Phase-Proton and Dual Character Sheets

[Tom Kalbfus]

There was a novel a while back called Split Infinity which was authored by Piers Anthony. This World is modeled after a world in that novel called Phase/Proton, to simulate this world requires two game systems, one of which is Mongoose Traveller, the other will use Dungeons& Dragons 3rd Edition. The following is the beginings of a dual system character sheet:

Red is D&D stats and black is Mongoose Traveller

I got this idea after looking at the character sheet in the back of the Core Rules e-book, it uses a bar chart to represent the 6 characteristics of Traveller, so I got the idea of using bar charts in a 2 RPG character sheet.

A word about Proton, the Traveller RPG World
Proton 0123 A67683(8/1)-F
Proton has a class A Starport
Size 6 9,600 km world with 7-tainted atmosphere,
and 6-60% hydrographics,
a population of 8-hundreds of millions
a self-perpetuating oligarchy for a government
Law level is 8 for "offworlders" and 1 for "citizens",
and the tech level is 15

Proton has a dual caste system, they consist of Off-worlders, who are not necessarily born offworld, and Citizens who are effectively the nobles of this planet. The main export which drives the economy of this planet is Protonite, which is a form of metastable hydrogen locked in a mineral found on this planet. Protonite is stable until it reaches a temperature of 4000 k, at which point it reverts to monoatomic hydrogen which then quickly converts to its molecular form, and if it does this in the presence of oxygen, it then combusts into water vapor releasing a lot of energy in the process. Protonite is a useful form of energy in protonite reactors, which convert protonite into hydrogen, and in starships the hydrogen can then be fed into a starship's jump drive to initiate a jump. So protonite is both a convenient form of both energy and hydrogen, this is mined on the planet Proton and exported for a lot of wealth, creating an OPEC cartel like atmosphere. the planet is ruled by an oligarchy of citizens who are the minority of the planet's population, about less than 0.1%, the rest are non-citizens called "Serfs". The serfs have few rights, the usual punishment for a disobedient Serf is banishment from the planet. The "serfs" are here for employment, the wages are fairly high, the biggest threat to a "serf" is that he will lose his employment and be expelled from the planet.

The planet Proton has a dual nature, there is another aspect of this planet called Phase, which is not really a planet but a self contained pocket universe where the laws of physics are somewhat different, in essence, technology relying on explosive release of chemical energy, electronics, or nuclear reactions does not operate, in its place is magic. (In which I'll use the D&D magic system for this example). Each citizen and long time resident of Proton has a counterpart living on Phase, it appears that each molecule of protonite is quantumly entangled with its phasite counterpart, the protonite-phase entanglement creates the pocket universe called Phase. An insubstantial curtain winds its way across the landscape of Proton and Phase, those who's counterparts have been killed or otherwise have died, can perceive this curtain and cross through this curtain into the alternate world, otherwise its invisible and cannot be used to travel to the alternate world.

On Phase no technology greater than 2 operates, gunpower, gasoline explosives burn slowly so as not to create an explosion or operate an internal combustion engine, steam engines do not operate, metals don't conduct electricity making electronics impossible. radioactive elements become nonradioactive and non fissionable, as if in the presence of a nuclear dampener and so forth. A sun appears in the sky, a pattern of stars appears as it would have appeared over Proton if its atmosphere wasn't polluted with smog and haze. The sheet does the coversion between D&D 3rd edition and Mongoose Traveller, it is only partly finished at this point. I will present more finished versions later.

 

[alex_greene]

You could have used Mongoose Legend for the magic system, and kept it in house.

 

[F33D]

I don't know if you need to go full D&D for Phase. Are the major wizards there anything like D&D wizards? It has been a LONG time since I read those books.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

You could have used Mongoose Legend for the magic system, and kept it in house.

I could have used Legend, I could also have Used D&D 5th edition except I don't have it, I do have 3rd Edition D&D books so that is what I used. I don't know anything about Legend, does it have 6 ability scores like Traveller? D&D 3rd edition does, and better yet the monsters in the 3rd edition Monster Manual also have these six ability scores, with 2nd and 1st editions you have to deduce what they are from their combat statistics, 5th edition has gone back to the old style of detailing only characters and leaving monsters as combat stats only, so I find 3rd edition useful. If you wish to create a dual Traveller/Legends character sheet and post it here, go ahead!

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I don't know if you need to go full D&D for Phase. Are the major wizards there anything like D&D wizards? It has been a LONG time since I read those books.

