COMMENTS: CH 02 - Character Creation

[Sgt Major Al Beddow]

Well, character creation isn't quite there yet. There are too many academies and other things which contribute to SFU specific careers.

I am *hoping* to have Ch 01 (Intro), CH 02 (Char Gen) and CH 03 (Skills & Tasks) to you all by Sunday Nov 6th.

Stay tuned for more.
Al

[Stan Shinn]

Thanks for the update! This stuff is hard work I know, but we are looking forward to the content once you complete it

[Sgt Major Al Beddow]

CH 02 has been emailed out. It's not done but there are things I need feedback on.

[Stan Shinn]

P. 3 -- Mentions the 3rd Imperium

P. 12 -- has a "??? etc." reference.

"Cr" (the Traveller standard to note credits) is sometimes referred to "Cr" and sometimes as "CR".

Page 17 in the PDF has the 1st entry under Mishaps beginning with "severely" (lower case 's').

I believe the background connections timeline issue present in MgT is still present in TPD. Recommend adding a sentence or two that say to effect "Since characters may muster out after different terms of service, you may want to not describe your connections until you muster out in order to have a consistent timeline of events." See my thread on this here: http://www.starfleetgames.com/federatio ... php?t=6422

[Stan Shinn]

This is part question and part feedback.

In other PD productions, is there a provision to allow players to still be on a military starship? Traveller generally assumes you've mustered out, but if you wanted all characters to be actively serving on a starship, are there ways you can control that in the rules?

For example, your players want to be the bridge crew on a big Constitution class starship -- how could you make that happen in these rules?

[Albiegamer]

P. 3 -- Mentions the 3rd Imperium

Yes, I typed in nobility but haven't had a chance to talk with Jean or Steve on nobility in the SFU (besides being noble for a planet or group).

P. 12 -- has a "??? etc." reference.

"page XXX" is a standard way (and used by Matt at MGT) for putting in a place holder, to be fixed once the layout and page numbers are set.

"Cr" (the Traveller standard to note credits) is sometimes referred to "Cr" and sometimes as "CR".

Did search and replace in my Ch 2 doc. Found it wrong in one place and fixed. I will be checking the others as soon as I finished here.

Page 17 in the PDF has the 1st entry under Mishaps beginning with "severely" (lower case 's').

I'm trying to find that.

I believe the background connections timeline issue present in MgT is still present in TPD. Recommend adding a sentence or two that say to effect "Since characters may muster out after different terms of service, you may want to not describe your connections until you muster out in order to have a consistent timeline of events." See my thread on this here: http://www.starfleetgames.com/federatio ... php?t=6422

Yes I read your thread, and this is an issue of two things:
one, this is a flaw with the Mongoose Traveller mechanics - its an issue to be brought up with Matthew at Mongoose.
Second, we have addressed this with 'Rule Zero: The GM can do whatever they wish in their game."
We won't be adding text in extra places to explain Rule Zero in more than one place.

[AndrewTravers]

Observations:
1) Life events at star fleet academy, roll an 8, have no life. Roll an 11, have no life but be even more lucky in the process.
2) Injury table, not in playtest material. Assumed the same as MGT
3) Graduation with honors does not grant a commission, or make any benefit for joining their trade.
4) Star fleet officers - table is for marines - in fact, 3 players with 4 terms each, nobody can pilot a shuttle.
5) Commission, what do we roll? Value not given
6) Ground Prime Team doesn't have a table header.
7) University Education doesn't give a bonus to join starfleet.
8) Navy life event (page 15) 5+ - ANY SKILL? You could get Jack of all trades? That's going to have abuse. Likewise getting skills not typically available on board, such as Animals, mountaineering, sailing. Ok, yes, holo decks, but... why?
9) No mention of tractor beams. Are they a weapon (gunnery) or system (electronics)?
10) Tactics 1 for getting to 3rd rank of Starfleet, (you should be smarter than that by the time you've been in the service for 12 years, and you got it at 0 in basic training) what about making it "one rank of".
11) Aging crisis with Vulcans? Humans?
12) Pension mentioned in 2 locations, (creation flow chart, ship shares to pension) but no other mention of how to get one.


General idea: Starfleet Academy: Allow the players to pick a service specialty (command, support, etc) and roll on those tables. That way you might get a science officer, doctor, sensor operator, or engineer.

