Travellers Needed - Core Rulebook Reprint

A passage on a suggestion on how to handle PC Debt. This probably isnt a big issue, though if a player makes a character that goes crazy into Anti Aging drugs, then its possible for them to start play with multi million dollar in debt.

The Prisoner Career could use a passage which explains the how the Parole works. On the Discord, this seems to be a come up a lot as hard to understand at first.

Task Chains dont seem to be a worthwhile mechanic. The bonuses, gain from dont amount to much. I'm not sure how to fix it. At first blush, I would say that a Task Chain allows the one person to gain a Boon or Bane on their skill check. Which is about on par possible +3 but makes it faster, as you wont have to consult a chart and convert the effect count.

Change the wording on failing a skill check by One Effect. I think it should emphasize, that its success at a cost, instead of a failure or sometime a success at a cost.\\

Remove the Simple and Easy difficulty for dice rolls. If they're that easy, then there very very likely isnt any worthwhile stakes if they fail the check, if players can even fail the check. Even if someone doing something Unskilled, at -3, they can take their time, to reduce that to a effective -1. And 2d6 on avg roll a 7, so thats a 6. I suppose in the worse circumstances, if soemone was trying a task they were unskilled in and their stat DM was -3, they would be rolling at -6. They can still take their time, make it an effective -4, and 2d6 on average roll 7, so thats a 3. They still pass. Use the page space for something else.

Opposed Skill Checks can use wording, as to what happen when the Opposed Roll is a tie.

More definite lanaguge on Armor stacking.

Are lasers meant to be double dippled on armor? As in armor value AND laser value applies? Armor being mainly additive, seems yes. Which sucks for Lasers, but Lasers dont need to be super duper.

Vehicles can use some langauge on the acceleration they have vertically. For myself recently, I was trying to design this police chase that was in a city that was in a canyon, and my group has this sweet +4 agility air/raft. I was having trouble, what was stopping them from simply accelerating straight up. In previous versions, grav crafts as a for instance, have much easier vertical acceleration which made that encounter design problem a lot easier.
 
Something else that needs sorting is the Science skill which was IMO better handled in MGT1

These are my house rules:

'Science' is actually three cascade skills where the first skill level-0 applies to all skills in the cascade and then the second skill level-1 goes to a speciality with the other skills being rated at half the top speciality.

The cascade and speciality may be chosen by the player or rolled randomly:

Roll 1D:
1-2 Life Sciences
3-4 Physical Sciences
5-6 Social Sciences

Life Sciences roll 1D:
1-3 Biology
4 Cybernetics
5 Genetics
6 Xenology

Physical Sciences roll 1D:
1 Chemistry
2 Astronomy
3 Cosmology
4 Physics
5 Planetology
6 Robotics

Social Sciences roll D66:
11-13 Archaeology
14-16 Cultural Studies (History of art, Literature, Games etc)
21-23 Criminology
24-26 Economics
31-33 History
34-36 Law
41-43 Linguistics
44-46 Philosophy
51-53 Politics
54-56 Psychology
61-63 Sociology
64-66 Sophontology (each level above 0 represents a general knowledge of one sophont species or the scientist may specialise in just one species).

Science skills may be used to substitute other skills that the character lacks training in as if they were Jack of Trades of the same level. For example Politics may in certain cases substitute for Admin and Leadership, Sociology and Criminology for Streetwise, Economics for Broker, Linguistics for a Language, Psychology for Persuade, Law for Advocate etc.

They may also be used in task chains to support other skills - a Legal scholar may for instance supply research that strengthens an Advocate's case.
 
'Medic' is ridiculously general and should also be a cascade skill.

For example:

First Aid
Diagnosis
Surgery
Pharmacology
Nursing care
Medtech
Psychiatry

This allows you to distinguish between the battlefield medic or emergency response specialist who can staunch your wound and stop you dying, the surgeon who can remove that piece of shrapnel from your skull, The physician that can diagnose your illness and prescribe treatment, the nurse whose skill can reduce your recovery time and the medical technician who can improve your chances of surviving low passage.
 
