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1337 b4k4

2017-09-12, 11:03 PM

A look at Cepheus Engine.

A few folks have been asking about Traveller recently and inspired by An Enemy Spy's FATAL thread, but for a system that won't give your eyes cancer and cause your brain to attempt to strangle you, thought we might take a look at the Cepheus Engine, which is a Traveller clone that is a mashup of some Classic Traveller style ideas and Mongoose 1e Traveller. The plan is to run through some character, world and ship generation and see what the system gives us. I chose the Cepheus Engine rules because they're freely available on DTRPG (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/186894/Cepheus-Engine-System-Reference-Document?) so folks can follow along, but the rules are pretty broadly applicable to Traveller standard. So without further ado, let's get rolling.

So the system starts out like most do these days, a basic introduction, a "What is Role Playing" section that's about as generic as they come and then some quick introductions to core game concepts. Task resolution is 2d6 + DMs (Die Modifiers, from characteristics, skills and circumstances). A roll of 8 or better is a success, less is a failure. So without modifiers, the standard success rate is just a shade over 40%. Difficulty modifiers come in +/- 2 DMs ranging from "Formidable" at -6 (impossible without other modifiers) to Simple at +6 (guaranteed success without other modifiers). There is also a chart for degrees of success (how far from the target of 8 the roll was). Failures by -6 or less are exceptional failures, +6 or more are exceptional successes. Personally, I would rather they have skipped the hard numbers and simply noted that the further in either direction, the more exceptional the failure or success as appropriate.

We then get the paragraph whose version in some form or another has caused some of the most boring moments in TTRPGs. No consequence (good or bad) skill checks. I'm not saying that everything has to be "failing forward", but as a rule I wouldn't be asking for skill checks any time you can try again and again without failure, at that point you should assume the success and have the roll use "degrees of success" to determine either quality or time taken. Speaking of time taken, the next paragraph notes the the in game time a given action should take (when relevant) should be 1d6 $TimeUnit where the time unit is determined by the GM. We're referred to the Skills chapter in the book which has a table of time units and rules for going faster or slower (essentially +/- 1 DM for every time unit slower or faster). So if you need to fix the ship's engines because of a jump failure, that might take 1d6 hours, but if you take 1d6 days, you get a +1 DM. Personally I would add a few more increments in places e.g. the jump from 1d6 hours to 1d6 days is too large to me, I would probably add 1d6 half days or quarter days as an increment in between.

A few more basic core rules and a glossary of some key terms and we're finally on to character creation. Characters start at age 18, join a career and serve 4 year terms. Each term gives skills and benefits to the character as well as providing us with data for backgrounds. First up is our creation check list:

1) Roll characteristics
2) Homeworld / Background Skills (Optional)
3) Career
4) Basic Training (first term only)
5) Survival
6) Commission / Advancement
7) Skills / Training
8) Aging
9) Re-enlistment (back to 5 for each term)
10) Mustering Out (Benefits)
11) Next career (optional)
12) Starting equipment purchases

This looks like a lot (and compared to Classic Traveller it is a bit more) but once you've done it about once, it's pretty fast an easy. You should be able to roll up a character (minus a new home world) in about 15 minutes. For this read through we're going to skip the homeworld creation (and thus the background skills) for now because I don't want to side track nor dig up pre-exisitng world info.

Additionally, let's talk about that Survival check. As you may or may not have heard, in Traveller, your character can die in character creation. In most of the earlier editions this was the only option. In later editions, including Mongoose, this was changed to a mishap or injury with death being an optional rule. Cepheus Engine has both rules, with death being the default and that's what we're going to use here, because I need NPC characters and dead proto-PCs are a great source. So let's start making our crew.

Characteristics:

So a character has 6 characteristics representing various basic abilities, they are Strength, Dexterity, Endurance (think D&D CON), Intelligence, Education and Social Standing, after a brief description of each we're given a list of Nobility titles that can go along with particularly high social standing scores. This is a carry over from the implied setting of Traveller called the Third Imperium. We get a note that there is (at the GMs discretion) a 7th characteristic for Psionics powers which is covered later. We'll skip it for now. And on to the rolling, the default rule for Cepheus Engine is roll 2d6 for each score in order, the same way Classic Traveller and most of the early TTRPGs did. Optionally (GM approval) you can roll and assign. We're going old school and we're going to do it in order, so here goes for our first character:

Str: 10 (+1)
Dex: 8 (+0)
End: 2 (-2)
Int: 7 (+0)
Edu: 8 (+0)
Soc: 2 (-2)

Well that's interesting... our character is average or above average in every respect except that they've got rock bottom Endurance and Social Standing. This could mean they're a sickly person, and an outcast because of their sickness. Or maybe they're a glass cannon, ready to dish things out but drops at the first sign of trouble. I guess we'll find out as we go. The number in parenthesis is the Characteristic Modifier which we're given instructions and a chart for next. Interestingly the formula (divide by 3, drop fractions and subtract 1) does not appear to match up with the table, but we're using the scores from the table. This will be applied to relevant skill and characteristic checks. A following paragraph tells us characteristic scores can change during play, but apparently we won't be changing any of them now.

The next paragraph is your standard modern TTRPG disclaimer on gender (no restrictions, you can be whatever you choose etc) and further a note that aliens are a thing, and our notions of gender may not even apply to them, but interestingly states that while human gender does not alter characteristics, alien gender might. Also of note is that alien social standing modifiers are halved when dealing with races with different concepts of social standing.

This however gives me an idea for our low End and Soc scores. Perhaps our character is some race of alien, an underclass in human society because of easily exploitable weaknesses and of course a different appearance. Like a Dr. Who Ood, or like a plant creature, susceptible to fire and requiring a portable habitat, or a Star Trek Ferengi, easily cowed and looked down upon. In fact, let's run with the second one. Our character is from a race of tree like people, made of wood and requiring nightly rest in soil. Our handy dandy inter-tubes Sci-Fi Name Generator says our species will be the Sath.

