How to create Tougher Travellers?
- Thread starter Randal
- Start date
MonsterX
Emperor Mongoose
This isn't exactly taking the route of making the CHARACTERS tougher, but if you set up a fight where everyone has to basically sneak in whatever weapons they have, or find (improvise) one quick when the fighting kicks off, you can get a more extended fight. For example a gala dinner. Heavily armed guards are protecting the building, but the terrorists have blocked the doors. Inside, security is dressed for the event, diplo vests, and autopistols. The PCs will have body pistols and diplo vests, if they are enterprising. The terrorists will have to have a bit more but not much - something for the players to use that grappling skill to take off them. Distances mean melee is common. Lots of fisticuffs, frying pans, and chairs bashed over people's heads.
In this context, the PCs hit points last them quite a bit longer, and there are lots of opportunities for fun and exciting outcomes.
In this context, the PCs hit points last them quite a bit longer, and there are lots of opportunities for fun and exciting outcomes.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Fluffy Bunny Feet
Emperor Mongoose
1/ droid wars. Fight by proxy.
2/ for damage receiving purposes only multiply their relevant characteristics by 2 or more
3/ allow them armour against low TL locals who will have a hard time piercing it.
4/ give them a goa'uld sarcophagus from Stargate SG-1 so they can be revived.
We had one character with an Automedikit (CSC p20). Even the basic version offers an injector containing Fast Drug. When the character was "killed" in a gunfight they were left for dead by the opponents (very few people want to actually want you dead, they generally want you out of the fight it is just that guns are not good at fine control).
When the police turned up way afterwards their paramedic was surprised that the victim was still alive and the hospital was able to save them. The loss in the fight had consequences, but not permanent ones.
To be honest you don't even need the automedikit most of the time, just take your hits and go down rather than struggle to keep fighting. If you are fighting you are a threat that needs to be eliminated. If you are rolling on the floor crying for your mum, you are not a threat or even an legitimate target in most cultures.
Of course it helps if you treat your enemies with the same courtesy. We had one fight where the some mercs were taken out. Rather than finish them off one the medic actually patched them up (sedating them heavily). He arranged to have them stored in cryofreeze until they could work out who had hired them. When they eventually found their antagonist and sued for peace, the antagonists security officer was generous with terms once he found out that his strike team were alive and receiving medical attention. It prevented it from becoming personal or tit for tat.
When the police turned up way afterwards their paramedic was surprised that the victim was still alive and the hospital was able to save them. The loss in the fight had consequences, but not permanent ones.
To be honest you don't even need the automedikit most of the time, just take your hits and go down rather than struggle to keep fighting. If you are fighting you are a threat that needs to be eliminated. If you are rolling on the floor crying for your mum, you are not a threat or even an legitimate target in most cultures.
Of course it helps if you treat your enemies with the same courtesy. We had one fight where the some mercs were taken out. Rather than finish them off one the medic actually patched them up (sedating them heavily). He arranged to have them stored in cryofreeze until they could work out who had hired them. When they eventually found their antagonist and sued for peace, the antagonists security officer was generous with terms once he found out that his strike team were alive and receiving medical attention. It prevented it from becoming personal or tit for tat.
PCs will nomally have fairly routine access to 8-10 points of armour; that's the value of a Cloth suit to a TL12 Vacc suit. Since the TL12 Vacc Suit is also a passable work uniform without the helmet and life support, it's not as intrusive as real armour. Characters won't ALWAYS be wearing them though, unless they have a quirk about that (belters often appear to own no other clothes except underwear...)
OTOH, Traveller caps non-military suit protection pretty well too. And Combat Armour and Battledress are another tier of combat altogether - essentially personalised vehicles.
For that matter, if you want a fight where the combatants aren't super vulnerable, involving vehicles may do (as in real life).
OTOH, Traveller caps non-military suit protection pretty well too. And Combat Armour and Battledress are another tier of combat altogether - essentially personalised vehicles.
For that matter, if you want a fight where the combatants aren't super vulnerable, involving vehicles may do (as in real life).
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
MonsterX
Emperor Mongoose
Crunchy on the outside, but soft and squishy on the inside. Of course, you can put them on grav bikes if you'd rather give a sense of jeorpardy.