Or a simpler Medic cascade:

EMT
Physician
Surgeon
Nurse

Consider the show Scrubs - in MGT 2.0 JD, Turk and Carla are all Medic-3 (and in season one Carla is probably Medic-3 while the new interns are still Medic-2) but they are really Physician-3, Surgeon-3 and Nurse-3.

So in MGT2.1 some nameless EMT starts off the task chain by stopping you from bleeding out, JD diagnoses multiple bullet wounds and stabilises you on arrival, Turk removes the bullets so you can begin recovery and Carla speeds up your recovery time.
 
agentwigggles said:
A passage on a suggestion on how to handle PC Debt. This probably isnt a big issue, though if a player makes a character that goes crazy into Anti Aging drugs, then its possible for them to start play with multi million dollar in debt.
I'm deeply uncomfortable with starting play in debt. There should be a non-fungible alternative, such as the Travellers owing a Connection a favour, or replacing the debt with another Rival or Enemy.

agentwigggles said:
The Prisoner Career could use a passage which explains the how the Parole works. On the Discord, this seems to be a come up a lot as hard to understand at first.
Same deal as debt. Referees should be obliged to reroll for a new career if Prisoner crops up, or any career the players don't want (e.g. Rogue, Drifter, Psion, any military, the Draft). Some of us don't want to start play with a shadow hanging over their past like that, unless they were deliberately creating a troubled character whose goal in life is to make a fresh start and leave their old demons behind - only to have those demons crop up once in a while, in the form of unresolved loose ends, bitter exes, and so on.
 
And two possible changes to cascades in general.

As rules currently stands Sniper Guy with Gun Combat (Slug)-4 will only skill-0 if his rifle breaks and he picks up a laser rifle but is at skill-4 with any slug pistol even though he rarely touches any weapon other than his beloved sniper rifle.

As for your typical PC Engineer Guy he's either going for Engineer (Jump)-4 as that is a skill he'll be using every other week or so and which if it is failed can lead to a catastrophic misjump but is going to be no better than a clueless apprentice (Engineer-0 ) when any other ship system breaks down even though to get that Engineer (Jump)-4 skill he or she has spent 5 terms as the only engineer on a free trader...

Or if he or she wants to be realistic they will split their skill Jump-1, Maneuver-1, Power-1 and Life Support-1 and be just average at everything.

Alternative 1

You can specialise in one skill and all the other skills in that cascade are at half that level (rounding down) - so our Engineer (Jump)-4 has Maneuver-2, Power-2 and Life Support-2 and Sniper Guy has Slug-4 but also Energy Weapons-2.

Which seems to me more realistic in that an engine room is an engine room and a gun is a gun.

Alternative 2

You specialise in one primary skill and rank all the other cascade skills in descending order of one level below

So our Engineer starts off at Jump-1 and takes Maneuver-0 as secondary skill but Power will be at -1 DM and Life Support at -2

And then when he or she raises Jump-1 to Jump-2, the other Engineer skills go up to Maneuver-1, Power-0 and Life Support to (-1) the bracket here expressing a negative DM which is still lower than the unskilled -3 DM.

With this rule change I'd look at splitting the Gun Combat cascade into Pistols (incl SMGs) and Rifles (incl Shotguns) as well which do seem to me separate skills.

On the whole I prefer this alternative myself but the first one has the merit of simplicity.
 
RogerMc said:
Something else that needs sorting is the Science skill which was IMO better handled in MGT1
I use Science, Art and Profession macro / cascade skill options from the Companion. Pretty much as detailled as Traveller with a 2D6 system can be.
 
alex_greene said:
So.

Right.

Where are we up to with the wishlist of updates for the core rulebook? Retool the character generation flowchart, check. Index, check. Trade game revamp? Dogfighting? Something about possibly removing the subsector and replacing it with stuff? Er, firearms which look like firearms?
Matt has already stated they are replacing all of the art. So I think that covers the firearms.

I don’t have an issue with the dog fighting rules. Use them or not. I use them, but without the 6 second rounds. I know others do the same. What do you want changed?

