# Leif's DISCONTINUED GURPS Traveller Game OOC01



## Leif (Jul 21, 2010)

Out of Character Discussions go here, thanks.


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## Scotley (Jul 23, 2010)

Just checking in at the need thread.


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## Shayuri (Jul 23, 2010)

Oh cool. Just saw this.

Had to dig up my books, but I got 'em. I'll work up a character this weekend.

Looking at a character who grew up in a family of belters working asteroids out of an orbital habitat, then joined the Imperial Navy as a way of getting away...served for a term or two, then mustered out to become a commercial pilot.


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## Insight (Jul 23, 2010)

Sorry I havent posted in a few days; I was kinda waiting to see what the other players wanted to do.

So, are we going with the more "generic" Traveller setup, or still doing the Zhodani thing?


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## Shayuri (Jul 23, 2010)

I think we settled on the more Imperium-centered game...


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## Leif (Jul 24, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Oh cool. Just saw this.
> 
> Had to dig up my books, but I got 'em. I'll work up a character this weekend.
> 
> Looking at a character who grew up in a family of belters working asteroids out of an orbital habitat, then joined the Imperial Navy as a way of getting away...served for a term or two, then mustered out to become a commercial pilot.



Sounds good!  So a Naval officer, I presume?  [Enlisted, turns out!]   Inee or Outee?


Scotley said:


> Just checking in at the need thread.



'Bout time you showed up here!


Insight said:


> Sorry I havent posted in a few days; I was kinda waiting to see what the other players wanted to do.
> So, are we going with the more "generic" Traveller setup, or still doing the Zhodani thing?





Shayuri said:


> I think we settled on the more Imperium-centered game...



What Shay said.   That okay with all?


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## Shayuri (Jul 24, 2010)

I read over the occupational templates in GURPS Traveller, and I might go with Enlisted...not sure. I don't really see my character as being the best 'command potential' type, and humble beginnings often make becoming an officer more difficult in the Imperial Navy...

The feeling I always got was that Navy Officers commanded ships, and Enlisted crew were the ones that actually got their hands dirty with operations. In that case, this character would be Enlisted. An actual pilot, as opposed to someone who tells a pilot what to do.


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## Leif (Jul 24, 2010)

grufflehead said:


> You two can stop that line of thought RIGHT THERE!  *mutter, mutter* racial stereotyping *mutter, mutter*
> 
> And whaddaya mean 'recruit more later'? Think we cannae handle it, cap'n?



'Recruit more later' meant that you lot might decide to abandon me _en masse_ when you see how tough I'm planning to be on you guys!   (Ask Scotley, he knows the real truth of what a wicked Referee I can be. Mwahahahahaha)  (Which is to say that he knows that I'm really a total pushover. )


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## Leif (Jul 24, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> I read over the occupational templates in GURPS Traveller, and I might go with Enlisted...not sure. I don't really see my character as being the best 'command potential' type, and humble beginnings often make becoming an officer more difficult in the Imperial Navy...
> 
> The feeling I always got was that Navy Officers commanded ships, and Enlisted crew were the ones that actually got their hands dirty with operations. In that case, this character would be Enlisted. An actual pilot, as opposed to someone who tells a pilot what to do.



'Officer' does not necessarily connote 'command.'   Some, make that MOST, of the officers I knew during my time in the Army Reserve were not very likely command candidates.  Of course, most of them were Lieutenants, so they were very young and not really in any danger of being in command of anything anyway.  But, that said, the way you set up your character is up to you.  One more observation:  pilots on large ships are not usually in command.  Think "Lieutenant Sulu" on Star Trek.  

However, I am interested to see what justification you come up with for an enlisted person being trained as a pilot in the Imperial Navy, when such duties are typically reserved for the officer corps.


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## Shayuri (Jul 25, 2010)

See, that's the thing. I'm not sure the Imperial Navy has the same conventions as the United States military. In the USAF (armed forces, not Air Force), anyone who flies combat missions is an officer of at least Lieutenant rank. The amount of training and education required pretty much demands no less.

But the sense I get from Traveller is that the Imperial military doesn't have that requirement. Enlisted personnel from all branches can start off with Pilot training, as well as pilot-related advantages like 3D Spatial Sense and so on. The feeling I get is that the advent of gravitational drives and anti-gravity has made piloting combat vehicles and spacecraft a lot _easier_ and thus require much less training, much less education, and can be taught to enlisted servicemen. 

But there's no clarification to that effect in the actual rules.

So basically it up to you. If you rule that pilots must be officers, then I'll make that work in my background. If you rule that enlisted can be combat pilots, then I'll go with that.


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## Leif (Jul 25, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> So basically it up to you. If you rule that pilots must be officers, then I'll make that work in my background. If you rule that enlisted can be combat pilots, then I'll go with that.



No, Shayuri, it's basically up to YOU.    Ignore my drivel and make the character that you want to play.  Ordinarily, I would suppose that most pilots are officers, but if you prefer to be enlisted, then there's no reason why you can't have been permitted, or more likely ORDERED, to complete pilot training.

And, now that I think about it, being enlisted sort of gives you a built-in reason to jump ship and strike out on your own, doesn't it?  And, depending upon how you actually work out your character's background, your "desertion" from the navy could give us multiple adventure hooks.


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## Leif (Jul 25, 2010)

*Incorrect Update for shayuri -- See Next Post*

I checked the skills available to personnel in the Navy [Enlisted],  and Piloting (Starship) is not available to them.  However, Piloting (Starship) is a *Primary Skill* for a character who is in the Navy [Officer].  So don't blame me, blame the authors of GURPS Traveller! 

Hold the Phone!  See my next post, please.


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## Leif (Jul 25, 2010)

*Did More Checking, Sharuri*

Ok, I was wrong!  Both Astrogation and Piloting (Spacecraft Type) are Primary Skills for personnel in the Navy [Enlisted] after all.  I don't know how I missed it the first time.  Sorry.

And, anyway, even if the skill wasn't in the template you could still be trained in it.  For a second there I forgot this was GURPS!  (If you don't like something, _change_ it already!)


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## Insight (Jul 25, 2010)

NM need to read the thread LOL

Anyway, I've changed Doc Hannigan around to remove the now unnecesary Zhodani and Vargyr stuff.  I thought it might be useful to list the things that Doc is "good at" (15 or higher skill):

Armory - Cyberware, Astrogation, Bartender, Biochemistry, Computer Operation, Diagnosis, Electronics - Cybertech, Electronics Operation - Medical, Engineer - Cybertech, First Aid, Genetics, Pharmacy, Physician, Physiology - Human, Research, Savoir Faire - Military, and Surgery.

In terms of Doc backing up other positions on the ship, his Armory (Spaceship Armor or Spaceship Weaponry) defaults to 11, his Electronics (Communications, Computers, Weapons, etc) to 11, his Electronics Operation (as Electronics above) to 12, and his Engineer (Combat Engineering, Electrical, and Guns) to 10.  Doc can pilot High Performance Spacecraft as well as Starships and can fire Lasers (I assume thats what these ships have -- if not, let me know).


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## Leif (Jul 25, 2010)

Insight said:


> Doc can pilot High Performance Aircraft as well as Starships and can fire Lasers (I assume thats what these ships have -- if not, let me know).



His skills and things look good.  I had hoped that GURPS Ultra Tech 1 & 2 might offer some more interesting weapons for ships than just lasers, but these volumes appear to be focused more on weapons for personal use than the vehicle/ship mounted variety.  So looks like we're stuck with just lasers for the time being.  (And the usual assortment of missiles and sandcasters, of course.  At least, I _think_ Traveller might have provisions for missiles.)  Anyway, what you have is probably as good as you can get at this point.   If/when you get the _really_ fun play-pretties, you'll have to OJT those skills, at least at first.


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## Shayuri (Jul 25, 2010)

Insight, you probably don't need High Performance Aircraft in Traveller, unless you're from a low-tech planet. Piloting pretty much any suborbital craft is covered by the Pilot (Gravitic) skill. Low tech planets...which are actually pretty common throughout the Imperium...might still use wheeled vehicles, or winged (fixed or rotary) aircraft, but they're not the default assumption.

Traveller spaceships typically only mount three weapons, unless they're military ships. 

Lasers are used for point defense and for deterrent offense. They can threaten lightly armored civilian craft, but aren't going to be much of a threat against thicker-hulled vessels unless you have a large ship with powerful weapons.

Missiles are the primary offense of civilian starships. A missile hit or two can cripple a small civilian ship, and make even heavier ships think twice about engaging. Missiles don't have a Gunner skill, I don't think. The missiles are guided, and have their own "skill rating" that is used in place of a gunner's.

Sandcasters are a form of defense that's effective against lasers. They shoot canisters of what is essentially ground up glass that burst at a programmed distance from the ship. A good gunner can use this weapon to saturate space between his ship and an enemy ship with particles that diffract and diffuse incoming laser beams, reducing their ability to do damage. Sandcasters don't have much offensive value. In theory you could play games with relative motion and create clouds of relativistic sand...but in practice it's a lot easier just to shoot something with a weapon that's designed for it. 

If you're military, you might get some of these other weapons. And note that they're not -restricted- to military vessels. They're just really expensive and high tech, and thus rarely seen on civilian ships.

There's plasma guns, which fire high velocity jets of hot plasma. They tend to attenuate over range, making them less useful. Their high-tech cousin is the fusion gun, which ejects a stream of plasma that's so hot that it's actually undergoing a fusion reaction as it fires. They're basically just super-plasma guns, that do tons more damage.

Large ships can mount particle beams in large turrets called "bays," and on fixed spinal mounts. A spinal mount is basically a gigantic gun emplacement that's built into the ship's structure along it's center of thrust. Sort of like the Wave Motion Gun from the Space Battleship Yamato cartoons (Star Blazers in the states). Particle beams are enthusiastically nasty, but are capital ship guns, normally used on other capital ships.

And of course, there's the granddaddy gun of them all. The meson gun. Meson guns generate a cloud of subatomic particles that only interact very weakly with normal matter, and accelerates them at relativistic velocities towards an enemy ship. The mesons decay back into normal matter and energy after a very short period of subjective time, but that time can be manipulated by controlling the speed that they're launched at. The closer to the speed of light, the longer their lifespan appears to be from an outside frame of reference. A complex calculation can therefore determine precisely what velocity they need to travel at in order to time their decay so that it takes place while they're in the process of passing through the enemy ship. The meson decay is violent, releasing a great deal of energy in the form of heat and hard radiation; something not far from detonating a tactical nuclear device. Meson guns are always spinal mounts, though they don't need firing apartures or any obvious sign of their presence.


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## grufflehead (Jul 25, 2010)

I've just acquired myself a copy of GURPS:Traveller from SJGames so I can do a bit of reading - unfortunately looks like I'll be off the boards again for about a week, but I'll try and have some numbers sketched out while I'm away. At the moment I'm looking at these skills:

- Armoury (Ship Guns, Ship Armour, Battlesuit, + possibly others)
- Mechanic (Spaceship Drive, Fuel Cell, Robotics, Starship Drive, Gasoline, Small Electric, Clockwork/Gadgets)
- Electronics Operation (Security Systems)
- Mathematics
- Electronics
- Engineer - not entirely sure of the benefit of this as opposed to the Mechanic skills?
- misc stuff including Freefall, Running, Scrounging, Streetwise, Vacc Suit, Merchant, Lockpicking

I'm also considering Lightning Calculator, Mathematical Ability, possibly a level of Luck.

If points allow I may try and work in the Psi angle (Psyckokinesis) and/or Eidetic Memory


If you are ready to start before I come back please do so and I'll catch up. I am happy to go with the more trad type of game rather than the original Zhodani idea.


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## Leif (Jul 25, 2010)

Excellent stuff, Grufflehead!  I doubt if we'll start before you get back online, but, if so, it will probably be very minor and you'll easily catch up.

(And QUIT WATCHING me!!  It's making me nervous as he[[!)


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## Insight (Jul 25, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Insight, you probably don't need High Performance Aircraft in Traveller, unless you're from a low-tech planet. Piloting pretty much any suborbital craft is covered by the Pilot (Gravitic) skill. Low tech planets...which are actually pretty common throughout the Imperium...might still use wheeled vehicles, or winged (fixed or rotary) aircraft, but they're not the default assumption.




I changed it to spacecraft once I realized I'd typed the wrong thing.  Doc has some experience with solo spacecraft (I figure they must have personal transport craft, if only to travel between planets or for quick hops across the same planet).  He knows his way around a larger ship (the starship in GURPS)and can serve as a backup pilot if need be.



> Lasers are used for point defense and for deterrent offense. They can threaten lightly armored civilian craft, but aren't going to be much of a threat against thicker-hulled vessels unless you have a large ship with powerful weapons.




I figure Doc got some basic gunner training while in the military and point defense seems right up his alley.  I know that in OUR militaries, medics and doctors aren't taught to fight, but I figure in the Imperium, they might be.  Even if they aren't, Doc would have learned somehow


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## Leif (Jul 26, 2010)

FYI - I checked out my copy of Ultra-Tech 2 tonight!  So THAT'S where my blasters have been hiding!  The "hold-out" version, a concealable little pea shooter, inflicts 11d of damage!  Guess that's not something you use when you intend to, "Bring 'em back alive."

But, as I recall now, in GURPS armor doesn't make you more difficult to hit, it absorbs damage. Still, 11d of damage has a range of 11-66 points, and an average of ... 38.5.  Ouch!


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## Insight (Jul 26, 2010)

Leif said:


> FYI - I checked out my copy of Ultra-Tech 2 tonight!  So THAT'S where my blasters have been hiding!  The "hold-out" version, a concealable little pea shooter, inflicts 11d of damage!  Guess that's not something you use when you intend to, "Bring 'em back alive."
> 
> But, as I recall now, in GURPS armor doesn't make you more difficult to hit, it absorbs damage. Still, 11d of damage has a range of 11-66 points, and an average of ... 38.5.  Ouch!




Yeah, in GURPS, the strategy is "don't get hit".  That goes for pretty much everyone except maybe Supers.


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## Shayuri (Jul 26, 2010)

Well, in GURPS 3rd Edition, armor DOES make you harder to hit.   It has Passive Defense, which can add to your attempts to evade attacks, or give a chance to avoid attacks passively (though it's a hail mary roll in that case). 

Plus, high tech armors have pretty high DR ratings. That's less true in Traveller unless you're military, but in standard GURPS Ultra-Tech, by the time you see blasters, you've also got access to bioplastic clothes that have DR 15...and they're not even really considered armor! 

In Traveller, your defensive options are much more limited...which is one reason you also don't see the full range of Ultra-Tech weapons reprinted in the Traveller books. The other reason being that they were never part of the Traveller universe to start with.


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## Leif (Jul 27, 2010)

Ok, thanks Shayuri.  I was kinda thinking, though, that we might want to have some more toys to play with than standard Traveller.  What does everyone else think?  What tech level would everyone like to have access to starting out? As per Traveller rules, or something else?


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## Insight (Jul 27, 2010)

Doc Hannigan is posted to the RG thread.  Check it out!


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## Insight (Jul 28, 2010)

Leif said:


> Ok, thanks Shayuri.  I was kinda thinking, though, that we might want to have some more toys to play with than standard Traveller.  What does everyone else think?  What tech level would everyone like to have access to starting out? As per Traveller rules, or something else?




I used TL 10 as a hard limit for my equipment, with the exception of a few items or modifications Doc could have "invented" himself (TL 11 and no higher).


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## Leif (Jul 28, 2010)

Insight said:


> I used TL 10 as a hard limit for my equipment, with the exception of a few items or modifications Doc could have "invented" himself (TL 11 and no higher).



Since you 'fudged' and went to TL 11 for some things, I guess everyone else can, too.  Just make sure that any of your TL 11 goodies are rare and very special to your characters, because well, they _should_ be!


Insight said:


> Doc Hannigan is posted to the RG thread.  Check it out!



I checked, I checked!  Coolness!  He's kind of a cross between House and Captain "Hawkeye" Pierce, isn't he?   Incidentally, why is he missing some health?


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## Insight (Jul 28, 2010)

Leif said:


> Incidentally, why is he missing some health?




Doc has the "Extra Hit Points +1" advantage, so his HT is 11, but his "hit points" are 12.


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## Leif (Jul 28, 2010)

Ok.  Not used to this system yet....


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## Leif (Aug 1, 2010)

We seem to have encountered our first major problem, and, unlikely as it may seem, it's that the party has more starships than they need!  Shayuri is purchasing a FreeTrader, and Doc Hannigan has his own personal ship. (Maybe a yacht of sorts, *shrug* not really sure at the moment.)  Any proposed resolution of this difficulty will be appreciated and duly considered.


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## grufflehead (Aug 1, 2010)

Returned from the wilderness so a good point to chip in...

Although I haven't played much SF in my long gaming career, any 'Traveller-type' games I have played have always had a strange sort of economics to them. Wealth seems to work on a log scale in that you can buy all your usual 'adventuring' gear fairly cheaply (even progressing up to fancy lasers and battle armour) but unless the game has started with the group having their own craft, then the MASSIVE cost of not only buying, but running, a starship just dwarfs everything else to the point that we've always usually come by ships by plot device. Plus, once you've got one, given how hugely expensive they are, if you can get another one then you could practically buy a small continent on a nice warm planet somewhere by selling it off. Someone made the comment about not getting hit being the strategy for GURPS combat - last game like this I played our ship had no guns, shields or armour, so whenever we detected another ship we just ran on general principles; the risk of getting into a fight was just too much to take!

So, I'd say decide on which ship you want us to be on. If it's been given to us by a patron or for some other reason, just ask other people not to bother buying their own craft other than for flavour reasons ('we've got 2 weeks off so I'm going to spend some time on my boat...'). Otherwise, unless money is going to play a significant part in events (in one game we were literally having to take cargo with enough value to be able to afford to buy fuel - a la Serenity - money was *that* tight) then if Shayuri's character concept is served by having a ship, then go that route. How did the character get it (not being familiar with the GURPS Traveller version) - is it a mustering out thing, or did he buy it (in which case, I presume that's a whole lot of character points into Wealth to be able to afford it)?

From my character's POV, the difference will be whether Shayuri's character has hired him as an engineer previously because it is his ship, or whether we have been thrown together as 'crew' on behalf of a patron. This, I assume, will have a bearing on how the game works. If the ship is supplied, the patron can direct us on 'jobs' which allows for the element of 'you're doing it because I tell you you're doing it' in the plots; that can still happen if one of the characters owns the ship and we are some sort of company with a letter of marque from a patron, but it may also open up other avenues, for example the 'we're so short of money we're just going to *have* to take this job' type of thing. How does that square with what you had in mind, Leif?


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## Shayuri (Aug 1, 2010)

Also, a point - My character would -like- to have a ship. That doesn't means he does. She might be working for someone else as a pilot to pay the bills right now. Then owning a ship would be a motivation, not a background element.


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## grufflehead (Aug 1, 2010)

As you seem to be pretty clued up Shayuri, what's your take on the 'mechanic' vs 'engineer' skill question. I find the rules a bit unclear as the mechanic skill says you can 'find problems' and 'repair them'; plus the categories (like Stardrive etc) seem much more suited to someone who is trying to keep a spaceship running. The engineer skill meanwhile says it allows the character to 'diagnose a mechanical or electrical problem' and 'perform a repair'; the categories seem a bit broad and not really specific to spaceship-type issues.

What do you think would be most useful for this game? I was going to major on several different mechanic specialisations, and take a couple of engineer groups just for completeness sake.


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## Leif (Aug 2, 2010)

Here's the thing:  I like both Grufflehead's and Shayuri's character concepts, and both seem to point toward obtaining a starship ASAP.  Do the two of you want to hash this out between yourselves, or should I fire up the old _deus ex machina_ engine?  (I really _hate_ that da**** thing!)


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## grufflehead (Aug 2, 2010)

Honestly, I'm fine either way. The feel I want to get for my characer is that he's essentially a highly skilled mechanic (or engineer - someone please answer that question!) who does it largely through intuition rather than formal training. He's from a poor background, and somewhere along the line, someone (either Shayuri, a 'patron' or another plot device) has come across him fixing something and thought 'hey, I bet this guy would be great at keeping a ship running' - offered him some money and he's gone with them because it's more money than he'd ever earn any other way, and it means he can send some back to support his family.


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## Shayuri (Aug 2, 2010)

Okay, here's some thoughts.

First, Gruffle, the difference between Engineer and Mechanic is that an Engineer has sufficient education to design and develop new inventions based on that skill. Consider the difference between a grease monkey at a mechanics shop...and the guy who designed and built the engine in the first place. Said grease monkey can keep it running. He can take it apart and put it together again. But he can't really analyze the design (beyond "this model seems like it always breaks on the pinion joints!" type observations), nor could he design an entirely new engine.

GURPS Engineers (perhaps unrealistically) can not only service and repair the subjects of their skills, but can gain detailed technical understanding of them by studying them, or schematics. They can attempt to design improvements and implement them. Engineering can do anything Mechanics can do, and more.

Additionally, there's no such skill as Mechanics (Jump Drive). You -have- to have Engineering, because that skill is required to plot the jump, as well as maintain and repair the drive.

---
Now, as for the ship...

I suggest that you and I link our backgrounds somehow. Then both our characters have a stake in the ship. This would probably happen anyway, because a ship needs, at minimum, two skills to run it. A pilot, and a jump engineer. Sometimes, like with single-operator Scout Service ships, those can both be done by one person, but that's uncommon.

So for example...

What if my character's father, who is an asteroid prospector (a 'belter') has associations with your character somehow. Perhaps professional, perhaps personal...friend of the family...you saved his life...whatever. Now his big find is a derelict starship, which under right of salvage is now his. He's planning on selling it and retiring, but there's an accident of some kind that leads to his demise. The ship is in his will to the two most important people he had left at the time...my character, and yours.

It would have taken time and money to refurbish it and get it spaceworthy again, but we decided to do exactly that, even though we could have gotten a goodly chunk of change by just selling off the hulk.

The precise nature of the ship is of course, up to the GM...though it shouldn't be anything obviously special, since the Imperium would have confiscated something like that.


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## Leif (Aug 2, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Now, as for the ship...
> 
> I suggest that you and I link our backgrounds somehow. Then both our characters have a stake in the ship.  _[GM/Referee edit:  I'm all for this!]_
> 
> ...



Go for it, you two!  As for the ship, I'm perfectly willing to let the players choose (I suppose I should add, 'within reason,' but I'm really not planning to be very restrictive at all here.)  All I'll say is that a Scout ship is probably WAY to small, and it really needs to have more Jump capability than a Free Trader, say at least Jump-2, maybe even more than that.  I'd also recommend  a fairly substantial cargo hold, but, in the final analysis, that's up to you as well.


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## Leif (Aug 2, 2010)

*Possible Ship?*

If I might be so bold .... what do you folk think about the Yetsabl Class Zhodani Courier?  (It's TL12, built on a 200-ton hull, has 9 staterooms, 1 sickbay (a given), needs 4-5 crew, makes 6.4 Gs and Jump 2).  If you have the books, it's on pgs. 47, 54, and 55 of GURPS Traveller Alien Races 1.  This is the ship that originally inspired me in this game, and the reason Scotley is playing a Zhodani.  The Jump-2 is marginal, really, but perhaps this could be modified?  It's only got 11 tons of cargo space, but it does have some surplus stateroom space that could possibly be converted into cargo hold and/or more jump drive?


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## Insight (Aug 2, 2010)

Leif said:


> We seem to have encountered our first major problem, and, unlikely as it may seem, it's that the party has more starships than they need!  Shayuri is purchasing a FreeTrader, and Doc Hannigan has his own personal ship. (Maybe a yacht of sorts, *shrug* not really sure at the moment.)  Any proposed resolution of this difficulty will be appreciated and duly considered.




If Doc has a ship, it's probably not "with us".  It's a personal vessel for planetary and perhaps some minor interplanetary travel.  He keeps it parked, er, _somewhere_.  In any event, it's not something terribly interesting to my understanding of the scale of this game.  I suppose if the "group ship" is big enough, perhaps Doc's vessel could fit inside.  Not sure how workable that is.

My plan was for him to travel around on the "group" ship.  I figure Doc is a hired hand at this point, or perhaps slightly more than that.

If I get a vote, I like both Shayuri's idea and Leif's idea.  Perhaps they can be made to coalesce.


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## Leif (Aug 2, 2010)

Insight said:


> If Doc has a ship, it's probably not "with us".  It's a personal vessel for planetary and perhaps some minor interplanetary travel.  He keeps it parked, er, _somewhere_.  In any event, it's not something terribly interesting to my understanding of the scale of this game.  I suppose if the "group ship" is big enough, perhaps Doc's vessel could fit inside.  Not sure how workable that is.
> 
> My plan was for him to travel around on the "group" ship.  I figure Doc is a hired hand at this point, or perhaps slightly more than that.
> 
> If I get a vote, I like both Shayuri's idea and Leif's idea.  Perhaps they can be made to coalesce.



An interplanetary ship, as opposed to a starship, say for example a Cutter or Pinnace, can easily be used as a ship's boat on a starship, and often is, provided that there is sufficient room, and in most cases there should be plenty.


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## Shayuri (Aug 2, 2010)

I think flying around the Imperium in a Zhodani starship is a very risky, and possibly suicidal move.  That's assuming you don't houserule the relationship between those two stellar states.

The standard Far Trader design is a bit more suited for freight hauling. It's not as glamorous in terms of its performance, but it has a lot more cargo space, and it's a very respectable Jump 2.

As far as jump drives go, you don't find many civilian ships with more than jump 2 or 3, if memory serves. The cost of the drive increases very rapidly, as does the fuel consumption (and thus, the amount of space required to have one).

A Far Trader could probably be upgraded to Jump 3, at the cost of cargo space. Beyond that, we'd have to make the hull larger.

I'll see if I can find some possible designs...or a custom one could be made.


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## grufflehead (Aug 2, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Okay, here's some thoughts.




<snip useful stuff>



Shayuri said:


> Additionally, there's no such skill as Mechanics (Jump Drive). You -have- to have Engineering, because that skill is required to plot the jump, as well as maintain and repair the drive.




According to my 3rd Ed GURPS book, there are specialisations of Mechanics for Spaceship Drive AND Starship Drive. The specialisations for Engineer are much more 'generic' e.g. Vehicles, Plumbing, Electrical.

By that line of reasoning (and you're own explanation), Mechanic is what I want as he has no 'formal education' per se plus the skills are much more relevant.

---


Shayuri said:


> Now, as for the ship...
> 
> I suggest that you and I link our backgrounds somehow....




<more snippage>

OK, no problem with previous association. I had in mind something more like: your character has come into possession of an old barely working ship, possibly salvaged as per your idea. It plays up and he is forced to land on planet X. While scratching his head as to what's wrong with it, he encounters my character who takes one look at it and correctly diagnoses the problem ('ah, your atmosphere intake inverter is likely clogged. Here, I've got something that'll sort it out for you). So impressed, you offer me a job 

Does that sound a workable jumping off point?


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## grufflehead (Aug 2, 2010)

A few questions for the GM (and rules gurus).

I have in mind for my character this incredible affinity for fixing stuff. There are two ideas I have but I'm unsure if they are legal and how to cost them.

- idea 1 is that if he's seen it (and not necessarily for real, could be in a book/film/holosuit) he can fix it. The obvious choice for this is Eidetic Memory. But I don't want the whole shooting match, as it is *only* mechanic type stuff that he has an intuitive feel for. As one of the other benefits of EM is that you get a cost break on Mental skills, can I buy a limited version for a reduced cost that only works on Mechanic (and other related) skills with the GMs permission? If so, how much of a reduction? Half reasonable? So I'd get the 'basic' level for 15 points, and any points I put into the subset of skills would count double.

- idea 2 is that he is a latent psychokinetic but has no real control over it. The ability to move things by thought may help when fixing things, but it is not conscious, so would be bought with the 'no control' limitation. I don't see him being able to move huge objects, but would probably have to also buy a decent skill in order to get the necessary fine control. How would this interact with skill checks? I'm not sold on it actually being vital to the concept, and am more than happy to ditch it if, say, Scotley wanted to play a psion - was only really doing it as it was inkeeping with the system/background, but it does also give a potential hook in for Scotley seeing as the Zhodani might very well be interested in a psionic Vargr...


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## Leif (Aug 4, 2010)

grufflehead said:


> A few questions for the GM (and rules gurus).
> 
> I have in mind for my character this incredible affinity for fixing stuff. There are two ideas I have but I'm unsure if they are legal and how to cost them.
> 
> ...



Oh, SHAYYYURRRRIIII!!  Being so new to GURPS in general, and GURPS Traveller in particular, I'm not even sure how bad G'head is trying to abuse me here.  How do these look vis-a-vis the other characters in the game?

But, having made my plea for assistance, I must say that both ideas look workable, I'm just not sure how many cps the first idea should cost you.  But the second idea sounds like it meshes well with the fist ideas I had (and supposedly, temporarily at least, abandoned) about this game.  Hmmm, thought I was considering dropping the psi Vargr, but maybe they can be revived?  Anyone good at artificial respiration on doggies?   (I would volunteer, but .... SHEESH!! .... that breath!)


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## Leif (Aug 4, 2010)

Allow me to gratefully congratulate all of my players in this game!  I'm singularly impressed with the originality, creativity, and just plain coolness of the characters.  You've set the bar pretty high for me here.  Hmm, better break out the BIG pole and get to vaulting....


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## Shayuri (Aug 4, 2010)

The Eidetic Memory question:

It is technically possible to put limits on the cost of advantages, yes. I am, however, at loathe to put my seal of approval on this particular advantage, since it's commonly known as one of the more 'broken' advantages in the 3rd Edition of GURPS. It tends to lead to very weird constructions, like expert engineers who have just a half point in every engineering specialty. 

I think borrowing a mechanic from 4rth Edition is probably a better idea. They introduced packages called Talents in the 4rth Ed, which were bonuses that character got on a package of related skills, the cost of which varied depending on how many skills it affected. Because each level of a Talent gave a concrete bonus (+1 to the skills per level of Talent), it was much easier to deal with, both for math purposes and for balance purposes. It meant that Talented people had an edge in their chosen area, but they couldn't just ignore the training and experience that points invested in a skill represent.

To that end, I would suggest making Mechanical Talent a 10 point/level advantage that would simulate what you're looking for in a much more agreeable way than a Limited version of Eidetic Memory.

-----------

One thing to be aware of is that psionics are really really taboo in the Imperium of Traveller. You do not want to be found out. Really.

Another thing is that because psionics are taboo, there's no easy way to train them, or gain knowledge about them. In game terms this means that your avenues for increasing psionic ability levls, skills, and so on, are limited. You can try to find underground 'Psionics Institutes,' to help, which is an adventure all on its own. 

With those two caveats noted, it's possible to be a psion in the Imperium. You can easily buy a low power Telekinesis effect, then put an Unconscious Only limiter on it. This means only the GM decides when it takes effect, and what it does. 

As for how TK would interact with a Mechanics skill check...there's no hard and fast rule. I expect the GM would ask you to explain how the TK is helping you, then assign a skill bonus based on that.


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## grufflehead (Aug 4, 2010)

If Leif is happy with those Talent levels then I'll go with that. Hopefully I've outlined clearly enough how I see the character and what he can do - the mechanics are of secondary interest so I'll just RP it out.

And if the Psionics thing is going to get complicated then I'd just as soon ditch it. Plenty other things to spend my points on rather than blow a big stack on something which isn't very effective/doesn't really do what I had in mind/causes the GM grief!


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## Shayuri (Aug 4, 2010)

Well, telekinesis is cool...and it's great if you want your character to be a closet psion, and have to deal with the hardships and dangers that psions are faced with...in exchange for the potential for having powers that normal people lack.

But if you just want to be better at mechanics, then there are better things to spend points on, that come with fewer strings.


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## Leif (Aug 5, 2010)

Ok, first of all, Talent is from 4E, right?  Let's keep this a 3E game.   So... more work to be done for the Gruffster!


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## grufflehead (Aug 5, 2010)

In which case, you need to give me a ruling on what I was proposing. Can't really move forward or suggest alternatives otherwise.


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## Leif (Aug 5, 2010)

grufflehead said:


> A few questions for the GM (and rules gurus).
> 
> I have in mind for my character this incredible affinity for fixing stuff. There are two ideas I have but I'm unsure if they are legal and how to cost them.
> 
> ...






grufflehead said:


> In which case, you need to give me a ruling on what I was proposing. Can't really move forward or suggest alternatives otherwise.



I'm not really sure about how to handle "idea #1" -- any thoughts Shayuri?  "Idea 2" works for me.  I'd be comfortable with giving you a +1 or +2 in the proper circumstances, which I suppose could be almost anything if it's role-played the right way.


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## Shayuri (Aug 5, 2010)

Well, Leif, my idea was to adapt the Talent mechanic from 4rth Ed. You nixed that, so...ball's in your court now.


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## Leif (Aug 6, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Well, Leif, my idea was to adapt the Talent mechanic from 4rth Ed. You nixed that, so...ball's in your court now.



Uhh, ok, sorry, proceed, please?  I'll just hush and watch.


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## Shayuri (Aug 6, 2010)

lol, no, you misunderstand. You're the GM. Nixing things is your job. 

I just don't have any better ideas, so it's between you and Gruffle now.


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## Leif (Aug 6, 2010)

No, I think you misunderstand, Shayuri -- what I meant was that, as GM, I approve of what you were doing and strongly wish you to continue.  I have neither the time nor the talent to equal the good job that you're sure to do.


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## Leif (Aug 7, 2010)

Just need characters for Shayuri, Scotley, and Bluenose.  No hurry, though, take your time.  And Shay, if you wish to go ahead with your plans to have a Free Trader, please do so.  (Never saw a Traveller party with two ships before, could be fun!)


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## Leif (Aug 8, 2010)

I just downloaded a free GURPS Traveller adventure from a site called: "e23: Digital Content from Steve Jackson Games."  It might not be worth much, I've only skimmed over it, but it's a place to start, anyway!  The adventure posits that the Travellers are onboard a Far Trader ship.  And while I'm thinking about it, what did we ever decide about a ship for our group?  Is everyone going to be with Doc Hannigan on his vessel, and if so, just what kind of vessel is it, anyway?

