(Traveller) BOUNTY HUNTER is available right now!

[Micky]

well... got a question. On REP.

Not sure if I missed something or this was intended or is one for the errata thread. Or simply one for the DYO home alterations, play 'em as you want 'em played section.

On page 9 we have the Reputation Change Chart

right below that we have a DR mod based on your current REP.
next page is a situational DR mod

so let me see if this was right.. and was intended.

The Travellers overcome extremely long odds and opposition to bring in a Critical Priority mark.. gets +3 mod . .woo hoo. Makes sense but... the whole reason this Bounty Hunter was assigned a Critical Priority mark was his REP was 12 which... is this right... puts a -3 DR mod to the chart

so nearly 1 in 5 chances of LOSING Rep?? conversely because of that negative DR. the same only 1/5 chance of gaining REP. I can see fractional chance (non automatic) to gain.. but an equal chance in the possibility to lose REP.

To me at least something does not look right with that unless I'm letting the 'common sense' bugaboo get the better of me. Was it intended to have to cook up a story why the character pulled the mission off.. yet comes out of with his reputation tarnished. Seem to me to have been better to have two Change Charts.. one for succeeding (positive mods on the Situational chart).. one with a chance of REP drop if you failed (a negative mod on the Situational chart)

any thoughts??

 

[agentwigggles]

You arent required to roll for Rep as maximally as possible. You roll it when an even during an adventure would cause a change to their rep. In the circumstances above, without having ran a bounty hunter adventure, seems like, its what expected

 

[Micky]

hmm... quite honestly I suspected it was errata. Perhaps supposed to have been a (+) rather than a a (-) modifier. A positive DRM based on a high REP would have much made sense.. FAR more than a larger negative one for high REP. Sort of also fits the text

take a long time to build REP (which it would without the obvious REP mod and being assigned small jobs (small mods) as befitteting the low REP. and also takes a lot to destroy

take major crock up... a -3 DRM on the Rep Mod table.. balance that vs the high positive mod.. you'd really have to low roll to lose REP and get a REP -1 result on that table.

 

[agentwigggles]

How can it be errata if its in first publication?
And you cant have Rep be a DM+ because that would cause it to snowball. Right now, it platues then requires other narrative circumstances to improve it.

 

[Talon Greyfeather]

The negative modifier for high rep makes sense to me. It's hard to get it to 12 but harder to keep it there or increase it. It's gotta be bigger and better not just meet the expectation.

The rep mechanic is quite interesting. Thinking about a modification to work it into a Vargr campaign would be quite interesting.

Overall, love the book!

 

[metlk]

So it's been my experience when comparing 1e books to 2e, there's a lot of stuff missing regarding tables to set up missions, payouts, and other "hands-off" tools. The 1e career books are packed with tools. I play solo a lot and find that type of information extremely useful. Does this book have generators and the like to help create the missions (similar to some of the old 1e career books) or is it entirely left to the imagination of the ref to create (like the new 2e Mercenary system)? I just recently bought the Cepheus Engine bounty hunter pdf, and while it's okay as far as how the system works, I'm going to have to sit down and create my own generators which I had hoped to avoid. I want to eventually buy this, but what's in it impacts whether I buy it to play soon, or some time down the road I just grab the printed book on sale somewhere to add it to the collection. I'm a little trigger-shy after Mercenary.

 

[Micky]

How can it be errata if its in first publication?
And you cant have Rep be a DM+ because that would cause it to snowball. Right now, it platues then requires other narrative circumstances to improve it.

how can it?? Very easy. Come on man, we are not children here. No one expects a completely error free book. I've published things, that after many first proofs by myself, then proofing by outside fresh eyes.. and still... I'll read later and still find something that got missed. Everyone, but NO ONE more than an author, wants to see something first published with no errors but truth is they still can happen. Done a great deal of proofing myself with RPGs and table top war games. It isn't an easy job to do well. No one is perfect. As the old saying goes No one expects perfection... when you plunk money on something... you just expect the attempt TO BE perfect and to have tried to be perfect.

As far as snowballing...

The negative modifier for high rep makes sense to me. It's hard to get it to 12 but harder to keep it there or increase it. It's gotta be bigger and better not just meet the expectation.