Trade system? Again, what do you want changed? You’re never going to fit a realistic trade model into a couple of dozen pages.

I see the same issue with skill cascades. Some people want more, or different. Adding complexity to add realism. The trend I see in games these days is skill tree simplicity. Changing the cascades to suit your preference either way is house rule territory. There won’t be a solution for everyone, so focus on a system that people can bend both ways without breaking it. I think the current system accomplishes that.

And if a few snowflakes are too offended by the occasional “she” or “her” in the text to buy it, well, I suppose you can’t please everyone.
 
RogerMc said:
Or a simpler Medic cascade:

EMT
Physician
Surgeon
Nurse
I like this a lot, but may I suggest using words that are more commonly known by non-native speakers, e. g. first aid, medical diagnosis, surgery, healthcare. Also, medical professionaly should not be possible to be build solely through one profession / career. Someone becoming a doctor should also receive training in relevant sciences. I would not like to be taken care off by a "doctor" who just trained in knives, not in anatomy, biology etc. Also, the science skills one is trained in would make the difference between the many medical professionaly know and one would probably roll in task chains, e. g. pharmacology and medical diagnosis for an anaesthesiologist, psychology and medical diagnosis for a psychiatrist, biology and first aid for treating an anaphyslactic shock etc.

A fourth profession per career would be optimal, but more importantly a more diverse table of events and mishaps would be more important. Currently there are too few "background ideas" that one can roll up.

Regarding weapon skills, I find it clutters a game really fast, if one adds too many options. Also, I cannot imagine (this might be the problem) that laser rifles will be inherently differnt to use than slugthrower rifles. Aim, pull the trigger, observe. So, unless the skill used for shooting also finds use in maintenance (which currently would make all gunsmiths expert snipers), there is no difference. The differences I experienced in using firearms came from the way a firearm was aimed and how it was shot:

  • single handed weapon (i. e."pistols")
  • long gun (rifles, carbines, guns)
  • automatic fire (i. e. with the "Auto" capability)

One might thus think about rearranging firearms skills accordingly. Heavy weapons could be split up similarly: direct fire, indirect fire, spreaded fire (flamethrowers etc.) and smart or guided weapons all behave differently. It's less relevant if the weapon is supported by a portable mount or a vehicle turret. It's more about how a weapon behaves in general than about its mounting.

A final skill I would like to see is something that reflects practical knowledge about a profesisonal environment. I adressed this in our community in a different thread already. Currently it's hard for me to fathom what a character knows about daily routines when interacting with people of a certain profession, e. g. it's hard to estimate that a soldier without Administration-0 would not be able to understand basic workings of a military, such as chain of command, filling out forms properly etc.

I would grant every character an automatic skill specific to their career (not profession) that encompasses all these things. This skill would start at level 0 during the first term and raise by one point at the beginning of every other term. So, the next time your ex-Imperial marine walks into a bar full of local thugs and tries to recruit a new crew member, he might roll his skill "Marine-2" from his 5 terms in the Imperial Marines and look for specific tatoos so he can distinguish potential candidates from ex-army no-gooders. And your free trader captain might know the law of the land on a class D downport, even if he does not have Admin-1, Law-1 and Streetwise-1, just because he has been captain for a while.

This would make it easier to suck up unfortunate skill rolls during character creation, while also making a Traveller character be part of a community of professionals.
 
If we’re looking for something to add, the “Alternate Traveller Creation” Chapter of the Companion is only twelve pages, and addresses all of the issues folks have with Traveller’s lifepath system. I can see a free re-roll or two, or chosing the skill list after you roll, etc., but if you have to get the career you want, have to be debt free, etc, maybe the lifepath system isn’t for you, which I totally understand. The background/career combos and the point buy system in the Companion both address these issues.

Within the lifepath system, the education options in the Companion are also good.

The one thing I would address in the character creation system is receiving a ship as a benefit. The most common question from new referees I see on other forums is some variation of “so one of my players got a Lab Ship. Now what do I do?” Determining the type of campaign you want to play should be decided jointly by the players and the referee before dice are rolled. Whether the players have a ship, and possibly even who owns it, should be part of that conversation.
 
