You might suspect from the title I am quite enamored of the changes to the CT system generation presented in Book 3 of Cepheus Engine (CE) and you would be right. However we'll go in order through the book. Chapter 11 is the environment and hazards which are mostly rules for things I never really gave much thought to. Acid; disease; temperature; falling; poison; radiation; sustenance; exposure to vacuum and weirdly enough in the middle of all that is carrying capacity. Do you need these rules? Maybe or maybe not but to have them makes winging it easier for me. Like most GMs (I suspect) I know the rules for things that happen commonly in a session and vaguely recall those that rarely come up. Mostly I wouldn't stop the flow of a session to look up a rule so to have at least a vague idea of how to represent a challenge in the system gives me a point to make a better snap decision then just pulling one completely out of thin air. The only one that really stands out to me is the radiation section because it does point out radiation is a life time gift in that it is a cumulative rating. I am torn on this as it adds (maybe but probably not) something else to track. Fortunately there is a simple in game way to remove rads to go along with where to get irradiated in the first place and how much protection common things give from radiation. The reason I say this probably won't add something to track is I suspect unless it is part of the session neither I or my player will care.
Chapter 12 covers creating worlds and I am chuffed (I have been watching commonwealth comedians again) by the changes in here. It covers the UWP which remains unchanged that I saw. Star mapping is also pretty similar with DMs changing the likelihood a star is present rather than giving a table with different probabilities for each density. I can't honestly say I know if it makes a difference or not. On to the meat of it as it were. You generate the size of a world first and handily there is a table of the surface Gs of the sizes assuming a standard composition. Next it a paragraph on how to introduce DMs to show some kind of effect for being in a gravity field different from your own. Next is atmosphere with an extended range of atmosphere types and a description of what the types are. Hydrographics is next and has additional modifiers for size and atmosphere introduced. Population is the fourth thing to be generated and the part that really impressed me. It is the standard 2D6-2 roll but it gets modified by the physical world stats so the crappier the planet the lower it's population will be which is something I had already decided I was going to do in FU. To me it just makes over all good sense that a planet with a lesser ability to support human life will have a lower population. Population modifier comes up for those who want to use it however I never really worried about it before. The next big change which I hadn't thought of before and makes amazing sense to me is that you generate the starport after you know the worlds population. More people should mean more traffic which would lead to a better port. Thinking back to the passenger and freight tables being based exclusively on the starport might make a little more sense now and it also means I no longer am sure what the most common starport type is. The next thing you generate is the government type with a quibble that there is not a description of the types just a name. Law Level is the next step being influenced by government type. Technology level is generated in the expected manner with a table of certain minimums based on world characteristics which I think was also in the LBBs but am to lazy to look up right now. After generating the world you can flesh out the system some by checking for gas giants; planetoid belts and various bases. You can also figure the worlds trade codes and likely trade routes. Travel zones; world allegiance and communications routes will depend on your setting more than random rolls or at least will in my case.
Chapter 13 covers wilderness encounters and the creation of animals and encounter tables. Animals get created with the same characteristics as PCs for the most part simplifying using them. Chapter 14 covers social encounters which means the NPCs of the setting. Chapter 15 covers starship or space encounters with sample encounter tables. These sections are more in depth that my summary would otherwise suggest but without actually playing the game I can't really say much about the material in them.
Chapter 16 covers refereeing the game which is usually my favorite section of any rule book. Most often this is where the developer of the game talks to the reader most directly and shares their experiences playing intentionally or not. Much like posting this blog and reading the comments is valuable to me because it is where I will most often encounter something I have either never thought of or have a different opinion of. It is my belief anything I may create will be better by getting input from people who are not part of my own echo chamber. Even if I don't appear to use a suggestion or differing point of view I will have thought through the point made and my own idea will be more fully thought out for it. I would advise reading the chapter as it has some good ideas but I will also admit if you have been playing RPGs for any length of time it is things you will have heard before.
Chapter 17 is suggestions on how to create adventures and much like the previous chapter you may or may not have heard everything in it before. I do still advise reading it. Some people know the five act structure and some have never heard of it regardless it never hurts to have a checklist of things to consider when making up an adventure or getting ready to play a sandbox.
And that ends the overview of the Cepheus Engine as written. I decided to go through the rule book as written before making any changes. I am happy I did because I more or less assumed CE would be just the SRD version of classic traveller and it is not. some people won't like that it has some important changes but I am okay or happy with the changes I did notice. Also I did it this way to avoid my most common trap. I have a really cool idea for a Starship or adventure or world or even a campaign and start there. Then I have to do the non really part of editing rules and lose interest. This bottom up approach doesn't work to well in a sci-fi game at least it doesn't work as well as it does in fantasy. For me knowing the basic way the universe works is a good thing so I can make specific things up and not have to fight them into the general way things work.
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