If you have any questions or comments that might be of interest to everyone, this is the place to post them.

If you feel it would be better dealt with in private, then use a PM.

Hey guys, looking forward to playing with you all.

Storyteller, would you prefer that we try to build characters as a group?  or would you prefer we build them individually without worrying about cohesiveness/skill distribution?

Good question, I echo that.

I think I'd rather characters are generated separately, just to see how it goes.

I prefer to give players free reign, and then tailor the game to the characters, rather than the other way around.

Sounds good

I think that we need to try to keep a "balanced" party in mind, with at least the basics...2 spacecraft types (Pilot/Engineer/etc), 2 combat types (Marine/Army/etc)and 3+ others... maybe a spy type, a people's person, a noble, and the JoT guy....

I volunteer as the noble (dilettante).

Thoughts?

I just want to say hi to everyone.
Lets have a great and enjoyable game.

About my character, I follow StarMasters idea and let myself be surprised how the groups look. I think we will have enough chance to smooth out any imbalances with the campaign package.

Just a hello, myself.  I'll be working on a character this evening, but wanted to say "hi".

And keep in mind that there will be a 'group package' once all the character's meet that they can they choose a skill from to 'fill in the gaps'.

Also, the Connections link could give you a missing skill.

Good news, I understood half of that!!

I'm aiming my character at Corporate Agent to begin, then following the dice from there.  I'm wondering whether I'll end up young or old, but *might* be able to fill in the role of spy, depending.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:57, Tue 05 Aug 2014.

Do people know of some good character sheet pdfs?

Currently I use Santys Traveller
https://docs.google.com/file/d...rktSJdEhqTDh3c0Z2Yzg

Hahaha. Yeah, even as I was pressing the Post Message button, I wondered if I'd need to explain those a little more.

Although there are a few 'group packages' suggested in the book, I can make up one that suits the group more. The way that works is that there are usually a number of skills offered, and each player chooses one that he feels would be useful for his character. Once choosen, however, that skill is now off the table for the rest of the group. I can set up a thread where you can discuss who will take which skill, so it's not any kind of 'first-come, first-served' kind of situation.

I'm still pondering how many skills I should offer. Of course, it'll depend on how many players I wind up with.


The other option is Connections. Once every has generated their character, you can then try to make connections with each other's background. Suppose, for instance, that two of you were in the Marines at the same time. You both agree to make that a connection with the other character, and then you can exchange skills. So if you wind up without Stealth but want it, you essentially learn it from the other character... i.e. 'We were on an infiltration mission together.'

Hope that makes it clearer.

Oh, a couple of questions, mighty StarMaster.
- Have you collected the Central Supply Catalog and/or cybernetics?
- Are the various supplements available during character creation or ought we stick to just the core rulebook?

One thing I found with my previous group is that Mongoose Traveller easily allows the party to work around skill limitations with computers and cyberware.  It *may* even do better CyberPunk than CyberPunk.

Thanks!

Connections!  These can make the game! :)

Not sure how useful a character sheet will be. Obviously, if you want to fill one out and print it so that you have it for quick-and-easy reference when you post, that's fine.

On-line, however, it'll just be your UPP, a brief description of your character, a list of skills, and equipment. The character sheet has way too much wasted space to make it useful on-line tool.

I'll see what the site has to offer, and then probably make one up on my own.


Nope, don't have CSC yet. Probably next week (payday and all that).


Yes, supplements are usable during CharaGen.

I agree about the computers/software/cybernetics...with the right tech and money.

I mainly use it to quickly write down stuff during character generation.

Well, Initial generation finished, now on to careers. Wish me luck that I qualify. I am kinda scared to press the roll button.

Edit: Made it (right on target)!
And that was the closest I have ever gotten to getting a relationship during character creation.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:27, Tue 05 Aug 2014.

Do you have a hopeless character clause, as in, if 1/2 your stat rolls are at a -1 DM?
 4,9,5,8,4,7
This message was last edited by the player at 23:55, Tue 05 Aug 2014.

I will second that 2 5's and a 3. I would like to keep the 10 and 9. Maybe a reroll on the 3

Must be a cursed stats dice-rolling...

I had rather good rolls (in a sense that I made several hard key rolls). My stats are in my opinion a bit above average and skills are, like always, all over the place (No skill above 1).

I just botched my last Term spectacularly. Luckily I have enough money to pay the medical bills.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:05, Wed 06 Aug 2014.

One question, how will we handle our spaceship and ship shares?

I thought it might be interesting to see if we could use those as a way to connect the PCs with each other.

Do we think we'll have the skills to pilot and maintain a ship?  Do we have enough broker/persuade/diplomat/admin to keep a business venture in the black?  Or, will we fall into piracy and smuggling as an easy way to make money, getting on the wrong side of the law, and subsequently meet a bad end?

If we do, who owns the rest of our ship?

(The DM blessed me with good rolls, only for me to lose some of them due to age)

I have the business/flying skills (Merchant) but was not as lucky in getting a ship.

I have 4 ship shares so if anyone else has shares, we can pool them together. That might be the connection.

I did get access to TAS so we doe have a source of information.

At best I can bring a single Ship Share. Or a Contact. Not sure which one yet.

Need one more share and we can start off with a Free Trader. (Just have to get some good cargo)

I honestly thought we were going with the GM on this and not sharing character info until we started the game....

Sorry.
I was just talking about Ship Shares. Do we use/need them?

Looks like at this time gygax101 and I are done rolling up a character.

www.mongoosepublishing.com/pdf/Traveller%20Playtest%20Doc.pdf

has the play test rules that can at least get you started.

Also more or less done and ready to go.

How about a Venture Class Frontier Courier?

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/...ass-Frontier-Courier

3 Crew + 3 Passenger Staterooms, cargo, jump 2, 150 tons.  39.18MCr.

I am also nearly finished.

I still have one decision to do about benefits and then only need to write up a small backstory and the most difficult thing during character creation, a name.




Its probably best to wait until the characters are unveiled so that we can see if we are actually able to use a space ship, how much resources we have and what StarMaster has to say about it.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:41, Wed 06 Aug 2014.

Actually, I've thought about it and going to try for the full 6 terms..of course, the dice-roller might stab me with a crappy aging roll...only time will tell.

Wasn't sure on that point.  Are we holding to a six term limit?

Ship shares could well be a Connection, either as owning shares of the same ship (somehow), or else meeting at the broker when trying to acquire a ship. I've also got a few options in mind, since everyone seems to want a group ship.


Yes, I think six terms as a max is probably a good idea. However, if you have a character background (other than just rolling more careers), I'll consider allowing more. I mean, even now, it's not unreasonable for people to still be active into their Eighties. That far in the future, living to be 150 should be possible, even without anagathics.

"I'm a 107, sonny, and I can still kick your butt... for about 2 minutes, then I have to take a nap."


Anyway, still waiting for a few players to finish up, and then I need to extract the pertinent information from the characters and distill into something coherent, which I should be able to do today, so hopefully tomorrow we'll have a nice barroom brawl or something...

As I predicted...term 6 was a bust, but, at least my aging was fine (by a sliver)...

My 2 cents on +6 terms, you start getting into that risky catastrophic failed age roll...I suppose if you have really good physical stats...it might be worth it.

I'm hoping to get the finishing touches done today (maybe).

I am also finished (I think). Just need to tie everything into a backstory and of course do connections if we can find any suitable event. But I guess that has to wait till everyone has finished their character.

Makes me wish I had stopped at term 6. Oh well.

Me, too.  Rework tonight. :(

And I *definitely* had some failed aging rolls.  Still, I was starting to like the gentleman. :)

I stopped after term 4, my character may be the odd man out

Me too.
I planned a 5th at first, but the events fitted my planned backstory perfectly and so I stopped.

StarMaster, should we post the final stats in a special format in out generation threads or do you want to piece it together on your own?

I am kinda anxious to see how the group finds together.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:40, Wed 06 Aug 2014.

There's a couple of things I still need to work out with GM, then I will finish up my guy...for the most part...it might take me a bit for the buying of equipment.

Are we sticking with the standard 2k Cr buying limit?

Riiight, I knew I forgot something.
Looks like I have to undo some of my purchases.

No, I wasn't going with that Cr2,000 limit. Once the game starts, you could buy those things anyway (unless the tech on the planet didn't support it).

I never understood that 2K thing...Keep in mind, you've "lived" those 20(-/+)years, and other than what "mustering out" items you have, does that mean you can now only buy a pitchfork and an ugly dog?

Doesn't make sense.

I don't think the GM's goal was to not have us discuss working out our skills as a group, only for us to do our own character generation separately (as in individual threads)....

Yes, I'd rather see you generate a character based on what you want to play rather than have to choose a skill because it fills a group need.

The Connections and the Campaign skills are intended to fill that function.

Besides, it's more fun if the characters can't do EVERYTHING!

Connections are??

In reply to Quinzella (msg # 51):

When two players decide to tie the backstory of their characters together, for example they met during an event one of them rolled, pooled ship shares together or had the same career at the same time and it is at least plausible that they could have met they get a free skill

At least thats how I read it (both the rulebook and the discussions in here).

Couldn't have said it better.

That's exactly what Connecions are. For instance, two of the characters were in the Merchant Marine at the same time, so that's a possible Connection. You can only have two such Connections, though.

Also, the free skill you each get doesn't have to be the same skill, nor does it even have to be a skill that either of you have. You can also increase a skill that you do have, though not past rank 3.

It's not only a way to establish knowing one of the other characters before the first adventure, the skill is intended as a reward for doing so.

so like what systems such as Burning Wheel say you have to have

Out of interest, how many people will we be in the group?

Cast List has like niner.

Hmm.
If we are all playing in the same group we need one of the bigger ships (big for me is >200 ton) unless we like it cramped (I call dibs on the single stateroom!)

I looked to the books I have for suitable ships and came up with some designs, but before we discuss that we should finalize our characters, including the Campaign Package and Connections to see what we can afford and crew, decide what we want the ship to be capable and also what we can justify in game to have.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:33, Thu 07 Aug 2014.

We've already lost one player. He had to bow out. So we're down to 8. I'm still on the fence whether I should split everyone up into two separate groups. It's sometimes difficult to come up with something for everyone to do.

Already took that into account with a ship. The concensus was that the group needed its own ship, so I've got some ideas lined up.

With only 5 characters complete, there are already over 10 shares available, so getting a ship shouldn't be an issue. That may depend, though, on whether everyone can agree on the type of ship.

