Ship Shares, Supplements - New GM Q's

[EineHund]

Hello all - I bought my Traveller Book in 1982 as a wee tyke....and while I thought it was neat - we never played it in my youth. Due to a rabid love of Dredd - I ended up picking up the newest version from Mongoose and the bug has bitten me - hard!

So first up - what 'order' of supplements would be of most use to get started in this? I can't afford to just nab ALL of them and want to maximize my game value where possible. Any suggestions or guidance is super useful. I have all the Portents and free adventures I can find [and my original copy of the Book it so happens]

Second question - My RPG group is interested - and currently one of them is creating characters with me so we can get that part of this adventure down. He made a Merchant-Free Trader with the aim of being a capitalist. That almost worked...lol...he ended up pirate. =) Apologies - the actual question is: He REALLY wanted to ensure he had a ship and used 2 muster rolls on cash and the REST on the benefits hoping for the ship.

He ended up with three ship shares - and finally the ship. We've read everything we could find and are unsure of whether he owns the ship outright, etc - as only the scout ship benefit says 'on load' and we thought perhaps the shares apply to the ship owner? Or does he own THIS ship outright and also shares in another? The rules say we can't swap out shares so do the shares represent investing in ship ownership before he was able to purchase it?

Sorry...apparently more than 2 questions...lol - final one! He moved onto Pirate as I mentioned - and while he didn't get the Corsair he had the chance - what on EARTH do you do then?

Many thanks for you help and time in answering these. =)

 

[AndrewW]

Well, he and the bank owns the ship. Think of ship shares like a down payment.

Don't have to have a corsair for pirating.

Books, really just depends on what you are looking for.

Probably Book 7: Merchant Prince would be useful:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/r...books-accessories/book-7-merchant-prince.html

If you haven't already don't forget the Pirates of Drinax campaign, that could be good in this case also get a ship:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/r...mpaigns/campaign-2-the-pirates-of-drinax.html

For some more free stuff you can try:

http://www.freelancetraveller.com/

http://frontierexplorer.org/

 

[dragoner]

If you are buying the pdf's; I would look into the bundle deals on DTRPG.

 

[CosmicGamer]

He ended up with three ship shares - and finally the ship. We've read everything we could find and are unsure of whether he owns the ship outright, etc

Read the Mustering out benefits section. The "Free Trader" benefit is:

Free Trader: You receive 5 ship shares towards the use of a Free Trader
merchant ship, or 2 ship shares towards the use of any other vessel.

Similar for the corsair and lab ship.

Was this what you needed or did you need help with how to use the ship shares towards purchase of a ship?

 

[IanBruntlett]

For some more free stuff you can try:
http://www.freelancetraveller.com/
http://frontierexplorer.org/

I'm currently resting from running Traveller games. When I do run them, I make notes. Most of them are on https://sites.google.com/site/ianbruntlett/home/role-playing-games

HTH

 

[EineHund]

Andrew! That is EXACTLY what I needed regarding the ship shares/ship roll. Apparently by 'checked everything we could find' I meant "except the ACTUAL MUSTER OUT RESULTS" lol - thank you so very much for the help on that.

Regarding the rest - thank you all for the links, etc - I have them bookmarked and am happily going through.

I may have misstated what I initially meant however - I have the core book and am going to start a campaign - what supplements should I pick up and in what order to maximize value? I know the career books are good - but mostly for the player going through that career so you might pick that up after say, the spinward marches book....that kinda thing.

 

[GypsyComet]

If you, or someone you are playing with are unfamiliar with the setting then the Spinward Marches book is a good starting place, though several of the sectors around the Marches are quite capable of supporting a "typical" game as well.

The career books also add crunch for actual play in areas related to the careers themselves. Merchant Prince and Scoundrel are frequent recommendations and sound relevant to your PCs. By comparison, you may not find much of use, short term, in Mercenary, High Guard, Dilettante, Agent, or Psion, though several of those are excellent books for their areas of coverage. Scout has bits that can be useful to just about any game if you want to use them because this *is* a game about space travel.