Next up we're introduced to the UPP or the Universal Persona Profile. This is a pseudo-hex short hand notation for characteristics, basically the 6 stats in order. So our Sath has a UPP of A82782. An interesting note about UPP, in early Traveller it was heavily implied that this was an in game value as well. As in, just like today someone could pull up your credit score, in the Traveller universe, they could look up your UPP. While that isn't mentioned here, it's an interesting idea to keep in mind.

Using the stat block format provided in the next paragraph, 1d2 to randomly determine a gender and naming our completely non copy right infringing character Skleaf, we have the following so far for our fresh faced newly graduated galactic citizen:

Skleaf A82782 Age 18 F Sath
Graduate Cr 0
None

Background Skills:

Since we've not generating or picking a home world at the moment, we're limited to selecting background skills from the Primary Education group. We get 3 + our Edu DM of 0. You'll note that all of these skills are listed as "Skill-0". Generally in Traveller you're not considered trained in a skill without having Skill-1, and if you're not trained, you suffer a negative DM. Skill-0 ratings represent that your character has basic understanding of the skill, but not any formalized training or advanced abilities. Noted earlier, a Skill-1 rating for an academic skill would be similar to an associates (2 year) degree. So what skills might an underclass tree creature have learned in primary school? Let's go with Admin, Social Sciences and Medicine, as a member of the under class I suspect that Sath often have to take care of things themselves rather than rely on standard societal help. So now our character looks like so:

Skleaf A82782 Age 18 Sath
Graduate Cr 0
Admin-0, Medicine-0, Social Sciences-0

Career:

So now we're on to the meat of things, choosing our first career for our Skleaf. To join a career, she must pass a qualification check, if she fails she will either be subject to The Draft or she'll become a drifter for the next term (4 years). The next few paragraphs describe the basic points of going through a term in a career, we'll cover them as we go using the career charts on pages 33-40. So first up is choosing a career and trying to qualify. Page 27 gives us some descriptions of each of the careers. As a tree creature needing soil every night, most space going careers are probably not a good pick, but Skleaf has always wanted to help people, and a career as a Physician, especially caring for other members of her community who are neglected by society at large calls out to her. To qualify, she needs to roll an Edu 6+ check. This means we roll 2d6 and add her Edu modifier. If the roll is 6 or better, she's accepted to a medical program. And our roll is a 7, so Skleaf is now employed in medicine. Since this is her first term and her first career she gets all the skills in the Service Skills table for Physician at skill level 0 as part of her basic training. Any skills she already has remain at level 0. So she picks up 3 new skills, with Admin and Medicine being skills she had already.

Skleaf, Intern A82782 Age 18 Sath
Physician (1 Terms) Cr 0
Admin-0, Computer-0, Mechanics-0, Medicine-0, Leadership-0, Life Sciences-0, Social Sciences-0

Next up, she has to roll her Survival check. Part of the reason the original rules default to death for a failed survival is the fact that the only career choices save for merchant were all risky military or para-military careers. Death was a very likely possibility. Now the idea of death in a physician field may seem odd, but if it comes up, I'm sure we can work with it. In the mean time, let's see what happens. Her survival roll is Int 4+, a roll of 7 and she easily avoids any dangerous assignments as an intern. No working on a mining colony or in a gang controlled ER or anything dangerous like that, just good old fashioned ground side family medicine. Additionally as an Intern (Rank 0 physician) she gains Medicine-1 as a skill automatically.

Next she rolls for Commission, which is basically looking for her advancement from Intern to actual doctor. Without a commission, she can't advance to higher levels and will remain an intern. Commission rolls are optional, but since Cepheus Engine doesn't have a non commissioned advancement path, it's in our interests to always try for Commission. To be Commissioned, we need to roll an Int 5+, and with a 5, Skleaf just barely squeaks by and is promoted to Resident. In addition she gains an addition skill roll this term, which we'll get to in a moment. As soon as she passes her Commission roll, Skleaf is now a Rank 1 Physician and any term that you are Rank 1 or better, you can roll for advancement/promotions as well. So if Skleaf is very ambitious (and lucky) she might get promoted. So let's see what happens. Promotion is harder than commissioning, needing an Edu 8+ to advance, and with a 6, she is unable to obtain a promotion this term.

Now we get to roll skills. Each career has 4 skill tables, Personal Development, Service Skills, Specialist Skills and Advanced Education. Each term you get one roll on any one of the tables. Additionally if you are commissioned this term, you get 1 additional roll. If you were promoted you also get an additional roll. You can only roll on the Advanced Education table if you have an Edu score of 8+. In this term Slkeaf gets 2 rolls. A roll on the PD table gives her an opportunity to improve a characteristic including her End score. All of the other tables give a rank in a skill. Skleaf rolls once on the PD table, and once on the Adv Ed table. A roll of 1 gives her +1 Str and a roll of 4 gives her Linguistics-1. Next we check aging, but since Skleaf is still young, no issues there. We could have her try to start Anagathics to prevent aging but at 1d6x2.5k Cr per term, that would get pricey pretty quick, even for a physician.

