Well, my pre Xmas trip to Austin lasted longer than expected, and was
followed by an even-less-expected stay in Stockholm, which lasted me till
Xmas. I've finally caught up with the stuff coming from TML, but I won't
even try to comment on the stuff in the intervening period, apart from ...
To GDW:
The GDW character generation stuff: like Hans I would like some examples of
the actual tables, but the stuff here is a lot better than I had feared, so
that it would seem the overhaul is less extensive than I had come to expect.
Some comments:
- - I would prefer to see DET generated as a separate attribute (rather than
derived as in MT, and rather than a skill as it is here) if its use is to be
similar to that in MT. I don't see the rules here for gaining skills through
experience, rather than by character generation/pro-rating, and you need
something to modify the chances/time for increasing skills through training
("I spent the week in jump practicing my Aslan grammar" is the kind of
out-of-character opportunism you occasionally come across). In the past,
given the generally poor systems put forward for skills development in
Traveller, I've used a combination of a det attribute, the instruction
skill, and a throw against the current skill level similar to that in
Runequest (so that it becomes more difficult to advance as you move along
the percentage scale/bell curve), but this is on no way official.
- - minor point which annoys me is the bureaucrat's watch. You don't get many
bureaucrat players, and an NPC hardly needs a watch. In the real world, top
level civil servants who retire get seats on company boards (in France they
have a word for it which I believe is pantouflage) and in the commercial
sector they, er, get the same. Basically it adds up to a large amount of
money and also influence, and you probably need to cut the bureaucrats into
the share scheme, and also add an influence skill. In the UK, by the way,
the civil service is at the core of the honours system, and top civil
servants can (and do) expect knighthoods and occasionally seats in the House
of Lords, so free leaps in Social Status may also be worth offering.
- - I liked Richard Johnson's suggestions on Social Status determining career.
Maybe in the TNE period SS is more of an anachronism, but the traditional
Traveller rules had far too little on the influence of SS, and the
aristocratic social structure which underlay it, on Imperial society. I'd
also like to see some starting funds based on SS. The combination of this
and restriction of opportunity would better reflect the milieu. It would
start the players in an unequal position (but this should balance out with
str, int etc anyhow) but this sort of game is anyway not a race, and in the
past I've found that imbalances of advantage/disadvantage between players
actually encourage character development and interaction. On a rereading I
see you actually intend to cover at least the money side and also modify for
world technology. This is good but I think you should also look at Richard's
proposal.
- - Given the increased degree of diversity between worlds in the TNE era,
there should probably be some note against the rank/title lists indicating
that this is the old imperial naming system and local namings should vary.
By the way, I'm not sure that giving all the careers rank systems is
productive - top scientists aren't always head of department, for example,
even at the end of their careers. At the risk of complicating the process, I
think you should consider multiple reward systems, eg power/influence, fame,
money, high skill levels, rather than driving everything via the rank
system. For example, when a character makes his/her promotion roll, give
them the choice of having an extra 2 skills instead.
- - attributes only allowed to increase a maximum of once each during
generation ... but what about, eg cybernetics. And I think once each is too
small ... I know people who have changed more than that over a long period.
Please, change this to once every 2 terms, or introduce a disincentive (1
attribute for 2 skills, say). Also if possible introduce a very small chance
of a really weird leap to produce the occasional one-off character.
- - also, I'll second the plea for increasing the granularity of the skill
ranges. I don't mind d20 systems ... I regard them as more usable than d100,
and in the past I've used them to simplify, for example, the Chaosium
systems for novice gamers who found percentile throws too finnicky. I've
seen them work very well, for example Chivalry & Sorcery used to have a very
good d20 based combat system (as an optional alternative to d100. C&S would
have had d1000 if it had thought it could get away with it). Moving from
skills ranged to 15 to a 13 range for a 20 based throw (as I understand it)
seems a trifle weird - does it mean a lot of crit hit/miss tables at the
back of the books? If so, try GMing a SpaceMaster campaign, then think
again.
- - I don't see anything about the pre-career education system provided in the
advanced careers systems of late classic traveller, and/or MT. If you do do
this, please allow academic skills to be actually obtained at college
(alternatively I guess carousing or such could be made available). Also
think twice before just inserting a carbon copy of the US education system
(high school, college, graduate school, etc) - I'm not sure it could sustain
several millenia of close examination (;-))
- - A number of skills seem to be missing from what one might need to turn the
scientist career into a viable one. The advanced scientist character
generation rules in Challenge 29 (which don't by the way work unless the
character makes it to grad school, where they are allowed to discover what
they studied at college) includes a number of extra skills:
cryonics
meteorology
sophontology
botany
ecology
psionics (study rather than practice)
archeology (important in the Traveller milieu)
linguistics (again study rather than extra languages)
psychology
sociology
theology
psychohistory (Isaac Asimov RIP)
Also some of the other social studies - law, politics, economics etc are
missing. You can pick and choose from the ones above but the list you have
needs bulking out.
- - other stuff on skills - conventional arts, eg writing, painting are
missing. Again, difficult to get in everything, but a general artisan skill
may be worth considering. And also I don't see linguistics (this time
language learning rather than the science) ... I mention
this skills stuff because I once sat down and generated some advanced char
generation rules for scientists and for artisans. In addition to the
discovery (as opposed to promotion) roll for scientists as in Challenge 29, I
had a book roll, so that even if they didn't discover anything interesting,
they might have produced an interesting text. The artists had a "notable
work" roll (oh and the other difference from the C29 scientists was a lot
less moving around between assignments). These generated some very
interesting and useful NPCs, probably the most interesting I've had, and
sitting down and thinking about the way, for example, different artforms
were popular, and different artists gained renown, in different parts of the
Imperium, really added alot of flavour, not just for the players but also
for me as a GM. I'm looking forward to the zero-G stonemasons, by the way.
- - will the alien skills, eg storytelling and manipulation for the hivers,
not be available in the initial PC book? And is a later expanded char
generation system, analagous to the old advanced systems, also planned?
Oh, and by the way, thanks for asking our opinion. I for one very much
appreciate it.
That's all on that for now. On a totally unrelated note, I picked up the
latest issue (12, I think) of the Runequest "tales of the reaching moon"
fanzine. It contains an interview with Runequest contributor (and the
designer of Call of Cthulu) Sandy Petersen, and there is an interesting
discussion on the effect of Avalon Hill and Chaosium's attempts to expand
beyond the original Gloranthan setting to a generic system. It's relevant to
Traveller because the games have developed in similar ways - originally
popular, strong setting, subsequent split of designer and distributor
(Chaosium kept the design responsibility and AH became the publisher), new
version rejected by the hard core of fans, who still favour the old system,
lack of new material for the older background, old material becomes much
sought after, game develops reputation for "steep learning curve", etc, etc.
Avalon Hill, under new management, and Chaosium, are now repackaging and
expanding the Gloranthan material in an attempt to win back their core
audience. The current view on the older material seems to be to repackage
the background stuff, but not to rerelease the scenarios, which the older
audience will have played anyhow. Recommended reading for the GDW people.
Finally, can I ask the person who submitted the very long non Traveller PBEM
description please to desist. I know that I am in a minority in that I
actually pay for my traffic, but if we do go off on a tangent I would prefer
it to be brief. Sorry if this is not the majority view, but it is mine
(maybe a ruling, James?)
All the best, and a happy new year
Mark
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