Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2012 0:20:23 GMT -8
I am introducing 3 of my buddies to Traveller and I myself am pretty new to they Mongoose system as well. We have about 12 people in our extended group of friends that like to rpg now and then but these 3 are the only consistent ones who can make a plan and show up regularly. I have decided to go with the motto "you decide your level of involvement in project mayhem".
Today we made characters, each of us making 2 using the 3 rerolls per character variant rule. My main three players will play one of their made characters and the rest will be NPCs. If my chronic no showing buddies want in they will have to dip into one of these NPC roles for however long they decide to show up for.
So we have 8 characters (I made two as well because I did not want to be left out of the fun). I have decided that they all have came to the same conclusion that the skills they have developed in their branches can be used to make so much more money if they wen freelance. They all know each other loosely through their connections they have made in their careers and now they are going to buy a craft and split the cost and profits 8 ways.
I am very new to Traveller and here comes the hard part. What kind of ship do I let them buy? There are no approvals for credit loans in Traveller so it seems you can buy whatever ship you are willing to risk making the payments on. I want them to be a part of the ship creating process and not just say, "You must buy a Free Trader" but I am not sure where to set the limits and what would be profitable with their cash on hand. Also there is no information on a down payment they will have to put up or if they can pay off the principal of their loan early or buy the ship off if they come into enough cash.
I also love the random world generation that traveller has but I would like more information on the general background of the universe. Are their any universal laws or alliances? What book would I need to get more information on that?
After creating characters it seems that they will have more than enough skills in order to turn a profit. Some have specialty skill ranging into 3s and 4s making them incredibly capable. Is having a crew of 8 too many? It seems that they have every role over covered. I figure that 5 of the crew will just hang in the background mostly while the main players who show up run the show.
What are some key concepts in the traveller world that I need to introduce them to wither flavor wise or rules wise? I don't want to miss out!
I'll post some more thought as I have them. Thanks guys!
|
|
|
Post by gandalftheplaid on Jun 28, 2012 15:46:39 GMT -8
I don't think I'd have all 8 crew members on board. A recent episode had an email from someone who was doing a sliders like thing which justified characters coming and going. If you haven't heard that one yet, I recommend you give it a listen. However you justify it, I think having some or all of the NPCs just not be there so the perfect person for the problem isn't always available will make for a better game. Plus the guy with Jack of All Trades 2 gets to use it from time to time and be happy about having it.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2012 16:13:42 GMT -8
Interesting idea, I did listen to that episode. We don't have a jack of all trades character so at least they wont be missing out on that.
I was thinking that the 3 main characters would make all the decisions and the others just stay in the background (unless of course we get a player dropping in to play one of the npcs).
I have been trying to decide on the size of a ship to have them get a mortgage for and I am running into a lot of number crunching issues. It seems very difficult to make your mortgage payment base on how much money you can make in one jump with passengers and cargo. I know this is not supposed to be a super accurate economic simulator but I keep wanting the numbers to add up to make it a sustainable venture to get a mortgage, but they are not adding up.
|
|
|
Post by stork on Jun 28, 2012 16:24:02 GMT -8
Thing is, Life aboard ship is boring and routine. You have a week in Jump space where there is nothing to do. SO if you are doing a "Space Trucking" theme make the action happen at ports of call.
In Firefly, getting the job was often glossed over, but it was making the delivery that made for the most drama. Focus on those moments and not the space stuff.
And remember, passengers are considered cargo as well, live and frozen. They can add some interest to a long time in Jump space.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2012 18:05:37 GMT -8
Something my buddy has done for our Traveller campaign is do it in an episodic format. One session had us highjacking a ship which has become our main mode of travel. Another took place after a job that had gone horribly wrong, we didn't play the actually mission, instead the drama of the session was dealing with a very unhappy NPC minion who wanted a larger cut the fallout of his actions when we delivered the goods.
The travel time was just glossed over between sessions much like it tended to be on Firefly or it would be on any other TV show. Has worked well for us. I also wouldn't got a for a crew of more then five or six. You start getting more then that and it becomes hard to really give everyone time to shine. Once you get the party attached to an NPC though they can be extra fun to use as plot hooks.
