Some basic questions

[GalagaGalaxian]

Hi all, recently caught the Traveller bug again and have been spending the last week or so rolling planets, subsectors, characters, etc etc. Even considering running Pirates of Drinax for/with some friends!

Anyways I got a few simple questions about character creation.

When you receive ship shares of a specific class of ship, say a Free Trader, does it apply only to that exact specific model in the book? In this example it'd be good for 5 shares of a Type-A Free Trader, 2 shares of anything else. Does that include a Far Trader?

I mean I designed a 100 Ton "Light" Free Trader just as an exercise in building a ship, would I only get 2 shares using a Free Trader Share benefit on it? Even though its worth less than a stock Type-A? There is also the fact that even a basic ship share can vary wildly in value depending on what you use it on.

Shares are confusing. I'd be tempted to just say you get X amount of Credits off a ship, but that could make something like a Scout too easy to get.


My next question is far simpler, when it says

f the character has any money after rolling on the Cash table then he may purchase personal equipment worth up to 2,000 credits immediately. More expensive items can be bought in play but the characters will have to seek them out.

Does that mean you can buy a maximum of 2,000 credits worth of stuff? Or can you buy as much stuff as you want, as long as each item doesn't cost more than 2,000 credits? If the latter, does upgrades and add-ons count as part of that 2,000 or it's own purchase? For example if I wanted to buy a few things and then also a 2,000 Credit suit of armor/clothing/whatever and then make it Smartweave, could I do that?


Finally, when you buy an old ship it comes with all sorts of problems. Is there any guidelines for fixing these? CAN they be fixed? I mean if you roll up a used Trader with -1 DM to sensor checks, -1 Structure, and +50% maintenancecosts, is there any way to reverse these? Perhaps paying for the systems/structure to be repaired or having the ship given a thorough overhaul (above and beyond the usual yearly one).

I'm guessing much of this is a "GM's judgement" thin, but thanks in advance for answering/commenting on these annoying questions.

 

[Old timer]

Ok, i will try to answer some of these questions, though this is how i tend to do things so is in no way the 'right' way to do things.
For ship shares i allow the shares to be towards the generic class of ship, so traders, corsairs, scouts, not a specific ship class, so in the example you gave it would be 5 shares to a trader, or 2 shares to another type of ship.
The spend 2000 credits rule i just ignore, i let my player spend what they like on equipment, i just usually cap the start tech level of the brought gear to 12, and do not allow the purchase of the higher end weapons and armour (but they can get them in game) so no one starts with PGMP and battle dress.
I allow the damage of old ships to be repaired if the PCs have the funds, using the repair rules in the core book, again it is done once the game starts, and is another good reason for them to get out there and adventure, and earn credits to fix their ships 'quirks. The overhaul method you mentioned sounds a good way to do this.

 

[locarno24]

When you receive ship shares of a specific class of ship, say a Free Trader, does it apply only to that exact specific model in the book? In this example it'd be good for 5 shares of a Type-A Free Trader, 2 shares of anything else. Does that include a Far Trader?

I mean I designed a 100 Ton "Light" Free Trader just as an exercise in building a ship, would I only get 2 shares using a Free Trader Share benefit on it? Even though its worth less than a stock Type-A? There is also the fact that even a basic ship share can vary wildly in value depending on what you use it on.

Yes, it's that specific model (normally). Smaller, cheaper ships get the reduced amount of shares. The reason is that you generally got said benefit from something like a merchant career, which means that the successful free trader captain/corp official you were working for is prepared to sell a ship on to you at a knock-down price; they'll be running free traders but not variants like shadow traders or cheap scout conversions.

Shares are confusing. I'd be tempted to just say you get X amount of Credits off a ship, but that could make something like a Scout too easy to get.

It's the name that's confusing more than anything. Remember it's not a 'share' - there's no bit of paper, no deed of ownership, voucher, etc. A ship share represents owed favours, knowing someone well enough to buy the ship off them at less than market price, the know-how to do some of the recommissioning of a half-derelict yourself, things like that.

The percentage off is there to allow bigger ships to be affordable. Hell, scout ships can be acquired free with the right career!

