Ship ownership/captains situation?

[Baeron Gredlocke]

An interesting idea me and one of the players were tossing around-

The group owns the starship, shares being distributed evenly among the crew, so everyone gets an equal share.

The group may be involved in any number of questionable activities, which means whoever is listed on the paperwork as the captain takes on a huge amount of liability.

So the crew advertises for a ship captain on planets out in the backwater as nothing more than a liability sink- they go about their business, and let all the administrative and legal problems stick to the captain until he quits or the group decides to strand him on a planet, then move on to the next world and pick up a new patsy before their reputation can catch up with them.

Maybe not practical, but an amusing idea.

 

[Baeron Gredlocke]

It occurs to me that watching episodes of "The Deadliest Catch" may also provide some interesting insights into the way a working small-displacement starship may choose or define it's leadership.

 

[tneva82]

then move on to the next world and pick up a new patsy before their reputation can catch up with them.

Which will likely be spreading faster than PC characters are moving so their reputation will be stained pretty darned fast :lol:

 

[Baeron Gredlocke]

then move on to the next world and pick up a new patsy before their reputation can catch up with them.

Which will likely be spreading faster than PC characters are moving so their reputation will be stained pretty darned fast :lol:

Hey, charted is space is pretty damned big- not to mention the fact that there's a new sucker born every minute.

 

[tneva82]

Hey, charted is space is pretty damned big- not to mention the fact that there's a new sucker born every minute.

True but there's this network of couriers who move in J4 ships with specific goal of spreading news as fast as possible so they won't be spending time in planet adventuring etc. How fast your characters ship goes?-) I figure sooner or later their reputation is stained and then they are in real trouble. Requiring fake id's etc. Possibly bit of surgery etc

 

[Baeron Gredlocke]

Hey, charted is space is pretty damned big- not to mention the fact that there's a new sucker born every minute.

True but there's this network of couriers who move in J4 ships with specific goal of spreading news as fast as possible so they won't be spending time in planet adventuring etc. How fast your characters ship goes?-) I figure sooner or later their reputation is stained and then they are in real trouble. Requiring fake id's etc. Possibly bit of surgery etc

Of course! That's just when the campaign starts getting good!

 

[Woas]

Thanks for the all the replies about captain/crew/ownership. It is all nice insight for experience that I'll make sure to keep in mind when talking the situation over with my game group.


In the couple days since I've started this thread I had some time to come up with another situation that I'd like to ask for assistance on. Adventures... or Scenarios.. or whatever they are called in Traveller. I'm wondering if there is any method or style when it comes to putting them together. Its sort of common among other RPGs to have some sort of guideline or 'rules of thumb' when it comes to pre-planned scenarios. D&D with its 'Delve Format' of late and CRs/ELs of past... Savage Worlds suggests a 'Plot Point' method...

I've read the adventures to be found in the Signs & Portents an are great forms of inspiration. But what works for you guys? Do you guys have a 'to do' list when it comes to putting adventure ideas down on paper?

In my mind based on the way Traveller appears to play -that is, without XP and 'character advancement' you don't necessarily have to have the characters face off against lowly goblins in the beginning and then work their way up to fighting dragons and balrogs- an adventure just needs to include what seems natural to whatever the situation is. Or is that a dangerous assumption? There must be a point where an adventure might just be 'too much' and not worth the characters attempting but may have been appropriate with a proper template or method.

And lastly just as an aside, how do you guys all keep Contacts/Rivals/NPC/Patron organized? I'd like to use some sort of flow-chart program personally. It seems a program like that would be real helpful to keep track of who NPC X was working for, and who else Company X has on hand to deal with that problem generated after the players helped NPC Z. Does anyone know where a free flow chart program could be gotten or other suggestions? I thought maybe on a wiki but it would be nice to be able to see as icons an as a whole like a flow chart instead of blind links to another wiki page.

Thanks a lot for the help!

