Travellers Needed - Core Rulebook Reprint

[Condottiere]

Which would mean cCr, would be centiCredits.

Since accounting for inflation would be somewhat one to five, probably makes milliCredits, or mCR., more relevant.

 

[arcador]

There are minor things for clarification in the NPC chapter. The rules refer to a table that is not as described (page 86 - Experience levels). It is still usable, but there is a mismatch in the text.

In Combat - when someone is triggering a free attack when disengaging, is that a reaction? I don't read it as a reaction, but I see many player-made tools which consider it a reaction. I.e. it's a moment of confusion.

Dogfighting rules - the ship ones require a rework and playtesting.

In general, you leave too many things, especially in combat, to the referee. While this is not bad, in my view new referees struggle as they don't have years of experience and prior Traveller backgrounds to fallback to. A possible way to fix this is to add a few words encouraging the Referee's decision. An example would be the "take cover" combat action. Does the cover provide armor? Is it the referee's decision if it does?

Clarify in all places when the skill is used as a DM or skill + stat. In my info only Skill matters, but I've seen some people here are absolutely convinced it is Skill + stat. Examples: parry reaction, evasive maneuvers. Dodge's reaction has clear text for example.

Clarify if reactions in space combat incur penalties similarly to personal combat. They do not, but I see people ponder on this often.

Balance suggestions:

Reloading should take major action unless the weapon has some sort of advanced reloading system. The drawback of this change is that it will require a review of all weapons. The issue is that right now reloading does not exist in the game. For several years of play, I've yet to see a player being hindered by reloading of personal firearm.

HEV provides too much armor IMO compared to armors from CSC. The issue stems that new armors were updated, but many of the edition 1 armors are almost copy-pasta. This creates the situation where boarding suits and equivalent designed for combat are inferior to HEV.

Dogfighting - right now the one winning the dogfight rolls keeps their Effect for the next roll. This quickly snowballs to one side having +6 effect, making it impossible for the other side to reverse the dogfight. Instead of the winning side retaining the + effect, I suggest they instead get a boon for the next dogfighting check. This way they still have an advantage, but it's not a foregone conclusion. Also - related to ship-dogfight- reconsider the -6 penalty of bigger ships (that will lose the dogfight and net -8) unless you want to virtually disable them. If you rewrite the rules, then this suggestion may become irrelevant.

Combat suggestion - if a character takes 6+ reactions in a single round, consider him pin-downed/overwhelmed, losing his next turn. It is very unlikely they will do anything with the -6 DM anyways.

 

[Randal]

One minor point.

I can't find any definition of unrefined fuel. I have always taken it to mean any liquid or gas incorporating hydrogen in the molecule or mixture (water, peroxide, methane, diesel even..)

Not sure if someone has pointed this out or I have missed the definition in one of the books...

 

[Condottiere]

One assumes in it's raw form.

If there is an intermediate stage, you'd have to run it through the purifier twice.

I'd probably install filters.

Jump drive could be similar to Abram's multifuel turbine engine.

 

[Melbourne Accords]

Thanks for this opportunity to further strengthen a great game. I have really enjoyed reading the suggested mechanical changes in this thread. Here are my thoughts:

• An index
• Tables on the inside front and back covers (as suggested by IanBruntlett)
• Refer players to the new publications for generation of Alien characters.
• Foreground the elegance of the 2D6 core mechanic (as suggested by GamingGlen): "Traveller is the original 2D6 system"
• Revise task chains to include Boon/Bane as outcomes (as suggested by AgentWiggles)
• Inclusion of a Mishaps table (these are endlessly useful)
• Provide greater detail on hacking (as suggested by AKjeldsen). My groups have found that defeating layers of security is a helpful approach.
• Revise Science skill (as suggested by RogerMc)
• Revision of the sensor rules (as per JTAS)
• Make sure that all references to equipment match the Central Supply Catalogue
• Inclusion of more sophisticated movement for space combat (as suggested by heselbine)
• Inclusion of a ship sheet for use during space combat (as suggested by Alqualonde)
• Inclusion of hull points for all ships
• Inclusion of fragmentation missiles
• 2D deck plans (for boarding actions)

 

[timtoon]

Pg. 212, line 36 'Availability' column lists "High Tech +2, High Pop". The +2 is a typo reserved for the Purchase DM modifier.
Pg. 213, line 45 'Purchase DM' column "Asteroids" is plural, when it should be singular "Asteroid".
Pg. 213, line 53 'Availability' column has a trailing comma "Asteroid, Ice Capped,".

