Related Information to Aericsteele's Traveller Questions & Support

Aericsteele's Traveller Questions & Support

The Referee relays...

This is an out of character thread for AericSteele’s Traveller Play By Post campaign.

Prior to participation in this game, all players should familiarize themselves with Role-playing Game Etiquette found HERE the Constructive Posting Policy found HERE and all other rules and policies of this site.

Questions regarding the setting, rules, or any other miscellaneous out of character chatter related to the game may be posted here. All in character posts should be made in the Main Thread and any questions or comments regarding character creation should be posted in the Character Creation Thread

NOTE: Personal schedules or anything not directly related to this Role-playing Game should go in your Introduction to avoid off topic discussion from developing.

Work in Progress/Subject to Change

Posting Quality and Requirements
The site has a built in feature that will not allow players to make posts containing less than fifteen words. Please note that those involved in this game are held to a higher standard than this fifteen word minimum. Simple single sentence responses or posts are generally unacceptable. The Referee may ask the player to elaborate on their posts, may ignore such posts, or the Referee may elaborate on a player's post and will not guarantee that the player will be satisfied with the results of the elaboration made.

The Referee expects more detailed narrative than simply announcing the action a character is going to take. Each post should serve a purpose by describing a character's intended actions, thoughts, feelings, etc. In a manner that the reader (I.e. The Referee and the other players) are able to visualize/understand what is going on. Each post is an opportunity for the player to add another brush stroke to the overall painting of their character (Who they are, what they want, what they look like, etc)

Play-by-Post can be a slow and somewhat cumbersome medium for role playing games and it is important that players maintain consistent posting in order to ensure that the game moves forward. In this game, players are expected to post some form of response or indicate their characters intent in some way within approximately forty-eight hours of the Referee making a post. After forty eight hours of the Referee's last post, the Referee may move the story/game forward and may take control of the player's character or describe the actions of the player character as part of the next post without the consent of the player.

Out of Character/In Character
Remember to address Out of Character questions to the appropriate thread when possible. Questions or comments about character creation or generation need to go to the character creation thread; questions about the game mechanics or setting should go to the support thread; that would include the discussion regarding paying the ships mortgage, operating costs, etc.

Player vs. Referee Agency; Exceptions
Players are responsible for, and generally have exclusive control over and right to describe/narrate, the intended actions, thoughts, feelings, etc. Of their characters. The exception to this rule is when/if the character is subjected to some form of mind control, mind altering substance, or other in-game factors that require the Referee to dictate a player character’s actions, reactions, feelings, thoughts, etc. For example a villain using psionic against the character, they fall victim to some form of mind altering drug such as a truth serum or even intoxication, or when the Referee is describing a dream sequence.

Player characters may also fall under the control of the referee or another player if the frequency of the players posts does not meet the requirements set forth in other sections of this policy, for example failing to post within forty-eight hours of the Referee’s narrative prompting a response from the players.

The Referee is exclusively responsible for the actions, thoughts, description, etc. Of all non-player characters in the game as well as for adjudicating and describing the results of all task resolution rolls made by NPCs and PCs (Based on the intent of the player character as described by the player).

The Referee is also solely responsible for determining and describing all aspects of a scene, location, object, NPC, etc. Though the Referee may occasionally delegate this responsibility to the players to allow for greater player input and collaboration in the development of these aspects of the game.

Players are free, and encouraged, to make suggestions to the referee regarding the campaign, setting, scene, etc. But these suggestions need to be posted in the Support thread rather than in the Main thread.
A post made in the Main thread that violates this policy will be ignored.

Rolling Dice & Task Resolution
For the sake of simplicity and standardization all 2d6 rolls using the embedded dice roller should be rolled as 1d12 with a start number of 2 with modifiers added in the dice roller itself. The players are responsible for inputting the data correctly and remembering to include the dice modifiers.

A failed roll does not always mean that the person just failed to do what they wanted, it may mean that there is a complication to it, and that it didn't go as the player intended. For example making an intrusion roll to open a door, you roll a 5 (Fail); you may still get the door open but maybe there is a guard standing on the other side looking at you, or you've tripped an alarm.

Another example would be a failed astrogation check. Generally speaking you can't make a jump until the astrogation check is successful. If you fail the check I don't want to have to wait to see the results that you failed and then make you roll again, wait for that result, and so on; that is too slow time consuming. Instead what it will generally mean is that you spent a good 60-90 minutes plotting it in… you got it but there may be a greater chance of a misjump, that you will be off target, or some other complication occurs.

There are skills that should only be rolled once per situation. Rather than having you roll stealth five different times, I prefer to just do it once and let that result determine the general outcome. For example, your goal is for your character to sneak past some guards and pick the lock on a vault or something I’m not going to have you roll to get past the first set of guards, and then roll to get past another set of guards, and then roll a third time to sneak past a third set of guards.

You will roll once, modified by the difficulty, and if you succeed you manage to sneak past all of the guards then you will make an intrusion check at the door. This might change if the situation changes, for example the guards are alerted by something and alarms start going off, they are now actively looking so you may have to roll stealth again with different modifiers.

Players do not necessarily have to wait for the Referee to tell them when to roll. If a player makes a post that is obviously utilizing a skill or would reasonably require a task resolution check the players may make an appropriate roll. If the skill that the player used doesn't fit the Referee will use the result of the roll and apply it using the appropriate skill (Which may alter the result depending on the dice modifiers that apply).

