Fate points/Destiny Points in Traveller

[charonsg]

i was reading green ronin Song of ice and fire and the destiny point mechanics which allows for both old and young characters in the game caught my eye.
i was wondering if anyone has thought of implementing it in traveler so that you could balance characters who have only 1 terms experience versus those who have 4 terms?

 

[iainjcoleman]

If you want to implement a fate points mechanic in your own game, by all means go ahead. For me, though, this violates the spirit of Traveller. If I had to sum up what Traveller is all about, I would describe it the same way Gareth Thomas described Blake's 7: "Real people in an unreal world". Fate points come from an idea of heroic/cinematic gaming, which is fine in its own context, but Traveller is all about people with the foibles and failures of real life trying to get along in a vast and diverse Universe. I wouldn't want to play in a Traveller game that had fate points: for me, it just wouldn't be Traveller.

 

[First Age]

...but Traveller is all about people with the foibles and failures of real life trying to get along in a vast and diverse Universe. I wouldn't want to play in a Traveller game that had fate points: for me, it just wouldn't be Traveller.

Which is fair enough. However I am having fun using Fate Aspects with Traveller. These flesh out the 'foibles and failures of real life' and give them a mechanical effect in the game. They are an excellent and seamless addition and a lot of fun. 8)

I have also added hero points as a separate, though possibly linked, extension to give PCs an edge when required. However I agree one would need to be wary about introducing these for the reasons you outline in your post.

 

[Mongoose Gar]

Heh. In my very first notes for Mongoose Traveller, I have 'ASPECTS?' written down at the top of the page. I think aspects are one of the best concepts introduced in the last few years, but adding them to the core Traveller rules would have been too big a jump.

 

[Sangrolu]

It's also interesting the the traveller-aping Thousand Suns pretty much pulled in aspects and fate points wholesale (though he gave them a different name). And then there's Diaspora, which started out as "Spirit of the Far Future", a Traveller FATE hack.

I'd considered importing fate points. As MongT penalizes aged characters less aggressively that CT/MT, I was thinking that the refresh rate could be something like 10 - terms.

RE: "Violates the spirit of traveller"

Traveller to me has always been a game you could mold and manipulate, make into what you want. That's the spirit of Traveller.

 

[lucasdigital]

It's also interesting the the traveller-aping Thousand

RE: "Violates the spirit of traveller"

Traveller to me has always been a game you could mold and manipulate, make into what you want. That's the spirit of Traveller.

Absolutely true. Lets instead say that Fate points would alter the flavor of Traveller.

;-)

The great thing about a fate/hero system is that it lets your players do extraordinary acts that would be unthinkable. If you want to 'go large' on the escapism, well great. I've enjoyed playing Star Wars RPG back in the day. However, I think that when you play long enough, extraordinary things happen anyway, and they're always far more memorable because it was 'real' fate, not a game mechanic that created the moment.

All said, it's each to their own and IMTU rules eternal.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

...but Traveller is all about people with the foibles and failures of real life trying to get along in a vast and diverse Universe. I wouldn't want to play in a Traveller game that had fate points: for me, it just wouldn't be Traveller.

Which is fair enough. However I am having fun using Fate Aspects with Traveller. These flesh out the 'foibles and failures of real life' and give them a mechanical effect in the game. They are an excellent and seamless addition and a lot of fun. 8)

I have also added hero points as a separate, though possibly linked, extension to give PCs an edge when required. However I agree one would need to be wary about introducing these for the reasons you outline in your post.

If you and the players are having fun, then that is all that matters.

 

[phild]

The great thing about a fate/hero system is that it lets your players do extraordinary acts that would be unthinkable.

But this doesn't have to be the case. There are numerous fate / hero point systems, which can achieve any number of functions. The only thing they have in common is that they are a metagame mechanic which temporarily extends control of the game to the player. In Traveller, you might allow a single roll to become a 12 (hardly extraordinary, rolls of 12 will crop up one time in every 36 rolls) or turn a lethal blow into a blow that leaves them with a single characteristic point remaining. Neither of these will intrinsically lead to extraordinary acts, and neither will they necessarily encourage reckless pulp-esque gaming if the flow of fate points is strictly regulated.

Personally I'm a big fan of giving players a "get out of jail free" card, as it means a stupid mistake on their part won't spoilt the entire game, and also means that a miscalculation on my part won't necessarily lead to Total Party Kill! But they are not intrinsically heroic or "unthinkable"!