I have no idea what you mean by 'systems' or what Burning Wheel is.

other game system, like D&D or Shadowrun or Traveller.  Burning Wheel is a very low fantasy game system, has a skill level up and training system that is a step above most like it, but when you have to spend months in bed after combat that is the harsh spot of the system.

On the one or two groups, whatever works for you. If you do have two groups, they could be part of the same shipping line or independents.

You do realize that traveller is a complete RPG?

You do realize that is what I said??

Even if you find someway to say "no you didn't say that." you can't say I opposed that thought at all.

All systems in existence are complete role playing games.

Ok.

No worries, I must have misunderstood.

With that said, Some thoughts....

There's currently 8 players, just figuring to run a spaceship takes at least 4 and that's if nothing special is happening (and gunners/sensors/etc) and leaves little room for replacement.

And, that doesn't really include the support folks.

By and large, within 2 months we'll lose a player so, it makes sense, in a larger sense...to keep the group together?

Haha. That's pretty much what I'd decided. One group so that there's built in attrition. Of course, if everybody hangs around... it's that pesky RL stuff that usually does it.

It just means I'll have to work a bit harder to make sure everyone has something to do.


Here's something to think about. With every jump, the ship spends a week in jump space. Should we just do a fade to black, and then fade in when the week has passed? Or is there something characters can/want to do during that time?

I mean, just how long does it take to sharpen your knife? (Or your wits?) I suppose if everyone takes up knitting, you could start your own cottage industry.

Any ideas on this?

The one week in jump might be the time to work on cross training or bringing the level 0 skills to 1. If we only have one that can work the sensors and they ended up in sick bay...

Besides, we do not want to put the high pop worlds out of business.

Jump time would depend on the current mission on how it is spent.  Skill training is good, but say we have a passenger to be interogated, jump is a perfect opportunity to do so.

That's a great idea, and something we should organize as soon as possible, it can take a long time to gain skills and the sooner we start, the better.

Unless there's something "special" going on, J-time can be abstract, but, perhaps we get 24 hours realtime to think about it once we actually jump...just in case, somebody comes up with an idea that might affect us/ship at our destination (of course, we should have thought of that before jump ;-) ).

To get ahead of the 8-ball, perhaps we should discuss ship shares...

I have 5 shares in a luxury yacht, or 2 towards any other ship.

As I mentioned, there are enough ship shares combined to go well over 10, so acquiring a ship should be fairly easy.


Anyway, I finally threw together a character sheet for this game, and just added it to everybody's Character Detail thread. If you get a chance, I'd be helpful if you could fill it out. If not, I might get to do it later today.


Which brings up another point... posting final character stats. In my other game, the players thought it'd be helpful to post all the final character stats in one thread for ease of reference. Naturally, anything you wanted to keep 'secret' could be left out.

Another option is to post final character stats under Character Description. I'm not as keen on that, but since you can access it from the thread your posting in, I can see the benefit.

Anyone have any thoughts on this either way?

Personally I have always liked the realism added when you do not share stats.  If the game world was a real world would your character really know that my character has a heightened charisma when they have never spoken??

We can do it that way and some stats are going to be obvious "Sir, Duke, etc" For skills, someone with a 2+ in the area is going to be pretty good and 4+ might be a local legend.

I also agree about the realism of not knowing the stats.

But, concerning skills, it comes in handy knowing who can do what.

Once we are all introduced, then we could put in our skill lists through IC (and create a master list somewhere)?

About the jump time. Unless something happens or some issue is unresolved I think we can skip it except maybe the first time, assuming that the group has just formed. I think we can use that time let the characters get to know each other more.

That brings me to the stats, I agree that stats should not be public. Skills should only be made known in game (so a character says that he is a good medic, etc. instead of posting the skill level).
Although when debating who should get a skill from the package and when forming connections (when can/so we start with that by the way?) it probably is unavoidable to be a bit more specific about certain skills.

Edit: Are we supposed to use imperial or metric measurements for the character sheet? At least my book is all in metric.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:22, Fri 08 Aug 2014.

You can change the sheet to metrics. It's a British company. And while it's an argument that eventually the whole world will be metric, I still don't THINK metric, but I convert fairly easily in my head (for rough estimates).


I think the point about shared skill knowledge is that the characters could have files in the computer that 'assessed' their skill ratings. And the not knowing part was more relevant in fantasy games, but SF has ways of rating things, such as IQ.

To be honest, with respect to revealing stats, I believe that we are all adults here and can play well with others.  If other players know what my character should be able to do that is fine with me.

Obviously, some characters may know more than others about certain aspects (especially those that have connections) of Sharik - and that is good, too.  To me, it is easier to ignore something than to manufacture it or infer it (Sharik's player will admit that they are not the most perceptive in RL).  Of course, on the other side of it, people are allowed to keep all secrets they want;  if don't want others to know something, then that is fine.

But as Kheaiftouaw's player (and others) have noted that veil breaks down where both connections and package skills come into play.  To that end, I am fine with others knowing my characters stats (or at least having a fairly concrete idea of them), for while they do inform some (or much) of Shar's personality, they aren't everything...:)  And how else are we going to know if there are potential connections?  I prefer to make connections (and the added skills are a nice bonus) and so to that end, I will be posting plenty of term/event/skill information in the hopes that someone might be willing to form a connection or two.

By the way: How do we establish connections??

In reply to Quinzella (msg # 76):

I guess we just discuss among each other where we can establish them.

For example, I come form a rich trading world and went into a space career (trade, but the career is not specific). During this I had a life event where I met a unspecified contact.

This contact could be one of the other characters, assuming someones careers allowed him to be in the Keiar subsector (preferably in or near the Hierate).

Quinny has a mind set heavily on secretive and explorative, she is eager to find new things, but if she can't she has become rather good at the espionagey stuff.

Contacts (+allies/enemies/rivals/patrons) are usually an NPC (pg76), but, that's up to the GM.

Yes, I was referring to the point the GM made that some contacts would likely be set up between players.

In reply to gygax101 (msg # 79):

I left the contact open because the example character uses this exact circumstances (contact through event) to gain a connection and lists the player character as contact on his character sheet instead of an NPC.

I see what you mean now.

In that case, Served Terms 2-6 Celebrity/Actor (Noble), on term 4...Birth or Death (life event)...anyone available for a funeral/baby shower for a mutual friend.

I just realized... if you play your cards right, you could all wind up knowing each other through another character! Shades of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon!

It's one of the reasons I was wanting term by term 'details'... I've put everybody into a grid by term, so that I can tell when a Connection was likely to be made.

And remember, you can have up to two Connections.

huh, and huh??

Do we know of said grid??  meaning visually.

In reply to gygax101 (msg # 82):

That reminds me, with 6 Terms being the limit its probably best to start with the last term and count backwards. That way the timeline fits even for younger characters.

So my life event contact was in term 3, not 1.

That's what I was doing... and one player went to 7 terms, so it gets bumped even one more.

I guess its no sense to try to keep the careers secret when we want to make connections.

So what do the others think? Should we make them all public after all characters are finished and we move to connections and the skill package?

We do now!  Too bad no one who has completed their character (sans connections and package skills, of course) has really given a timeline of their character events (in reverse, as Kheaiftouaw, has suggested).  I would have filled in Sharik's entries... but well, she's not done yet...


This message was last edited by the GM at 01:16, Sat 09 Aug 2014.

I wouldn't know what to give??

Filled in the table with what I have. If something isn't right, let me know and I'll fix it.


While there are some clear areas where a Connection could be made, here's another approach to consider.

Connections can be made through events, but events don't always cover it. So, you can always look at some skill that you might want to gain, and match that up with another character who wants the same skill. The Connection then becomes where you both gained the skill--summer camp, summer stock, gun club, the party-to-end-all-parties, etc.

Didn't I have a scout somewhere in there??  That is if I am interpretting right.

There... is that better?  *points back to msg #88*

Yes, you had Scout as your first term, Quinzella. I just put it into the wrong slot. It's a bit hard to read the table in its crude form.

Also, Sharik's first term was Scout, but until she finishes her character, she doesn't know how many terms she's going for.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:35, Sat 09 Aug 2014.

Late Dinner, then I will do up my char sheet.

Anyone interested in Confabulious me for a togethery thing??

Love the char sheet Starmaster.  Though where do I add money and/or debt??

You can put it with Gear.

Made a spot for Rivals too :D

Table of Term Events and Careers:

---

Sharik Kaagira:
Year Range: T-0 to T-4 Years (last term)
Career: Nobility/Dilettante
Event:  [4,1] Gift from relative
Skills:  Jack of All Trades, Carouse
Advancement  Promoted to Rank 3 (Ingrate)

Year Range: T-5 to T-8 Years (two terms ago)
Career: Nobility/Dilettante
Event:  [2,3] Gift from relative
Skills:  Flyer (grav)
Advancement  none

Year Range: T-9 to T-12 Years (three terms ago)
Career: Nobility/Dilettante
Event:  [6,6] Efforts noticed (um... serious parties?) - automatic promotion
Skills:  Deception, Flyer (grav), Carouse
Advancement  Promoted to Rank 2 (Ingrate)

Year Range: T-13 to T-16 Years (four terms ago)
Career: Agent/Corporate
Event:  [3,5] Undercover - Pirate (Gained Ally)
Skills:  Streetwise, Deception, Stealth, Vacc Suit
Advancement  Promoted to Rank 1 (Agent)

Year Range: T-17 to T-20 Years (five terms ago)
Career: Imperial Navy (drafted)/Line/Crew
Event:  [1,6] Life event [4,5] Travel
Skills:  Astrogation
Advancement  none (remained Able Spacehand)

Year Range: T-21 to T-24 Years (six terms ago)
Career: Imperial Interstellar Scout Service/Courier
Event:  [6,6] Discovery of world, item or information - automatic promotion
Skills:  Jack of All Trades, Vacc Suit
Advancement  Promoted to Rank 1 (Scout)

Year Range: Prior to T-24 Years (prior to six terms ago)
Sharik was born on Gaargir, which has a relatively low population (~7000), and her parents are minor nobility; so, it is very likely that if you are from Gaargir that you have met her.  Much of the planet is a frontier nature preserve for the subsector nobility (think... faux safari, perhaps); so, if you have passed through the system on vacation, you probably would have met Sharik and her family.  Also, Sharik would have boarded off-planet for some schooling; so, it is possible that one might have met her during those travels as well, especially if approximately the same age.