 

[timtoon]

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but under trade, weapons are the only items listed as illegal goods on p.211. Common contraband on p.221 includes computers, technology, drugs, and weapons, but the law level on p.224 only mentions weapons.

At what law level in a Feudal Technocracy (5) are computers contraband? All of them?

 

[Condottiere]

Probably requires some creative interpretation by the Dungeon Master.

If the elite believes that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing for the proletariat, but having a ready pool of trained riflemen is useful, computers (and media devices such as hand cranked printing presses) are likely highly restricted and controlled, while an assault rifle would be evenly distributed.

So having an illicit iPod can get you hanged.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Could we ensure that any reference to Acceleration uses "meters per second squared” (m/s2 or ms-2 - I know it is difficult to get the upper score!) rather than 'meters per second' as sometimes is written.

Actually, can we make a wholehearted attempt at using S.I. measurement wherever possible, with the exception of some of the bigger Astronomical scales, obviously.

As other have mentioned, an Index that could encompass all the core four books would be great.

I’m still waiting for a Robots book....

 

[AndrewW]

I’m still waiting for a Robots book....

Good things come to those who wait.

 

[alex_greene]

At what law level in a Feudal Technocracy (5) are computers contraband? All of them?

Imports which use an operating system other than the Government Authorised Official Standard OS (the one with the backdoors built in to allow unwarranted government access to your files at any time). Also, unauthorised software and media which are not approved by the government ...
Imagine a technocracy based on televisions, where every room must have at least one TV screen tuned into the official givernment channel, twenty seconds into the future and yet also forty years into the past.

And I quote ...

*pushes big red button*
*TV screen goes dark*
Cop: An off switch. She could get years for that. Off switches are illegal.

I'm a fan of White Wolf's Technocracy. I could make that work, and it'd be terrifying to behold. The Zhodani wouldn't get a look in.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[QuinZ33]

Don't know if this has been pointed out yet, or if this comment is in time, but on page 162 of the most recent printing, under "Impact" it says "damage is then multiplied by the effect of the attack role"

Role should be Roll

 

[MongooseMatt]

That was actually fixed in the last printing, but thanks for letting us know!

 

[alex_greene]

Actually, can we make a wholehearted attempt at using S.I. measurement wherever possible, with the exception of some of the bigger Astronomical scales, obviously.

Perhaps if soomeone could lift the appropriate sections from 1st Edition Book 10: Cosmopolite ...

 

[QuinZ33]

That was actually fixed in the last printing, but thanks for letting us know!

Strange, I had this book on back order for months, and just picked it up a month ago when it finally came in. Did they happen to find one from an old printing and ship it months later?

 

[AliTanwir]

And two possible changes to cascades in general.


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.

Love those alternatives I'm definitely thinking of using one of them. Have you used them already and if you did how did it worked?

 

[alex_greene]

If I recall, some kinds of military training give their students a really broad grounding in everything, so that an Engineer would, for instance, know every Engineering speciality to Engineering-2, and a Jump specialist would just have Engineering (Jump)-3.

So characters with, say, Drive-2 could make any kind of ground vehicle go, but they could have a speciality of Drive (Tracked)-4, making them a specialist in driving tracked vehicles.

If you assume that every character received a generalist training, particularly in skills such as Science, they would have enough skill levels to handle any basic task requiring that skill with equal competence, and also be better at their speciality.

Assuming that Science skill is broad allows a physician character to use Medicine on aliens without penalty, because it will be assumed that the medic will have a solid grounding in specialities such as Biology, Xenobiology, Anatomy, Physiology and so on; and if they had Animals skill as well, that the Science skill would include sufficient grounding in veterinary science to permit the Traveller to perform veterinary medicine on an animal without worrying too much about whether or not they have Animals (Veterinarian), Science (Biology), Science (Pharmacology), Science (Anatomy), and so on.

 

[AliTanwir]

Assuming that Science skill is broad allows a physician character to use Medicine on aliens without penalty, because it will be assumed that the medic will have a solid grounding in specialities such as Biology, Xenobiology, Anatomy, Physiology and so on; and if they had Animals skill as well, that the Science skill would include sufficient grounding in veterinary science to permit the Traveller to perform veterinary medicine on an animal without worrying too much about whether or not they have Animals (Veterinarian), Science (Biology), Science (Pharmacology), Science (Anatomy), and so on.

I personally was planning on adding some exceptions to the list like science, languages art and profession.

 

[heselbine]

This will probably be regarded as heresy but I do away with cascade skills entirely. In MTU, an Engineer is an Engineer. This does not appear to have made the game less fun, quite the opposite in fact.