When the Referee asks for a roll the difficulty dice modifiers that apply will likely be declared up front, but if the player rolls without being prompted to do so by the Referee they will not be aware of what dice modifiers apply, but they will have to Let it Ride! (See below)

Let it Ride!
I am an advocate of the "Let it Ride!" rule in other words I do not like rolling several times until there is a success and when the roll is made, the die is cast and there is no taking it back. I don't like to see a roll for a computer check come up a 6 (Fail) and then the player say that they just try again and roll again until they get a success unless a significant amount of time has passed or the situation changed dramatically.

I don’t like it when everyone takes a turn at the same thing because the guy with the greatest skill failed so everyone will try until it’s successful. To make a Dungeons & Dragons reference; this is like when the 18 strength fighter cannot force a jammed door open because he rolled bad but the 8 strength rogue comes along and rolls lucky so he busts the door down.

In general, if a person with a skill level of 4 can’t do it, the guy with skill level 0 shouldn’t reasonably be able to do it. Traveller allows for skill assists from other players and a character with a similar skill may assist but even if the assisting character rolls high enough to have succeeded while the primary character failed the roll, the roll still fails. The primary and assisting characters need to be declared up front. You cannot reverse the roles and decide that the assisting character's roll is the primary roll, you failed and it’s not going to happen.

Policy Regarding Character Death
Character death is a very real possibility in this game but nine times out of ten it will come as a result of the roll of the dice rather than at the whim of the Referee. The exception is when, for whatever reason, a player has left the game or has failed to post for a significant amount of time. In the event they have failed to post they will be given a warning regarding the impending doom of their character, but if they fail to reply they may become another Enerri
The Referee does not ‘pull punches’ in combat; if the dice roll indicates that your character is hit for X amount of damage and this is enough to end your character, then your character dies. That being said, the players are advised that the Referee does not tailor encounters to the abilities of the characters. If the players take their characters into a gun fight against well-armed and armored troops while armed with a knife and no armor themselves, there is a good chance the character is not going to make it.
Players are free to do what they want with their characters, but their characters are not free from the consequences of their actions

Character Equipment and Character Sheet
When players make changes to the gear or equipment that their character is using, or currently has equipped, it should be noted in the appropriate post but also updated on the character sheet. The Referee will often reference a player's character sheet to determine what sort of equipment the character currently has available or is using. There is no guarantee that the Referee is going to remember that equipment changes were made several posts/pages prior to the current post, which is why making these changes on the character sheet is necessary.

Edited: Aericsteele on 2nd Mar, 2016 - 6:03pm

Support and Questions Traveller Aericsteeles

Never played this game before but I have played some Star trek Role playing. Is this similar to that or something different. What can you tell me about this game?

Aericsteele's Traveller Questions & Support RPGs PBP Fiction Science

The Referee relays...

Though I do have Star Trek The Next Generation Role Playing Game from Last Unicorn Games, Inc. I have never played or run it before and I really couldn't say whether Traveller has any similarities to the Star Trek Role-playing Game that you played. Traveller uses 2d6 along with dice modifiers, for task resolution. Normally a roll of 8+ on 2d6 is considered a success. The game does not use the concepts of levels or hit points.

Character creation is interesting as it utilizes random die rolls to help determine a characters background and character generally start out as seasoned veterans of some sort of service (Army, Navy, Merchants, Scouts, etc.). In the classic version of the game a character might die during character generation and it was sort of a mini-game in and of itself. "You haven't lived until you've died during character generation" --Not sure who is responsible for that quote, I saw it on social media.

That option remains in the Mongoose incarnation of the game, but it is an optional rule. As far as setting it would probably be best to quote the Core Rulebook pg. 2:

If you are interested let me know in the character creation thread and give me a general concept of the kind of character you might be interested in playing (I.e. A grouchy doctor, rugged mercenary, flamboyant trader, etc.) and I can draft up a character for you.

Support and Questions Traveller Aericsteeles

I am looking at creating a character and will see how it goes. The star trek Role-playing Game was not the next generation but the original a long, long time ago in a galaxy far away Let me fiddle with this and I will post a character soon.

Support and Questions Traveller Aericsteeles

Aericsteele, in one of your posts, you mentioned no skill with more than 3 ranks. In the MM Mongoose Character Gen I have Stealth currently at a 4.

Aericsteele's Traveller Questions & Support

The Referee relays...

That rule is related to the skills gained from connections with the other characters. After the characters career terms have been completed they have the opportunity to gain more skill ranks by establishing connections between each other. You can do this with up to two other player characters (For a total of two extra skills), but you cannot use this to raise any skill above 3.

You are ok with having a starting skill of 4 if those skills were gained through the other parts of the character creation process.

Aericsteele's Traveller Questions & Support

All right.

Updated character stats from MM Mongoose Traveller Character Generator. Was going to compile the skills listed into SKILL NME (Total Ranks). Will wait for your okay before doing so.

Aericsteele's Traveller Questions & Support Science Fiction PBP RPGs

This is The Cynic, over...

I have a question regarding the Tech Level. I haven't played any campaigns in the Imperium setting, only home brew games. What is the acceptable Tech Level for weapons and armour gained through benefit rolls?

Thanks!