T20 characters - a ship's crew

[phydaux]

Well, I posted a similat thread in the Lone Star forum and got NO WHERE. I figured I try again here.

About a week ago, T20 showed up at my FLAGS. When the owner saw me walk in, he didn't even say anything, just got up, took it off the shelf, stuck it in my hand and said "Will there be anything else today, or will that be all?"

Well, I didn't buy it. I've been trying to get a GURPS Traveller game going for over 2 years at that store. I told him I wasn't going to buy more books for a game no one will play.

He looked at me like I had two heads and said "But it's D20 based!!"

Well, we went 'round and 'round. Finally I agreed to run a demo and try to drum up interest.

The thing is, I’ll need characters for the demo. That's where I need help.

I'd like people to post some characters I can use in my demo. I'll use the characters you post as the player characters for the demo. Any left over will be the NPCs. I think I'll need 6 player characters.

Here's what I'm going for:

Merchant Captain - Co-Owner of group's starship. This guy runs the ship. I'm thinking ex-Navy officer, maybe he's a very minor Noble. Lots of Leadership and Law and Social stuff.

Merchant Trader - The other Co-Owner of group's starship. High Charisma and lots of Trading and Bartering stuff.

Ship's Engineer - I'm looking for a former Scout with a tendancy to brawl. Lots of Feats like Jury Rig and Miracle Worker, plus all kinds of mechanical skills.

Ship's Doctor - Self explanatory.

Pilot/Navigator - Again, self explanatory. Lots of skills that are sensor and computer related.

Deck Hand - This is the "Wild Card" character. He'd need some kind of ship-board skills to use on his working passage, maybe Jack of all Trades, plus skills for his “dubious background.” I'm thinking a Rogue, multi-classed to Traveller.

Please help me out. I'm more than willing to run the demo and, if interest perks up, to GM the campaign. I just need some interesting characters.

 

[themink]

SO what do you want posted, character concepts? descriptions? rows of stats?

It sounds as if you already have the character concepts you want. So all you are after is actual stats. For a demo game, why not just make up all the numbers, It should only take half an hour or so to write them up and print them off. It will take longer than that to give them all balanced and contradictory "quests" in a "convention" style.

If you want to run a "pure" demo, the Lite rules are fairly comprehensive and the Merchant character covers most of the bases (with skill and feat choice)

It sounds as if you aren;t planning a heavily combat based game so the actual stats don;t matter a huge amount.

On advantage of having them all merchants is that the ship is quite literally a tramp trader - you can even make them all family members if you are worried about the "party" bond when reffing for strangers.

 

[Liam Devlin]

The Mink has a point, Lite rules will cover yer tookus, and making em an "all-family member" thingy for a bunch O strangers keeps the wild hair-X-factor to a minimum. (and is fairly CJ Cherryh Free trader crew style too!)

 

[phydaux]

Mink,

I DO have the character concepts in my head. It's the same ship's crew I use when I run my GURPS Traveller demos - the demos no one will play.

I've never been one for balanced and contradictory quests. I'd much rather have the players work together as a team.

I want to run a demo that will showcase T20. Many different character classes and skills and Feats. So I want the characters to be of several different classes. Also, I want to play up the "sci-fi" aspect as most of the local players only play D20 fantasy.

Also, I can't just write down a bunch of stuff off the top of my head and say they're T20 characters. The crowd at my FLAGS are all VERY D20 savvy. If I make 6 characters, 5-7th level, the gang will instantly begin to pick the characters apart.

"Ooo, this guy is 6th level but only has a total of 40 skill ranks. This character class is obviously a looser!"

"Hey, my 5th level Merchant has 4 Feats and his has 6! Why did I get ripped off?"

I have to make sure all the characters are made to the letter of the law, or the gang will eat me alive.

Time is really at a premium for me right now. I was hoping a T20 player or playtester would have a folio of characters and could post them. I know as a GURPS player and GM, and someone who has run many GURPS games at Cons, I could post many GURPS characters, Traveller or fantasy or modern horror, whatever, at a moments notice.

I really though this would be a very simple matter.

For that matter, I figured hunter et. al. would have premade demo kits for FLAGS store owners and enthusiasts to run games in stores and at Cons. No such luck, it would seem.

I've resigned myself that I will receive NO HELP WHATSOEVER in putting together a T20 demo game, either from hunter or members of the forum. No problem, I can do it all myself. It will just take a while longer before it can happen.

 

[themink]

I would help, but I won;t be getting the book for at least a couple of weeks (I live in the Antipodies).

Your tag line says "lonely ref" does that mean you prefer to ref? I am normally ref although I love to play. I think it comes back to the fact the I organise it so I become the ref.