So for her first 4 years, Skleaf became a Resident Physician, learned a new language and spent some time in the gym building up her strength even more. With no particularly dangerous happenings it was a surprisingly pleasant term for someone so used to being looked down on by society. Indeed the acceptance and her speedy rise to the ranks of the fully qualified physicians was a pleasant surprise. So with her first term behind her, Skleaf decides she enjoyed her job and wants another go. A re-enlisment roll is a flat 2d6 roll and she needs to beat 5+. A roll of 3 means unfortunately for Skleaf, the hospital where she was at ran out of funding for her department and she was let go. And as such a fresh physician setting up shop on her own just wasn't working out. For her single term of service, Skleaf gets a single roll on one of the benefits tables. In her entire life she can get a maximum of 3 rolls on the cash benefits table, all others will be on the material table. This career's material benefits table offers a shot at the exclusive "Explorer's Society" which is something like a high class interplanetary Triple-A. Membership gives 1 free high passage ticket (worth 10k Cr) every 2 months. With that in mind, let's roll. And with a roll of 5 she's got a membership! While her she may not have the best social standing in the world, someone apparently thought highly of her work as a physician and put in a good word with this exclusive (1 MCr application fee if you're not recommended) club. So despite the poor ending of her medical career, Skleaf takes her first passage ticket and books a trip the next world over, aiming for a new career.

Skleaf, Resident B82782 Age 18 Sath
Physician (1 Terms) Cr 0
Admin-0, Computer-0, Mechanics-0, Medicine-1, Leadership-0, Life Sciences-0, Linguistics-1, Social Sciences-0
Explorer's Society Member

And that's all for tonight. Next up, a second career, is it worth gambling your Explorer's Society character on more skills? We'll find out.

1337 b4k4

2017-09-13, 10:29 PM

And onward!

Deciding that she still wants to help people, Skleaf decides to try her hand at a science career on her new world, and with a roll of 10 she breezes by the Edu 6+ qualification check, even with the -2 DM for her first career. Since this is her second career, she only gets one skill from the service skills for her basic training, in this case she takes Bribery-0. Unfortunately, it appears whatever reasons she needed to learn bribery skills for got her into some deeper waters than she was ready for. A roll of 3 for her survival check doesn't beat the 5+ she needed, and so at the young age of 24, we bid adieu to Ms. Skleaf, another unfortunate soul consumed and spit out by a cold and uncaring galaxy.

Before we move on to our next character, I want to briefly talk about why even with an End score of 2 this wasn't a "useless" character. While that score is related to the character's ability to sustain damage and that negative modifier on checks would hurt, Cepheus Engine and Traveller operate on some slightly different assumptions than D&D and it's derivatives. First, even with quality scores, CE/Traveller combat and injuries are dangerous, and second, CE/Traveller's version of HP is the combination of your 3 physical stat scores. So even with the 2 End, Skleaf had 21 "HP". In CE/Traveller damage is applied to the stats, as stats fall to 0 things happen. In CE's case, one stat at 0 the character is "wounded", two at 0 and the character is "unconscious" and three and the character is dead. What makes the low End score dangerous for this character (aside from the overall reduction in HP), is that in Cepheus Engine, your first damage is always applied to your End. Skleaf would quickly be wounded in any dangerous situation, and easily reach seriously wounded if the player wanted to spread damage between the stats, and easily fall unconscious if they don't. But if she had survived to becoming a PC, she would be a perfectly serviceable character in non-combat situations and for all skill checks that don't use the End modifier (which would likely be a good chunk of them).

Alright, enough of the side track, we're on to day two of our adventure into the world of the Cepheus Engine and we don't even have a character yet. To cut down on the amount of text, I'll cover die rolls in brief and summarize terms later. So allow me to introduce Justev Evans, a human male with UPP 975989. Decides to enlist in the Navy, with succeeding with a roll of 7 against an Int 6+. Survival roll of 8 against Int 5+, commission of 3 against an Soc 7+, no advancement because we're not commissioned. A single skill roll this term, on the Specialist table gives Piloting. Re-enlistment 5 against a 5+.

So Justev Evans grew up imagining sailing the space lanes. When he turned 18, he immediately headed to his local recruiting office to enlist in the Navy. In basic he of course leaned basic combat skills and then took a shining to piloting and flying, gaining experience both in atmospheric grav vehicles and space craft. Although he was enthusiastic, he didn't manage to stand out and failed to gain a commission and only just barely managed to pass his fitness reports and remain in the service. And at the end of term 1, this is our character:

Justev Evans, Starman 975989 Age 22 M Human
Navy (1 Term) Cr 0
Comms-0, Engineering-0, Grav Vehicle-0, Piloting-1, Slashing Weapons-0, Slug Pistol-0, Turret Weapons-0, Zero G-1

For the second term, Starman Evans' rolls are: 13 for Survival, 7 for Commission, 11 for Advancement vs Edu 6+, 3 skill rolls, two on the Specialist table and one on the Advanced Education table, yielding Navigation, Jack-o-Trades and Engineering and last but not least 5 vs 5+ for re-enlistment. In his second term, Starman Evans moved from piloting to a navigator slot. After showing promise, he was commissioned Midshipman Evans. As a Midshipman, Mr. Evans was assigned to the engineering department of a destroyer and made a name for himself as a man who can get things done, even when they're not his direct specialty. Glowing assessment reports from his department heads quickly saw Mr. Evans promoted to Lieutenant.

Justev Evans, Lieutenant 975989 Age 26 M Human
Navy (2 Terms) Cr 0
Comms-0, Engineering-1, Grav Vehicle-0, Jack-o-Trades-1, Navigation-1, Piloting-1,
Slashing Weapons-0, Slug Pistol-0, Turret Weapons-0, Zero G-1

On to a third term for Lt. Evans, rolls are: 9 for Survival, 6 for Advancement, 2 skill rolls, both on the Specialist table, yielding Gravitics and Jack-o-Trades, and again 5 for re-enlistment. In his third term, Mr Evans was promoted to Lt. Commander and assigned as the supervisor of the dock at the local naval yard. Here picked up training in Gravitics and ground side training in tactics and continued to distinguish himself as an officer with a wide breadth of abilities.

