This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone… (Classic Traveller, SF RPG)

Started by Rook Seidhr, January 03, 2016, 05:14:19 PM

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Muse

Okay, dowloading now. 

I don't think this version of the game would let me get old enough to play my concept--not that random charcter gnereation would allow me to anyway.  :P 

So I'll just build a random character. 

Anythings I should be mindful of? 
A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

TheGlyphstone

So I decided on a stub background, at least, though i still have lots of cash to spend.

3rd Officer Dimitri Vladovich
Stats+Gear

8889B8  Age 30  3 Terms  48470Cr
Pilot-1, Gun Combat-1, Streetwise-1, Admin-1, Engineering-1, Electronic-1
Cutlass (Free, 1.25Kg)
Shotgun w/ Folding Stock (260Cr, 4.25Kg)
Shotgun Magazine x2 (20Cr, 1.5Kg)
Cloth Armor (250Cr)
Hand Computer (1000Cr, .5Kg)
Total Encumbrance: 7.5Kg/8Kg

Background

Learning to read from pulp-style space adventure novels seeded Dimitri with a hunger to see the stars from a very early age. His family was wealthy enough to secure him a place in his homeworld's most prestigious university, to which he applied himself with furious dedication, but they lacked the social clout to guarantee him a commission in the armed forces. That was perfectly fine with Dimitri, because the military was full of danger as well as glory, and he had a cautious streak a mile wide - so he went into the merchant service instead, figuring that would be a safe career with steady advancement.

Starting in the engineering track, he got his first taste of adventure midway through his third year when the ship's drive systems suffered catastrophic failure and almost tore the vessel in half - he escaped by the skin of his teeth, and ended up with a commission+promotion for his valor in the incident, but was rather shaken up. In his sixth year, someone mislabeled unrefined jump drive fuel as refined and the engines almost blew up again; he was on the opposite end of the ship this time, but it was still unpleasant. In his twelfth year, his ship's engines exploded again - this time, because they were shot at, in an attempted hijacking by the notorious pirate Black Steve, Scourge of the Spaceways. While prudently attempting to reach an escape pod, and not at all in a blind panic, Dimitri ran into a particularly scary-looking pirate and blew his head off almost by accident, only to discover shortly afterward that it had been Black Steve himself. With a hefty credit balance from the numerous bounties on Black Steve's head, and the pirate's own cutlass that he had taken as a trophy, Dimitri came to the conclusion that merchant service was far more dangerous than he had given it credit for, and decided to get out while he still had his head and all his other body parts.

Rook Seidhr

I have been writing a web site that incorporates the Book 1 and Supplement 4 chargen tables in a way that will let me tweak things like skill lists easily. Would people be terribly agitated if I asked them to roll up characters using that site? (It's not automated—yet—it just shows the list of careers, and you click on one to get a page with the enlistment, survival, etc. throws and the skill and muster-out tables. You have to roll dice yourself.)

MadPanda

Awwwww...

Sure, I can re-gen easily enough.  This is Traveler, not (say) Hackmaster.   ;D
Voluptas ailuri fulgentis decretum est!
Omnis nimis, temperantia ob coenobitae.
(Jes, tiuj frazoj estas malĝustaj. Pandoj fakte ne komprenas la latinan!)

One on Ones Suggestion Box
Group Game Suggestion Box
Pandariffic Ons and Otherwise
In Memory of Bishrook

TheGlyphstone

I guess....I kinda like the rolls I got, and the story I built out of them (I did roll near-minimum twice on survival) but it's not like they're set in stone or anything. Especially if it means I can use the Supplement 4-7 rules for more detailed creation.

Its weird, I haven't even started playing Dimitri and I want to keep him. Must be that 8-even statline.

Rook Seidhr

That's Supplement 4, "Citizens of the Imperium." Books 4–7 are still disallowed (though I may throw some skills from them into the skill tables, particularly in order to make it possible to use the Merchant Prince trading rules if someone gets a free trader).

EDIT: If you like your current character, you needn't re-roll.

TheGlyphstone

In that case, I'd definitely prefer to stick with mine. Though I will happily roll up dummy characters if you just want to stress-test your code.

Ampere

I don't mind rerolling - apologies if you've done so already, but can you please link to the site?
Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth.

