So I ran Traveller at a local con today. The players loved the low berths concept and the low lottery. However, I found the survival rate to be pretty brutal.

From what I could find in the rule book, it's simply a Medic roll modified by the low berther's Endurance. I allowed either Education or Intelligence for the Medic roll. Even at that, 4 of 7 low passengers died on the first voyage.

Am I missing some other modifiers for bringing crew out of low berths? Does the ships computer help? Is it just a regular 8+ roll.

What are other people's experiences?

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Jon "Red-24" Woodland
"You've taken your first step into a larger world" - Obi Wan Kenobi

At worst it is a Routine (+2) task. At best it is Easy (+4) And you bump the time increment down one to make it an Easy (+4) task or Simple (+6) task...

F33D is referring to the "Going Faster or Slower" rules in skill checks. Although I think it's two time increments you have to move - you only get +1 per 'band' slower.

That said, yes, low berths are bloody lethal for people who don't know what they're doing, and if they don't (medic/0 or less and no particular experience) then I'd make them check every time to prove a point, same as I'd make them make pilot checks the first time they flew a new ship.

There's no indication what the base difficulty for using low berths is; you can rule it to be easy or routine if you've clearly got experience doing it. It's the same as landing the ship - in theory (according to the core rules) landing the ship is a +2 test, where failing means "the ship has landed improperly or even crashed" - now either the skies of the imperium are full of falling starships or there's some wiggle room intended in the rules.

It all comes back to the key rule on skill checks - Traveller is an RPG, not simply a dice game, and the rules state that:

Other things that can help - other than medic skill - is an expert medic software running on a ship's computer terminal in the low berth bay. For the cost of the software compared to anything starship related, I'd assume it'd be almost standard practice. For that matter an autodoc isn't a bad buy.

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Understand that I'm not advocating violence.
I'm just saying that it's highly effective and I strongly recommend using it.

Minbari Protectorate Fleet:
http://www.mediafire.com/?cmymg13nzmd

Yep. For ships carrying passengers a Doctor/Medic would probably be required by law. Consider that you are totally cut off from outside help for at least a week at a time. When you consider the crew position cost (life support also) having even an autodoc 14 installed when a ship is built is affordable.

"an Autodoc (14) is capable of reanimation, provided no more
than 15 minutes have passed since the subject’s death."

Advertising that fact could help attract passengers for the ship...

Well, "average" crew requirements - which I'd assume would reflect any 'legal standards' if you wanted to operate fully within the Imperium's/other YTU political body's legal framework rather than being a tramp trader - do require medics at "One per 120 passengers".

Of course, that leaves open the definition of what a suitably qualified and equipped 'medic' is.

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Understand that I'm not advocating violence.
I'm just saying that it's highly effective and I strongly recommend using it.

Minbari Protectorate Fleet:
http://www.mediafire.com/?cmymg13nzmd

Just being a "Tramp" doesn't mean that when you go to a star port to take passengers that are waiting for the next ship, you aren't subject to the laws. But, maybe you are thinking about smugglers, a la Han Solo getting paid by Obi & Luke to get them off the planet?

Yep, the RAW for low berths are very brutal.

Personally I am not convinced that a form of transport that kills half of those who use it would be allowed, so have always allowed an easy modifier (+4), which, with a decent medical skill (modified by int or edu) should make it pretty survivable. If that roll fails, I allow an endurance roll as a "saving throw". Basically, problems with low berths are likely to be GM plot lines, not just random character killers.

Egil

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Wein, Weib und Gesang - Unofficial motto of Gram's 3rd Grenadier Regiment

I'd agree, unless extremely desperate or without any other choice (convict transport leaps to mind for the latter, refugees for the first). However, my issue then (and generally anyway) is the ticket price is far too high.

Anyway, CT was never that brutal. Roll 5+ and get a DM +1 for Medic (which you'd better have), and DM of -1 for passenger End of 6 or less (which my Medic would refuse to take on). So really a 4+ roll and they live. That's 9 in 11 of surviving. Fair odds for the type of transport it was modeled on.