Justev Evans, Lt. Commander 975989 Age 30 M Human
Navy (3 Terms) Cr 0
Comms-0, Engineering-1, Gravitics-1, Grav Vehicle-0, Jack-o-Trades-1, Navigation-1, Piloting-1,
Slashing Weapons-0, Slug Pistol-0, Tactics-1, Turret Weapons-0, Zero G-1

Let's give it one more shot, we've made it this far why not keep pressing our luck. 8 for Survival, 11 for Advancement, 2 skill rolls, one on the Specialist table and one on the PD table, yielding +1 Str and Leadership, an aging roll of 6 (aging checks start at age 34), and this time a 4 for re-enlistment. So in his fourth term, Evans found himself promoted to Commander and assigned to the XO slot on another destroyer. Picking up a lot of leadership skills, Cdr. Evans decided to start hitting the gym a bit more and in addition to his mental development managed to put on a bit more muscle. In the 16 years he's been in the service, the navy hasn't seen any combat and as a result, the budget is more constrained than it otherwise would be. In the end, Cdr. Evans was separated from the service at the end of his 16th year. 4 terms of service and a promotion to O-4 gives Justev 5 rolls on the benefits tables. He takes 3 on the cash benefits table, and 2 on the material benefits table. With rolls of 6,5 and 5, it's clear Justev spent his time in the navy socking away some cash. He will walk away with 90k Cr. His material rolls of 3 and 6 gain him his officer's sword and a High Passage ticket worth another 10k.

Justev Evans, Commander A75989 Age 34 M Human
Navy (4 Terms) Cr 90,000
Comms-0, Engineering-1, Grav Vehicle-0, Jack-o-Trades-2, Leadership-1 Navigation-1,
Piloting-1, Slashing Weapons-0, Slug Pistol-0, Tactics-1, Turret Weapons-0, Zero G-1

High Passage
Sword 3D6 P/S

At the end we have a very well rounded character. The JoT skill is especially useful. With 2 ranks, it means any skill check he attempts for a skill he doesn't have will only be at a -1 DM instead of a -3 DM. Between that, the piloting, navigation and engineering skills, Justev Evans will make a good addition to any space faring party. With that sort of skill list and mustering out benefits, I think we'll stop here with Mr. Evans.

golentan

2017-09-14, 12:09 AM

ZamielVanWeber

2017-09-14, 03:10 AM

My favorite edition of Traveller is Mega Traveller and I do not have the money to get that. This at least offers a cheap alternative. (Also less of a setting can be useful).

Edit:Sadly I cannot find this SRD on Drive thru RPG anymore. I was going to grab it too.

Anonymouswizard

2017-09-14, 05:59 AM

Reading through this, I have to ask as a traveller fan why I would ever go with Cepheus Engine? As you are describing character creation in Cepheus Engine and I read off the statlines you are producing using the exact terminology that traveller would use to produce identical statlines, I can't help but think "this is less a clone and more a request for a copyright claim/cease and desist letter."

Traveller is a very good game, and if I'm gonna be playing traveller, I'd just as soon play traveller.

It's basically the same thing but free (http://drivethrurpg.com/product/186894/Cepheus-Engine-System-Reference-Document?term=cep&test_epoch=0), so if you own Traveller you're not going to really use it (I only own both because, well, free). It's really just presenting the Traveller SRD in a slightly friendlier format from what I can remember.

Ah, what the heck, I'm going to roll up a character for OP to use alongside his if he wants.

So first my stat rolls, straight down the line.

STR 10
DEX 9
END 7
INT 7
EDU 11
SOC 7

Okay, wow, average or higher all around. Interesting that the two highest are Strength and EDU, but we're pretty clearly not going into the military with this character (END's a bit low for me to feel safe and SOC's not low enough for me to chase the higher Navy Officer ranks). With a bit of luck we can become a highly skilled doctor anyway, which gets us an easy ticket on a ship. But first background skills, for my home planet in MgT1e I essentially get to pick two traits for my homeworld, this certainly looks like a bloke from a High Technology world to me, and for a bit of fun let's say it's covered in oceans. His homeworld has no dry land, the people survive in massive floating cities with inbuilt farms. So my background skills are below.

From Homeworld: Computers 0, Seafarer 0.

Education skills: Engineer 0, Language 0.

Yes, I'm specifically picking education skills so as not to overlap with basic training. Because let's name our guy now, he's from a water world so let's so with Nelson Yi, and he's just finished school with brilliant but not outstanding marks. Thankfully, due to a couple of lucky family connections, he gets to try following his dream and applies for training as a doctor. With a straight 8 on the dice to qualify he gets into medical school or apprentices to a doctor or something, maybe a hospital needed help moving patients about.

Career: Scholar.
Assignment: Physician.

Training: personal development because I want to try for that extra point of Education. A 2 means I get it, so while I haven't learnt any skills yet I'm more likely to succeed at advancement rolls. I've obviously been studying outside of work to make up for my pathetically average intelligence. Oh, I also get Comms, Computers, Diplomat, Medic, Investigate, and any Science skill (let's pick Life Science) at 0 if I don't have them thanks to basic training.

Survival: my Education modifier is now a +2, I literally can only fail by rolling snake eyes. I'm completely fine.

Event: a roll of 5 means a get a prestigious award for my work. Those hours studying have obviously paid off. So I'll get a +1 to any one benefit roll when I leave, here's hoping for lots of lab ship shares.

Advancement: a seven. Dang, one off raising my Medic skill to 1.

So at the end of that term we see Nelson studying very hard, but not quite making it to the point of being a doctor yet. No worry though, while he can't stay on here is a hospital that likes his dedication and has offered him a job, allowing him to continue in his dream career. Because this is the actual Traveller book I'm using I don't need to reenlist, but if I roll less than my terms in this career on my advancement roll, or snake eyes, I'm kicked out.

Career: Scholar.
Assignment: Physician.

Training: well because he hasn't shown much promise as a doctor, Nelson's new hospital gives him some training in other aspects of hospital work (because I want to roll on the Advanced Education table). Annoyingly instead of learning how to fix the machines he instead learns to make sculptures, although his frankly rather poor artwork does help cheer up the patients.

