Lejendary Adventure + Classic Traveller

[Jamus]

I picked up the lejendary rules for all players book. I still prefer 1st ed AD&D or C&C for my fantasy games but I find that the LA rules work very well for the home brewed traveller game I run with very little conversion.

Basically I roll a character straight from the book as normal for classic traveller.

Using the example in the traveller hard cover you see
Alexander Jamison-779C99 age-38 5-terms as a merchant

skills
dagger-1
cutless-1
vacuum suit-1
pilot-2
body pistol-1
submachine gun-1
electronics-3

By converting everything by a multiple of 5 you end up with
Alexander Jamison

Strength-35
Dexterity-35
Endurance-45
Intelligence-60
Education-45
Social standing-45

health=endurance=45
Bonus HTH damage +4 (STR/10 rounded up)

Each skill level equals a bonus of 5% to its base stat. All skills are tied to one or more attributes to determine base and attribute used can change as warranted by the situation.

Skills are
dagger-1(dex) = 40%
cutless-1(str) = 40%
vacc suit-1(dex) = 40%
pilot-2(edu) = 55%
body pistol-1(dex) = 40%
submachinegun-1(dex) = 40%
electronics-3(edu) =60%

for weapon harm I steal directly from LA by assigning each weapon in traveller a base 2-20 harm (I like rolling 2d10 instead of 1d20 because it keeps number of different type dice needed to play at a minimum, a hand full of d10s) for each die of damage greater than 1 in the traveller book I increase the harm rating by +5.
Thus a auto pistol (TB3d6) has a harm rating of 12-30damage or 2d10+10 while a dagger has a base harm of 7-25 or 2d10+5 modified by a characters strength HTH bonus.

I figure armor damage absorption by multiplying the armor rating by five which works pretty well and seems balanced.
Ballistic cloth armor which in traveller is rating 4 in my house ruled LA traveller has a damage absorption of 20 good enough to stop most of a small caliber pistols damage but not so useful against a battle rifle firing a burst which equals two attacks at a base harm 17-35

Of course a set of TL12 battle dress power armor has a damage absorption of 40 and would be immune to most small arms while a plasma rifle would do an insane amount of damage (traveller damage 10d6 halved at long range) so a base harm of 2d10+45 = 47-65 halved at long range.

Dont know if any of you have checked the LA system out but I find it works very well for Traveller.

 

[Rover]

I am not really familiar with the LJ system. It seems straightforward and if it works well for you and your players hey more power to you.

I find Traveller somewhat dichotomous it is at the same time one of the most loved games in history yet seemingly disliked because there are so many variant official systems (5 I think) and so many gamers who create a homebrewed or adapted system.

For my own part seeing those magic words on the cover of that little black box back in the late 70's is what got me into gaming. And while I loved Traveller it didn’t take long before I became dissatisfied with the mechanics of the game. I never really liked just rolling D6's and I found the lack of character advancement restricting compared to other games I played.

In the 80's a friend started a Traveller game with a rule set based on the Top Secret system. We used the canon rules for setting and stuff like ships and tech. Combat and chargen were based on TS. TS used percentages for abilities and conflict resolution and I could easily get my head around it. This game was fun to play and things flowed.

Now I know the CT system that is loved by many, and I mean no disrespect, it’s just that the original system left me wanting and eventually I stopped playing traveler altogether.

Of late I play the T20 variant of Traveller and as a system I think it does an excellent job of bringing the flavour of CT and combining it with a modern playable reset that allows characters to grow and develop. It pretty much answers every problem I had with CT. And I have nothing but thanks to give to T20 for bringing my first gaming love back to me.

If using the LJ russet fixes things for you great. I would be interested in what dissatisfied you with CT that made you adapt LJ.

R

 

[Jamus]

I really only have a few gripes about CT

1. I find that percentage based systems are easier to use for sci-fi. I loved CT and have ran a game off and on for twenty years with just the LBB but as of late I have become increasingly dissatisfied with the overall game mechanics. Skills seem somewhat hobbled together and follow no known pattern. some skills you roll over and others you roll under.. there is no since of cohesion to any of the skills.

2. Combat. I dislike the range bands and the combat matrix. I really dislike the damage system and the fact that it is impossible to kill a unarmed man with a single knife stab and as impossible to knock someone out with a sucker punch. I don't really care for the CT armor rules and though I think MT was a step in the right direction I think negating die rolled was too much. I prefer battle dress power armor absorbing 40 damage from each attack in a system where a laser rifle does 2d10+15 and a PGMP-12 does 2d10+45 to amored making a person harder to hit as in CT or negating 4d from the damage code where a PGMP does 10d6.

3. I have always thought that the base attributes should have as much or more a affect on task resolution than skill level. in CT a character with a high dex may get a bonus with shooting weapons while in LA a characters dex (precision actually) is his base chance to hit with a weapon. IMO the latter is a much more simple system and requires much less thought or referencing of the book. If we know a character has a base chance to hit with a pistol of 55% for an average shot then what more need be said?

 

[Rover]

I guess we are on the same page for your points 1 and 2. As for 3, I would prefere a combat system that stressed skill with a weaopn over Class, but I find that with the Chargen in T20 and proper skill and feat selection you can get close enough to what I want.

Have you ever looked at T20? I think the chargen and prior history is perhaps the best feature of the game.

Happy gaming

 

[Jamus]

looked at it and have to admit it is well done but can not force myself to play traveller with classes and levels.

 

[Tantavalist]

I've found myself avoiding T20 as well. I'm currently running a GURPS Travaller campaign adjusted to 4th Edition GURPS, and it's going great. I personally feel that GURPS Traveller is the best of all incarnations of the game, and my only criticism is that you don't have the old career-path character generation that other versions did.

That and the fact that you've got to be willing to make a MAJOR investment in books to be able to run it properly. Not a problem for me or any other hard-core GURPS fan, but it makes it a bit harder for someone to start playing the system if they don't own GURPS already.

 

[Ptah]

Jamus, did you try or evaluate the Basic Role-Playing system (I think that is what the general Runequest, Call of Cthulhu system is called) or The Fantasy Trip for Traveller? There is a conversion on-line for TFT to Traveller (also AD&D to TFT )

 

[Gadrin]

That and the fact that you've got to be willing to make a MAJOR investment in books to be able to run it properly. Not a problem for me or any other hard-core GURPS fan, but it makes it a bit harder for someone to start playing the system if they don't own GURPS already.

yeah, but with the majority of them being $9.95 now and with the CT reprints you can basically run a "decent" campaign with 4 books:

GURPS Traveller
GURPS Ultra Tech
GURPS Basic
<whatever your favorite Traveller Sector book is>