The space combat rules also basically allow you to somehow manage to disintegrate the spaceship around the players, without them necessarily being injured at all. Somehow that feels wrong, but it is RAW.
and then the referee kills you all for no reason
summerdown
Mongoose
Traveller is a game where you're not meant to be in a fair fight. And a lot of PC scheming goes into making any fight as one-sided as possible. This is a completely valid, rules-as-written way of playing that's a lot of fun.
But, since you're asking, you don't have to play it that way at all. You can in fact add in some simple houserules to make the PCs pretty heroic. I've done it in the past and it's a different game but no less fun. Here's what I'd do - which is some combination of the stuff below. You might treat it as a list of options rather than something to grab all of them - but again, if you want very heroic play, feel free to grab the lot.
a) The luck stat from the Traveller companion is really good. The PCs end up with a pool of points to avoid any dice roll they want, but they have to spend time earning them back or waiting for the end of the scenario. I think this might help you because you can literally shoot a PC in the head (just once) - and they can spend points to make that miss. It means character death mostly happens the second time they get into a lethal event, rather than immediately.
b) Add bennies. Again, I've done this in some games and I find it to be game changing rather than game-breaking. You simply say that a particular type of action (let's say something that PC would define as heroic - or simply cool roleplaying that emphasises character and everyone likes) - gives a bennie. Which can be say a poker chip. Then in any situation where the PCs fail a dice roll, they pay the bennie and get a reroll. If they fail a second time, take the consequences. I think this might help you because it makes PCs much more competent but still able to fail.
c) Enforce a floor to stats in character-gen. When the players roll for stats, tell them that if their dice don't all add up to more than the average (42 for six stats, or 49 if you have luck as a seventh) - then they can reroll 1's. And if they still don't make it, they can reroll the lot. That automatically removes the weak end of the PC pool. I think this might help you because it makes the PCs less stuck with mathematically weaker characters.
d) In character-gen, make skills less random. I.e. when they are rolling for the skill gained from a profession, let them pick any that match the dice roll (same row) that their character could have got, rather than making them choose the column in advance. I think this might help you because it let's the players be a bit more directed in where they end up building their character. It's a sort of middle-ground between a lifepath and a point build. You'll probably see them pick one skill and have at least 3 in it this way because players like to be good at something. But then more heroic play is all about that.
Anyway, all this will make the game "not Traveller" in some ways. But I don't think it'll be any less fun. And if your group wants something more like D&D, that's how I'd arrange it.
But, since you're asking, you don't have to play it that way at all. You can in fact add in some simple houserules to make the PCs pretty heroic. I've done it in the past and it's a different game but no less fun. Here's what I'd do - which is some combination of the stuff below. You might treat it as a list of options rather than something to grab all of them - but again, if you want very heroic play, feel free to grab the lot.
a) The luck stat from the Traveller companion is really good. The PCs end up with a pool of points to avoid any dice roll they want, but they have to spend time earning them back or waiting for the end of the scenario. I think this might help you because you can literally shoot a PC in the head (just once) - and they can spend points to make that miss. It means character death mostly happens the second time they get into a lethal event, rather than immediately.
b) Add bennies. Again, I've done this in some games and I find it to be game changing rather than game-breaking. You simply say that a particular type of action (let's say something that PC would define as heroic - or simply cool roleplaying that emphasises character and everyone likes) - gives a bennie. Which can be say a poker chip. Then in any situation where the PCs fail a dice roll, they pay the bennie and get a reroll. If they fail a second time, take the consequences. I think this might help you because it makes PCs much more competent but still able to fail.
c) Enforce a floor to stats in character-gen. When the players roll for stats, tell them that if their dice don't all add up to more than the average (42 for six stats, or 49 if you have luck as a seventh) - then they can reroll 1's. And if they still don't make it, they can reroll the lot. That automatically removes the weak end of the PC pool. I think this might help you because it makes the PCs less stuck with mathematically weaker characters.
d) In character-gen, make skills less random. I.e. when they are rolling for the skill gained from a profession, let them pick any that match the dice roll (same row) that their character could have got, rather than making them choose the column in advance. I think this might help you because it let's the players be a bit more directed in where they end up building their character. It's a sort of middle-ground between a lifepath and a point build. You'll probably see them pick one skill and have at least 3 in it this way because players like to be good at something. But then more heroic play is all about that.
