I don't think I'll run an open Recruitment. So many excellent players have been kind enough to express interest in the game that the initial recruitment will be solely by invitation. If you've accepted an invitation to the game, thank you! I know your time is limited and I'm happy you've chosen to spend some of it here.
Second, please "Ninja Dot" the gameplay forum. For anyone that doesn't know, Ninja dotting is the practice of posting something in the Gameplay forum and then deleting the post. This will place the game in your Campaigns tab and will place you in the game's "players" tab.
Third, if you haven't checked out the links on the Campaign Info tab, especially the Player's Guide, please do!
Fourth, please stop in here and say whatever you'd like!
My plan is to spend the month of October chatting with the invitees and players until our roster is solidified (at least one friend of mine needs some time to decide). Once we have a solid roster we will begin creating characters together. For anyone not familiar with Traveller, creating your character is a semi-randomized process where you make many choices, but the dice also make some. Building characters together, round by round, will let us link the characters together in a way that is organic to the story and setting, but also let us ensure we don't come to the table with six pilots or something similar.
SOME THOUGHTS ON BUILDING A PARTY
Two of the things you -do- get to decide are your race and background.
The "Charted Space / Third Imperium" setting has many alien races, but the vast majority of Imperial citizens are humans of one variety or another (this isn't the Federation).
I'd like to build a party with mostly humans and at most one Aslan. I won't say no to a Vargr character, but I will say no to other aliens or Zhodani or Florani humans. Don't know what I'm talking about? Perfect! Play a human!
As for backgrounds, I'd prefer the humans take one of the three backgrounds in the player's guide, but I won't rule out a human from the Imperium (use the vanilla character creation in the Core Rulebook). For Aslan, talk to me.
If more than one player wants to play an Aslan, talk to me and we'll either work it out or roll for it.
Hello. I'm excited about this game.
Yep I'll go with human.
Sounds good. I think I will go with a Human as well.
Wherein GM Tarondor creates a sample character for the Pirates of Drinax game.
(Using the character creation rules in the Traveller 2nd Edition Core Rulebook, as amended by the Player’s Guide.
THE BIG PICTURE:
Traveller players develop their characters in four-year “terms”. Each term simulates part of the player’s past career. The more terms, the more potential for skills, but also the more potential for crippling injuries or simply being forced to retire. Once your character retires from character generation, they are ready to begin play.
STEP ONE: GROUP CREATION:
Knowing this to be a group effort, Tarondor waits until everyone is ready, and doesn’t get ahead of anyone else! He discusses his race, background, hoped-for character type and agrees with the team on which career he will initially try for. Plans are laid to connect the characters so that all start play knowing (and trusting?) each other.
STEP TWO: RACE AND BACKGROUND:
Tarondor decides that his character will be a human. The specific race of humans doesn’t have any strong effect on the game, but knowing that the Trojan Reach was colonized by both Vilani humans during the First Imperium and Solomani humans during the Second Imperium, he decides that his background is a mixture of the two. He gives his character a Solomani name: Willamette Keston, also known as “Scarlet Bill.”
Next, Tarondor decides that a childhood on the Floating Palace sounds like fun, but he sees himself as a bit of a rogue, so decides to choose Drinax (Wasteland) as a background, just to be a bit different.
STEP THREE: CHARACTERISTICS:
Tarondor rolls 2d6 six times and looks at his results. He rolls 5, 4, 2, 3, 7 and 10. Frankly, this is awful and with the GM’s permission, he starts over. The next time, he rolls 8, 7, 9, 4, 8 and 5. Nothing great there, but it’s workable. Knowing he wants to be a Rogue, he looks at the Rogue career on page 38 of the Core Rulebook. He notices his choices are Thief, Enforcer and Pirate. He’s thinking about being a Pirate, so he then notices that Dexterity and Intellect are important there. Also, he wants to be a charming rogue, so Social Standing will be imporant. So, knowing this, he arranges his scores thus:
STRENGTH - 7 (+0)
DEXTERITY - 9 (+1)
ENDURANCE - 5 (-1)
INTELLECT - 8 (+0)
EDUCATION - 4 (-1)
SOCIAL STANDING - 8 (+0)
Since his from Drinax (Wasteland), he gains +2 END, but loses -1 EDU and -1 SOC, giving him a final result of 797837 (to use Traveller’s UPP - Universal Personal Profile).