Oh, I'll need for you guys to NOT look at the adventure!  It's called: Flare Star.


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## Insight (Aug 8, 2010)

Leif said:


> I just downloaded a free GURPS Traveller adventure from a site called: "e23: Digital Content from Steve Jackson Games."  It might not be worth much, I've only skimmed over it, but it's a place to start, anyway!  The adventure posits that the Travellers are onboard a Far Trader ship.  And while I'm thinking about it, what did we ever decide about a ship for our group?  Is everyone going to be with Doc Hannigan on his vessel, and if so, just what kind of vessel is it, anyway?
> 
> Oh, I'll need for you guys to NOT look at the adventure!  It's called: Flare Star.




I don't know when or how Doc got a ship.  I mean, he _could_ have one, but I never really said that he did.  In any event, if Doc does have a ship, it would be a personal vessel, not something big enough to fit everyone.  He just doesn't have a reason to possess something like that.

I thought the other two were "fighting over" who had the ship.  Or maybe they both have ships.  Not sure.


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## Leif (Aug 8, 2010)

Insight said:


> I don't know when or how Doc got a ship.  I mean, he _could_ have one, but I never really said that he did.  In any event, if Doc does have a ship, it would be a personal vessel, not something big enough to fit everyone.  He just doesn't have a reason to possess something like that.
> 
> I thought the other two were "fighting over" who had the ship.  Or maybe they both have ships.  Not sure.



Ok, so it was Grufflehead who was talking about having a ship?  Wouldn't be my first mistake!


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## Shayuri (Aug 8, 2010)

It'd really be better if there was just one interstellar ship. One of us might have a personal planetary-range secondary craft ("Inara's Shuttle" equivalent) for pursuing their own goals in-system.

As for what kind of ship, given the costs of starships, I feel ill at ease making that judgment. That really feels like a GM call to me. Pick a ship that meets the minimum needs of the adventures, then perhaps leave paths open to future upgrades.


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## Leif (Aug 8, 2010)

Ok, so noted.  I'm still pretty open as far as choosing the particular ship, though.  A Free Trader seems awfully limited, and a Scout vessel seems too small.  A Far Trader might be ok, and a Zhodani ship as previously mentioned seems ok, too.  Any more thoughts, preferences?


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## Shayuri (Aug 9, 2010)

A lot depends on our activities. If we're doing the Serenity thing, hauling goods from rich worlds to poor worlds, a Free Trader is probably plenty, at least to start with.

If you want us to be able to reach somewhat remote worlds, or planets that are off the beaten track, then a Far Trader is more appropriate.

If you plan on us encountering dangers in space that will require combat to overcome, then an upgunned version of either of those ships would be fine.

A Zhodani ship being flown around in the Imperium is just asking for trouble. We might get away with it in a sector far from the Spinward Marches, where the Zhodani are just a nasty rumor. But if you want us flying around a rough and tumble frontier sector, it's hard to do better than the Spinward Marches.

If you really like the stats of the Zhodani ship, you can just 'transplant' them onto an Imperium model to avoid that messiness.


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## Insight (Aug 9, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> A lot depends on our activities. If we're doing the Serenity thing, hauling goods from rich worlds to poor worlds, a Free Trader is probably plenty, at least to start with.
> 
> If you want us to be able to reach somewhat remote worlds, or planets that are off the beaten track, then a Far Trader is more appropriate.
> 
> ...




The latter is the solution I was going to propose.


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## Leif (Aug 9, 2010)

The thing is, the Zhodani Yetsabl Class Courier  can get by with a crew of 4, is built on a 200 ton hull, and makes 6.4Gs and Jump3.  That seems pretty hard to beat if you ask me.  But, you're right of course, such a ship practically begs to be copied by Imperial shipbuilders.  Hmmm, might have just made _another_ job for myself, unless you want to volunteer to do it, Shayuri??


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## Shayuri (Aug 9, 2010)

Well, it's a very good courier ship design, by the look of it.

Couriers are a different beast entirely from cargo vessel. The 11 tons cargo space that this ship has is completely inadequate for commercial hauling. I expect it doesn't have much in the way of passenger staterooms either.

So again, it all depends on what you envision us doing. If we're going to be running high priority packages over long distances as fast as possible...a courier ship is precisely what we need.

But note, it's hard to make a profit doing that privately. Most courier ships are owned and operated by a government, or a major interstellar corporation.


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## Insight (Aug 9, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Well, it's a very good courier ship design, by the look of it.
> 
> Couriers are a different beast entirely from cargo vessel. The 11 tons cargo space that this ship has is completely inadequate for commercial hauling. I expect it doesn't have much in the way of passenger staterooms either.
> 
> ...




This may be another chicken and egg thing.  Maybe we should decide what we're doing and then get a ship that fits those needs.


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## Leif (Aug 10, 2010)

Insight said:


> This may be another chicken and egg thing.  Maybe we should decide what we're doing and then get a ship that fits those needs.



Good point!  Ok, I'm open to suggestions of that kind, too.  What do you WANT to be doing? Although I will say that the Zho Courier does have about 5-6 staterooms.


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## Leif (Aug 10, 2010)

Or, I had thoughts along the line(s) of:

1.  The party is a team of agents working as operatives of the Zhodani in Imperial space.  (credit for this idea actually goes to someone else, but I can't remember exactly who just now -- maybe Scotley or Grufflehead or Insight or Shayuri???)

2.  My original idea was that the team was a combination of Zhodani and Imperial reps, and while your respective governments are hammering out a peace agreement, you're kind of guinea pigs exploring the possibilities of collaboration.

3.  You're a team of Zhodani and Imperial trader-types that are agents of a relatively newly formed trade alliance.  Conducting some trade, and exploring for new markets?

4.  Or you could just be piratical types disrupting the trade of the Vargr or other race of your choice? 

5.  Any other ideas are welcomed.

Please, if you reply to this post, tell me something more than just the number of your preferred option, please.  I'll need more of a clue as to what you refer to than just a simple number. 

Oh, and some sort of covert or overt militaristic-type action could conceivably be worked into virtually any of these, unless you prefer to be pacifists.  Like, say, we could work in a different race to be a common enemy of both the Imperium and the Consulate.


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## Insight (Aug 10, 2010)

Doc Hannigan's angle is always going to be that he's, in essence, on the run from _someone_.  He's gotten himself a bad rep and needs time to lay low.  So, despite him having next to NO reason to go on trade missions, it gives him time and a place to do his research and design work -- in relative silence and without prying eyes.

So really, the pirate thing works just fine, as do any of the trade ideas.  At this point, I really think the rest of the crew just sees Doc as a hired hand.  He's not _one of them_, but this could easily change.


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## Leif (Aug 10, 2010)

Insight said:


> Doc Hannigan's angle is always going to be that he's, in essence, on the run from _someone_.  He's gotten himself a bad rep and needs time to lay low.  So, despite him having next to NO reason to go on trade missions, it gives him time and a place to do his research and design work -- in relative silence and without prying eyes.
> 
> So really, the pirate thing works just fine, as do any of the trade ideas.  At this point, I really think the rest of the crew just sees Doc as a hired hand.  He's not _one of them_, but this could easily change.



This all sounds supremely cool!  What I'm curious about is exactly _what_ Doc is on the run from and _why_.  Perhaps you could share that with me privately sometime?


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## Insight (Aug 10, 2010)

Leif said:


> This all sounds supremely cool!  What I'm curious about is exactly _what_ Doc is on the run from and _why_.  Perhaps you could share that with me privately sometime?




Yeah.  What the other PCs would know is that Doc Hannigan is well-known as a cyber-surgeon and this hasn't put him in the best situation with those authorities who don't care for chop shops and cyberware.  He's also known to tinker in the realm of biotech, which has a similar bad rep.  But Doc is a medical genius and certainly well-qualified to be a ship's doctor.  And, because of his situation, he comes cheap!


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## Leif (Aug 11, 2010)

[sblock=Insight]







Insight said:


> Doc is a medical genius and certainly well-qualified to be a ship's doctor.  And, because of his situation, he comes cheap!



So...what you're saying then is that Doc H. is a $20 ho, right?   (Or did you mean something else by "comes cheap?")[/sblock]


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## Insight (Aug 11, 2010)

[sblock=Leif]Well, Doc does have the _lecherousness_ disadvantage.  Perhaps a bit of both!

[/sblock]


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## grufflehead (Aug 11, 2010)

Gents

It is with slightly heavy heart that I'm going to leave you to it. For some reason over the past few days I have gone from enthusiastic to almost completely uninterested in gaming. It has happened to me 2 or 3 times before (the first time I ended up selling my collection of 1st Ed D&D books which might have been worth something now - doh!), but the other times it has just been a case of going away from it for a while and at some stage in the future coming back to it.

What probably hasn't helped is lack of progress here. I'm not dropping all my games, but we've been round the houses, back to the start, getting confused and generally procrastinating for a month or so without any actual sign of getting a game going. I'm still no nearer to having a PC ready, nor it appears do we know what we are doing or how we are going to do it. So I'll let you work it out on your own. Have fun with whatever you do.


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## Shayuri (Aug 11, 2010)

He's got a point. The game lacks a sense of unifying vision.

We just all kinda went, "Dude, you know what would be cool? Like...a game where we're all, like, flying around in space and stuff. Duuuuuude..."

But it never got more specific than that.


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## Insight (Aug 12, 2010)

Well, we could play something else.  Or just give up on the whole idea.  I dunno.  You guys seem cool and I would like to game with you in some capacity.  Just not sure what.


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## Leif (Aug 12, 2010)

Well, before you all leave me, I should inform you that I do, in fact, have a plan that is not too far from being ready to implement.  The idea is this:  You are all working as the crew of a ship operating under the flag of the Zhodani Consulate assigned as 'agents' in Imperial space.  Your employer is a large conglomerate/corporation in The Consulate will send you off on your first mission, but then you'll likely be orphaned by them for some reason and left to fend for yourselves and able to do whatever you choose.  Or that was what I was thinking anyway.  Does that help some?  (Please don't leave me!)

Also, I was kinda waiting to see the rest of the characters before I make too many decisions about things.  Scotley should be back this weekend or thereabouts, so I'd really like to have the party fleshed out by the end of next week, and hopefully get the game started the week following that.


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## Insight (Aug 12, 2010)

I'm certainly willing to continue, but it seems like it's mostly Leif, Shayuri, and myself.  If that's the case, maybe I should create a different character and let Doc be a background character upon whom we can call if need be.


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## Leif (Aug 12, 2010)

Insight said:


> I'm certainly willing to continue, but it seems like it's mostly Leif, Shayuri, and myself.  If that's the case, maybe I should create a different character and let Doc be a background character upon whom we can call if need be.



Don't forget Scotley!  He's out of town in NO this week.  I expect him home on Friday, possibly, and look for him to be back to posting by Sunday.  Interestingly, he was wanting to play an engineer, anyway, so Grufflehead's departure opens that slot for him. 

But your idea of each player having a 'reserve' character is a good idea.  Still, I like Doc H. very much, and I'd like to see him be your main character, if you agree.


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## Leif (Aug 12, 2010)

Perhaps you could each have a 'brain' character and a 'brawn' character.  Possibly switching between them?  Some of you might prefer brawn over brains at least part of the time?


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## Shayuri (Aug 12, 2010)

So just to get it straight, we're Zhodani spies in the Imperium?


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## Insight (Aug 12, 2010)

It sounds like we're some sort of Zhodani diplomats sent into Imperial space for some mission or another.  Is that the idea?  Or maybe this is a trade mission of some kind.

If that's the case, I would like to make my "action" character a Zhodani diplomat or trader (or both) with psionic abilities.


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## Shayuri (Aug 12, 2010)

Diplomats are just spies with official status. 

That said, the job of a diplomat is typically done from inside embassy walls. It's more likely we'd be working for a diplomat, as field agents. Also known as: spies. (^_^)


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## Insight (Aug 12, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Diplomats are just spies with official status.
> 
> That said, the job of a diplomat is typically done from inside embassy walls. It's more likely we'd be working for a diplomat, as field agents. Also known as: spies. (^_^)




Hmm a spy with psionic powers, with a cover as some sort of tradesman...


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## Leif (Aug 12, 2010)

Actually, what I was thinking was that you are a sort of 'test group' for joint Zhodani/Imperial cooperation, as a bit of a way to 'test the waters' as it were.   Of course, some (all?) of you could also have espionage agendas, too.  And we may end up with too few Imperial representatives for that idea to work, in which case, we'd fall back on the Zhodani operatives in Imperial space idea.


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## Shayuri (Aug 12, 2010)

I'm unclear on the test group idea. Zhodani/Imperial cooperation doing what?

Would we all be employees of our respective governments then?


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## Insight (Aug 12, 2010)

Leif said:


> Actually, what I was thinking was that you are a sort of 'test group' for joint Zhodani/Imperial cooperation, as a bit of a way to 'test the waters' as it were.   Of course, some (all?) of you could also have espionage agendas, too.  And we may end up with too few Imperial representatives for that idea to work, in which case, we'd fall back on the Zhodani operatives in Imperial space idea.




Depending on what it is that we're doing, it might be better to have one group be NPCs (either the Zhodani or the Imperials).


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## Insight (Aug 12, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> I'm unclear on the test group idea. Zhodani/Imperial cooperation doing what?
> 
> Would we all be employees of our respective governments then?




Here's an idea.  Something (a derelict ship, an asteroid, undiscovered planet, etc) has been found and it lingers between Imperial and Zhodani space.  Rather than fight over it, the governments have decided to try working together to deal with it, figure out what its value is, and perhaps share in whatever bounty it provides.  Our characters are either Imperials or Zhodani and we will have a secret agenda to either wipe out the other group or make sure that whatever they find ends up disappearing or is sabotaged in some manner.


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## Leif (Aug 13, 2010)

Insight said:


> Here's an idea.  Something (a derelict ship, an asteroid, undiscovered planet, etc) has been found and it lingers between Imperial and Zhodani space.  Rather than fight over it, the governments have decided to try working together to deal with it, figure out what its value is, and perhaps share in whatever bounty it provides.  Our characters are either Imperials or Zhodani and we will have a secret agenda to either wipe out the other group or make sure that whatever they find ends up disappearing or is sabotaged in some manner.



Hmmmm.....NO!!


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## Leif (Aug 13, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> I'm unclear on the test group idea. Zhodani/Imperial cooperation doing what?
> 
> Would we all be employees of our respective governments then?



No.  I had the seed of an idea there, but it's gone now.  And I really don't want you to all be that tied to any governments, either.   I dunno what to do exactly.  Just something that's gotten 2 zho, a vargr, and a drunk and horny solomani/vilani all together on a zhodani scout ship.  Ideas anybody?

Your ship is a Zhodani Yetsabl-Class Courier [type:ZC, TL 12]  The Yetsabl is a racing beast on Zdhant, hence the name.  It has a crew of 4, 9 staterooms, sick bay, one ventral-mounted turret (2 lasers + sandcaster), it's streamlined for atmospheric flight, and it carries an air/raft.


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## Leif (Aug 13, 2010)

http://www.enworld.org/forum/plots-places/284270-leifs-gurps-traveller-rogues-gallery.html

Rogue's Gallery is open!

http://www.enworld.org/forum/playing-game/288494-leifs-gurps-traveller-game-ic.html#post5280053

IC is open. 

This is the OOC.


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## Scotley (Aug 14, 2010)

I'm back. Sorry if I haven't been keeping my end up. I'm a bit jet lagged despite having traveled by train and not crossing any time zones. Will try to get up speed by the time the weekend is out.


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## Leif (Aug 14, 2010)

It's cool, Scotty!  I just made our first true IC post, so everyone can take a look and see what's going on.  Grufflehead will likely not be joining us for possibly as long as a week or two, but he tells me that he _will_ be playing in the game when he has achieved a suitable degree of decompression/relaxation.



Here are the links to the IC and the RG for anyone who has missed them:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/playing-game/288494-leifs-gurps-traveller-game-ic.html
http://www.enworld.org/forum/plots-places/284270-leifs-gurps-traveller-rogues-gallery.html


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## Leif (Aug 14, 2010)

Insight, Grufflehead, where is this RG that your characters a posted?  I just recently opened the RG thread for this game, and no one has yet posted there but me! 

Duhhh, found 'em right where they belong in the OTHER RG!


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## Leif (Aug 15, 2010)

Class I StarPort:

The Imperium usually creates a Class I StarPort by landing two modular cutters.  One carries earth-moving and surfacing equipment and a work crew.  It clears a levels space for several small starships to set down, with at least one area large enough for a starship of about 1,000 tons displacement to put down without undue risk.  If the Starport Authority has deemed it necessary, the crew will also string metal fencing around the port, defining an extrality line.  The other cutter can carry an office module which becomes the port's headquarters building, but this may be optional at some Class I StarPorts.  If the office is present, and it is present on Centry, it operates the landing lights and approach beacon, handles the standard paperwork on transient vessels, stores cargo of Imperial concern (mail mostly) and provides a comfortable waiting area for passengers.  THERE ARE NO FACILITIES FOR SERVICING OR REFUELING STARSHIPS.  If possible, the StarPort will be located near a body of water, from which water (unrefined fuel) can be skimmed by StarShips.  Some emergency spare parts and supplies are stocked, but supplies may be depleted for a time after a use or two.  [If they are present, you can expect to pay a premium for the spares, too! -- comment added by Leif]  If supplies are needed but not present, a crew may have to send a message aboard an outbound ship and wait for the next shipment to arrive.  No covered berths or hangars are present, and some Class I StarPorts must temporarily stop operations after a particularly hard rain or storm.  Expect no retail stores or food service, either, although the StarPort Manager may share his coffee with you if you're nice to him/her!  Directions are available to the nearest habitation, along with advice on local customs/taboos/law levels (ie. what weapons you can carry and which ones will get you locked up)/any other information required to keep a visitor safe, IF THE TRAVELERS BOTHER TO ASK!  (Major hint, here.)

This entry is mostly taken straight from the GURPS Traveller book "StarPorts - Gateways to Adventure" by John M. Ford, published by Steve Jackson Games (2000), p. 8.


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## Leif (Aug 15, 2010)

Did I have a reason for making this post?


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## Leif (Aug 15, 2010)

Grufflehead:  About Gruff's "disadvantages" -- You have some things listed as mere 'quirks' that I think are worth some points!  

For "Always sends some of his pay to his family," I"d say that's a 5 point disadvantage if he just sends a little bit of his pay, but a 10 point disadvantage if he sends, say, one-third or more of his pay, and a 15 point disad if he sends half or more.

For "Never uses a computer," that's _easily_ a 15 point disad!


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## Leif (Aug 15, 2010)

And another thought I just had, Insight, hmm well, dang, I forgot.


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## Leif (Aug 15, 2010)

Grufflehead, if you'd rather just keep the "never uses a computer" thing as a quirk, then I have no problem with you using computers when necessary.  Just be sure to bitch about it, ok?   Come to think of it, that's probably what you intended all along, isn't it?


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## Insight (Aug 15, 2010)

Doc Hannigan sure likes his drink!


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## Leif (Aug 15, 2010)

Ok, all sanitized.


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## Insight (Aug 15, 2010)

OK, guys.  I have my "action" character created and his name is Colin Lewin.  The crew rescued him (and perhaps others) from a derelict ship that was drifting in space.  Colin has proven himself valuable around our ship and is handy from time-to-time when things get rough.  He also seems to know what people are thinking... and wasn't that cup _over there_??? hmm...

I'm going to hold off posting him to the RG until all of the "regular" characters are posted.


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## Leif (Aug 15, 2010)

Insight said:


> OK, guys.  I have my "action" character created and his name is Colin Lewin.  The crew rescued him (and perhaps others) from a derelict ship that was drifting in space....



Of course, it's up to individual players what the precise origin of your 'B-Team' characters shall be, but as many of you as would like to do so may have been discovered along with Colin Lewin. 

And just to re-iterate (and to inform Shayuri, since she hasn't been participating in our emails) the 'B-Team' characters should be built using 115 character points.  So that's one 'A-Team' character built with 210 CP, and one 'B-Team' character built with 115 CP.  Some are making their 'B-Team' characters more combat- and physically-oriented, but this is in no way a requirement of any kind.


----------



## Shayuri (Aug 15, 2010)

What is the difference between A team and B team?

besides point level.


----------



## Leif (Aug 16, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> What is the difference between A team and B team?
> 
> besides point level.



A Team are the characters that we originally planned to use.  B Team are 'other warm bodies' that might be needed sometimes to handle certain crew duties.  Or maybe catch that pesky stray bullet, I don't know.  A Yetsabl Class Courier has plenty of room, and if the crew doubles-up in staterooms,  you'll still have some room left over for passengers, too.  If you'd rather just concentrate on one character and not bother with your B Team member, that's ok, too.  

The B Team was also intended to be a way for the players to get a feel for running a _different_ sort of character than they usually play.  Like Insight has a mercenary-type bruiser planned for B Team, I think, that should be a nice foil for Doc Hannigan.  If Insight has a moment of uncontrollable bloodlust, he can "vent" with his B Team character and keep Doc from being labeled a murderer and ruining his medical reputation.

Gruffle, Insight, Scotley, if you have anything to add, please do so?


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## Insight (Aug 16, 2010)

Leif said:


> A Team are the characters that we originally planned to use.  B Team are 'other warm bodies' that might be needed sometimes to handle certain crew duties.  Or maybe catch that pesky stray bullet, I don't know.  A Yetsabl Class Courier has plenty of room, and if the crew doubles-up in staterooms,  you'll still have some room left over for passengers, too.  If you'd rather just concentrate on one character and not bother with your B Team member, that's ok, too.
> 
> The B Team was also intended to be a way for the players to get a feel for running a _different_ sort of character than they usually play.  Like Insight has a mercenary-type bruiser planned for B Team, I think, that should be a nice foil for Doc Hannigan.  If Insight has a moment of uncontrollable bloodlust, he can "vent" with his B Team character and keep Doc from being labeled a murderer and ruining his medical reputation.
> 
> Gruffle, Insight, Scotley, if you have anything to add, please do so?




Well, I _was_ intending for Colin to sub for Doc when we have to go into combat, but now I'm not so sure.  Taking 85pts away from him is going to cut just about everything interesting off and make him little more than a meat shield.  If that's what we're doing (and that's fine, I just need to know what we're doing), then I'm going to shelve my character idea and just make a standard issue grunt on 115pts.  I like my "Colin" idea enough not to squander it on someone likely to die in the first combat.


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## Leif (Aug 16, 2010)

Yeah, let's cut them back to 115 points.  Still a good chunk more than a beginning GURPS character, but nowhere near as good as our "star" characters in the game.


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## Insight (Aug 16, 2010)

My only concern is that Doc is going to completely useless for long stretches of the game and I'll be stuck with a lesser character during that time.  Maybe that's my fault for making a combat-inept character.  

At this point, Doc is looking like a better choice for back-up character, since his skills are far more useful during very short periods of time.  What I envision is that Doc appears in one scene, fixing someone up or providing advice, examining evidence, whatever, and that takes like one or two posts.  Then we spend the next month of real time playing out a combat scene in 20, 30, 40 posts.

Or am I expecting more combat than I should be?


----------



## Scotley (Aug 16, 2010)

I don't expect my character to be particularly combat worthy either. Still there are ways to stay busy in combat. You can do some colorful roleplay from the sidelines and I get the impression that GRUPS combat is very deadly, so I expect we'll need Doc's services to keep going. I would not describe Leif and a particularly combat oriented gamemaster. In the game we run together he usually saddles me with running most of the combats.


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## Leif (Aug 17, 2010)

Insight said:


> My only concern is that Doc is going to completely useless for long stretches of the game and I'll be stuck with a lesser character during that time.  Maybe that's my fault for making a combat-inept character.
> 
> At this point, Doc is looking like a better choice for back-up character, since his skills are far more useful during very short periods of time.  What I envision is that Doc appears in one scene, fixing someone up or providing advice, examining evidence, whatever, and that takes like one or two posts.  Then we spend the next month of real time playing out a combat scene in 20, 30, 40 posts.
> 
> Or am I expecting more combat than I should be?



Yes, you're expecting WAY more combat that I plan to have.  And Doc's skills will be highly useful, imho.  I guess I may be required to have some combat to keep the others satisfied, but GURPS combat is extremely deadly from what I can tell (which includes NO actual experience of playing the game).  I'm wanting to have a more cerebral game with puzzles to solve, etc.  Very heavy on the role-playing.  So Doc looks just perfect to me.


Scotley said:


> I don't expect my character to be particularly combat worthy either. Still there are ways to stay busy in combat. You can do some colorful roleplay from the sidelines and I get the impression that GRUPS combat is very deadly, so I expect we'll need Doc's services to keep going. I would not describe Leif and AS [edit by Leif] a particularly combat oriented gamemaster. In the game we run together he usually saddles me with running most of the combats.



Yeah, Insight, Scotley has pretty much nailed it!


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## Scotley (Aug 17, 2010)

*Speedaribad 'Spider' Bandiopadia*

Sitting in a chair with his legs drawn up in a half-lotus and arms warped around a comm unit the dark Zhodani's tall spindly form creates a ball of limbs studded with knees and elbows. Add his signature headset with dual microphones on stalks in front of his mouth and the nickname was inevitable. 

Still working out the details of my character, but there's the name and a sense of his appearance. He'll have enough beam weapons skill not to shoot himself in the foot, gunnery, comms and computer skills and Psi power to communicate with electronic equipment such as comms gear and computers directly with his mind. Minor skills with electronics repair, perhaps robotics and anything else that looks like it fits. Is there a precedent for Shadowrun rigger type drones in Traveller or GURPS? I can see him having some little robotic minions. 

Disads will be some duty, the usual Zhodani traits, poor social skills and perhaps a little more.


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## Leif (Aug 17, 2010)

Scotley said:


> Sitting in a chair with his legs drawn up in a half-lotus and arms warped around a comm unit the dark Zhodani's tall spindly form creates a ball of limbs studded with knees and elbows. Add his signature headset with dual microphones on stalks in front of his mouth and the nickname was inevitable.
> 
> Still working out the details of my character, but there's the name and a sense of his appearance. He'll have enough beam weapons skill not to shoot himself in the foot, gunnery, comms and computer skills and Psi power to communicate with electronic equipment such as comms gear and computers directly with his mind. Minor skills with electronics repair, perhaps robotics and anything else that looks like it fits. Is there a precedent for Shadowrun rigger type drones in Traveller or GURPS? I can see him having some little robotic minions.
> 
> Disads will be some duty, the usual Zhodani traits, poor social skills and perhaps a little more.



Sounds very cool, Scotty!  Dunno about the  "droids" you mention.  But Doc Hannigan is an expert in cybernetics, such as they are in the Traveller universe.  Maybe the two of you can collaborate and build some "toys" like the dude in Bladerunner had?  What was his name again?  Sebastian maybe?

Bandiopadia?  Do I detect the influence of one of our professors from Hendrix there?  Very cool, either way!   I like your take on the Zho!

But I have to admit that I had some trouble reading the word "r-i-g-g-e-r" in your post.  Guess it must be my southern upbringing.....


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## Insight (Aug 17, 2010)

Leif said:


> Sounds very cool, Scotty!  Dunno about the  "droids" you mention.  But Doc Hannigan is an expert in cybernetics, such as they are in the Traveller universe.  Maybe the two of you can collaborate and build some "toys" like the dude in Bladerunner had?




I suppose cybernetics and robotics aren't that far apart.  Assuming the GM is OK with this (and it sounds like he probably is), I don't see why Doc and Scotty's Zhodani couldn't collaberate on something along those lines.


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## Scotley (Aug 17, 2010)

Leif said:


> Sounds very cool, Scotty!  Dunno about the  "droids" you mention.  But Doc Hannigan is an expert in cybernetics, such as they are in the Traveller universe.  Maybe the two of you can collaborate and build some "toys" like the dude in Bladerunner had?  What was his name again?  Sebastian maybe?
> 
> Bandiopadia?  Do I detect the influence of one of our professors from Hendrix there?  Very cool, either way!   I like your take on the Zho!
> 
> But I have to admit that I had some trouble reading the word "r-i-g-g-e-r" in your post.  Guess it must be my southern upbringing.....




I was looking for a surname with an Indian flavor and it seems appropriate to call on one of our old profs. 

Sebastian is the Bladerunner character in question. That is the sort of thing I had in mind. As much toys as useful hardware.


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## Leif (Aug 17, 2010)

Insight said:


> I suppose cybernetics and robotics aren't that far apart.  Assuming the GM is OK with this (and it sounds like he probably is), I don't see why Doc and Scotty's Zhodani couldn't collaberate on something along those lines.



Gee, I don't know....I guess that I _might_ allow such a thing. 


Scotley said:


> I was looking for a surname with an Indian flavor and it seems appropriate to call on one of our old profs.
> 
> Sebastian is the Bladerunner character in question. That is the sort of thing I had in mind. As much toys as useful hardware.



Very cool: the name and the "toys"


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## Scotley (Aug 17, 2010)

Here's a starting point for a robo pet.


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## Leif (Aug 17, 2010)

Sure!  So I can go ahead and assume you've signed the promissory note for CR 16,439.40?? 

Wha?  Where did I get this number?  see post immediately above this one.


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## Leif (Aug 18, 2010)

I've assumed the promissory note has been duly signed and filed in the credit folders of each of the crewmembers. Happy, Happy!! Joy, Joy!!

As your reward, you are the proud new owners of a "slightly used" Yetsabl Class Zhodani Courier.  It was owned by a little old Psi Lady who only used it to spy on her children from orbit once a month.  Or something like that.  Price of a new Yetsabl Class vessel is MCr 55.5348, but you got yours for the low, low price of MCr 24.9888, and they threw in all of the spare parts that came with it originally.  It does have a fuel processor and an external scoop, so you can suck up all the unrefined fuel you can hold from a nearby ocean or gas giant.  Some Planetary/System-Wide governments do impose a fee for this and "Free Scooping" (the Traveller version of a drive-off at a gas station) is highly frowned upon and could conceivably land your butt in some hot water.  Then again, there are some systems where they figure, "Hey, I wasn't using the ocean today, so go for it!" Or, "Gas giant?  Hunh?  That's out in space somewhere, so how does that affect me?"

Back to the ship: I took the liberty of christening her myself.  Any gripes about the name will be heard and proposed changes entertained, however. 

One more thing:  You've already been trading for awhile, like I said before, so you've also been making ship payments like clockwork, too.  The outstanding balance owed is now a mere [drum roll please]  MCr 11.75 .


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## Leif (Aug 18, 2010)

Oh, yeah, the stats of the ship have been added to Post #1 of the RG.  (in yellow no less!)

I've been looking online for a deckplan of the ship, but I haven't been able to find one.  Looks like I"m going to have to draw one and attach it to the same post.  I'll get that done as soon as I'm able.


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## Shayuri (Aug 18, 2010)

Hurble...things have been moving. 

Leif, is there a backstory for the PC's that I should incorporate into my character background? How we met, how we wound up on this expedition, etc etc...


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## Leif (Aug 18, 2010)

Hmmm, specifically no, but  you might work something in about Dr. Hannigan being a Solomani who was in self-imposed exile to Zhdant.  And there was also something about the Zhodani watching the Vargr closely for signs of psionic development.  Not sure whether Gruff has psi talents or not at this point, but he may have been watched anyway.  (I'm sure you can tell from looking at his character sheet...)  The crew was hired by Dr. Hannigan to fly his yacht, but your character has let him know in no uncertain terms that she is boss on the ship.  All of this was sent out in an email, but that was before I knew your address.  Maybe somebody else in the group could share that with you? Anyway, something like the crew has already been together for several months and each crewmember has so far earned a certain percentage ownership in the ship (15% I think) with Dr. Hannigan still retaining an increasingly slim majority stake (55%).


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## Shayuri (Aug 18, 2010)

So the Doc owns the ship, but my character is in charge?

That leads me to ask...why was I put in charge? I'm fine with it, I'm just needing to know so I can write up mah story.


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## Scotley (Aug 18, 2010)

My character is Zhodani, but not of noble birth, so would likely defer to yours naturally.


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## Insight (Aug 18, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> So the Doc owns the ship, but my character is in charge?
> 
> That leads me to ask...why was I put in charge? I'm fine with it, I'm just needing to know so I can write up mah story.




I suppose that it's partially up to you and your character design.  Doc is in no position to captain a starship, so someone else would have been chosen for the job.  He would have selected someone he could trust and someone who showed signs of being a competent leader.


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## Leif (Aug 19, 2010)

Insight said:


> I suppose that it's partially up to you and your character design.  Doc is in no position to captain a starship, so someone else would have been chosen for the job.  He would have selected someone he could trust and someone who showed signs of being a competent leader.






Shayuri said:


> So the Doc owns the ship, but my character is in charge?
> 
> That leads me to ask...why was I put in charge? I'm fine with it, I'm just needing to know so I can write up mah story.



Yeah, what he said.   Did that answer your question?  If not, then I'll add that your character is just naturally the boss when (s)he's piloting the ship -- just makes more sense.


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## Leif (Aug 21, 2010)

I'm having some doubts about everyone adding more characters to the mix.  I kinda like the way the party is now, to tell the truth.  Any comments/opinions are invited.

Shayuri, please note that I edited my last post slightly about why your character is in charge when you're on the ship.

Oh yeah, and we'll also have Lou posting sometimes to take on the persona of some NPCs.  Guess he'll be sort of an assistant GM?


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## Leif (Aug 22, 2010)

There is now a diagram of the Zax Hakjohn Quiq that is 95% complete attached to Post #1 of the RG.


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## Shayuri (Aug 22, 2010)

Thanks, Leif. Been working on the character...should have some stuff ready to to throw out for judging on Sunday.

Been a long time since I've done GURPS 3. The differences are small, but occasionally important.


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## Leif (Aug 22, 2010)

I originally believed that GURPS 4 was not compatible with GURPS Traveller.  I have since come to believe that this was a mistake!  Would it be better for anyone, or worse, if we used GURPS 4?  Othwise, we'll still go with GURPS 3E, Revised.


