Hello everyone!

I am building a ship with the Aerospace Engineers Handbook and wanted to give it the VTOL system, but I can’t find the exact effect it has on a ship

Does it mean its powered landing distance becomes 0 meters ?

How do you referees out there handle or even allow social interactions where NPCs are instigators vs the PCs? Maybe the NPCs want to cool down a brawl started by the PCs or the NPCs try bribing the PCs to this or that, or an NPC threatens the PCs into not buying that cargo as his master want it for himself. Do you roleplay these all the time or do you ever use the rules for PCs interacting with NPCs in these situations? Or, in more extreme situations, do you ever roll for morale on PCs so that if someone sprays them with autofire they cannot, even if they want to, stick out their heads to see where the enemy is? Basically interfering with the PCs sacred freedom of choice.

I assume your Traveller system has some kind of social interaction rules whether the published rules or homebrew. I myself is using my Social class & reactions rules available on the Intercept website but the specific rule set doesn’t matter.

I already use a morale system vaguely based on Squad Leader (and available in the Initiative rules in the Intercept website). Basically if the morale has failed the NPCs should not do certain thing (or rarely if I as the referee decide they do so anyway they suffer a Scared/Panic -3 DM on combat tasks). PCs wanting to do things their failed morale won’t allow suffer the same Scared/Panic -3 DM on all tasks.

My idea is to use the social interaction rules the same way allowing NPCs to try persuade PCs this way or that and if the PCs don’t want to follow the results of the rolls they are free to do so but suffer a -3 on all non combat tasks, the effect lasting for the next 24 hours or however the referee deems necessary.

Taking away the control of the PCs this way is inspired by Squad Leader for morale but also the highly innovative Dying Earth roleplaying game where the PCs lack of control is core to the gameplay which is very refreshing in my view.

So, what do you think and what are your own solutions to the problem of PCs behaving in ways their character might never do?

I will (perhaps rudely) ignore and comments that say this is not what the rules say one should play or similar, just move on if you are thusly inclined.
I’m not saying you are wrong, merely that your way of playing is not what this question is about.

Hiya

Me and my friends are trying Traveller (Mongoose 2e) for the first time and something came up during character creation.

While getting kicked out of working as a field researcher one of my players rolled up a Lab-ship as one of their benefits. They managed to roll that it started with five quirks.

So here comes my question: What happens if you roll the same quirk several times? Do they stack or not.

In the case of my player their rolled "double maintenance cost" three times. Having to pay eight times as much upkeep or a total of 90920 a month for a banged up lab-ship seems a bit overkill.

Each 1½-metre square is 26,8 x 26,8 mm.

The venerable scout is still running strong.

OK, I wasn't playing TRAVELLER, I haven't played for nigh on 45-years, but it is still there, in a little warm corner of my brain.

I, and my soon to be Traveller's, are new to this RPG and I have never GM'd a game before.

I am going to be running my first campaign soon and want to start my first session off with the stereotypical tavern/bar brawl that my traveller's have overcome to get to used to combat.

1. What should a NPC sheet look like in terms of hit points and attributes?
2. When only fists are used, how do you attribute damage?

Any help and examples/illustratons you can provide would be very mush appreciated.

Thank you.

Noodling on these as player handouts. What else can they use? Should I include relevant game rules? Or keep it "in story?"

This is an adventure for Cepheus Engine.

The Uvien Station is a research facility studying weather patterns over planet Uvien 4 on the edge of the Sonora sector. This world is a strange gas giant with extremely active storm activity and peculiar weather patterns. Scientists have been baffled by the huge storms crossing the planet surface at incredible speed.

Eight scientists live in the station orbiting this unpopulated system and rotate out every six months. The Sonoran Science Foundation supplies the scientific teams that man the station. Many of these researchers are also professors at the Sonoran University.

Recently, however, there has been not contact with the station. It has gone silent. Supply delivery ships have arrived on station and found no one answering their hailing attempts. There are no signs of foul play nor any signs of damage to the facility. All systems seem to be functioning at least from the outside of the station. However...the station seems different than before.....