STEP FOUR: BACKGROUND SKILLS:
Tarondor sees that (according to p. 8 of the Core Rulebook), Scarlet Bill gets two Background skills. Since he comes from the blasted wasteland of Drinax, he takes Mechanic 0 and Survival 0.
STEP FIVE: FIRST TERM:
Now for Scarlet Bill’s first career term. Tarondor considers sending bill to school (Core Rulebook, p. 14), but decides it’s not right for his character. Instead he chooses the Rogue Career.
First, Scarlet Bill must qualify for the Rogue career by rolling Dex 6+. This means that he rolls 2d6, adds the +1 bonus for his dexterity (2d6+1) and rolls a total of 9. Good enough to qualify. As planned, he chooses the Pirate assignment, deciding that a pirate crew from Theev has landed on Drinax looking for crew and he was lucky enough to be selected.
Second, as this is Scarlet Bill’s first term, he goes through Basic Training. He gains all the Rogue Service Skills at level 0: Deception 0, Recon 0, Gun Combat 0, Stealth 0, Streetwise 0. He adds these to the Background skills he already has.
Third, Tarondor rolls to see if Scarlet Bill “survives” his first term, requiring another Dex 6+ roll. He rolls an 8.
Fourth, Tarondor rolls for events on the Rogue Events table. He rolls a 3. He is arrested and charged. Having no ability as an Advocate, he hires a lawyer, gains a contact and loses a Benefit roll. The GM says that Scarlet Bill’s contact is a criminal defense attorney on Tech World.
He talks to the other players and one decides that his character was also arrested. They use the Connections Rule (p. 17 of the Core Rulebook) and both of them gain an extra skill. Scarlet Bill kind of wishes he had the Vacc Suit skill, so decides that he was arrested while trying to steal a ship while dressed in a vacc suit. He gains Vacc Suit 1.
Fifth, since there is no possibility of receiving a commission as a Rogue, Tarondor rolls to see whether Scarlet Bill was promoted, requiring a roll of INT 6+. He rolls a 6 and is promoted from “Lackey” to “Henchman”. This entitles him to acquire the Pilot 1 or Gunner 1 skill. Scarlet Bill chooses Gunner 1.
STEP SIX: SECOND TERM:
His time as a pirate was interesting, so Scarlet Bill sticks with it. He increases his age from 18 to 22 and tries to remain in the Rogue career. Again he rolls Dex 6+ to qualify and rolls a 7. Good enough!
Since this is not his first term, Tarondor chooses a skill table for Scarlet Bill, choosing the Pirate table. He rolls a 4, gaining Engineer. Since it has no number next to it and he has no previous Engineering skill, he gains Engineer 1.
Tarondor rolls for Scarlet Bill’s survival (Dex 6+) and rolls a 9.
Tarondor rolls on the Events table and rolls a 3. Bored with that, the GM tells him to roll again, and he gets a 4. Involved in the planning of an impressive heist. Scarlet Bill can gain Electronics 1 or Mechanic 1. Since he already has Mechanic 0, he elects to choose Electronics 1.
Next Tarondor rolls for Advancement (INT 6+) and gets a 9. Good enough to advance to Rank 2 (Corporal).
STEP SIX: THIRD TERM:
So far, so good. Bill wants to stay on as a pirate, advancing in age to 26 years old. He rolls a 12 on the Qualification roll, so he remains in the Rogue career.
Eyeing the skills chart, he decides to roll again on the Pirate subchart. He rolls a 2 and gains Astrogation 1.
He rolls a 7 on the Survival check and is not forced out.
He rolls a 9 on the Events chart. He is involved in a criminal feud - two pirate crews in a dangerous portside brawl! He chooses gun combat 8+ and rolls a 6. Uh-oh. Now he has to roll on the Injury Table (Core Rulebook p. 47). He rolls a 4, becoming scarred and injured. He chooses to reduce his Strengh by 2, giving him a Strength of 5 (-1).
Next, he rolls for advancement, rolls an 8 and becomes a Sergeant, gaining either Melee 1 or Gun Combat 1. He has no melee skill, so that’s attractive, but he also has a weak strength. He could increase his Gun Combat score from 0 to 1. Ultimately, that’s what he decides to do.