You have to remember Piers Anthony created that setting for his novel, not a role playing game. the main character was the Blue Adept, he cast spells by making up rhymes or singing for the desired effect, in game terms this acts like a wish spell except the wish has to rhyme as in poetry. When your writing a novel the character do whatever you want them to do as a writer, you don't have to worry about game balance, in an RPG game you do. Other Adepts had their own styles of magic, some would carve works of art and they would turn into spells, others would paint a picture on a canvas and the effects would leap out of the canvas and so on. So they style of magic is not systematic or codified. I figure you can just throw in D&D magic or Legends magic if you like. You can use Traveller Psionics, but that is rather limited as a magic system without creating a lot of new Psionic talents, but rather I wanted a split world, where on one side of the curtain magic worked and high technology didn't and on the other side where high technology worked and magic didn't. Also D&D is a more heroic type of fantasy with hit points character classes and levels and Traveller doesn't have these things. I'd modify the D&D system in this fashion, at first level there are no hit points, damage is taken out of ability scores as in Traveller, at higher levels damage is taken out of hit points first, and when those are exhausted they are taken out of ability scores. Ability damage is temporary in this case and they heal back to their original values just like hit points. A cure light wounds spell would heal ability damage as easily as hit points for example. On this world, you can take damage on the Traveler side then jump through the curtain if you are near one, cast a magic spell to heal the damage then jump back through the curtain and continue the fight. Of course the bad guys might be able to follow you through the curtains as well and use their own magic abilities if they have those.

 

[F33D]

I don't know if you need to go full D&D for Phase. Are the major wizards there anything like D&D wizards? It has been a LONG time since I read those books.

You have to remember Piers Anthony created that setting for his novel, not a role playing game. the main character was the Blue Adept, he cast spells by making up rhymes or singing for the desired effect, in game terms this acts like a wish spell except the wish has to rhyme as in poetry. When your writing a novel the character do whatever you want them to do as a writer, you don't have to worry about game balance, in an RPG game you do. Other Adepts had their own styles of magic, some would carve works of art and they would turn into spells, others would paint a picture on a canvas and the effects would leap out of the canvas and so on. So they style of magic is not systematic or codified. I figure you can just throw in D&D magic or Legends magic if you like. You can use Traveller Psionics, but that is rather limited as a magic system without creating a lot of new Psionic talents, but rather I wanted a split world, where on one side of the curtain magic worked and high technology didn't and on the other side where high technology worked and magic didn't. Also D&D is a more heroic type of fantasy with hit points character classes and levels and Traveller doesn't have these things. I'd modify the D&D system in this fashion, at first level there are no hit points, damage is taken out of ability scores as in Traveller, at higher levels damage is taken out of hit points first, and when those are exhausted they are taken out of ability scores. Ability damage is temporary in this case and they heal back to their original values just like hit points. A cure light wounds spell would heal ability damage as easily as hit points for example. On this world, you can take damage on the Traveler side then jump through the curtain if you are near one, cast a magic spell to heal the damage then jump back through the curtain and continue the fight. Of course the bad guys might be able to follow you through the curtains as well and use their own magic abilities if they have those.

I understand now. Sounds like a fun game.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

This is my latest character sheet.
I've included both Traveller and D&D skills, though this list is not complete. Use the D&D or Traveller Skills in either setting, just remember the D&D skills don't include ability score adjustments, so remember to add those when making a skill check. Some Traveller and D&D skills overlap, either one can be used in either setting, in Traveller roll 2d6 and add the Traveller skill bonus on top plus relevant characteristic adjustment, in a D&D setting roll a d20 and D&D skill bonus on bottom and add the relevant Ability score adjustment there.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Here is the latest with improvements in the slide scales

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

This is my latest, this time it has two full attack entries and skill bar graphs scaled to both traveller and D&D 3rd edition.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

This is my final dual character sheet, it is 4 legal sized pages long

My next step is I'm going to roll up a D&D character and see how well the character sheet translates it to Mongoose Traveller. You be the Judge.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Here is a standard Orc as taken from the D&D Monster Manual:

My Version of Phase/Proton is going to be Aurora/Aureous, the planet Aureous is the one that exists in the Traveller Universe and Aurora is the pocket fantasy Universe. I will draw a map showing the curtains a little later. For now, I have this example of an Orc character as displayed on the dual character sheet. If the Orc ventures across the curtain, the above stats is what this creature is likely to have as translated to MGTraveller Stats.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

This is a map of Aurellius, the Traveller end of my Phase-Proton like World The Map includes UWP and System data.

The red line on the map is the curtain through which one may pass through to the magical world of Aurora.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

And here is the World Aurora:

Notice this World's atmosphere is not tainted but standard, the Geographic features are identical to Aurellius, there is no starport, there is a city in that location but no starport. The hex scale is in miles as the inhabitants of this world uses archaic measurements instead of the metric system (miles, feet, pounds, gallons etc.)

 

[domingojs23]

Dear Tom,

Wow ! I'm very inspired by this fusion of MGT and D&D. I've been putting together a D&D 5e sci-fi campaign framework, but had always wanted to integrate elements of Traveller, either CT or MGT. You've provided a great approach for harmonizing the two systems. I particularly appreciate the dual-stats character sheet, especially the joint listing of skills. I will be watching developments in this thread with great interest.

Many thanks !!!

Gary

 

[domingojs23]

Dear Tom,

Wow ! I'm very inspired by this fusion of MGT and D&D. I've been putting together a D&D 5e sci-fi campaign framework, but had always wanted to integrate elements of Traveller, either CT or MGT. You've provided a great approach for harmonizing the two systems. I particularly appreciate the dual-stats character sheet, especially the joint listing of skills. I will be watching developments in this thread with great interest.

Many thanks !!!

Gary