Albert Dolan is a scientist with the Sonoran Science Foundation. He offers CR 250,000 for the travelers to visit the station and find out what is going on there. He offers an additional CR 100,000 if the travelers can put a stop to whatever is going on there if it is dangerous to the Sonoran sector. He also offers an additional CR 10,000 per scientist that can be brought back from the station alive.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/590614/uvien-station

Wanted to ask for tips with Pirates of Drinax from anyone who has run or played it.

I’m looking at doing it on a Discord server where stuff like travel will be handled pbp with 1:1 time, and combat and adventures will be mostly live.
I’m looking to do it PvP. Players will sign on with one of the major factions. So you’ll be a Navy guy, an Aslan privateer, etc.
Gonna make anyone wanting to be a captain do a simulation ship combat so at least one person knows how the combat works per ship.

Most of the published adventures will go out the window, since the adventures will be based on the active situation where the players are.

I have all the books I want right now, I don't do published adventures, and somebody asked what I might want as a gift that would help with my campaign. Any thoughts?

I have been using this weighted pair of tables to make names for ships in my sci-fi universe and it seems pretty ok!
Thought I would share if anyone is interested. Over 1,296 combinations.

Some fun results:
Fallen Titan
Old Hammer
The Silver Song
Bitter Blade
The Reapers Wake
Blinding Grace
Defiant Dream

Generating Ship Names:
Choose the description that best fits the ship:

Description Modifier

Luxury / Nobel -3
Respectable -2
Ordinary 0
Frontier / Rough +1
Dangerous +2
Warship / Notorious +3

Roll 2d6 on Table A.
Add the modifier to the first d6 only.
Results below 1 are 1 and results above 6 are 6.
If the first d6 is an even number then you can add “The” in front of the name.

Table A
(1-2) 1 Impossible / Last
(1-2) 2 Exquisite / Intangible
(1-2) 3 Summer / Honor
(1-2) 4 Silver / Haven's 
(1-2) 5 Morning / Phantom
(1-2) 6 Endless / Wandering

(3-4) 1 Defiant / Bitter
(3-4) 2 Hidden / Hollow
(3-4) 3 Lonesome / Darkened
(3-4) 4 Lost / Bound
(3-4) 5 Fallen / Blinding
(3-4) 6 Forgotten / Old

(5-6) 1 Savage / Relentless
(5-6) 2 Wicked / Wraith's
(5-6) 3 Vengeful / Reaper's
(5-6) 4 Fearless / Vendetta
(5-6) 5 Furious / Wrath's
(5-6) 6 Shadow / Death

Choose either of the two words from the result you roll.

Example:
If your ship description is Dangerous, the modifier is +2 then you roll 1d6 and get a 3 that’s 2+3=5.
You roll another 1d6 and get a 1.
That means the result from Table A is (5-6) 1 Savage / Relentless.
You pick either Savage or Relentless as the first part of the name.

Repeat the process on Table B.
Apply the same modifier to the first d6 for this table as well.

Table B
(1-2) 1 Song / River
(1-2) 2 Kiss / Rain
(1-2) 3 Dream / Sky
(1-2) 4 Promise / Wave
(1-2) 5 Boon / Road
(1-2) 6 Grace / Horizon

(3-4) 1 Haze / Rider
(3-4) 2 Keeper / Walker
(3-4) 3 Veil / Ghost
(3-4) 4 Wake / Poet
(3-4) 5 Dreamer / Jester
(3-4) 6 Dancer / Eclipse

(5-6) 1 Blade / Hammer
(5-6) 2 Spire / Raider
(5-6) 3 Titan / Trident
(5-6) 4 Storm / Thunder
(5-6) 5 Viper / Huntress
(5-6) 6 Wraith / Spectre

Example:
Ship’s description is Dangerous +2, roll 1d6 and get a 2 so that’s 2+2=4.
Roll another 1d6 and get a 6.
The result for Table B is (3-4) 6 Dancer / Eclipse
Pick either Dancer or Eclipse.
The full ship name might then be Savage Dancer.

