Thread 96406421

Is this a good RPG for a beginner GM?

>>96406421 (OP)
Yeah, I'd say so. Easy to adjudicate moment-to-moment challenges, default setting is basically any time period you want it to be because you can swap planet if you want to mix it up, rules for everything that is fiddly and setting-specific but you don't have to look up the tables if you don't want to. I'd recommend it.

I'd love to see someone advocate for Cepheus or Classic over MG2e Traveller though, because I am a tiny babby who only played MG2e.

>>96406421 (OP)
Traveller is a great game that comes in many versions. The genius of Traveller is the use of Universal profiles for things. For the most part (with 2 exceptions Gurps and T20) things can be ported over from one version to another with very little work for the referee. For a starting GM it is a good system. I prefer MG1e over 2e but that's just preference not any real problems with 2e. I've been playing this game from it's early years. I literally had to wait months for the expansion releases. My advice to you is this. Follow the KISS principal (Keep It Simple Simon) when you start out. World building can be great and rewarding but it can also be time consuming and a drag if your players want to move on. It's better to start with published material and the good news there is there's allot of it. Good luck with your game.

>>96406421 (OP)
Yes.
I would recommend you watch Seth Skorkowski's videos covering the core book as that will help you out a lot with the system.

>>96406421 (OP)
Nope. Check out Stars Without Number instead. It's a much more beginner friendly version of the same basic concept.

>>96407498
SWN adds HP bloat where it really didn't need to be.

>>96407512
Not everybody wants to die in one hit.

How does Traveller compare to SWN in the grand scheme of things? I hear Traveller is extra crunchy and you can die in CharGen

>>96407535
I would like it if Mr Big Man died in a similar number of hits as everyone else rather than being able to stand there for a solid 30 seconds longer than everyone else while I blast him directly in the center mass with a rifle over and over and over again.

>>96407566
>you can die in CharGen
That's in older editions. It was brought back in Mongoose 2E as an optional rule in the Traveller Companion book which contains a bunch of other optional rules.
Only book you'll need is the Core rule book though having a copy of Highguard and the Central Supply Catalog will also be helpful as the former gets you a whole lot of extra ships, ship weapons/modules, ship construction rules, and fleet battle rules while the latter is a comprehensive list of every item the PCs can either buy or come across in their adventures.
For starting the game, if you're running a trading campaign, I'd recommend starting your PCs at the end of a pipe system. IE a system that sits at the end of a chain of worlds that have only one or two other worlds in jump range of it. Like Labora (2501) in the Spinward Marches or Pihka (1633) in Deneb. That will give you a head start when planning ahead since there is only one way the PCs can go. This is assuming you start them off with only a Jump-1 ship though.
>>96407535
Not every game is D&D anon.

>>96407760
I guess my big hang up is I'm not really sure how to run space operas/campaigns. How much of a focus do people put on individual planets?

>>96407760
>This is assuming you start them off with only a Jump-1 ship though.

What's a good starter ship?

have love hate relationship with the system, like it's THE sci-fi rpg, but at the same time sucks balls massively. all I want is the cleaned up, updated Classic, consolidated into a single handbook, with the just right amount of crunch, but extensive setting presentation

>>96407849
You've got the classics:
The Beowulf class Type A Free Trader and the Suleiman Class Type S Scout (Pic related) or Type J Seeker Mining ship.
Note: The Mining seeker has a different deckplan/stats than the Scout but they both use the same hull. However, it's more optimized for cargo carrying.
Keep in mind that your PCs will have a ship mortgage and will have to pay it monthly on top of the ship's upkeep costs to keep it flying. Else they'll have the space repo-men sent after them. So be mindful of that when picking out a ship to give them. Typically an old beater of a starship will work.

>>96407498
>>96407882

>>96407830
Either treat planets as islands in an archipelago,
Or treat planets as bags of islands in an archipelago
Up to you how much you want to get into it, generally expect your players to not be terribly interested in a region beyond what it can provide for them.
It's a good idea to give locations: a border, a population centre, and wilds,
And a quirk, a character, and a resource,
and to combine, mix up and or spread these out to make a place feel bigger

As an example,
World has:
-Quirk: Degraded
-Character: Contact from a character's background, associated with local resources
-Resources: Abandoned mines dotting the surface, source of salvage, possible mineral wealth

Party arrives in system, docks at highport, it's characterized by its rundown, destitute, and corrupt nature, corrupt officials and desperate people struggle to maintain the technology of the station
Party takes a shuttle down to the Startown, meets with a PC's old friend the Contact from above, they wax nostalgic and the contact tips them off about the abandoned mines in the countryside

>>96407830
>>96408071
>Cont.