STEP SEVEN: FOURTH AND FINAL TERM:
Now 30 years old , dogged by his injury and hoping to cash out on one final big score, Scarlet Bill tries to remain in the pirate crew, rolls a 7 and is accepted despite his ugly scars.
He decides to roll on the Personal Advancement chart and rolls a 3, gaining a +1 Endurance (giving him an END of 8.)
He rolls an 8 on the Survival chart and is not forced out.
He rolls a 5 on the Events chart. One of his crimes pays off! Gain a +2 DM on one Benefit roll and gain the victim as an enemy. Figuring nobody wants an unimportant enemy, Tarondor asks the GM for an important enemy and the GM tells him he has angered Vice Admiral Krond, betrothed to the Sector Duke’s niece. Yikes! Another player likes the sound of having such an impressive enemy, so they invoke the Connections Rule and both gain a skill. Scarlet Bill decides he’d like to be a better shot, so takes Gun Combat 2.
Finally, Scarlet Bill rolls for advancement. On a roll of 6, he advances to the rank of Lieutenant.
STEP EIGHT: MUSTERING OUT:
Although Scarlet Bill is doing fine, the GM has ruled that no one can have more than four terms. Scarlet Bill advances his age to 34.
Scarlet Bill gains 6 Benefits rolls (one for each term and two for gaining rank 4) (Core Rulebook, p. 17). He rolls on the Rogue chart, choosing three rolls on the Cash column and three from the Benefits column. He applies his +2 to his first roll. Rolls: 2(+2=4), 3, 6, gaining him 120,000 credits. His benefit rolls are: 1, 1 and 6. He gains 2 ship shares and Dex +1. The GM tells him that ship shares will be dealt with in play.
STEP NINE: SKILLS PACKAGE:
The players look at the available skills package on page 48 of the Core Rulebook and decide that they want to take the Starship Package. Each character picks two skills, and Scarlet Bill takes Astrogation 1 and Mechanic 1.
STEP TEN: CHOOSE SPECIALTIES:
When a Traveller has at least a skill of 1, he must choose a subspecialty.
Astrogation has no specialties.
In Electronics, Scarlet Bill chooses Sensors.
In Engineering, he chooses J-Drive.
In Gun Combat, he chooses Laser Pistols.
In Gunner, he chooses Turret.
Mechanic has no specialties.
In Pilot, he chooses Small Craft.
Vacc Suit has no specialties.
STEP ELEVEN: REASONS FOR TRAVELLING:
Tarondor decides that, having made his big score, Scarlet Bill returns to Drinax, now rich enough to live in luxury on the Floating Palace. He has no intentions of becoming a Traveller, but sadly for him, fate and King Oleb have different plans.
FINAL CHARACTER:
Lieutenant Willamette “Scarlet Bill” Keston
UPP: 5A8837
Astrogation 1
Deception 0
Electronics (Sensors) 1
Engineer (J-Drive) 1
Gun Combat (laser pistols) 2
Gunner (Turret) 1
Mechanic 1
Pilot (Small Craft) 1
Recon 0
Stealth 0
Streetwise 0
Survival 0
Vacc Suit 1
Contact: Viniver Mylen, Criminal Defense Attorney on Tech World
Enemy: Vice Admiral Krond
Benefits: 2 ship shares
Account: 120,000 credits
Where are we going to do character generation?
I am also planning on a human character. Not yet sure on the background, but leaning towards a noble.
My thought was to do it right here. Unless I hear a better idea.
I think just rolling here works. It will be a lot faster then doing the group chat and everything is nicely visible for you.
Right here works for me as well. I'm going to need to go slowly to understand the process. Even though you've give a fantastic overview.
Yep, human noble for me!
If I am lucky, I might get Flashman. However, Blackadder is more likely.
As long as you're not Percy or Baldrick.
Well, we'll find out when we've got our full roster. I'm waiting to hear from a few more people.
I can field questions about the rules or the setting or the campaign while we wait.
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Hi there!
I'm new to Traveller, but am excited to try it out. I do know that I want to be a Vespexer (a human from Drinax (wasteland)). I haven't decided much more than that yet.
Thanks for having me!
CariMac you sound familiar... *nosily check your profile* OH! Tera Fosham played a game for that last convention with my kids and I! Black Waters. Nice to see you again.