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## Shayuri (Aug 22, 2010)

GURPS 4 is, on just about every count, simpler in mechanics than GURPS 3. In combat especially they got rid of some really clunky stuff (Passive Defense, I'm looking at you) and helped streamline it.

The big difference as far as Traveller goes would be in psionics. GURPS 4 uses a unified system of powers, which is not the same as the system they used for psionics in GURPS 3.

This is, by the way, where I'm hung up right now. I ditched most of my GURPS 3 books when 4 came out, and I'm trying to remember what the psi I want cost, and what modifiers were available for what.


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## Leif (Aug 22, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> GURPS 4 is, on just about every count, simpler in mechanics than GURPS 3. In combat especially they got rid of some really clunky stuff (Passive Defense, I'm looking at you) and helped streamline it.
> 
> The big difference as far as Traveller goes would be in psionics. GURPS 4 uses a unified system of powers, which is not the same as the system they used for psionics in GURPS 3.
> 
> This is, by the way, where I'm hung up right now. I ditched most of my GURPS 3 books when 4 came out, and I'm trying to remember what the psi I want cost, and what modifiers were available for what.



The only problem that I have with converting the game to GURPS 4 is that Grufflehead just spent $$ getting GURPS 3, so a switch now would probably mean that he just wasted a bunch of money, eek!

But, Shayuri, you should be able to find the answers your looking for online, shouldn't you?  Or, if not, then one of us can answer any questions that you have, if  you'll just tell us what you need. 

[Passive Defense is quaking in it's boots, too!  ]


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## Shayuri (Aug 23, 2010)

Heh, it's not a big deal, no.


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## Insight (Aug 23, 2010)

Leif said:


> The only problem that I have with converting the game to GURPS 4 is that Grufflehead just spent $$ getting GURPS 3, so a switch now would probably mean that he just wasted a bunch of money, eek!
> 
> But, Shayuri, you should be able to find the answers your looking for online, shouldn't you?  Or, if not, then one of us can answer any questions that you have, if  you'll just tell us what you need.
> 
> [Passive Defense is quaking in it's boots, too!  ]




I have both versions on PDF, so I'm good either way.  I don't think Doc would be all that different in 4th ed.


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## Leif (Aug 23, 2010)

Insight said:


> I have both versions on PDF, so I'm good either way.  I don't think Doc would be all that different in 4th ed.



Any chance you can send a .pdf to Grufflehead?


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## Shayuri (Aug 23, 2010)

Actually, I could use a little help.

I need to see what psionic skills are available for the powers:

Telekinesis
Healing
Photokinesis

And what the cost per level of those powers are.

With that, I should be ready to go.


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## Insight (Aug 23, 2010)

Leif said:


> Any chance you can send a .pdf to Grufflehead?




Umm... well the 3rd ed Basic book is 32MB and the 4th ed Characters book is 9.8MB.  Can't really email either of them


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## Insight (Aug 23, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Actually, I could use a little help.
> 
> I need to see what psionic skills are available for the powers:
> 
> ...




*3rd ed* (if bought separate from the main power): 

*Telekinesis*: 4/power rank
*Healing*: No separate sub-category, 5/power rank
*Photokinesis*: This is in GURPS Psionics, which I don't have with me right now.  It's probably the same as TK.

All skills are bought as Mental/Hard

The above is based on what is in the 3rd ed GURPS basic book.  When I get a chance to look at GURPS Psionics, I'll edit the above.

*4th ed*:
In 4th ed, Psionics are powers.  You buy advantages and powers just like you might in a Supers campaign.  There are "talents" for each category (the two you list would be under Psychokinesis and Psychic Healing) and cost 5/level.  These give you a +1 bonus to rolls associated with said category.

*Psychic Healing*:
The following advantages can be Psychic Healing abilities: Detect (p. 48), for disease, poison, etc.; Healing (p. 59); Metabolism Control (p. 68); Regeneration (p. 80); Regrowth (p. 80); and Resistant (p. 80) against most noxious physical effects.

*Psychokinesis*:
The following advantages can be PK abilities: Binding (p. 40); Damage Resistance (p. 46), with the Force Field enhancement; Enhanced Move (Air or Water) (p. 52); Flight (p. 56); Innate Attack (p. 60); Super Jump (p. 89); Telekinesis (p. 92); Temperature Control (p. 92); Vibration Sense (p. 96); Walk on Air (p. 97); and Walk on Liquid (p. 97).

Note that, in 4th ed, psionic powers can be modified to either add enhancements (for extra cost) or limitations (to reduce cost).  If you wanted to model how 3rd ed psionics works, you could add a limitation that using the power requires a skill check of some kind.


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## Shayuri (Aug 23, 2010)

Insight to the rescue!

I just need 3rd Ed though.

So TK is 5/rank if I can buy any skill for it, I expect.

Just need the skill lists then...dangit, why did I ever get rid of that book?


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## Scotley (Aug 23, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Actually, I could use a little help.
> 
> I need to see what psionic skills are available for the powers:
> 
> ...




OOC: Does this give you what you need?


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## Insight (Aug 23, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Insight to the rescue!
> 
> I just need 3rd Ed though.
> 
> ...




Yes, all Powers are 5/rank.  The three you mention are the skills in question.  Powers without separate sub-categories (Healing, for example), are just 5/power level and you buy "Healing" as (M/H).  For Telekinesis, you would buy levels in Psychokinesis (5/level) and the skills Telekinesis and Photokinesis as (M/H) skills.

EDIT: Use Scotley's attachment for Healing.  It looks like they changed it between the Basic book and GURPS Psionics.


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## Shayuri (Aug 23, 2010)

Yeah, I was gonna say. My memory contrasts sharply with what you're saying.

I recall each psychic power had a variety of skills in it. Psychokinesis had a "Shield" skil to block physical attacks, as well as Telekinesis, Flight, and one or two others. Healing had a metabolic control power and one or two others...

Hmm!

Scotley! That's gorgeous. I just need a list though, of the skills in each power. And Photokinesis, now that I think about it, is a skill...not a power. The power is actually Electrokinesis, and it includes things like Cyberpsi...

I think I may go Electokinetic with my pilot. Mental interface with fly-by-wire contols ftw!


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## Insight (Aug 23, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Yeah, I was gonna say. My memory contrasts sharply with what you're saying.
> 
> I recall each psychic power had a variety of skills in it. Psychokinesis had a "Shield" skil to block physical attacks, as well as Telekinesis, Flight, and one or two others. Healing had a metabolic control power and one or two others...
> 
> ...




From what I recall, in GURPS Psionics, they added several "powers", such as Eletrokinesis.  It seems reasonable that "Cyberpsi" would go under that category.  From what Scotley posted, however, Healing doesn't seem to have any skills (other than Healing).  You may be conflating 3rd ed with 4th ed in that regard (see my post above re 4th ed).


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## Shayuri (Aug 23, 2010)

Scotley posted very specifically culled portions from GURPS Psionics.

Trust me, Psychic Healing had more than just healing in it. 

Oh wait, there's another page there. Life Extension and Metabolism Control! Yay! That and Sense Aura are it, I think!


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## Insight (Aug 23, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Scotley posted very specifically culled portions from GURPS Psionics.
> 
> Trust me, Psychic Healing had more than just healing in it.
> 
> Oh wait, there's another page there. Life Extension and Metabolism Control! Yay! That and Sense Aura are it, I think!




OK, cool.  I still haven't had a chance to look at my own GURPS Psionics.


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## Insight (Aug 23, 2010)

BTW, I am sorta toying with the idea of running a GURPS game of my own, but primarily for you guys (esp. Leif since he's running this one).  I don't want to compete with/interfere with this game, however.  Thoughts?


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## Shayuri (Aug 23, 2010)

Sounds fun!

I think as long as the genre isn't too similar, it should be fine.

What kind of game did you have in mind?


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## Scotley (Aug 23, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Scotley posted very specifically culled portions from GURPS Psionics.
> 
> Trust me, Psychic Healing had more than just healing in it.
> 
> Oh wait, there's another page there. Life Extension and Metabolism Control! Yay! That and Sense Aura are it, I think!





Sent you an email about an option at your address listed on the portal.


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## Insight (Aug 23, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Sounds fun!
> 
> I think as long as the genre isn't too similar, it should be fine.
> 
> What kind of game did you have in mind?




Modern day.  Possibly horror or espionage or something along those lines.  It would have to be very definitively distinguishable from this game.


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## Scotley (Aug 23, 2010)

Insight said:


> BTW, I am sorta toying with the idea of running a GURPS game of my own, but primarily for you guys (esp. Leif since he's running this one).  I don't want to compete with/interfere with this game, however.  Thoughts?




I don't have time for another game, but I don't have time for this one either. Since I'm going to the trouble to master the intricacies of GURPS character generation I might as well do another one.


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## Scotley (Aug 23, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> I think I may go Electokinetic with my pilot. Mental interface with fly-by-wire contols ftw!




Definitely going to do the Electrokinetic thing with Spider too. Computers, Comm gear and robots.


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## Leif (Aug 24, 2010)

Shayuri,

Psychic Healing costs 5 points per level (I had to get this from 4E, because 3rd Revised does not list a point cost that I can find.)

I can't find photokinesis at all!

Healing is the only skill available for the power HEALING. *shrug*

Under Psychokinesis, there are the following skills: Telekinesis (4 points per level), Levitation (3 pts per level), Pyrokinesis (3 pts per level), Cryokinesis (2 pts per level), and PK Shield (2 pts per level)

Hope that helps some


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## Leif (Aug 24, 2010)

Insight said:


> BTW, I am sorta toying with the idea of running a GURPS game of my own, but primarily for you guys (esp. Leif since he's running this one).  I don't want to compete with/interfere with this game, however.  Thoughts?



Thanks, Insight!  Count me in.  Although I must confess that I am itching to play a sci-fi game, maybe in a GURPS Space universe that's different from the Traveller universe? (since you want to be so different, yuk)
(A scary espionage game sounds fun, too, though....)


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## Leif (Aug 24, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Scotley posted very specifically culled portions from GURPS Psionics.
> 
> Trust me, Psychic Healing had more than just healing in it.
> 
> Oh wait, there's another page there. Life Extension and Metabolism Control! Yay! That and Sense Aura are it, I think!



That ain't what my book says, and I gave Scotley one just like this one!   To quote from page 175, "The Power of psychic healing seems to combine aspects of empathy, psychokinesis and telepathy, but it is effectively a separate power.  Only one skill, also called Healing is known."

And don't forget ANTIPSI, too, folks!


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## Insight (Aug 24, 2010)

I have my GURPS Psionics and see the following:

ELECTROKINESIS (5/level):
Cost to buy separately in parentheses
Confuse (2)
Cyberpsi (2)
Dampen (2)
Energy Sense (1)
Energy Shield (2)
Lightning (prereq: Surge 12-)
Photokinesis (2)
Surge (2)

HEALING (3/level):
Healing
Life Extension (prereq: Metabolism Control 14-)
Metabolism Control (1)
Sense Aura (1)


----------



## Leif (Aug 24, 2010)

which book (edition) and what page, please?


----------



## Insight (Aug 24, 2010)

Leif said:


> which book (edition) and what page, please?




*GURPS Psionics - 1st Printing* P. 11-13 & P. 15-16


----------



## Leif (Aug 24, 2010)

Insight said:


> *GURPS Psionics - 1st Printing* P. 11-13 & P. 15-16



Duh!  I guess I could look in that book, too!  I was looking in the GURPS Traveller book, and it's a little bit different there.  Psionics book, hmmm, whatta concept!

Oh, and I had an idea for my character in your upcoming GURPS (possibly GURPS Horror) game:  Biff Cornhelm, Investigative Reporter!


----------



## Insight (Aug 24, 2010)

Leif said:


> Duh!  I guess I could look in that book, too!  I was looking in the GURPS Traveller book, and it's a little bit different there.  Psionics book, hmmm, whatta concept!
> 
> Oh, and I had an idea for my character in your upcoming GURPS (possibly GURPS Horror) game:  Biff Cornhelm, Investigative Reporter!




Ehhhh it might be changing now.

All I can say at this point is

*GURPS MARS*

That is all...


----------



## Shayuri (Aug 24, 2010)

Scotley, awesome!

Though if you're going to do Electrokinesis, I shan't step on you.

Insight, check out the Transhuman Space books too...especially the first one. That looks like a really cool "hard sci fi" game setting that could be a lot of fun.


----------



## Insight (Aug 24, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Insight, check out the Transhuman Space books too...especially the first one. That looks like a really cool "hard sci fi" game setting that could be a lot of fun.




I'm planning to look through the main Transhuman Space book today.  I'm not 100% sure which way I'm going with this new game, but it is leaning towards some sort of exploration theme.

EDIT: I've taken a look at Transhuman Space and I don't think it's going to offer much for the game I'm putting together.  I don't particularly care for the timeline and most of the really nice stuff in the book is further in the future than I was planning to go.  It is a nice book (and series) though - just not really what I need.


----------



## Leif (Aug 24, 2010)

Insight said:
			
		

> Ehhhh it might be changing now.
> 
> All I can say at this point is
> 
> GURPS MARS




Even so, the "folks at home" still need to know about the latest explorations, don't they?  Well, Biff Cornhelm is just the, ummm, the DUDE (yeah, the dude), to tell them all about it.


----------



## Insight (Aug 24, 2010)

Leif said:


> Even so, the "folks at home" still need to know about the latest explorations, don't they?  Well, Biff Cornhelm is just the, ummm, the DUDE (yeah, the dude), to tell them all about it.




Hmm.  I suppose that's true.  When I reveal more about the game's concept, perhaps there will be a place for an "embedded" reporter.


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## Insight (Aug 24, 2010)

Watch this space Deep Red (link) for more information about my GURPS game.


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## Scotley (Aug 24, 2010)

Insight said:


> Ehhhh it might be changing now.
> 
> All I can say at this point is
> 
> ...




Is that Mars as envisioned by early 20th century scifi writers? Like Barsoom kinda Mars? Might be very interesting...


----------



## Scotley (Aug 24, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Scotley, awesome!
> 
> Though if you're going to do Electrokinesis, I shan't step on you.
> 
> Insight, check out the Transhuman Space books too...especially the first one. That looks like a really cool "hard sci fi" game setting that could be a lot of fun.




There's plenty of Electrokinesis to go around. I won't be offended at all should you choose to go that route as a pilot.


----------



## Insight (Aug 24, 2010)

Scotley said:


> Is that Mars as envisioned by early 20th century scifi writers? Like Barsoom kinda Mars? Might be very interesting...




I was thinking about doing that, but probably not.  We'll see.  It's definitely going to be taking place on Mars and in the future, but that doesn't preclude some of that "planetary romance" stuff.  Depends on which direction _WE_ want to take the game.


----------



## Leif (Aug 25, 2010)

Insight said:


> Watch this space Deep Red (link) for more information about my GURPS game.



Very cool story shaping up there, Insight!  And, if you'd prefer me to make a character other than the Biff Cornhelm that I've mentioned as being a reporter, I can easily change things.


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## Leif (Aug 25, 2010)

Shayuri, any time that you're ready to make an IC post, the 'presence' on the other end of the com link awaits your reply.  (I'm sure that the others on 'your' ship would like to know what's going on, too.)


----------



## Shayuri (Aug 25, 2010)

Bargle...okay, I'll have to do it Wednesday, cuz I'm a tired, sleepless wreck right now.


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## Leif (Aug 25, 2010)

Did you just call me 'Bargle?' 

And no hugely big hurry, Shayuri, just when you get around to it will be fine.


----------



## Scotley (Aug 25, 2010)

Hey Insight, the Deep Red thing is definitely coming along nicely. 

Now I feel the need to rock the boat a bit. If Insight's game is going to be GURP's 4e can we do the Traveller game in 4e too? I fear jumping back and forth between editions of an unfamiliar system is going to be hard on my poor old brain. 

I'm going to be out of touch until Friday.


----------



## Insight (Aug 25, 2010)

Scotley said:


> Hey Insight, the Deep Red thing is definitely coming along nicely.
> 
> Now I feel the need to rock the boat a bit. If Insight's game is going to be GURP's 4e can we do the Traveller game in 4e too? I fear jumping back and forth between editions of an unfamiliar system is going to be hard on my poor old brain.
> 
> I'm going to be out of touch until Friday.




Thanks for the compliment!

In terms of 3rd ed / 4th ed, mechanically, you won't notice much of a difference.  Skill checks (the heart of GURPS) are exactly the same, although some skill names are different.  Some point costs (ability scores?) are different as well, but skill costs are virtually the same.  I'd have to look to see what's different between the two to be exact, but generally, I don't think it would be all that hard either way.

Obviously, it's ultimately up to Leif how he wants to run his game.  For mine, I'm planning to use 4th ed mechanics, but I'll still be referring to some 3rd ed sourcebooks that have not be released for 4th ed (Mars, for example).


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## Leif (Aug 25, 2010)

My biggest concern with using 4E GURPS is that Grufflehead just spent some money to buy 3E Revised GURPS, and he just did it so he could join a game with you and me, Scotley.  (Or so he said.)  Convince him (you should all have his email address) and I'm already sold!


----------



## Leif (Aug 26, 2010)

That's one of the coolest things about GURPS, stuff is pretty much interchangeable across editions, as long as you keep stats and combat consistent.  And there is a table for converting 3E stats to 4E.  But I think that the thing that I find most appealing about the system so far is that 'handwaving' is not only permitted, shoot, it's downright ENCOURAGED at times.


----------



## Leif (Aug 26, 2010)

If our pilot doesn't respond to the hail from the other ship by tomorrow afternoon, then the ship's computer is going to alert the rest of the crew to what's going on so someone else can do it.

BTW, I expect we'll be seeing more of Grufflehead in the weeks to come after he completes his "ENWorld Decompression Period."


----------



## Shayuri (Aug 26, 2010)

Great flaming meerkats...alright, I'll think of something...

*pout*


----------



## Leif (Aug 26, 2010)

lol, no pouting allowed.  

Go ahead and use the fire extinguisher on your meerkats, too.  I'll calm down for a few days.  Right now I don't guess we've got any players besides you and the inebriated doc, anyway.


----------



## Insight (Aug 26, 2010)

Leif said:


> lol, no pouting allowed.
> 
> Go ahead and use the fire extinguisher on your meerkats, too.  I'll calm down for a few days.  Right now I don't guess we've got any players besides you and the inebriated doc, anyway.




"Hey... <hic!> ...  I resemble that remark!"

<hic!>


----------



## Leif (Aug 26, 2010)

Calm down, calm down.  Here, have another shot.


----------



## Leif (Aug 27, 2010)

Well, we're still short 2 pcs in the RG, but I think Insight is ready to get this show on the road, and so am I!   As the game now stands, IC-wise, Gruff is in engineering, Doc and Spider are back in the crew lounge (GM adjustment to Insight's stated preference to be in the cargo hold, sorry) and Shayuri's un-named Zho Pilot (if anybody wants to give the pilot a nickname, please go ahead, I think it's been duly earned) is on the Bridge receiving a hail from a Vargr vessel.  I can easily rule that the pilot's inattention has caused the ship's computer to re-route the incoming hail to the crew lounge.....wanna just do it that way?

If we can convince Lou to join us as a PC instead of just an occasional NPC, maybe he can create for us a co-pilot?   Oh! And I'm thinking _hoping_ that Grufflehead may be fully de-compressed and ready to join us next week, too, yay!


----------



## Shayuri (Aug 27, 2010)

lol

It wasn't my decision to start the game before the characters were done, dagnabbit.


----------



## Leif (Aug 27, 2010)

Yeah, yeah, ok, so we haven't _actually_ started in force yet.  And your character is not going to need to be totally finished at the very tip-top start, either.  Zhodani and Pilot we know -- all we really need in addition to that is a NAME to do some of the initial role-play. 

Anyway, I thought you were going to be done with your character by today, hmmmm?   Seriously, as soon as you can get to it will probably be soon enough.  Probably.

And who said you could nab my dagits, anyway?


----------



## Shayuri (Aug 27, 2010)

"Zhodani" and "pilot" don't really encompass the personality and concept of a character. They're starting points, not end points.


----------



## Leif (Aug 28, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> "Zhodani" and "pilot" don't really encompass the personality and concept of a character. They're starting points, not end points.



I know, but that's all I had to work with at the time.


----------



## grufflehead (Aug 29, 2010)

Decided to stick my head above the parapet briefly...

Had a quick scan of the thread and, to clear a couple of things up, don't worry about which flavour of GURPS you want to use. I had a copy of 3E in my extensive library of random purchases, it was GURPS Traveller I bought for background so not wasted. If you want to switch to 4E because the rules fit other people better, go for it. I'll need a bit of help putting the finishing touches to Gruffle either way as a couple of the suggestions were to use 4E anyway.

As far as ETA back on the board, I'm currently internet-less at home anyway, and will be on holiday soon for a few days. Once I come back (around Sept 7th) I should be ready to get back in the saddle. Please don't wait on my account - I'm sure Gruffle has plenty of things to do in engineering that mean the others won't be seeing much of his furry hide anyway.


----------



## Shayuri (Aug 29, 2010)

Hee...given that the hail is from a vargr ship, I was wanting to involve him sooner rather than later, but we'll make due.


----------



## Leif (Aug 30, 2010)

grufflehead said:


> Decided to stick my head above the parapet briefly...
> 
> Had a quick scan of the thread and, to clear a couple of things up, don't worry about which flavour of GURPS you want to use. I had a copy of 3E in my extensive library of random purchases, it was GURPS Traveller I bought for background so not wasted. If you want to switch to 4E because the rules fit other people better, go for it. I'll need a bit of help putting the finishing touches to Gruffle either way as a couple of the suggestions were to use 4E anyway.
> 
> As far as ETA back on the board, I'm currently internet-less at home anyway, and will be on holiday soon for a few days. Once I come back (around Sept 7th) I should be ready to get back in the saddle. Please don't wait on my account - I'm sure Gruffle has plenty of things to do in engineering that mean the others won't be seeing much of his furry hide anyway.



Roger that, Gruff!  Thanks for the update. 


Shayuri said:


> Hee...given that the hail is from a vargr ship, I was wanting to involve him sooner rather than later, but we'll make due.



Just PLEASE don't throw the erstwhile engineer to the "wolves," ok?


----------



## Shayuri (Aug 30, 2010)

Finally got posted. Had to decide what kind of personality my pilot had.

I decided...this kind.

Sadly, our ship may not be well enough armed to back her spunk up.


----------



## Leif (Aug 30, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Finally got posted. Had to decide what kind of personality my pilot had.
> 
> I decided...this kind.
> 
> Sadly, our ship may not be well enough armed to back her spunk up.



Hey, it's all good.  More and better weapons can always be bought later, but spunky "no-sh*t" pilots are worth their weight in gold, (Or the rare earth of your choice.)


----------



## Lou (Aug 31, 2010)

Can someone educate me on how to buy skills in GURPS?  Let's say I have an IQ 12.  I want to buy skill levels in Brown Nosing (IQ/A) (IQ-4).  How many points for BN 1?  BN 5?  BN 12?  BN 15?

Thanks!


----------



## Insight (Aug 31, 2010)

Lou said:


> Can someone educate me on how to buy skills in GURPS?  Let's say I have an IQ 12.  I want to buy skill levels in Brown Nosing (IQ/A) (IQ-4).  How many points for BN 1?  BN 5?  BN 12?  BN 15?
> 
> Thanks!




The point cost is based on the target number relative to your ability score.  For example, if your IQ is 12, you buy mental skills based on that.  To buy an IQ/A (average) skill is 2pts at your IQ (12).  It costs 1 less point to buy it lower (11) and 2 more points to buy it at IQ + 1 (13).

IQ = 12

IQ - 1 (11) = 1pt
IQ (12) = 2pts
IQ +1 (13) = 4pts

You pay the highest total points, not each increment in between.  Also, when you advance, you pay only the differential point cost.  So let's say you initially spend 1 pt to get an 11 in the skill.  Later on, when you get more character points to spend, you can spend 1 more to get the skill to 12.


----------



## Leif (Aug 31, 2010)

Oh, btw, Lou will most likely be joining us shortly.  Guess he might be 'sleeping one off' in a stateroom?


----------



## Scotley (Aug 31, 2010)

Yeah, a good session with Doc will require an extended rest and recover period I'm thinking.  

Good to have you aboard Bro.


----------



## Insight (Aug 31, 2010)

Scotley said:


> Yeah, a good session with Doc will require an extended rest and recover period I'm thinking.
> 
> Good to have you aboard Bro.




Does he need any limbs or organs replaced?  Doc is starting to feel a little out of practice...


----------



## Leif (Aug 31, 2010)

Insight said:


> Does he need any limbs or organs replaced?  Doc is starting to feel a little out of practice...



If the rumors are true then he could use some 'augmentation' to his ... um ... 'male parts.'


----------



## Lou (Aug 31, 2010)

Insight said:


> Does he need any limbs or organs replaced? Doc is starting to feel a little out of practice...




Doc will probably start thinking about replacing some of his parts once Elroy starts pestering him about his religious beliefs.... Does Doc believe that god is a cyborg?


----------



## Leif (Sep 1, 2010)

Weird almost double post here.  Not sure how this happened.  Oh, well.


----------



## Leif (Sep 1, 2010)

Ahem!  Elroy, if that is his real name, may exit his stateroom and join the fun whenever he's ready.

(He's not Elroy Jetson, is he? )


----------



## Leif (Sep 4, 2010)

Today I received my first copy of the back issues of the _Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society_ that I ordered on ebay!  It's full of adventures, too, but the one that I just read is only so-so in quality.  In fact, that one is more like a scenario for _Top Secret_ or something.  (And I haven't played _Top Secret_ since the early- to mid-1980's!)


----------



## Leif (Sep 4, 2010)

You've all doubtless realized by now that there is no map for this encounter.  There are several reasons for that.  Ummm, I guess I should mention a few of them, shouldn't I?  First is the nature of operating in space.  In a 'dungeon,' a 2-dimensional diagram  serves pretty well, since you don't have much variance along the z axis ordinarily.  In space, that convention flies right out the window.  Second is scale:  to have a meaningful map that will serve for more than a few seconds, the ships would need to be prohibitively small to be to scale.  (Say, 2-3 pixels across, maybe?)  Anyway, the way I would prefer to handle it is for the players to tell me what heroic, amazing maneuvers they wish to execute, including the hoped for response of the enemy ship(s).  Appropriate skill checks will be made for both sides, and I'll let you know how close to your ideal result you were able to get.  This system may not work any better than the other, but can we give it a try and see how it goes?  If it's a total bust, then I'll be open to suggestions for future ship-board encounters.


----------



## Shayuri (Sep 4, 2010)

Should work fine. 

I assume you'll be wanting a Pilot (Small Starship) roll from me?


----------



## Leif (Sep 4, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Should work fine.
> 
> I assume you'll be wanting a Pilot (Small Starship) roll from me?



Yes, that would be good.  I wasn't even aware that there was a difference between Pilot (Small Starship) and Pilot (Any Other Starship).  I thought that a starship was a starship.  I guess in GURPS, with almost every skill giving you ranks in similar skills, that Pilot (Small Starship) gives you Pilot (Medium Starship) or Pilot (Freakin' HUGE Starship) skill at about 2 ranks lower?

Some description of the maneuver you wish to perform would be good, but I can fill in any blanks that you leave for me.


----------



## Leif (Sep 5, 2010)

Um, just an observation here, but we still only have 2 characters posted in the RG, and one of those is out on hiatus.....   (It will amuse me greatly if Lou gets Elroy posted before Spider and Zoe. )


----------



## Scotley (Sep 5, 2010)

Yeah, I'm not having much luck finding time to finish up Spider. Maybe tonight I'll get something up.


----------



## Leif (Sep 5, 2010)

Scotley said:


> Yeah, I'm not having much luck finding time to finish up Spider. Maybe tonight I'll get something up.



Like I said, there's no real hurry.  We're locked into RP mode for awhile longer yet.  I just have to exercise my GM/Referee's right to bitch now and then.  Got to keep those bitchin' muscles loose, ya know!


----------



## Shayuri (Sep 6, 2010)

Sorta RP mode! I still have to make my darn Pilot check.

I guess I can just assign it a value and make sure I equal it when my final build's done...


----------



## Leif (Sep 6, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Sorta RP mode! I still have to make my darn Pilot check.
> 
> I guess I can just assign it a value and make sure I equal it when my final build's done...



Ok, fine then!   You are actually right, after all....  Tell you what, since the _Zax_ outclasses the Vargr ships by so much, just tell me what you want to do, and and give me a 3d6 roll, and we'll totally fake it.  Who knows you might be very lucky or very unlucky and get a 3, 4, 17,or 18, in which case your skill won't matter.  I'll even give you a critical success on a 5 and a crit failure only on an 18, because I figure your skill will be high enough to justify that in the end, or if not now, then it surely will be before too much longer.  Let's face it, the only thing that could even create the possibility of some doubt would be if you rolled 15-17.  If we don't like the result we'll burn that bridge when we come to it, ok?


----------



## Shayuri (Sep 6, 2010)

Okay, I rolled a 13 (Roll Lookup ) which will be a success by at least 2, possibly 3, independent of any bonuses or penalties ascribed.

I'll post tonight or tomorrow morning with a description of her maneuvers.


----------



## Leif (Sep 6, 2010)

Great, thanks!  See, I'm not totally unreasonable ALL the time.


----------



## Shayuri (Sep 9, 2010)

Okay, evasion post up. I took a crapton of license, Leif...hope that's okay. 

I figured the 13 roll was good for at least a partial sucess, but then figured, hey, why not give someone a Gunnery check too? 

So...lets shoot down some missiles!


----------



## Insight (Sep 9, 2010)

I've updated Doc to 4th ed in the RG thread.  He is significantly worse now.  He will be absolutely useless in space combat now and cannot help pilot the ship nor back up engineering.


----------



## Leif (Sep 9, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Okay, evasion post up. I took a crapton of license, Leif...hope that's okay.



Sure, that's ok!   Hey!  I assume your 'license fee' check is in the mail? 


Shayurii said:


> I figured the 13 roll was good for at least a partial sucess, but then figured, hey, why not give someone a Gunnery check too?
> 
> So...lets shoot down some missiles!



Sounds ok, I guess.  I was thinking that these Vargr ba*****s probably didn't have the stones to start anything as serious as a shooting war, but, hey, go for it!  Maybe only the Vargr Captain is as wimpy as I thought, and the gunner(s) are more inclined to act?  Yeah, that's the ticket!


Insight said:


> I've updated Doc to 4th ed in the RG thread.  He is significantly worse now.  He will be absolutely useless in space combat now and cannot help pilot the ship nor back up engineering.



Insight, that just blows severely.   Guess maybe you have more incentive to earn some CPs now, though, eh?


----------



## Insight (Sep 9, 2010)

Leif said:


> Insight, that just blows severely.   Guess maybe you have more incentive to earn some CPs now, though, eh?




That or make a character that will be more fun to play


----------



## Leif (Sep 10, 2010)

Fear not, my son!  You're safe in the arms of the Leifster.


----------



## Shayuri (Sep 10, 2010)

Insight, if you post your character sheet here, I'd be happy to give it a look. There are a number of ways to get characters happy in GURPS...not all of which are easily visible to one new to the system.


----------



## Insight (Sep 10, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Insight, if you post your character sheet here, I'd be happy to give it a look. There are a number of ways to get characters happy in GURPS...not all of which are easily visible to one new to the system.




I'm not new to the system.  I've owned GURPS 4th ed since it came out.

The changes between 3rd and 4th really screwed Doc's IQ, which was the basis for his skills.  In order to even get _close_ to what he could do in 3rd ed, I had to kill pretty much all of the skills that allowed him to do stuff like fight and fly spacecraft and crap like that.  Now, he is _only_ a doc and a cybersurgeon and pretty much useless outside those fields.

I could get rid of his cybernetics, but that pretty much guts the character concept.  Not sure what else to do at this point.

I'm thinking now that this character concept isn't going to work.  Maybe a renowned cyber-surgeon can't be built as a starting character.  I'm sure I can make something more viable if I get rid of some stuff.

EDIT: Apparently, I missed that we have 210pts to build our characters.  I thought we were stuck at 110pts.  This changes everything.  Should be OK now... I think.


----------



## Leif (Sep 10, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Insight, if you post your character sheet here, I'd be happy to give it a look. There are a number of ways to get characters happy in GURPS...not all of which are easily visible to one new to the system.



Can you please share some of your tips with me?   I want to know how to do it right, too!

What I've figured out so far (and this may or may not be totally correct) is that once you have the skills you need and want, probably most of your points should be spent on improving ability scores, yes?


----------



## Insight (Sep 10, 2010)

Leif said:


> Can you please share some of your tips with me?   I want to know how to do it right, too!
> 
> What I've figured out so far (and this may or may not be totally correct) is that once you have the skills you need and want, probably most of your points should be spent on improving ability scores, yes?




Unfortunately, there's no right way to build a GURPS character.  I would say start with what ability scores you can live with and then buy your skills.  If you don't need to sink a lot of points into advantages, buy up your most important ability scores so that your skills go up.


----------



## Shayuri (Sep 10, 2010)

Hahaha...no wonder you were so despondent! Half point level!

Glad things worked out.

I'll have to redo Zoe's sheet though, since psionics are totally different in 4e. Part of a unified power system, rather than following their own rules.

Shouldn't take long.

Leif, the GURPS "build order" is pretty easy.

1) Buy your attributes up to (ideally) 1 point lower than what you want your attribute-dependent skill levels to be. So if you want a lot of IQ based skills at 15, buy an IQ of 14. Most skills in GURPS are DX or IQ based. That is why those two stats are more expensive. Note too that for unmodified rolls, a skill of 14 is the 'sweet spot.' Higher skill levels just suck up penalties for the most part.

2) Buy your primary skills up to 14 minimum. Secondary skills can be at 12. Ancillary directive - Don't buy EVERY skill you think is neat! Remember that even untrained skills will usually default from trained ones at a decent level. Only buy skills your character has invested significant time and/or talent into developing.

3) There are basically two kinds of advantages; skill-boosting and special powers. Skill-boosters give you situational bonuses to certain skills, or allow you to use existing skills in new ways. Special powers give you abilities that you would otherwise not have in any degree (ie - aren't based on skills or existing uses for attributes). Go easy on advantages, they can get expensive.