Does that mean you can buy a maximum of 2,000 credits worth of stuff? Or can you buy as much stuff as you want, as long as each item doesn't cost more than 2,000 credits? If the latter, does upgrades and add-ons count as part of that 2,000 or it's own purchase? For example if I wanted to buy a few things and then also a 2,000 Credit suit of armor/clothing/whatever and then make it Smartweave, could I do that?

To each their own. As noted, it's mostly there to stop someone turning up with a PGMP.

Finally, when you buy an old ship it comes with all sorts of problems. Is there any guidelines for fixing these? CAN they be fixed? I mean if you roll up a used Trader with -1 DM to sensor checks, -1 Structure, and +50% maintenancecosts, is there any way to reverse these? Perhaps paying for the systems/structure to be repaired or having the ship given a thorough overhaul (above and beyond the usual yearly one).

Yes, but as noted, it's GM's judgement. Certainly pulling and replacing the sensor fit should remove the sensor penalty. Structure and (particularly) maintenance are harder to get rid of as this is the hull starting to give after years in service. Fixing the former would probably require fitting bracings (reinforced structure from High Guard) which have a non-zero space requirement.

I suppose a sufficiently thorough strip and replace of the systems should bring maintenance costs into line but it's up to you to decide what that costs. At the very least I'd suggest that involves pulling the main computer.

 

[Hopeless]

Hi all, recently caught the Traveller bug again and have been spending the last week or so rolling planets, subsectors, characters, etc etc. Even considering running Pirates of Drinax for/with some friends!

Anyways I got a few simple questions about character creation.

When you receive ship shares of a specific class of ship, say a Free Trader, does it apply only to that exact specific model in the book? In this example it'd be good for 5 shares of a Type-A Free Trader, 2 shares of anything else. Does that include a Far Trader?

I mean I designed a 100 Ton "Light" Free Trader just as an exercise in building a ship, would I only get 2 shares using a Free Trader Share benefit on it? Even though its worth less than a stock Type-A? There is also the fact that even a basic ship share can vary wildly in value depending on what you use it on.

Shares are confusing. I'd be tempted to just say you get X amount of Credits off a ship, but that could make something like a Scout too easy to get.

Go with what feels best, me I'd use those shares to indicate how much each of the crew has invested in the ship so they have a reason to stick around and why the captain can't just ignore them and turn pirate without getting their support!

f the character has any money after rolling on the Cash table then he may purchase personal equipment worth up to 2,000 credits immediately. More expensive items can be bought in play but the characters will have to seek them out.

Does that mean you can buy a maximum of 2,000 credits worth of stuff? Or can you buy as much stuff as you want, as long as each item doesn't cost more than 2,000 credits? If the latter, does upgrades and add-ons count as part of that 2,000 or it's own purchase? For example if I wanted to buy a few things and then also a 2,000 Credit suit of armor/clothing/whatever and then make it Smartweave, could I do that?[/quote]

As previously noted ignore this but make them understand you have to agree any unusual requests since in my game I repeatedly mentioned battle dress was strictly military only but combat armour was available to buy and then freely allowed access to vacc suits to those that hadn't thought about it since they were aboard a spaceship and these would be basic equipment anyway.
Weapons should be thoroughly scrutinised and given an explanation for.

Sometimes you can arrange to get these repaired as part of your adventure but that doesn't stop you replacing that problem with another such as homing beacons placed aboard or discovering later that the part they used belonged to another ship that was thought lost and now that someone has noticed your ship they're now thinking you're actually the same ship under a different registration...

In the Star Wars game I was involved in the PCs ship the Space Rat has been repaired numerious times even replaced at least twice and on the last occasion Darth Vader left it imbeded inside the superstructure of the second Death Star after we escaped him by stealing his personal Lambda Shuttle... the only Jedi we had was my padawan who called upon the "Villa" to escape an Imperial cell as soon as we knew he was coming... one of the things I hate about that setting is being forced to play Jedi...

Sorry getting off topic, these are only problems if you want them to be problems for your players let them worry about upgrading their ship you only need to worry about the game you want to run and of course understanding what type of game your players' are interested in...

 

[Renny]

Hi GalagaGalaxian

Hope you don't mind but I just wanted to let you know i've pm'ed you. Sorry to disrupt the thread.