As for the rest of you, nice to meet you.
So, in my opinion we have assembled here a mighty group of role-players. As I've mentioned, I'm waiting on a few friends to decide whether to join.
Drifter, please "ninjadot" the Gameplay thread, as above.
THOUGHTS ON CHARACTER TYPES
On the one hand, this is Traveller, and everyone has lots of guns. On the other hand, this is a space opera. You should be able to buckle your swash and chew the scenery.
I strongly urge that most of you build characters (or try to) that have a variety of skills and abilities. Social skills will be -very- important in this game (poor Scarlet Bill, the character I made above, is a poor example). Scientific and medical skills will be useful, as will various skills involved with skullduggery and flying a starship.
You'll be able to hire a crew, so it doesn't matter if you can't pilot, astrogate or fire the ship's weapons, but the crew isn't going to solve your diplomatic problems or solve medical mysteries.
As to combat itself, it's worth noting for our new players that gunfire aboard a starship is a very bad idea, particularly with slug-throwing weapons. Pierce the hull or the jump drive and you could be in for a very quick or very slow death. Thus, melee weapons (particularly cutlasses and pikes) are commonly used in boarding actions. Piratey, eh?
Also, the themes of the game will get much larger than piracy. Elements of Dune and Foundation will be found here as well as Firefly and The Sea Hawk. Characters with knowledge of history, science, art, psychology and diplomacy will all find niches of the story to stretch their skills.
Meloriel good to see you again. That game still stands out as one of my favorites. You are raising some might fine role players there.
I've got a few ideas in which I'd like to go with my character, but I'm interested to see what the character creation holds for me.
I'll find out Sunday when my book arrives. My FLGS verified which one I needed on Wednesday.
Off to Toronto for a couple nights, so won't be able to post.
My book has arrived. I'm digging into it now.
So, thinking ahead here, if we're to get started sometime around November 1st, I think it might be best if we accomplished two things before then. The first is to think about party composition. What sort of skills do we want to have in the party, and which characters ought to try for them? A good topic for you to discuss. I don't care if you use Traveller terminology here.
Second, should we pick a day and try to all get together and make our characters that day? Or should we take advantage of the nature of PBP and simply create our characters at the same pace we intend to play?
Discuss!
Also, at this point, I think we are waiting on only one potential player to decide if he'll join us, so we'll have either four or five PC's.
I chose to play a noble from the Floating Palace, with hopes of getting good enough EDU and SOC to allow a University education and career paths either as a Physician or Diplomat.
As for being online together - is everyone in the Eastern Time Zone (or close to it)?
It would be nice to do it together, but I think it might be easier to proceed apace (like a combat round). As in:
- -roll Characteristics
- -choose Background Skills (discuss to ensure good variety, etc. Identify what skills the players want at least one character to have, and what multiple characters should have.)
- -Pre-Career Educaton / First Career (Try to cover skills; decide whether characters will link Life Events)
- -Subsequent Careers
- -Muster Out
- -Skill Package (to round things out)
Yeah, I'm thinking we can try to sort of do both, right?
I'm Pacific, but can try to be on about the time we are rolling. I was thinking of a human, not sure from where yet, who hoped to be a doctor or a scientist if she's smart enough of course.
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I'm central. I guess I can try to be on the messageboards when everyone else is rolling. It depends what time of day. I take care of my kids, and other relative's kids, so I'm pretty much getting crawled on by toddlers all the time and breaking up fights. Evenings is actually busier for me than daytime, so I can try but I can't make promises. My preference is to roll it on here at normal game pace one step in creation at a time. Maybe with everyone just trying to check in a bit more often during the creation process.
As for characters... I've given my book a skim, and have just started a thorough read, so I'm not sure where I'm going to go mechanically. I know that I want to be a human Vespexer who lives on the wasteland of Drinax. I'll totally wear the hazard suit and everything. I'd prefer to make someone more based on survival skills and practical knowledge, as opposed to someone well-educated. Survival, Vacc Suit, Athletics, that sort of thing. As for careers... I'm feeling drifter, scout, maybe rogue.
Thanksgiving Monday here in Canada, and I have an itch to roll up a character.
Background: Floating Palace
Gender: Male
Characteristic Rolls (x6):
Now, how to arrange those without crippling my character?