Survival: yeah, I pass this, there's like a one in thirty six chance I don't.

Event: Well, thanks to this event I rolled it's obvious why Nelson wasn't learning to fix the machines, some government project had recruited him to work on counters to a new biological weapon! Okay, this is an excuse to pick up Physical Science (Chemistry) 1, but it at least makes very rough sense.

Advancement: a seven again means I'm still stuck as an intern. Lousy office politics.

With a prospective cure for this weapon found, Nelson is allowed to go back to his old job. Surely this time he'll become an actual doctor?

Career: Scholar.
Assignment: Physician.

Training: I'm liking the look of the Advanced Education table again, I don't want to risk rolling Medic because if I get to rank 1 I get it anyway. So we spend a lot of time studying and become better with computers, rank 1.

Survival: oh look a two. And another two. We're fine.

Event: Another award for my work. Getting quite a few of these for somebody who has spent a decade as an intern. I bet the real doctors are getting annoyed (another +1 to a benefit roll of my choice).

Advancement: Another seven. Nelson gets no luck and finishes his twelfth year as an intern. He's really board of cleaning the operating theatre by now. He's allowed to stay on though, maybe he sculpted the hospital's mascot.

Despite having now won two awards for his medical work, it is still just Mister Yi. No worries though, we can always have another crack at the doctor's exam, let's just hope we don't get a mishap along the way.

Career: Scholar.
Assignment: Physician.

Training: Yeah, going for the advanced education table again. It's actually got quite a nice mixture of skills on it, and we roll languages. Let's say Nelson spent a lot of his time helping look after tourists that had fallen ill, and picked up parts of the language the spoke.

Survival: Why can't I get these good rolls for advancement?

Event: a 7 sends me to the life event table, which tells me I've been betrayed by a friend. Like that's new, I've already spent over a decade as an intern. Not even a Junior Doctor, that's the insulting part. Well I get a Rival or Enemy, let's pick a rival. Xue Winters is about six years younger than me and has been annoyed ever since I won that award for medicining despite being an Intern and not a real doctor like her. So she eventually uncovers evidence of that government work I did like a decade ago, it turns out that my work was used to create an even nastier version of that bioweapon. If only that information wasn't all over the internet.

Advancement: I seem to only roll sevens for this. For the record, Mister Yi has won two awards for his brilliance within sixteen years, and is still an intern.

Aging: a total of one means no effect.

Well that's unlucky, seeing as how his name's been dragged through the mud the government transfers him to another hospital. This one's on the moon! Unfortunately the piece of paper that recorded him finally becoming a doctor got lost in the move, so Yi is still an intern.

Career: Scholar.
Assignment: Physician.

Training: due to being unused to working on the moon his new employers allow Nelson to spend more time studying than learning low-g doctoring. So yeah, advanced education again this time, but he spends all his time studying the machinery in the base. Or rather I roll Engineer and pick the Life Support specialty.

Survival: yep, another good roll wasted.

Event: well it's obvious why I was transferred to the moon, the government needs my help again! It's working on this new moonship idea they have though, so I get Engineer (M-Drive) as my bonus.

Advancement: after his brilliant work on helping to constructing this moonship Nelson finally is promoted to being a junior doctor! Finally.

Aging: a roll of ten means I still don't lose any characteristic points.

After finding out that somehow working in low-g environments helps halt the aging process Doctor Yi elects to continue serving on the moon.

Career: Scholar.
Assignment: Physician.

Training: well as we're actually doctoring this time I'll roll on the medic table. A 1 gives me another rank in Medic.

Survival: Yep, still here.

Event: so with a breakthrough in the field of low-g surgery I get a nice +2 to my next advancement check. Speaking of which.

Advancment: Which I succeed! Rank 2 doctor!.

Aging: low-g continues the aging gracefully trend.

Now here I have two options. I could follow the recommended rules and muster out, take my seven benefit rolls and hope for the best. But I'm on a roll, and another advancement gives me the chance of another benefit roll, so here goes nothing.

Career: Scholar.
Assignment: Physician.

Training: more rolls on my specialty table, a nice roll of Comms. I am slightly better at radioing people.

Survival: is six higher than four?

Event: another secret project. What the heck, I was helping to hunt down illegal cyborgs, I'll take that Investigate 1.

Advancement: nice, I get to rank 3, Life Science (Biology) 1 please!

Aging: we're still not showing any signs of aging here!

While my natural instinct is to continue going until my advancement rolls force me out, that'll be a bit silly. Besides, a 50 Doctor Yi decides it's time to go out and see the galaxy. Doing a lot of government work hasn't exactly left him with a massive fortune (one benefit roll on the Cash table with a +1 modifier, 100,000 credits), but he has a host of other benefits (a 2+1 gives him two ship shares, a 5 gives me scientific equipment, a 6 gives me five shares towards a lab ship, a 2 gives me +1 EDU, a 3 gives me two ship shares, a 6 gives me another five shares towards a lab ship, a 4 gives me +1 SOC, and a 4 gives me another +1 Soc). Okay, so he mainly has an old lab ship (full 10 bonus ship shares for a 20 year old ship please) with a large mortgage left to pay on it, 95,664,240 credits to be precise, but still!

Name: Dr Nelson Yi
Age: 50
Strength 10
Dexterity 9
Endurance 7
Intelligence 7
Education 13
Social Standing 9

Skills: Art (sculpture) 1, Comms 1, Computers 1, Diplomat 0, Drive 0, Engineer (Life Support) 1, Engineer (M-Drive) 1, Investigate 1, Language (Anglic) 1, Life Science (Biology) 1, Medic 2, Physical Science (Chemistry) 1, Seafarer 0

Allies: none.
Contacts: none.
Enemies: none.
Rivals: Xue Winters.

