Ship of Cripples
Jan. 29th, 2007 08:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pyatFantasy author David Eddings recently burned down his own house. Ah well.
***
To business!
Been reading a lot of old Traveller material lately, for whatever reason. Traveller is an odd duck, RPG wise. The volume of material and detail is impressive, with tens of thousands of worlds described, and detailed deck plans available of every ship, and supplement books covering all the major races.
But at the same time the material in print only manages to suggest the setting. So much time and space is covered by the game that, even if you slavishly incorporate all the source material into your campaign, the end result will only superficially resemble another person's game. Yet, at the same time, much of the setting is determined by the game engine and character generation system itself, and proceeds from that facet of the game engine. I suspect that someone using only the tiny Characters and Combat book to run a Traveller game would end up with something recognizably similar to a game run by someone using all 5000 pages of supplementary material.
One thing that impresses me about the materials produced for the game is the fact that the writers were clearly playing by the same rules they wanted you to use. This is sometimes painfully evident in the stats assigned to NPCs or other pre-generated characters. As an example, the adventure Argon Gambit (published in 1981) presents eight pre-generated characters for player use. Their stats and skills were plainly rolled up randomly.
Four examples:
Retired Merchant Captain 616668 Age 50 8 terms Cr1,000
Navigation-1, Admin-1, Steward-1, Medic-1 , Pilot-1 , Shotgun-1 Ship
Ex-navy Lieutenant Commander 118894 Age 34 4 terms Cr2,000
Gunnery-1 , Computer-2, Engineering-1 , Pistol-2
Ex-scout 365BB4 Age 34 4 terms Cr1,500
Vacc-2, Pistol-1 , Pilot-1, Electronics-1, Brawling-1 TAS member
Ex-navy Starman 961797 Age 50 8 terms Cr1,300
Dagger-4, Admin-1, Ship's Boat-1, Computer-1, Navigation-1, JOT-1
If you don't understand the numbers, don't worry about it. You probably dated a lot more than I did.
The string of numbers after the descriptive title is the Universal Personality Profile (UPP). Each number reflects a physical, mental, or social characteristic. In order, they are Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education, and Social Status. These range from 1 to 12 (or higher, if you're lucky), with numbers greated than 9 represented by a letter. Thus, 10=A, 11=B, and so on.
What's interesting is the way these short stat block encapsulations suggest a history for each character.
So, the first character is the 50 year old pilot and ship owner. He (or she) has a 1 in Dexterity. His other stats are pretty mediocre. Now, it is impossible to roll a 1 for a starting statistic, meaning that this character (and the others) suffered some injury in the course of their life. I'm picturing a middle-aged astronaut with some kind of degenerative nerve disorder. Alternately, he was exposed to the vacuum of space and partially paralyzed! He shakes uncontrollably, but piloting a freighter doesn't require fine-motor control, as the ship is mostly automated. He just has to punch the right buttons. And notice that he has a skill in shotgun - about the only firearm he can handle with any degree of accuracy!
The second character is a 34 year old retired Navy officer. He or she has a 1 in Strength AND a 1 in Dexterity, which means this character is so feeble and uncoordinated as to be practically confined to bed. And indeed, most of this character's skills are the sort of things that can be performed by someone in a wheelchair. So, I get the mental image of capable young woman, who had a promising military career cut short when she was shot in the spine by space pirates. She's been forced to take employment as a gunner/techie on an ancient space freighter under the command of a guy she met at the Disability Office. She can barely stand, but that doesn't matter on board the ship. Crank the grav plates down to 1/4 G, and she can get around fine. And she's still a fair shot with a pistol, so look out.