Like all scholastic skills, perhaps Medic needs to be a cascade skill, a part of Science ...
... and that these skills should automatically have one major speciality, the main skill; and one minor speciality at the same level at start of play. The major can still be inproved, but none of the specialities should exceed the major, unless the Traveller rededicates a new speciality to be the major, and lets the former major slip back to the status of minor.
 
Ursus Maior said:
Regarding weapon skills, I find it clutters a game really fast, if one adds too many options.
I agree. That’s also the exact same reaction I had when reading your thoughts on medical skills, and on an skill based specifically on one’s profession.

This is why I don’t think Mongoose should spend much effort, if any, on the skill trees. Way too much difference in preferences among those who play.
 
Skills bloat is also an issue with far too many games which is why I wouldn't extend the number of skills without adopting one of the cascade skill-level fixes I suggested.

Which would also solve the Surgeon who can't do anything but cut into people problem - of course a surgeon will be able to diagnose, administer drugs, supervise recovery etc if he has to - he's just not going to be as good at it as a physician while a physician in turn can if he has to take up a scalpel and cut away but with a lower chance of success.

So a simple pick your primary skill and all the others in the cascade are at half that level rule covers all that.

Re names for medic skills Physician, Surgeon and Nurse are all surely clear to any English speaker who has ever watched a TV show about hospitals let alone worked in one - the only term I suggested that might be obscure to anyone is EMT which is more American than English but does cover a range of emergency medical and technical skills for which English-English doesn't have such a handy term.

MedTech however works and would cover the skills a small starship's medic would need.

Another absurdity is of course that as rules stand you can create a physician character with Medic-4 but zero (and real zero not level-0) knowledge of any life science - but I can't see any solution to that other than breaking up pre-career education into more realistic options or making Medic part of a Life Sciences cascade (which creates another problem in that a competent MedTech shouldn't need life science).

A problem which other game systems generally resolve by not having as granular a set of science skills and by fully splitting First Aid from Medicine.

On Gun Combat yes the main differences in aiming and firing should probably boil down to Handgun, Long Gun and Automatic rather than just Rifle or Pistol - but then you have the problem of the higher TL Long Guns all being automatics as well and where does the SMG fit?

And Gun Combat also covering the recognition and maintenance and repair of guns is the only real justification I can see for making slug and energy weapons into different skills.
 
I think new skills, while interesting, tread pretty close to "new version" territory. How would you make a new Medic skill that uses cascades compatible with the old single skill? It doesn't really fit into the modular concept Matt is talking about.

As for the Sindal subsector currently at the end of the book, why not remove it to free up pages and then make it a free PDF supplement download? Reference to the free download could be added to the introductory material in chapter one.
 
And why argue the toss here?

Well if Mongoose are going to charge us another £30 just for a pdf, I'm only buying it if it has rather more changes than just better art, layout and a sentence or two inserted here and there.

That is to say it needs to be MGT 2.5 rather than just 2.1 if I am going to spend that much of whatever money the accelerating collapse of British capitalism will have left me next year on it.

And having more and better designed medical and science skills is not necessarily about making it more complicated (nobody turns a hair about having 4 different engineer or electronics skills for instance but 'more than one medic skill- you must be mad!') but about making the game able to represent more genres of SF than shoot 'em up mercenaries or free traders with a sideline in crime.

And you know what would also help in extending the range of scenarios Traveller can represent well would be a social conflict system that goes beyond 'OK roll 10+ and add Persuade and your SOC DM... 11? that is fine - the deputy minister of defence is persuaded and happily betrays his planet...'
 
Skills and specializations is pretty tricky, and the more I think about it, the harder it gets.

