every move, well, now life gets interesting.

Opposed tasks involve an opponent either acting as a modifier to the final value rolled on the dice (for example, a security robot may act as a -4 dice modifier when you try to sneak past a security outpost.) Other opposed tasks include having both the protagonist and the antagonist attempt a task roll and the person who rolls the higher level of success is the winner while the losers level of success modifies the winners level of success.

Using the values from table 1.c (following this) you can see the numbers associated with each level of success.

As an example, two guys(Joe and Phil) are showing off with a arm wrestling competition. Joe rolls a Complete Success, while Phil rolls a Marginal Success. Joe's Complete Success (value 2) is reduced by Phil's Marginal Success (value 1) so that Joe ends up with only a Marginal Success (value 1) (1-1=1). If Phil had failed his roll for a regular failure, Joe would have kept his complete success. If the failure was complete (value -2) then Joe's level of success would be bumped up to an Extraordinary success (with Phil's broken arm as evidence to the fact)(2-(-2)=4).

Cooperative Tasks

When a task lends itself to be broken down into multiple stages, it is possible for multiple characters to work together to achieve a result. Cooperative tasks are like Complex tasks but, more than one individual can attempt the roll for success. Just like Complex tasks, any failures reduce the number of successes regardless of who made the success or failure roll.

Uncertain Tasks

Any one of the above tasks can be declared uncertain. This means that the players do not really know exactly how well or poorly they did. This is accomplished by having the referee roll one of the two dice needed for the task roll. The player can see the results of one of the dice, and get a gut feeling for what is happening but, they can not be certain until events unfold in a way that they can find out.

 

[daltoncalford]

Attributes
When a TD specifies needed things, it could list people, places, things, skills, special techniques or anything else the referee decides to be necessary.

If the attributes listed are things and they have a `^' after them such as “7.62mm Round x3 (burst)^” this denotes that the attribute is a material that is used up in the normal execution of the task.

If the attribute has a `!' after it, that means that if that attribute is not available then the task becomes worse than impossible to perform (it is hard to drive a car without a car)

If the attributes are surrounded by square `[ ]' brackets, then those attributes are optional and do not have to be used.

If the attributes have a number in curly brackets `{ }' that means that the attribute has to be modified by the amount in the brackets before comparing to the dice roll to modify the task results.

If a `*' is beside an attribute, that means that if that attribute is present and the players matching attribute score is greater than the value specified in the TD, the task becomes easier to perform by one level (for example a impossible task become staggering). This means that a statement of Strength-10* means that the TD specifies that Strength with a value of 10 or above modifies lowers the TD's difficulty level by one.

If a attribute is listed with a number in normal brackets “( )” then that means that you can “purchase” positive die modifiers for every multiple of the value in brackets you spend. For example, you want to befriend a squirrel, the attribute is Nuts(3) which means that you get a +1 die modifier for every 3 nuts you commit to the TD.

Examples of some TD Attribute Requirements Lines

Strength : This means that strength (any value) is required. If you don't have strength, the task becomes one level more difficult. If the task lists the item with a number, you must have this value or greater in the attribute or it counts as one level more difficult.

Strength! : This means that you must have strength and if you do not have it, you can not perform the task.

[Strength] : This means strength is not required, but, if you have it, you get to add 1 to your dice modifier

Eggs(x3)^ : This means that you need three eggs in order to perform this task and that those eggs are used up while performing this task.

Strength{-2} : This means that when you use strength in any way in performing this task, you always act like your strength is two levels less than what it normally is.


Strength=>10* : This means that if you have strength with a value of 10 or above, the difficulty becomes one level easier for you.

You can have multiple attributes or attribute modifiers listed for a task for example

Strength!; Strength-4;[Strength-10*]

Which reads as, you must have the strength attribute otherwise you cannot perform the task. If your strength is less than or equal to 4, the difficulty gets one level higher. If your strength is equal to or greater than 10, the difficulty gets one level easier otherwise the task acts normally.

 

[daltoncalford]

Rolling the Dice
So, we have covered “why's” and “what's” involved in a task descriptor, now we need to cover the “how's”.

The simple explanation is, roll two dice, add the value from the two dice together, compare it to the difficulty number and see if you achieved a marginal success.

If you did, apply the results for a marginal success and carry on.

Otherwise, add any dice modifiers from attributes and or situational modifiers (described later) and see if the result is equal to or better than the difficulty number.

If yes, you have a complete success, congratulations, now go see if you actually did better than that.

If no, my condolences, you have committed a Disastrous Failure and you had better start checking to see if any of your attributes have saved your sorry behind.

 

[daltoncalford]

Player Actions
The players may describe some form of action or have an idea not covered by the TD or the situation. With the referee's approval, a single +1/-1 may be applied to the final DM. If the referee does agree that the idea is a good one, the player who came up with the idea should get a advancement point.

Complementary Tasks
A variety of tasks can have secondary effects that include improving the chances of other tasks. In fact, a whole category of tasks exist solely to enhance other tasks. The TD for the complementary task will detail how it's effects apply to the current TD and DM.

Situational Modifiers
Rain, snow, bullets.....yes they all have things in common – they are distractions. Even the intimidation factor (bearing) of an opponent rushing you can have you loose your concentration. The number of modifiers are as endless as your imagination but, in most situations such as combat, personal interaction or trade and commerce, the situational modifiers are well defined.

One of the most common situational modifiers deals with comparing values between things that are vastly different in size/power/ability. One thing to understand is that although one attribute may be larger in scale to the average, that does not mean that all attributes are larger.

A good example of this would be a dinosaur. Their size, strength and endurance are all off the charts when comparing to a lowly human, but, their intelligence is a factor or more smaller than a average human. This is displayed by using Superscripts(Superscripts) beside the value for the attribute with a + or – denoting whether it is larger or smaller than the human scale by that number of steps.

When determining a TD that relies upon attributes larger than the current game scale (game scale refers to the average sized thing going on, for instance human vs. vehicle, vs. starship interactions). The thing with the larger attribute bumps the Dice Modifier or the Final Result in a manner that benefits the item with the larger scale.
For example Theo (Strength 7) is trying to pull back a horse on a rope. The horse is Strength 4^2 meaning that it is two scale orders in strength more powerful than Theo. Now when the horse tries tasks that directly oppose Theo's tasks, and those tasks use strength, the player controlling the horse may either implement a DM of plus or minus one for every point of scale difference. The player controlling the horse may apply the die modifier to either Theo's roll when Theo's player is trying to roll for the opposing task, or, the player controlling the horse may apply it to their own DM for the task.

For every full two levels of scale difference, the player with the larger scale attribute may increase the opposing players task difficulty by one or they may decrease their own task difficulty by one.

This means that you can compare extremely large items with extremely small items using the same game mechanics.

Referee Fiat
In the end, the referee may know things that the players do not and can announce a flat positive or negative modifier to a die roll. In fact, the referee can choose to apply a modifier to a die roll without informing the players. In this way the players may assume one effect has occurred when in fact something totally different has taken place. This brings an extra element of the unknown to the game and enhances game play as long as it is kept to a minimum.