---

So, just spit-balling here to get the brainstorming going:

@Vonon:  Five terms ago, we were both in the Navy.  Sharik travelled a lot (it's in her life event ... :D); so, if you are inclined we can connect.  She was Imperial Navy, but perhaps a diplomatic envoy or some such.  She actually has Language/0 - so, it may be that she was tapped as one of the junior grade escorts since she knew a smattering (a really small smattering) of AslanVargr (Mea culpa, Vonon).

@Walter Zeller and/or Darrel Cromwell:  We were all nobles for (at least) the past/last three terms.  And at least three terms ago, Sharik must have gained some notoriety.  If you (either or both of you, together - GM allowing - or separately) care to connect, we can do so.  Perhaps something happened (if one of your events coincides) at a party she was hosting or we were all present at or some such.

@Quinzella:  We were both scouts (Sharik was Imperial, were you IISS also?) five terms ago.  Sharik was obviously travelling a fair bit as a courier (probably both inside and potentially outside of the Imperium).  Perhaps we met during her travels?  Or perhaps you were also present/privy to whatever she may have discovered.  Either (or both) of those sound like a reasonable jumping off point for further discussion?

---

EDIT: Lastly, Sharik has either 4 Ship Shares or 3 Ship Shares and an air-raft (if we need such a thing).  If we are going to pool our resources for a ship, given our starting location we probably want a J-2 ship (even if the starting local cluster had 10 systems or so) - or at least a J-1 Ship with two jump capability (like the Yacht in the core rulebook).  Oh, one really nice thing about the Yacht is that it has it's own Ship's Boat (a Maneuver-6 in-system craft is nothing to sneeze at)!
This message was last edited by the player at 07:04, Sat 09 Aug 2014.

Hey, I planned on retiring on term 7, the nobles just helped me out the door faster once my patron retired. Anyone else have TAS? That can be a connection.

Sharik received the TAS benefit (twice, actually) from her Dilettante stint.

Vonon wasn't in the Imperial Navy, he was a member of the Cassandra Space Patrol. He was "Coast Guard" ^_^

The Patrol is both Law Enforcement and "Military" for Cassandras Belt. However, Cassandras Belt is, in everything but name, an Imperial Client. The Imperial Navy routinely travels through Cassandras Belt on a J-2 route between Garrison and Outpost.

I had intended to stop after 4 Terms, but rolled a 12, and was "persuaded" to stay for a 5th ^_^

Vonon was CSP for all 5 Terms. Technically, Sharik & Vonon could have bumped into each other during any of those Terms -- Terms 1-3, Sharik could have been in Cassandras Belt for any reason, and we could have met each other.  Here's what was happening with Vonon:

TERM 1: Vonon Enlisted in the CSP. Spent that first Term as a lowly Crewman. He did, however, have a Life Event, where he established an (undetermined) strong attachment to somebody. That could have been you, as a Scout, visiting Cassandra.  Wanna be Pack Mates? Just spit in yer palm and hold out yer hand ^_^

TERM 2: Vonon starts the Term with a promotion to Able Spacehand, but his natural leadership qualities are finally recognized, and he gets sent to Officer Candidate School and becomes a shiney new Ensign. Another Life Event happens, this time being an (as yet undetermined) Good Fortune. Again, Sharik, now in the Imperial Navy, could have met Ensign Ronkunu as she passed through The Belt.

TERM 3: This one has an interesting possibility. Vonon, while still an Ensign, participates in a notable military action -- a CSP fleet action called "Assault on Rogars Rock". Interestingly enough, this is when Sharik was a Corporate Agent, and was undercover with some pirates.  Now, if you haven't, yet, defined that mission, your Pirates could have been on Rogars Rock. Vonon was a Chief Signals and Detections officer on a CSP cruiser; maybe you slipped him some vital info. maybe you manipulated him to be the "hero" so your cover wouldn't be blown. Maybe you and Vonon became friends -- he may not even know you were an Agent! He might know you only by your cover name.

This is also a possibility for a connection with Quinzella.  Or maybe even all three of us.

Any of you Merchant Marine types could have met Vonon at any time during your travels. Cassandra Belt has a Class B starport and a Tech 12 infrastructure. A fine place to visit.

Oh, right!

TERM 4: Newly promoted Lieutenant Ronkunu uncovers a scheme by a corrupt Quartermaster Officer to replace older, condemned supplies for the new stuff, then sell the new supplies on the black market. The primary Officer involved managed to escape, however.
This is a place where Vonon could encounter an Agent, or a Navy type, or even a Merchant Marine.

TERM 5: Commander Ronkunu is given a prime assignment, he's made CO of a Space Fighter Squadron, charged with protecting the capital of Rockport. Vonon would have been spending much of his free time in the Capital, participating in the social life required of a CSP Commander.  He could meet anyone, that way.

Vonon could have met Ikram in any of his Drifter years, or maybe in his early Marine career.

The CSP is more of a Police force than a Military force, Vonon could have been assigned to Mr. Cromwells security, when the actor passed through The Belt, as part of his subsector-wide stage tour, and the two became friends ^_^

The hard one, for me, is Khea. I suppose that, maybe, a ship she was serving on might have passed through Cassandra on a Treaty Verification mission -- making sure that those sneaky Imperials don't go grabbing up any more of the systems in the subsector.  Or maybe a Subsector-wide Conference, with representatives of several interstellar polities meeting on Duncinae (or someplace central).  I dunno...Cats & Dogs...maybe we should skip it ^_^

I like this (and the way you think), Vonon!  Sounds like we could make really good bridge crew together. :D  You're the pilot and Sharik can be the co-pilot/astrogator...

Anyways, let me see what I can do with the scenario to flesh it out on Shar's side and I'll pass it by you.  And if Quinzella wants in (and StarMaster is fine with a threesome connection), I am all for it...

Vonons Character Sheet is up.

Still a work in progress...still needs some editing...a few more tweeks...but the basic essence is there.

Making connections with Khea will probably be rather difficult considering the culture gap. Also the events I rolled were rather bland and don't have much connection potential except the Life Event Contact during the first term

Here the updated list with my events (and career names)

Table of Term Events and Careers:

Aslan do not have separate careers for merchant marine and navy, but in my background she is a trader.

I do see potential Connections with Walter through the Trader Career and Life Event, maybe both doing trading in the small empires between the Hierate and Drexilthar and getting grounded because of politics or solar activity for some time and holed up in the same space port hostel.

A connection with Sharik or Quinzella could be possible through their Agent background.
Or is somebody willing to lose some territory to me in a business deal (It doesn't have to be much territory. A single house with garden would be enough)? That would probably fit more for our rich characters like (again) Walter, Sharik or Darrel.

She is also a member of the Brotherhood of Stars, the Aslan version of the ToS. No idea how useful that will be.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:12, Thu 21 Aug 2014.

I have TAS as well, leading me to believe Sharik and I have compatability.

Otherwords some of this connection stuff is beyond me, but I am eager to work with any that I qualify with.

Nobles should hang together (get it?) ;-)

Myself, Walter and Sharik...There's a number of things that could have brought us in contact, one of them being a ship, the yacht "Golden Fleece" (noun or verb?)...even if we decide not to get it, it's plausible that we were in the showroom (do they have those?).

By the way, should we format our posts in a certain way and use specific color codes?

One word about the Central Supply Catalogue, I read in a other Traveller game thread that this book introduces a lot of ways to bypass armor (some sort of super armor piercing round) without giving a way to counter it which makes the game a lot more lethal.
But I can't speak from experience.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:42, Sat 09 Aug 2014.

I've gotten used to using color for dialogue, and I find it's easier to read. But, while I prefer it, I'm not a stickler for you using it. It also gets confusing if more than one player uses the same color.

I tend to use an NPC's eye color for his dialogue color... so it's easy to remember. I also use colors based on race, such as brown for Dwarves because they earthy.

It's really up to you.



As for AP rounds and weapons without any defense, that's pretty much been true since the invention of armor. Every armor development quickly produced a weapon to counter it. At a guess, I'd say one TL higher would produce armor to stop the earlier TL weapons, but not weapons of the same TL.

I do not even understand this catalogue bit, but AP??

AP=Armor piercing

Sorry for the fanboy speak...

Central Supply Catalogue is Mongoose Traveller's Supplement 4. It goes into more detail about equipment, permits, tech levels, and has a lot more equipment.

AP stands for Armor Piercing when it comes to weapons. Weapons geek-speakers know this, of course, but it's fairly common usage when dealing with any RPG system that uses firearms.

I was an Ammo Specialist in the US Army, but for RPGs I use only a few abreviations ever.  So if the right context was absorbed I might have understood that.

Funny, I worked in Bn Ammo (6/10 FA) as the clerk, when there was a West Germany.

Ah, well, I was referencing Khea's post just before mine. No biggy.

Kind of makes me think of the infamous 'thermonuclear handgrenade' that has a 2-mile blast radius and a 1-mile delivery system. Can you say Achmed?

huh Walter??

I use to work as the Battalion Ammo clerk for 6/10 Field Artillery stationed in Bamberg, West Germany. It was an 8" Howitzer unit. (Unit no longer exists)

I was in Germany too.  Grafenwoer.  Not too fond of my military experience.

Went to Graf twice a year for training.

After two years in Germany, to this day I do not like most American beers.

Kinda disliked most American alchohol always so....

But beer in  general to me is dry and kinda bland....

Okay, Vonon swapped out the Education Background Skill of Carouse-0 with Language (Imperial Anglic)-0, so's I kin speaka da anglish mit chew awl ^_^

Vonon, a p-comm with TL-10 Translator/1 might be most helpful for you.  It shouldn't cost too much (relatively speaking)...

Also, Sharik has Language/0 as well; so, presumably the two of them together should be able to understand every third word that the other utters!
This message was last edited by the player at 08:39, Sun 10 Aug 2014.

So, do we have an engineer for the ship?  I am not volunteering Sharik (she only has Mechanic/0, really), but can probably cover some damage control or routine engineering task in a pinch - but we are going to need a dedicated engineer (either PC or hired NPC or perhaps drones in a pinch), if we are going to have our own ship...

Also, do we have medical personnel?  Here, Sharik isn't going to be much help either, but we also have the possibility of acquiring, say, an autodoc for the ship/group, if needed (though nothing replaces a real person in a crisis - which required medical attention, usually is).

Which does beg the question... Are we going to try to set up a 'shared/general ship fund' of some sort?  Either for group expenses and/or speculative trade, &c?