I am more interested in Physician, so will put the highest roll into INT. If I put my next highest roll into SOC, my character automatically qualifies for Noble careers (and a fallback option as a Diplomat). I will put a middling roll into EDU and take my chances on getting into University and the boosts to EDU.
I don't want to doom my character to dying from a papercut, so a middling roll into END. That means my character will be a clumsy weakling but that is why you employ servants and bodyguards.
STR (5-1) = 4
DEX = 4
END (7-1) = 6
INT = 12
EDU (7+1) = 8
SOC (11+1) = 12
Oops ... noticed a typo after I could edit. Should be -
EDU (6+1) = 7
Let's not get out ahead of ourselves. Until we know how many are playing, it's difficult to divide up roles.
Hi there! I guess I am the "potential player waiting to decide", so wait no more.
I need to look through the campaign info and consider race & background options, then I will check back in.
Looking forward to playing with everyone!
Well, the circle is now complete. I feel as though I've got an All-Star team here!
We'll give Nick a bit of time to catch up and then we'll get going.
Here’s what I understand about your intentions so far:
CariMac - Human
Drifter - Human
Flatfoot - Human Noble from the Floating Palace (Physician)
Meloriel - Human Vespexer (from the blasted surface of Drinax) (Drifter, Scout, or Rogue)
Nick - ?
Now that the gang's all here, I'd like everyone to discuss which career they're going to try for and which skills they'll try to maximize.
I'd also like you to consider the cool utility of cutlasses and boarding pikes over snub pistols and holes in the hull!
Can we shoot for a Friday start to our character creation?
After reading through the Player's Guide for the campaign, I am leaning towards a human from Asim. My early envisioning is a low EDU, self-taught, but intuitive tinkerer and mechanic type...but we will see where things go with character creation.
I am good to get rolling with character creation Friday. The core rulebook I ordered should be arriving tomorrow.
CariMac - Human
Drifter - Human
Flatfoot - Human Noble from the Floating Palace (Physician)
Meloriel - Human Vespexer (from the blasted surface of Drinax) (Drifter, Scout, or Rogue)
Nick - Human Mechanic from Asim (conquered colony world)
CariMac and Drifter, what do you think about careers and skills?
Cutlasses and pikes! A true noble is a master of the rapier!
Too true! Why be practical?
I'll go with a human from Asim as well. Since we have a possible doctor on the team already, I was thinking of going with college to start (if she's got the smarts for it), and then as broker for one of the corporations.
I know Asim is a colony world, but I assume corporations would still need to do business planet side.
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I'm still reading my rulebook, but yup! I'm good to get started on character creation tomorrow.
I found character creation a little confusing. Not so much the mechanics, I suppose, but more... how it's going to come together. I think it's one of those ones I need to just do to really understand how it works out.
Anyway, I'm excited to give it a shot!
Me, too!
Well, it's Friday somewhere! Let's get started!
Everyone (except John) give me six rolls of 2d6. Then in the same post, assign each of those to one ability score. Finally apply the pluses or minuses for the background you chose (Floating Palace, blasted waste of Drinax, Asim or "elsewhere" (no modifiers).
Thomas/Drifter, you need to pick a background, too.
Please stop after doing this so we can all proceed together!
OK, here goes:
Asim background gives END+1 and EDU-1.
Arranging these, with the Asim modifiers, I get:
STR 7
DEX 9
END 8+1 = 9
INT 9
EDU 5-1 = 4
SOC 5
I haven't been able to edit the campaign for days. So until I can, I'm putting this here:
Asim background: End +1 Edu -1
STR 8
DEX 8
END 5+1=6
INT 10
Edu 8-1 = 7
Soc 2
CariMac, you may re-roll if you wish.
Meloriel and CariMac may both re-roll.
Meloriel, you may stand pat or re-roll as you wish.
CariMac, same for you.
Neither of your characters are bad at all. It's just that I'm giving you the opportunity to get at least as many bonuses as penalties.
That's a little better.
Asim background: End +1 Edu -1
STR 7
DEX 8
END 7+1=8
INT 10
Edu 9-1=8
Soc 5
Meloriel, that actually look okay to me.
We're just waiting on Drifter now.
Everyone start thinking about which career you want to start with (or whether you'd rather start with a University education.