We've arranged to PbeM (See Recruiting office) and I imagine there will be a selection of character there shortly - we seem to be heavily towrds merchant/scout whoch may not be as useful for you.

Aside: I think that one of the reasons nobody has replied is that the book is still too new. Confidence levels are low and everyone wants to play for a while before they will be happy to post "Sample" characters.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Mink has a point on the newness of the book and rollin up Pcs...

Whats the ACTUAL Deadline Phydaux? Hard hit time, the dice hit the table and the curtain rises?

I have till Sunday, and two T20 Hbs in me hot wee hands.
And some Trav gamers who know the AdnD3e insiode out over ADnD2e me. Or is it tomorrow?

I'm ofering help best i can give it--I am a HERETIC after all.

 

[phydaux]

Originally posted by The Mink:
Your tag line says "lonely ref" does that mean you prefer to ref? I am normally ref although I love to play.

Same as you, I prefer to play. It's just that I learned back in the '70s unless SOMBODY ref'ed, then NOBODY played.

Actually, "lonely ref" refers to my being the only person in the known UNIVERSE who likes GURPS:Traveller. I could never find anyone to play with, or for that matter, find anyone on the internet who liked it. I got a G:T PBEM game going. It lasted about a month before work commitments made me drop off the internet completely for about 12 weeks.

So now I'm looking at T20. No one at my FLAGS seems interested. I was thinking of doing a demo to see what I could drum up.

I must be weird, because MAKING the characters was always the most fun for me. I’d get a new game system, or pick a new genera for GURPS, and crank out six or eight characters just for the fun of it. With things like the GURPS Character Builder software (or for that matter, the character gen software in the back of the D20 PH), making the characters was a snap. I HONESTLY believed within an hour or so of posting, I’d have 12-18 characters to choose from for the demo.

I’d crank them out myself, and I will eventually, but like I say – Being an old man with a new wife and a new job, time is at a premium.

 

[phydaux]

Liam,

I won't schedual the demo until I have characters. So, there isn't any deadline, other than I still want T20 to be on the "New Release" shelf at my FLAGS.

If I could get characters by the end of this month, I'd try to run the demo Turkey Day Weekend.

That's the weekend of November 23rd for you non-Americians

 

[Liam Devlin]

Post 901..yes, it is...
Phydaux, I'll ned an email addy to send these to. By T-day, NO sweat. Mike, Pete, Margie, Josie and I need the practice on the new book. I even have a T20 Lite till later (josie's the daughter-gets her own T20 on 28th her B-day.) when we have a few more in this neck O the woods.
I promise you, they'll be detailed, and likeable. (Expect good things when I have more than 30 seconds to think and write! UNlike here..

 

[BluWolf]

I hope to have the book within the next week or so and since I am in the EXACT same boat as you I'll kick out some characters stat block style.

As an aside, I guess we will need to develop a standard stat block for T20.

 

[phydaux]

Liam,

Thanks. You can reach me at:

ddesmarais@tencorp.com

Again, the kind of characters I'm looking for:

Merchant Captain - Co-Owner of group's starship. This guy runs the ship. I'm thinking ex-Navy officer, maybe he's a very minor Noble. Lots of Leadership and Law and Social stuff.

Merchant Trader - The other Co-Owner of group's starship. A straight Merchant with high Charisma and lots of Trading and Bartering stuff.

Ship's Engineer - I'm looking for a former Scout with a tendancy to brawl. Lots of Feats like Jury Rig and Miracle Worker, plus all kinds of mechanical skills. And fist fighting.

Ship's Doctor - Self explanatory. Uiversity up to PhD and several levels as a Professional.

Pilot/Navigator - Again, self explanatory. Maybe ex-navy enlisted with lots of skills that are sensor and computer related.

Deck Hand - This is the "Wild Card" character. He'd need some kind of ship-board skills to use on his working passage, maybe Jack of all Trades, plus skills for his “dubious background.” I'm thinking a Rogue, multi-classed to Traveller.

Thanks again,

phy

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by phydaux:
Liam,

Thanks. You can reach me at:

ddesmarais@tencorp.com

Again, the kind of characters I'm looking for:

Merchant Captain - Co-Owner of group's starship. This guy runs the ship. I'm thinking ex-Navy officer, maybe he's a very minor Noble. Lots of Leadership and Law and Social stuff.

Merchant Trader - The other Co-Owner of group's starship. A straight Merchant with high Charisma and lots of Trading and Bartering stuff.

Ship's Engineer - I'm looking for a former Scout with a tendancy to brawl. Lots of Feats like Jury Rig and Miracle Worker, plus all kinds of mechanical skills. And fist fighting.

Ship's Doctor - Self explanatory. Uiversity up to PhD and several levels as a Professional.

Pilot/Navigator - Again, self explanatory. Maybe ex-navy enlisted with lots of skills that are sensor and computer related.

