V2.0 Rules Clarifications Thread

[Allensh]

[9. If I make a commissioning roll, what rank do I become? (I assume Rank 1 officer). Do I aslo make an advancement roll that term (Potentially going from Rank 0 enlisted to Rank 2 officer in one term)? If I previously held a higher enlisted rank, what if any impact does that have?

No, currently you just switch to Rank 0 on the officer column.
[/quote]

I think this one fails the reality check. I am not familiar with the rank structure of the British military, but I'm fairly sure that in the U.S. armed forces when you are commissioned in the Navy, for example, your rank is Ensign. In the Army you'd become a lieutenant.

My suggestion would be when you are commissioned you go to rank 1 in the officers section, but you don't get to roll for promotion because being commissioned is a form of promotion anyway. You would get the extra skill though.

Allen

 

[AKAramis]

Why don't Tramp Trader crews have ranks (p.19)? I've always thought that the Traveller convention is that they have ones, even if they mean very little in practice.

My thinking was that small traders of that sort wouldn't have formalised crew structures, but I'm open to correction.

Book 7 - Merchant Prince and MegaTraveller both use the "standard"
r5 Captain, r4 1st Off, r3 2nd Off, r2 3rd Off, r1 4th Off pattern for the free trader "department."

Was the change to currency intentional?
The currency section contradicts prior canon. (See The Traveller Adventure, library data section, and MegaTraveller Imperial Encyclopedia.)

 

[Golan2072]

P.85: "1 – Criminal. 2 – Local Leader. 3 – High Society. 4 – Commercial. 5 – Spacers. 6 – Unusual". These are the results of the first die in the "D66" of this table, right?

P.86: "1 – low tech. 2 – average tech. 3 – high tech. 4 – environmental. 5 – technology. 6 - social". These are the results of the first die in the "D66" of this table, right?

P.89: "The Referee should roll for a new encounter every six hours on average (more often if the characters are travelling or attracting attention)". Won't the tables start to repeat themselves after a while? Serious use of random encounters would probably require either a very generic table (which could be used as a basis for the Referee's improvisation) or specific-world tables for each world (or world type) visited.

How much equipment could a character carry without penalty? (Strength)x2 kilograms? How would encumbrance affect movement? How is it affected by non-standard gravities?

How much do Vacc Suits and Hostile Environment Vacc Suits weight? Also, are their weights affected by TL as in CT?

The HEV Suit is missing the TL in its description (according to the table it's TL8) as well as its price and weight. The Vacc Suit's description lacks the ordinary price and weight.

P.95: "Smart fabric resists stains and direct". Shouldn't this be "Smart fabric resists stains and dirt"?

P.95: "All long-term care or surgery Medic rolls treating a character suffer a negative DM equal to the difference in Technology Level between the medical facility and the highest relevant implant". Hmmm… Does that mean that an implanted Neural Comm in your head makes it more difficult to treat a broken leg, several broken limbs, and a bullet in your shoulder? Or does it only apply to characteristic augments?

 

[AKAramis]

Was Drive (Legged) dropped on purpose?
I ask because MegaTraveller has several. My favorite being the Dynchia Strider....

There is no Lighter than Air piloting included

Chemistry description (suggestion)
Perhaps it should read:
Chemistry (Physical, Life): The study of chemicals, their contruction, interactions, use and handling.

 

[AKAramis]

Blindness penalty?
Can't find one, since Darkness seems to be moonless night kind of dark, not "can't see."

Wound Penalty?
Can't find one.

Entry 2 on the Robot Damage Table?

 

[captainjack23]

Was Drive (Legged) dropped on purpose?
I ask because MegaTraveller has several. My favorite being the Dynchia Strider....

There is no Lighter than Air piloting included

I see where this is going, and NO ! You may not play a steam tripod commander in the Kaisers own luftsturm regiment embarked aboard the panzerluftschiffe Von Der Taan......


Geeze. Some players.

 

[Tychus]

Quote:

6. Army basic training is underpowered compared to other careers. Term 1 in the Army gives you Gun Combat 0 twice, plus Gun Combat(ER or SR) 1 for free at Rank 0 (effectively Gun Combat 0 in all other specialties).

That's a good point. I'll probably change the free skill to something better.

Which still leaves Gun Combat 0 x2. Getting it the second time is of no benefit, so Army basic essentially gives one less skill than all other careers.

Mongoose Gar wrote:

9. If I make a commissioning roll, what rank do I become? (I assume Rank 1 officer). Do I aslo make an advancement roll that term (Potentially going from Rank 0 enlisted to Rank 2 officer in one term)? If I previously held a higher enlisted rank, what if any impact does that have?

No, currently you just switch to Rank 0 on the officer column.

I think this one fails the reality check. I am not familiar with the rank structure of the British military, but I'm fairly sure that in the U.S. armed forces when you are commissioned in the Navy, for example, your rank is Ensign. In the Army you'd become a lieutenant.

My suggestion would be when you are commissioned you go to rank 1 in the officers section, but you don't get to roll for promotion because being commissioned is a form of promotion anyway. You would get the extra skill though.