The third character is apparently some kind of working class nerd in his early 30s. He has a 3 in Strength, a mediocre 6 in Dexterity, a 5 in Endurance, a low Social Standing... but very high Intelligence and Education. He was in the Scout service, which is a branch that attracts the sort of loners willing to knock around the universe in a tiny ship for months at a time. So, I imagine an over-educated nerd from a blue collar home. His education was supposed to be his ticket to a better life, but in the end the only way off his depressing home world was to sign up as a Scout. For most of his adult life he's been alone, with only adventure story booktapes and holovids for company. He has 2 in Vacc Suit operation, so I imagine him spending long hours drifting in a space suit tethered to his ship, just enjoying the solitude. The Scout service kicked him out, and he's signed on with this freighter as the engineer and co-pilot. He's been in rough spots before, and maybe sees himself as something of an adventurer. Maybe there's there's some romantic tension between him and the ex-Naval officer? Unrequited, perhaps, because she only has eyes for...
The fourth character. This guy is a real enigma. He's ex-Navy as well, retired (or forced out) at the age of 50. Look at that range of skills. A FOUR in Dagger? He can fly a Ship's Boat? Jack of all Trades? No way was this guy some bridge officer. I'm imagining a Special Forces type, trained in covert assassination. He'd use his "Jack of all Trades" skill to get hired on a pirate ship, or by a gang of terrorists. He even has Admin skills, so he can play the part of a harmless bureacrat. Once in place, he wins the confidence of his new friends, then kills his target silently with a dagger and escapes in a Ship's Boat, which is the most nondescript of vehicles in the Traveller universe. His 9 Strength (at the age of 50!) suggests an athletic type. His Intelligence and Social Standing are purely average, letting him fit in with a crowd, but his above-average Education is a hallmark of years spent researching various backgrounds. He knows a little bit about everything, or can fake it.
But look at that Endurance. This athletic guy has a 1 in Endurance. So, he's big and brawny, and still deadly with a knife, but can barely climb a flight of stairs these days. Cancer, maybe. Or a heart condition. Or a mysterious poison some old enemy gave him? Or maybe he knew too much, and the service (or a rival) tried to take him down? They think he's dead, but he's just biding his time on some civillian garbage scow full of losers! Or, he's genuinely afraid of his life, and is playing the part of the genial old Navy quartermaster, forced into retirement because of a bad heart? And one day, someone tries to mess with that sweet new Techie we hired, and out comes the service dagger...
I forgot what my point was.
Uh... I think I was going to say that most players would ditch these characters minutes after rolling them. But now I think they're cool, and almost want to run a PBEM game that features them.
***
To business!
Been reading a lot of old Traveller material lately, for whatever reason. Traveller is an odd duck, RPG wise. The volume of material and detail is impressive, with tens of thousands of worlds described, and detailed deck plans available of every ship, and supplement books covering all the major races.
But at the same time the material in print only manages to suggest the setting. So much time and space is covered by the game that, even if you slavishly incorporate all the source material into your campaign, the end result will only superficially resemble another person's game. Yet, at the same time, much of the setting is determined by the game engine and character generation system itself, and proceeds from that facet of the game engine. I suspect that someone using only the tiny Characters and Combat book to run a Traveller game would end up with something recognizably similar to a game run by someone using all 5000 pages of supplementary material.
One thing that impresses me about the materials produced for the game is the fact that the writers were clearly playing by the same rules they wanted you to use. This is sometimes painfully evident in the stats assigned to NPCs or other pre-generated characters. As an example, the adventure Argon Gambit (published in 1981) presents eight pre-generated characters for player use. Their stats and skills were plainly rolled up randomly.
Four examples:
Retired Merchant Captain 616668 Age 50 8 terms Cr1,000
Navigation-1, Admin-1, Steward-1, Medic-1 , Pilot-1 , Shotgun-1 Ship
Ex-navy Lieutenant Commander 118894 Age 34 4 terms Cr2,000
Gunnery-1 , Computer-2, Engineering-1 , Pistol-2
Ex-scout 365BB4 Age 34 4 terms Cr1,500
Vacc-2, Pistol-1 , Pilot-1, Electronics-1, Brawling-1 TAS member
Ex-navy Starman 961797 Age 50 8 terms Cr1,300
Dagger-4, Admin-1, Ship's Boat-1, Computer-1, Navigation-1, JOT-1
If you don't understand the numbers, don't worry about it. You probably dated a lot more than I did.