O&O's

Rook Seidhr

The site is usable as a reference—again, you can't just click a button and have a character rolled for you, yet, though that's more or less the dream.

However, I haven't finished tweaking the skill tables. Right now it just duplicates the books. Also, the landing page just has some lorem ipsum on it.

That said, you're welcome to take a look. It's travails.sharpcla.ws. You'll have to click on the nav bar at the top to get anywhere. The "skills" module shows a list of all skills from Books 1–8, with a couple of influences from MegaTraveller like combining guns into groups, while the "classes" module has the tables to roll up characters.

Let me know via PM if anything seems broken or hard to use!

TheGlyphstone

Did you have any particular suggestions for 'essentials' I could spend my remaining 48,000 credits and 0.5 Kg of weight allowance on?


TheGlyphstone

Can't wear a vacc suit without the training, and I didn't get lucky enough to roll training with it.

Rook Seidhr


TheGlyphstone

Alrighty, consider it banked. Anything else I need to do with Dimitri, besides sit and hope someone else gets the ludicrously lucky string of rolls to reach the rank of Merchant Captain and win a Free Trader from their benefits payout?

MadPanda

Well, there's always...NPC Captain.

Or of course the traditional option of (ahem) winning it in a card game.  Which is at least safer than "borrowing" a ship from someone.
Voluptas ailuri fulgentis decretum est!
Omnis nimis, temperantia ob coenobitae.
(Jes, tiuj frazoj estas malĝustaj. Pandoj fakte ne komprenas la latinan!)

One on Ones Suggestion Box
Group Game Suggestion Box
Pandariffic Ons and Otherwise
In Memory of Bishrook

Rook Seidhr

OK, http://travails.sharpcla.ws/ is available for you guys to marvel over…

Still haven't tweaked the careers tables but all the careers listed are available for PCs.

Haven't rolled up any worlds yet so the Elliquiy Galaxy is empty.

BUT IT WORKS! Which is good because I've spent the last week programming it instead of doing anything else.

TheGlyphstone

Anyone want to try and roll up a Noble to get us a Yacht to cruise around in? A Hunter can also get a Safari ship, but their survival odds are a lot worse.

Eh, let's test it out myself.

Feedback: Add a section, maybe at the top of the Careers page, that briefly goes over the 6 stats in order, since you need to generate those before trying for a career.

So here's an NPC for you if you want it, a weak and crusty middle-aged Sailor draftee.
Lieutenant Steve, Bartender

269677 (start 337667)
4 terms in Sailors
Brawling 1, Carousing 1
Lost 1 Str to Aging
Steve was never destined for much. He tried to enter the Navy, but they didn't want him, and he ended up being drafted into the Sailors instead. He earned a commission immediately, but languished after that, being promoted to Lieutenant and progressing no further. Almost all of his free time was spent in the gym and exercise rooms, bulking up at the cost of any useful education or career skills. When he mustered out, having nothing of value to his name besides a few free Passage tickets and some money, and no skills other than fighting and drinking, he opened a bar for itinerant spacers.

This is fun. Let's do it again.

Sir Stanley MacClintock

47488B (Start 85688B)
Hunting-2, Gun Combat (Rifle)-2, Liason-2, Jack of All Trades-1, Blade Combat (Foil) 1
Foil, Rifle, High Passage x1, Yacht
Sir Stanley wanted for nothing, and what he wanted was to be a galaxy-renowned hunter. For years, he traveled from planet to planet, seeking out the most fearsome of wild beasts and taking their heads for his trophy wall - learning sharpshooting, hunting skills, and a surprising amount of esoteric hands-on experience. But the years took their toll on his body, and by the time he was 50, he found he could no longer snipe a Tralaxian Spitting Rhino's horn off its head from 400 meters away. From there, he knew his skills would only continue to deteriorate, and decided to retire from the huntsman's life before a Tralaxian Spitting Rhino managed to snipe him instead. He still had his ship, but now he needed a crew, some form of income now that he couldn't turn to his family to pay his travel bills, and something to sate the hunger for adventure he still hadn't managed to shake.

A grizzled, old, retired Great Noble Hunter, with a Yacht and an un-sated lust for adventure.

