Dilettante
- Thread starter AndrewW
- Start date
lurkerabove
Mongoose
Hope it has rules about how to create a noble House like it has in Merchant Prince How to create a corporation
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
Not a fan of noble characters or entertainers but I admit that what they've previewed looks fairly reasonable.
lurkerabove said:
That's a great idea.
I believe, one of the oft quoted reasons for the popularity of Vampire the RPG is that players can create their own clans/noble houses/etc. (I may have this wrong as I've never read the game, nor do I have the slightest bit of interest in the vampire genre). That is also one of the things that fuels the popularity of the Song of Fire and Ice stories.
Also, it would add an interesting dimension to the Living Traveller system where noble houses could be officially validated and players can be members of rival houses (Capulet versus Montague anyone?)
nats
Banded Mongoose
Whereas I apprecaite Mongoose are expanding all the parts of Classic Traveller I have to question the release of this book. I mean its not as if any character will actually want o play a rich character, entertainer or playboy as opposed to a marine or mercenary. The skills you would get in this line of work would be practially useless for most games. I would have thought work on a more interesting part of traveller would have been time better spent - such as a supplement on the high ports, low ports, city plans, world plans, etc that have been undeveloped in traveller to date, or perhaps jump restricting ships or space fighter rules, or some fun adventures even (less craft more blasting) and what about a Serenity expansion or Star Wars expansion - now those would be great!
FreeTrav
Cosmic Mongoose
There is no question that nats is flat-out wrongly short-sighted in his perception of the game - there are plenty of groups out there that do more than just make as many booms as they can. A well-rounded party has characters that can be used in any situation, and the wealthy "remittance man" (who would be a character type I would expect to find in a book titled Dilettante) or noble's son of the baton sinistre can be useful as more than a piggy-bank patron.
Not every problem can be solved by shooting at it, and even some problems that can be solved that way may have optimal solutions that involve leaving the boomenstuff behind and actually playing a rôle. And, perhaps oddly, my last gaming group of thirty-somethings discussed this a few years back, and admitted that they preferred rôle-playing their way out of a situation, and reflected on how much of a change it was from their days as "immature teens and college students".
This is actually my biggest complaint about the granddaddy of all rôle-playing games, D&D (in all its incarnations) - the game seems to be oriented toward violence and violations of civilized social norms as solutions to problems, and the problems all seem to have an "artificial" feel - they are disconnected from the organic world that they are set in. That's never been my style, and every group I've ever played Traveller - in any incarnation - with has either never been interested in that style, or outgrew it before they got involved with Traveller (and in at least three cases, they got involved in Traveller because they'd outgrown D&D).
Not every problem can be solved by shooting at it, and even some problems that can be solved that way may have optimal solutions that involve leaving the boomenstuff behind and actually playing a rôle. And, perhaps oddly, my last gaming group of thirty-somethings discussed this a few years back, and admitted that they preferred rôle-playing their way out of a situation, and reflected on how much of a change it was from their days as "immature teens and college students".
This is actually my biggest complaint about the granddaddy of all rôle-playing games, D&D (in all its incarnations) - the game seems to be oriented toward violence and violations of civilized social norms as solutions to problems, and the problems all seem to have an "artificial" feel - they are disconnected from the organic world that they are set in. That's never been my style, and every group I've ever played Traveller - in any incarnation - with has either never been interested in that style, or outgrew it before they got involved with Traveller (and in at least three cases, they got involved in Traveller because they'd outgrown D&D).
I very much prefer to build something up than to tear it down, because
I find it more challenging, more diverse and more rewarding.
To destroy something like a pocket empire all you need is a fleet with
some ground troops, and all you get is a couple of combat scenarios.
Been there, done that, and after a while it got pretty boring, because
there are only so many ways to conquer or destroy a place.
To build something like a pocket empire, you need politics, economy,
diplomacy and probably some combat, so you get a lot of different in-
teresting adventures out of the same setting, and the characters can
use all of their skills, not only the ones a warbot could use, too.
So, yes, I am quite interested in nobles and their background, and I
would very much welcome something like the old Pocket Empires (only
better, of course), or something like the upcoming RQII Empires for Tra-
veller.
I find it more challenging, more diverse and more rewarding.
To destroy something like a pocket empire all you need is a fleet with
some ground troops, and all you get is a couple of combat scenarios.
Been there, done that, and after a while it got pretty boring, because
there are only so many ways to conquer or destroy a place.
To build something like a pocket empire, you need politics, economy,
diplomacy and probably some combat, so you get a lot of different in-
teresting adventures out of the same setting, and the characters can
use all of their skills, not only the ones a warbot could use, too.
So, yes, I am quite interested in nobles and their background, and I
would very much welcome something like the old Pocket Empires (only
better, of course), or something like the upcoming RQII Empires for Tra-
veller.
lurkerabove
Mongoose
An updated Pocket Empires book sounds like a great idea
nats said:
Are you kidding? The chance to play the galaxy's greatest rock star? Who wouldn't leap at that?
Somebody said:While I am a big fan of the King I think that playing a being as great as Elvis is beyond the skills of most players
And characters, for that matter.
A couple of years ago, I tried to create exactly this kind of character for a game. Picked Entertainer, 18 years old, the whole galaxy at the guy's feet as a musician - and failed utterly.
Spent the term Drifting.
Then, a new lease of life! The guy was going to be an actor, the greatest the galaxy had ever seen. Events rolled up showed he had really honked off a director.
Spent the next term Drifting.
After that, he was drafted. A stunning example of how life does _not_ turn out the way you expected...
far-trader
Mongoose
:lol: so true, so true...
dmccoy1693
Cosmic Mongoose
msprange said:
LOL! Awesome!
Daneel Olivaw
Mongoose
Zaphod Beeblebrox!
dreamingbadger
Mongoose
GamerDude said:
Most un-Froody
msprange said:
I tried that same path, but wound up with my one-hit wonder Starlet cheesing off the local nobility with her not-so-flattering-to-them tunes. She got run out of town but found employment as an Agent. By the time she turned 30 she was a high-tech field agent for the Subsector Security Service (combat skills and wafer-jack for specialty knowledge).