Always go back and check the character out from the start before you decide you're done. Changes you make in steps 2 and 3 might change your mind about what attributes you want to focus on, and to what extent.


----------



## Leif (Sep 10, 2010)

Great advice!  Thanks, Shayuri.


----------



## Insight (Sep 10, 2010)

Just about done with the Doc Hannigan rebuild.  He is now a somewhat capable backup gunner, engineer, and pilot.  I could use the rest of his points to make him a little better in a fire fight.  Not sure yet.


----------



## Leif (Sep 11, 2010)

The question, Insight, is are you happy with the way he turned out?


----------



## Insight (Sep 11, 2010)

Leif said:


> The question, Insight, is are you happy with the way he turned out?




Yeah.  He can do some stuff other than wait around for people to get injured.


----------



## Leif (Sep 11, 2010)

He _is_ the lead scientist in the group, isn't he?


----------



## Insight (Sep 11, 2010)

Leif said:


> He _is_ the lead scientist in the group, isn't he?




I suppose.  His only scientific skills are Biology, Bioengineering/Genetics, and Physiology.  He probably has a decent default to Chemistry.  Someone else is going to have to cover Physics and other stuff.


----------



## Leif (Sep 12, 2010)

The physical sciences are more in the Engineer's and the Pilot's sphere, anyway, aren't they?  If Doc can cover biology and chemistry then we should be ok, I think.


----------



## Leif (Sep 12, 2010)

Grufflehead, I think most everybody missed your question (in Post #33 was it?), I know that I almost did.   At least, no one has answered him yet, but then the pilot hasn't yet posted for awhile.  Maybe she's got you covered?


----------



## grufflehead (Sep 12, 2010)

If it was the question about skills and specialities of mechanics/engineering, then using the borrowed book I put a range of points into a number of skills which I thought would cover most of the likely things that would need doing on the ship. You've had a look at my updated sheet so hopefully I've got the main functions covered to your satisfaction?


----------



## Insight (Sep 12, 2010)

What's with the [A] at the end of the thread title?  Are we adding a * group soon?*


----------



## Leif (Sep 12, 2010)

grufflehead said:


> If it was the question about skills and specialities of mechanics/engineering, then using the borrowed book I put a range of points into a number of skills which I thought would cover most of the likely things that would need doing on the ship. You've had a look at my updated sheet so hopefully I've got the main functions covered to your satisfaction?



No, it was Gruff's IC question that I was referring to. 


Insight said:


> What's with the [A] at the end of the thread title?  Are we adding a * group soon?*



*
A just means it's the first thread, to be followed by B, C, etc. as we reach 1000 posts per thread.  No other group is planned at this time.  Disappointed? *


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## Shayuri (Sep 12, 2010)

He asked a question IC?

Oh hell, that's right. The 'what's going on' one. It's worth pointing out that Zoe sent several shipwide intercom messages...including a warning that we'd be accelerating, so...y'know. I noticed peeps complaining IC that there hadn't been one...but there was. So neener.


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## Leif (Sep 12, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> He asked a question IC?
> 
> Oh hell, that's right. The 'what's going on' one. It's worth pointing out that Zoe sent several shipwide intercom messages...including a warning that we'd be accelerating, so...y'know. I noticed peeps complaining IC that there hadn't been one...but there was. So neener.



Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Ok, fine, danggit.  But, Gruff didn't hear the shipwide announcements because he was listening to his tunes on his headphones, so .  Ya know, not EVERYbody feels obligated to necessarily listen to EVERY word that issues from Zoe's mouth.  Cut a poor Vargr Engineer some slack for cryin' out loud!


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## Leif (Sep 13, 2010)

Scotley in IC thread said:


> Spider has traded his ship suit for some more rugged surface gear. The boots still have the tag hanging from the laces and the one piece enviro-jumper is stretched taught over his long lean frame. He clearly doesn't get outside much. His voice sounding strangely tinny through the respirator mask, Spider responds. "New turret yeah, that'd be good. Really give the next batch of pirates what for huh? Guess it depends on what we make on this deal. I've been saving up for the holovid xl for my game console, but we're gonna clear some serious cred for saving this world aren't we?" He glances around, "Hey, wait a nanosec, this place doesn't look like they can afford to pay particularly well. Where are we again?"



Ahhh, yes!   And the plot thickens!  

Plus, there is considerable doubt whether you'll be able to find the Turret Parts and Weaponry for the Upgrade on this "Higher-Power-Forsaken" rock, let alone skilled techs to install it!  If you're determined to do it on Centry, then you may well wind up doing a home-install of jury-rigged gear that you can piece together from whatever spare parts and outdated cast-offs you can scrounge.


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## Leif (Sep 19, 2010)

Shayuri in IC thread said:
			
		

> (OOC - Hee...I think that covers it for me at least. Er, I hope I didn't upset you, Leif, with Zoe's little outburst. She was just being exasperated IC. )



No, you didn't upset me, I have seen you [your characters?] get exasperated IC many, many times before.     [Like in IG's game! ]

I just realized that I failed to give anyone some clue as to what to do next.  Hope my _deus ex machina_ solution wasn't too heavy-handed or "railroady."  I'm still pretty new at "refereeing" Traveller by the seat of my britches.  Still, I'm pretty happy with the way things are shaping up here so far.  I hope that the players are as well.


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## grufflehead (Sep 19, 2010)

I'm happy for you to move us on. Gruffle will be trying to persuade the trucker to let him drive but don't let that hold us up.


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## Leif (Sep 19, 2010)

Ooops!  Should be IC.


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## Insight (Sep 19, 2010)

Not surprisingly, I have no clue what to do with Doc.  Until someone gets injured or we find sick people, he's pretty darn useless.

I'm reading the IC thread (and this one), but I just don't have anything to add.


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## Leif (Sep 19, 2010)

Insight said:


> Not surprisingly, I have no clue what to do with Doc.  Until someone gets injured or we find sick people, He's pretty darn useless. GM Edit:  NOT TRUE!
> 
> I'm reading the IC thread (and this one), but I just don't have anything to add.



Doc is doing great!  He is vital to the success of this adventure, for sure.  I'd recommend that he confer with the doctors at Centry General Hospital, and tell them what his experiments with the substance that the _Zax_ brought have revealed.  I know we didn't talk too awfully much about this, but I have given you some information in the fairly recent past that should be helpful.  (I hope)


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## Leif (Sep 19, 2010)

But, seriously, Insight, is there anything that I can do to make Doc Hannigan more fun for you?  I just hate having a dissatisfied player, and I'm willing to help if I can.


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## Insight (Sep 20, 2010)

Leif said:


> But, seriously, Insight, is there anything that I can do to make Doc Hannigan more fun for you?  I just hate having a dissatisfied player, and I'm willing to help if I can.




It's my own fault for making a "specialist".  We'll see how it goes.


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## Leif (Sep 20, 2010)

Insight said:


> It's my own fault for making a "specialist".  We'll see how it goes.



If you decide that a re-build will help, we can discuss that for sure!   That's an _easy_ fix!

And I'm sure that everyone will be willing to do anything within reason if it means we get to keep our Doc.


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## Leif (Sep 20, 2010)

[sblock=Scotley]I now have 3E GURPS Robots, so maybe we can find something cool for Spider to build, maybe with a few slight tweaks to bring it up to 4E GURPS? [/sblock]


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## grufflehead (Sep 26, 2010)

Thanks for the props, Leif. I couldn't sleep and I thought the game needed a bit of moving along so I just started typing...

First time trying the dice roller and I thought the same as you regarding the chances of getting *exactly* the same roll twice. Now I'm wondering if I did it wrong? I typed out the text, saved, then clicked 'add roll' to add the first. Then did it again for the second. I couldn't see a way of doing both at the same time.

Just for the sake of curiosity, let's see what happens if I do a few in this post...

EDIT: OK, seen the 'save and add' option which is what I should have used. But replicating the process I went through gets me the 2 rolls below, so it appears it was a coincidence and nothing more


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## Leif (Sep 26, 2010)

Ok, Gruff, it's cool either way, just so you know.  Not like it was a game-changing roll, or anything.   Even though it was a very wise move and helped out considerably!


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## Shayuri (Sep 26, 2010)

Running a bit slow lately...busy busy weekend. I'll get back to it asap.


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## Leif (Sep 26, 2010)

*Sigh*  Must be nice to be so young and able to party so much.....  Anyway, no problem, Shayuri, just get to us when you can, please.


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## Leif (Sep 27, 2010)

I've finally been reading about psionics in GURPS, although, admittedly, I've been reading 3E Revised.  But, still, it's very, very cool and I don't imagine that 4E is too awfully much different.  So, this all makes me very curious to see the character sheets of Zoey and Spider.  Does anyone have any idea when they might be posted?

On a related note, I have some passing familiarity with the GURPS psi rules now, so, Scotley, any questions that you have can maybe get some semblance of a  correct answer from me.  Maybe we can convince Shayuri to give us the REAL answer? 

And, on a related note, I'm just almost completely certain that I put our RG in the Plots and Places Forum just out of sheer habit, rather than the new and improved Rogues Gallery Forum.  Want me to just open a new RG in the proper Forum?


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## Leif (Sep 27, 2010)

*4E GURPS Psi power*

Ok, reading about psionics in GURPS 4E now.  Scotley, doesn't look like there's anything listed in the book about mental comm links.  BUT the invention of  additional skills is encouraged in typical GURPS fashion.  So, please do so?  It'll fall under the Telepathy Power of Psionics.  My ruling is that it is similar to the talent Mind Probe (which is a 20 point advantage), but it's less powerful, for obvious reasons.  I'm thinking that it should be a 10 point advantage, but it can possibly be reduced to 5 points if you take some limitations to the talent, like maybe you must be wearing a comm headset or something, or limited range of like 5-10 miles, or some other appropriate limitation.

The Psi Talents are:

1. Antipsi (If you take this, you can't take any other psi talent or ability)
2. ESP
3. Psychic Healing
4. Psychokinesis
5. Telepathy 
6. Teleportation

Each one of the 6 Powers has a cost of 5 points per level.  You can add levels to each power later, but you CANNOT add a totally new power later that you did not start with at least one level in.  Then, there are skills under  each power.  Like I said, there's not a specific skill to mentally receive media being braodcast over the airwaves, but we (you) can invent one easily enough.  I've given you some ideas in an earlier paragraph, I hope.


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## Leif (Sep 27, 2010)

*4E GURPS Psionics cont.*

The "traditional" Psionic Attack in GURPS falls under the Psychokinesis Talent, and is called the Innate Attack skill.  Psionics in GURPS is a little bit weird, because you can buy "levels" in your Psionic Talents as with skills, but each power within your chosen Talent(s) is bought separately as an Advantage for the character.  And, like I said earlier, you can always buy more levels with your talent with later-gained character points, but you can NOT add a totally new Talent later.  If you buy a talent, but no skills that fall within that talent, then that is a "latent" talent that may be developed later on.  (There will need to be some backstory that goes with its development, but that's no big hurdle.)


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## Shayuri (Sep 27, 2010)

It actually IS very different. One thing they did in 4e was create a unified system for super powers and psionics and so on...


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## Leif (Sep 27, 2010)

Ahhh.  Well, then, I guess it's a god thing that I stopped reading the 3E Rev. rules, and graduated to 4E.   Superpowers, eh?  Hey!  You guys want to play SUPER-TRAVELLER??? 

(kidding, kidding)


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## grufflehead (Sep 27, 2010)

The more I read this discussion, the happier I am that I went away from my original idea to have Gruffle be psychic!


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## Shayuri (Sep 27, 2010)

Hm. I suspect I may be the wrong one here.

Leif, where did you get that info about 4e Psionics?


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## Insight (Sep 27, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Hm. I suspect I may be the wrong one here.
> 
> Leif, where did you get that info about 4e Psionics?




I just re-read GURPS 4 Characters and it matches what Leif wrote.  I should add that you need to buy skill in your Innate Attack (looks like it is DX/Easy, which doesn't make sense for a Psionic attack; maybe Leif will let you buy it as IQ).  It looks like the Innate Attack can be any of a number of types, but I think Crushing makes the most sense for a "Telekinetic Punch" or something along those lines.


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## Leif (Sep 28, 2010)

*This Post Edited at 11:40 pm cst 9/27/2010*



Insight said:


> I just re-read GURPS 4 Characters and it matches what Leif wrote.  I should add that you need to buy skill in your Innate Attack (looks like it is DX/Easy, which doesn't make sense for a Psionic attack; maybe Leif will let you buy it as IQ).  It looks like the Innate Attack can be any of a number of types, but I think Crushing makes the most sense for a "Telekinetic Punch" or something along those lines.



Yes, if you'll look on page 92, you'll see that telekinesis can have the special limitation Psychokinetic, which will make it mental rather than physical, and thus IQ will apply in place of Str.  Actually, you can have telekinesis based on strength, if you want -- just leave off the psychokinetic limitation, and voila!   Otherwise, Insight is right!  More questions?

And Burning, Corrosion, Impaling, and Piercing telekinetic attacks could also be quite fun!  Looks like each of the various types will do 1d damage per level of skill taken with the attack.

If I was making a character ... hint, hint ... I'd be very tempted to take Temperature Control, and get me some pyrokinesis!


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## Leif (Sep 28, 2010)

Shayuri, did I even come close to answering any of your questions?  If you'll ask me again, I'll try to be more specific with my answers as soon as I can log-on tomorrow.  (Which will be after 4pm, unfortunately.  All of the _good_ questions will probably be answered by Insight by then! )

But, surprisingly, these psionics rules are actually quite cool and not that difficult, once you get the hang of it.   (Just in case you want to reconsider, Gruff!  )


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## grufflehead (Sep 28, 2010)

Leif said:


> But, surprisingly, these psionics rules are actually quite cool and not that difficult, once you get the hang of it.   (Just in case you want to reconsider, Gruff!  )




If other people don't start posting something, ANYTHING, I might look at the rules just to pass the time...


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## Leif (Sep 28, 2010)

grufflehead said:


> If other people don't start posting something, ANYTHING, I might look at the rules just to pass the time...



Yeah, maybe Gruffle can find another forklift to play with while we wait?


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## Insight (Sep 28, 2010)

Doc's got nothing to do but "Doc" around until he's done with what he's doing.


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## Shayuri (Sep 28, 2010)

I'm sorry! Just...I dunno...having trouble 'finding' this character for some reason.


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## Scotley (Sep 28, 2010)

Off to post now...


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## grufflehead (Sep 28, 2010)

Good gravy! A post! From all of us! In a row! Consecutively! But wait....it's the *OOC* thread..  It won't be a forklift I'm looking for, it's a lamp-post...


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## Leif (Sep 29, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> I'm sorry! Just...I dunno...having trouble 'finding' this character for some reason.



Bummer!  Guess probably the best any of us can do to help is leave you alone? If you need anything, info, whatever, just give us a shout!


Insight said:


> Doc's got nothing to do but "Doc" around until he's done with what he's doing.



Your free to describe what Doc is doing back there.  Hmm, maybe I'll give you a hand...


grufflehead said:


> Good gravy!



Save me some of that gravy, Gruff!  I hear it goes well with PC Steak...


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## Leif (Sep 29, 2010)

Sorry, wrong thread.


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## Leif (Sep 30, 2010)

Folks, I'm sorry for letting this continue for as long as it has, but the time has now arrived to set things right!  

Shayuri, you're a great player and terrific fun to game with, but for whatever reason, you've never really wanted to be in this game, except when I first opened the recruiting thread.  I think it's time to wake up and smell the troll burning.  I'll take no offense if you would like to withdraw, and actually, it'd be something of a relief.  We can make a go of it with 3 pcs because ... well, because I said we can.  

And, Shay, we'll just catch you in all the other games we're in together, ok?


As far as the rest of the party goes, we _do_ have a backup pilot, don't we?   If not, then I guess someone will need to adjust some skills or something.  Or I can always spot you a low passage ticket? 

Insight, if you're still itching to dump Doc now would be a good time.  Take note however, this opportunity is not likely to be repeated in the foreseeable future, if ever.  Change your character now or not, but you'll be stuck with whatever you choose, unless you make any subsequent changes IC.  And we're not going to wait around while you decide -- we've been spending entirely too much time in this game waiting!  And notice that I said CHANGE your character, NOT ADD a second character.  One pc apiece for now, please?  [FYI:  There may be, almost certainly will be, times when you're going to wish you had a scientist if you don't have one.  Doc Hannigan fills that role well, imho.]  [Or were you guys just wanting to become ship-stealing pirates?  I don't _think_ so!  Not in my Imperium/Consulate!]

Scotley, Grufflehead, I guess it might just be the three of us, with me running off one player and telling off another one.  Ooops.  You guys ok with that?


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## Shayuri (Sep 30, 2010)

Understood. Thanks for being nice about it.

Have fun.


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## grufflehead (Sep 30, 2010)

That's a shame, Shayuri. We seem destined not to go more than a few weeks in a game together. Oh well, there's always next time.

Have no fear, oh mise and wighty GM, Gruffle isn't going anywhere if Spider isn't (difficult to keep going on my own...) and hopefully the Doc is sticking with it. I can sympathise with both Insight and Shayuri to an extent, in that while pretty much all sci-fi shows/movies/books have a crew with a pilot and a medic, in game they are somewhat specialist, and not only need a bit of GM love, but when they are doing their thing, there's usually not a lot anyone else can do ('Dammit, Gruffle, hand me that scalpel. He's going into shock!'). 

At least you were very generous on the points front to allow people to pick up other things - the doc has a skill list as long as Gruffle's, so although a lot of it is window dressing up to a point (can't imagine either of us are going to have make many Machinist checks unless you are planning on turning this into the A-team in space?) we should be able to handle a broad range of challenges.

If I might suggest, as I hope the Doc will continue (possibly growing a pair of pointy ears if required...), then the only time we need a pilot (or to put it in meta-game terms, someone with the *pilot skill*) is if you feel it is dramatically appropriate for us to have a space chase or something else requiring that level of skill. And another thing about pilot and medic, not only are they specialised roles, but the skills are not good 'game' skills IMO in that you can set up a situation specifically for them, but a failed check at the wrong time is potentially disastrous. Blow a stealth check? Or a Perception check? GM might have to think on the fly to re-adjust the plot. Fail your medic check to save the important NPC? Oops... Or the pilot check to navigate through that deadly asteroid field and escape the bad guys? Oh, you crash and the whole crew dies. Anyone want to play Toon?

So I'd propose we either hand wave the piloting, we have an NPC do it, or someone trims a few points and gets enough skill to do the basics and lets the flight computer do the rest.

Furthermore, GlassEye was saying he regretted missing out on recruitment. Maybe you could ask if he'd like to pick up one of the crew slots? Then we'd get to game together - just in case you were looking for an excuse to drop out of my game


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## Leif (Sep 30, 2010)

IMO, a Traveller party without a pilot is like a D&D party without a fighter -- sure, you _could_ do it, I guess, but why would you?? [I mean, My Whirtlestaff's Wizard's Academy game aside and everything.* ]  But like you said, just some minimal skill is all we need with Piloting and Navigating.  Now I may at some point want to throw some tougher situations at you, so more skill might be a good thing to have.

Yeah, [MENTION=40413]GlassEye[/MENTION]!  I knew there was someone who wanted in.  Consider him summoned.

*http://www.enworld.org/forum/playing-game/259886-whirtlestaffs-wizards-academy-reprise-ic3.html


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## Shayuri (Sep 30, 2010)

Gruffle, to the extent that this was the result of destiny, I suppose. That seems overly generous though. It was choices that led to it; choices made by me, and choices made by Leif.

It's probably for the best. In hindsight, we (Leif and I) were never a good match. Knowing that doesn't make it easier though.


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## Insight (Sep 30, 2010)

I think some of the consideration should be in terms of what sort of game we want.  In this setting, and with this game system, you can have a lot of different sorts of games.  It seems that Doc is too specialized to be much fun to play unless the game is _focused_ on medical procedures and the minutiae of developing patents and business contracts.  That said, I think Doc could still be useful, but he really should be an NPC.

I've created another character and Leif knows all about it.  The question is, while this character is more useful in a "typical" game, what is this game going to be?  I doubt I'll have too much trouble finding use for this character no matter the situation, but still, it depends on what Leif wants to do with this game.


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## GlassEye (Sep 30, 2010)

Wha...?!  So there I was eating my cheerios when suddenly I'm in the milk nebula and my head's being orbited by a cloud of little O's.

Consider your summons received.

I _am_ interested in joining in.  I'm very interested in the responses to Insight's question of 'What sort of game do we want?'  It can be a little awkward/hard to fit in at first when jumping into a game in progress and the answers to that question will help me get my head into the proper mindset for the game, world(s) and character.  And speaking of characters, do you have a rogues gallery?  I'd kinda like to look 'em over and see what you've got so far since I haven't been lurking here since early recruitment.  Would you want me to take over Shayuri's character?  I _could_ do that but think I might need to engage in a little character metamorphosis so s/he fits me a bit better.  Or if you prefer I could come up with something else.  Just so you know, I'm not that familiar with the Traveler universe.  And, finally, are you using GURPS 3rd or 4th edition?


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## Insight (Sep 30, 2010)

GlassEye said:


> Wha...?!  So there I was eating my cheerios when suddenly I'm in the milk nebula and my head's being orbited by a cloud of little O's.
> 
> Consider your summons received.
> 
> I _am_ interested in joining in.  I'm very interested in the responses to Insight's question of 'What sort of game do we want?'  It can be a little awkward/hard to fit in at first when jumping into a game in progress and the answers to that question will help me get my head into the proper mindset for the game, world(s) and character.  And speaking of characters, do you have a rogues gallery?  I'd kinda like to look 'em over and see what you've got so far since I haven't been lurking here since early recruitment.  Would you want me to take over Shayuri's character?  I _could_ do that but think I might need to engage in a little character metamorphosis so s/he fits me a bit better.  Or if you prefer I could come up with something else.  Just so you know, I'm not that familiar with the Traveler universe.  And, finally, are you using GURPS 3rd or 4th edition?




I can answer some of these since Leif is too busy 

1.  There is a Rogue's Gallery, but only 2 characters in it, and one of them is off to NPC land.  Not sure how helpful that will be.
2.  Not sure you can take over Shayuri's character since I'm not sure it was ever created and it definitely wasn't posted.
3.  I didn't have any familiarity with Traveller before I started playing, either.  I did manage to get my hands on some GURPS Traveller books so I could fake my way through.
4. GURPS Traveller is designed for 3rd ed, but we are building 4th ed characters.  It really doesn't matter a whole lot, but I would stick with the 4th ed stuff where you can.


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## Leif (Oct 1, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Gruffle, to the extent that this was the result of destiny, I suppose. That seems overly generous though. It was choices that led to it; choices made by me, and choices made by Leif.
> 
> It's probably for the best. In hindsight, we (Leif and I) were never a good match. Knowing that doesn't make it easier though.



We're a good match if we're both pcs, imho.   Not so sure about that if one of us is GMing, although I've never been in one of your games.  In fact, if the way this game has turned out is any indication, then we probably should avoid each other's games.  Who knows, maybe we'll get brave enough to try it again someday? (*Trying to think positively!*)


GlassEye said:


> Wha...?!  So there I was eating my cheerios when suddenly I'm in the milk nebula and my head's being orbited by a cloud of little O's.
> 
> Consider your summons received.
> 
> I _am_ interested in joining in.  I'm very interested in the responses to Insight's question of 'What sort of game do we want?'  It can be a little awkward/hard to fit in at first when jumping into a game in progress and the answers to that question will help me get my head into the proper mindset for the game, world(s) and character.  And speaking of characters, do you have a rogues gallery?  I'd kinda like to look 'em over and see what you've got so far since I haven't been lurking here since early recruitment.  Would you want me to take over Shayuri's character?  I _could_ do that but think I might need to engage in a little character metamorphosis so s/he fits me a bit better.  Or if you prefer I could come up with something else.  Just so you know, I'm not that familiar with the Traveler universe.  And, finally, are you using GURPS 3rd or 4th edition?



GE, you could take over Shayuri's character,  but, like you said, you'd need to make some adjustments, and there is no character posted, so you're looking at starting from scrath either way, there. (no longer applicable since I'm trying to get Shayuri back with us again, so you'll have to start from scratch),  All we really know about "Zoe" is that she is a Zhodani Pilot.  She's apparently psionic, but that goes with the territory for a Zhodani caracter.  

We really haven't "progressed" that far, anyway, but I'm thinking that maybe we need to make a fresh start.  What say the players?  We started out with GURPS 3E Revised, but it's been morphed to GURPS 4E at last report.  We kinda need a PILOT, but other than that, you've got a pretty blank canvas to work with.  We're pretty Zhodani-friendly, which isn't very common for 'typical' Traveller games, if such an animal exists.  There's more, but it's going to be stated as responses to Insight's post -- see below...  (Oh, yeah, check the first post in the thread for links to the other threads in the game.)


Insight said:


> I can answer some of these since Leif is too busy
> 
> 1.  There is a Rogue's Gallery, but only 2 characters in it, and one of them is off to NPC land.  Not sure how helpful that will be.
> 2.  Not sure you can take over Shayuri's character since I'm not sure it was ever created and it definitely wasn't posted.
> ...



Actually, "GURPS Traveller" in 4E has been absorbed into "GURPS Space."  The biggest game mechanic difference that I've found is FTL travel via "Jump Drive" and that is specifically listed as an option in "GURPS Space."  All the rest of GURPS Traveller is just GURPS rules, anyway, at least as far as I can tell.  Like others have said, all of us still in the game now are pretty new to GURPS.


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## Leif (Oct 1, 2010)

Links to other threads in the game (just in case):

http://www.enworld.org/forum/playing-game/288494-leifs-gurps-traveller-game-ic.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/plots-places/284270-leifs-gurps-traveller-rogues-gallery.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/talking-talk/282242-leifs-gurps-traveller-game-recruiting-thread.html


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## Leif (Oct 1, 2010)

So can we get everyone's preference for a re-start?  Do you want to be on a trade mission, an 'ambassadorial' mission, a space-combat thingy, exploration of a planet or a star system, or something else?

How about if you're ferrying a Zhodani ambassador to a meeting with his Imperial counterpart on a neutral world for peace talks in the ongoing war with the Imperium?   (That would allow us a good excuse to retain the _Zax Hakjohn Quiq_ as your vessel, which I would kinda prefer.)  (GE:  see the first post in the RG for the particulars of the ship)


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## Shayuri (Oct 1, 2010)

_We're a good match if we're both pcs, imho.  Not so sure about that if one of us is GMing, although I've never been in one of your games. In fact, if the way this game has turned out is any indication, then we probably should avoid each other's games. Who knows, maybe we'll get brave enough to try it again someday? (*Trying to think positively!*)_

Without getting into too much detail, I never really 'recovered' from the huge rush to start. Where I could have used more time to finish the character and get a clear grip on it...suddenly we had to start playing playing playing, now now now.

My real mistake was in not realizing how that approach just wasn't going to work for me. If I had, I could have said so, and you could have booted me BEFORE effort had been expended on both our parts. Or, who knows, maybe even relaxed the pace a little and worked with people more.

Maybe next time.


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## Leif (Oct 1, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Without getting into too much detail, I never really 'recovered' from the huge rush to start. Where I could have used more time to finish the character and get a clear grip on it...suddenly we had to start playing playing playing, now now now.
> 
> My real mistake was in not realizing how that approach just wasn't going to work for me. If I had, I could have said so, and you could have booted me BEFORE effort had been expended on both our parts. Or, who knows, maybe even relaxed the pace a little and worked with people more.
> 
> Maybe next time.



Ok, fair enough.  I admit that I was too excited by the prospect of running my first Traveller game in twenty years or more to lay the groundwork properly.  It didn't work, obviously, so I'm trying to slow the pace down somewhat for the re-start, so that everyone is ready to begin.  If you had said that it wasn't working for you early on, then no, I wouldn't have booted you, I would have done my best to take a big chill-pill and slow down a bit.  Now that we've identified more of what I did wrong and allocated blame accordingly, I can see that I was, again, too hasty with my GM boot.   If you can find it in your ENORMOUS heart to forgive me, then you're welcome to stay in, get Zoe properly lined out and posted, and we'll all move forward together.  Frankly, you've posted more since I booted you than you ever did before in this game.  That was my fault, too, I guess, since it was a symptom of the too-quick start-up.  Of course, now we'll have 5 characters instead of 4, if I can (hopefully) convince you to re-join us, because GlassEye is now also a permanent fixture.   Please come back, Shayuri?  Please, please, please???  Just tell me what my penance must be.


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## Leif (Oct 1, 2010)

Hey, Insight, why don't you go ahead and make Doc H. a secondary character/quasi-npc, which basically means just reducing the CPs for his build to correspond to the amount for a secondary character specified in the first RG post.  Then you can go ahead and regale us with Kaira, too.


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## GlassEye (Oct 1, 2010)

Leif said:


> Of course, now we'll have 5 characters instead of 4, if I can (hopefully) convince you to re-join us, because GlassEye is now also a permanent fixture.




If you prefer to keep players at four, and Shayuri continues to play, it won't hurt my feelings to be excluded.  And don't feel like you have to rush a decision on my account; I'm content to wait while you work things out.  If you need me, great; if not, that's ok, too.


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## Leif (Oct 1, 2010)

No worries, GE, I'm comfortable with five.  The main reason why I declined your offer before had more to do with us not being at a decent place to add a character than it did with numbers.


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## grufflehead (Oct 1, 2010)

From my POV, I'm quite happy with the ruleset and my PC. I'm sure that he can contribute in pretty much any adventure you can come up with, apart from some sort of space marines type game because while I'm quite happy to watch other people getting their guns off now and again, if it's going to be nothing but fighting I'll bow out. Like the doc, Gruffle is a 'specialist' and has a significant investment in skills which may not come up often, if at all, but I'm stil happy I'll be able to find things to do - after all, the point allocation was very generous, everyone could easily have spent more on skills than psionics and other fancy stuff...

I personally disagree that it was done in a rush - we started planning well before my little 'hiatus' and by the time I came back after a month there were barely a handful of posts. If anything I would say it just wasn't focused enough; we didn't get a clear indication of what we were doing. Democracy is fine but sometimes the GM just has to say 'this is the adventure, get on with it or don't play'. I want to play Traveller, with Leif in charge, so rather than asking every so often 'what do you guys want to do?' just hit us with it. I get the impression one of the reasons for days on end with no activity is that we didn't know what we were supposed to be doing.

Oh, and as I'm being forthright, if we need to get back to discussion about PCs because people aren't happy with them, no problem let's work it through. But then  *everyone* gets them into the RG, no exceptions. That's somewhere else this thing has drifted along aimlessly with so let's rectify that if we reboot.


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## Leif (Oct 1, 2010)

Point taken, Gruffster, thanks.

And I completely agree about having ALL characters in the RG.  I insist that we do so.


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## Shayuri (Oct 1, 2010)

I felt rushed. But I suspect the reason for that was because I was having some trouble coming up with a character concept that I liked...so when the decision was made to start the game up, I felt like I was being left behind. That feeling never really went away as the game went on.

One of the reasons getting booted stung the way it did was because I was finally 'catching up' as far as deciding who and what Zoe was. So let me respond to your invitation to return.

If I'm ready...and that means I'm completely happy with Zoe, and have the completed sheet in the RG...to dive in and play with complete confidence on Monday, then I will accept your invitation. If I'm not, then I will be forced to conclude my heart's just not in it, and I will decline.

This way it's all on me. I should know by Sunday night which way it's going to go.

And for what it's worth, thank you for the second chance.


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## grufflehead (Oct 1, 2010)

I hope to see you back, Shayuri. Your opening post as Zoe was excellent (so good in fact, I'm going back to give it XP) so I hope you can come up with a good enough concept to continue.

EDIT: wasn't actually your first post, it was the evasive piloting one, and I can't give you XP until I've spread more around, but you get the picture.


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## GlassEye (Oct 1, 2010)

So what _is_ the campaign theme?  That info would help me come up with an appropriate character.  (My preferences would be Far Trading then First in Scouts but I'm open to just about anything.)  I'm still working my way through the OOC & IC threads but if you're talking reboot I'm not sure how much of that is relevant.


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## Insight (Oct 1, 2010)

Leif has relayed to me some campaign / mission ideas, but I don't want to steal his thunder.  Suffice to say that I like the idea and I would like to sign up for his newsletter.


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## Leif (Oct 2, 2010)

GlassEye said:


> So what _is_ the campaign theme?  That info would help me come up with an appropriate character.  (My preferences would be Far Trading then First in Scouts but I'm open to just about anything.)  I'm still working my way through the OOC & IC threads but if you're talking reboot I'm not sure how much of that is relevant.



Hmm, campaign theme....  How about "On the Consulate's Secret Service."  Sound fun?  If you can't tell already, this is a very 'Zhodani Friendly' game, so keep that in mind when creating a character.  Our one Solomani character has 'issues' with the Imperium and defected, as it were, to the Consulate in years past.  [Not trying to step on your toes here, Insight, feel free to change or add to what I've said here at will.]


Shayuri said:


> I felt rushed. But I suspect the reason for that was because I was having some trouble coming up with a character concept that I liked...so when the decision was made to start the game up, I felt like I was being left behind. That feeling never really went away as the game went on.
> 
> One of the reasons getting booted stung the way it did was because I was finally 'catching up' as far as deciding who and what Zoe was. So let me respond to your invitation to return.
> 
> ...



Wasn't a second chance, but thanks, anyway.  It was more of a second chance for ME. 
And if you need more time, it will be provided.  I really want you in this game, Shayuri!  It just killed me to do what I felt I had to do before.  I should have known that the problem, if problem there was, was with me, not with you.


grufflehead said:


> I hope to see you back, Shayuri. Your opening post as Zoe was excellent (so good in fact, I'm going back to give it XP) so I hope you can come up with a good enough concept to continue.
> 
> EDIT: wasn't actually your first post, it was the evasive piloting one, and I can't give you XP until I've spread more around, but you get the picture.



I totally agree!  The 'evasion' post was WIZARD!  Well, ok, SCOUT, but you get my meaning, I hope. 