Nobility idea:
As noted, Nobility can convey various things. One could be the likelyhood that when they arrive somewhere they are sought out (celebrity). An 11 would go unnoticed on many worlds, but on some worlds they could sell tickets for a talk, whereas a 15 they can't really roam the streets without a disguise, but it they want to talk to the governor, he gave them his number, and such.

Overall, generally amusing to be making characters again. Look forward

[Albiegamer]

Observations:
1) Life events at star fleet academy, roll an 8, have no life. Roll an 11, have no life but be even more lucky in the process.

In the email I asked for suggestions for events while at the academy.

2) Injury table, not in playtest material. Assumed the same as MGT
3) Graduation with honors does not grant a commission, or make any benefit for joining their trade.
4) Star fleet officers - table is for marines - in fact, 3 players with 4 terms each, nobody can pilot a shuttle.
5) Commission, what do we roll? Value not given
6) Ground Prime Team doesn't have a table header.
7) University Education doesn't give a bonus to join starfleet.
8) Navy life event (page 15) 5+ - ANY SKILL? You could get Jack of all trades? That's going to have abuse. Likewise getting skills not typically available on board, such as Animals, mountaineering, sailing. Ok, yes, holo decks, but... why?
9) No mention of tractor beams. Are they a weapon (gunnery) or system (electronics)?
10) Tactics 1 for getting to 3rd rank of Starfleet, (you should be smarter than that by the time you've been in the service for 12 years, and you got it at 0 in basic training) what about making it "one rank of".
11) Aging crisis with Vulcans? Humans?
12) Pension mentioned in 2 locations, (creation flow chart, ship shares to pension) but no other mention of how to get one.


General idea: Starfleet Academy: Allow the players to pick a service specialty (command, support, etc) and roll on those tables. That way you might get a science officer, doctor, sensor operator, or engineer.

Nobility idea:
As noted, Nobility can convey various things. One could be the likelyhood that when they arrive somewhere they are sought out (celebrity). An 11 would go unnoticed on many worlds, but on some worlds they could sell tickets for a talk, whereas a 15 they can't really roam the streets without a disguise, but it they want to talk to the governor, he gave them his number, and such.

Overall, generally amusing to be making characters again. Look forward

I included the SFU careers there because getting the nested tables to work was a bacon and didn't want to fool with removing them.

The Stuff in the MGT CRB that comes after the career tables I just hadn't gotten time to type them in - I wanted to get what I had out instead of a second delay.

Good suggestions and these items are next on my agenda.

[LimeyDragon]

Document Page 2
The BACKGROUND SKILL text does not elude to the fact that the skill chart on the next column is what you are to choose from.

Document Page 4
Background Box. It tells you to "Choose a homeworld type" Until this point homeworld type has not been covered. Perhaps it is referring to "where did i come from"..?

Document Page 4
On the flow chart, perhaps having page numbers to each section might help.?

Document Page 12
EVENTS DURING CHARACTER

[Albiegamer]

Document Page 2
The BACKGROUND SKILL text does not elude to the fact that the skill chart on the next column is what you are to choose from.

Fixed

Document Page 4
Background Box. It tells you to "Choose a homeworld type" Until this point homeworld type has not been covered. Perhaps it is referring to "where did i come from"..?

Copied list from the v1 CRB.

Document Page 4
On the flow chart, perhaps having page numbers to each section might help.?

Once we have page numbers that can be added, it's just a rough chart (done in word) so it's in place.

Document Page 12
EVENTS DURING CHARACTER

what about these?

[LimeyDragon]

Document Page 12
EVENTS DURING CHARACTER

what about these?

Anyway to get the chart all on one page and not spread out over 2 pages and 3 columns.

[LimeyDragon]

TAS Membership = Perhaps we can change it to "Empire" favor. This would act like having the ability to call in a favor with the empire you have chosen. Favors could be... I need a ride, Can you hide me, I need some information.. This is just a spit balling idea...

[kehrer1701]

My group in familiar with Gurps PD, so this was more of a learning curve as none of them have played Traveller before. I like the basic approach here. The more info you plant from a POV that the players have never cracked open a Trav book to learn the rules the better. If any chapter is going to be heavy in content, I vote for here. The more detail the better in HOW to play the game.

A fun heading here might be "Why Choose Traveller" or "What Makes Traveller system different from others?"

Most of what is called out by others, in some form or another, came up in our group setting.