Pension: 14,000 credits

Money: 92,900 credits

Equipment: lab equipment, TL10 cloth armour, TL10 comm, TL12 computer (w/Security 2, Translator 1, Intelligent Interface 1), TL10 Medkit, 10 doses of Panacea, laboratory ship (+50% maintenance costs, damaged sensors).

I imagine an eccentric doctor going from system to system in his mobile lab helping governments with secret projects in exchange for repairs and money.

has no dry land, th

1337 b4k4

2017-09-14, 08:30 PM

1337 b4k4

2017-09-14, 11:14 PM

In the interest in covering the various options, and to show how it changes the process, we'll make our next character with the Mishap rules instead of straight up dying on a failed survival roll. Anonymouswizard's character creation example showed us what the Life Events in MgT adds to character creation, so this is an exploration of the other side. On with the show:

Meet our newest recruit Tory Jackson, another human male with a UPP of 7BABA8. This is an interesting one, with Dex, End, Int and Edu well above average, and good Str and Soc characteristics too. With scores like that, this sounds like a character that might be good to try against the Scout service. In Classic Traveller, the scout service was the hardest service to have a career in, but had some of the highest rewards too. Scouts are the front line of civilization, boldly going where no one has gone before, and doing so on their own without the support of say an entire naval fleet. They're the space age Magellans. And this will almost certainly give us a chance to play with the mishap rules. With 4 background skills, let's pick up Survival, Carousing, Medicine and Space Sciences.

Tory Jackson 7BABA8 Age 18 M Human
Graduate Cr 0
Carousing-0, Medicine-0, Space Sciences-0, Survival-0

With a roll of 6 vs Int 6+ Tory is in the scout service. Basic training provides Comms, Electronics, Slug Rifle, Heavy Weapons, Recon and Piloting, with Piloting being at level 1 for Rank 0 scouts. A survival roll of 9 vs End 7+ means he makes it through the first term relatively unscathed. Scouts don't have commissioning or advancement, so they get two skill rolls per term, we'll go with PD and Service Skills, giving us Slashing Weapons and Recon. Finally a roll of 8 vs 6+ means we've successfully reenlisted.

Tory Jackson 7BABA8 Age 22 M Human
Scout (1 Term) Cr 0
Carousing-0, Comms-0, Electronics-0, Heavy Weapons-0,
Medicine-0, Recon-1, Piloting-1, Slashing Weapons-1, Slug Rifle-0,
Space Sciences-0, Survival-0

This is probably a good point to have a short chat about "Cascade Skills" considering I've been just skipping over it. Some skills on the tables (Animals, Sciences, Gun Combat, Gunnery, Melee Combat, Vehicle and Watercraft) are called Cascade skills, which basically just means you pick a specialization when taking that skill, and get the remaining specializations at level 0. So when getting Gun Combat for example, you get to pick from Archery, Energy Pistol, Energy Rifle, Shotgun, Slug Pistol or Slug Rifle. Anyway, onward!

Our second term gives us an 8 survival roll, and another two rolls, one on PD and one on service skills, yielding +1 Dex and Comms. Using his previous training in recon, Mr Jackson spent this time coordinating with a full on survey team exploring a small moon. Coordinating a team like that over a large area unfortunately meant he spent a lot of time sitting on the radio. Still, having to run from Trallarian Flying Snakes did improve his already great mile time into an impressive sustained sprint. Re-enlisting is a breeze with a roll of 8.

Tory Jackson 7CABA8 Age 26 M Human
Scout (2 Terms) Cr 0
Carousing-0, Comms-1, Electronics-0, Heavy Weapons-0,
Medicine-0, Recon-1, Piloting-1, Slashing Weapons-1, Slug Rifle-0,
Space Sciences-0, Survival-0

Tory's 3rd term starts out well, with a 10 for the survival roll. For one of the 3 hardest to survive careers (Belter is a 7+, only a Hunter is 8+), Tory isn't having a difficult time staying alive. Or maybe he is and he's just that good. This term we'll take both of our rolls on the Service Skills table, yielding Recon and Electronics. When you're out and alone in the field, in the wilds and the dangers, your equipment breaks down a lot. And because you're alone, the only one who can get it back working again is you. Tory's third term might not have been deadly, but if he never sees the insides of another radio or seismic sensor pod it will be too soon. A roll of 6 means he just barely manages to keep his appointment.

Tory Jackson 7CABA8 Age 30 M Human
Scout (3 Terms) Cr 0
Carousing-0, Comms-1, Electronics-1, Heavy Weapons-0,
Medicine-0, Recon-2, Piloting-1, Slashing Weapons-1, Slug Rifle-0,
Space Sciences-0, Survival-0

And with term four, a roll of 8 allows another term with no major injuries. This time a roll on PD and the Specialist table yields +1 Edu and Demolitions. This term, Tory found himself part of a small advance team preparing a landing and terraforming site on a remote planet. Never one to pass up the chance to play with new toys, Tory decides to take on the task of leveling some of the rock formations in the target zone. A roll of 1 means no effects from aging this term, and a roll of 7 allows yet another term, which is great because if he survives, Tory will pick up an annual pension.