Insight said:


> Leif has relayed to me some campaign / mission ideas, but I don't want to steal his thunder.  Suffice to say that I like the idea and I would like to sign up for his newsletter.



Newsletter?  I have a newsletter?  Or are you talking about some other newletter?
And discuss possible missions all you want!  Where do you think I get my ideas?


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## Shayuri (Oct 2, 2010)

Mew I say.

Zoe has been added to the RG! Perhaps a kick in the pants was what I needed, for the blockage is gone.

I do have a question though...are we using GURPS 4e Ultra Tech, or GURPS 3e Traveller to buy equipment? They have different stats, costs, and availability.


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## Leif (Oct 2, 2010)

Yeah, your "blockage" landed in my lap this morning.  Thanks for that!   Happy to see Zoe in our RG.  Now GE and Kaira are all we need.

hehe

Tech level for starters is TL 12, so I doubt if Ultra Tech I or II will do you much good with that restriction, but if you can find something super-nifty of the appropriate TL there and your character can't live without it, then I say go for it!


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## Shayuri (Oct 2, 2010)

Well, the reason I ask is because the technologies between GURPS Traveller and GURPS Ultra Tech (4rth Ed) are different. Not by a huge amount, but they are.

It's probably best to pick one resource or the other, rather than have people try to mix and match between the two.

Edit - On reading GURPS Ultra-Tech (4rth Ed), it seems like the difference between TL's in the editions is bigger than I thought. TL 12 in 4rth Ed is enough to start toting gamma-ray lasers around....wheras in Traveller it's nowhere near that.

My suggestion is that, if you want to use 4rth Ed Ultra Techs for gear, reduce the effective Tech Level to 9 or 10. That wouldn't mean the TL is really being reduced. It's just a rescaling, to account for differences between editions.


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## Leif (Oct 2, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> My suggestion is that, if you want to use 4rth Ed Ultra Techs for gear, reduce the effective Tech Level to 9 or 10. That wouldn't mean the TL is really being reduced. It's just a rescaling, to account for differences between editions.



I hadn't noticed this difference, either, Shayuri.  I like your plan, so we'll be at Tech level 10 for purposes of GURPS Ultra Tech I and II only.  Regular Traveller TL 12 as before.  In other words, no gamma ray lasers just yet, ok?


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## Insight (Oct 3, 2010)

Leif said:


> I hadn't noticed this difference, either, Shayuri.  I like your plan, so we'll be at Tech level 10 for purposes of GURPS Ultra Tech I and II only.  Regular Traveller TL 12 as before.  In other words, no gamma ray lasers just yet, ok?




I bought all of my stuff (for both Doc and Kaira) assuming TL 9 and 10 were the limits.  Glad to see we're on the game page.


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## Insight (Oct 3, 2010)

Kaira is posted to the RG.


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## Leif (Oct 3, 2010)

[sblock=Insight]Give me the run-down on this Scorpio cartel again?  Email it to me if you'd prefer.[/sblock]


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## Leif (Oct 3, 2010)

[sblock=Shayuri]Does Zoe have some special connection to Lunion?  Can you share it with me?[/sblock]


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## Insight (Oct 3, 2010)

Leif said:


> [sblock=Insight]Give me the run-down on this Scorpio cartel again?  Email it to me if you'd prefer.[/sblock]




[sblock=Leif]It's pretty much an interstellar criminal cartel that Kaira pissed off in some way.  I hadn't developed it much beyond that.  I figured you/we could do that as the game went along.  My only initial thoughts are that Kaira was in deep with the cartel's leadership and stole some critical information.  She was caught trying to sell this information to the highest bidder and is now on the run from them.

Note: This is NOT the "Secret" listed on her character sheet.  Kaira would, however, want to keep a lid on her connection to the cartel.[/sblock]


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## Shayuri (Oct 3, 2010)

Leif, I originally included the Lunion AK because Hannigan had it, and I imagined that Zoe and Hannigan had been flying together for awhile previous to the campaign beginning.

I see now that isn't the case, so I'll fix that little glitch right now.


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## Leif (Oct 3, 2010)

In case anyone's wondering, Dr. Alexander Hannigan will not be a pc in the game.  He is graduating to npc status, and he still is the owner-aboard for the _Zax Hakjohn Quik_, so if you want Zoe to have a pre-game history as his pilot, Shayuri, that's ok with me.  Insight's ONLY pc will be Kaira.


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## GlassEye (Oct 3, 2010)

Upon reflection over the weekend I've decided that I'm going to decline joining this game.  There are several reasons for this which I'll list if you're interested:

--I've recently made a commitment to participate in a dance competition at the end of October.  Getting my routines in order and practicing with my partner takes a lot of time and I don't have a lot to spare especially considering I am also attending a Masquerade Ball at the end of October.  I have big plans for that and a large part of the costume I'll be making myself (another time consuming project).
--I don't have the 4th edition rules and I'm not prepared to purchase those rules nor do I think it fair to rely on you all to aid me in creating my character.
--I have a hard time relating to/liking the Zhodanni and that's hindering my creative process.  Several days of thought and I have no character ideas.
--I have tried very hard to keep myself to a limit of two pbp games.  Somehow I have crept up to four.  Any more than that and I don't think I could give them the time and effort that they deserve.

So, thanks for the invitation, Leif; thanks for remembering I was interested Grufflehead.  I hope you all have a very enjoyable game.


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## Leif (Oct 3, 2010)

Understood, GE.  Sorry we're too weird for you with our Zhodani-loving selves.  Actually, I didn't start out planning for this to be anything other than the typical Traveller game.  But I just fell in love with the deck plans of the Zhodani Courier ship in GURPS Traveller Alien Races 1, and before I knew it, Scotley had decided to play a Zhodani character.  Shayuri quickly followed suit, and the rest is history.

Anyway, GE, thanks for trying! 

Happy gaming/dancing!


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## Leif (Oct 3, 2010)

Wow!  I guess that means that for the first time we have a 75% populated RG!  Cool.


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## Shayuri (Oct 3, 2010)

Ironically, the Zhodani thing was a big hangup for me too, Glass. I came up with a decent concept pretty fast, but turning it into a character took me ages. Almost too many ages, in fact. 

So yeah, I understand. Big time.


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## Leif (Oct 4, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Ironically, the Zhodani thing was a big hangup for me too, Glass. I came up with a decent concept pretty fast, but turning it into a character took me ages. Almost too many ages, in fact.
> 
> So yeah, I understand. Big time.



Heh, yes I seem to recall the "filthy Zho" remark from not too, too long ago.

This is NOT your momma's Traveller game!


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## grufflehead (Oct 4, 2010)

Had a look at the RG - our new recruit looks very nice (in more ways than one...) as does our trusty pilot. I was feeling slightly left out gear wise looking at the others, but I'm going to stick to the minimalist approach with Gruffle. If he can't do it without resorting to hi-tech assistance, tough luck!

Thoughts on the re-boot? Is there anything stopping us picking things up where we are or do you want to hand wave the rest of the visit to Centry and have us collect our new colleague en route to a 'proper' job?


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## Leif (Oct 5, 2010)

Either way is good with me.  But since Doc has become an npc, it might not be so much fun for the rest of you.  Insight had posited that K was already on Centry to clear the way for Doc, so I'm good with her joining the band now, and hand waving the rest of this veterinarial (?) enterprise.


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## grufflehead (Oct 5, 2010)

Insight said:


> The woman...shoots Spider a "come hither" look and pats the stool next to her.




Lucky that wasn't addressed to Gruffle, else I would have had to tell her...wait for it...'sorry, I'm not allowed on the furniture!'. *PARP* 

Thank you, I'll be here all week


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## Leif (Oct 6, 2010)

grufflehead said:


> Lucky that wasn't addressed to Gruffle, else I would have had to tell her...wait for it...'sorry, I'm not allowed on the furniture!'. *PARP*
> 
> Thank you, I'll be here all week



Nice!  If I was able, you'd get an xp for that!


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## kookalouris (Oct 6, 2010)

*Hello!*

Hi all,

I heard about this Traveller game and I thought I would lurk for a bit, if you don't mind. 

Gerry


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## Leif (Oct 6, 2010)

Folks, Gerry, Kookalouris, is the person that I recently bought some GURPS Traveller gear from on ebay.   He said that no one played GURPS Traveller, so I said, 'Oh, yeah?  Well check this game out.'  So here he is.  Think there's room for one more warm body in the _Zax_?  I know he'll get tired of lurking soon...


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## kookalouris (Oct 6, 2010)

I'll even break out my groovy, groovy lava lamp and 8-track player.  If Traveller can crawl out of the 70's from which it was spawned, they can too...  

If you can use another character (and it is cool if you can't), what are you missing?  My character philosophy is 'be what the others ain't.'  This is to broaden the party skillset and to not steal anyone else's thunder.

If you could give me a one-sentence description of each character, I'll riff off of those.  Also, what version of GURPS Traveller are you using (so I'll know where to excavate in the storage shed)?

Gerry


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## Leif (Oct 6, 2010)

We're using GURPS Traveller, Revised.  I'll let the players introduce their own characters, but we've got pretty much all the bases covered for shipboard operations.  We don't have a scientist, and we don't have a pc medical doctor/technician currently.  We don't have a dedicated combat specialist (heavy ground-based weapons, melee, martial arts, explosives, etc.) either, really, but most do have some good combat skills.


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## Shayuri (Oct 6, 2010)

It's also 4rth Edition GURPS though, bear in mind. 

Zoe is the ship's pilot, short tempered and of mixed Zhodani/Imperial descent (father was a refugee from the Psi Purges).


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## grufflehead (Oct 7, 2010)

Gruffle is the ship's engineer. A young Vargr, he's a bit naive and still treats everything like a big adventure. He's a mathematical whiz, and can fix pretty much anything that flies or drives (and he has a bit of a 'thing' for driving cars), but doesn't cope with violence very well.

His sheet is here so you can see what skills and abilities he has (other PCs in the same thread):

http://www.enworld.org/forum/plots-...rps-traveller-rogues-gallery.html#post5266686


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## Leif (Oct 7, 2010)

Thanks for providing the link, Grufflehead.  Kookalouris, I've tried to put links to the other threads in or near the first post of each thread.


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## Leif (Oct 7, 2010)

OK, Insight, I've finally copied Doc as an NPC.  Now I'll be changing a few things around to wash your 'stamp' off of him.   You can delete your post of him if you wish.


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## kookalouris (Oct 7, 2010)

OK, you are using 4th edition rules but are you using the 3e setting (the Third Imperium) or the 4e setting (the Interstellar Wars, long before the Third Imperium)?

I'm sorry to split hairs but it's been a few decades for me to remember the finer points.


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## Shayuri (Oct 7, 2010)

Third Imperium setting. Though to be honest, I'm not sure what time frame, precisely. Probably the standard GURPS 3e setting with the GURPS 4e rules.


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## Leif (Oct 7, 2010)

Yeah, Third Imperium.  Haven't set a specific date or anything yet.


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## kookalouris (Oct 7, 2010)

*"So this Zhodani walks into an Imperial bar..."*

Thanks for your replies.  Here's my thoughts so far.

First, a shout-out to Shayuri, who I think was doing a fair amount of work for an Amber game that I was going to run on this board about two years ago.  The game cratered because I got unexpectedly busy and I still feel bad about the work my would-be players did. 

Now to this game:

I've read the threads and it seems like this game has had a little trouble finding its footing.  There's been shuffling of characters and high concepts.  Not a complaint, I know what it is like a PbP game is like (Hell, my Amber game never even _started_).  What I'm saying is that a new character would be particularly eventful for a game that's currently this fragile.

So I will take some time and cultivate a character that I hope the group is satisfied with.

One question I have and then I think I can get to work.  As I understand it, we are Zhodani characters (or at least sympathetic to the Zhodani) aboard a recognizably Zhodani ship in the middle of Imperial Space, correct?  If so, how does the Imperial population feel about Zhodani outsiders in their midst?

Example:  A character walks into a cantina in Imperial Space ('We don't serve their kind here.' ;-) ) in non-descript clothing and then orders a drink in an obvious Zhodani accent.  What happens?


Instant gunfire and death?
Local toughs try to start a barfight with their rivals?
Grudging comments about 'telespies' and mind-controllers?
Shrugged shoulders and tolerance, if not acceptance?
Sudden inexplicable affection and instant comaraderie ('You don't need to see my identification.' :::hand wave:::  It's GOOD to be the psychic.)?

So what's the punchline to 'So this Zhodani walks into a bar...'?   This will let me know who paranoid my character should be.

Let me know what y'all think, at your leisure...


Gerry

P.S. This all reminds me of a joke I heard once.

"Q:  How many GDW designers does it take to change a light bulb?"

Answer next reply...


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## Leif (Oct 7, 2010)

That is definitely a serious quirk of this game, Kookalouris.  I didn't set out to have things that way, it just kinda happened.  Ok, it was probably my fault for commenting on how much I liked the design of the Zhodani Courier ship, which has now become the party's vessel.  Anyway, I've stated, as you may have seen, that, "The fragile peace between the Zhodani Consulate and the Imperium is holding."  So far, while individuals on both sides may dislike or hate the other side, relations between the two powers are grudgingly friendly.  Think of it like the tensions between christians and jews in central Europe.  Jews [Zhodani] are tolerated, but they tend to be clannish and stick to the portions of civilization where they are as much in the majority as possible.  And, [mostly the young] Imperial citizens go 'slumming' at times to get a taste of an alien culture.  Intermarriages are uncommon, but not unheard of, cf. the heritage of our own Zoe.  The bottom line is, of course, the Bottom Line:  as long as the Imperium can make good cred because of/from the Zhodani, they are willing to put up with a surprising amount of stuff.  Also, I've stated that the tech level in the Consulate is 12, which is probably 1 to 2 levels higher than what is prevalent in the Imperium.  So they really don't want to start something with a technologically superior people, anyway.

Does that help?


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## Shayuri (Oct 7, 2010)

As Leif is the GM, his answer is official...I just thought I'd share my personal spin on this question, as it was throwing me for a loop too.

Zoe is of mixed heritage, and favors her Imperial father in looks...most Imperials would not look at her and immediately recognize her as Zhodani. That's one reason she's been 'drafted' as it were, for this duty. 

The ship's make and model are Zhodani, but like most things in Traveler, it's been in production for a long time. It's not impossible, or even implausible that such a vessel could have fallen into the hands of an Imperial. Of course, any Imperial engineer who got a look at it would be able to tell this particular ship is of relatively recent manufacture, but the model itself is not a giveaway.

And finally, the original game had us not in Imperial space, but in the Vargr Extents, where Zhodani are more tolerated, in general. The general impression  I got was that we'll likely be on fringe worlds and sectors a lot, where weird things like freebooters tooling around in a captured Zhodani ship aren't as weird...or at least aren't as likely to stir official reprisal.

Now, if we strolled into Core with this baby, I'd fully expect to have a flotilla of SDB's barreling down on us right away. 

As for tech, I always thought the Zho were just a smidge behind the Imperial state of the art...though I think they're better about distributing their technology throughout their space. In other words, Zhodani worlds have a high -average- tech level than Imperial worlds, but the highest possible Zhodani tech level is a little behind the highest possible Imperial tech level.

Nitpicky little detail though, and unlikely to make a difference. The Imperium is definitely not looking for another Zhodani War, regardless. 

Oh, and let me take a stab at that riddle:

Answer: "One, as long as he doesn't die during character generation."


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## Leif (Oct 7, 2010)

Excellent additions, Shayuri!   Although, I was thinking that Zhodani technology may have edged ahead of Imperial tech in certain areas.  This is hard to quantify in an absolute sense, of course, because of the vast distances involved.  But I was thinking that the Zhodani culture of psionics had led to some leaps in computer technology.  There are other areas where Imperial tech will be the clear frontrunner, though, like medicine and the defense industries, for instance.

And, as I see in my notes written about this game some time ago, the K'kree, of all the unlikely races/species have the cutting edge tech in the field of agriculture.  So as you can see, what I'm going for here is a galaxy where no single race/people/species/whatever is clearly the technological leader across the board.  The Vargr, apparently, aren't even the leaders in any branch of tech, but the alpha males on Lair are probably too busy keeping their territory 'marked' to worry overmuch about such things.

And the _Zax_ has been outfitted with the most cutting-edge goodies available, illustrating how vital your mission is to the Consulate.  And, still, its weaponry may be just a bit behind the Imperial curve.

Your answer to the riddle _ought_ to be correct, even if it isn't!

EDIT:  Sorry I missed your 'joke' earlier, Kookalouris.  Anyway....
"So this Zhodani walks into a[n Imperial] bar, but no one notices because he psionically shrouded himself from their awareness."
Not funny, I know.  Sorry.


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## Leif (Oct 8, 2010)

I've screwed up.  Does it bother anyone that our Rogue's Gallery is in the "Plots and Places" forum instead of the spiffy new "Rogues Gallery" forum that I'm not fully used to remembering yet?  I have asked that it be moved, but my prayers have fallen on deaf ears, apparently.  Seems like an awful lot of trouble for little gain to make a new thread in the correct forum and have everybody copy the pcs again.


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## kookalouris (Oct 8, 2010)

Just an interim post here,

AMC is showing two good movies tonight, _Forbidden Planet_ and _Alien_ (both the right combination of good and cheesy).  Both are inspiring me, so is the wonderfully hokey _Logan's Run_ short (glad it's a movie, I'm the wrong side of Carousel  ).

What gets me is that both movies treat space travel as common, mundane, even boring at times.  That is so Traveller to me, especially _Alien_, which has the 'space truckers' riff that Ridley Scott was going for.  There's also the idea that travelling in space is your life, the travel times are so long, you pretty much give up on family planetside.  Traveller also reminds me of the nautical fiction genre (Hornblower, Aubrey), the long journeys, the hard and dangerous life.

Dunno really know why I'm mentioning this but I guess the movies are getting my creative juices flowing.

I love both your punchlines, IMO, they are better than the actual punchline which I include in this spoiler...



Spoiler



"Q:  How many GDW designers does it take to change a light bulb?
A:  That isn't funny!"

Let me know if this need explaining.  It did for me. 



Actual character pitches today or tomorrow, I think...


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## Leif (Oct 8, 2010)

[sblock=kookalouris, punch line commentary]I get it!  Saying that GDW designers are of the Polish persuasion, right? [/sblock]

For Shayuri: The SDB that can strike fear into the heart of the pilot of the _Zax_ isn't even a spaceship architect's wet dream yet!  
["Unidentified Zhodani vessel! Halt at once!"  
..... W-W-W-W-W-H-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-S-H!!! ..... 
"Hey!  Come back here!"]


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## Scotley (Oct 9, 2010)

A Zhodani walks into an Imperium bar and asks, "Do you serve my kind in here?" The Bartender just looks at him. The Zhodani says "Well?" and the Bartender replies, "I thought not." 

Okay, pretty weak, but I'm pretty tired.


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## kookalouris (Oct 12, 2010)

Actually, I like your punchlines but here's how the joke was explained to me...



Spoiler



GDW products have NO humor in them, none!  Look through them and try and find just ONE joke.  It's as if the entire product line was written by dry and dusty professors.  I can't think of another game company like it.



As far as a character goes:

I think my character will be human.  It is a complement to Traveller that its humans are as interesting as its alien.

I'm thinking of one of three basic skillsets:

An old expert (Traveller was one of the few games that rewarded the older characters), say an intendant class Doctor, Scientist, Historian, etc, maybe even a Jack-Of-All Trades.

A drone bodyguard, born and bred to protect the Zhodani upper-class (and by extension mission crew).  I'm thinking more of a martial artist than a cybered or power-armored fighter (an opponent that could challenge a person wearing power armor would SLAUGHTER the other crew).

A psychic; I realize that Zoe is also moderately psychic as well as being as skilled pilot but I am thinking of a real psychic talent who is useless at anything else.  Also, my psychic might have the really CREEPY psychic powers, like telepathy or precognition, etc.  In any case, I don't want to steal Zoe's fire.


Let me know what you think and I will work on a background...


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## Leif (Oct 13, 2010)

I like all three of your proposals, kookalouris!  I don't think you'll be in danger of stealing anyone's thunder, whichever you choose, but Shayuri may see that differently?


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## Shayuri (Oct 13, 2010)

Zoe's focus is not on psionics. She's a fairly powerful telekinetic, and that's her strongest discipline. She has some telepathic power, evidenced by her Telesend power and her Mind Shield, but she hasn't developed it beyond those very basic techniques. Her 3D Spatial Sense might constitute a flicker of ESP, a kind of general, subliminal psychic awareness of her position...but even if it does, it's unlikely she'd be training it beyond that innate faculty.

So in short, yeah, I don't mind if you're a 'dedicated' psychic. It'll be nice to have someone to 'talk' to via Telesend.


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## Leif (Oct 13, 2010)

Cool!  Sounds like we're all one big, happy [dysfunctional] family then!


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## kookalouris (Oct 13, 2010)

Sounds good.

OK, from my way of thinking, there are two kinds of psychics that might be aboard.

A deliberate psychic, meant to be part of the mission (as I'm late to the game, this is probably an agent-in-place who joins the group by prior design or sudden necessity). Absolutely committed and focused to the goal. I'm thinking Bester from B5 or the Op from Serenity (if he was psychic).

An accidental psychic, someone who didn't expect or even want psychic powers.  This could be a adolescent who suddenly awakens or a victim of botched psychic training.  This character could actually be Imperial as the Zhodani would probably feel a kinship for the 'awakened' stray.  It could be that the psychic accidentally reads the party's mind and knows of their subversive goals but will keep quiet for the so needed psychic training.  I'm thinking River from Firefly/Serenity or Jean Grey from the X-Men (SOME of her many origins have Xavier supressing her powers in childhood to (ha, ha) prevent something like a Phoenix-level awakening).  The movie X3 was just one telling of this story.

A truly powerful and trained psychic would pretty much end up running the Imperium and the rest of the characters would get 'Skye' coffee and donuts.  So, the psychic has low power but superb control over modest talents OR the psychic has wild but uncontrolable fluctuations of power and usually works to supress any psychic abilities.

It could be that the psychic is both accidental and professional.  The character Grey from the first season of Babylon 5 was a awakened psychic who wanted to be a pilot but was forced to be Psi Corp (it was that or prison and/or mentally crippling drugs).


In my opinion, the best psychic powers are those which cannot be simulated with game tech.  The effects of TK and ESP can be simulated by Imperial/Zhodani tech.  Besides, Zoe seems to be very psychic with objects and the space they reside in.  Primarily, I'm thinking of telepathy and/or teleportation (at a level high enough to take others or the party is unecessarily split).

Leif,

Would you like me to keep to the powers in the original Traveller book for nostalgia or can I use the wider GURPS palette (precognition is a great moodsetter and tool for the GM)?  Do you have the original ruleset?

Speaking of the original Traveller books, I am selling them on eBay primarily to give them good homes (like pets  ) to people who would appreciate them.  I need space, not money.  So would you (or any of the players) like some old Traveller books just for the cost of shipping?

If offering these books is against the spirit of this thread or against ENWorld policy, I won't mention them again.

Anyway, some thoughts on a character.  Let me know what you think, team (my character already knows what you think but I don't  )


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## Leif (Oct 14, 2010)

K, your ideas sound well-planned and good.  I'm not looking to buy any more of the GDW books, as I really prefer the way that GURPS has handled the system.  That being said, I have picked up select GDW and Judges Guild stuff to fill in gaps, and so forth, but I'm really not looking for any more.

re:  Character, Skye -- Accidental psy would probably work better from my perspective, because I haven't planned for an "agent" to already be in place by the Consulate.  But, I suppose, we could work it that way if you want.  The main thing is just pick what works best for you and go for it!


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## Shayuri (Oct 14, 2010)

Well, when you think about it, we already have two Zhodani on the ship, neither of whom has any background in Intelligence or similar. It would make sense for them to have at least one professional spy on board...


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## Leif (Oct 14, 2010)

Excellent point.


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## Insight (Oct 14, 2010)

Kaira is a professional... well, she _could_ be a spy.


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## Leif (Oct 14, 2010)

*OK, New idea....*

I like this idea that came to me today better than any that have been suggested so far.  And some of the previous suggestions I thought were quite good, too.  How about this: instead of being operatives for the Zhodani consulate, the characters are operatives working for some extra-governmental force, sometimes, incidentally perhaps, working for the good of one government or another, but not as a rule.  There's a little more to it than that, but I stored the idea in my yahoo!  account, and if you can believe this, I can access ENWorld at the moment, but NOT my homepage!!


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## Leif (Oct 15, 2010)

Kookalouris, I apologize for leading you to believe that this is a currently thriving game.   In reality, it looks like we're just about to start Take Three in this game.  I'm open to suggestions for how we should start this time.  My inclination is to have the party already together aboard the _Zax Hakjohn Quik_ when we start, but I'm open to suggestions about that, too.  The party, unless one or more are tired of messing with me, consists of Scotley, Shayuri, Insight, Grufflehead, and Kookalouris.  That is everybody, isn't it?  Maybe Lou is ready to start with us as a regular?

Actually, I'd prefer to not be quite so Zhodani-centered this time.  Not Imperium-centered, either, though.  More of an extra-jurisdictional team of troubleshooters is kinda what I was thinking.  How does that grab everybody?


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## kookalouris (Oct 15, 2010)

No objections at all, 

But are we going to keep with the same characters?  My initial character pitches are quite enjoyable for me and particularly suited for the group as I understood it.

If we change characters, I might ask to suggest a different character to better riff off of the new characters.

For what it is worth, I can't find my GURPS books where I thought they would be so it will probably take me a few extra days to come up with a character in any case.

I don't see this as being a problem as my persona was going to show up in the middle of the action later.

Gerry


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## Leif (Oct 15, 2010)

Definitely will be the same characters, no worries there!  That's your Imperial Skye, Spider the Zhodani (Scotley), Zoe the Zhodani (Shayuri), Gruffle the Vargr (Grufflehead), Kaira the Solomani/Imperial? (Insight), maybe Lou's ...well... whatever Lou decides. 

And, kookalouris, there's now no reason why you can't start out with everybody else.  Is that ok with you?


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## kookalouris (Oct 15, 2010)

If you mean, just start posting, yeah, I can do that.  But I don't have any character stats (I can't find my GURPS books).

If just posting is OK, can I have a day or so just to get a character background written?


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## kookalouris (Oct 15, 2010)

In a pinch, I can just start out with Skye being a non-descript figure looking for a desperate crew desperate enough to take on a desperate stranger as passenger or crew (probably working passage for now).

Obi-Wan Kenobi:  "...and no questions asked...Let's just say we'd like to avoid any Imperial entanglements."

Or to steal from the best, Skye might have (or BE) the insane psychic sibling 'chillin' in a cryobox marked as mundane cargo.

Syke must be young to be a awakening psychic but I have one other question, does the group want Syke to be male or female?  Normally, this is trivia but given the psychological quirks of this _randy _crew, the choice offers different roleplaying opportunities depending on whether Syke leaves the seat up or the seat down.

Let me know what y'all think...


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## Leif (Oct 15, 2010)

I'm not _that_ close to being ready to start, uh, re-start, so I think you have a day or two at least.  Male or female?  We're evenly divided now, so any choice you make is going to be the wrong one.


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## Insight (Oct 15, 2010)

If we're going to _completely_ start over (meaning not being on Centry at all, just starting _in media res_ somewhere else), let's decide what we're doing on what each person's role on the ship should be.

For her part, Kaira is a superior negotiator and businessperson and should be involved in making favorable business deals for the ship.  She can also infiltrate wherever we need to infiltrate and fight people who needs to be fought.  Her actual shipboard skills are fairly meager, but she can backup pilot, navigator, and gunner.

Plus, HOT


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## Leif (Oct 16, 2010)

I agree with Insight that settling on everyone's 'on-board' duties is an excellent idea.   I'm all for that.  Let's  see, Zoe would be, I believe, the best choice for Pilot, Gruffle is obviously the engineer, and Scotley the Communications Officer/Navigator, right?  Doc Hannigan will be drunk to some degree in Sick Bay, ordinarily, just keeping to himself, mostly, unless he's needed to stitch someone together again.  But, hey, if he's interested, Lou could play Doc as much as he would like to do.  That just leaves the new crew member, Syke.  Of course, none of those that I mentioned are bound by my statements in any way....


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## kookalouris (Oct 16, 2010)

Being young (necessary for an awakening psionic), Syke would not have the skills that older characters have (Traveller favors us old guys).

I figure Syke would be a sort of 'gofer', doing whatever the higher ups say.  In truth, although this might not be known by the crew, Syke would be grateful for the psychic peace of a spaceship, to only hear a few inner voices rather than a planet's worth.  For that peace, Syke would seem to happily take the grunt work and seem unambitious.

Skillwise, besides whatever psychic powers Syke has, I picture simple skills but maybe with a learned-on-the-job Pilot and Medical skill (these skills can save or lose characters with a single roll).  Leif, how do you feel about the old school Jack-Of-All-Trades rules (at a low level).

There is an advantage from the old rules that I'm not sure made the transition to GURPS, the Traveller's Aid Society.  Would you allow Syke membership in the TAS for any amount of points, Leif?


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## Leif (Oct 16, 2010)

kookalouris, (see below, next 'unstruck' paragraph)  I'm not sure whether JoaT made the transition or not.  I kinda doubt if it did, since you can pretty much take any skill that you want and meet the prereqs for, unlike in the old days, where your capabilities depended upon the fickle dice.  But there's no reason why you can't take a smidge of Pilot skill.  For medical, you'd probably be better served with going for something like 'combat medic' or nurse, either of which should easily accomplish what you're going for.  I'm trying to recruit us a new player to play Doc Hannigan at least part-time, so I can concentrate on killing pcs instead of patching them up. 

I'll have to look at GURPS rules for TAS, but I'm pretty sure there is provision for it.  That's an excellent idea, too!
Actually, Jack of all Trades is in the sidebar on GURPS Traveller p. 125!  It costs 10 points/level and grants a +1 modifier to all skill defaults from character attributes (but not trained skills), up to a maximum of +3 for 30 points.  It has no effect on skills that don't have a default, and the modified default level may never equal or exceed the level that one-half point would purchase.  Jack of all Trades does not make any learned skills any cheaper.  Most skills default to the controlling attribute -4 if easy, -5 if average, or -6 if hard.

Maybe Syke can operate the Transporter?    Sorry, wrong game....


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## kookalouris (Oct 16, 2010)

Transporter? HA! 

Only wussy non-psionics use machines for teleport.  

I hope to have a least a few paragraphs of actual character background tomorrow so Syke can be ready in a pinch.


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## Shayuri (Oct 16, 2010)

Syke should have some kind of shipboard skill...or other explanation for why he's a crewmember on the ship. Maybe he's a relative of someone's, or whoever gives us orders has ordered us to take him on?


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## kookalouris (Oct 16, 2010)

:::waves hand::: "You don't need to see Syke's resume."  

Syke will have at least one genuine skill and/or reason to be aboard a starship.  Let me rack my brains and think of what tonight.


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## Leif (Oct 16, 2010)

*Travellers' Aid Society [TAS]*

See, p. 35 sidebar in GURPS Traveller.  
Membership entitles you to:
1. Access to Member Hostels at all Class V StarPorts.  Fees for this vary according to local conditions.
2.  Free access to _Traveller News Service_ on all worlds with a TAS office, and free Travel Zone Advisories.
3.  One paid Middle Passage per month, redeemable on any starship line or for Cr 1,575 in cash.

Interestingly, membership costs no Character Points.  However, it bestows 'comfortable' wealth, and any character with lesser wealth must pay for the upgrade (in Character Points).  [If you buy a membership with cash (not necessary here) a lifetime membership costs MCr 1.   And sometimes the Imperial government awards a person with membership in recognition of long service or acts of extreme heroism.]

So anyone in the group with at least Comfortable wealth may elect to be a member of the TAS.


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## grufflehead (Oct 16, 2010)

I never saw that (but it wouldn't have applied to Gruffle anyway as he has no money...) but I spent a couple of points on Claim to Hospitality which seemed to be/do the same sort of thing. For Gruffle I was thinking more of being able to find a corner of floor space with a fellow Vargr seeing as they are supposed to retain their pack nature. But I'm happy for it to be the TAS if you want?


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## kookalouris (Oct 16, 2010)

I would like _someone _in the group to have membership in the TAS as it doesn't cost any character points and is so very _Traveller _(I picture it as sort of an old English gentlemen's club).  I can work it into Syke's origin if needed, but I see the character as always short of a few credits.

I've written about a page on Syke that I should be able to upload tonight...


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## Insight (Oct 16, 2010)

Kaira could be a member.  She certainly has the wealth to do it without spending any more points and it sorta makes sense considering she travels around a lot.  She usually isn't wanting for a bed, though...


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## Leif (Oct 16, 2010)

Ok, been thinking more about the TAS, and here's what I've decided:  Syke (I swear you called him Skye in the first post where you mentioned his name, sorry for my error, I'll correct) and Zoe are TAS members, Syke because he's human,Vilani, Solomani, or whatever, and Zoe has access because of her human parent, who would have bought her a membership.  The rest of you alien bunch, Zhodani and Vargr, are not members, but have access through your member friends, if you can put up with all the stares and bs from the members who are not personally acquainted with you.  They'll probably give Spider and Gruffle the most sub-par accomodations available and make you use the least-well-maintined head.  Spider's feet probably will hang off the end of whatever bunk they give him, if you use their accomodations, and they may occasionally make Gruffle pee on a tree or something. 

Oh, and Doc Hannigan is also a TAS member -- he took care to join the TAS long ago, before the notion of 'defecting' to Zdant ever occured to him.

And I'm still mulling over just how to handle the connection (if such a connection there is) between the pcs and the nobility of the Imperium.  Stay tuned.....


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## Shayuri (Oct 17, 2010)

I hope this doesn't make anyone hate me, but with the game's nature changing so radically, I am starting to feel a need to re-envision Zoe's background.

I originally had her the daughter of an Imperial psychic who fled to Zhodani space and won it big in the Psychic Games. With some of these changes, that background is starting to make less and less sense.

If Syke is an Institute-trained Imperial psychic, perhaps he and Zoe have that in common...then Spider would be the only Zhodani on the crew.

Or is Spider still on the crew? Have we heard from his player recently?


