T5 Veteran Friendly

[robject]

T5 has inadvertently helped me craft my house rules for more enjoyable gameplay*.

I realized that my group has more fun with Space Opera than Hard SF. While we don't like Space Fantasy, we also don't like real-world physics. T5 inspired me to craft rules to bypass some of the realities of hard SF. The mention of 'family traits', genetic-style attributes, and "special skills" in the playtest files helped me realize that there are ways around physics that wouldn't otherwise be possible.

For example, a good, solid hit from a gunshot probably will knock out and kill. While I don't want to change the laws of physics, I also want players to survive combat. Thus I can create a "nervous system attenuation" talent that's present in many families who've lived in a tech culture for millenia, that allows them to instinctively move when someone makes to pull a trigger or push a button. This gives them a +DM to avoid getting hit square.


*I've been thinking about what makes Traveller fun, and the things that keep coming back in posts on COTI is (1) the simplicity of Classic Traveller's rules, (2) the ease by which referees can graft in house rules or replace entire sections of CT due to its orthogonality or modularity, and (3) the focus on the referee to tune gameplay to be enjoyable to the group.

 

[TheDS]

Unnecessary. Gunshots are fairly survivable.

1st, if you get hit some where really important, like your brain or your heart, ok, count on being dead. (Even then, there are people who have survived headshots.)

2nd, assuming the wound wasn't immediately fatal, you bleed. Now maybe the bullet didn't do that much (if it's small) or maybe it did a lot. The thing is, you bleed, or perhaps start suffocating if the wound is in the lungs. Depending on the wound, you either bleed out in about 5 minutes, or you bleed out over a much longer time.

In either case, if you get proper medical treatment before you lose too much blood, you'll live. Sure, you could get your aorta or femural artery shot, and there's no saving you, but MOST wounds are not that serious. A good blast from a shotgun may shred the crap out of you, but it's probably not going to kill you outright.

So most games will go and make a determination of whether or not a shot is an insta-kill (low chance, unless they were aiming for it) or a critical hit (like to a major artery). If it's insta-kill, done. If it's a critical hit, you'll BE dead soon, but you can probably still do stuff. If it's not a critical hit (about 80-90% of the time), you bleed, but if you can slap a bandaid on it, and get yourself to the hospital, you're fine. You'll lose a hit point every time increment, or something like that, if you can't stop the bleeding.

First Aid saves a LOT of lives.

And there are some wounds that are just not that serious. The generic term is "flesh wound", or we could call it snake-eyes (minimum damage). Just about every game goes and makes the mistake of calling a critical hit extra damage. It's not. It's actually a hit that (if it didn't insta-kill you) will cause you to lose your hitpoints far more rapidly, and possibly cannot be saved against, or fixed.

But this is a game. Criticals that require some one to die aren't that fun, but then that's why we have magic healing potions and ultra-tech machines; these are things that can get in there and repair that femural artery and regenerate that gallon of lost blood before you die.

Try not to take cues from the movies as to how things work. Movies simulate the real world about as well as Luxembourg conquers Europe - it just doesn't happen. (Not that it COULDN'T, just that it HASN'T.)

 

[Anthony]

The problem with a realistic portrayal of wounds and injuries in a RPG boils down to two things:

1) There is very little 'whittling away' effect; while bloodloss will eventually fatigue and slow people, wounds tend to be either mortal or not relevant for the duration of the combat. The concept of hit points means that you can have a meaningful sense of 'ok, I'm wounded now, better retreat', as opposed to 'fine, fine, fine, *ack* thump'.
2) An awful lot of mortal wounds aren't immediately incapacitating. This means an excellent chance of double kills, where a PC dies to an NPC who's already mortally wounded, but hasn't falled over yet.

Players like neither of these effects.

 

[trader jim]

Has anyone heard any more good Rumors or any hard facts about T-5 ???......wheres it stand.....is it going forward?????......I consider T-5 a truly important step in Traveller....more so than all the other incarnations of the game.....gotta keep up on it....anything "NEW"?????

 

[FrancoisUldry]

Originally posted by Anthony:
The problem with a realistic portrayal of wounds and injuries in a RPG boils down to two things:

2) An awful lot of mortal wounds aren't immediately incapacitating. This means an excellent chance of double kills, where a PC dies to an NPC who's already mortally wounded, but hasn't falled over yet.

Players like neither of these effects.

While I may agree that it is indeed the case, you have to count in the pain factor.

While a wound might not hinder you in any way the pain it generates will drive you nuts

Francois
(1st post