In reply to Vonon Ronkunu (msg # 121):

I thought you only get specializations at skill level 1?


I can take over the engineering role. Although I do not know what skill levels would be considered to be good at it.

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 123):

Sam has Medic 0 so could probably patch you up a bit.

AS for connections, waiting to hear back from Gm on a coupla things, but may be able to make some. If so I could up medic skill in part of that - ie I am happy for Sam to become the "Doc" as well as whatever else she does (essentially shes a pilot Small Craft primary/Security officer secondary).

As for an engineer, we should have some way of patching ourselves up well enough to get to space dock at least.

Coming back to the starship question, how will we handle it in this game?

Will we pool our Ship Shares and have someone (I guess the one who contributed the most) start with the ship or do we have to get us a ship in game?

Also, what kind of ship do you think we should get (either way)?
Jack of all trades or can we ignore some aspects?

I have engineering-0, but, I'm thinking that a count (not being snobby) wouldn't be found in the bowels of a ship...unless that where they made the best hooch...

I've been thinking about things, going back to one of the earlier issues.

Stats/skill lists; we need a specific thread for that, otherwise we run into several "system" problems...kinda of like we are having now in relation to group skill package...nobody knows what the other knows...it's making it haphazard and is wasting time.

Secondly, what about when it comes time for skill training? We'll be blathering on for days,

"Well, I'm good at recon, so I can train someone"
"I'm good at recon too, but, I want to get better, are you really good at recon?"
"I guess so, depends on how good you are at recon"
"I'm pretty good, but not great."
"I'm not great, uhhh, so I'm not sure..."
"On a scale of 1 to 10, are you better than a 5?"
"Uhhhmmm, agghhh, hhhmmmmm..maybe a 5?
"Ok, I figure I'm a 4, so, it's possible."
"OH for FRAK's sake, I have recon-1!!!"

Get my point?

And the same goes for stats...

Life in traveller is hard, and we as players should be smart about how we approach the game, not making it more difficult than it needs to be.

Example, when we need to send someone to buy/sell cargo, we want the person with the highest INT and broker skill..not wasting time with some conversation like above..

Therefore I recommend a UPP/skills thread.

There's 2 things to consider when you're in a game, realism and ease of play, both for players and GMs...The GM's job is hard enough without having to spend time bouncing around different PM/threads/posts to find information. And it's a headache for players also.

So, with that said, here's my stats/skills
STR:6
DEX:7
END:6
INT:12 +2 DM
EDU:8
SOC:14 +2 DM

Advocate-0
Art-0
Broker-1
Carouse-2
Comms-1
Computer-0
Diplomacy-1
Engineering-0
Medic-0
Persuade-3
Streetwise-0
This message was last edited by the player at 14:24, Sun 10 Aug 2014.

After thinking a bit about it I have to change my opinion on it and agree with Darrel that it is a lot less complicated to simply post stats. Otherwise even taking the campaign skills will take forever.

why doesn't the GM just pick one of us and then roll a die with the number of skills.  That person gets the rolled skill.  Pick another person and repeat.  Go around twice it covers everyone for two skills as was originally said.  And requires nothing, disagreements or not, from us.

I'm good with that...

In reply to Quinzella (msg # 129):

For that everyone has to post the skills he wants first.

Also, the Skill Package is supposed to be a group decision to get a party which can cover all required skills. Normally as I read the roles, the skills only give you rank 1 and can not be used to raise it higher than that. Only here our GM houseruled that they could be used as a skill increase.

That out group is large enough to pick every skill from the list is just a coincidence. Normally everyone picks 2 skills and the leftovers are discarded.

TBH if we're supposed to be working as a team but can't sort the skills package out thats not a good sign!

I am not in favour of the random GM roll for that reason.

I think post your top 4 skills in the order you want. the GM can allocate them according to that - and draw attention to any conflicts which people can then discuss - there may be fewer than you think.

This is not just about optimizing the group, but also character development. SO the argument that A may end up with more of a score is secondary to B saying it fits in well with their character story in my view.

This is all likely a lot easier SATT, as it would take a few minute chatting to sort, as opposed to days of PBP
This message was last edited by the player at 20:46, Sun 10 Aug 2014.

Personally, I'm for whatever speeds up the process...going back to that PBP mentality.

And for my part, I'll take whatever is left over...

In reply to NickB (msg # 132):

I think it will get faster if we simply post our skills like Darrel said and then simply go round and round. But I want to wait on everyones, including StarMaster's opinion on that before I post them.

I am fine with posting stats (I effectively did so, previously when giving connection information).  To wit, Sharik's summary is as follows:

UPP: 576C9A
Animals/0, Comms/0, Drive/0, Gun Combat/0, Investigate/0, Language/0, Mechanic/0,
  Medic/0, Pilot/0, Recon/0, Survival/0, Zero-G/0
Astrogation/1, Melee (blade)/1, Stealth/1, Streetwise/1
Deception/2, Flyer (grav)/2, Vacc Suit/2
Carouse/3, Jack of All Trades/3

---

I think that if we post our top 4 (as we have been doing - I think a lot of people have put down their prioritized list already), the GM can effectively allocate the two skills that you get from the package.

If we are considering other options, I have also seen other games where the GM simply posts a priority order for choosing (usually based on lowest number of terms first/perceived need (as chosen by the GM) as a tie breaker, but can be randomly assigned) and then people simply pick round-robin style until the skills are gone (it defeats the purpose of the package if only some are taken, in some ways).

Honestly, I am fine with almost any method; though admittedly my least favorite would be the random assignment (as both a player and a character...:)), but it would be find really.  Of course, this is coming from the character that got JoAT/3 - so, she'll be fine with adds to any of her skills.

Note, that with random assignments, it is possible that people may get skills assigned stuff that they cannot raise (Darrel's Persuade is an example), if it is already at level 3+.

I already posted my skills AND my top four

Here we go
Sir Walter Zeller
455AEB Merchant/Noble (4/3 terms) 46 yrs old \
Broker-4,Admin-1, Astrogation-1, Carouse-1, Computers-1, Diplomat-1, Engineering (J-Drive)-1, Investigate-1, Mechanic-1, Melee (Blade)-1, Pilot (Spacecraft)-1, Social Science (Economics)-1, Streetwise-1 Zero-G-1, Comms-0, Drive-0, Medic-0, Persuade-0, Space Science-0, Steward-0, Vacc Suit-0,

1:Diplomat 1
2:Persuade-1
3:Avocate-1
4:Gun Combat (laser)-1

Kheaiftouaw
976892 Spacer/Space Officer (2/2) 30 years old
Admin-0, Animals-0, Broker-1, Carouse-0, Comms-0, Drive-0, Engineer (Power)-1, Engineer (J-Drive)-1, Language-0, Mechanic-1, Pilot (Smallcraft)-1, Steward-1, Trade-0, Tolerance-1, Zero-G-0

1: Gun Combat (Machine Pistol)
2: Sensors
3: Advocate
4: Persuade

Looks like I am the groups low life. Not surprising, I never got high soc on an Aslan.
Do we actually have anyone with Gunnery?

Also, can/should we get another thread about ship discussion? Or do we do that in game? Or has someone already got a ship through benefits?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:38, Sun 10 Aug 2014.

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 135):

JoAT-3, that is impressive...you're hired...

Yes it is, why I have Jane of all Trades at the same.  Remember me??  that listed mine already.

In reply to Quinzella (msg # 140):

Ok, you're hired also...;-)

Thank you.

A. Only one character has access to a ship, a Scout, at the outset, so unless everyone wants to cram into a small ship, you'll need to gain a ship in-game.


B. I'll put up a UPP thread later, but I'll put up the stats, rather than have to keep adding to the thread.


C. It isn't a coincidence that the Campaign Skills list has just enough skills to go around twice. I started with the standard Traveller's list and expanded it.


D. At this point, I didn't feel that choosing Campaign Skills was a waste of time simply because not everyone was done generating their character yet. I'll throw choices together into a table and then repost the list.

Although the video is a D&D thing, this is how I view character creation...;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i5Yw4ZoDO0

this guy is funny...

Thanks.

A scout isn't that bad. Just a bit vulnerable and we can't fit cargo and passengers.
We could try to get a Far Trader in game or maybe a Corsair. There are also several Aslan designs which look interesting, although I probably have to use all my connections I have left to the Hierate to get access to a Shipyard there. And it is several months away from where we are now, so that is rather unlikely to happen.

But I guess we should discuss either in a different thread or in game what we want from a starship like if we actually need to have weapons on it or a launch, which jump range we consider a minimum, how luxurious the ship needs to be and so on.

Hmmm... I thought that two people had access to Yachts as well?  Sharik only has generic ship shares.  Are we to assume that any ship shares represent investments and that a ship is to be purchased (either second hand or through a dealership)?

Gah!!  GM posted my character's real age!!  I am on analgathics (sp?) for gosh sakes.

And what is "UPP"??

Universal Personality Profile

Basically all of your attributes written in hex (10 = A, 15 = F) next to each other

hex??

Btw I am 30 IC

Writing numbers in base 16.
So you count 0-9 to normal, but instead of going to 10 you write A. B stands for 11 and so on till F for 15. Only then you write 10 (for 16).

That way you can represent the entire range of possible attribute values in Traveller in a single digit.

For example Walters UPP 455AEB means

STR 4
DEX 5
END 5
INT 10
EDU 14
SOC 11
This message was last edited by the player at 00:01, Mon 11 Aug 2014.

*me crosses fingers*

Ah!!  Math!!  Curses to math!!  Evil!!

RE: Classifieds: Where is this posted??  Is this prep for when the full game is running or are we to respond now??

CLASSIFIEDS is a separate thread that only Group 7 should have access to at this point. Once the common thread for everyone is set up, I'll change it so everyone can see it.



Anyway, Connections are almost done for everybody. Here's what I've got so far. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Darrel --> Walter, Ikram
Ikram --> Darrel, Vonon???
Kheaiftouaw --> Walter, ???
Quinzella --> Sharik, Samantha???
Samantha --> Quinzella, ???
Sharik --> Quinzella, ???
Vonon --> Ikram???, ???
Walter --> Darrel, Kheaiftouaw

The Ikram-Vonon connection isn't confirmed yet.
The Quinzella-Samantha connection isn't confirmed yet.

Kheaiftouaw can make a connection with Samantha, Sharik or Vonon.
Samantha can make a connection with Kheaiftouaw, Sharik or Vonon.
Sharik can make a connection with Kheaiftouaw, Samantha or Vonon.
Vonon can make a connection with Kheaiftouaw, Samantha or Sharik.