The other setting book to look at early is Library Data.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

For my two cents in mustering out ship shares, you as the GM can change any ship share rule you want. For instance, I allow 5 ship shares for a Free Trader, OR a Far Trader... cause Free Traders suck as an "adventure class ship" IMO. Free Traders are meant to ply the main lines in a never ending series 1 hex hops. Traveller is good about creating a sense of being a "futuristic reality simulator" much more than most other RPG game mechanics. Best bang for your buck in a "real" wold setting. Sure there are lots of adventures you can have in a free trader along main trade routes, but to really explore areas off the beaten path, and to exploit opportunities off the beaten path, having a Jump 2 range is almost a requirement. A Far Trader is a much better "adventure class" of ship for a good sci-fi role playing game. That's why I made that very slight change in the ship shares for merchant characters.
As G.C. mentioned in the previous post, the Spinward Marches is a good, tried and true place of a Traveller Campaign. 30 plus years of adventures and scenarios within that sector. I am a map geek. I love maps. My players love maps. It helps them plot out their next course, and it's handy when folded out on the table in front of everyone. The original map of the Spinward Marches is very close to the new one produced by Mongoose. Not sure if you got it way back in 82... (I did) . I would suggest you get the map pack along with the supplement book. It isn't a great deal of money. Otherwise there are many other sources on line where you can find copies and print them out on 11x17, or what ever size you can get (although it will be hard to read)
Since it sounds like your players are going this route, I agree with the earlier posts... Merchant Price, and Scoundrel are excellent supplements with expanded charts on trade, smuggling, underhanded illegal commerce, etc... Plus each supplement has more variety of ships and specialized gear that fit well within each career path. If you are going to adventure within the spinward Marches, I would also add these to your short list.

Sword Worlds (a sometimes overlooked but very important "nation" within the Marches) would be fun if your crew were made up of a not just citizens of the 3I.
Alien Book 2 - Vargr (tend to the pirate side of things and range far and wide, but concentrate more along the coreward edges of the sector)
Traders and Gun Boats (if you want a wider variety of ships for your players to encounter/attack/run from)
And maybe... Alien Book 1 - Alsan (more likely to encounter near the rimward sections of the Spinward Marches) They tend to be the primary "slavers" in many Traveller settings.

I would include CSC (Central Supply Cataloger) for a much larger selection of gear, weapons, and armor, but there are so many errors and inconsistencies between it and the core book with pricing, tech level, and weight, it causes a great deal of confusion and irritation. If you get it, be prepared to make snap decisions... "ok... go with the core book on the price" things like that.

 

[SSWarlock]

I'd recommend deciding first where you and your players want to adventure. That alone will decide what materials would be most useful to you all.

Choosing the Spinward Marches opens up all sorts of possibilities while allowing you to pick a single subsector to focus on while your group gets back into the swing of things. That will trim down your purchases to just the material useful for that subsector. Then you can expand the sandbox to four subsectors and the material supporting that area.

For example, District 268 would use the High Guard and Belter supplements very useful while limiting the materials needed for alien races (no Vargr or Aslan necessary down there unless you want them). And there are a number of worlds all within Jump 1 of each other, allowing you to access to all sorts of low-Jump capable ships that are still effective. From there you can expand toward the Darrians and Sword Worlders to the "left" or the Aslan to the "south".

The Aramis subsector, on the other hand, would likely find the Vargr and "The Traveller Adventure" supplements extremely useful and may get the players the use of higher-Jump-capable ships for when your sandbox expands. The only potential challenge with that is if players want to use the higher Jump capability before you're ready for them to do so.

If I may suggest it, explore the possibility of the players getting together to donate one or two supplements to the group. This way, they start investing into Traveller as well, you don't bear the onus of paying for everything, everyone gets exposure to the supplements they themselves may want to buy, and you'd get a good idea as to what they're really interested in doing. A printed version would be better, albeit a bit more expensive, since you all could view the material without a computer (or violating copyrights) and it would be freely available to all during your gaming sessions. Just a thought.