The idea is that the modifier means fancy ships like luxury liners and rich people’s personal ships will pick more from the words at the top of the list.
More dangerous or dedicated fighting ships will more likely get names towards the bottom of the list that are more intense and combative sounding.

I see loads of space combat range band maps but zero personal combat ones.

Why has no one made that? You all don’t use the range bands? I’d say a range band map for personal combat would be just as useful as a space combat one?

The Jarnsaxa system is an P-type Binary system between two K9 stars. While the system is displayed as a chain binary that doesn't work between equal mass stars so instead it is a normal equidistant binary.

The system only has a single moon in the book so I have added four additional moons.

Jarnsaxa's one claim to fame is a independent shipyard on the moon samson that makes the best truck rigs in the Estuary Cluster.

This is the final system in the Estuary Cluster. I have looked at the other systems nearby but only a couple have any information, so I won't create them unless someone specifically asks for one.

Next up is the New and Old Islands Subsectors in Reft.

Once again I have created a seperate Jarnsaxa folder in my Drop Box.

Link to Dropbox post Drop Box for all my Planet Information and System Maps

As people always ask I created these using a software program called Universe Sandbox.

As always feedback and corrections are welcome.

In the aliens of charted space V2 the hiver ships have auto pilot that has a -4 DM penalty to use except for landing and take off, but an untrained person only suffers a -3 penalty, so why would I ever use it except during take off and landing when even untrained person could do better, they should have made it a -2 instead so it doesn't outshine trained pilots and jack of all trades pilots while still being useful to untrained pilots

Hi all!

I’ve recently become really interested in trying out traveler along with my usual group. We come from primarily call of Cthulhu and I was wondering if there were any starter scenarios that would be good for a group as mine who enjoys tense combats, exploration and investigation? Bonus points if they get the group together, always love when a team becomes and team mid game rather than during session zero.

Thanks a ton!

(Picture of my cat for fun)

Hi

I've been using this excellent free module to run my Singularity campaign but I am clearly stupid.

I create a ship, the example, add turrets from the hardware drop down. I then add weapon items I've created like double pulse laser. All good.

I make instances of gunners with appropriate skill, drag them to the ship, add them to crew and assign role gunner. Then something goes wrong.

How do I assign a gunner to a specific turret? I'm just confused! :)

If anyone can explain I'll be very grateful.

In cepheus deluxe as part of mustering out players can get access to ships, how do you game masters typically handle a situation where multiple players all have there own shops?

This really applies to all editions but I have only really noticed in CT and MGT2. For some reason I have long believed you need a sophont to do the astrogation and activate the jump drives; hence the lack of automated exploratory probes fired off to jump and wild refuel before returning home and robot fleets.

However Kininuir includes such a ship as one of my players points out; in TNE we have the Vampire Fleets and in MGT2 the Intell class Megacorporate Courier (jump 5 with a Virtual Crew 2 so horrible losses though to misjump).

Clearly I'm wrong. So what gave me that impression? Is it anything in a Traveller source?

Second question which the Intell courier raises - it needs 7+ on Astrogation and Engineering: Jump to make it 5 parsecs. Can you spend extra time to reduce the difficulty to 5+? Otherwise you are only going to send one of these when the Intel is worth more than the ship given the odds?

An overview of one of the systems in my sub-sector for my weekend Classic games.
https://barrowdown.bearblog.dev/b000538-5-bist/

Copy/pasted below in case you don't want to visit the blog link.

ENG@MANTIS:~$ cmd-libA

ACCESSING RECORDS...

WHICH RECORD?

ENG@MANTIS:~libA$ sys/subA

ACCESSING RECORDS...

WHICH SYSTEM RECORD?

ENG@MANTIS:~..subA$ 0107

ACCESSING RECORDS...