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## Leif (Oct 17, 2010)

No one hates you, Shayuri! 

[sblock=hatred]Anyone who does feel any inclination to 'hate on' Shayuri is strenuously requested to GET OVER IT! [/sblock]

The background change is cool with me.  Anything that keeps you happy and committed to this game is cool with me!  But, having said that, I do really like your dual heritage, and I hope that you keep that part, even if you do wish to change part of Zoe's background.

Spider/Scotley is still in the game, as far as I know, and he would have let me know if he was withdrawing, I do believe.  He's just been having numerous real-life issues with work and stuff.   He may well be devoting most of what free time he is able to squeeze from his hectic schedule to his important duties with keeping his 'home fires' well-stoked, and I certainly can't blame him for that.


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## Leif (Oct 17, 2010)

kookalouris, I trust you've been able to locate all the threads of this game by now?  The first post of each thread has links to the other threads, if not.  I've now given Syke what I hope will be a sufficient introduction/excuse to meet the others in the IC thread.  Please proceed at your discretion!


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## kookalouris (Oct 17, 2010)

Sorry, folks, this has been a tough weekend for me.  October is the best month for garage sales.

Here is a very rough draft of Syke that I had hoped to refine but I will put up now and wing it as the game goes by...



Syke

	OK, Here's a preliminary bio on Syke.  Feel free to add comments.  I'm taking my time with Syke as this game is going a makeover and just retconning the current characters will probably take a week or so.  I am writing Syke so that the character can be added later as passenger/crew/stowaway.  I'm starting with the constants on Syke along with variations that may appeal to Leif and the players.

	Ishmael Sykes

	Cornucopia was an ugly, lifeless world that was just right for a megacorp to terraform just enough to support simple crops and  the simple labor needed to harvest them.  Life on this cold world was poor and difficult but safe.  Cornucopia's main drawback was that it was dull, agonizingly dull.  The only real excitement for Cornies was volunteering for the far-off Frontier War.

	(Good mental references for Ishmael on Cornucopia would be Star Wars' Luke Skywalker on Tattooine or Alien's Newt on LV-246 [assuming no trouble with the 'neighbors'].) 

	The majority of the laborers on Cornucopia are both poor and of relatively pure Solomani stock.  With little physical resources, the laborers decided to take great obvious pride in their Solomani heritage (while also secretly envying Vilani culture and position).  The Sykes clan were of such a religious persuasion so as to be as fruitful as possible.  Young Ishmael was the tenth such blessing to his happy and exhausted parents.

	Family tradition was that all children were expected to contribute to the clan as soon as they could but they didn't have to do it on-world.  'Ishie' was off-world like a shot, both the sheer joy of being in Space and to take revenge on the Zhodani for two fallen siblings.

	In the last days of the Frontier War, Ishie found himself in the military taking part in a successful action against a Zhodani ship.  The psychic screams of the dying Zhodani nobles awoke Syke's latent psychic powers, making him experience the memories and feel the agonizing death of each of them.  He became catatonic and non-responsive.  He was mustered out of the service on a medical discharge before his full-term.

	Since then, Ishie has drifted amongst the stars, trying to find odd jobs where he can.  He only really feels peace aboard a spaceship where the limited number of minds nearby don't overwhelm him so.  He gives some of what he earns back to his family but he doesn't ever really believe he can go home again.  His current goals are to find a Psionic Institute, or guidance from the hated Zhodani or to end it all to end the voices, whichever comes first...


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## Scotley (Oct 18, 2010)

Interesting background for Sykes. Should make for some tension, but maybe ultimately a friendship. 

Despite my limited presence of late, I am still very much here. Just a little overworked. Trying to play catch up this week just in time to be out of touch for a long weekend of gaming in the unwired wilderness starting Friday.


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## Leif (Oct 18, 2010)

Scotley said:


> Trying to play catch up this week just in time to be out of touch for a long weekend of gaming in the unwired wilderness starting Friday.



I'll be going to the woods as well, so I'll be out-of-pocket from sometime Friday afternoon until Sunday night.  Might not log-in again until Monday, but, knowing me like I do, I probably will Sunday night.


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## Shayuri (Oct 20, 2010)

Leif, is his telepatic projection loud enough to hear through Zoe's mind shield? She habitually keeps it up. I don't -think- it blocks telepathic communication, rather it just adds to Will vs attacks...but I'll have to look up the specifics when I get home.


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## Insight (Oct 21, 2010)

I thought we were rebooting the story and we were all part of the same happy-clappy crew.  If so, why are we continuing the "cantina scene"?  If we're _not_ rebooting, that's fine.  I'm just a little confused as to what I should be doing at this point.


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## Shayuri (Oct 21, 2010)

Hee...I thought that too! But then I figured I'd just sort of go with whatever folks are doing. 

Still, since it's been raised, Leif...what's the plan here?


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## Scotley (Oct 22, 2010)

Unfortunately, Leif is ill and it is unlikely he will be posting for a few days. I plan to stop in and see him Sunday and should be able to give a better sense of when he'll be back in business then. I'll be on the road and likely not posting until at least Sunday night myself.


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## Insight (Oct 22, 2010)

Scotley said:


> Unfortunately, Leif is ill and it is unlikely he will be posting for a few days. I plan to stop in and see him Sunday and should be able to give a better sense of when he'll be back in business then. I'll be on the road and likely not posting until at least Sunday night myself.




I'm not in a huge hurry.  Just wanted to know what we should be doing if we feel like posting.  I can easily wait til next week.


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## kookalouris (Oct 23, 2010)

Take care of yourself, Leif.


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## Leif (Oct 27, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Leif, is his telepatic projection loud enough to hear through Zoe's mind shield? She habitually keeps it up. I don't -think- it blocks telepathic communication, rather it just adds to Will vs attacks...but I'll have to look up the specifics when I get home.



Hmm, this looks like a something for you (the PC) to decide.  Maybe Zoe's shield makes the projection sound like it's coming from way down a long tunnel or something?  Or maybe it just makes the projection sound like Donald Duck?


Shayuri said:


> Hee...I thought that too! But then I figured I'd just sort of go with whatever folks are doing.
> 
> Still, since it's been raised, Leif...what's the plan here?



Plan???  You accuse me of having a plan??   I had thought of doing a re-boot, but kookalouris jumped right in and seemed to be swimming right along, so I saw no reason to rock the boat.  I'm all for continuing as is for the moment.  It will progress naturally soon enough, I suppose.


Scotley said:


> Unfortunately, Leif is ill and it is unlikely he will be posting for a few days. I plan to stop in and see him Sunday and should be able to give a better sense of when he'll be back in business then. I'll be on the road and likely not posting until at least Sunday night myself.



Leif is (was) more ill than Scotley knew.  I just came home today after an 8-day hospital stay.  Yes, I'm ok, thanks.  Another one of those pesky skin infections that cropped up on my much-the-worse-for-wear-and-multiple-auto-accidents left ankle.


kookalouris said:


> Take care of yourself, Leif.



Thanks, I'm trying to do so.  No, really.


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## Scotley (Oct 27, 2010)

Welcome back! You've been missed.


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## grufflehead (Oct 27, 2010)

Indeed. Sorry to hear you've been porly - hope it's all sorted now.


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## kookalouris (Oct 27, 2010)

Glad you're back.  I've been holding off on posts until you're ready.


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## Leif (Oct 28, 2010)

Scotley said:


> Welcome back! You've been missed.






grufflehead said:


> Indeed. Sorry to hear you've been porly - hope it's all sorted now.






kookalouris said:


> Glad you're back.  I've been holding off on posts until you're ready.



Thanks, All.  Yep, I'm back and looks like I'm about as ready as it gets.  Jump 7 ahead and the devil take the hindmost.


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## kookalouris (Nov 10, 2010)

Hey all,

I am now back, internet restored.  I need to catch up on eBay but should post in about a day or two.  Until then, Syke does what he is told and tries not to be underfoot...


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## Leif (Nov 10, 2010)

That's good news!  I'll tell Spider to get Syke out of that low passage berth now....


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## Leif (Nov 16, 2010)

Sorry things have been going so slowly, Kookalouris.  Maybe we should have left you in your cold sleep?  I thought I had left an opening or two for someone to do something, but maybe I was wrong?  Hmmm, y'all about ready for another visit from some distemper-infected pirates?


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## Shayuri (Nov 16, 2010)

Argh, I reread the thread, and...staring me in the face is Leif's post.

How embarrassing.

Sorry about that guys. I guess we really have nothing better to do than make 2 jumps to Glisten to report piracy on Centry?

We need a job.


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## Leif (Nov 17, 2010)

No worries, Shayuri.  I thought you must have been kidnapped or something. 

For those of you who don't know, let me give you a small rundown of Glisten:  There is no planet there.  The "world" is scattered across an asteroid belt.  There are two such belts in the system, but one asteroid belt holds most of the 'settlement.'  Glisten city is the main governmental and business center.  The Pluvis Group of asteroids is the main shipbuilding center for the system, containing the vast Ling Standard Products and Bilstein shipyards as well as other, smaller yards of lesser importance.  There is a common jest in the Marches that Glisten has as asteroid city devoted entirely to shuttle-traffic control.


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## kookalouris (Nov 22, 2010)

Sigh.

I'm afraid I am going to have to bow out of the game.  A family member is in the hospital for a long stay and I am the house 'gofer' now indefinitely.  I know that I had barely started and I'm sorry I have to go.

Feel free to use Syke as you wish.  You can assume he simply leaves quietly at your next port of call or he can stay on as a quiet NPC redshirt.  It's up to you.  If I can return, I will assume Syke can find the _Zax _later.

I appreciate y'all making me feel at home for the little while I could stay.


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## Leif (Nov 22, 2010)

Man, kookalouris, that's rough!  But I understand.  Lately, however, in my family if someone winds up in the hospital, it's me.  But you must do what you feel is necessary.  It is a shame, though, and you'll be missed!


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## Leif (Nov 22, 2010)

[MENTION=51567]Lou[/MENTION], if you'd care to join us, we now have two characters that lack players, so if you want, you can choose one of them to play.  One is Insight's first character, Dr. Alexander Hannigan (whom I have listed in the RG as an npc, but you can still take him over if you want) or Syke a human (presumably Vilani) psi-dude.  Syke has the advantage that Kookalouris never got him posted in the RG, so you can make him as you wish.  This may be a disadvantage to you, instead of an advantage, though.


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## Scotley (Nov 22, 2010)

Hey kookalouris, sorry to see you go. I was looking forward to some more interaction with Syke. I hope for a speedy recovery and a quick return.


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## Shayuri (Nov 22, 2010)

I've emailed about this on the list, and I've even sent a copy to Gruffle since he was taken off the list before I could respond. I just want to be super clear on this:

I was never upset with anyone, least of all Gruffle, over any point of canon or non-canon. If I am ever upset with someone, I will tell you to your face. I won't hide behind passive-aggressive insulting posts, I promise. 

The post about the power plant explosive potential was not meant to be, in any way, insulting. In hindsight of course, I read it and slap my forehead. At the time I wrote it, I thought it was just an amusing look into Zoe's head. The problem of course was that I thought I knew what was going on, when in fact Leif had told someone else something totally different. Perfectly understandable, since he's the GM and my character's not an engineer...but I made a mistake, and let what I thought I knew (based on this being a Traveller game) interfere with what my character knew. In fairness to me, I had no reason at the time to think there'd be other kinds of ship reactors...and it doesn't seem completely OOC for Zoe to have some idea of the technology that powers starships...but those are small asides to a relatively large mistake on my part, and I claim full responsibility. At the very least, I could have asked.

So, to Gruffle, and to everyone else for putting you through the drama, I offer my sincere apology.


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## Leif (Nov 22, 2010)

Sorry, Shayuri, for throwing you a curve with my oddly unique ideas about the power plant.  I was just looking for a way to involve our engineers in some action, so I made up some totally ludicrous stuff.


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## grufflehead (Nov 23, 2010)

My bad Shay (and everyone else) - over-reaction on my part for which I apologise.

I know Leif has sent out some proposed ideas for where we go from here. I'm *really* struggling with this game: too many false starts, changes, no clear idea of who we are, what we are doing or where we are going etc. If you guys want to keep going then I'm happy to be convinced to stick with it, otherwise I'll wish you luck on your journey and see you in some other corner of the galaxy at some point.


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## Insight (Nov 23, 2010)

I'm certainly not begrudging anyone uncertainty about this game - it has had more than its fair share of false starts, restarts, and periods of silence.  

I think everyone can agree that the game needs a solid focus and concept.  Once decided, we stick with it until the game can no longer continue.  That doesn't mean that our adventures can't be varied in idea and scope, but I think that we need to start (or restart) off with a strong concept and go from there.

If we can't do that, we should scrap the game and do something else (or go our separate ways).


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## Shayuri (Nov 23, 2010)

Complete agreement.

For example, if the theme of the game is that we're agents of the IISS on detached duty, then we should focus on that. That's a great basis for a Traveller game as well, since it gives us some direction and cohesion, without sacrificing self-direction.

In a canon game, we'd have to make some adjustments to the crew to make it plausible. Notably, someone would have to actually have been a Scout, who is now retiring from active duty so they can be placed on detached duty.

But! In a non-canon game, detached duty can mean whatever it needs to mean. The trick about non-canon is that since we can't depend on published info to inform us, we rely on Leif to tell us what we need to know. Once we know how it's going to work we can make educated decisions about characters and so on, and get down and do some gaming.


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## Leif (Nov 23, 2010)

Ok, I'm all for more structure.  I'd like for the (non-canon) party to be a team of "fixers" on detached duty with the IISS (Imperial Interstellar Scout Service, for those of you who don't know).  This means that you have access to fuel and maintenance for the _Zax_ at no cost from any Scout installation, as well as lodging and meals and even pay.  The IISS has even accepted our Zhos (and, naturally, their _awesome_ Zhodani scout vessel the _Zax_) for this detached duty assignment, but they do get the occasional side-long glance from other personnel at the bases, but those glances transform to jealous looks of admiration when they see your ship.  You still have enough free time to take on other missions that you wish, but when the IISS beckons you are expected to heed their summons in fairly short order.  Each of you has the proper id and insignia to avail yourselves of all of the services offered at Scout Bases.

The _Zax Hakjohn Quik_ is outfitted with the appropriate transponder signal identifying it as a vessel of the IISS.  However, this transponder is easily disengaged for those times when stealth is desired.  When it is turned on, communications from the _Zax_ cause the IISS seal to appear on the commo readout of the recipient ship, so there is no question about it.

[I'm making stuff up again here!  If anyone has a better idea, let's hear it!]

[Gruffle -- Whatever you think, man.  I certainly don't want to try to hold an unwilling player hostage, so go if you wish.  We can do just fine with three, and I'd rather have three willing players than a fourth potential dissident.]


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## Insight (Nov 23, 2010)

Leif said:


> Ok, I'm all for more structure.  I'd like for the (non-canon) party to be a team of "fixers" on detached duty with the IISS (Imperial Interstellar Scout Service, for those of you who don't know).  This means that you have access to fuel and maintenance for the _Zax_ at no cost from any Scout installation, as well as lodging and meals and even pay.  The IISS has even accepted our Zhos (and, naturally, their _awesome_ Zhodani scout vessel the _Zax_) for this detached duty assignment, but they do get the occasional side-long glance from other personnel at the bases, but those glances transform to jealous looks of admiration when they see your ship.  You still have enough free time to take on other missions that you wish, but when the IISS beckons you are expected to heed their summons in fairly short order.  Each of you has the proper id and insignia to avail yourselves of all of the services offered at Scout Bases.
> 
> The _Zax Hakjohn Quik_ is outfitted with the appropriate transponder signal identifying it as a vessel of the IISS.  However, this transponder is easily disengaged for those times when stealth is desired.  When it is turned on, communications from the _Zax_ cause the IISS seal to appear on the commo readout of the recipient ship, so there is no question about it.




I'm fine with this idea.  The only hitch is that it makes Kaira's major skills mostly irrelevant.  Not a huge problem as I can easily modify her to suit the game.  In fact, I can make her the "retired scout" if it's still needed.  Or at least give her good skills for sneaking and scouting.


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## Shayuri (Nov 23, 2010)

Insight, that's not necessarily so, though depending on how the IISS's salary works, it might be.

Aside from covering ship expenses, we don't know how much we make, or how often we can collect. Since the ship expenses would be pretty high, it's likely our salaries are fairly low, otherwise this kind of detached duty would be phenomenally expensive. Of course, we might have a special deal too...

Regardless, it sounds like we'll have sufficient discretion over our activities to justify having a broker on board.


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## Leif (Nov 24, 2010)

Agreed.  A broker is always a good thing to have around.  The retired scout angle is nice, too, though.  That would provide another steady source of credits...


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## Insight (Nov 24, 2010)

Leif said:


> Agreed.  A broker is always a good thing to have around.  The retired scout angle is nice, too, though.  That would provide another steady source of credits...




I could always "tone down" her interpersonal stuff (not get rid of it entirely) and put more points towards sneaking and perception stuff.  It doesn't have to be an either/or proposition.

I'll take a look and see what I can do.


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## Leif (Nov 24, 2010)

Don't worry about the party overmuch, Insight, do what makes YOU happy.  Make the character that you like best.   The rest of the situation is my job to handle.


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## Leif (Nov 25, 2010)

Ok, so are we all together for the moment?  Is Spider going to have to take over the duties of Chief Engineer, or do we still have a Gruffle or two around here somewhere?  I guess it'd be too much of a long shot for Kaira to moonlight as an engineer, wouldn't it?   But, hey, wasn't Lou going to play?


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## Leif (Nov 25, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Insight, that's not necessarily so, though depending on how the IISS's salary works, it might be.
> 
> Aside from covering ship expenses, we don't know how much we make, or how often we can collect. Since the ship expenses would be pretty high, it's likely our salaries are fairly low, otherwise this kind of detached duty would be phenomenally expensive. Of course, we might have a special deal too...
> 
> Regardless, it sounds like we'll have sufficient discretion over our activities to justify having a broker on board.



And even after reading about it, I'm still not overly clear whether you get your IISS salaries _all_ the time, or just  when you're performing a mission for them.  I thought I had GURPS "FIRST IN" on order, but it's ....  never mind, I have it.   Looks like I've got some reading to do.


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## Lou (Nov 25, 2010)

Leif said:


> Ok, so are we all together for the moment?  Is Spider going to have to take over the duties of Chief Engineer, or do we still have a Gruffle or two around here somewhere?  I guess it'd be too much of a long shot for Kaira to moonlight as an engineer, wouldn't it?   But, hey, wasn't Lou going to play?




Yes, he was.  I have just been really busy at work for a change....


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## Shayuri (Nov 25, 2010)

Leif, the trick is that your definition of Detached Duty is totally different than the canon definition. 

Scouts on Detached Duty in canon simply receive an annual stipend, and the use of a standard Scout vessel. 

What you're talking about is more like active duty, or perhaps some kind of deputization. That would probably entail a more traditional monthly salary...or perhaps a per-mission reward.


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## Lou (Nov 25, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Leif, the trick is that your definition of Detached Duty is totally different than the canon definition.
> 
> Scouts on Detached Duty in canon simply receive an annual stipend, and the use of a standard Scout vessel.
> 
> What you're talking about is more like active duty, or perhaps some kind of deputization. That would probably entail a more traditional monthly salary...or perhaps a per-mission reward.




So the group is on detached duty as a ill-defined group....  The annual stipend is suspended in exchange for .....  In place of a standard Scout vessel, -----


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## Leif (Nov 26, 2010)

Lou said:


> Yes, he was.  I have just been really busy at work for a change....



Well, that's a GOOD thing, I guess!  Keep it up.


Shayuri said:


> Leif, the trick is that your definition of Detached Duty is totally different than the canon definition.
> 
> Scouts on Detached Duty in canon simply receive an annual stipend, and the use of a standard Scout vessel.
> 
> What you're talking about is more like active duty, or perhaps some kind of deputization. That would probably entail a more traditional monthly salary...or perhaps a per-mission reward.



Hmm, yeah, ok, my semantics were faulty for sure.  The thing is, I don't really want you deputized by the IISS.  I have other plans and a totally different, totally non-canon organization to employ you as the "Galactic Effectuators"* you shall soon become.

*Shamelessly stole/borrowed this term from Jack Vance.  I have his novel "Galactic Effectuator" on order as I type this.  


Lou said:


> So the group is on detached duty as a ill-defined group....  The annual stipend is suspended in exchange for .....  In place of a standard Scout vessel, -----



You are not on detached duty with the IISS.  Your stipend is not annual, but monthly via direct deposit -- amount to be determined/announced when I figure it out.  Your organizational benefactor/employer is an interstellar cartel known as Zeering Conglomerate.  [changed the spelling to differentiate from Zoe's name - my bad, shay.]  (Actually, my original plan was to start you out with the IISS and then have you be noticed by Zeering Conglomerate, but, hey, life's too da** short to screw around with unnecessary steps, so I've made a command decision to cut to the chase.)  

Each member of the team has been assured by the Zeering Powers that Be that he or she does indubitably bring something of high value to the collective ability of the Team, even though some individual team members may be uncertain just what it is that he/she does bring.  Each has been assured that all will become clear in time.  The Team is euphemistically known as "the Repair Squad," which you believe is just a more innocuous-sounding turn of phrase than "Fixer Squad." Zeering has holdings and operations that are very far-flung -- Imperial holdings, production facilities, and corporate offices, Zhodani holdings, investment portfolios, and corporate offices, Vargr holdings and retail outlets, K'Kree holdings and production facilities, and even some Droyne holdings as well.  All of these are open to you as Corporate Operatives -- you are not only welcome at any of Zeering's facilities, but you had _better_ be shown the proper respect when you are there, or the fecal matter will be impacting the whirling blades for some poor schmuck who dropped the ball.  The team is a mix of races/backgrounds to facilitate easy entry into whatever situation the team finds itself, and also to conceal the fact that there is a monolithic master behind such a perverse and diverse collection of beings.

You do not have a standard Suleiman Class Scout Vessel but that's ok, because you have been provided by your benefactors with a superior vessel -- a Yetsabl Class Zhodani Courier, the _Zax Hakjohn Quik_ in case anyone has forgotten, but I've mentioned it so much and so often that I really don't see how anyone could have done so.  I'll be retaining Dr. Aexander Hannigan as an npc medico aboard the _Zax_, because I have a feeling that you lot are going to be in a scrape or two and medical attention might be a real necessity.  If the reality proves to be otherwise, I'll certainly entertain a motion to drop Doc Hannigan.  As long as Doc is with us, any player should feel free to speak/act for Doc whenever necessary  - say, to patch up your pc after some sort of battle.  His skills are listed in the rg, so just look up what you need, set the scene for us, and roll to patch up your pc.

Your Current Mission
You have been given the assignment of visiting Zeering's factory on Edenelt/Trin's Veil (it's actually called Simulgrab Power Processors, makers/designers of chip sets for high end computers -- Simulgrab is under the Zeering corporate umbrella, and Zeering provides the "Fixers" for all affiliated corps in order to provide both themselves and you with an extra layer of separation and also to facilitate your plausible deniability and their plausible denial of you.) You're being sent to Edenelt to deliver some 'encouragement' to the management there.  Another euphemism, you're quite certain:  "Sister Eden's" production has been down for three straight quarters now, and Zeering HQ is keen to find out why, and if a few heads get knocked together in the process so much the better, or so the Memos that you've been shown in preparation for this task would seem to indicate.

The group has been together for a year or two in its present form (I leave it to the players to decide the details).  You have successfully completed several missions for Zeering, but so far these have been rather of the "vanilla" variety -- quieting some unrest among striking workers, facilitating and assisting with collective bargaining, and doing some very minor corporate espionage  involving Zeering's competitors in the IT sector.

Any questions?  Oh, you'll still be starting at the same place where the _Zax_ is currently in the Glisten system.  You've made your contacts on  Glisten and received your mission as stated above.  Your contact in Zeering Conglomerate is known to you only as "Zed," and so far, he has had an uncanny ability to appear wherever you find yourselves with whatever information and special tools you need for your current job.  [My, Leif, how very 'Ian Fleming-esque' of you!]


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## Scotley (Nov 26, 2010)

Okay, sounds like we could find ourselves engaged in all sorts of trouble with this set up. Poor Spider's gonna have to work on his social skills...


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## Leif (Nov 26, 2010)

NOTE:  name of "Zoering" changed to ZEERING CONGLOMERATE to differentiate from Zoe Danni's name.  Apologies, Shayuri, I just now noticed what I had done. 

Scotley -- Never fear, Zeering also has need of operatives who are FAR from "socially acceptable."  If you have a teammate or two who can cover the social angle things should work just fine.  So this shouldn't be a problem as long as you've got Kaira in your corner!  Gruffle and Spider may be spending most of their time trying to get Zoe to calm down, but if the two of them can manage her, then Kaira can act as the team's "face" in the meantime.   [Shayuri:  ]  Now I don't quite know just what Lou is going to be at this point.  Hell, he may throw the whole system for a loop.


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## Shayuri (Nov 26, 2010)

Roffle...no worries, Leif. Perhaps Zoe is the shadowy master behind the scenes! Bwahaha!

...or not.

Anyway, looks like a pretty cool re-disposition, and one that works well with our backgrounds and such. Thanks!


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## Leif (Nov 26, 2010)

Shayuri said:


> Roffle...no worries, Leif. Perhaps Zoe is the shadowy master behind the scenes! Bwahaha!
> 
> ...or not.
> 
> Anyway, looks like a pretty cool re-disposition, and one that works well with our backgrounds and such. Thanks!



 Hmmm, don't give me too many ideas or you may wind up GMing this little parade!  

Glad to have your approval, btw!  I know that if I can meet your standards I'm pretty much guaranteed to be raising my own!  [Now if I could only satisfy Insight, sheesh! -- joke, I hope?  ]


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## Leif (Nov 26, 2010)

*First Corporate Memo, re-Simulgrab Power Processors*

MEMORANDUM

To:  Jovan Selm, Director of Oversight for Trin's Veil

From: Temakak Briden, Comptroller General, Zeering Conglomerate

Date: [Two Weeks ago]

RE:  WTF is up on Edenelt/Trin's Veil??

By Jove, Jove, you have got to get on your people and have somebody pry their heads out of their a**es!  Seriously, it's not even funny anymore how far their production has slipped in the last 6 weeks, let alone the 3 months before that.  Is somebody there dipping into the till, or what?  I warned you about hiring that ex-Marine to be over the Personnel Dept.  And what's up with the bills they're paying for RM?  I don't see how they can expect a decent profit margin with such high costs.  At least we've still got the government of Edenelt in our hip pockets.  The tax credits we're getting are almost enough to totally off-set this travesty.  I'm bringing up the idea of us sending our Repair Crew out there at the next board meeting.  Take care that your head gets nowhere near the chopping block.

Temmy

BTW, RM= raw materials - Leif
& BTW, The fixers have now officially been sent to Edenelt/Trin's Veil and you are on your way when you are shown this memo


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## Leif (Nov 27, 2010)

About the memo --  Ok, so here are five (5) (count 'em) good, solid leads with which you can begin your investigation on Edenelt/Trin's Veil.  Chase down as many of these as you wish for as long as you wish.  Note that Zeering Conglomerate Management values the _speed_ of results just about as much as the _quality_ of the results themselves.  Therefore, this kind of mission tends to be a balancing act trying to get enough good info in the shortest time possible.  But sometimes circumstances limit either the quickness with which you can proceed or the quality of the product that you are able to coax out of your targets.  Zeering values your judgment at least as much as any of your other skills.


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## Shayuri (Nov 27, 2010)

Informal PC poll: You guys want to rescue the miner or just keep chuggin'?

Zoe's fine either way, though she might feel a squidge guilty about ignoring a distress call.


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## Scotley (Nov 27, 2010)

Spider would definitely want to rescue the miner. He's a real boyscout at heart.


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## Leif (Nov 27, 2010)

Zoe -  'Squidge?'  Is that like a homeless squid standing at the intersection with a dirty squeegee? 

Spider -  Still working on that psionics merit badge, eh?


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## Leif (Nov 29, 2010)

So _some_body needs to make up the group's mind and decide whether you're going to answer the distress signal or keep be-bopping on your merry way to Edenelt/Trin's Veil.


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## Shayuri (Nov 29, 2010)

Eh. I've got two people saying 'aye' right now.

If I don't hear any dissent by Monday, I'll post Zoe going back to help.


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## Leif (Nov 29, 2010)

Works for me, except that you really don't have to go back -- you're not yet out to the place where you first encountered the Belter, which was just barely closer to Glisten than the jump point.  Of course you probably came in from a different direction than that in which you're leaving, but we'll 'hand-wave' that unless somebody wants to get picky on me.


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## grufflehead (Nov 29, 2010)

I'm going to bow out. Thanks for the game and happy hunting.


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## Leif (Nov 30, 2010)

And the dwindling continues.  *sigh*  Fine, Gruff, fine.

So now we're down to Scotley, Shayuri, Insight, and Lou, right?  And Spider is back to being engineer.


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## Shayuri (Dec 4, 2010)

Mew.

The Zax is only Jump 3, isn't it?


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## Leif (Dec 4, 2010)

The _Zax_ is Jump-4

Sunuvagun, you're right, it is only Jump-3.  Well, now that's gonna change the trip a bit, isn't it?


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## Leif (Dec 14, 2010)

Lou, your gonna be hard pressed to find a better intro than the one before you now in the IC.


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## Leif (Dec 17, 2010)

We'll give it about 24 more hours, and if the action hasn't advanced by then.... well, I'll think of something.  You're still on the way to your assignment and you've just met a 'vagabond' named "Jimmy B." in the Starport.  Incidentally, if anyone is wondering whether you have the authority to take on a passenger or additional crew member, yes, obviously you're authorized to take on paying passengers.  And you feel like you can convince the Powers That Be at Zeering Conglomerate to accept a new crew member if you can adequately explain what the new meat brings to the table, as it were.


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## Shayuri (Dec 17, 2010)

Argh, I'm gonna post. I'm sorry I'm a bit behind...it's been a busy week.

Holidays can be like that...patience, I beg, patience.


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## Leif (Dec 17, 2010)

No worries.  I probably wouldn't have sicced another pack of Vargr on you or anything....


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## Insight (Dec 17, 2010)

Sorry, I've been busy too. And I'm going on a business trip for the majority of next week.  I'll try to squeeze in something today or this weekend.


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## Leif (Dec 18, 2010)

Insight said:


> Sorry, I've been busy too. And I'm going on a business trip for the majority of next week.  I'll try to squeeze in something today or this weekend.



Yes, there seems to be a lot of that sort of thing going around these days.  No matter.  Experience has shown that posting will once again return to near normal sometime probably in the first or second week of January.


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## Leif (Dec 29, 2010)

Don't forget, Lou/Jimmy, that it's up to you to secure a more long-term arrangement with the party beyond the trip for which you're paying.  You're only getting ONE GM-Subsidized ticket.


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## Shayuri (Dec 29, 2010)

Hee...you keep bumping the time forward, Leif...it kind of makes it hard to carry on a conversation. 

I know you're impatient, and you probably think we're stuck...but I think it's mostly just holiday slowdowns.

Oh well. It's just, it kind of robs us of RP opportunities when you're too quick to move things forward is all.


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## Leif (Dec 30, 2010)

Sorry about that.  I thought it had been nearly a week or so with no new posts. *shrug*  I freely admit that I'm impatient.   Want me to just eliminate my advance and roll the clock back to where it was?  I can do that with a few keystrokes.    (As long as nobody posts IC until we decide....)


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## Leif (Dec 30, 2010)

IC post edited -- pretty much eliminated.


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## Insight (Dec 30, 2010)

I started a new job last week and it may not provide me as much time as I used to have to post on these boards.  I'm lucky in that this is the day before a company holiday, so most folks are already gone (mentally or otherwise).  I don't know how often this will happen.

Chances are that I may need to drop out of this and all of my other PBP games.  I'll have to take an assessment once my workload increases to a normal capacity and see how much free time I'm going to have.


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## Shayuri (Dec 30, 2010)

Insight - Gah! ...that's all I got. Gah. 

Leif - Thanks. I'm sorry if my tone seemed terse...and since no one else seems to mind leapfrogging forward over RP, I'm probably overreacting.  I just like the moment when characters meet and have first impressions and talk to each other so it's jarring when a GM blips past those moments, especially without checking in to see if we're done.


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## Leif (Dec 31, 2010)

Insight - Thanks for the heads-up.  I hope it works out where you can stay with us!  Think there's a chance that it might just take you a little while (few weeks, maybe?) to become accustomed to your new situation?  If so, you'll be welcome back.

Shayuri - Not a problem.  I was in too big a rush, obviously.  I could have sworn that I had already given you guys several days for that sort of thing, but it seems I was mistaken.


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## Leif (Dec 31, 2010)

Shayuri - And no apology is necessary.  Sheesh, don't go getting all sweet and mushy on me!  Who are you and what have you done with our Shayuri??


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## Leif (Jan 3, 2011)

Scotley:  Great 180-proof post!


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## Leif (Jan 4, 2011)

*Oh Zoe?? *



Shayuri said:


> Zoe glanced at Spider. Technically she wasn't the one empowered to negotiate this stuff, though there was nothing official stopping her. It just wasn't tradition.



I'm just curious about the "tradition" you mentioned.  I'm pitifully ignorant of any such traditions common to Traveller, or to ships in general, or to whatever source you're referring to.   I'm guessing that this tradition places passengers and possibly crew relations within the ambit of ...... somebody?  Is there an unstated assumption that Spider [as back-up pilot?] is second-in-command, or has there been an official declaration of such that I missed, or does the ship's gunner usually handle these things, or am I just totally off-base here?  Although, thinking more about this now, other than Zoe, Spider is the best-suited, most skilled character as far as ship operations go, isn't he?


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## Shayuri (Jan 4, 2011)

Hee, no no. I was just deciding that Zoe, as a matter of course, didn't usually handle customers or brokering or that kind of thing. There's no special reason she can't, or shouldn't...it's just not the way they've done things on the Zax before.

There's no larger significance though. It's just Zoe thinking, "Well, I don't usually handle this kind of thing, buuuuut..."


