Mishaps during chargen - what the ...?

[nats]

I cannot figure out the mishaps table in the chargen at all.

As far as I can tell there are only two ways to use the mishaps table. Either you fail a survival throw or you get sent there by the first item on the events table - right?

OK so the former - during the survival throw it says go to the mishaps table if you fail but whatever happens the mishap is enough to get kicked out of the career. OK I think, fair enough, some of the mishaps mention having to throw to see if you get kicked out or not but you obviously ignore those ones, take note of the mishap event and then leave the career regardless of what the mishap actually says - a bit daft to me but it sort of makes sense.

For the latter of the two ie the event table, the first item says go to mishaps but you are not kicked out of the career ! So again according to this , whatever the mishap says, you ignore it and you can carry on with the career regardless? So if the mishap says roll to see if you are kicked out you ignore it?

So either way you get sent to the mishaps table you ignore the actual rolls on the mishap table to get potentially kicked out - if you are sent there by failing a survival throw you are out of the career either way, and if you get sent there by an event you are not out of the career either way. So whats the point in having these 'roll for expulsion' items on the mishap tables at all if there are completely irrelevant? Am I missing something here?

 

[barnest2]

IMO if you are lucky, fail a survival roll, and then get a mishap that allows you to continue, well then, something is certainly smiling upon you...

And the other way round, events wont normally kick you out, but if the roll is too survive in the career and you fail it... tough luck...

Just my opinion though...

 

[nats]

IMO if you are lucky, fail a survival roll, and then get a mishap that allows you to continue, well then, something is certainly smiling upon you...

And the other way round, events wont normally kick you out, but if the roll is too survive in the career and you fail it... tough luck...

Just my opinion though...

Well that would certainly be the most sensible approach but thats not what the book says.

Now that I have my core rule book to hand I can clarify the exact words - under Survival pg 8 it says 'if you fail this roll, roll on the mishap table, this mishap is always enough to force you to leave the service'. And the first event says 'roll on the mishap table, but you are not ejected from this career'. So that to me seems either way to mean ignore anything on the mishap table that states anything otherwise about being ejected from the service or not.

And of the mishaps for the scholar career, for example, mishaps 2 and 4 force you to leave the career, and mishaps 3, 5 and 6 allow you to stay on (without any saving rolls required). But there are others (in Agent, Merc and Scouts etc I think) that ask you make rolls to save your job.

Strange completely contradictory wording and not clear at all as to the intent. It loses me completely.

 

[DFW]

Nats, you found major point for errata.

I'm still waiting for errata so that a space ship can land on an airless world without going splat and, thereafter, take off without expensive launch facilities...

 

[Mytholder]

Basically:
If you're sent to the mishap table, you're leaving the career UNLESS
1) You were sent there by a double-1 on the Event table
or
2) the particular mishap you roll is one that either doesn't eject you, or gives you a choice or a chance to avoid being ejected.

 

[AKAmra]

IMO if you are lucky, fail a survival roll, and then get a mishap that allows you to continue, well then, something is certainly smiling upon you...

And the other way round, events wont normally kick you out, but if the roll is too survive in the career and you fail it... tough luck...

Just my opinion though...

I agree with this too. Just add, "unless the rolled mishap indicates otherwise" at the end of listed rules 1 and 2.

 

[nats]

IMO if you are lucky, fail a survival roll, and then get a mishap that allows you to continue, well then, something is certainly smiling upon you...

And the other way round, events wont normally kick you out, but if the roll is too survive in the career and you fail it... tough luck...

Just my opinion though...

I agree with this too. Just add, "unless the rolled mishap indicates otherwise" at the end of listed rules 1 and 2.

Yes I agree with that as well. If you remove the line in survival that states 'this mishap will always force you to leave a career', and the line in the bottom event saying 'but you are not ejected from the career', it all makes sense - you are removed from the career only if the mishap dictates it. A lost survival roll doesnt necessarily remove you automatically. Similarly a lousy roll on the events can remove you from a career if the mishap dictates it.

Thats makes sense to me and is how I think I will play it from now on. Otherwise I have found it is very easy to get chucked out of a career due to losing a survival role seval times in a career as the survival roles are generally quite high compared to classic traveller. In fact most are higher than the classic traveller scouts in which survival to get a long career was always very difficult.

 

[CosmicGamer]

I have always seen this the same way. Often there is a general rule and then exceptions to the rule.

For a more obvious example of this look at page 9 on advancement:

If your result is equal to or less than the number of terms you have spent in the career, then you can not continue in this career after this term.

Then the very next paragraph says

If you roll a natural 12 then you must continue in this career.

Stress on must is from the book, not me.

 

[Bense]

The way we've used it is:

1) If you fail the survival roll then you're out of your current career regardless of the specific results of the mishap table.
2) If you get sent to the mishap table by an event then the specific mishap rolled determines whether or not you can continue in the career.

 

[DFW]

The way we've used it is:

1) If you fail the survival roll then you're out of your current career regardless of the specific results of the mishap table.
2) If you get sent to the mishap table by an event then the specific mishap rolled determines whether or not you can continue in the career.

Thanks. Sounds like the best solution.

 

[nats]

The way we've used it is:

1) If you fail the survival roll then you're out of your current career regardless of the specific results of the mishap table.
2) If you get sent to the mishap table by an event then the specific mishap rolled determines whether or not you can continue in the career.

Thanks. Sounds like the best solution.

Well this is how I was playing until I noticed all these mishaps in the expanded chargen books that require you to roll to see if you are expulsed and it got me wondering what was going on. I guess that the mishaps are only meant to be relevant if you go from the events item. But the fact remains that most people will use the mishaps table from the survival throw so its a bit daft that most of the mishap items are generally ignored in that case. Not a great design..

 

[Bense]

You could always just implement the "iron man" rules and terminate any character that fails a survival roll if you prefer.

 

[nats]

Interestingly enough there is one event 11 item that I have found that doesnt state that you 'are not ejected from the career' - and that one is the Survey character in Scouts pg 24. For that character only (most of the other scout characters' event 11 items are the same as the rest of the books) it only says 'Disaster! Roll on the mishaps table'.

Interestingly enough again the Scout Contact character mishap 11 reads 'Disaster Roll on the mishap table, but remain in this career' so that one even more firmly seems to tell you to ignore the mishap text telling you to get chucked out.

So obviously the books are just all over the place on this issue.

The way I will play it is that if you go to the Mishaps via the Event table item 11 you take note of the mishap text on whether you are chucked out or not. But if you go the mishap table through a failed survival roll you get chucked out whatever. That seems to make the most sense. I have crossed out all the 'but you are not ejected from this career' bits.

Amazing how this has been carried through to all the Traveller chargen books without anyone picking it up before!!