Some of these may have been suggested or discussed, but I'm not aware of any confirmation on them.

I have offered for everyone at one point or another, and if we can connect (more than y'all having met me when under an Alias) then I am willing if gm allows.

Sorry gm about the thread, din see the group number.

The problem I have is that, as the GM, I see ALL the threads, not just specific groups. So my board is a lot more cluttered than yours because I have 9 character generation threads, plus the 3 game threads. You can only see one charagen thread (yours) and the game thread you are in. Plus all the 0 group threads.

In other words, I can't tell what you can see and what you can't. If everything is working properly, then only 3 of you should be able to see the CLASSIFIEDS at this point. Gives you a slight head start.

Then I should read them after I get up in the morning ;)

If any of you guys are interested PM me - I can take one more connection I could make

Sharik and Vonon finalized and agreed on their last Connection, so that leaves only Kheaiftouaw and Samantha. Since Khea was in the Space Navy and Samantha was in the Space Patrol, it would seem reasonably that they met during some joint 'maneuvers'. Since the Aslan don't like anyone, it probably wouldn't have been a training exercise, but it might have been a 'cooperative-effort-by-necessity' against some upstart state or pirates.

Not sure where to post this but

Gonna be working away for a few days, so probably no posting till the weekend

Is this thread to become the OOC??

Well to clarify, its not that Aslan don't like anyone. They just think of people who do not follow their way of life (or something close to it) as barbarians. But when you behave honorably (to them) you can be best friends with the Aslan and there are several planets out there which have very good relations with Aslan.

The problem are the Ihatei. Those are non inheriting Aslan males who are given equipment, ranging from a simple weapon and a low passage to a capital ship with small army, depending on the wealth of the family, and are expected to find their own territory, preferably outside of Aslan space as to keep the peace.
That can take the form of surveying and colonizing, but considering the complete lack of technical and economic skills of Aslan males most often Ihatei band together and try to conquer.

By the way, the Classifieds are pure genius.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:10, Wed 13 Aug 2014.

Unless people think a separate OOC thread is necessary, I don't see why this can't function as that.


The idea for the Classifieds came from a Gamelords booklet called Wanted: Adventurers. I made up my own, though. These are (mostly) recycled from an ftf game. There are more!

Are the classifieds supposed to be general IC info, or just the ones available to each of us when we sit at our comp and check them??

I changed the Group to 0 for the Classifieds, so that now everyone can see them. Since Quinzella was the first to ask about a job, I made available to her first. That's all.

But, yes, they are intended for everyone.

Nah, I was trying to be more specific, are they for general "you know this when you come to this world automatically" or are they"You will know this when you read/listen/watch the classifieds or news IC"??

You know this only when you read the classifieds. I suppose a few of them are long-standing enough that it could have made it offworld.

If you want to assume you read these before getting here, that's fine.

Okays!!  Sounds good.

A bit quiet here.
I guess everyone who hasn't already should wrap up their individual bar threads and move into the all together now.

Right now is a flux time, mass reunion and time for people to go to uni in the US.

Actually, i thought everyone was meeting with a Count, a knight and an Aslan...

um, huh??

No worries...It's just we were at the other side in an earlier thread...i thought everyone was joining that...my confusion...continue on...

Sorry for the confusion. There are three group threads that I started to get characters involved when they finished chara gen. It wound up being 3, 3 and 2. There's no reason you can't continue in those for a bit, but as soon as everyone was finished, you should move to the All Together Now thread, which is for eveybody.


Also, as an update, I added a Swimming skill to the Brief Rules thread. Since you guys are on a wet world, it might be helpful if someone could actually swim.

And on that note I mention....my second Connection was never confirmed, nor was that duel ever finished (I do not even remember the skill anymore).

That's because your opponent swam away... ;-)

Not sure that pun was applicable, not sure....

Well, the GM introduced swimming skill, so, being clever, he swam away...get it.. ;-) by the way, dead pan humor is not my strong point...

Yes I got your pun, hence the comment, but we had an established skill we were dueling for, hence the confusion about why adding something to the mix.

Don't worry, it'll get sorted out...the GM has it all in his cerebral hard-drive...

we hope ;)

Walter had posted that he was taking a different skill than Persuade, so I took that to mean Quinzella won 'the duel'. So she gets Persuade. He took Comms.

That's the way I read it anyway.

Yep, I took Comms.

Sorted...

Fixed up my sheet.

Who is still in their own bar thread and who has already joined the combined one?
Maybe we need some event in the bar to bring everyone together?

Well a few of us have switched over to the communal thrread, I know I for one am planning a second post in that thread later today.

A little off topic, but had anyone here the chance to play the free Pirates of Drinax campaign?

Star*Master has asked me to pass along word that he's having some temporary internet trouble -- something about lightningbolts and living in the Lightning Capital of South Florida and flux capacitors and exploding routers. I dunno, the text message he sent was was a little confusing ^_^

Anyway, he hopes to get it cleared up in the next day or so, and that he'll try to "do lunch" at a nearby Burger King that has free wi-fi, as often as he can, if he can.

I wish him the best and hope for his safe return.

I'm baaaaaack!

If you haven't heard...

A thunderstorm swept through the area Thursday night and a lightning strike took out the router so that I didn't have any internet connection. Due to the vagaries of schedules and errands and whatnot, I wasn't able to replace it till today!

Barring any other problems, I should get caught up on my posts this evening.

You had better run down the street looking for a lucky penny when you say that.

Where in South Florida are you? (Up at the norther end, near Gainesville)

Down the Gulfcoast in Fort Myers.

"Welcome to Florida, the Hurricane Speed bump."

Who is Quintus??

So the NPC fully circulates the room??  Cause the dance floor is not the norm for solicitors.

Unless you're looking for qualified breakdancers...

No, the NPC won't approach anyone on the dance floor. She'll wait until you leave the dance floor.

Okay, I believe that was me and Sharik, thankies GM.

We do have an OOC to ask questions about the NPC that are well, Out of Character.

Like if she left the table, which the GM said in post she was circulating the room, leaving each table.

Generally, when it's something specific to a thread, OOC is used there...the "Main" OOC thread is for things in general...at least that's how I've always done it, and so do the vast majority of players/GMs...

The way I have run it for years and seen it done for more yeas and heard others from around the globe doing it: there is no such thing as a topical OOC unless the GM wants to create one, an OOC thread is for any and all OOC chatter (except dice rolls and such) unless the GM says otherwise.

Be that as it may, if there's say 10 threads running, with alot of interactions going on, requiring constant OOC information...trying to put 10 threads worth of OOC into the main thread would cause chaos and things would slip between the cracks...

In any case, I'll proceed as I've done until the GM corrects me.

On a conciliatory note, we're probably both right... ;-)
This message was last edited by the player at 23:16, Thu 21 Aug 2014.

hence that I keep saying things like "Until GM says"

be that as it may, we have access to PMs, quotes, replies, and more, often these are used (as well as just changing the subject line before your post) to alleviate confusion.

Something like this?

yups!!

I saw a free exchange of points, awaiting GM intervention, no real conflict though, but ah wells.

As far as I'm concerned, you are both right. It depends on the game, the nature of the game and the actual comment, really. I've always felt it evolve organically.

In this case, for instance, I thought Quinzella was right in posting her OOC here because it would have been disruptive to the regular thread. But that's because it was a stand alone question. If would have been appropriate in the main IC thread if she'd actually included a post.

In any case, if you add an OOC post in with your IC post, I prefer you post it in orange.

Just out of interest, which books do you have access to?

I have the core book and the Aslan and Vargr Alien Modules.

is that a general question??  For us all??

Just base book as far as I know.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:04, Sat 23 Aug 2014.

Alas, don't have any of the supplemental books other than from the Classic Traveller.

I have most of the books...and/or pdfs....so, if there is something in particular, between us, I imagine we can find it.

I have all of the books through Book 9: Robot and all of the supplements except for the last three (12 (Dynasty) - 14 (Space Station)).  Everything is a paper copy (except for my copy of the Main Rules which I have on both Paper and PDF), unfortunately; so, copying information for dissemination can be a bit painstaking.

I also own pretty much every version of Traveller (though not many of the d20 or GURPS Traveller supplements); so, if there are questions about comparisons between the original (Classic) Traveller, Mega-Traveller or Traveller: the New Age, I can likely find it somewhere.  Though it make take a while, most of it is packed away in basement storage.  Having all of the different versions also can contribute to confusion on my part - you never know what bleeds from one version to the next.

As hard copy have
core rule book,
CSC
Robots
Traders & gunboats
Civ vehicles and a few Spinward Marches, Spinward Encounters and Crowded hours (Some of which i hope to run with my RL group soon).

as PDFs have
Core rulebook
CSC
Starports
Robot
LBB 9 Library Data
Careers book 1 & 2
Mercenary
Highguard
Psion
Dilettante
Cybernetics
And lots of scenarios type stuff

The list is fairly random, as I just bought what was in the shop when I first started getting into Traveller - am now being a bit more focused on what I am likely to use as a GM at my rl club

Uh, Darrel, what newcomers??

Right now, as far as I know...it was only me and Walter talking at our table after Kheaiftouaw left...there was alot of different character's actions....and then she returned or was returning with a number of new faces....

From a GM perspective, the sooner the "group" organizes itself...the better, I'm just trying to facilitate that....

I put out the "newcomers" comment, to allow everyone to gather together...

Look, the idea, since we ALL have arrived here, let's get ourselves on the same sheet of music...these are the basics...

to me that is/was the GM's job.  Which the GM also did with connections and Cerulean.  From there it just takes time, which to my understanding he also gave.

I know IC he will have near no problem motivating my character to find work, or fun.

All in all, you meant the newcomers to your table then??
This message was last edited by the player at 19:37, Sun 24 Aug 2014.

Yes.

Okay, all I sought was clarification on that one point, thankies though.

Which was why Walter had suggested that we gather in a private room in order to get everyone together and get organized.

Well...I've been trying to herd the cats... if we can't get them at a table...good luck with them getting to a room....

It's on them at a certain point.

It might be a bit early for that considering that we are still grounded, but can we get a thread to track our skill training? Or has someone a different idea how to do that comfortably?

Well that backfired, I was gonna update this and other games last night, but the migraine making me lose my balance said otherwise, we shall hope for tonight yes??