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## Leif (Jan 4, 2011)

Shayuri said:


> Hee, no no. I was just deciding that Zoe, as a matter of course, didn't usually handle customers or brokering or that kind of thing. There's no special reason she can't, or shouldn't...it's just not the way they've done things on the Zax before.
> 
> There's no larger significance though. It's just Zoe thinking, "Well, I don't usually handle this kind of thing, buuuuut..."



Ahh, ok.  I think that makes me feel better about the whole thing.   Maybe.   Not that I felt that bad, anyway.


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## Insight (Jan 4, 2011)

I'm going to try to soldier on, but I make no guarantees regarding post counts or timing!


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## Scotley (Jan 4, 2011)

Insight said:


> I'm going to try to soldier on, but I make no guarantees regarding post counts or timing!




I hope so, poor Spider will be devastated to lose Kaira...


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## Leif (Jan 5, 2011)

Insight said:


> I'm going to try to soldier on, but I make no guarantees regarding post counts or timing!



No pressure, man.  But thanks for sticking around and soldiering through this rough patch!


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## Leif (Jan 6, 2011)

*Lou*

Hey, Bro, I'd sure appreciate it you'd give me some idea about what languages Jimmy speaks.  You don't have to tell me specific languages necessarily, but at least let me know what race/species speaks the language, and if it's human, kinda let me know where in the galaxy it's from.  

Of course, you're free to get as specific as you desire, and Vilani (or Imperial) is always a good choice for a Solomani (Terran) to speak.

I'm not trying to single-out Lou here, either, so if other characters have totally unspecified languages on their skill lists, the more "hints" you can give us about the nature of the language(s), the better.


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## Leif (Jan 7, 2011)

*Shiny New GURPS Traveller Thread Banner*

Don't you just LOVE our new thread banner?  I found the graphic on the Steve Jackson Games site, Jaerdaph shrunk it down to the appropriate size for me, and Morrus worked his magic to add it to the thread banners.  Here's the link to the thread where we made this happen: 
http://www.enworld.org/forum/meta/299142-gurps-traveller-thread-banner.html


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## Lou (Jan 7, 2011)

Cool!


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## Leif (Jan 12, 2011)

It's taking all my willpower not to make another IC post!!

MUST ... *RESIST!*   Must let them work it out!

See? I really am trying to be a good widdle GM!


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## Scotley (Jan 12, 2011)

How many staterooms are there on the Zax?


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## Leif (Jan 13, 2011)

There are nine staterooms on the _Zax_, figure at least 2 for the crew of 4, maybe say 3 to be safe, since we do have an npc engineer who sleeps somewhere.  The captain may require one stateroom to herself, but that's for her to say. 

Yeah, Insight, if Kaira has merchant skill that will be _perfect_!


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## Shayuri (Jan 13, 2011)

Wait, is Zoe captain?

_awesome_

I totally get to order people around!

And I fully have my own room, damnit.

(^_^)


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## Leif (Jan 14, 2011)

Umm, I may have typed that too soon.   She could just be a lieutenant like Mr. Sulu.....


----------



## Leif (Jan 21, 2011)

Looks like I may have found us a replacement player to take over Gruffle! 



			
				centisteed in pm to Leif said:
			
		

> Thanks, Leif. I'll be sure to check Gruffle out.
> I'm pretty sure I'll be willing to take over his
> spot in your game. No problem there. I just
> need a little time to read through your entire
> ...


----------



## Leif (Jan 23, 2011)

Centisteed:

Gruffle is with the others, so as soon as you're ready to go and have your character arranged the way you want, you can just begin posting in-character (IC) whenever you wish.  In fact, you can go ahead and do so starting NOW, because there should be no reason why you need a character sheet, since all the 'action' is of a social nature.


----------



## Leif (Jan 23, 2011)

Centisteed,

Excellent job customizing Gruffle!  I like the personal history very much.


----------



## Insight (Jan 30, 2011)

Here's a complete list of what Kaira purchased for the hunting trip.  Since she purchased all this gear on her own, I consider this stuff to be "hers", but she will loan it out to the others as need be.

4 each of:
Secure-Encrypted Tiny Radio Communicator (TL9): 1-mile range. $550, 0.05 lbs., 2A/10 hr. LC4
Night Vision Goggles (TL9): Night Vision 9 and 4x magnification. $1,000, 0.3 lbs., 2B/100 hr. LC4.
Pack of 20 Survival Rations (TL9): $40, 1lb ea.
Mini Flashlight (TL9): $10, 0.25 lbs., B/24 hr.
Pack of 20 Glow Sticks (TL9): $40, 0.1lb ea.
Inertial Compass (TL9): It gives a +3 bonus to Navigation (Air, Land, and Sea). $120, 0.2 lbs., A/200 hr.
Envirobag (TL9): $160, 3 lbs., C/24 hr.
Filtration Canteen (TL9): $180, 1 lb. (empty) or 3 lbs. (full). LC4.
Vapor Canteen (TL9): It has a capacity of one quart, and adds a +2 (quality) bonus to Survival skill for an individual living off the land. $450; 2 lbs. (empty) or 4 lbs. (full), B/100 quarts. LC4.
Survival Watch (TL10): It includes a biomonitor, a chronometer, a GPS receiver, an inertial compass, a magnetic compass, a homing beacon, and a tiny computer with a small 2-D display (aboutone square inch). $300, 0.5 lbs., B/3 months. LC4.
Rope 1/8” diameter (TL9): Supports 400 lbs. 10 yards of line: $2, 0.1 lb.
Subtotal: $9608 (before discount)

5 each of:
Arctic Clothing (TL6): $500, 10lbs. LC4.
Backpack, Large (TL8): Carries 100lbs. of gear. $200, 10 lbs. LC4.
Climbing Kit, High-Quality (TL8): Harness, ascender, descender, an assortment of fasteners, and 100 yards of 3/8” rope. A high-quality kit provides a bonus to Climbing skill. $400, 26 lbs. LC4.
Load-Bearing Vest (TL7): Carries 20-30lbs. of gear. $30, 2 lbs. LC4.
Winter Clothing (TL6): $300, 10lbs. LC4.
Subtotal: $6150 (before discount)

and 1 each of:
Laser Rifle (TL10): Type Imp.; Dmg 4d; SS 12; ACC 19; 1/2D 3,300; MAX 6,600; WT 10/12; ROF 4-; SHOTS 100/2D; ST 8; RECOIL 0; LC9.
Laser Sight for Rifle (TL10): +1 skill at 1/2D. $1000.
Power-Pack for Laser Rifle
Subtotal: $3200 (before discount)

for a grand total (before discount) of: $19858
with 55% discount: $8936


----------



## Leif (Jan 30, 2011)

Wow, Inisght, Kaira is a walking, talking, military surplus store!   Looks very cool.  I just don't quite understand why she's being so possessive about everything since she has at least 4 each of everything except the laser rifle?  Oh, well, guess that just proves she's female, doesn't it?


----------



## Insight (Jan 30, 2011)

Survival skill in GURPS

I was going to buy some Survival skill for Kaira.  Then, I read the skill entry for Survival and I decided that raising her Perception would be far better.  Here's why:



			
				GURPS 4th Edition said:
			
		

> *Survival*
> _Per/Average
> Defaults: Perception-5 or Naturalist (same planet)-3._
> This is the ability to “live off the land,” find safe food and water, avoid hazards, build shelter, etc. You may look after up to 10 other people. To live safely in a wilderness situation, you must make a successful Survival roll once per day. Failure inflicts 2d-4 injury on you and anyone in your care; roll separately for each victim.
> ...




So basically, unless you want your character to spend character points on Survival - Arctic (insert planet name here) and then take a -4 (or worse) penalty when we go to an arctic zone on another planet, you're better off at a default of (Perception -5) and raising your character's Perception.

That's my take on it, anyway.


----------



## Insight (Jan 30, 2011)

Leif said:


> Wow, Inisght, Kaira is a walking, talking, military surplus store!   Looks very cool.  I just don't quite understand why she's being so possessive about everything since she has at least 4 each of everything except the laser rifle?  Oh, well, guess that just proves she's female, doesn't it?




If the crew wants to reimburse Kaira for her purchases, she will gladly give them up.


----------



## Leif (Jan 30, 2011)

Insight said:
			
		

> I was going to buy some Survival skill for Kaira. Then, I read the skill entry for Survival and I decided that raising her Perception would be far better.





			
				Inisght said:
			
		

> All this assumes the two planets are of the same planet type (see Planet Types, p. 180). There is no default at all between Survival skills for two planets of different planet types.



Only the Naturalist skill seems to be limited to a specific planet.  Survival is  limited to planet TYPES, isn't it?  Still, increasing her Perception may be a better choice, and will for sure have a broader application....


----------



## Insight (Jan 30, 2011)

Leif said:


> Only the Naturalist skill seems to be limited to a specific planet.  Survival is  limited to planet TYPES, isn't it?




Not according to the book.



			
				GURPS 4th Edition said:
			
		

> Planet Types
> Biology, Geology (p. 198), and Meteorology (p. 209) require you to specialize by “planet type,” as does the “Physical” specialty of Geography (p. 198). If you do not specify a planet type, your native planet type is assumed – so if the campaign will never leave your home world, save space and just write “Geology,” “Biology,” etc.
> GURPS sorts planets into six broad categories for these purposes.
> Earthlike: Essentially, all habitable worlds.
> ...




From what I posted above about the Survival skill:


			
				GURPS 4th Edition said:
			
		

> In settings where it is possible to visit other worlds, you must also specialize *by planet*. Each Survival specialty defaults to the same terrain type for a *different planet* at -4. The defaults between terrain types given above are at an extra -4 between *different planets*.
> 
> *All this assumes the two planets are of the same planet type (see Planet Types, p. 180). There is no default at all between Survival skills for two planets of different planet types.*




I think what they're saying at the end of the Survival skill is that you can't even default to anything between planets of different types.  For example, having Survival - Desert (Earthlike) would have no application on a Rock World.

Of course, as the GM in a game where the characters are likely to be traveling to a LOT of different planets, the flaw in how GURPS handles the Survival skill should be pretty obvious.  You could rule that characters buy Survival for terrain by planet type and not specific planets.  I find this a reasonable solution in a game where characters can be expected to move around a lot.

On the other hand, the defaults they're talking about are (Skill -4) and the normal skill default is (Perception -5).  Unless someone bought an awful lot of Survival, you're really just talking about the difference of a -1 or -2 at the most.


----------



## Leif (Jan 30, 2011)

Ok, thanks for the correction.  How about if we say that Survival and similar skills will default at -4 to other planets of the same type as per the rules (because there are going to be new, different, and WEIRD plants and animals even on a different planet of the same type), but the -4 penalty can be 'worked off' as the character gains more familiarity with a specific planet. (Say at the rate of a reduction of 1 in the penalty for each week spent using the skill?) This will cause more bookkeeping, but it may be worth the extra time and effort?


----------



## Centisteed (Feb 1, 2011)

Unless I misread something, I guess we're still in the
first starport waiting to take off to the second starport
before doing the alien animal hunt.  I don't have anything
to add at this point, other than Gruffle is in engineering
awaiting launch & will then prepare when we arrive
at second starport.


----------



## Leif (Feb 1, 2011)

That's the way I read it as well, Centisteed.  I don't even necessarily think that everyone's aboard the _Zax_ yet.  Last I noticed, Kaira and Zoe (the bleedin' PILOT for cripes sake) was still out on the tarmac.   And who knows _where_ Spider and Jimmy have got off to!  Spider may be on his way to the ship now, but there's _NO_ tellin' where that sorry, sloppy drunk Jimmy will end up. 

Zoe, of course, is already aboard and doing her pre-flight checks like a responsible pilot. 

(You may have to go and bail him out of jail before you can leave.)

 I've been _NEENERED_!


----------



## Shayuri (Feb 1, 2011)

Zoe is on the ship. She followed the delivery of Kaira's survival gear up into the cargo hold...which it says she did in my post, by the way...where she met and spoke with Kaira herself.

So neener.


----------



## Insight (Feb 1, 2011)

Leif said:


> That's the way I read it as well, Centisteed.  I don't even necessarily think that everyone's aboard the _Zax_ yet.  Last I noticed, Kaira and Zoe (the bleedin' PILOT for cripes sake) were still jawin' out on the tarmac.   And who knows _where_ Spider and Jimmy have got off to!  Spider may be on his way to the ship now, but there's _NO_ tellin' where that sorry, sloppy drunk Jimmy will end up.
> 
> (You may have to go and bail him out of jail before you can leave.)




Kaira was inside the Zax changing clothes (she's definitely not doing it on the tarmac).  The way I read it was that she and Zoe were inside the ship and then in the cargo hold area.


----------



## Centisteed (Feb 2, 2011)

Hah. Well it sounds like we need a shout out from
our other PC buddies & then we can move forward.
Are there any rules for auto-NPC on temporarily
inactive PCs to keep the ball running?

Also, one of my Uncles died recently so I'll be out
of communication on Saturday for a funeral 
service.  I may be out on Sunday as well for 
the drive back, etc.


----------



## Leif (Feb 2, 2011)

Centisteed said:


> Hah. Well it sounds like we need a shout out from
> our other PC buddies & then we can move forward.
> Are there any rules for auto-NPC on temporarily
> inactive PCs to keep the ball running?



Nothing officially stated as such.  We've just been playing it by ear.


Centisteed said:


> Also, one of my Uncles died recently so I'll be out
> of communication on Saturday for a funeral
> service.  I may be out on Sunday as well for
> the drive back, etc.



Sorry to hear about the death in your family.  Take care of your folks.  We'll be here. 

Insight and Shayuri:
I stand corrected!


----------



## Leif (Feb 2, 2011)

*Lou*

For your stated price range, which was not carved in stone, you said, the best you can do is a TL10 4mm Gauss Pistol, which holds 40 shots and inflicts 8d+1 damage per shot.  Cost is $2620 for the weapon and $32 for ammo.

A laser carbine is actually cheaper at TL10, costing $1,475 for the weapon and $500 for the ammo.  It only inflicts 2d(2) damage per shot, though.

Then we get into the really fun plasma weapons!
The PGMP10 inflicts 6dX8 and costs $16,675 and $500 for ammo.
To quote the book about the PGMP, "PGMP and FGMPs fire bolts of high velocity, star-hot plasma (treat as crushing: no damage multiplier).  The splattering plasma also does one-quarter damage to everyone else within 2 yards of the target."  
Fun, fun, fun!

Guns use [pistol- TL], [rifle-TL], or [light auto - TL] skill. Lasers use [beam weapon (Laser or Fusion) -TL]

Hope this helps.


----------



## Shayuri (Feb 2, 2011)

A word to the wise on the PGMP's and similar: until higher TL (12 or so), these things are 'squad level' weapons, not rifles. They're about the size and weight and portability of a 50 caliber HMG or bazooka, and play a very similar role on the futuristic battleground.


----------



## Insight (Feb 2, 2011)

Kaira and her ST of 9 are very comfortable with the laser weapons and pistols, thanks


----------



## Centisteed (Feb 4, 2011)

Leif said:


> Nothing officially stated as such.  We've just been playing it by ear.
> 
> Sorry to hear about the death in your family.  Take care of your folks.  We'll be here.
> 
> ...




Thanks Leif. I thought PBPs were daily post
events. Playing it by ear is fine though.


----------



## Leif (Feb 5, 2011)

Centisteed said:


> Thanks Leif. I thought PBPs were daily post
> events. Playing it by ear is fine though.



Oh, as far as being NPC'd goes, my assumption, unless I'm told otherwise, is that the group is pretty much staying together.  So if you don't appear for a day or two and haven't left other instructions, your PC will be assumed to stay with the group and just be extra quiet.  Or, I guess sometimes we could just assume that unattended PCs remain on the _Zax_


----------



## Leif (Feb 10, 2011)

Kudos to all of my players!  This would seem to be the only active GURPS (of any form) game being actively played on ENWorld.  At least it is the only active game thread that is so tagged.

WE'RE BLEEDING UNIQUE DAMMIT!


----------



## Centisteed (Feb 26, 2011)

I'm back!  I didn't expect to be gone so long but
I got food poisoning last Friday & have been out
of it & recovering up until now.  It's one of the 
things I hate about traveling.


----------



## Leif (Mar 1, 2011)

FYI - The Croubek _was_ just going outside to take a leak until _some_ 'insightful' person shot him in the lesser spleen with a laser rifle!  But, oh, it's ON NOW!


----------



## Scotley (Mar 1, 2011)

Centisteed said:


> I'm back!  I didn't expect to be gone so long but
> I got food poisoning last Friday & have been out
> of it & recovering up until now.  It's one of the
> things I hate about traveling.




Yikes! Hope you are feeling better.


----------



## Insight (Mar 1, 2011)

Leif said:


> FYI - The Croubek _was_ just going outside to take a leak until _some_ 'insightful' person shot him in the lesser spleen with a laser rifle!  But, oh, it's ON NOW!




It looked Kaira right in the eye.  And not in THAT way...


----------



## Leif (Mar 2, 2011)

Insight said:


> It looked Kaira right in the eye.  And not in THAT way...



Since when is Kaira an expert on the amourous intentions of the rare horny Croubek?  Never mind, don't answer that.... please?


----------



## Scotley (Mar 2, 2011)

In a fit of jealousy Spider will blast away at the horny Croubek until it is quite dead!


----------



## Leif (Mar 3, 2011)

[MENTION=11520]Scotley[/MENTION] - 2 things:

1.  Shouldn't you last post in this thread be in the IC?

2.  I don't know how or why it happened, but your post of Spider in the RG has disappeared!  Are you trying to tell me something?   If you intend to stick around, I hope you have a copy of Spider's sheet saved somewhere.  Of course, you can always do a re-build if you want.


----------



## Scotley (Mar 4, 2011)

Leif said:


> [MENTION=11520]Scotley[/MENTION] - 2 things:
> 
> 1.  Shouldn't you last post in this thread be in the IC?
> 
> 2.  I don't know how or why it happened, but your post of Spider in the RG has disappeared!  Are you trying to tell me something?   If you intend to stick around, I hope you have a copy of Spider's sheet saved somewhere.  Of course, you can always do a re-build if you want.




Well, I was responding to information in this thread. I don't think there was any legitimate lust for Spider to be jealous of, so I was just making a humorous post and thought it best to keep it here. 

I have two different drafts of Spider. I don't guess I ever posted a finished version. I'll work on getting that up very soon. The only thing I'm telling you with that is that I've had trouble getting up to speed on GURPS Traveler.


----------



## Leif (Mar 4, 2011)

Scotley said:


> Well, I was responding to information in this thread. I don't think there was any legitimate lust for Spider to be jealous of, so I was just making a humorous post and thought it best to keep it here.



Gotcha!  Sorry for my confusion. I didn't bother to read the context before I made that post.


Scotley said:


> I have two different drafts of Spider. I don't guess I ever posted a finished version. I'll work on getting that up very soon.



Coolness.  No hurry, take your time.  But I guess that's what you've been doing, eh?  


Scotley said:


> The only thing I'm telling you with that is that I've had trouble getting up to speed on GURPS Traveler.



That's not any trouble at all, then.  Just hang in there.


----------



## Leif (Mar 6, 2011)

*CP Award*

Everybody is awarded 2 Character Points apiece for the whole Croubek Hunt dealy.


----------



## Centisteed (Mar 14, 2011)

Need to refresh my memory on the mechanics
of GURPS. If I don't roll a whole lot in-game, it's
because of this.  I'll slowly be getting back into
it soon. Perhaps write a few perl scripts to
simulate some GURPS combat, etc.

I put "To Hit" but perhaps it's some other name
for it.  I'll be reviewing it this week.

Best,
Centisteed


----------



## Leif (Mar 14, 2011)

Centisteed, a laser rifle does 5d of damage and has a rate of fire of 3.  It also halves any Damage Reduction that your target has due to armor or whatnot.  Plus, you still have two more shots coming, too, either at this same Croubek or a nearby one.


----------



## Shayuri (Mar 14, 2011)

Also, a special rule on autofire that applies to lasers. You actually add up the damage from all the hits -before- subtracting DR with lasers. Most of the time, you roll damage individually per hit, applying DR to each one separately. Lasers are special though.


----------



## Leif (Mar 14, 2011)

Are you sure that rule carried over to 4th Ed.?  Got a page number for me?  Isn't there also a special autofire rule about  successive shots taking an ever-increasing minus due to 'barrel-rise'?  (Guess this might not apply to lasers and other recoilless weapons, though, huh?)


----------



## Insight (Mar 14, 2011)

Leif said:


> Are you sure that rule carried over to 4th Ed.?  Got a page number for me?  Isn't there also a special autofire rule about  successive shots taking an ever-increasing minus due to 'barrel-rise'?  (Guess this might not apply to lasers and other recoilless weapons, though, huh?)




From my reading of the 4th ed rules, autofire just subtracts the recoil value from your attack roll and keeps going up to the rate of fire to see how many shots hit.  For lasers, you pretty much hit a LOT.


----------



## Insight (Mar 14, 2011)

Leif said:


> Everybody is awarded 2 Character Points apiece for the whole Croubek Hunt dealy.




Kaira suddenly got better at shooting her rifle and drinking.


----------



## Shayuri (Mar 14, 2011)

Hmm...you know, that might be a 3rd Edition thing after all.

Sorry. Been playing 3rd a LOT longer than 4rth, and they're so similar that I still get crossed wires at times. 

...

Now there's a concept. Android. Hmm!


----------



## Scotley (Mar 14, 2011)

Insight said:


> Kaira suddenly got better at shooting her rifle and drinking.




That extra drinking skill will make for a nice synergy with the points Spider will spend on seduction skill.


----------



## Leif (Mar 15, 2011)

Am I going to have to separate Kaira and Spider?  This is a family-friendly game, after alll ..... mmmaybe.....


----------



## Lou (Mar 15, 2011)

Family-friendly?  Isn't that how "families" get started in space--seduction of drunk women???


----------



## Leif (Mar 15, 2011)

Lou said:


> Family-friendly?  Isn't that how "families" get started in space--seduction of drunk women???



You may have a point!  Is Jimmy going to chat-up Zoe?   (He's certainly got the liquid courage for it.)


----------



## Lou (Mar 15, 2011)

Leif said:


> You may have a point!  Is Jimmy going to chat-up Zoe?   (He's certainly got the liquid courage for it.)




Hmmm, let me check his life insurance....


----------



## Leif (Mar 15, 2011)

Lou said:


> Hmmm, let me check his life insurance....



LOL A wise move, indeed!  Although I doubt if he's covered for such a hazardous activity.


----------



## Shayuri (Mar 15, 2011)

It's worth pointing out that Zoe is telekinetic too. This opens many avenues, the details of which I shall mercifully leave to the individual imagination.

Sadly, she has a policy about crew-members. It's a succinct policy that has served her well in the past.

"No!"

Oh, burn.


----------



## Leif (Mar 15, 2011)

We definitely appreciate your bountiful mercy


----------



## Leif (Mar 22, 2011)

Insight in IC said:
			
		

> Kaira looks over the silver and uncut gems that have been collected. "I know a fellow who can cut these gems. He owes me." She runs her gloved hand across the glittering, multi-colored stones. The look on her face suggests that Kaira is recalling some past event. She takes a moment and then says, "Yep. That bastard owes me big."
> 
> Kaira walks to a nearby window. "There was a time when a gentleman treated a lady in a certain way. Even if that lady was sent on a mission to kill him. It's called chivalry." She sighs. "Oh, well."
> 
> She turns back to the group. "I know some people who will pay a pretty good price for this collection. Let's get these stones cut and really make some cash on this hunt."



Don't forget, there _is_ a mission assigned by Zeering Conglomerate! Having gems cut, polished, and properly prepared will probably take several days......


----------



## Insight (Mar 22, 2011)

Leif said:


> Don't forget, there _is_ a mission assigned by Zeering Conglomerate! Having gems cut, polished, and properly prepared will probably take several days......




Maybe we can drop them off, do that mission, and return for the finished gems.


----------



## Leif (Mar 22, 2011)

Hmmmm, sounds like a plan for some IC discussion.....


----------



## Leif (Mar 28, 2011)

FOR HUMORING THE GM BY HUNTING CROUBEKS, ALL CHARACTERS ARE AWARDED 1 CHARACTER  POINT.  For excellent shooting and for sparing the baby Croubeks, all characters are awarded 2 additional character points.

So that's a total of THREE CPs for everyone.  (I do hope that at least a few of you are saving some of these CPs and allowing them to accumulate so you can afford something spectacular later on.  And don't forget that they can also be spent to improve dice rolls, too, if you really, really need to succeed on a check or blast that goomer right in his eyeball!


----------



## Insight (Mar 28, 2011)

Kaira has become more _perceptive_ and _observant_.  This is especially helpful in avoiding telekinetic gropes!


----------



## Leif (Mar 28, 2011)

Heh!  I know that will disappoint a certain arachnid I know....


----------



## Lou (Mar 29, 2011)

*Cargo*



Leif said:


> OOC: The _Zax_ has 11 tons of cargo hold available (less what Jimmy's stuff takes).
> 
> Currently, on Inthe there are 2 lots of cargo bound for Edenelt, which are:
> 1. 7 tons of legal files (This is the notice that Jimmy pulled off the bulletin board)(also, there is a bonus for delivering this lot expeditiously, and the bonus is proportionate to the expedience of the delivery)
> ...




Here is the cargo post from the IC thread.


----------



## Lou (Mar 29, 2011)

The passenger list was 2 High Passage and 6 middle passage available at the time. With 125% fee based on Kaira's charms and Jimmy's smooth.

See here for the rolls and here for the bonus.


----------



## Leif (Mar 29, 2011)

Thanks for that, Lou!  But if you're going to get the 125% premium, you'd better step on it!


----------



## Centisteed (Mar 29, 2011)

I noticed some heavy OOC conversation on
ship speeds & design.  Everybody's Traveller
can be setup/run in their own way.  What
are the basics?  From what I've read it always
takes a week to travel between systems, no
matter what.  It doesn't get any faster or 
slower based on cargo, etc.

Maybe that would just be on STL travel
speeds, but once you go into warp/jump it
wouldn't matter.  As for planet hopping from
one side to another,  I've read back in the 
90s when they were talking about planes 
that could get from one point to another 
anywhere on the planet within 2 hours,
all it takes is that you have to fly up into
space & then back down.  Though we can
see how that turned out (decommissioning
space shuttles!).

With planes as they are today, you can't 
put more weight than you can carry, so
there should be a max weight we can 
put on the space ship before take-off
otherwise, never we'd never get off the 
ground.  After being in space, I'm not
sure it really matters.  Just turn off 
gravity control in the cargo hold, strap it
all down?


----------



## Leif (Mar 30, 2011)

It takes one full week to make a jump, whether it's jump-1, jump-2, or jump-100

STL travel in-system can take a bit longer, maybe a few days.  We haven't been getting technical about any of it.  No calculators required, we just fake it.  That ok?  I hope so, because that's the way I plan to keep it.


----------



## Centisteed (Mar 30, 2011)

Leif said:


> It takes one full week to make a jump, whether it's jump-1, jump-2, or jump-100
> 
> STL travel in-system can take a bit longer, maybe a few days.  We haven't been getting technical about any of it.  No calculators required, we just fake it.  That ok?  I hope so, because that's the way I plan to keep it.




Leaving a system in STL does take longer, that's in
the original Traveller manuals I believe.  I've been reading 
Niven's Known Space series lately & the reason they have
to fly to the outskirts of a given star system is because 
the fusion motors used can fry a planet or other ships.
Think huge, gushing white/blue trails of flames that stretch
for hundreds (or millions?) of miles & they can be used as
terrorist weapons or warfare in the books.

Your game, your mechanics. I'm just adding my
thoughts to the space travel conversation & not really
saying one way is better than another, only bringing
up stuff I've read about.


----------



## Leif (Mar 30, 2011)

Cool, thanks!  We kinda need a Mr. Wizard in this thread.  Lou _used_ to be a scientist, but he's just a damn lawyer now, like me.

Inisght and Shayuri probably both know volumes more science than I do.


----------



## Insight (Mar 30, 2011)

Leif said:


> Cool, thanks!  We kinda need a Mr. Wizard in this thread.  Lou _used_ to be a scientist, but he's just a damn lawyer now, like me.
> 
> Inisght and Shayuri probably both know volumes more science than I do.




I dunno.  Even though I have a bachelor's in computer junk, I'm more of a writer and gamer than a hard scientist.  I know enough science to write and game and that's about it.


----------



## Centisteed (Mar 31, 2011)

Insight said:


> I dunno.  Even though I have a bachelor's in computer junk, I'm more of a writer and gamer than a hard scientist.  I know enough science to write and game and that's about it.




A good way to start is check out GURPS Space, it
gives a lot of options for space travel types that 
you can build from.  For instance, in Traveller, you
can't communicate in FTL, but in Niven's Known
Space it is allowed.  Niven's FTL can only have 
navigators that have psionics (latent or full) &
so AI can't be used for space travel (no psionics
in AI in his universe).  You can check out some
of Michio Kaku's shows on the Science Channel.
He covered how space battle would be in reality
(basically ships don't fly around like they do in
the sky, but can turn and move quickly by attitude
thrusters, but they have to be controlled so you
don't turn too fast & break your neck from 
centrifugal force (at least I think it's centrifugal
force)).

But in general, everybody has a different view
of Traveller.  It's more of a framework than a
canon. You build on top of it whatever you want
to add (states it a lot in the CT books).  Kind 
of like different people had different D&D 
campaign worlds (like Greyhawk or Dark Sun).
But instead of one world, or realm, you have
a galaxy (or universe).

But I digress..


----------



## Leif (Mar 31, 2011)

I do remember enough physics to recall learining that 'centrifugal force' is basically a fallacy.  Specifics, however, elude me as usual.


----------



## Lou (Mar 31, 2011)

Leif said:


> I do remember enough physics to recall learining that 'centrifugal force' is basically a fallacy. Specifics, however, elude me as usual.




Centrifugal force is wrong, because you can't push on a string.


----------



## Leif (Mar 31, 2011)

Lou said:


> Centrifugal force is wrong, because you can't push on a string.



Sure you can!  IF you first give it a generous coat of shellac!


----------



## Leif (Apr 3, 2011)

Speaking of Jump Drives (ahem!), you know, I don't recall ever reading anything specific in the rules about you being able to make a Jump-1, Jump-2, or Jump-3 with a Jump-4-rated jump drive.  Now, making you always jump 4 parsecs every time you engage the engine is just wasteful and silly, so I'm NOT going to do that.  But, still, I can't find in the rules where it specifically says that you can jump a shorter distance than the max rating of your engines.  Any help would be a blessing.


----------



## Shayuri (Apr 3, 2011)

Heee. A jump drive's rating is the -maximum- jump it can make. In fact, making shorter jumps even consumes less fuel. For example, if you jump 2 parsecs on a Jump 4 drive, you can actually jump another 2 parsecs before your fuel is exhausted. By default, each drive comes with enough fuel to jump its max rating once before refuelling.

Of course, extra fuel tonnage can be allocated, using the starship design rules...but it's fairly rare.


----------



## Leif (Apr 3, 2011)

Ok!  Makes perfect sense to me, in a totally fictional sort of way, I suppose.  Drive on then!  ("Jump" on?  )


----------



## Centisteed (Apr 4, 2011)

Leif said:


> I do remember enough physics to recall learining that 'centrifugal force' is basically a fallacy.  Specifics, however, elude me as usual.




That's simply the wrong choice for the word.
Simply put: if you turn too quickly in space,
it'll wrack your brain inside your skull &
kill you.  That's the point I was trying to
make with Michio's description of space
combat.


----------



## Centisteed (Apr 4, 2011)

As for my location for the intercom thing being
inside the ship, well think of airports.  People
gather to board in a section & a tube to get
into the ship.  At the docking station for a 
plane, for example, they have an intercom.

I figured when you said that people were waiting
to board the ship, they would be in a waiting
room, with seats ready to board.  Not standing
around outside.  Even if they were standing
outside, if you were addressing a crowd, you
could go out with a bullhorn & yell it out.

However, since bullhorns aren't used at airports
& we're talking about science fiction & the future,
I would figure there would be some sort of visual
intercom system at the docking station where 
people enter the ship & where crowd control, 
arrival into the ship can be done.  Seemed like
quite a few people getting on board after all.


----------



## Leif (Apr 4, 2011)

I wasn't exactly thinking JFK or anything, but I figured there would be at least a few of the "gates" in operation.  I didn't mean standing around outside and I surely didn't intend to say something like that or gave that impression.


----------



## Centisteed (Apr 5, 2011)

It's all about about the details, eh?


----------



## Leif (Apr 5, 2011)

Maybe not so much, at least for me it's more about the impressions and feelings inspired by the descriptions.  But, hey, details are good, too!   Whatever turns the crank on your own Jump Drive, I guess.


----------



## Centisteed (Apr 7, 2011)

Gonna be out for a few days. Have some minor surgery
coming up.


----------



## Lou (Apr 7, 2011)

Centisteed said:


> Gonna be out for a few days. Have some minor surgery
> coming up.




Good luck with that.  Our thoughts are with you.


----------



## Leif (Apr 7, 2011)

Yes, we wish you a painless procedure and a speedy recovery.


----------



## Centisteed (Apr 11, 2011)

Thanks guys.  My gall bladder has officially been removed.
Now I'm just waiting for that cut around the belly button
to heal up & I think I'll start feeling like my normal self
again!


----------



## Leif (Apr 11, 2011)

We're glad to hear that everything worked as planned!  Here's hoping your incision heals quickly!


----------



## Centisteed (Apr 18, 2011)

Hi Leif,

I just rolled for engineering. After I get some 
conversation from the others in the cockpit, 
I'll go back & resolve the engine issues.

Btw, have you ever though of doing a 
GURPS Traveller podcast?  I was looking
around on iTunes & some folks were
doing a live D&D podcast, thought it
was pretty funny.  I bet something like
that could be done with Skype & a 
conference call.  The dice rolls will
need their own mic. lol.  

The D&D podcast was called Critical Hit.
Seems very mechanical..haha. Entertaining
nonetheless.