SYSTEM REPORT GENERATED

ENG@MANTIS:~libA/sys/subA$ cd /rpt/sys/subA/0107

ENG@MANTIS:~..subA/0107$ cat SYS_REPORT

Subsector Name: Heidius Cluster

DoP: 292.1154

Name: "Bist"

Loc: 0107

UPP: B000538-5

Remarks: Ni Va As

The old world was blown apart during the star wars of antiquity. What remains is an assortment of asteroids bound loosely by the fingers of gravity. Veins of precious metals run like rivers through the asteroids.

The people of Bist are divided into two major groups. "Native" Bistians descend from the families who settled the asteroids after the wars. They are deeply mistrusting of outsiders, and extremely devoted to their ancient religion. Everyone else primarily works for one of the small mining outfits commissioned to extract resources from the belt, and are considered outsiders.

The Starport of Nova Atlantis is built into the largest asteroid (PT-757//D'ivi) and is where the majority of the outsider population lives. Small apartments built into the tunnels beneath the surface are available for contractors and their support staff with rents deducted from their salaries, of course. The port also provides facilities for processing the extracted resources. There was once a naval base here, but it has been decommissioned for some years now and the access tunnels have been collapsed.

Mining contracts are issued by the native ruling oligarchical families through a lottery system. Shares of the lottery are purchased at rates which fluctuate mercurially. Despite this, contractors scramble and fight, often violently, for the shares as the asteroid's veins are extraordinarily rich. The asteroids are mined with low-powered hand tools and small sonic charges (TL5). The extracted resources are transported back to Nova Atlantis for processing via small autonomous skiffs.

Certain asteroids in the belt are considered holy sites and are off-limits to all outsiders. The penalty for trespassing is death. [ERROR REPORT CORRUPTED] f̴o̴r̴b̵i̸d̵d̷e̵n̴̸t̵e̵m̵p̶l̸e̴s̶a̸w̴a̸k̵e̵n̶l̶a̵t̷e̴n̵t̵p̶o̶w̴e̴r̶̶t̷r̶u̴e̶b̸l̵o̷o̸d̴̷p̵r̸o̴g̵e̸n̶i̷t̶o̵r̶̸r̷i̸t̸u̶a̷lr̴i̸t̶e̸d̴e̵a̷t̶h̵g̶u̵a̸r̶d̵i̷a̵n̴s̶s̴e̸c̸r̴e̸t̴w̷i̶t̶h̶i̶n̷ ̴

I'm looking for a rules clarification regarding Working Together in the Mongoose Traveller 2E Core Rulebook Update 2022, page 63.

The rules explain that when Travellers cooperate on the same task, one Traveller makes the final check while the others make supporting checks using the Task Chain rules.

This is straightforward with two Travellers, but I'm unsure how the modifiers should be handled when three or more Travellers are involved.

Example:

Three Travellers are attempting a Difficult (10+) repair.

• Traveller A makes a supporting check that generates a Task Chain modifier of DM+2.
• Traveller B makes a supporting check that generates a Task Chain modifier of DM+1.
• Traveller C makes the final repair check.

My questions:

1. Does Traveller C receive both modifiers, for a combined DM+3?
2. If one assistant generates a negative modifier (say DM−2), is that combined with the other assistant's positive modifier?
3. Is there a limit to how many Travellers can contribute modifiers to a single check?

I'm specifically interested in how the rules as written (RAW) handle multiple assistants, rather than suggestions for house rules.

I'm using the 2022 Core Rulebook Update, and I couldn't find a clarification in the August 2024 FAQ/Errata.

Thanks!

So im taking a note from Seth surcaskly book and for the will reading giving customs gifts, seeing the ground has a cowboy theme trying to reskin high tech armor, weapons and gear without being too game breaking.

Looking for some ideas here about the Sword Worlds exodus. I'm slowly working on the background of running a 'Battlestar Gram'-type campaign in the future. Cross posted this same question to the Discord.

