Judge Sloane

[SnowDog]

Hi,

Yesterday evening/night I decided to delve myself to JD character generation system and what would be a better way to do that than to create a new character.

I don't have my notes with me here, so I won't be posting the stats now (maybe later if someone wants them).

I must say that I really liked the process of creating my first Judge (using Traveller system). In a way it was more restrictive than creating a normal Traveller character (obviously) but it also made the experience more structured, easy and probably fun, too.

I really liked how this mini-game played out. Judge Sloane didn't end up being an über Judge but I suppose quite playable, still. I managed to make all Survival rolls (I guess Strength 12 helped a bit). For Full Eagle Day I just barely made the roll (phew!).

One question surfaced. What would happen if you rolled a Special Technique that you already had? It happened to me and in this case I kept the roll but used it to a skill column, instead.

 

[Rex]

I'll either allow a re-roll, if the player hasn't annoyed me, OR, do what you did and simply take the same roll on another column. Primarily the later because I have noticed that certain........Gung-Ho players will REALLY gravitate towards the special abilities, just to see if they can get them all.

Another note as well I have yet to see that generation system, develop an unplayable PC. I've actually back engineered the system so I can use it with normal Traveller as well, since the players really LIKE, the special abilities, and the broader range of skills to start with. That, combined with the developmental points, really seems to help those transferring over from a template progression game like d20 let's say, into a "less is more" open ended system like the Traveller Engine.

~Rex

 

[SnowDog]

Okay, I suppose that it's up to interpretation and one can use whatever works for the group regarding the special technique question.

Could you tell me/us more about how you have ported JD character generation system to normal Traveller? Maybe in another thread? Thanks!

 

[Rex]

After the holidays when I have time I was going to post it in the Traveller section, and here really because it beefs up the 'Not a Judge" options for 2000ad play.

Working the balance kinks out of it right now and since my players are all mostly married with children this time of year puts a bit of a crimp on anything playtest wise I actually want to iron out, so Soon it should be here.

A key thing to keep in mind about the Special Abilities, is that you don't want a lot of them out there, otherwise, they cease to be Special. So I've found the best option, is to look at what is rolled.

Usually you have three columns. Physical Abilities (let's say, at work so multi tasking), Skills, Special Abilities. If they roll a repeat on Special abilities, I look at the roll itself. If it's Odd, it comes off Column 1. Even, Column 2. Number itself remains the same determining what they get.

The nice thing about the Traveller Engine is that it's easy to plug and play other options, if you understand the relationship between what you want to Do, and How you want to do it, in the confines of how the DM mechanics will work.

So after the Holidays are done with and I've got more then 5 hours of free time on my hands in a given week, I'll try and translate my notebook scratches over to something presentable and then post it here.

~Rex

 

[SnowDog]

Okay, I'll wait for what you have come up with when you have time to post it.