So, to the OP's original concerns, I had a look again at the MgT rules. In my opinion you should:

1 - Have a qualified Medic attending (imo a minimum Skill DM +2 and Stat DM +1 = DM +3 so far)

2 - Better ships (not all though) will have better built and maintained low berths for a Situational DM +1

3 - The Timing DM was mentioned, but imo it doesn't apply. This is one of those tasks that is only doable in a set time. I'd say the 10-60 minute line. Emergency low berths would be built to take advantage of the Timing DM by dropping the insertion time by a line to the 1-6 minutes frame, at the cost of having to thaw with the DM -1 for the rushed insertion. Frozen Watch low berths would be purpose built to use a rushed extraction in a combat replacement situation suffering the same DM -1. In both cases I'd make the special low berths (Emergency and Frozen Watch) of the better quality for the DM +1 to offset the penalty for the unusual usage.

Note: I've since changed my mind about the specifics for the Timing DM issue above, see my next following post.

So I'd make it a Routine Task for an additional DM +2 to hit the CT mark for typical Free Traders (which should not have the better built or maintained low berths) with a decent Medic.

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Dan "far-trader" Burns

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I agree with the previous 2 posts.
No way in Hades that any insurance company would allow anything this deadly to be part of a standard transportation system. Legal action and competition would take the death rate for low births to virtually zero. Even a 1% chance of death would be too high IMHO for industry standard transportation.
IMO I think this is another one of Mark Millers concepts of linking his traveller universe with sea travel in the mid-late 1800's. Where steerage passengers over long hauls have an uncomfortably high chance of not making it to their destination. Just a guess, but it fits his original concept.

So realistically, I think most might agree that such a deadly form of paid travel would never make it past any corporate oversight board. But as a pure sci-fi/fantasy role playing game that is Traveller, the high chance of croaking in low birth does have a bit of old world adventure “feel” to it.

Anyway, IMTU a medic has to roll a critical failure, then the passenger has to roll a critical failure on based on an endurance check to outright die in low birth.

I don't like it. So I don't use it

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The long and short of it is if it is was a 3% chance of dying (2 on 2D6), only those who felt that they stood a higher chance of dying if they didn't travel would go this route.

Based on planet of departure & destination world you can figure out what type of person this might be. In reality, this wouldn't be a routinely available form of commercial transport...

I've softened the effects of failure - rather than outright death, I have the low passengers suffering incapacitating sickness for negative Effect in hours less their End DM in half-hours. So a Medic reviving a low passenger with End 9 fails by 2; the passenger is sick for 1.5 hrs - which means during that time all tasks are Formidable and take one Time Increment longer. Sometimes for dramatic effect I let task difficulties get easier as time goes by (Very Diff at 50%, Diff at 75%, etc). Only a natural 2 kills (with a chance of revival possible if there's an autodoc on board or if the attending has Medic 3+).

It's actually pretty much a copy from the Dumarest books iirc. And this topic has come up here (and other Traveller fora) before of course

viewtopic.php?p=549708

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Dan "far-trader" Burns

Original material in this post may be employed for personal non-profit use with the origin noted. Any other use is subject to permission from the author. Contact me through the private message feature of this board.

Yes and I think the death rate there was 15%! But clearly it varied substantially between individuals because Dumarest himself had survived many low passages.

Can you expand on the bit about time increments please?

Have a low berth or suspension capsule in use as a plot device in a game I'm running and I previously indicated that they needed to get it to a medical facility as the sleeper is afflicted with a nasty disease requiring professional treatment.
So far none of them have even tried waking her up and have gone along with setting up a separate battery to the cubicle so they could detach it from where it was located and move it to their own ship ala gravlifter (think Hand of Omega from a Seventh Doctor Who serial involving the Daleks and Ace oh and a school...)