Announcing: The Open Playtest!

[Allensh]

My one major gripe with character generation is that all promotion leads to a commision -- there are no career NCOs.

Couldn't do that in the original CT rules either unless you failed your Commission roll every time. I don't have any problem with all the PCS being ex-officers; there should be something special about heroes. I am hoping there will eventually be "advanced" character creation rules that allow for greater detail (but not way more skills like Mercenary, High Guard, etc, did in the old days)

Allen

 

[Mongoose Gar]

<I>How do you figure damage for Brawling and Martial Arts? </I>
Currently, damage is 0+Effect for melee attacks.

Do you add the characters Strength mod to such attacks?

Allen

I'm debating it. On one level, that means you're going to be counting it twice (it figures into Effect already). On the other, it does make a sort of sense.

 

[Allensh]

Ok, what's the deal with the missing Citizen and Criminal careers? I assume Criminal is Rogue. I think a "Citizen" career would be a good idea, your average working people, mid-level managers, bureaucrats, that sort of thing.

Allen

 

[SableWyvern]

Couldn't do that in the original CT rules either unless you failed your Commission roll every time.

Fair enough, then. My only experience with Traveller has been via the New Era.

I don't have any problem with all the PCS being ex-officers; there should be something special about heroes.

Well, some people don't consider officers any more "special" than NCOs, except perhaps for certain less complimentary uses of "special". 8)

 

[TrippyHippy]

Ok, what's the deal with the missing Citizen and Criminal careers? I assume Criminal is Rogue. I think a "Citizen" career would be a good idea, your average working people, mid-level managers, bureaucrats, that sort of thing.

Allen

Yep, the Citizens were a glaring absence. And actually, it might make sense to call 'Rogues' 'Criminals' instead. It sounds more professional (and less like D&D!).

 

[Mongoose Gar]

Citizens have been cut from the main book for the moment. They may come back, and will certainly show up as a web extra or S&P article if they don't make it into the main book.

 

[Shadow Queen]

looked through it after the Download, looks very good, one question why 2D6 on the creation for charicters?

 

[TrippyHippy]

Citizens have been cut from the main book for the moment. They may come back, and will certainly show up as a web extra or S&P article if they don't make it into the main book.

Well, I suppose they could be used in the promotion of the game, but if possible, I'd like to see them in the core rules. It makes the rules seem 'complete' to have them altogether, and it would only use up a page or so to include them.

I think Citizens are important careers for those people who like playing 'everyman' heroes. They also give a better sense of the Career choices representing the whole spectrum of society.

 

[weasel_fierce]

I agree with Trippy here. Having a "normal dude" option is a good idea.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Yep. The Assignments for a Citizen could be:

Administration
Construction/Repair
Service

It would be easy to set this up, I think.

Note: In Serenity/Firefly - Keelie would be an example of a Citizen (Construction/Repair) taking flight amongst the crew. You couldn't really generate a 'Keelie' without having a Citizen career option.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Add another vote for Citizen in the book. You need the option of the farm boy that buys some random droid and ends up saving the galaxey ... er sector.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Yep, would probably have to get Farmer into Citizens too - maybe combine them with Construction/Repair to get a 'Manual Worker' type Assignment.

 

[Mongoose Gar]

The citizen subcareers are, IIRC, Corporate, Worker and Colonist. I'll poke at it again, but it's very low on my priority scale.

 

[rkhigdon]

There's a few posts in the Playtest thread on RPG.Net that pointed out a potential problem with the ageing/anagathics system currently in place. With the cost only being 1d6x2000 per term, not having to give up any benefits, and not having to make rolls to obtain drugs, it seems far to easy to make a 20 term character with absolutely no medial debt. Yes, the GM could screw over a character like this pretty easily by withholding the drugs during normal play, but it seems that the generation system should be designed to put a curb on this type of abuse.

A fix may be as easy as dramatically increasing the cost of the anagathics. After all in previous editions the cost was anywhere from 20,000 to 200,000 PER DOSE. Compared to this the cost PER TERM in character generation is way below market value. Change it to 1d6x20,000 (for example) it makes it far less likely that you'll have 98 year old characters running around.

 

[Tychus]

I concur on the underpriced anagathics; I abused them in some of the characters I rolled up in this thread.

I also think the Medical Care costs are too low. A "nearly killed" result on the injury table will cause the loss of 5-10 characteristic points - restoring these costs at most 20,000. (Losing an eye or limb is potentially the most expensive injury, at 28,000). In general, the careers where injury is most likely (Navy, Marines, Army) also cover a significant portion of any medical costs incurred. So it's fairly easy to come out of a horrific mishap with low medical bills, easily paid off after mustering out.

I'm not sure that starting the game in debt is a huge disadvantage either. Depends on the GM and playstyle I guess, but it seems like it's just another adventure hook.

I suggest significantly increasing the price of both medical care and anagathics, and introducing some cap on them. Perhaps characters have a max debt level (possibly a function of career/rank) beyond which further treatment is unavailble. Or treatment might replace only a random number of lost points, so there is always the possibility of permanent damage.

 

[tneva82]

it seems far to easy to make a 20 term character with absolutely no medial debt.

Dunno. I rolled up character who ended up General in army with medical debt from the drug. Max 3 rolls on cash table isn't that easy to cover even 8 term characters drug costs.

 

[rkhigdon]

3 rolls per carreer. By switching carreers it's possible to really rack up the cash.

Some of the careers also have Cash Table results that are significantly higher than the Army. If your character had been a Scout he could have made sunstantially more. Nobility even more.

Looking at your 8 term Army General, if he rolled 3 times on the cash table he would have a minimum of 15,000 and a maximum of 90,000. The average would be around 40,000. The drugs would cost a minimum of 8,000 and a maximum of 48,000 with an average of 28,000. There's a slim chance of occurring some injuries of the events table, etc, but your average general will generally have money left over.

 

[Deniable]

3 rolls per carreer. By switching carreers it's possible to really rack up the cash.

Page 28 says "You may only roll on the cash table a maximum of three times per career."

Page 4 says that 'You may only roll on the cash tables a maximum of three times.' This indicates the tables from all careers.

This is a source of confusion, but I'll go with the more explicit page 28.

 

[Tychus]

If you serve 8 terms, and finish at rank 5-6, you'll get 11 Benefit rolls, all at +1DM. It's likely that you'll have at least one addtional +1DM from an event along the way. Apply these DMs to your cash rolls and you should do pretty well. Plus you'll have a 10,000 credit/year pension, which will cover the ongoing costs of your anagathics habit.

 

[Charakan]

Hmm IIRC didn't CT, MT etc state that characters had a maximum of three rolls on the cash table.

I wonder if thats the intended rule here - I'll print out the pdf tomorrow when I've got time to buy some ink and do some experimentation - maybe someone can try in the meantime and see how it works out.

Regards.

J.