We should probably decide if we want to bring the two groups together before the meeting or just fast forward to it, just so that everyone has the same expectation.

Sharik just sorta IC hinted at that.

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 211):

Whats a squid - in MGT terms - I know in RL ; )

As opposed to meaning she used to be a cephalopod sea creature, she's referring to her being ex-navy albeit Space Navy rather than the actual aquatic navy.

And they have the Marines to keep the squids from holding hands.

Oh, in case anyone is interested in more detail with respect to Sharik's name usage:

  http://www.freelancetraveller....ustoms/vilnames.html

If you haven't poked around the Freelance Traveller site, you should!  It has a lot of very cool fan-generated resources...

Before we get too far along IC, (because we may need the skills), I noticed that our UPPs haven't incorporated the skills from PM/connections/group packages...

One thing we also might discuss first a bit OOC to not stall the game too much, payment/splitting of profits.

I thought I'd updated the skills in the UPP thread... I did some, but was apparently still waiting for final choices.

Updated now, but you each should check to make sure I got it right.

mine has a few errors GM.  or rather skills missing.

Just finished adding the Campaign Skills... did that fix it?

Never mind...read it wrong
This message was last edited by the player at 01:03, Fri 29 Aug 2014.

looks like you got all the skills now GM, just the wrong ranks.  If we all care about that, might I suggest copy pasting from my character sheet GM, keeping them in all alphabetical format.

Concerning money/profits, that might be tough but maybe one share per person, an additional share for each ship share used to purchase the vessel, one share for ship maintenance/overhead (landing fees), and one for expenses (Bar tabs). Divide the income by total shares and any remaining credits go to the overhead

Example             Shares
Count Darrel Crowell   6(if we get a yacht, 3 if other vessel selected)
Ikram                  1
Kheaiftouaw            2
Quinzella              1/3 (We could all pile in the scout but not much space)
Samantha Kilgore       1
Sharik Kaagira         4
Vonon Ronkunu          7
Sir Walter Zeller      5
Ship Overhead          1
Expenses               1

depending on pilot and "owner" (or rather who claims captainship to docking authorities) there are more than a couple TAS memberships among us, possibly helping us to waylay a few of those fees.

Also I like scouts.

Profits?..I like your optimism.  ;-)

NOTE: I was preempted by Walter...actually, I have a strong feeling it'll be him and I working with the Gm to keep the finances straight...

I've been looking over the numbers (using the core rule book), barring some stellar role-playing, good dice-rolls, and no mishaps..running a ship of any size (within our ship options), don't look forward to any big paydays.

However, with that said....

Trying to keep this simple, fair, and realistic...

AFTER all monthly maintenance, debt, fuel, berthing and all the other miscellaneous costs(and please don't have to pay for repairs!!!) is paid for.

Then, we can start talking credits to the characters...

It would be difficult to pay characters by their position, since, it's likely in our type of work (whatever that might be), nobody holds a "set in stone" job. I would like to think that we'd be "multitasking" amongst ourselves.

So, forget that.

Here's the basic plan, at least as far as I can see it...

All bills paid...

25% of remaining credits go into the "ship funds", to be explained later.

THEN

20% of remaining credits divided evenly amongst the crew.

THEN

Payout by ship shares.

Beyond that, some deeper issues, which should be covered later...

For Example;

MOST importantly, a ship(not it's crew) needs "credits on hand", to cover bills...

Realistically, just to cover the monthly bills, a small starship might need 40+ KMr handy, and that's not covering what if we want to buy cargo....

So, I'm thinking we need to give deep thought to how we approach this.

Anyways...something to discuss amongst ourselves/DM and interested parties....

Maybe to modify your suggestion a bit

After expenses are paid
25% to Crew (divide by # of players/ 12.5% per person currently)
25% to Ship funds
50% divided by the share holders of the vessel

As for seed money, after the ship is purchased, if we can all chip in 5,000 credits each, that would allow us some starting money.

As an example, we earn 40,00 after expenses 10,000 divided by the players, 10,000 to the ship funds, 20,000 divided by the ship owners.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:20, Fri 29 Aug 2014.

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 238)

That works for me...although Guinness has removed my higher brain functions.

I am fine with whatever, profit sharing scheme is devised as reasonably equitable for the crew (it is play money after all...:D).

Just a side note, Walter, Sharik actually has 4 ship shares to contribute (she'll forgo the air-raft as a 1% off pretty much any ship will worth more to her - and overall to the crew and their costs, as well.

EDIT:  And besides the maintenance fund, are we planning to try to pull together some sort of speculation fund (which is the probably the best way to actually make a real profit - especially with Walter's excellent Broker skill)?  Sharik might have some cash to contribute to that...
This message was last edited by the player at 06:02, Fri 29 Aug 2014.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 232):

UPP Looks right for Sam

What do the asterisks etc mean

I am guessing * is basic skill and ** is Package skill?

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 238):

Hard to comment having not played this game before ie how much should go on what!

BUT

Sam is skint (ie she doesn't have enough to chip in the full 5K seed fund) so whatever is decided from her side she would only sign up to a ship that gave her some money regularly (as training costs money so does gear and realistically - everyone needs an income of some sort).

So with that in mind, what about the option of paying everyone a salary of some notional figure (doesn't have to be high), adding that into the running costs, and then the profits going to the owners/ship sharers - with the option for other character to "buy into" the profits pool at a later date?

It seems a bit unrealistic to have everyone start a business together which doesn't include a basic wage as part of the expenses

Not sure if that would work - but Sam needs cash - she didn't muster out with money to spare

Yes, that's what the asterisks mean... just a bit of reference to use for background role-playing.


Yes, it does seem odd that the game allows characters to start out on such an uneven basis. While there's a certain 'realism' to it, it's also a game, so why should it be so unfair to some characters?

I just don't see how that makes for a playable game.

They have an option to use a Wealth Characteristic in the equipment section. Maybe that could be what can be obtained as a loan (as a thought, use INT DM to reflect what you saved in the bank/credit cards during your career). If you have a pension, maybe you can get a loan up to 50% of what you draw.

Now if we can use one of the ship shares as seed money (1Mcr?) then we will have plenty of money and not need the 5Kcr per player.

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 244):

Not sure what you mean by use a wealth characteristic? can you explain a bit more

And to be clear (probably wasn't before) - Sam didhave money - she just spent a chunk of it so has little left on hand

In the equipment section, they have a blurb concerning wealth. Looks like it is a way of showing a credit score. It uses you social level and +1 for each cash roll when you mustered out.

Using the CRB(Core rule book), there are certain careers, drifter comes to mind,  that with bad luck...it's possible to start with literally no credits...That's a tough break, but, also, going back to the realism thing, which I think traveller originally was based on...the dark, dirty, nitty-gritty coldness of reality.

However, if you're a 1 term drifter with no money, what do you expect?

One thing that does make sense, IF a player gets to 5th term (retirement) when they muster out (other than Scout, Rogue or Drifter), they should get the credits from the chart on pg. 36

Book and page?

Not sure as I have a draft copy of the main book but it looks to be at the beginning section for equipment. Next to Currency in the Third Imperium.

You can also opt to start with medical debt (Core Rules p.37), if you (for example) get injured and do not have enough mustering cash to start with to pay for the characteristic recovery.

With respect to the loans that Walter mentioned ... like Darrel, I have the 'release' version of the Core Rules on PDF.  And I do not see on p.86 near the Currency section anything dealing with credit scores and their game-mechanics.  My PDF goes from "Credits" to "Living" expenses sections and then directly onto "Armour" on page 87.

Perhaps the loan thing was excised during playtesting?

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 249):

Must have been changes from the draft to the finished product, I'm not seeing that either...

Concerning a "minimum wage"...



Well, what we could do, everyone gets 1000Cr per month or their percentage, whichever is higher?

I might be able to come up with all the needed seed money, but I have to confirm this with the GM.

It would be like a loan (with interest of course ;-)).

There are also standard crew salaries on p.137 of the Spacecraft Operations section.  Though those aren't always equitable either...  And I am not sure that this crew itself lends well to the standard crew positions, necessarily.

And, of course, if Darrel or Vonon (or whoever the 'Captain'/primary owner of the ship becomes) is feeling magnanimous and fostering esprit de corps then then he may just settle on a standard/base consulting/operator fee for the individual crew members.

Oh yes, I know that too well :(

Maybe the merchant book has more about loans?
Anyway, I hardly have any credits left (thanks to the above reason) and I would like to get paid rather sooner than later.

Btw, in my UPP Diplomat-1 from my 4th Term is missing.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:26, Fri 29 Aug 2014.

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 252):

I thought about that basic salary by job position, but, as you mentioned, this isn't likely going to be a "standard" crew.

The 1000Cr was just a number I threw out there...

One thing to keep in mind, the advantages to having a set percentage instead of a wage, when times are good, everyone gets a fair share... when times are bad, everyone feels the pain...


Not sure about that, I'll look into that...

I've been talking to the GM, and he's made a good point about not getting bogged down by the numbers, which makes sense.

We're here to adventure, not to whinge about credits...however, can anyone loan me 3.5 MCr, I need a new suit of Battle Dress (TL 14) armor. ;-)

In reply to Darrel Cromwell (msg # 254):

I would already be glad to get a vacc suite (where do I even get Aslan armor and ammo so far from the Hierate?). And having enough credits to actually buy anything in the bar we are in would be nice, too.

*shrug* Battledress is over-rated.  It can be fun; but, I can think of better things to do with those 3.5 MCr.

Like buying 3 Aslan TL14 Battle Dresses ;)

Of course to make up for that price difference, Aslan Flex armor is seriously overpriced :(

*another shrug*  Honestly, Sharik is the wrong character for a merc game.

I would have said that with right cargo (which a Broker/4 character with good INT, EDU and SOC rating can easily find *ahem* Zeller *cough*), ideally a compact, high margin cargo - something like pharmaceuticals or radioactives - we can buy at 70% and in one jump, likely sell at 130% (very possible for a character that can manage +5 or +6 to his Broker rolls).  That is a ~85% return on 3.5 MCr in something like 2 weeks.

Loan Walter that money, and within a couple of months, he could potentially net us all 3.5 MCr each.  In Traveller, as in Real Life, it takes money to make money...:)

Just my take.  If we were running a trade game.

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 258):

Well, lets see what that job offer is about. And I don't think we have decided on a ship yet (still waiting on the explanation of all the Safari Ship gadgets).