Tory Jackson 7CABB8 Age 34 M Human
Scout (4 Terms) Cr 0
Carousing-0, Comms-1, Demolitions-1, Electronics-1, Heavy Weapons-0,
Medicine-0, Recon-2, Piloting-1, Slashing Weapons-1, Slug Rifle-0,
Space Sciences-0, Survival-0

I must have spoken too soon because the 5th term's survival roll is a 4. I guess it's a good thing we decided to roll with the mishap rules this time. A roll of 6 on the mishap table gives us a Medical Discharge, a roll of 2 on the injury table gives a Severely injured result, we need to reduce a physical characteristic by 1d6, which is a roll of 3. Applying that to Dex leaves it at 9, still above average. We have an option to undo the effects of the damage at a cost of 5kCr per point, and he has a chance of the costs being paid by the service. A 2d6 roll of just 4 would get 75% of those costs paid. So let's give it a go, after 18 years in the service, Tory figures they owe him a reconstructed leg or two, and with a roll of 10, his new legs are paid for in full by the scout service, returning his Dex score to 12. All in all not terrible, he doesn't get skill rolls for this term, doesn't get his pension and loses the benefit roll, but he's out of the service without any significant permanent losses. A scout has a chance of getting their very own ship in the material benefits table, so Tory is going to spend his benefit rolls there hoping for a ship. First roll is 5, an Explorer's Society membership! Not a ship, but pretty darn good. And the second roll ... A SIX! Things may have not ended great, but Tory Jackson is now the proud owner of a 100 ton Courier starship, mortgage, maintenance and fueling all paid for by the scout service forever. The only hitch is that the ship isn't really his, it's on loan from the scout service on a reserve basis. Both his ship and Tory Jackson himself are both subject to immediate recall to duty if and when the scout service deems it necessary. He's also responsible for the ship, can not abandon, sell or otherwise dispose of or lose the ship without suffering consequences. And given that a Courier costs over 35 MCr (that's millions), the consequences are severe indeed. Having obtained the two best results on the scout material benefits table, he decides to spend the next two rolls on the cash tables, with a 5 and 4 netting him a cool 30 kCr

Tory Jackson 7CABB8 Age 36 M Human
Scout (4.5 Terms) Cr 30,000
Carousing-0, Comms-1, Demolitions-1, Electronics-1, Heavy Weapons-0,
Medicine-0, Recon-2, Piloting-1, Slashing Weapons-1, Slug Rifle-0,
Space Sciences-0, Survival-0

Explorer's Society Membership
100 Ton Courier (Scout Reserve)

You know what, other than that survival roll, Tory has been on FIRE in his life, let's press our luck and say he decides he's not done running around the galaxy. Adventure junky that he is, he decides to take those recon and demolitions skills to use as a mercenary. Running around the edge of the galaxy for all those years, he's picked up a contact or two and made some friends. 9 vs Int 4+ means he's easily qualified, even with the -2 DM from his previous career. A 9 vs End 6+ gets him through the first term for his survival roll, 10 vs Int 7+ for commission and a 5 vs 6+ for advancement and 2 rolls on the skills tables, leaves Tory Jackson as a Lieutenant in a mercenary troupe, obtaining Slug Rifle-1, Battle Dress-0, Gambling-1 and Natural Weapons-1. Having spent years on the ass end of space, Tory Jackson has a lot of great stories, and easily fit in with his new companions. A few jobs for some small time tin-pot dictators qualified him as a decent marksman, and the down time saw a lot of time spent in seedy bars and casinos gambling away his pay check. Unfortunately, that experience with gambling apparently came with quite a few concurrent experiences with brawls.

A roll of 2 for aging means no aging effects again (The rules are a bit unclear on how the aging rules interact with being discharged halfway through a term. Ultimately given that aging is at the end of every term, it's easier to apply the roll every 4 years of age, and use whole terms served as the aging DM). A roll of 11 allows him to stick around for another term.

Tory Jackson, Lieutenant 7CABB8 Age 40 M Human
Scout (4.5 Terms) Mercenary (1 Terms) Cr 30,000
Battle Dress-0, Carousing-0, Comms-1, Demolitions-1, Electronics-1, Gambling-1 Heavy Weapons-0,
Medicine-0, Natural Weapons-1, Recon-2, Piloting-1, Slashing Weapons-1, Slug Rifle-1,
Space Sciences-0, Survival-0

Explorer's Society Membership
100 Ton Courier (Scout Reserve)

His 2nd term in the mercenaries starts well with a roll of 7, and a 9 for advancement. Captain Jackson takes a roll on service skills and advanced ed, yielding Slug Rifle and Medicine. A roll of 0 for aging effects means a reduction of one physical characteristic, and 10 allows a re-enlistment. Promoted to captain, Tory was given a platoon to command and an assignment as the spear tip in a planetary Barron's coup d'etat. That sort of work led to a lot of time looking down the scope of a rifle, and sadly a lot of time trying to patch up the young men under his command. Still he did well and got himself and most of his men through it alive. Unfortunately, age is beginning to catch up with him, and he's not a fast as he used to be.

Tory Jackson, Captain 7BABB8 Age 44 M Human
Scout (4.5 Terms) Mercenary (2 Terms) Cr 30,000
Battle Dress-0, Carousing-0, Comms-1, Demolitions-1, Electronics-1, Gambling-1 Heavy Weapons-0,
Medicine-1, Natural Weapons-1, Recon-2, Piloting-1, Slashing Weapons-1, Slug Rifle-2
Space Sciences-0, Survival-0

Explorer's Society Membership
100 Ton Courier (Scout Reserve)

Alright, one last hurrah before cashing it in (actually, technically after 7 terms, or 7.5 in this case, the standard rules require a character to retire and begin adventuring, probably not a bad idea). A 7 for survival means he makes it out alive, but just barely, likewise his 6 for advancement means just barely edging out that promotion to Major. A roll on PD and Service skills yields Gabling and Slashing Weapons. A -4 for the aging roll means this time around time is catching up, -2 for two physical characteristics and -1 for another. This time, promoted to a Major, Tory was responsible for coordinating operations, picking up some tactical experience, rather than leading a platoon. Still, one has to keep themselves sharp, and between weekends at the casinos, he spent time honing his skills with knife combat. Unfortunately, all the hard years in the wilds, and the subsequent years pushing his body to the limits in battle have finally caught up with him and he's beginning to slow down. Even if the company wouldn't have discharged him, he would have retired this year.