Kill them and you've got a vengeance plot line, have them get kidnapped or arrested and you have a rescue story to tell. I love using my players attachment to an NPC against them, get those nice emotional reactions.
|
|
|
Post by gandalftheplaid on Jun 28, 2012 18:59:50 GMT -8
As to other source materials... I've gotten a lot of value from the Spinward Marches book. There's some good "how the galaxy works" material in there. I also like the little plot seeds they put in there for each sub sector. Word of advice: If you plan on using www.travellermap.com keep in mind that in some cases the codes for some systems will differ from the books. I use the online map for system codes and ignore the book. (I may have only run into that issue with the Aslan book.) Stork's idea of focusing on starports for a trucking game is a very reasonable idea. I'd really recommend the starports book to help give you potential background and ideas. Even if you weren't running a trucking game, as long as you have a fair amount of space travel I'd say the book has value.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2012 22:02:33 GMT -8
My first thought was let the ship things and do jobs and the plot will build from there. Passengers and cargo could cause problems during the jump leading to cool stuff like murder mystery in hyper space, or a contamination from the cargo of a virus or alien. But if the whole jump was no real events I'd just montage the weeks events.
Prepare to flame me. I never have watched Firefly. My players seem to all be into it though, I was thinking of checking it out soon.
I'm going to crunch the numbers on a few different ships but I am having a hard time seeing how the characters will make their mortgage, matinence, fuel, life support, ect. payments based on how much money they can make through cargo, passengers, mail.
Are we assuming that a ship can make 2 jumps per month and still have time to load cargo, find buys and sellers?
I might have to throw them patron jobs that pay insane rates for no questions asked.
I let them direct themselves in the kinds of characters to make but they seemed to have developed into a mercenary/trader group. I am letting them direct where we go really in a sandbox fashion and they do seem to be interested in shipping and trade.
So do you guys run the normal mortgage rules and they are able to make their payments? What do they do for money and how does their balance sheet look?
|
|
kevinr
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 158
|
Post by kevinr on Jun 29, 2012 6:13:31 GMT -8
How many Ship shares do the characters have built up? Usually a new party will start with a free trader unless one or two of the characters ended up with a lot of shares of something else specific. If you want them to be on a larger ship from the start you may want to hire them to run a ship for someone else. But barely scraping by and worrying about your mortgage can make for a fun game for a little while. Then when something big happens and they come into a windfall of credits they can choice to upgrade if that's where they want to go with it. Also remember they can buy a used ship and gain up to 10 extra ship shares.
|
|
snoman314
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 225
Preferred Game Systems: GURPS
|
Post by snoman314 on Jun 29, 2012 15:23:35 GMT -8
My understanding of the rules is that the numbers around the mortgage rules are chosen very deliberately. The PCs are supposed to not quite be able to pay the bills. This means that to keep the ship, the PCs must take a course of action that will inevitably result in adventure!
Firefly should be required viewing for GMs running a Traveller game in my opinion. You'll see great examples acted out of the consequences of being forced into undesirable situations to pay the bills, as well as the good times after successfully pulling off a big heist.
|
|
|
Post by gandalftheplaid on Jun 29, 2012 18:27:11 GMT -8
Sorry. Can't say I've looked at the numbers much on making money. My players are more interested in going around and finding interesting things to do. At moment all they have is a scout ship so other than perhaps a small amount of illegal goods their cargo space just isn't worth mentioning.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2012 13:08:20 GMT -8
I seem to be getting the theme that no one sticks to the mortgage rules as written because having to pay 500,000 bucks each month is a pain.
I was thinking of off setting this by giving the characters a common grandfather who died and left them his fortune with the caveat that they must use it to buy a ship and explore the stars as his legacy. This will be a huge down payment leaving the monthly bill still there but substantially smaller allowing them greater freedom in equipping the type of ship they want to use.
As their first mission their grandfather left them was to jump his workers off planet. I was thinking of a Schindler's List type situation where he is harboring people who have been seen to have psionic potential or their families have. Now that he is dead he knows that he will no longer be able to protect them.
His bitch trophy wife will get stiffed at the will reading and go on a rampage. Later she will be an antagonist trying to work to kill off the PCs thinking that she could lawyer the money back to her if they were all dead.
