Task Systems

[Border Reiver]

Of late there has been much on these boards about new and improved Traveller task systems.

This is quite an important and emotive subject seeing as some systems are flawed, some broke and some do just fine. Many of us have used one system by preference, others have no experience of other systems, others chop and change between them.

 

[Merxiless]

I'm a fan of T4, DGP/MT (Except for the mishmashed space combat), and Classic in that order, with the autofire rules, and some other stuff snipped from T2K2/TNE.

2300 AD, just didn't like it as much.

T20, have it, haven't read it.

 

[mctesla]

Very simple--- if it ain't broke don't fix it.

I'm very happy with MT/DGP 99% of the time, the other 1% of the time, we use a custom house system.

Personally, I can't wait until all the task threads die off--- it's starting to feel spammy.

 

[Border Reiver]

I agree about the spam. It is nice to see new ideas but it feels like they have been shotgunned across the site.

Hell they've been well thought out, playtested somewhat and deserve an audience but it is becoming a little overbearing.

 

[Berg]

PDF them, post in the fLibrary, (sorry) let people know they are there...done

They seem about thoroughly tweaked by now

 

[aramis]

My complaint is the authors seeming to expect no non-pat-on-the-back posts, no challenges to their basic assumptions.

Me, I use a slightly modified MT task system: att/3 and +1 TN's. I like Epic.

I like 2300, and the task system there is nigh-identical; when running 2300, I stick to Att/5. The 1d10 is more epic than the 2d6 of MT.

 

[Flynn]

I didn't vote.

The option I'd prefer to see on the list of selections isn't on there at all: the BITS task system. It can be used with any of the existing rules mechanics that have been published for Traveller, and I don't have to switch back and forth with different designations in order to write an adventure for CT, MT, TNE, T4, GT or T20. It's all-inclusive.

As for the recent threads on CT task systems: yeah, it feels too much like the authors of these systems are trying to compensate for something else, and their frantic over-posting about their system(s) appears far too much like obsessive-compulsive behavior. That behavior alone turns me off before I've even given the systems a chance. At this rate, with the reception I've received from making comments, I'll never try these systems nor ever endorse them to others simply because of that behavior. It's alienating far too many people, and that isn't helping anyone.

I, too, can't wait for all of this to blow over so we can talk about Traveller instead of about dice.

IMO, YMMV, blah blah blah, et cetera, ad nauseum.

My two creds, anyway,
Flynn

 

[The Oz]

I always just make it up as I go along. I've never bothered with any "task system" and don't really understand why people are so interested.

But that's just me.

 

[Merxiless]

I got a new Task System, in 3 parts:

Merxiless Task System (Not Licensed, approved or in any way officially endorsed by anyone.)

Roll some dice, and explain the result in science fiction terms.

Use your power as Referee to Decide, no dice, what the outcome is, or should be, and tell it in story terms.

Run it any way you damn please, just leave each Referee to run his own game as he/she sees fit.

No money needed, It's free to the community, AND it can be used for any game you can name!

Refinements to the Task System are never going to be anything like the one true gaming system Grail.

There is no one true gaming system, only what works for each Referee.

I too, have reached the point of annoyance over Evangelistic Task System Thumping, and other Proseletyzing.

If it Truly Was Better, by a Revolutionary Method, I'd be interested.

But better by degrees? By SMALL degrees?

Most of the guys here have been playing Traveller for 10 years or more, and or have advanced PhD's in math and science, or work in those industries.

So there's a lot of real-world knowledge to apply to Traveller-as-Fictional-RPG.

As a community, we are not lacking in Intelligence, or Skill, or the ability to apply same in our own individual games.

But since each Referees perception is different, each of these Task Systems put a different weight on skills, or stats, or a combination of the above, or Divides by 2, 3, or 5, or there are half dice, to rund out a curve, or whole dice to remove half dice, or some don't even like that same d6 half-die, and some like d20, instead, with some preferring d10 and 2300 AD.

WHERE DID THE ROLEPLAY GO?

Pardon me, I'm off to generate a sector.

I'm going to run my new setting in a few weeks, using my new fangled, post-modern, post-internet, pagan dancing in the woods around a post naked with a sheet of paper, 2d6, post-toasties and a pencil Task System, post-haste, that I just posted.

ROFL

 

[GM Joe]

I was using CT just fine as-is when I encountered DGP's task system in the pages of the Travellers' Digest. It seemed like a good idea at first, but in use I didn't really enjoy using it. Still, I adopted it for a while, believing it to be the way of things. But ultimately I left the system behind a few years later when I abandoned MT and went back to CT.

 

[Enoki]

The MT / DGP system is a reasonably good start. It's not without its faults but for many actions / tasks in a game it works well. With some tweaks and sometimes changing the task difficulty from book ones, it works.

I also don't think it need be used 100% of the time. Sometimes, a game needs to have something happen a certain way to move the story forward. Making some critical point in the game dependent on random chance will only spoil the outcome. "Opps! You just missed this critical roll. You failed at the task and died. Game's over..."
That isn't a very satisfying outcome for almost any player and will only make the game unpopular. After all, it is a game, and it should be something you enjoy.

 

[atpollard]

[m;]poll closed[/m;]

Sorry, one of the board upgrades broke the old poll. It isn't updating the counts correctly so it was closed. Feel free to start a new one.