The rep mechanic is quite interesting. Thinking about a modification to work it into a Vargr campaign would be quite interesting.

Overall, love the book!

agreed it is hard to get a high rep (do note it is capped at 15) as the text said it should and it is via the chart minus large positive DRM... but.. the text specifically says that it is also hard to lose rep once you attained a high REP. An accumulation of many years of successful missions. What started this all off was seeing that one can successfully pull off a difficult (+3) mission and yet have as great a chance to lose REP than gain it. Why? It does make no sense to me and is completely counter-intuitive. A Bounty Hunters REP measures one thing when it comes to those that contract them.. do they get the job done.? Are they reliable? If you successfully complete a mission and roll on the table for increasing your REP.. it should be a chance to increase.. losing REP (with an equal chance of gaining it) made zero sense to me on first read.. or the ten others since starting the question ball rolling.

If not errata.. will just toss this + DRM into the DYO bin and happily move on in my Bounty Hunter career. I love the mechanic and as I've said before.. I LOVE THIS BOOK. Very very well done. I had very high expectations for it... really really was looking forward to it.... and it delivered.

 

[Vormaerin]

I think it is a terminology dispute. Errata's primarily used these days to mean a list of corrected errors. Although I think the original meaning also included uncorrected print errors, that isn't how the word is actually used.

Agentwiggles isn't disputing that there can be errors in the text. He was asking how there could be a list of corrected errors when this is the first published version.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Remember this is a feedback forum for discussing typos and possible errata.

Even if you post in this thread also post it in the feedback thread.

Bounty Hunter: Errata

Just a start: p. 153 Rango Dooley. The text and stats (except species) has him as a Lurent ("a 4-metre-tall, 500 kilogram Lurent"), but the picture - and species tag is Human.

forum.mongoosepublishing.com

 

[Micky]

ahhh.. makes sense. That is what I meant.. or thought it might be... a print error. Someone perhaps hitting the wrong symbol when inputting it as ... as written it really does not make sense to me to pull off a successful mission.. a high REP critcal mission and still not just have a chance to lose REP.. but also with a 12 REP (-3) Hunter for example... have the same percentile chance to lose it as to gain it..

 

[Micky]

Remember this is a feedback forum for discussing typos and possible errata.

Even if you post in this thread also post it in the feedback thread.

Bounty Hunter: Errata

Just a start: p. 153 Rango Dooley. The text and stats (except species) has him as a Lurent ("a 4-metre-tall, 500 kilogram Lurent"), but the picture - and species tag is Human.

forum.mongoosepublishing.com

thanks and sorry about that... I didn't see that when I first asked and still am a bit of a forum nav newb.

 

[Sigtrygg]

No probs, I quite happily post stuff in threads like this but try to cross post a more concise bit of feedback to the feedback forum.
Hope this community is welcoming you and proving useful.

 

[Micky]

for sure.. on both counts. Even with 40+ playing other RPG it is a bit intimidating to jump into a game with the 40+ of history and back catalog, with all these player's who have been playing it for many years and who are extremely knowledgeable on the game itself. but have felt welcomed and the forum has been more than useful. You all are a friendly bunch. Some very sharp folks on this forum and if one knows to just shut up and listen... you can learn a lot by just reading what folks have to say so yeah I'll lurk more than try to contribute anything worthless haha. Still very much in the learning curve with this game. Especially when figuring what to get, and work into the core Mongoose material, from earlier editions of the game.

 

[Talon Greyfeather]

how can it?? Very easy. Come on man, we are not children here. No one expects a completely error free book. I've published things, that after many first proofs by myself, then proofing by outside fresh eyes.. and still... I'll read later and still find something that got missed. Everyone, but NO ONE more than an author, wants to see something first published with no errors but truth is they still can happen. Done a great deal of proofing myself with RPGs and table top war games. It isn't an easy job to do well. No one is perfect. As the old saying goes No one expects perfection... when you plunk money on something... you just expect the attempt TO BE perfect and to have tried to be perfect.