Well, you four are in a different room now.  Seems that neither of the two in our group that had links to you four felt that the other four should have tried to link up... *shrug*

Well, Ikram has been busy with work. He may get a chance to post later tonight, or else tomorrow. He's likely to recognize Darrel as the Count walks across the room.

Likewise, Quinzella could also spot and recognize Samantha now.

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 260):

I was trying to do an abstract, "Hey you guys, go get your friends and bring them to the private room." thingy... Just trying to streamline getting everyone together... ***HINT***

Also add in source/destination factors for a higher profit margin, which is why I have been pushing for a freighter ;)

Yes we were sort of going in the supposed directions.  As long as the [private] room is not too private, ie bouncer and locked door.  We shall still be able to follow, after we see and decide so is in the right place.

And as a last resort, someone just needs to bother Khea. I have payed her rather nice so far, but Aslans are rather touchy.
It certainly will draw the attention of the others when she demands a duel right there on the dance floor.

Absolutely, but my point is more that even without seeking favorable trade codes (which we definitely should pander to the local source and destination population and trade codes, don't get me wrong), Walter's skill makes speculation highly lucrative, by default.

Honestly, though, my experience with speculation in MgT is that it isn't the space that is the primary issue.  It is the capital cost; that is why I haven't really forced an agenda with respect to a ship's cargo size.  If we have 20 tons (which pretty much any of the designs that have been postulated have in some way shape or form) - then we can probably make a fair bit regularly (20 tones of 30KCr/ton cargo - say, basic electronics or vehicles or precious metals) is already 0.5 - 1.0 MCr to fill.  If we were lucky enough to get pharmaceuticals (or Ifni forbid, radioactives) we probably wouldn't even fill the 20 tonnes before we ran out of cash - nor would the lot size be that large, necessarily).

That is my take on the available cargo size versus speculative fund importance, anyways.

Agree with you 100%. Making sure that we do not fly with an empty space in the cargo bay is a start. So the plan might be, locate cargo for speculation. Buy what we can afford. Select our next stop and locate cargo that is going there to fill up whats left. Off we go and hear the moaning of the merchants when they find out that Walter speaks haggle, real well.

All good points, it's this part that's the problem...

That's alot of credits, so, it's likely we're going to have to start on a much smaller scale...even if we went with the easy to obtain basic raw materials (5000cr-broker stuff)to fill a 20t hold, that's 100K in speculation funds.


Something I've been thinking about, from what perspective are we looking to have the game flow...

Is having a mission frosting on the cake while we concentrate on buying/transporting/selling cargo or vice versa, IE, a "trade game" vs "mission game"...or some hybrid combination? Know what I mean?

Personally, I do have a habit (for good or ill) of getting caught up in the numbers, this probably stems from when I played the original traveller game, every credit counted and there weren't many to go around.

So, I do want to apologize if it sounds like it's all about the credits...

Cash should be a means to an end; everyone being able to afford (if they want), the best armor, weapons, clothing, purple gcarrier, whatever...any ship we have is decked out to it's utmost potential, and plenty of credits in the bank...

Although there's truth in the saying it's all about the struggle, well, it's also true there's a sense of accomplishment when you can walk around and see a new shiny Lt. Fighter (18MCr), "We could use a couple of those aboard the ship." and actually have the cash to buy it.

With that said, of course that is far down the line, and I'm sure there will be many adventures (or misadventures) between now and then...

I like lots :D

One thing to point out, although it's prudent to "pre-plan" and discuss things, until we've actually all linked up, heard what Ms. Blue has to say...we might be getting  ahead of ourselves.

She might give us the Millennium Falcon and ask us to recover some crazy princess off of a deathstar...

You do know you're not supposed to give the Referee ideas, right?

Besides, that's the second adventure...

Luke: [about Princess Leia] They're gonna execute her! Look, a few minutes ago you said you didn't want to just wait here to be captured. Now all you want to do is stay?
Han Solo: Marching into a detention area is not what I had in mind.
Luke: But they're gonna kill her!
Han Solo: Better her than me!
....
Luke: She's rich.
Han Solo: [interested] Rich?
Luke: Rich, powerful. Listen, if you were to rescue her, the reward would be...
Han Solo: What?
Luke: Well, more wealth than you can imagine!
Han Solo: I don't know, I can imagine quite a bit.

Gonna be away for a few days so won't be posting again till Wednesday evening GMT

if it seems like I'm trying to "slow down" the IC, that's because I am...I'd like for everyone to be together before we start discussing things that will affect us all.

So, in other words...if you're not at the private room, please, work your way towards there...

As a side-note, I'm not trying to take over, my one goal, is to get everyone together, and on the same sheet of music, that's all.

Anyways, rock and roll.

I reacted to the situation IC.

true, but, it was to remain alone while the rest of the group consolidated...

Look, I'm not here to "steamroll" players, I'm just working as hard as i can, to get all the characters together in one place/time so that we can move forward...as a group. Understand? I'm trying to help you.

With that said, I've done what I can...I'm over care-taking...

Rock and roll.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:14, Wed 03 Sept 2014.

I am just saying, if there is no IC reason for me to "make my way there", especially considering it is a room with a bouncer, I will play it as thus.

Ok.

You did see both your "connections" go there...just saying....

yes and IC, there is enough trust to know there will be a call if it is important.  IC Quin would see it as their business.  Just sayin'.

Fair enough, then technically, whatever long term discussions, plans, and whatnot we figure out...you not being there...well...that's on you.

No it is not.

It is on the character, it is a part of rp, playing the character.  It is on those that quite literally ran off into the room leaving my character confused and lacking any possible motivation to enter.  But it is not on me.

EDit....
This message was last edited by the player at 05:31, Wed 03 Sept 2014.

Your character, which is someone that should always be on top of their toes, is surprised by her companions moving off to a private room????

Ok.

OK...NO MORE arguments on my part....over...it!

Sorry it even got to this point.

Oh, thank you for apologizing now

after I spent a half hour typing that BS in PM and am now considering dropping the only game I truly can say makes me feel eager anymore.

Quin, clever move with the call.

Thank you. *smiley*
This message was last edited by the player at 23:26, Fri 05 Sept 2014.

Now that I have the book, there is a big difference in the final version and what they had for in the draft. The funny part is that the ship shares increase, the bigger the vessel, rather than 1 Mcr each (a fixed rate) like they had in the draft version. And they changed the trade table so WOW, Um, better that I expected. As an example, say we picked up a cargo load of wood at Yarhfahl, (Ag) on average with all the factors,(Broker-4, SOC +1, +6 for agricultural world, 10 on 3d6) we can get get it for 250 cr a ton (25%) and take it to Grendal, selling it for about 150% (or 6 times our investment).

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 289):

And I got an idea for a deal that should (I think) reap an even greater profit. Tho, now that I think about it, my idea is based more on Societal Factors, than the Books Trade Factors....

Maybe I should actually run the Books numbers...

^_^

Looking at the data, what they did is adjust the number of goods that are available between tech levels (-1 DM per TL difference) However, what they should have done is factor in the type of cargo/world economy for the prices rather than the cargo. Petrochemicals are not going to care where they are coming or going but electronics will. No use bringing an electric toaster to a TL 3 world. It will be much easier to unload a large load at a high pop world and not one with a population in the thousands.

(Textiles are looking real nice with a +7 mod for agriculture world)

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 291):

Okay, Sir Walter, check the numbers on my idea, here...

Water.

Not "just" water, but Spring Water.  Here's my logic...

Vonon comes from Cassandras Belt, an Asteroid Community, but one that has a lot of things going for it:

Trade Classifications:
Class B starport
Asteroid (As)
High Technology, Level C (Ht)
Non-Industrial (NI)
Rich (Ri)
Vacuum (Va)

Now, taking into account a Tech-12 infrastructure, moderated by the non-industrial qualifier, I'm still thinking that the asteroid life in Cassandras Belt is pretty comfortable; technology provides for all the basic needs. So, I got to thinking what would a Rich, High-Tech society WANT, that they weren't already getting. In the case of a fully artificial environment like an asteroid colony, the answer I came up with was - anything "natural".

Their technology can simulate any product - plastics that feel like wood, spun-glass fibers (as well as more plastics) that can feel as soft as silk, vat-grown meats, greenspaces under domes - including lakes! - and, of course, water. Lots and lots of absolutely pure water, nothing in it but Hydrogen and Oxygen...blah.

The fact that Wood is on the Trade tables kinda reflects this; folks who don't have "natural" materials WANT them.

Now, like I said, most technologies can produce filtered/distilled/irradiated water. And absolutely pure water has no taste. In fact, I would go so far as to say that pure water does have a taste, and it's the very definition of "blah".

So that's why I figured Spring Water. To folks on an Asteroid, the appeal of some water that's bubbled up through the crust of a planet, in a natural environment, containing a random mix of harmless minerals, could almost be considered a "gourmet" item.

So I was thinking, go to a planet where water is plentiful -- and maybe costs .5 or 1 credit, or less, a bottle -- find a bottler of actual "spring water", then ship it to Cassandras Belt, and sell it for 5-6 Credits a bottle as "Natural Spring Water". Fancy stuff.

But then I kinda fell into a -- loophole? error? -- in the Trade rules. On Grendal, say, water is probably considered a Basic Consumable. But, as I just explained abouve, on Cassandras Belt, water could be considered a Luxury Consumable.

I guess my issue, here, is this: am I over thinking the system? Do the Trade Rules allow for us to BUY something as a Basic Consumable, but SELL it as a Luxury Consumable?

If you have access to book 7, Merchant Prince, they may have rules on manufacturing items. I can see if we were to go to an uninhabited system and got pure water there, it might work. More so if we brand it.  (Ok, that was from when I was taking Business Administration classes)

However, due to the size of the vessel, there might be a problem. Figure 1,000 Liters per ton of cargo space, at 5 cr a 1L bottle, it is not cost effective compared to the more expensive items that run 50kcr-100kcr a ton.

Actually, Book 7 deals more with the Trader career, and barely touches on cargo, but that's because it's intended to be a simplified system.

The MgT tables aren't meant to be used in that manner (base consumables to base luxuries), but there's no reason it can't be.


Also, I think you are over-thinking the issue with a cargo of water. You are going into detail that the game was never designed to deal with. You pick up a ton of source cargo that costs Cr1,000 and then sell it at destination for Cr10,000. As far as the tables go, it's irrelevant that it's water, or that it's branded, or however many bottles of it there are. That's just chrome.