Well, Rank 0 could be Cadet/Midshipman - though it would be rather odd for someone to languish for multiple terms as a cadet. Or make Lieutenant/Ensign the officer rank 0, and add another rank in the middle somewhere. This would means one more term would be required to reach General/Admiral rank - maybe not such a bad thing. But I think Allensh's suggestion is the cleanest.

My question was more about how previous ranks would come into play when you leave the career. For example, if I reach enlisted rank 3 or 4, get commissioned, and then fail my next survival roll, do I receive benefit rolls based on my enlisted or officer rank?

 

[AKAramis]

the concept of "officer rank 0" is the biggest annoyance to me of incorporating enlisted rank into the core rules.

Yes, there should be one in most systems for Midshipsmen and Cadets placed into service. (Historically, many midshipsmen took more than 4 years to earn a commission in both the US and UK navies; by contrast, some took less than a year.) However, such a system need not be reflected in a core ruleset.

As to walkers: no, I'm NOT doing 1889 with Traveller, when I've got almost everything published for Space:1889.... I do, however, like the leg mode of movement (available in Striker, MT, TNE, and T4 design systems, as well as T20's... and GT's.) The Dynchia is only about 4m tall....

Actually, I noticed the lack while making my cheat-sheets.

 

[Allensh]

the concept of "officer rank 0" is the biggest annoyance to me of incorporating enlisted rank into the core rules.

Yes, there should be one in most systems for Midshipsmen and Cadets placed into service. (Historically, many midshipsmen took more than 4 years to earn a commission in both the US and UK navies; by contrast, some took less than a year.) However, such a system need not be reflected in a core ruleset.

As to walkers: no, I'm NOT doing 1889 with Traveller, when I've got almost everything published for Space:1889.... I do, however, like the leg mode of movement (available in Striker, MT, TNE, and T4 design systems, as well as T20's... and GT's.) The Dynchia is only about 4m tall....

Actually, I noticed the lack while making my cheat-sheets.

While we need there to be improvements and such in the system, if this game really is going to be based on Classic Traveller it should hew closely to that system as the example. T5 can handle the more detailed advanced stuff. At the least, start the ranks at rank 1 for both NCOs and Officers.

Allen

 

[AKAramis]

Shouldn't Combat Armor require Vacc Suit skill? It is, after all, an armored vacc suit in all other editions.

Where are the Tailored Vacc Suits?
Where are the Portable LS packs for the vacc suits?
Hostile Env Suit Masses?

 

[Exwrestler]

Is the damage of the ACR a typo?

At 13 dmg and autofire 5 it more powerful than a tech 12 PGMP.

 

[Golan2072]

A Skill-0 in a skill with specialities gives you Skill-0 in all of its specialities, right?

If you leave a career due to a mishap, do you still get Retirement pay for it?

Is there a limit to the total number of Skill Augmentations (p.96) a character may posses at the same time? I mean, aside from the possibility of abuse, the body could probably accommodate only a finite number of such wide-ranging modifications.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Skill-0 and Specialties:

Page 48 of the rules under "Skill Levels" states

A character with 0 levels in a skill has a basic understanding of the principles involved, and suffers no DM to checks using
that skill. Characters with 0 levels in a skill cannot pick a speciality.

At Skill-1+, you get all of the other specialties at Skill-0.

Retirement and Survival:
I don't think the rules spell it out completely, but since you age 4 years, you should get the retirement. BUT, personally, I would look at the result of the Survival roll and if the result caused you to be dishonorably discharged, then you don't get your retirement. YMMV.

 

[Golan2072]

P.96: "The smaller a bug, though, the shorter its range – a bug that transmits data needs a much larger power supply than one that just records until it is collected". How is this reflected in the rules?

 

[JimG]

A Skill-0 in a skill with specialities gives you Skill-0 in all of its specialities, right?

Some skills have specialities – specialised forms of that skill. A character may pick a skill when he gains level 1 in a skill
For example, a character might have Engineering 0, allowing him to make Engineering skill checks without an unskilled
penalty. He might then gain a level in Engineering, giving him Engineering (Jump Drives) 1. He would make all
Engineering checks involving Jump Drives at a +1 DM, but would make all other Engineering checks at a +0 DM. A
character can have multiple specialities in a skill – an Engineer might have Engineering (Jump Drives) 1 and Engineering
(Power Plant) 2. He would make checks related to Jump Drives with a +1 DM, checks related to Power Plants with a +2
DM, and all other Engineering checks with a +0 DM.

I read this as saying you don't have a specialty at level 0, but you can make checks in any of the specializations at level 0.

 

[Golan2072]

P.98: "for example, a Computer/3 could run two programs requiring Program/1 at a time, or one Program/2, or a Program/2 and any number of Program/0s". Program/2 should be Program/3, shouldn't it?

 

[Golan2072]

The acronym for Data Display/Recorder (pp.98-99) should be DD/R rather than the DR/R shown in the display's description.