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.