 

[tneva82]

In my mind based on the way Traveller appears to play -that is, without XP and 'character advancement' you don't necessarily have to have the characters face off against lowly goblins in the beginning and then work their way up to fighting dragons and balrogs

Yes and no. True there's no need to fight lowly foes at beginning but there's still sort of a limitation as to what they can do in beginning(though lot higher) often and that comes from lack of status/lack of equipment. For example their ship is unlikely to be particulary good so they won't be able to influence lot and they are going to be relatively unknown people(unless of course your group happens to have ex-generals and whatnot ) so they might not get into situations "to save the world" so to speak. Planet officials aren't probably going to be particulary intererested if bunch of never-heard-of-thems contact them

 

[Shiloh]

Adventures... or Scenarios.. or whatever they are called in Traveller. I'm wondering if there is any method or style when it comes to putting them together. Its sort of common among other RPGs to have some sort of guideline or 'rules of thumb' when it comes to pre-planned scenarios. D&D with its 'Delve Format' of late and CRs/ELs of past... Savage Worlds suggests a 'Plot Point' method...

The standard presentation of an adventure in Traveller has historically been a "Patron" which describes a person and their situation, then offers a selection of "wrinkles" of which you can sometimes use more than one.

But what works for you guys? Do you guys have a 'to do' list when it comes to putting adventure ideas down on paper?

In pretty much any game, I find that having a very firm grasp of what the over- and underlying situations are, and the motivations and capacity of the prime movers allows me to respond appropriately to whatever actions the players take and provide whatever information (or misinformation) the players can dig up.

A list of names for "random"ly encountered individuals also goes a long way towards maintaining the feel of a complete milieu.

...Traveller...you don't necessarily have to have the characters face off against lowly goblins in the beginning and then work their way up to fighting dragons and balrogs- an adventure just needs to include what seems natural to whatever the situation is. Or is that a dangerous assumption? There must be a point where an adventure might just be 'too much' and not worth the characters attempting but may have been appropriate with a proper template or method.

I don't think a "method" or "template" can mitigate the threat of a situation. It is *certainly* worth being very familiar with your PCs' capabilities so that you can tailor a variety of challenges to be testing but not necessarily frustrating/lethal: for example, if you know your characters don't have much in the way of wilderness skills, having them stage a hostage rescue in the jungle without mechanised or grav insertion and extraction is going to result in them suffering more from the environmental threats than the kidnappers' trivial combat ability. Depends what style of game you want to run.

I'd like to use some sort of flow-chart program personally.

I use a connections diagram, with entities scattered across the page and arrows indicating their connections.

I thought maybe on a wiki but it would be nice to be able to see as icons an as a whole like a flow chart instead of blind links to another wiki page.

I believe there are tools to represent a wiki as a node diagram... I remember being boggled when I saw it demonstrated.

 

[rust]

But what works for you guys? Do you guys have a 'to do' list when it comes to putting adventure ideas down on paper?

My campaign is basically a "sandbox". I provide the players with a detailed
setting, from the sector map down to the locations and NPCs, and with a
general task, in this campaign to establish a viable colony on a barren pla-
net, and I prepare a number of adventure outlines based on events or lo-
cations the PCs might want to investigate or otherwise deal with.

For example, the first adventure of this campaign will be the exploration
and survey of the planet, using the rules from the World Tamer's Hand-
book.
All I prepare for this adventure are the system and planet data, a couple
of maps, and a list of the equipment available to the characters, plus so-
me notes on possible dangers and events during the mission.
From there on, it is up to the players to decide what to do, and how to do
it, and I only introduce the environment and its reactions to the charac-
ter's activities.

 

[Pyromancer]

Adventures... or Scenarios.. or whatever they are called in Traveller. I'm wondering if there is any method or style when it comes to putting them together. Its sort of common among other RPGs to have some sort of guideline or 'rules of thumb' when it comes to pre-planned scenarios. D&D with its 'Delve Format' of late and CRs/ELs of past... Savage Worlds suggests a 'Plot Point' method...

I've read the adventures to be found in the Signs & Portents an are great forms of inspiration. But what works for you guys? Do you guys have a 'to do' list when it comes to putting adventure ideas down on paper?

As stated in "The Traveller Adventure", a good adventure needs five elements:
-Basics
-Gimmicks
-The Pull
-The Push
-The Enigma

Basics is the general background, world description etc., gimmicks are cool toys the characters can acquire, the pull is a kind of motivation for the characters, the push is something external that drives the story, and the enigma is something mysterious that can be resolved.

That works for me.