3 terms gives 3 more rolls on the benefits tables, and he has one to spend on the cash table, which with his gambling skill means he gets a +1 on the roll, giving him 50 kCr, and the last two rolls on the material table gives two high passage tickets. Since he has his own ship, these will probably be sold.

Tory Jackson, Major 698BB8 Age 48 M Human
Scout (4.5 Terms) Mercenary (3 Terms) Cr 80,000
Battle Dress-0, Carousing-0, Comms-1, Demolitions-1, Electronics-1,
Gambling-2, Heavy Weapons-0, Medicine-1, Natural Weapons-1, Recon-2,
Piloting-1, Slashing Weapons-2, Slug Rifle-2,
Space Sciences-0, Survival-0, Tactics-1

Explorer's Society Membership
100 Ton Courier (Scout Reserve)
2x High Passage

There's a good chance since he has the ship and the skills that Mr. Jackson will be the captain of our growing band of adventurers. And you can clearly see how much difference the mishap rules can make in this game. Compare the number of skills Justev has vs Tory. Now some of that is due to the guaranteed 2 skill rolls per term from the scouting service, but one can also afford to be riskier. Not too risky mind you, a dishonorable discharge as a mishap could cause you to lose ALL of your benefits from this service, but even that can be better than losing your character.

1337 b4k4

2017-09-21, 09:33 PM

And we're back. Before we make up our last merry adventurer, we're going to take a side trip into the world creation system. Why? Well mostly because I figure we're all a bit bored about reading character roll ups, but also because we'll give some home-world skills to our next adventurer.

We're going to drop our world into a randomly generated sub-sector, and we'll be using this sub-sector (https://campaignwiki.org/traveller/map/2140174444). So our first task is going to be to decide where it goes. 1d8 and 1d10 will help us out, and wouldn't you know it, our first attempt drops us in 0604, which is a nicely open hex for us to play in, and we're going to name our system world Gaxu Vase.

First up is world size, 2d6-2 gives us an 8. With a diameter of ~12,800 KM and a surface gravity of 1G, this is pretty much an earth like planet (at least size wise).

Atmosphere is up next, 2d6-7+World Size gives us a 9, a Dense and Tainted atmosphere, so some form of filter will be required to breathe the air. Now a tainted atmosphere isn't as bad as a corrosive one, but it will do damage to people breathing it without some form of filtration. Maybe our planet is home to airborne versions of our brain eating amoebas. Without a filter, you'll be infected and on your way out within the day.

Hydrographics tells us how much of the planet is covered in water. 2d6-7+world size again gives us a 10, a nearly complete water world with 96%+ water. So we have a world where all settlements are likely floating and enclosed bubbles and habs.

Now for population, 2d6-2 gives us 7 for tens of millions of people, or a very large city worth of people (larger than London or New York City).

And with that we can determine our primary star-port classification, 2d6-7+population. That gives us a 2, for a result of no star-port at all. No fuel available, no shipyards and no standard bases. This is shaping up to be interesting. Probably a penal planet, with no ground and star-ports, food and supplies will pretty much have to be air dropped and no trade means no real economy to speak of. And what better place to send your prisoners than a planet where trying to leave the enclosures you've put people in will result in their death by either drowning or brain melting.

Our next roll is for the government, again 2d6-7+population, with a roll of 7 we have a Balkanization, which sounds like a good way to describe what is probably a completely unregulated prison planet. Gangs of criminals all crammed together in an elaborate hamster tube system of interconnected habitation units, with no wardens or official government presence order is enforced by the strongest and the meanest.

Next up we roll for law level, 2d6-7 + government, a roll of 3 gives us a low law level, where heavy weaponry, portable energy weapons and poison gas, explosives and WMDs are all forbidden. The prisoners have likely managed to cobble together personal fire arms, but a form of MAD combined with a common self interest in not having their brains melted means anything likely to put a hole in the habitats is forbidden, likely with extreme prejudice.

And now we'll roll for the tech level of the world, 1d6 -4 (star-port) +1 (atmosphere), that gives us -2, but the atmosphere of 9 requires a minimum tech level of 5. Now in the CE rules, the descriptions for tech levels are actually found in the equipment chapter. A tech level of 5 gives us an industrial society with "widespread electrification, tele-communications and internal combustion", but a tech level of 7 is "Can reach orbit reliably and has telecommunications satellites". So a tech level of 5 is probably somewhere around mid 20th century tech levels. That's probably not unreasonable for our prison planet.

Next we look at our "trade codes". The only one we qualify for is Water World for a hydrographics of A. This is a place where the official Traveller rules give more than CE. We have these trade codes, but no real descriptions about what they imply.

Now for some finishing touches:

A 9 on 2d6 tells us there are planetoid belts in the system and 1d6 - 3 tells us there's one planetoid belt, possibly rich in mineable resources.

Another roll of 7 tells us there's also a gas giant present in system, with 1d6-2 indicating 1 giant. Gas giants allow ships with fuel scoops to refuel. Likely how the owning government keeps the prisoner transports fueled (and possibly provides fuel to the prison below).

A star-port of X means no Naval base presence, and no Scout base presence. A roll of 4 means there's also no Pirate base.

A government rating of 7 gives us Amber Zone status for the world. This implies there are warnings to travelers to be careful or avoid this planet. If it's a prison planet, we should probably upgrade this to a Red Zone status, travel forbidden. This rating may or may not be something you use in your game or any particular system as it does imply some centralized government able to issue these warnings and or interdict against travel.

All said and done, we get the following for our planetary profile

Gaxu Vase 0604
X89A773-5 Wa R
111

These values are
Name Subsector Position
star-port, size, atmo, hydro, pop, gov, law - tech trade code travel status
pop-modifier, num planetoid belts, num gas giants

So this leads us to the interesting question of how does this become a home-world for a character? Well, that we'll have to look at next time.