I actually really like this guy, now that I've generated him. If permitted, I could resign from Dimitri and take up this guy as my PC instead. Otherwise, he would make a great NPC patron/employer if no one else lands a ship of some kind...I think I've written him with enough bombastic flair to make a fun NPC for interaction, and Jack-of-All-Trades lets him patch skill holes if we need him too.

Assuming he becomes an NPC - MadPanda's got Gunnery,  (as Dimitri) I have Engineering, and Ampere has Pilot, so all we would need to finish crewing the Yacht would be a Steward, NPC or otherwise.

Rook Seidhr

hee hee Muse also rolled up a Noble with a yacht

you can have a Noble-off

or maybe you're pals (or cordial enemies?) and I'll take away one of your yachts with my Hand of Arbitrariness (and give you something in return of course) so you can be pals (or cordial enemies?) on the same ship

PROGRESS REPORT: I am done writing code for the nonce. Time to make some worlds for you folks to adventure among! So far I have a couple of subsectors loaded up just to test the software. I'll load the rest of the sector and start naming things around your starting world soon. You can watch the work in progress at http://travails.sharpcla.ws/worlds/sector/elli/old-colonies/

TheGlyphstone

If Muse got a Yacht, then Stanley can stay an NPC and you can use him or discard him as you like. I'd much rather be a crew member, and a cranky Russian engineer anyways.

We still need a Steward, I guess.

Rook Seidhr

Quote from: TheGlyphstone on January 13, 2016, 12:57:38 PM
Feedback: Add a section, maybe at the top of the Careers page, that briefly goes over the 6 stats in order, since you need to generate those before trying for a career.

The site is specifically not meant to be a replacement for the books. You need Book 1 in front of you to make a character, and that's the way it should be.

EDIT: Rock on, Dimitri. Sir Stanley will be one of Muse's character's crazy noble pals.

TheGlyphstone

Quote from: Riveda on January 16, 2016, 01:27:12 AM
The site is specifically not meant to be a replacement for the books. You need Book 1 in front of you to make a character, and that's the way it should be.

EDIT: Rock on, Dimitri. Sir Stanley will be one of Muse's character's crazy noble pals.

Ah, okay then.

Russian engineers - like Scottish engineers, but with more alcohol tolerance, and a fondness for percussive maintenance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et8Tixucou0

Muse

Quote from: TheGlyphstone on January 13, 2016, 12:57:38 PM
Anyone want to try and roll up a Noble to get us a Yacht to cruise around in? A Hunter can also get a Safari ship, but their survival odds are a lot worse.


Way ahead of you, bro.  :) 
A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

TheGlyphstone


Rook Seidhr

Whoosh. I named 197 worlds in the Old Colonies sector yesterday. 283 to go…never let it be said I didn't go the extra mile for my players. (OK, this has nothing to do with you guys, I've always wanted to map a whole sector and this is my excuse…why are you looking at me like that?)

There are three major interstellar polities (the Fellowship of Equals, the Principate of Corliss, and the Regency) in the Old Colonies sector, several smaller governments and of course many many independent worlds. The Principate and the Regency each claim to be the legitimate heir to the Old Empire, which fell centuries ago; as you can tell from the names, it's more central to the Regency's identity. I'm thinking of starting you guys off in one of the contested subsectors and letting you go where you will.

The work-in-progress URL is http://travails.sharpcla.ws/worlds/sector/elli/old-colonies/. Let me know what you think.

Rook Seidhr

Our current crew complement:

Muse - Baron Emilio Veracrux - Owner aboard
Ampere - Lt Cdr Diane “Cutter” Cunningham - Pilot
MadPanda - Dame Lt Cdr Marguerite Francesca Krakeni - Navigator
TheGlyphstone - 3rd Off Dimitri Vladovich - Engineer

I have a good handle on the astropolitical situation in Old Colonies sector and an idea of where to put you all to start with, so I'm pretty much good to go. I would really like another player or two though. There's room for a Steward/Purser in particular, so Muse's character doesn't have to cook for himself.

EDIT: Muse has announced that the game will start on Beliboil (Old Colonies 2322, C669564-A, in the Swallowmew Cluster), a world renowned far and wide for its oyster harvest. Magnifique! It's a client state of the Principate of Corliss so that probably means all you nobles are from the Principate.