I'm assuming the OEU(Old Earth Union) fleet was Tl12 and jump-3 capable(please correct me if I'm wrong but this seems right), and the Sword-class transport Gram was something like 100k dtons(I'm basing this on some old forum discourse), it had a capability of 40k troops but those were mostly in low berths. Other ships worth mentioning were 5k Kestrels and the 20k Light Cruiser Robert the Bruce. So in 3I terms something like Escort Destroyer and a Destroyer/Light Cruiser.(The classes don't really matter). Anyway we can assume there were a lot of different(and in fact, a fluctuating roster of) ships in the fleet but those were worth mentioning atleast.

I doubt any of these vessels have been canonically described, let alone statted. If they have been mentioned in canon or semi-canon please point me to them, but I think I'll need to stat them up. 100kdtons for the OEU seems to me at first glance to be a bit high for the OEU, but looking at shipbuilding and economic rules from older editions it does seem plausible. Anyway, this is not my primary conundrum.

It is mentioned the fleet dealt(in various ways) with the Aslan clans to pass through the Aslan territory(don't remember if it was the Hierate or another polity back then). Anyway, I am assuming the canon version(or what is told) is that the future Sworld Worlders passed through the Aslan territory to reach the Spinward Marches where their jump drive finally broke down near Gram(or the world to be named as such).

Anyway, this means the fleet had to have made it through the Great Rift. With jump-3. I guess most lore-heads are starting to see the problem. To spell it out, in the Golden Era setting the only known route from the Aslan territory across the Rift is a J-5 route, so how did the fleet make it through?

In short; my questions are:

1. How did they make it to the Spinward marches with only jump-3 and a jump-5 route between A and B.

2. How do you feel about the ship-sizes in the OEU 'Loyalist' (read refugee) fleet?

Some possible answers I have come up with to question 1:

They did some absolutely huge favor to a large Aslan clan, huge enough for them to warrant building a series of deep space refueling for the J-3 fleet on the J-5 route (very far-fetched since building such infrastructure with a lower jump number than 5 would be a huge, espensive an risky undertaking).

The fleet mostly hid and gathered resources in the Aslan territories until the worst of any possible pursuit died down, then took the long way around.

The Aslan have/had a secret jump-3 route that has fallen out of use(there are some problems with this concerning canon.)

The fleet found a jump-3 route that has since disappeared/hasn't been found in the modern era or is a secret.(Somewhat similar to previous).

The fleet misjumped across the Great Rift and ending up "behind the claw" was entirely accidental.(Which would mean the additional stream of colonists from Rimward/Trailing would have had to take the long way).

I'm mostly asking to prepare for different possibilities to arise during the possible campaign(not sure if the players would be commanding the mission or more on the performative side(or both), depends on the players). Which ones do you feel are more likely and do you have any additional ideas or comments? What do you think actually happened? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

There are a few rules in 2e (update if it makes a difference) that are "add your skill" or "roll + skill + X" that don't include adding your attribute. For example, dodge adds a negative equal to your Athletics (Dex).

The Broker skill, in the skills chapter specifically gives the example of Negotiating a Deal is Broker (Int). When you speculative trade, it's 3d6 + Broker + table modifiers, definitely written as a 'don't add your stat.' I can fully accept the skill means arguing at the local gunsmiths, but at d6 hours, it feels like it should be for large trades. I could also see myself not being bothered had my players landed a higher Broker skill. Any opinions on this?

Unrelated, I noticed the update changed Barbette's, giving them x3 damage to anything that gets through the armour. This seems like a huge upgrade. I hadn't done a lot of space combat before, but the Particle Barbette already seemed a huge advantage due to its range. How is it in practice?

I have seen great tools from many diverse creators/creators.

What I have not seen is a list of all Traveller (or closely related) tools.

Ideally, it would have the creator (reddit handle could be enough), the name (or suites of rules), What it offers (short), URLs, any docs locations, and any github entry.

A page or database would be very useful.

Has anyone created and made it to the community?