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Post by dancetrain on Sept 16, 2015 4:28:41 GMT -8
Hey Traveller Folks,
I just started GMing my first game of MgT and It's been a blast. Especially when I realized it forced my murder hobos to come up with some back story and roleplay a bit. The group doesn't have a ship cause I mostly didn't understand the debt rules and it felt like too much work to learn about. Unfortunately one guy decided to waste time becoming a pilot and I guess I have to study up now. This brings me a few questions for you all.
1. How do you handle ship debt? I calculated it out on just a corsair and even with their ship shares they need something like 400k credits a month. Then I look at the majority of the patron missions (even in the 760 patron book) and most seem to have credit rewards around 10k for a job that could take a week.
2. The pilot mother fucker wants to create a ship. I can see how much tonnage the J-Drive, M-Drive and Power Plant take, but based on the ship diagrams in the core rulebook that don't seem to correspond to how much actual space they take up on the ship. (except for maybe the j-drive)
3. Does anyone know of a simple sector map editor? I am an idiot and had us homebrew our setting but I want to be able to just create a sector map online. I googled, but didn't find anything useful with out downloading and paying for shit.
Thanks. <This Guy.
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Post by weaselcreature on Sept 16, 2015 6:52:39 GMT -8
Take my answers with these qualifiers: I've only run a few sessions. Those sessions are Bill's Star Wars Conversion. I don't have my book with me here at work.
1: Cargo. Wherever they travel, they need their cargo hold full of stuff to sell, and/or passesngers. Hopefully you've got someone who can bargain and someone who can steward.
2: I created the Star Wars YT-1250 using the MgT creation rules, and it seems to have worked just fine, leaving me with how much cargo tonnage is available. As far as actual space it takes up, I'd recommend finding a ship of similar size the player wants to make (for tonnage purposes), create the ship, and things should work out just fine. If I remember I'll add more here when I have my YT-1250 in front of me.
3: Can't help you there.
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Post by Stu Venable on Sept 16, 2015 9:28:59 GMT -8
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maxinstuff
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Post by maxinstuff on Sept 16, 2015 17:56:10 GMT -8
Traveller patron missions, for the most part, include two different rates of pay - one for "ship provided" which would be the 10k type amounts you are seeing, but also a "provide your own damn ship" rate which is MUCH higher. Look at the example patrons in the core book, most have this noted as "10,000c/200,000c" Second - yes, ship mortgages are VERY expensive. Remember that a crew starting out, unless they are extremely wealthy, aren't going to be able to afford something like a Corsair. Especially not fresh off the production line. What you can do is make it an absolute heap of shit using the table for making the ship older. I think you take off 10 shares every time you roll and there are both positive and negative results in there. So they might have a corsair, but it could be 80 years old with thousands of parsecs on the clock - and all sorts of associated problems EDIT: or just give the party a damned ship? It's a bit of hand waving but any pirate can roll a corsair when they muster out and own it free and clear. It isn't like it breaks the game - it's right there in character gen. EDIT2: the ship plans are a bit abstracted. All you really do is make sure you know how much tonnage each part is taking up, and make these areas approximately correct in size relative to each other. If it means your 100dton cargo bay doesn't take up EXACTLY the right number of squares, it doesn't really matter - as long as you know it's 100.
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fredrix
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Post by fredrix on Sept 17, 2015 2:22:44 GMT -8
EDIT: or just give the party a damned ship? It's a bit of hand waving but any pirate can roll a corsair when they muster out and own it free and clear. It isn't like it breaks the game - it's right there in character gen. But it you hand wave shit like that, you remove the thrill of interplanetary accountancy that makes Traveller so damned special.
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D.T. Pints
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Post by D.T. Pints on Sept 17, 2015 5:44:42 GMT -8
Ah the joy of playing a wheelchair bound SPACE LAWYER!
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maxinstuff
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Post by maxinstuff on Sept 17, 2015 12:15:51 GMT -8
Traveller: a thrilling reconciliation of accounts in the far future
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jaiden0
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Post by jaiden0 on Sept 17, 2015 12:48:19 GMT -8
nothing official here, just my opinions: 1) ship debt is a big part of what makes my traveller game fun. busted old ships are fun. owing people favors is fun. there are rules for making old ships. I made a shipyard with 5 ships and let them choose. 2) don't let him make his own ship, it's just a pain in the ass. if he still wants to after 6 mo, find a way to work it into the story. 3) I use a modification of the official traveller universe at www.travellermap.com/ .. there are tons of backwater places you can pick, and 40 years of backstory you can use or ignore at will. Having a little framework gives me plenty of freedom still.
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jaiden0
Journeyman Douchebag
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Post by jaiden0 on Sept 17, 2015 12:50:34 GMT -8
also you can find a way to give them a ship which is wrapped in plot. maybe they've been hired to take a certain ship away from the current captain who is not following company rules. they become the new crew. they don't "own" it, but they do have to take care of it, follow orders, but can make some money on the side. maybe they have to keep a dozen outposts supplied every few months?
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Post by dancetrain on Sept 18, 2015 7:08:55 GMT -8
I appreciate all the advice. I wasn't into the idea of just giving them a ship but one if their Ally's who owns a shipyard has been loaning them a small junker for missions. Have any of you given ship shares as mission rewards instead of credits? I thought about slowly giving them out so that over the next few months they can eventually just take out a smaller loan for something they wanted.
I really like the idea of having 5 ships in a shipyard to choose from.
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Post by dancetrain on Sept 18, 2015 7:10:29 GMT -8
I was look at the ship supplement books and there appears to be three. Any that you all would recommend?
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Post by weaselcreature on Sept 18, 2015 7:36:58 GMT -8
OK. The YT-1250 (precursor to the YT-1300 (Millenium Falcon)) I retrofitted for Traveller I made 2 versions of.
It's a 200 ton ship (the Corsair in the book is twice as large at 400t). One version has 76t of cargo room and cost 70,003,000 (291,679/months payment), and the other has 50t cargo room and costs 107,760,000 (449,000/month). Both have guns and basic state rooms as well, all created with the Core Book design rules. I compared the size of the YT with the size of the ships in the book (roughly same length as their Police Cutter (100t) but circular and larger, so went with 200t. Using that size left me with the same cargo capacity listed for the YT.
These are prices for a new ship and will require the crew to have regular income with cargo and passengers. Designing a custom ship is definitely going to be very expensive and should be a goal for players once they have the cash and have made a name for themselves. Buying an existing ship, especially a used one, is a more economical way to go.
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Post by Forresst on Sept 23, 2015 17:45:41 GMT -8
I don't know about online generators, but I do have a map pack I made that lets you make subsector maps with a nice star background if you're interested. It's optimized for GIMP but you can open it in photoshop if you prefer that.
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maxinstuff
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Post by maxinstuff on Sept 23, 2015 17:51:00 GMT -8
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Post by dancetrain on Sept 24, 2015 7:12:13 GMT -8
I don't know about online generators, but I do have a map pack I made that lets you make subsector maps with a nice star background if you're interested. It's optimized for GIMP but you can open it in photoshop if you prefer that. I would be interested in that, I haven't used GIMP in a long time but I remember it not being to difficult a leap from PS.
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