As far as snowballing...


agreed it is hard to get a high rep (do note it is capped at 15) as the text said it should and it is via the chart minus large positive DRM... but.. the text specifically says that it is also hard to lose rep once you attained a high REP. An accumulation of many years of successful missions. What started this all off was seeing that one can successfully pull off a difficult (+3) mission and yet have as great a chance to lose REP than gain it. Why? It does make no sense to me and is completely counter-intuitive. A Bounty Hunters REP measures one thing when it comes to those that contract them.. do they get the job done.? Are they reliable? If you successfully complete a mission and roll on the table for increasing your REP.. it should be a chance to increase.. losing REP (with an equal chance of gaining it) made zero sense to me on first read.. or the ten others since starting the question ball rolling.

If not errata.. will just toss this + DRM into the DYO bin and happily move on in my Bounty Hunter career. I love the mechanic and as I've said before.. I LOVE THIS BOOK. Very very well done. I had very high expectations for it... really really was looking forward to it.... and it delivered.

Eh, I can see REP raising or lowering depending on others perception which is how I see REP working. If the expectation is that the job will get done because the BH is the best, maybe it wasn't as difficult as it was made out to be and over-hyped?

I like that the mechanic introduces that unknown perception factor into the mix. How many times do we see in the real world someone's REP increasing for one group but falling in another? It's a new mechanic that will be interesting to watch how it develops in gameplay and the conversations is giving me some additional ideas on how it could work in a Vargr campaign.

 

[agentwigggles]

As far as snowballing...


agreed it is hard to get a high rep (do note it is capped at 15) as the text said it should and it is via the chart minus large positive DRM... but.. the text specifically says that it is also hard to lose rep once you attained a high REP. An accumulation of many years of successful missions. What started this all off was seeing that one can successfully pull off a difficult (+3) mission and yet have as great a chance to lose REP than gain it. Why? It does make no sense to me and is completely counter-intuitive. A Bounty Hunters REP measures one thing when it comes to those that contract them.. do they get the job done.? Are they reliable? If you successfully complete a mission and roll on the table for increasing your REP.. it should be a chance to increase.. losing REP (with an equal chance of gaining it) made zero sense to me on first read.. or the ten others since starting the question ball rolling.

If not errata.. will just toss this + DRM into the DYO bin and happily move on in my Bounty Hunter career. I love the mechanic and as I've said before.. I LOVE THIS BOOK. Very very well done. I had very high expectations for it... really really was looking forward to it.... and it delivered.

Again, you arent required to roll on the Rep Chart. On the section about Rep, it also says that you dont need to roll and the GM and give Rep. Which implies the GM can reduce it as well. But the chart is probably more agreeabble way to reduce Rep at the table.
Once you have High Rep. Doing well is expected. So getting the +3 thing, where the High Rep Hunters do well, is the norm. Which to me means it doesnt impact their Rep.
So you stop rolling on the Rep chart as often, if at all. Instead narrative events is what causes the Rep to increase or a pallet stack of doing several hunts well can give it a raise.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Again, you arent required to roll on the Rep Chart. On the section about Rep, it also says that you dont need to roll and the GM and give Rep. Which implies the GM can reduce it as well. But the chart is probably more agreeabble way to reduce Rep at the table.
Once you have High Rep. Doing well is expected. So getting the +3 thing, where the High Rep Hunters do well, is the norm. Which to me means it doesnt impact their Rep.
So you stop rolling on the Rep chart as often, if at all. Instead narrative events is what causes the Rep to increase or a pallet stack of doing several hunts well can give it a raise.

I prefer it this way. It lets me judge how the player's rep is impacted and take everything into account.

 

[Tom B]

Is it me or is the middle D'onofrios brother really Phil Collins?

 

[PogoLeaf]

Is it me or is the middle D'onofrios brother really Phil Collins?

Well, can’t unsee that

 

[PogoLeaf]

Does anyone find the bounty bot is better served with a light shotgun, and ther there is no place for the quick release vest with it armour so low due to alternatives available in the csc

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

From the bounty bot’s description, I thought it would be equipped with an energy weapon.

I suppose, given it has arms and manipulators, that it can be given any handheld weapon to use?

I didn’t really understand the quick release vest, no.

And I’ll probably bump up the capacity of the jet pack to ten uses or so, in my games.

Three is a bit few, feels like one would end up never using it in case a better opportunity comes up later.