On the other hand, if you go with the consumables-to-luxuries route, you can conceivable get Cr25,000 or more for the cargo because it's a luxury.

I never said anything about the bouncer IC.

Nope, you didn't. That's what I get for posting when I'm falling asleep. Fixed.

Its okay hun, just sorta threw me off a sec.

Ikram, are you in the private room or the bar?

Something I wondered about for some time, how will nobility be handled in this game, especially as we have a rather high ranking noble with us?

Grovelling, lots and lots of it... ;-) Joking, but, well...think about it.

Here's where I get caught up in the "You're not the GM" thing..or accused of something... Our characters are there, and I have a fairly sure idea of how that would work.

For my part and it's only my opinion (It's sad that I have to preface my statements!)

Just like in our reality, anyone with "cultural" upbringing, tends to respect those with a title...

If you happened to bump into Mr. Obama today, would it be expected you say President Obama?

Or if you were getting some fish and chips in London, and you bumped into the Queen, what would you say?

Player mechanics!!!

It's understood, at least as I see things, I knew the upside/downside of being nobility, especially anything beyond a knight.

Honestly, A Count is not someone you'd expect to see in these circumstances, traveling around.

However, who knows, going back to the original question....



Perhaps with a modicum of respect, which would be returned?

In reply to Darrel Cromwell (msg # 300):

Yeah, I'd agree with that. Until/unless someone with a Title proves otherwise, they should be treated with personal & professional respect. SUBJECT, or course, to how you have built/play your character to respond to Authority Figures.

For example:

As an American, if I met the Queen of England, I would be very respectful, I would address her as "Your Majesty", but I probably wouldn't bow (maybe a little nod of the head).

If I met the President of the US, I would be "casually respectful" (less formal) and I would address him as "President Obama", or "Mr. President" (in respect for the Office, if not for the man). To simply call him "Mr. Obama" is disrespectful (even though the Media does it all the time).

If I met Donald Trump -- or Lee Iacocca, or Rupert Murdoch -- on the street, and had a need to adress him, I would call him "Mr. Trump", not "Hey, Donald!".

All these are persons of Position and Authority. Even if you think the individual is fairly worthless as a Person, you should still show respect for the Position/Title that they hold.

In the case of "our" Count, that would hold true, as well. Until we get to know him well enough that HE feels comfortable enough with US, to say "just call me Darrel", then we should show the proper respect for his TITLE, if not for him.

Except for Sam ^_^

Which is why Walter still refers to Darrel as "Your Excellency" even we were told that there was no need. Guess it is the bureaucrat in him (Or dealing with someone three ranks higher than him).

As for Ms Blue, I wonder what here offer is but I guess, that it would be starting at a vessel free and clear for the group. If we were to charge her just for the number of pilots, it can get rather expensive.

I think Sam has been formally polite, if not fawning to the rank.

However, I take the general point about how nobility should be addressed and think Your Excellency is a bit OTT (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Style_(manner_of_address) for example - its more reserved for higher ranks eg Presidents of Republics)

From what I can work out from googling, a Count would be "Count" or "My lord" or even just "Sir"

I am not brilliantly familiar with the background of the OTU - not played MGT much at all - this is only my second game and the first one RPOL one folded fairly quickly- so am happy to be corrected. BUT I am playing this that Sam does not really know who the Count is (as an actor) so is only going what other people are suggesting he is, and that she is not that keen on Nobles, so is giving a perfunctary respect to his rank - not being rude (at least she wasn't meant to be being rude - that may not be how it came across)but not overly in awe of the title.

It could be that in the OTU she would be paying more respect because that's the culture - happy to be corrected.

Actually, no problem on my part, it was just brought up, and I expressed what I believe to be the case...there sure exists nobility that aren't noble or deserving of respect...King Joffrey comes to mind...

PM

Luckily Khea has the excuse of Aslan not having noble titles, so for her you are just someone owning large estates.

I just asked because I bought myself Spinward Marches, among other things, and there is some more stuff about nobility in the 3I in it including how important counts are.

There are dice to "charm"??

1st IC roll, snake eyes...LOL, well, it can only go up from here. ;-)

In reply to Quinzella (msg # 307):

I was going with persuade (+3 skill for me), obviously, my attempt to persuade her that I was charming, was less than spectacular...;-(

Why not just use roll play.

It is assumed that the GM understands good rp, so our good rp would likely be able to sway the NPC according to how they were written.  For all you know Ms Blue detests nobles and is turned off by you from the start and you would fail on a 100, on the other side maybe she likes your money and is impressed by your 1.

Good point, but, rolls are to quantify events, as an example, no matter how well I roleplay lining up a shot in combat, there still needs to be a result, which is based on skills/gear/circumstances, and of course, situational roleplay...however, in the end, dice can and should, IE the random factor, must have it's affect.

Sadly, although I can't find the rule (it might have been in a previous edition), snake eyes indicate a automatic failure?, I'm looking...

Well as I see it if there is no mechanical reasoning for the persuasion attempt there is no need for the roll.

IC and OOC none of us know of any later reason why we would benefit from being on her good side.

I have to agree. So far we do not try to persuade her at all and I don't see why one needs to roll for being nice.
The core book also does not seem to have a reaction table like the alien modules so just role play it.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:27, Thu 11 Sept 2014.

I probably didn't need to roll, but, I wanted to influence future dealings with her.

Say if I succeed with "charming/persuading" her (she's an NPC), then perhaps there are benefits to that?

And, if I fail, then, there might be a downside to it.

I didn't "expect" to roll so crappy.

Another issue you brought up, having given it greater thought, yes, the GM might have already decided on an NPC disposition, then he would apply a DM to whatever I rolled, for example, if she hates Nobles, then he would adjust the task's difficulty level.

In any case, I thought it would help us and so I acted accordingly.

I've been pondering this...

You know, one of the ways, we as characters are going to affect things, is to apply ourselves...which generally means players rolling for results..sometimes they're excellent and sometimes garbage...

I realize I was the 1st roller and it's wasn't up to snuff...but as a player, you have to try...fault me if you want to, but, I was actively trying to help, just because it sucked, doesn't make it wrong.

No one said you did wrong, just that the general framework of the rp did not make it seem necessary.

In reply to Quinzella (msg # 316):

You're correct. I was trying, for lack of a better word(s), enhance/expand, our options when it came to dealing with her...

Sadly, it's likely my efforts (roll) were unsatisfactory.

If I was successful, then, maybe she pays for the booze consumed... ;-)

I don't know, it seemed like a great idea, if it worked...great, if not..not so great...

I bet if the roll had come up with 17, outstanding success, we wouldn't be having these conversations...would we?
This message was last edited by the player at 01:49, Thu 11 Sept 2014.

Nah, cause I would still wonder about the necessity.  IC Nothing has said we would have any further dealings with her after this initial hiring.

Ok. Here's how I look at it, just to help you understand my method to the madness. ;-) What if I charmed Ms. Blue, think about the ramifications of that.

Seeing beyond this current meeting? Long term, which is how I tend to think. Would that not be beneficial?

Does it not make sense to be cultivated friends, when it costs us nothing? And there will likely be contacts, services, etc..that might not be otherwise available to us?

This is her planet. It is wise to cultivate a contact on each planet we visit, I'm sure you understand this.

I'm just going about this task in my manner; I am a Count, normally persuasive and charming...Fate screwed me this time, it's unlikely to happen again. Honestly, even with the F*d roll, I'm confident of things.

no that makes sense, but it is OOC thinking to me.  My character would try to actually let her words, actions, deeds get her hired rather than the charm she has practiced for uses when it seemed more prudent.  We seem at an impasse, I am trying to stress this is a difference of opinion, and you seem to be wanting to squash my opinion, please let it lie as is.

No worries, carrying on, water under the bridge...i agree.

In reply to Darrel Cromwell (msg # 321):

Thank you

*sigh* my kindle is beyond messed up

In reply to Quinzella (msg # 322):

Being a used bookstore owner, I suggest placing your Kindle, next to the kindling... ;-)

In reply to Darrel Cromwell (msg # 323):

I bought my kindle while living inGermany.  It was my only source of books for a while.

Just for information, I will be traveling the next month, but I will have Internet access most of the time in the hotel.

have fun out there!!

Ok, Walter is doing a 180 as the player just got the data concerning the AcquireCorp and Ondrac BioCorp.

I suggested the half cash and half stock to get more money in the deal.  It might seem like a change of what Walter had talked about but it does get hard currency in our pockets at this time.

Things are looking good. There are a couple of things that should be mentioned...

As much as we want to know everything about what we're going into, I seriously doubt our intel would be all inclusive, so, at a certain point, accept what we have and go forward from there.

In reply to Darrel Cromwell (msg # 328):

Does anyone else have the Skill...

Tactics
This skill covers tactical planning and decision making, from board
games to squad level combat to fleet engagements. In combat,
the Tactics skill level of a unit’s commander gives a boost to the
initiative scores of everyone in his unit. See Combat, starting on
page 60, for more details.

Specialities:
• Military Tactics: Coordinating the attacks of foot troops or
vehicles on the ground.
• Naval Tactics: Coordinating the attacks of a spacecraft or fleet.

Action:
Planning tactics for attacking an enemy base: Intelligence,10–60 hours, Average (+0).

Vonon has Naval Tactics, which might help in getting us to the dome, but not much use once we're inside.

If anyone else has Military Tactics, or more Naval Tactics, since the time element is 10-60 hours, we can always say that we're doing this plannjng as we travel out to the island.

I know that we're relying, primarilly, on ROLE-Playing, here, but maybe a decent ROLL, here, might get us some extra insight into this mission. Keep your paws crossed ^_^

My character worked in small groups in her past, or alone.  If she needed to have an order followed she had other means, that skill never made sense to grab.

Since you have Tactics (Naval)-1, you can use it as a regular roll (Tactics-0) to help plan the attack. You might use it as a roll to know what kind of data that we would need to get in there or possible weak points. Maybe the training in small unit tactics was for boarding a vessel and it might help in where we need to go (thinking of the dome as being a spacecraft, water instead of a vacuum)

Sorry, no Tactics skill at all. Luckily we have our Jack/Jane to cover skills we do not have. Oterwise we likely could not use a submarine er all (or does someone have Seafarer?).

One other questions, what skill is used for diving? Zero-G? In either case, my lack of Vacc Suite skill now hurts.

By the way, are we going for a violent solution? I hope not. After all we just need to prevent the destruction of the research data, not steal them.

To dive I would immagine we can use swim and pilot.