Anyway, all this will make the game "not Traveller" in some ways. But I don't think it'll be any less fun. And if your group wants something more like D&D, that's how I'd arrange it.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Favourite one is accumulating karma points, and then burning them tactically, or strategically.
Elder_Basilisk
Mongoose
If they want a combat once per week to blow off steam, that could actually work within the traveller ruleset. (Make sure everyone has cloth armor or better--there's really no reason not to have TL 10 cloth at 250cr, avoid armor piercing ammo/weapons, and generally avoid autofire with gauss rifles etc).
Within those limitations, traveller actually looks _less_ deadly than earlier editions of D&D (ignoring 5e where I have less experience). There are quite a few common scenarios in typical D&D play that have the potential to kill a typical character from uninjured to straight up dead in a single action. In traveller it's pretty unlikely that that's likely to happen. Vs a traveller with all 7s and tl10 cloth armor, an attack would need to deal 29 damage in a single shot to take them from uninjured to dead and that's assuming the characters don't have cover. If the opposition isn't using something like a gauss rifle, autofire, or heavy weapons, that isn't happening. The low level 3.x greataxe crit from a raging orc barbarian or any edition mid level troll that hits with everything is a lot more likely.
Where the huge difference is felt is in the availability of short term healing. In all the D&D variants, if you get hit and not killed, the party can heal you up and if you live through the combat, you can expect to be back to full strength before the next encounter. None of that is true in Traveller, but for what you're talking about--a single fight every week, as long as the travellers have a week or two for the autodoc to fix them up in between sessions--it doesn't seem much more deadly than D&D.
Within those limitations, traveller actually looks _less_ deadly than earlier editions of D&D (ignoring 5e where I have less experience). There are quite a few common scenarios in typical D&D play that have the potential to kill a typical character from uninjured to straight up dead in a single action. In traveller it's pretty unlikely that that's likely to happen. Vs a traveller with all 7s and tl10 cloth armor, an attack would need to deal 29 damage in a single shot to take them from uninjured to dead and that's assuming the characters don't have cover. If the opposition isn't using something like a gauss rifle, autofire, or heavy weapons, that isn't happening. The low level 3.x greataxe crit from a raging orc barbarian or any edition mid level troll that hits with everything is a lot more likely.
Where the huge difference is felt is in the availability of short term healing. In all the D&D variants, if you get hit and not killed, the party can heal you up and if you live through the combat, you can expect to be back to full strength before the next encounter. None of that is true in Traveller, but for what you're talking about--a single fight every week, as long as the travellers have a week or two for the autodoc to fix them up in between sessions--it doesn't seem much more deadly than D&D.
Hermit King
Banded Mongoose
during character creation i give each player a pool of 12 dice. those can be used in two ways. if the roll is pass or fail, they can use a dice to pass the roll. if the roll is a range they can use the dice to reroll and choose between the two. stats are rolled 4 stats straight up two stats roll with a boon dice then they are allowed to put the numbers into stats as they choose. this gives the players a good start. oh i also throw out aging rules till they hit 60. think about it what 36 year old is gonna be suffering from aging. this is the future life spans should be longer.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
This is all good advice. Stashing it away for later.
Sigtrygg
Emperor Mongoose
One way to make characters tougher - ignore the MgT damage hits End first.
The CT rule was for "first blood" - the first wound is taken in its entirety to a random characteristic (Str, Dex, or End), I didn't consider that in any way realistic so got rid of it. Now you only get "first blood" if you roll a natural 12 to hit. An optional rule for MgT would be an effect number of 6+ also triggers the "first blood " rule. But I digress.
Damage is then spread out per die to the characteristics as the damaged PC player decides.
The CT rule was for "first blood" - the first wound is taken in its entirety to a random characteristic (Str, Dex, or End), I didn't consider that in any way realistic so got rid of it. Now you only get "first blood" if you roll a natural 12 to hit. An optional rule for MgT would be an effect number of 6+ also triggers the "first blood " rule. But I digress.
Damage is then spread out per die to the characteristics as the damaged PC player decides.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Tourniquet, in case you're bleeding excessively.
The "golden hour" refers to the critical first 60 minutes after a traumatic injury, during which prompt medical intervention is essential for improving survival rates and reducing long-term complications.
The "golden hour" refers to the critical first 60 minutes after a traumatic injury, during which prompt medical intervention is essential for improving survival rates and reducing long-term complications.