----------



## Leif (Apr 18, 2011)

Centisteed said:


> Hi Leif,
> 
> I just rolled for engineering. After I get some
> conversation from the others in the cockpit,
> I'll go back & resolve the engine issues.



Conversation?  Is that a hint???  I'm assuming your rolls are attached to a post of your in the IC, with the ENWorld die-roller?  Found it!


Centisteed said:


> Btw, have you ever though of doing a
> GURPS Traveller podcast?



No, I'm sadly behind the times, tech-wise.  Pod-cast?  Does that involve peas?


----------



## Leif (Apr 18, 2011)

Centisteed:  8 is a pretty darned respectable roll!  Are you sure that's not good enough?  Remember, in GURPS, the LOWER the better.


----------



## Lou (Apr 18, 2011)

Centisteed said:


> Hi Leif,
> 
> I just rolled for engineering. After I get some
> conversation from the others in the cockpit,
> ...




I've seen gamers seeking gamers who play
on a Skype conference call using audio only.
It's like table-top play except you only hear
the other players. Rolls can be by DM only
or on IC or EnWorld.


----------



## Centisteed (Apr 18, 2011)

Leif said:


> Centisteed:  8 is a pretty darned respectable roll!  Are you sure that's not good enough?  Remember, in GURPS, the LOWER the better.




Oh yeah, it was a great roll.  However, when you
mentioned some sort of worf rat or minoc in the
engine, I thought you were joking, so I played
along & went & banged the engine.  I didn't think
you were serious about the engine problem claim.

As for Zoe's OOC mention of lower is better for
GURPS rolls, I do understand that much of the
game!  I've got the PDF version of GURPS Basic
& have read everything but the Magic/Psionics.
Basically I wrote before the dice roll, so I'll go
back & add in a new thread for engineering &
we'll take it from there.


----------



## Centisteed (Apr 19, 2011)

Lou said:


> I've seen gamers seeking gamers who play
> on a Skype conference call using audio only.
> It's like table-top play except you only hear
> the other players. Rolls can be by DM only
> or on IC or EnWorld.




Yeah I watched one of those for Rifts on a different
forum.  His requirement was 3-4 hours every Friday
evening.  They have software tools that you can 
get (some free, some not) so everyone can look at
a map, their figure for combat placement, etc. I 
think some of that Traveller stuff out there would
look really good put in these tools, but I digress.

I completed listening to Critical Hits #93 & it was
crazy!  For 2 hours they rolled dice & explained
actions for one encounter, I wasn't even sure what
the combat was about having not listened to the
previous.  For awhile, I thought this was a Yahtzee
podcast there was so much dice rolling going on.
LOL!  However, at the end of the podcast, they 
asked a question to some of the players on whether
it was normal for one encounter to take 2 hours
of combat rolling from previous editions of D&D.
The answer was pretty sad.  They said it was the
same!  I couldn't imagine spending two hours in
combat for one encounter.  I played D&D 1st ed
back when it was out, but I don't recall combat
taking that long.  This must have happened back
when 3.0 came out & they increased the crap out
of the combat.

I hear GURPS combat can do this too, but haven't
heard of anyone wanting to mess with it. haha. 
When I get around to buying Campaigns, I'll be
sure to read all about that (I did read a bit of it
back in GURPS 3rd back in the early 90s).


----------



## Centisteed (Apr 27, 2011)

*Status check*

So what's going on with the other players?  Haven't
seen anyone posting in quite some time, except for
the comedy relief post just now.  The joke posts are 
really destroying my suspension of disbelief, however.

I'd say the game is currently in a crashing & burning
state.  Where is the seriousness & the role playing
with far less skirt-chasing & comic relief (which to
me indicates boredom, lack of interest, or efforts
to muck up the story, etc).

Other than that, been looking at getting the GURPS
Campaigns & Mythic Game Emulator (hearing all
sorts of great stuff about that) & perhaps GURPS
Space or Interstellar Wars.  Love reading this stuff
& had to take a break from it due to all the events
that have happened to me lately, but now my time is
coming back for reading & getting up to date on all
the good reading out there.


----------



## Leif (Apr 27, 2011)

I disagree about the humor.  I think it's just tension-relief.  The story is not "mucked-up" in my humble opinion.  There has been some good role-play.  The other players just have lots of real-world commitments that they must deal with.  Sorry, but I hadn't noticed any crashing and/or burning.


----------



## Insight (Apr 27, 2011)

Centisteed said:


> So what's going on with the other players?  Haven't
> seen anyone posting in quite some time, except for
> the comedy relief post just now.  The joke posts are
> really destroying my suspension of disbelief, however.
> ...




Honestly, there hasn't been much for Kaira to do.  When I felt the need to react to something or have her actually _DO_ something, I did.  You can blame it on lack of interest or a direction to the game, but we only have so much on which to act.  I'm not blaming this on Leif, as he has other games going on as well and has stated many times that this is going to be a slower paced game.  I'm happy with the pacing, although I do wish we would eventually get to a place where we could do stuff.


----------



## Leif (Apr 27, 2011)

That will happen very soon, now that you are on Edenelt and ready to begin your assigned mission in earnest.   Your next immediate task is to make contact with Simulgrab Power Processors and begin to root out the problem(s) there for your Corporate Masters at Zeering Conglomerate.  Also, the lack of action so far is due to the nature of the game.  Its called 'Traveller' for a reason, I guess.  All of your time so far has been spent _travelling_ to the place where your work is to be done.


----------



## Shayuri (Apr 27, 2011)

Still pluggin' along.

Hoping things pick up now that we're 'on track' so to speak.


----------



## Scotley (Apr 27, 2011)

Sorry Centisteed, I'll take most of the blame. I've been overdoing the comic aspects of Spider a bit of late. I didn't mean to offend. I will put him to good use once we make planet fall and start on the mission proper. 

The GM and I are old friends and we tend to play off each others sense of humor when we get together. Not always to the benefit of the game we happen to be involved in. I assure you I am quite capable of playing a serious character as well. 

I've also been under a good bit of work stress of late which is no doubt bringing out my silly side when I do get a chance to take a break and post to the games. Consider me chastised.


----------



## Leif (Apr 28, 2011)

Shayuri said:


> Hoping things pick up now that we're 'on track' so to speak.



Yes, let's hope so.


----------



## Centisteed (Apr 29, 2011)

Scotley said:


> Sorry Centisteed, I'll take most of the blame. I've been overdoing the comic aspects of Spider a bit of late. I didn't mean to offend. I will put him to good use once we make planet fall and start on the mission proper.
> 
> The GM and I are old friends and we tend to play off each others sense of humor when we get together. Not always to the benefit of the game we happen to be involved in. I assure you I am quite capable of playing a serious character as well.
> 
> I've also been under a good bit of work stress of late which is no doubt bringing out my silly side when I do get a chance to take a break and post to the games. Consider me chastised.




No apology necessary. It's just that when reading
general Internet forums, they are awash in people 
making jokes. Everybody on the Internet is a comedian.
Then I go read our Traveller forum & the jokes 
continue & the game starts feeling like Spaceballs.
And it's not to say your joke wasn't funny. I thought
it was.

However, the "Spaceballs effect" has been one of the
biggest complaints I've read about Traveller that others
have ran into when running a game.  Basically the
suspension of disbelief gets blown away & after that
the game is over.  My advise would be to keep the game
as serious as possible to avoid the comedic pitfall.
Or reduce it, say a comic joke after every 10 of your
own posts, for example, to space it out.

It looks like everyone is getting back into the game
though, which is good to read.   These are all my
opinions & viewpoints to take with as you will.  I also
think Lief is doing just fine with his game.


----------



## Leif (Apr 29, 2011)

Centisteed said:


> It looks like everyone is getting back into the game though, which is good to read.   These are all my
> opinions & viewpoints to take with as you will.  I also
> think Leif is doing just fine with his game.



We are, finally, yay!!  And THANKS! 
Your opinions and observations are appreciated and given due deference, the same as all the other players.   [Oh, and I corrected your spelling of my name, too, hope you don't mind.  ]


----------



## Scotley (Apr 29, 2011)

The game does indeed seem to be picking up speed. 

I appreciate your comments. I'll do my best to keep the Spaceballs effect to a minimum and try to keep the jokes in character and within the range that won't destroy the illusion of reality.


----------



## Leif (Apr 30, 2011)

*Houskeeping*

It occurs to me that I've had some thoughts about your SOP as Zeering Conglomerate's Repair Crew that I have neglected t clue you in about.

1.  For fuel, repairs, small upgrades, berthing fees, and other ship expenses there is on board a Zeering Conglomerate "Ruby Card" that is stored in a special comparment just for that purpose on the bridge of the _Zax Hakjohn Quik_.  None of you has any idea about any 'credit  limit' on the card.  You just swipe the card when you have legitimate expenses, and, so far, that's always been the end of the matter.  [The bill presumably goes to Zeering's offices somewhere or other.]  The card itself is an Imperial Express card, and where the cardholder's name usually appears, is etched into the card the Zeering Conglomerate logo.  Within the etching of the logo are transcribed in micro script, readable by a standard card reader computer device, the names and ID data of each crewmember.  Note that using this card is a highly reliable method for Zeering Conglomerate to track your movements, and see if you are where you are supposed to be.  [Or at least if the _Zax_ is/was there.  There is still the little matter of the delay of several weeks between the time you swipe the card and the time Zeering actually receives the information, of course.  In theory, if Zeering was to go bankrupt suddenly, you could run up quite an extensive bill on the card before the news caught up with you.  It is very much _not_ recommended that you test this.]

2. There is also a card reader computer device on the bridge of the _Zax_ so you can use the card to pay for ship expenses via com link without removing the card from the ship at all.  In fact, your orders specify that the card is to remain on the bridge of the _Zax_ at all times.  The fact that your individual data appear on the card at first seems to be superflous if the card is to remain onboard the _Zax_ at all times, until you consider that it serves as a permanent link joining each of you to the _Zax_, in the unlikely [?] event that any of you should ever be detained off-ship.  It's a kind of redundant ship's manifest in that respect, and one that is not subject to casual tampering.

This whole concept is sort of a work in progress, so feel free to make suggestions regarding it, whether it's to express your disapproval/approval, or possible improvements to the SOP, or whatever.  I'm also not sure how compatible this idea is with "Traveller canon," so I'll accept criticism in that regard as well.


----------



## Leif (May 1, 2011)

The preceding post has been edited since it was originally posted, in case someone missed the changes/additions.


----------



## Leif (May 1, 2011)

We've only heard from Zoe and Spider since the last GM IC post, so I'll give Lou/Jimmy, Centisteed/Gruffle, and Insight/Kaira some additional time to make IC posts in order to chime in with observations, plans, questions, what have you, and I presently intend to make my next IC post either Monday night or sometime Tuesday, if we've heard from them all by then.  In the alternative, if as many of those three who don't post IC, do post here in the OOC and tell me that their characters are quiet because they have lockjaw, they're busy masturbating  (_this_ activity especially is not worthy of an IC post, I think), or whatever, I'll go ahead and make an IC post fairly reasonably soon after I become aware of that fact.

Just made more small additions to the Emerald Card post, too, @ just before 1600 cdt, 5/1/11.


----------



## Centisteed (May 2, 2011)

Sorry for the delay. I lost Internet from Friday afternoon
to Saturday afternoon, exactly 24 hours & now I feel
I'm coming down with a crappy head cold.


----------



## Leif (May 2, 2011)

No delay noticed here.  Keep up the good work and take care of yourself.  But, ah, you might want to see if you can get by without a map?  I guess I could cobble some crap together, but it would really serve no purpose beyond just looking preeeety.  And the kind of cobble-job we're looking at here would not be very pretty at all.


----------



## Insight (May 2, 2011)

I've got a busy day ahead of me, but if I have some time, I'll take a look at the IC and post something for Kaira.


----------



## Centisteed (May 4, 2011)

Leif said:


> No delay noticed here.  Keep up the good work and take care of yourself.  But, ah, you might want to see if you can get by without a map?  I guess I could cobble some crap together, but it would really serve no purpose beyond just looking preeeety.  And the kind of cobble-job we're looking at here would not be very pretty at all.




haha. I thought you'd _want_ to make a map, part
of the fun of dungeoning as the dungeon master.  
I believe there are some free software tools out
there that can build some maps.  I've been hankering
to play with some of them myself (starting with the
free/cheap ones)...


----------



## Leif (May 4, 2011)

Yeah, I do enjoy mapping when I have more free time.  Lately, though, time is one thing that of which I've had very little.  And, to further complicate matters, I've just met someone over this past weekend who is looking like an extremely promising romantic interest.


----------



## Scotley (May 4, 2011)

Ah spring is in the air and a young not so young man's fancy turns to love...


----------



## Leif (May 5, 2011)

Scotley said:


> Ah spring is in the air and a young* not so young man*'s fancy turns to love...




Kiss it Scotley!


----------



## Centisteed (May 6, 2011)

*Universe Sandbox*

Have you guys seen Universe Sandbox?  I think it just 
showed up on Steam recently. However, it appears to 
be a tool that you can use to design your own star 
systems, galaxies or whatever.  Could be useful for 
some of those aggressive die-hard Traveller GMs out
there.

I think I'd get seriously bored with blowing stuff up,
but what would be really cool, if it's possible, would be
to map out entire sections of Traveller "sector" space, 
do the orbits, the planets, star colors, distances, etc.
It would look like it was alive in the simulation. haha.


----------



## Leif (May 6, 2011)

Sounds pretty cool, CS!  Why don't you do that for all of the Spinward Marches Sector for me to use with this game?


----------



## Centisteed (May 6, 2011)

Leif said:


> Sounds pretty cool, CS!  Why don't you do that for all of the Spinward Marches Sector for me to use with this game?




I have a lot of other books/tools to buy first.
The amount of Traveller materials out there is
overwhelming.  It makes me wish I had paid
more attention to Traveller back in the 80s,
but at the time, I didn't know anyone that
played it in my area, nor have a copy of it!


----------



## Leif (May 7, 2011)

It's ok, man, I've got a good enough version of the Spinward Marches in GURPS Traveller "Behind The Claw."  No pretty color pictures, but it'll do for our purposes.


----------



## Centisteed (May 10, 2011)

You ever hear of the Dumarest of Terra Saga?
Apparently that's where a lot of the high passage/
low passage stuff.  The guy wrote 33 books for
the saga & it's about the guy, Dumarest, going
from one planet deep in the Milky Way galaxy
& traveling back to Earth. Each book is basically
Dumarest on a given planet or set of planets
traveling through.

That seems to be where the storyline seems to
depart from Traveller.  I've finished re-reading Book 0,
1, & 1/3rd the way through 2.  With Traveller
you don't necessarily spend so much detail on
one planet at a time (according to advice from
Book 0).  However, it could be a different way
of playing it, if one covers the movement from
one planet to the next.  Such a game would be
a lot slower to play, but it also gives more of that 
effect of STL communication from one planet to 
another.  Some worlds may not get a lot of updates
from more advanced worlds since the trade would 
be slower (not enough product to ship, can't build it
from the planet it's sent to (copyrights, resources,
etc), too heavy/large & so on).

These Dumarest books could be pretty cool.  The
first one, even used is pretty dam expensive though!
$10!  I would think a book like that should be < $1,
if it came from the late 60s.


----------



## Centisteed (May 31, 2011)

Sorry about the long delay. I was sick for a week
& then last week spent most of time catching up
on the previous week's work.


----------



## Leif (May 31, 2011)

Not a problem.  You probably noticed that you had missed very little action in this game.  I take primary responsibility for that, as I had not done a very good job with making posts that had any sense to them.  I think we're back on track now?


----------



## Scotley (Jun 1, 2011)

Looks like we are back on track to me.


----------



## Leif (Jun 1, 2011)

Yes, we are, and I have a PLAN and an ADVENTURE!


----------



## Leif (Jun 3, 2011)

Hey, All, time for some fair warning:  the current adventure is extremely light on starships, aliens, and weapons.  [Which is basically to say that those items are nonexistent.  Well, for the most part, anyway.]  If it fails to 'turn' one or more of your 'cranks,' don't hesitate to let me know -- I can spice it up in about 2 shakes, 'cause you know those assembly line types aren't wrapped too tight anyway -- any one of them could be packing heat on a given day and cut loose mid-shift!


----------



## Centisteed (Jun 3, 2011)

Leif said:


> Hey, All, time for some fair warning:  the current adventure is extremely light on starships, aliens, and weapons.  [Which is basically to say that those items are nonexistent.  Well, for the most part, anyway.]  If it fails to 'turn' one or more of your 'cranks,' don't hesitate to let me know -- I can spice it up in about 2 shakes, 'cause you know those assembly line types aren't wrapped too tight anyway -- any one of them could be packing heat on a given day and cut loose mid-shift!




It seems ok so far.  Reminds me of Modern setting with some
scifi elements added in.  There's different ways to play sci-fi. One
way is this way..taking a Modern setting & extrapolating the future
on top of it.  The other way is to take a Medieval or fantasy setting.
For instance, I just finished reading The Winds of Gath & that's the
first book of a saga that is a source of inspiration for Traveller.

In that series, the Traveler (hence where the RPG gets its name),
simply moves from one world to the next with whatever means
he has available to pay for the low passage fare,for instance.  Most people
can't afford space ships & only royalty & higher governing powers
can ride in high passage.  So far, it doesn't seem that the Dumarest
saga spends much time in space, just planet hopping for adventures
& the first planet was pretty interesting.  It spends a lot of time
pointing out the differences between the haves & the have nots
& that source of conflict is how the adventure takes off.

All of this can probably be fit into a Traveller game, if setup properly.
Though in a modern scifi setting, hearing about Kings might make
one laugh.


----------



## Centisteed (Jun 5, 2011)

Shouldn't the accounting roles be hidden roles?
Basically if we "fail" it simply means that for all
we can tell the books are clean.  And we'll need
to see about finding some other route to find
corruption.

I was thinking the next plan might be to ask the
Lab Head if he'd like to go out for a drink with us
to celebrate the stellar audit report, drug him, then
search his home for damning evidence to the
contrary.  What does everyone thing of that?


----------



## Lou (Jun 5, 2011)

I like it.


----------



## Centisteed (Jun 5, 2011)

Lou said:


> I like it.




  Let's get the buy-in from the rest of the team
& then try it out.


----------



## Scotley (Jun 5, 2011)

Let start with what we can find with the audit, then if we get nowhere; we'll resort to kidnapping and B&E.


----------



## Centisteed (Jun 6, 2011)

Scotley said:


> Let start with what we can find with the audit, then if we get nowhere; we'll resort to kidnapping and B&E.




Jimmy & msyelf already failed it.  Jimmy
has an accounting skill & my math wizardry
skills couldn't figure it out either.  Let's face
it, this guy looks pretty clean so far.  So we
may need to perform a simple con job to
get to the truth.


----------



## Leif (Jun 7, 2011)

I don't remember telling you that you could find no irregularities from inspecting the accounting.  No, in fact, I'm quite sure that I did no such thing!  Kidnapping, use of a date rape drug and B&E are NOT methods of which your superiors at ZEERING CONGLOMERATE would approve, of that you are quite sure.  I have not yet checked the IC thread today and I see that there are new posts there, so I can only assume that there were some rolls made and that said rolls stunk up the place.  However, there has been no GM ajudication yet, so you don't really know the results of your investigation.  Patience, Padawan, patience.


----------



## Shayuri (Jun 7, 2011)

Blargh...sorry I've been so quiet lately. Zoe hasn't got anything to add to this at the moment. I get the feeling she might break off and go exploring...is there some kind of directory or map with a 'you are here' feature?


----------



## Leif (Jun 7, 2011)

Yeah, well, no, probably not, actually, but in the interest of increased player involvement and vastly increased GM headaches with keeping track of a separated party (ahem!), sure why not?  Bear with it a bit longer and bidness is due to pick up any time now.  But, then, you've heard that before in this game, haven't you? *sigh*  Sure.  Do what you want.  I was due for another sanity roll, anyway.

Speaking of Sanity Rolls, today I received my order of the Fantasy Flight Games'  boardgame, Call of Cthulhu:  Arkham Horror!   I'm excited!


----------



## Shayuri (Jun 7, 2011)

lol...okay, nevermind then. Just PM me or something when we get to the part where I should pay attention again.


----------



## Leif (Jun 8, 2011)

Guess this doesn't  quite count as a PM, so I'll have to type this again momentarily, but we're pretty much there, right now!  Jimmy is on the verge of bustin' this one open.


----------



## Lou (Jun 16, 2011)

It's been a week....  Ready to move things along?


----------



## Insight (Jun 20, 2011)

I am out for the rest of this week for Origins.  I'll try to post something today.


----------



## Leif (Jun 22, 2011)

Have a blast at Origins, Insight!


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## Insight (Jun 27, 2011)

I'm back from Origins.  I hope we can somehow keep this game going.


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## Leif (Jun 27, 2011)

I'm doing everything in my power to keep it going, Insight, but thanks for your vote of confidence.  What I have planned here is more low-impact investigation and mystery solving.  After that maybe we can have an interlude of more SpaceOpera-ish action, if such is desired.  And, eventually, I have broader and stranger schemes in mind.


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## Scotley (Jun 30, 2011)

Sorry, I've been a poor player of late, but things should be back to normal for me now.


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## Leif (Jul 1, 2011)

Like we said, you really haven't missed a thing.


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## Leif (Jul 1, 2011)

[sblock=Scotley]Hey, man, sorry I haven't gotten around to this yet (sheesh) but I really have been meaning to help you stat up a sheet for Spider.
[/sblock]


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## Scotley (Jul 4, 2011)

[sblock=Leif]Having proven grossly incompetent in doing it myself I must rely upon your assistance.[/sblock]


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## Leif (Jul 4, 2011)

*Spider's Sheet*

[sblock=Scotley]
Sadly, I didn't get to it today, either.  Hopefully, I can squeeze out some time to help get Spider up to snuff tomorrow.  Again, man, I'm really sorry that it took me so long to get around to offering to help.  It just never really occurred to me that you might be in need.  But we'll get him all straightened out, never you fear!
Oi!  Nor today, either!  Soon, my friend, soon!  b/t/w, FP=Fatgue Points, and you should be able to understad all of the other abbreviations in the partial character sheet I'm starting tonight.


Spider, Zhodani
210 CP Build

ST    HP
DX   Will
IQ    Per
HT   FP

[/sblock]


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## Shayuri (Jul 30, 2011)

It's with a heavy heart that I say this, but I'm going to leave this game. I feel like I'm just holding things back right now; that I'm very much part of a problem, not a solution.

Thanks to Leif for being so patient with me, and to everyone else for coming up with the great characters you have, and giving it your time and energy. The game deserves no less than that from me if I am part of it...and since it seems I can't give it that, then the only respectful choice is to not be part of it.

I hope the game continues to be rewarding and fun for everyone.

Thanks again, to everyone.


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## Leif (Jul 30, 2011)

You are very much missed already, Shay!  Do the rest wish to continue?  Shayuri, do you mind if we keep Zoe as our npc pilot?  Or does someone have another solution?  Is everyone cool with four pcs (Cenitsteed/Gruffle, Scotley/Spider, Insight/Kaira, and Lou/Jimmy) and 2 npcs? (First Doc Hannigan and now Zoe Danni.)  Anyone think we should recruit another player?


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## Leif (Jul 30, 2011)

Shayuri said:
			
		

> I feel like I'm just holding things back right now; that I'm very much part of a problem, not a solution.




For what it's worth, Shayuri, you were not a part of the problem.  On the contrary, you played excellently.


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## Leif (Jul 31, 2011)

[MENTION=11520]Scotley[/MENTION], [MENTION=51567]Lou[/MENTION], [MENTION=11437]Insight[/MENTION], and [MENTION=6668296]Centisteed[/MENTION], are you guys still all with me?  Zoe will be leaving the group and returning to the _Zax_, ostensibly to handle some urgent "maintenance matters," or some such, she's pretty vague about it.  The way I see it, you have a few options at this point:

1.  Continue the current mission, and ultimately pursue Douval Rief, Gagnor Simes, and Bourachang Hoffmann.
2.  Contact Zeering and tell them, "Everything looks good here to us!" and then go on your merry way.
3.  Talk to Welest Turang and see if he can make you a better offer.
4.  "Go Rogue" totally and bug out for the Sword Worlds to live the brief but brilliantly blazing life of a freebooting buccaneer.


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## Leif (Aug 1, 2011)

I'm now giving serious thought to starting one or possibly more GURPS Traveller games over here:  SJG Forums, see post #2 in that thread.  My handle there is pup67vargr, but my Avatar is still the familiar Gnome, for now at least.


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## Insight (Aug 1, 2011)

Leif said:


> I'm now giving serious thought to starting one or possibly more GURPS Traveller games over here:  SJG Forums, see post #2 in that thread.  My handle there is pup67vargr, but my Avatar is still the familiar Gnome, for now at least.




I barely have time to maintain what I've got going on EN World.  I cannot make any promises to have any time to visit other RPG sites to continue this game.  That's just the way it is.


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## Scotley (Aug 1, 2011)

I'm still here if grossly overworked. I'll keep going as long as you'll have me, but if the consensus is let this one go I can certainly use the time to post to my other games.


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## Leif (Aug 1, 2011)

I have no urgent plans to end this game.  But if there is a general feeling of malaise/apathy, then we could fold this one once and for all.  I certainly don't want to flog a dead horse by contnuing after everyone's interest is long gone.  But, having said that, if there are still just one or two of you with some interest, I'm perfectly happy to keep a game going, even if the players wish it to be a _different_ game, because I can always fall back on published Traveller adventures, of which I have quite a stack now.

FYI, the SJG Forums use VBulletin as well, so things work there just about like they do here.  Not quite totally exact, but close enough.  But, still, I have no plans to move this game over there.  If there is still interest in a GURPS Traveller endeavor here, that is....


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## Insight (Aug 1, 2011)

Leif said:


> I have no urgent plans to end this game.  But if there is a general feeling of malaise/apathy, then we could fold this one once and for all.  I certainly don't want to flog a dead horse by contnuing after everyone's interest is long gone.  But, having said that, if there are still just one or two of you with some interest, I'm perfectly happy to keep a game going, even if the players wish it to be a _different_ game, because I can always fall back on published Traveller adventures, of which I have quite a stack now.
> 
> FYI, the SJG Forums use VBulletin as well, so things work there just about like they do here.  Not quite totally exact, but close enough.  But, still, I have no plans to move this game over there.  If there is still interest in a GURPS Traveller endeavor here, that is....




I appreciate your efforts, Leif, over the past 6 months or so that we have been trying to keep this game moving forward.  I just get the sense that it is moving forward, when it has been moving forward, in a very sluggish and begrudging way.

That said, there are some good players (and DM/GM) in this game and I can't help but imagine that something good could be made from it.  

For my part, I am not one of those players / DMs who gets into a 100 games and can't handle the load.  In fact, I'm quite picky about the games I join.  I joined this game because I like GURPS and I wanted to see how it would work in a PBP.  I haven't ever played Traveller, so I have no particular interest / loyalty from that point of view.

I would be happy to continue with this game, in some form, but I am having a hard time with the current design.  I feel kinda lost and underwhelmed with the task at hand.  Maybe it's the Travelller-ness that's putting me off.  Maybe I just like more action in my games.  I dunno.

I hope we can make something work, whatever it is.


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## Leif (Aug 1, 2011)

Insight said:


> I appreciate your efforts, Leif, over the past 6 months or so that we have been trying to keep this game moving forward.  I just get the sense that it is moving forward, when it has been moving forward, in a very sluggish and begrudging way.
> 
> That said, there are some good players (and DM/GM) in this game and I can't help but imagine that something good could be made from it.
> 
> ...



I totally agree with your assessment of the game's progress, or lack thereof.  I also want to make something work.  But I'm just as determined NOT to waste our time here more than I already have!  Traveller has always been very fascinating for me, but, somehow, the games just don't seem to deliver.  Never have for me.  

More action is a good thought, though.  What we might try is:
1. PCs are crewmen aboard a big ship who go on various missions, like Star Trek, but different.
2. PCs are part of an elite planetary combat unit, who go various places to blow stuff up.
3. PCs are small fighter pilots on a capital ship, a la Star Wars.
4. Something else entirely -- I'm open to suggestions.


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## Lou (Aug 2, 2011)

Traveler, like Boot Hill, always seemed like a great vehicle for role playing, but it never seems to work out in practice.  The genres must not be as compelling to us as players as fantasy.

I vote for Leif's #1.


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## Insight (Aug 2, 2011)

I like all of Leif's suggestions, even the "other"


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## Leif (Aug 2, 2011)

Lou said:


> Traveler, like Boot Hill, always seemed like a great vehicle for role playing, but it never seems to work out in practice.  The genres must not be as compelling to us as players as fantasy.
> 
> I vote for Leif's #1.



Yes, much like Boot Hill, I'm afraid.  And speaking of.... I've just recently won an auction for GURPS Wild West rpg, whatever it's called.  So you may be seeing more of that sort of thing in the coming weeks/months! 

And it was not lost on me that you chose the option that is by far the most demanding on the GM's resources of time, inspiration, and sanity!  Thanks a lot, Bro!


Insight said:


> I like all of Leif's suggestions, even the "other"



Now, about that 'other' --  We are still progressing, SLOWLY mind you, with the current story in this game.  There is still much to be done here, if you wish to do it.  I'm guessing/hoping you're about to page Welest Turang, and see what light he can shed on the situation....  We're not out of strings to pull on this one yet, not by a lonnng shot.


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## Lou (Aug 2, 2011)

Leif said:


> And it was not lost on me that you chose the option that is by far the most demanding on the GM's resources of time, inspiration, and sanity!  Thanks a lot, Bro!




I actually chose the option that was most like what the game was now.   And it was #1 on your list, so I thought it was what you wanted.


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## Leif (Aug 2, 2011)

Lou said:


> I actually chose the option that was most like what the game was now.   And it was #1 on your list, so I thought it was what you wanted.



For the record, the order of potential options had nothing to do with my preferences.  But doing that might be fun.  Actually, if you really want to know what I want to do, ahem, I'd rather continue with what we're doing now for awhile longer.  The bad part is that you're just about to get out ahead of me again, so I'll have to either do some speed-designing or write as I go.


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## Scotley (Aug 6, 2011)

I'm good with finishing up the current thread. I'm leaving early in the morning for the beach and I expect to have only access on my phone which is a little limited for posting. I'll be back in business Friday evening. NPC spider as needed. I will get a post up today/tonight.


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## Leif (Aug 6, 2011)

Then what say we continue on with this story line for now.  If we complete it, or if it continues to bog down relentlessly, someone call "TIME!" and we'll re-evaluate then.  Sound like a plan?


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## Leif (Aug 9, 2011)

In the meantime, I have started a second GURPS Traveller game in the much more GURPS-friendly environment of Steve Jackson Games Forums - Powered by vBulletin, and I have a full crew roster for our Terran Hero Class merchant ship in an Interstellar Wars game.


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## Leif (Aug 16, 2011)

Scotley in IC post 547-- said:
			
		

> Spider knocks back the shot and waits until he catches his breath before speaking. "Thank you for coming so promptly. As I expect you know we are here at the behest of the Zeering home office to look into some irregularities in books here. Frankly we've found a mess. We believe the heart of the problem is the corruption in the current political structure here on Edenelt. As the former ruling power here we hoped you could tell us something of what has happened."



Scotley, Dude, you just ROCK!  We gotta send you on vacation more often! 
If I could give you ten or twenty more xp yet, they'd ALL be yours!


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## Insight (Sep 19, 2011)

Leif & Co,

I just haven't been all that into this game for a while.  As much as I have tried, I just feel like I am either not interested in what we are doing or I don't have enough time to commit to making this work.  In any event, I need to drop some of my games on here.

Good luck to those who continue,

Insight


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## Leif (Sep 20, 2011)

Insight said:


> Leif & Co,
> 
> I just haven't been all that into this game for a while.  As much as I have tried, I just feel like I am either not interested in what we are doing or I don't have enough time to commit to making this work.  In any event, I need to drop some of my games on here.
> 
> ...



*sigh*  Yeah, I've been expecting this for awile now.  So long, Insight.


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## Leif (Sep 23, 2011)

Alas, alack, and dagnabbit!  Due to player desertion, I'm the only one left who cares about this game.   Since I can't very well play with myself (hey watch it!) I guess that spells the end of this particular ENWorld GURPS Traveller experiment.  It's been going on for quite awhile, come to think of it, so I'm not sure quite why I feel like such a failure.  Oh, well, I'll live to game another day, and even GM/DM another day, too. 

At least this game saw the christening of a brand new GURPS Traveller thread banner on ENWorld, And it lasted for over a year, too!  IC was 8/12/2010 - 9/17/2011, and OOC was from 7/20/2010 - 8/15/2011.


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## Shayuri (Sep 23, 2011)

Don't feel bad, man. Most games never last past their first year, regardless...and Traveller is hard to run. It really, really is. That, plus getting folks on a system like GURPS which is kind of an egghead system (even if I love it, I have to be honest), I think you did well.

You just picked a very challenging goal for yourself. 

I hope the game on SJackson's forums goes well!


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## Leif (Sep 23, 2011)

Thanks, man, that helps.   I always thought I had some defect because I found it hard to run Traveller games.  This game had a severe case of schizophrenia from the absolute get-go.  I couldn't decide whether I wanted to run a trading game, a war game, or a spy/investigator game.  And changing my mind between these every couple of months didn't help matters any at all, either.  I find myself also wanting to experiment with other forms of GURPS, too, but I'd prefer to do it as a player at first.  The GURPS Boards have lighter traffic than ENWorld, so it's not as easy to find a suitable new game starting up over there.  (Plus, I wasn't chosen for the one game that I went all-out to join.   - it was a Supers game, more's the pity!) 

The game I'm running there is so far strictly a trading game, using GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars and set in the Solomani Rim.  In fact, so far, the PCs have not even left the Terran subsector.  I've got them in a 200 dTon Hero class private merchant.  I'm taking a more gradual approach to this game - letting them trade and just do their thing for a good length of time before I pull the rug out from under them with my weird crap.  And I may not ever do that.   I'm having a surprising amount of fun just doing the trading thing and they'll probably find lots of stuff to do that's a surprise to me, too.


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