Skills can be narrow or broad and Medic is certainly one that could use a bit of specialization. But part of that is gameplay as well. A player and referee should be able to agree that a surgeon knows something of biology, at least on a familiar species. But if you want to get persnickety TL should play a big role in skills as well. The TL 3 surgeon/barber and the TL 8 surgeon doing a laparoscopic procedure via telemedicine might not have that much in common. (though ironically, neither would necessarily wash his hands…). Or imagine Galileo searching for exoplanets by crunching big data from a space telescope. If you wanted to get picky, not only should there be specialties, but TL penalties when going off base by more than a few TLs.

On the other hand (and the hiver has many of these) you want to keep it simple. There’s a market for light versions of rules, after all. If you want to go back to classic Traveller, there is only one Engineer skill (but also Pistol, Revolver, SMG, Rifle, Cutlass, Blade … so consistency, bleh - look at the background of the creators and that’s probably why). I don’t like Electronics as a cascade skill. I have decades of computer expertise, but don’t ask me to fix your radio, because I’d likely use a hammer. And even computers – operations and programming, well once very different, but now there’s DevOps. Needs to be some more or less consistent level of abstraction. And needs to cover TL from 0-15+.

To be entirely consistent, it probably needs to be redone from first principles: spell them out and make sure every skill complies with at least the spirit of the principle. But then, is it Mongoose version 2.1? Or 3.0?
 
Some very minor nitpicks:


  • Difficulty, boon/bane and DMs: I’ve never really been clear about what situations to adjust the difficulty vs applying a boon or bane. The box on p.61 says difficulty is irrespective of exterior effects, but the examples of difficulties on p.58 include lots of exterior effects: ‘in optimum conditions’; ‘on an industrial world’; ‘in the middle of a ferocious storm’
  • How long do ship repairs take: 1Dx10 hours (p.60) or 1D hours for critical hits and 1 hour for hull (p. 150)?
  • As I understand it, skill checks always involve a characteristic DM, as shown by most examples in the book. Several times, however, skill checks are specified without a characteristic.
  • p. 150: how many tons of spare parts are required if one rolls an Effect of 0?

Dan.
 
"Animals of alien worlds: We get seven encounter type animals right now. Those are not representative for Chartered Space and they are not enough to be enjoyably worthwhile. I would delete all seven and expand on these in a free PDF."

I think those are useful for examples, but they could take up less space. In the CORE book of 101 Lifeforms they have one small black & white picture on about every other page showing 3-4 lifeforms. So perhaps a better layout and use of space might give us a few more examples. I like pictures of lifeforms to help visualize them.

As an aside, I find it silly to have a Bestiary in a sci-fi setting containing thousands of worlds (at whatever % actually have their own species) which is going to have billions and billions of species. But yet a Bestiary is useful (especially for safari patrons) . Maybe that could be an adventure module or two: "Hunting on 10,000 Worlds": what's legal & what's illegal to hunt, Imperial stance on hunting (probably left to the worlds), a new safari ship and potential NPC crew, a vehicle (to be trampled by some large creature :D ), a couple of patrons (one to hunt for trophies, another to hunt for pictures/scientific research), and oodles of beasties. Or does one exist and I missed it? (hmm, I am bored, maybe... but my writing sucks... yet...)

Re: black printed pages. They are easier to find and I don't mind them. If the black is to be removed, perhaps keep it as a border so it stands out when you look at the edge of a closed book?
What I don't like is the skill packages and adjacent page artwork (which I don't like) separating the end of career information. It's disconcerting.


Re: Psionics. Ugh. I like the concept, but when one person created a psion with 18 PSI I had to nix that character and outlaw psionics. Telepathy itself destroys security and secrets unless anti-Telepathy tech is everywhere, which doesn't seem to be the case in the OTU. But since PSI was in initial Traveller it should stay. Perhaps 1) a brief bit for referees on how to handle PSI characters, 2) add more anti-PSI items, including that to cover rooms [I came up with "anti-tel additive" (anti-teleport & anti-telepathy) as construction material for a Champions campaign.. I forgot the name I gave it] that are not illegal almost anywhere and available at an earlier tech level.

"I have decades of computer expertise, but don’t ask me to fix your radio, because I’d likely use a hammer."
You're NOT supposed to use a hammer to fix a radio? Well, one learns new things every day. :D
 
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