In order to afford their monthly payments they will be taking on cargo and other passengers too and I feel this is what will make the jump space week not boring. Perhaps some passengers start to figure out about the psions, maybe some are undercover air martials looking for refugees, or some psion hater aboard kills one of them and now we have to figure out who did it. My player with broker-3 and other player with streetwise-3 are dying to do some speculative trading so I have to incorporate the trading and shipping aspects.
So yes they will be space truckers in a way, but I am sure they will find interesting things to do, or I will make the interesting things find them.
|
|
|
Post by gandalftheplaid on Jun 30, 2012 22:06:36 GMT -8
I didn't spend much time reviewing this so hopefully I've got it right...
If you take the example of the Fat Trader setting you back about half a million a month it's cargo (a little over 200 tons) needs to earn about 2500 credits a ton per month. On the assumption of making 2 trips a month, that's 1250 a trip. I don't know what sort of margins one could expect to get. But if you are making 20% you need to transport cargo valued at 6250 a ton at least. If you're getting 10% then you need 12,500 per ton.
I'm thinking there are lots of cargo fit the bill.
|
|
snoman314
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 225
Preferred Game Systems: GURPS
|
Post by snoman314 on Jul 1, 2012 0:52:09 GMT -8
I seem to be getting the theme that no one sticks to the mortgage rules as written because having to pay 500,000 bucks each month is a pain. No no! The opposite. I would absolutely stick to the mortgage rules as written. And the maintenance rules, and payments for life support, and paying for fuel. This would make paying the bills really hard. This means that the PCs have to be open to any opportunity that comes their way to earn credits. In order to afford their monthly payments they will be taking on cargo and other passengers too and I feel this is what will make the jump space week not boring. Perhaps some passengers start to figure out about the psions, maybe some are undercover air martials looking for refugees, or some psion hater aboard kills one of them and now we have to figure out who did it. My player with broker-3 and other player with streetwise-3 are dying to do some speculative trading so I have to incorporate the trading and shipping aspects. So yes they will be space truckers in a way, but I am sure they will find interesting things to do, or I will make the interesting things find them. I reckon that's the way to do it. (If you don't want a very shooty/mercenary type game). All those things the PCs are doing to pay the bills will give you loads of opportunities to mess with them as the Referee. Even if they find that they can subsist purely on trading high value speculative cargoes, who's to say those cargoes are exactly what they say on the manifest...
|
|
kevinr
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 158
|
Post by kevinr on Jul 1, 2012 12:34:31 GMT -8
It really comes down to what kind of a game the players want to play in. If you want a Firefly type game then they probably will want a merchant ship. leave the mortgage as it is hauling freight and passengers earns just enough usually too pay the bills with a little extra credits,the extra adventures you toss in will get them a lot of bonus cash.
If they want to do a combat heavy merc/pirate/ bounty hunter game then they may want a corsair or something bigger. They wont be able to earn the mortgage by trading and they shouldn't be trying with this kind of ship. If they are Mercs they should be getting paid plenty for jobs to cover everything. Pirates well that depends how successful they are. Bounty hunters hunting down ships that have defaulted on the mortgage should be getting paid quite well also. They may supplement the income with trading but the bills should get paid with the action.
If they want a diplomatic political game then I would probably be willing to give them a Yacht, lab ship or some other ship that is owned by a company or a planet they are working for so they don't have to worry about the daily bills as long as they are doing the jobs the company wants them to.
If they want to play Merchant but do it in a warship they will have a lot harder time paying the bills. the ship is not made for that and will not earn you the credits you need to pay the rent if your only trying to trade.
Also keep in mind they can easily earn enough in a Heavy freighter hauling freight to pay the bills on a 300mil Loan however they need to keep the holds filled every trip and that will limit them greatly to high industry/ population systems where you can find the hundreds of tons of freight you need to fill the holds which will greatly limit where they can go play. Another reason a Free trader makes for a great starting adventure ship to buy.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2012 14:50:17 GMT -8
After watching Firefly, I really hate the Traveller personal combat system. You want to knock someone out? You don't have the unarmed combat skill? Roll 2d6 and get an 11 to succeed.
Savage worlds conversion here I come.
|
|