A border is usually the first place that players arrive in a new region, sometimes it can be snuck past or bypassed, how a region manages its border should say a lot about their intents and means

A town is anywhere where people are, usually goods, human resources, equipment, and services can be exchanged here, expect a law or etiquette of some sort to be maintained here

Wilds are opposite of towns, one will have to help themselves if they need things done or resources procured here, the opposition here is usually the environment itself, sometimes other travellers or the long tendrils of law


A character should be someone whose face can be attached to a location, it might be an organization, a contact, a favourite store or company, an enemy or rival to avoid etc, Whoever this character is, their goals lead them to actively want to interact with the party, or the party's goals make them want to actively interact with the character

A resource is a good or service that players want, or a place that players can plunder -a reason to visit the place.
This could be a physical good like precious metals, salvage or plunder from old installations or mines, time on a shipyard to perform maintenance or upgrades, or something less tangible: like information, or jobs from a contact,

A quirk should tie the place together, the Locations, the Character(s) the resource(s), its details should be brought up frequently, think of the simple 5 senses, especially smells and feelings, and how they compare and contrast (A clean luxury apartment with a shiny service droid means a lot in a world where folks are working to death in a stuffy decaying space station and the oily streets below are congested with detritus and hollow men)

>>96406421 (OP)
Yes and no. It actually depends on how autistic and obsessive you are.
It's an endless rabbit hole if you want to be perfect. Its lore content stretches back like 40 years, and the rules for pretty much everything that can possibly happen are adjudicated somewhere.
If you genuinely care about doing things canon and following all of the rules, you pretty much have an endless amount of work to do. Even just learning to memorize the UWPs is going to be a lot more homework than a lot of games ask.
However, if you can recognize that you don't actually need to engage with anything you don't want to engage with, then it is a good beginner game because the most basic rules are not that hard. Roll 2d6+whatever modifier, generally you just need an 8. It can actually be a little too basic in that regard. Everything else, the UWPs, the shipbuilding componenets, calculating mortgage payments, frankly, everything else can be optional.
I recommend starting slow and only really reaching for rules that you need.
As for the setting, I was in a different thread recently where people were complaining about it being generic, or illogical. It's generic when compared to what, I don't know. A hypothetical generic science fiction from the 80s that didn't last into the modern age, which ironically makes it not generic at all anymore because its one of the only surviving examples. And as for logic, there's a lot of people who are too eager to just assume wrong shit about the setting based on a conclusion they jumped to after reading core. It's a very autistic setting, and everything has an autistic explanation. There's even pages upon pages upon pages of lore, explanation, and special equipment for the uplifted dolphins.
It's not generic, and it's very well explained. Almost too well explained.

>>96407566
>Traveller is extra crunchy
Not really. There are a lot of editions and bits and pieces that add extra rules to cover all sorts of things. Especially if you count all the fan stuff. But it's mostly simple.
>you can die in CharGen
Yes, and that's a good thing. It makes it clear that player characters can die, and that it won't end the game. Plus it's designed as a push-your-luck minigame that can net you better skills for risking another term. And you can exploit this by pushing your luck too hard when you roll bad stats to kill them off and start again.
Generation doesn't take long and is an antidote to anyone getting attached to a character concept before they even start playing.

>>96407498
>>96407566
I've played / run both and Traveller has much cooler character generation. SWN has better faction rules. Traveller also has better economy rules IMHO. I like both games but Traveller is just my clear favorite. It was also the first TTRPG I ever played, at age 8.

Traveller is less complex and easier to learn than D&D 5e. It's a different beast with it's own combat rules, movement, skill checks etc. so you're learning it from scratch but it's not that hard. Add to that, the book is better laid out than WOTC books and there are incredible how-to vids on youtube to the point you could almost play without the book.
SWN is D&D reskinned for scifi and in some ways it's like trying to use a hatchback as a farm tractor. It's a good adaptation but it's still not as smooth for scfi play as I would like and it carries all of the standard flaws of D&D that so many complain about.
I personally run a lot of Traveller but I use a lot of resources to keep my game fresh. One of those is the SWN book, using the random tables and some of the meta world building materials.
One of the best things about the 2d6 mechanics of Traveller is that it's the easiest system to convert to or homebrew for once you get a feel for the game. I regularly use ideas and even full adventures from other systems. It's the best system to homebrew on the fly I have ever used. I use Hostile/Cepheus Engine for the game I'm currently running but I bring in stuff from older Traveller and Mongoose Traveller without doing conversion at all.
If we are talking about other systems for running scifi games, take a look at the old WEG D6 Star Wars game as well. There's a reason why it's the best fan supported TTRPG in the world. WEG lost the license decades ago and yet it's all been preserved, made available, and new fan made material is getting released all the time. You can get all here: http://d6holocron.com/downloads/

>>96406421 (OP)
Your first game as a GM should be in the system and setting you have the most experience with. If you have no experience as a player, you shouldn't GM. Those groups that spring out of nowhere should not exist.

