Yeah well I got nothing for valid excuses to explain blog tardiness.
I have however done some thinking about my premise that prior careers are all government service and decided it made some sense where I was going on the Starter Traveller (ST) posts but not so much for Fermi's Universe (FU). That being said the first term is still a mandatory draft as laid out in my last post but after that first term it is up to the Player what is in the character's backstory as it should be. I will be going through the tables for character generation to see how the possible results can help shape the setting. What skills and how often you get them lead me to develop a different view of the ST careers than when I started and I am looking forward to doing the same with the Cepheus Engine (CE).
The only changes to the Character Creation Checklist are Step 3 a) Choose a career becomes submit to the draft and Step 3 b) ... -2 DM for each previous career doesn't apply if remaining in a government service branch and changing to a related career as explained in the last post. The next change is rolling the Psionic score. I am torn about whether and/or who should roll it at character generation. I will delve into the whole topic in more depth when I reach that point in the rules however in this case I am leaning toward having the player roll it at the start. My reasoning is it provides several possible motivations and hooks for a character. If you have a high score it will most likely affect your choices on how long your pursue prior careers before you start adventuring to minimize losing Psionic Strength Points. It can also be used to explain results during character generation if for example you have a moderate score and are turned down for re-enlistment perhaps your sixth sense was a little to pronounced and rumors started about you being one of them so you were unfairly bounced. I am torn about going with doing it upfront mostly because of GDW's original rules where you didn't know until you were tested. Meh, I think if you had a high potential it would manifest itself noticeably before you got tested but most likely not in any game mechanic effecting way. Aliens only deserve a mention to clarify one of my starting premises, there are no alien races that rise to significance on an interstellar scale. Mostly this is to avoid having to do a massive retcon if I come up with an idea that needs an alien rather than implying I am planning on presenting any aliens on their own.
The Universal Persona Profile (UPP) is familiar to us all and the Universal Character Format seems like a clearly thought out way to present a consistent stat block. Normally that wouldn't interest me however I hope to eventually reach a point of putting stuff on the blog other people can use so it is important. Background skills are encountered next and I am okay with them for the most part although I have one quibble in that not every character will have the option to have experience in operating a vehicle which I am ambivalent toward at the moment. Perhaps the various careers make getting a skill in a vehicle a given or I may decide that almost all member worlds of the TBR have a decent public transportation system. Actually I am going to go with the widespread public transportation idea as it will certainly help explain what the Referendum is doing with all those 18-22 year olds. Moving to the non-specific part of the Career section brings up few changes as I am okay with most of it. Let me specifically praise the inclusion of rules for mishaps; injuries and anagathics so the lazy GM (raises hand) doesn't have figure this out on there own. Non-lazy GM will do what they wish which is why I envy them their self confidence.
I did say I was okay with most of the section and the one thing I am going to mention will probably be a little controversial. I have no problem with the rules as presented however there is a legacy of Traveller I have never been to comfortable with while wearing my GM hat but really wanted while as a player. I am of course speaking of a ship or its equivalent as a mustering out benefit. As a player you want your own ship to go where you and do what you wish. As a GM what happens if two players get ships? Or none of them do and your adventure needs one? If the ship has a mortgage you risk your players turning into non-adventurers either from the need to pay for the damn thing or because they can work the math out on the trade tables to just rack up credits in a somewhat unexciting fashion. So I will be replacing the ship and ship shares on mustering out with some other benefit. As I suspect the reasoning for why will be of moderate length and involve more of my own gaming philosophy than anything to do with CE I will make a separate post about the whole topic.
No comments:
Post a Comment