Deck Hand - This is the "Wild Card" character. He'd need some kind of ship-board skills to use on his working passage, maybe Jack of all Trades, plus skills for his “dubious background.” I'm thinking a Rogue, multi-classed to Traveller.

Thanks again,

phy

________________________________________
I just got done cranking out three dozen NPCs TNe-style for a freind writing the next two in the Guilded Lilly series in UK, one ship's crew cannae be that hard
At least you ddn't want a platoon of troops too (I did very man down to the corporals; I stopped and used template NPCs for the Privates). He thought I over did it, but then I made the fellas paras, and they ain't no slouches!
The Guilds lady there was a bit femme fatale, as was the lady head of the resistance, and the Secret Police Inspector a ruthless professional with ambitions to go higher. The Plant was an accomplished liar as well as a real life taxi driver for the pCs to be saddled with. Then fer a twist, the resistance's main benefactor behind the brains and charisma was this Old gangster styled crook-- guns, smuggling, booze, gambling: Okay. Prostitution/ drugs, he gunned you down himself. An old fashioned crook.(who was mad for the lady Resistance leader (kept tipping her off when the cops were coming).

Yeah...we'll do it.
THEN you can thank me. we accept credit cards, money orders, and dead presidos, mi amigo. No pesos or rubles please!

 

[shield]

Liam,

You forgot those dozen TEDs on Kelvin

Cheers
Richard

 

[Shadowdancer]

phydaux: There is a merchant character on this board I rolled up with T20 Lite -- Diana Staha. You can use her for your demo if you like.

I also got my T20 preorder today (Friday), so I'll be spending some time this weekend rolling up some characters to see how the system works. Like you, I get a kick out of just rolling up Traveller characters -- the prior history aspect makes them come to life. I'll send you the results. How much detail do you want on their background? Or do you just want the stats/feats/skills/equipment?

 

[eclipse]

Originally posted by phydaux:
Well, I posted a similat thread in the Lone Star forum and got NO WHERE. I figured I try again here.

The thing is, I’ll need characters for the demo. That's where I need help.

I'd like people to post some characters I can use in my demo. I'll use the characters you post as the player characters for the demo. Any left over will be the NPCs. I think I'll need 6 player characters.

Here's what I'm going for:

Merchant Captain - Co-Owner of group's starship. This guy runs the ship. I'm thinking ex-Navy officer, maybe he's a very minor Noble. Lots of Leadership and Law and Social stuff.

Merchant Trader - The other Co-Owner of group's starship. High Charisma and lots of Trading and Bartering stuff.

Ship's Engineer - I'm looking for a former Scout with a tendancy to brawl. Lots of Feats like Jury Rig and Miracle Worker, plus all kinds of mechanical skills.

Ship's Doctor - Self explanatory.

Pilot/Navigator - Again, self explanatory. Lots of skills that are sensor and computer related.

Deck Hand - This is the "Wild Card" character. He'd need some kind of ship-board skills to use on his working passage, maybe Jack of all Trades, plus skills for his “dubious background.” I'm thinking a Rogue, multi-classed to Traveller.

Please help me out. I'm more than willing to run the demo and, if interest perks up, to GM the campaign. I just need some interesting characters.

I actually wrote up a merchant crew, using the lite rules, they are all strict merchant class.
Owner Aboard/Steward
Pilot/Astrogator
Engineer
Doctor
Muscule/Cargo Handler

I submitted 'em to CotI, so they should be posted to the Rogues Gallery soon. Hunter has been very busy the pre-order shipments, and the FLGS shipments out.


They have actually been used at least twice, that I know of, at Cons with a senario written by one of the playtesters.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by RichardP:
Liam,

You forgot those dozen TEDs on Kelvin

Cheers
Richard

_____________________________________________
There he goes again, making a miracle worker outta me! RichardP is my UK co-conspirator & an adventure writer on the Tne-list, btw (Check out his stuff on BARD site/ MARI section. Smashing stuff.)
Okay, so there

Shamless plugs back at you!

He brags on me, but most of those were just "sketches" on those TEDs. (bare bones/ motivations/ basic skill packages). Thing is though, QWe (Richard and I) can relate to the family-work RL time crunch thing lad. It'll work out. Trust me.

 

[phydaux]

say Liam,

I don't supose you got a start on those characters?

e-mail me either way,

phy

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by phydaux:
say Liam,

I don't supose you got a start on those characters?

e-mail me either way,

phy

_____________________________________
Yes. Started. More to follow later...I promise!

 

[trader jim]

Tango 6 - got em in my sights,locked on, may i fire?, may i fire?...

Negative Tango 6 - withdraw, withdraw, wrong thread, wrong thread!!!

 

[Liam Devlin]

Beep-Beep!