>>96411893
This is shit advice. If people only ran games they had experience with as players, no one would play anything but D&D.

I just wish there was something that made ship creation simpler.

>>96412834
https://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/threads/google-sheets-worksheets.123753/
This guy made a bunch of spreadsheets that make ship construction a breeze
(For mongoose 2e 2022 edition)

>>96412834
Here's one for Classic Traveller: https://travellertools.thelastredoubt.com/traveller-tools-site-hub/classic-traveller-ship-builder/

>>96412729
The fuck are you talking about? The first game I was ever offered to play was WEG Star Wars. Lots of people are playing lots of other games.
I suppose there's a caveat here that if you're the literal author of a game then you can run it without having played it, but I didn't think I needed to include that nuance on an Andorian Holonovella website.

>>96416934
Nearly every game proliferates because some people have the daring to be GMs. The fact is that in the 80s, many of us chose to try RPGs for the very first time every by being GMs because there wasn't a local game to be a player at to try. I have GMed several game systems I have never been a player in or those games would never have been played by anyone I know.
It's still terrible advice to say not to try running a game just because you've never played it.
>Those groups that spring out of nowhere should not exist.
If we held to this, TTRPGs would still just be a niche hobby played by people in northern midwest.
So yeah >>96411893 is completely full of shit and should not be listen to.

The character creation process in this game sounds so cool that it makes me wonder why I haven't heard of more games that use something similar. I've been considering including similar mechanics in the wonky fantasy game I'm trying to make.

>>96417224
Traveller PC creation is absolutely inspired. As a player and a GM, I find it adds a lot to the quality of game play over all. The reason that a lot of games don't emulate it is that the profession/skills charts are a lot of work to make. ...a lot of work.

>>96417224
Because you can't make the character you WANT. Instead you are subject to randomization.

What's everyone's opinion on the alternate character creation rule, the "boon dice method" in the Companion? You know, two characteristics get 3d6 drop the lowest, instead of 2d6?

>>96406421 (OP)
I'd say so. You can go into as much depth as you want, but the core rules are quite accessible. The core mechanic is perfect and is easily adjustable to most situations so there isn't that much mystery to it. You can easily start with the more basic mechanics and later expand to vehicular and spaceship combat without much issue. I like just about everything the system has to offer, I only have some small gripes with some item pricing from the catalogue and how awkward it sometimes feels to manage your money when going from buying exorbitantly expensive spaceship shit to more mundane individual equipment. I really feel like the game would benefit from something akin to a profit factor system a la Rogue Trader. Not sure if there's something like that in one of the books.

>>96417726
You somewhat can but there is always a risk. If you have a decent survival roll for the career you want (and you should), you have very good chances of ending up with the character somewhere along the lines of what you envisioned. You'll just want to have a Plan B and Plan C.

>>96407535
Then why are you recommending something built on the D&D chassis then? SWN, like everything using a hit die system, is rocket tag at low levels and impossible to die at higher levels.
>>96406421 (OP)
If you're trying to run something living under the illusion of hard scifi, then it's great. The only supernatural aspect it has is psionics which (while strong) aren't setting defining. Think Babylon 5, Dune, and even 90s-era Star Trek.
If you want something more like Star Wars or Warham, but don't specifically want to run a Star Wars or Warham system, then Savage Worlds may be a bit more your speed.

>>96424936
>SWN, like everything using a hit die system, is rocket tag at low levels and impossible to die at higher levels.

10d6 at max level is average of 35, so that's 7 hits with a laser rifle (1d10). Not impossible to die, but definitely strong.

>>96425093
So at higher levels you can take on Heavy Weapons and vehicles. I don't see the problem.

>>96424688
I haven't tried that specific one, but I have tried alternate stat generation in traveller, and players are already generally pretty competent, so giving them any extra advantage makes them absolutely busted. Be prepared for a dude who can essentially never miss a shot or fail a check in one specific area

>>96425541
It feels like Traveller characters are pretty mediocre at everything. I don't have much experience in the game, so I'm just going off what's on paper.

One of my characters wants to be a combat vet. Is there any wars around the book timetable of 1105?

>>96425583
Not at all. If you have +1 from attribute and +1 from the skill you'll succeed at average tasks the vast majority of the time. You can also perform well at harder tasks with task chaining or delaying timeframe (which is very often an option outside of combat).

I'd say a DM of +1 is alright but not reliable in a hurry, +2 is competent, +3 is very competent, and anything above that goes into an very high level of competence at a task.

>>96425832
Fourth Frontier War if you mean the huge major faction vs faction wars, but you'd have to be middle-aged. It's admittedly not a huge war. There are tons of smaller wars and operations that happen frequently in many of the worlds of the Imperium, especially at the frontiers. So it's going to vary a lot with the location you're thinking about. I'd personally just talk to the referee about coming up with some sort of conflict you could have been part of. It's pretty standard in this game.

>>96425583
I don't understand how you would come to this unless you absolutely don't understand how dice work.

I'm confused. When does aging kick in? Does it happen as soon as you hit 34 at the end of your fourth term? Or only if you continue on for another term after that?

Is there, like, a Bestiary or NPC codex for enemies?

>>96425093
You actually proved my point. You can take three full power hits from a lazer rifle and walk away with just "a little battle fatigue" and that is kind of retarded.

>>96407855
glue all the T5.1 books together

>>96417008
Wisdom.
There's such a strong undercurrent of learned helplessness these days, you ever notice that? Why doesn't anyone have self-respect anymore?
>I'm too dumb and stupid to learn how to GM, it's impossible, I'm helpless! ;_;
Like, dude, just suck it the fuck up! Everyone starts somewhere, it's not that bad and it doesn't need to to be perfect! Christ. Where the fuck would we be if everyone was this much of a wimp? You don't need a PhD in Gamology before you're allowed to read the book and try your hand at it.

>>96430450
I think this is probably partially a downstream effect of people coming into the hobby from Critrole and d20 (I've a friend who has straight up said theyd never gm because it'd never be as good as Matt Mercer, more or less) but I also think it's because rpg game mastering sections have gotten worse and worse to the point that few games have any procedural material on actually running the game.

>>96430477
It's like when people explain that they won't exercise because they're embarrassed with how weak they are.
"Okay, but how are you going to get any better?"
>"No, no, I have to just rot."
It's just so frustrating to deal with people who always come up with any reason they can't ever do anything. They just want to passively consume, and if anything has any element of risk or effort required, they just instantly fold. Mind-boggling.

>>96413082
>https://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/threads/google-sheets-worksheets.123753/

An interesting find; thank you for sharing! 2e's shipbuilding has always felt... weird and kludgy to me, compared to 1e. Could never put my finger on why. Maybe these'll help.

>>96430450
>Like, dude, just suck it the fuck up! Everyone starts somewhere, it's not that bad and it doesn't need to to be perfect! Christ. Where the fuck would we be if everyone was this much of a wimp? You don't need a PhD in Gamology before you're allowed to read the book and try your hand at it.
The best advice I ever got when I was trying to be a GM for the first time was "You're going to suck and your game will be terrible. But if you focus on trying your best to have fun your players will too and that's the point. You'll get better and your game will get better but that's less important than there being a shared experience."

>>96431724
People always give good advice, whatever happened to bad advice? If you want to learn GMing invite 2 people you really want to play with and invite 1 person (ratio) that everyone hates, then instead of focusing on your bad game they'll focus on the bad company and you'll galvanise as a unit against them. This is team-building 101 at the People As Things Academy.

>>96431724
In my experience the bar is also ludicrously low. People are just happy to play, if your scenario is a little hack they probably don't care.

>>96433506
Yeah, people who think they have to be perfect GMs and give terrible advice like >>96411893 want to have the players play in their attempt at a novel, and aren't interested in things like "okay how can I make sure everyone's having a good time?"

>>96426575
Yes, tiy can begin to have detrimental effects of aging during character generation

>>96425832
It can happen during character Generation based on service. There are constant conflicts. If you want a specific war the biggest was Fourth Frontier War 1082-1084. also known as the False War. A very limited war with mostly naval engagements. It was over in 16 months. Assuming your character entered service in 1082 it means they would be a minimum of 43 to have served in it.

>>96424688
meh. I prefer to let them roll an extra set of 2d6 and drop the lowest roll there. Then let them put the remaining rolls where they want

>>96425100
>>96428832
>Doesn't understand HP abstraction
I bet you can't picture the apple.

>>96443268
I like that in traveller if I score a solid shot on an unarmored human with a high-tech laser rifle they're probably going to die or at least be downed. Armor can prevent that which makes perfect sense. No need for abstractions because the rules are simple and intuitive.

How thoroughly should I prep my NPCs? Do I just need Hits, armor, and weapon with a +X to my roll noted?

Or should I stat them out fully?

>>96444368
Just armor, weapon damage die, and +X bonus
They are down in 14 hits, dead in 21 unless particularly feeble or tanky
Max for non augmented is 30 and 45
Minimum is 2 and 3
It's more important to note their Job(s), Loyalty(ies), description, personality, and voice (If you do voices)

How do you roleplay a Droyne?

>>96448345
very carefully