The string of numbers after the descriptive title is the Universal Personality Profile (UPP). Each number reflects a physical, mental, or social characteristic. In order, they are Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education, and Social Status. These range from 1 to 12 (or higher, if you're lucky), with numbers greated than 9 represented by a letter. Thus, 10=A, 11=B, and so on.
What's interesting is the way these short stat block encapsulations suggest a history for each character.
So, the first character is the 50 year old pilot and ship owner. He (or she) has a 1 in Dexterity. His other stats are pretty mediocre. Now, it is impossible to roll a 1 for a starting statistic, meaning that this character (and the others) suffered some injury in the course of their life. I'm picturing a middle-aged astronaut with some kind of degenerative nerve disorder. Alternately, he was exposed to the vacuum of space and partially paralyzed! He shakes uncontrollably, but piloting a freighter doesn't require fine-motor control, as the ship is mostly automated. He just has to punch the right buttons. And notice that he has a skill in shotgun - about the only firearm he can handle with any degree of accuracy!
The second character is a 34 year old retired Navy officer. He or she has a 1 in Strength AND a 1 in Dexterity, which means this character is so feeble and uncoordinated as to be practically confined to bed. And indeed, most of this character's skills are the sort of things that can be performed by someone in a wheelchair. So, I get the mental image of capable young woman, who had a promising military career cut short when she was shot in the spine by space pirates. She's been forced to take employment as a gunner/techie on an ancient space freighter under the command of a guy she met at the Disability Office. She can barely stand, but that doesn't matter on board the ship. Crank the grav plates down to 1/4 G, and she can get around fine. And she's still a fair shot with a pistol, so look out.
The third character is apparently some kind of working class nerd in his early 30s. He has a 3 in Strength, a mediocre 6 in Dexterity, a 5 in Endurance, a low Social Standing... but very high Intelligence and Education. He was in the Scout service, which is a branch that attracts the sort of loners willing to knock around the universe in a tiny ship for months at a time. So, I imagine an over-educated nerd from a blue collar home. His education was supposed to be his ticket to a better life, but in the end the only way off his depressing home world was to sign up as a Scout. For most of his adult life he's been alone, with only adventure story booktapes and holovids for company. He has 2 in Vacc Suit operation, so I imagine him spending long hours drifting in a space suit tethered to his ship, just enjoying the solitude. The Scout service kicked him out, and he's signed on with this freighter as the engineer and co-pilot. He's been in rough spots before, and maybe sees himself as something of an adventurer. Maybe there's there's some romantic tension between him and the ex-Naval officer? Unrequited, perhaps, because she only has eyes for...
The fourth character. This guy is a real enigma. He's ex-Navy as well, retired (or forced out) at the age of 50. Look at that range of skills. A FOUR in Dagger? He can fly a Ship's Boat? Jack of all Trades? No way was this guy some bridge officer. I'm imagining a Special Forces type, trained in covert assassination. He'd use his "Jack of all Trades" skill to get hired on a pirate ship, or by a gang of terrorists. He even has Admin skills, so he can play the part of a harmless bureacrat. Once in place, he wins the confidence of his new friends, then kills his target silently with a dagger and escapes in a Ship's Boat, which is the most nondescript of vehicles in the Traveller universe. His 9 Strength (at the age of 50!) suggests an athletic type. His Intelligence and Social Standing are purely average, letting him fit in with a crowd, but his above-average Education is a hallmark of years spent researching various backgrounds. He knows a little bit about everything, or can fake it.
But look at that Endurance. This athletic guy has a 1 in Endurance. So, he's big and brawny, and still deadly with a knife, but can barely climb a flight of stairs these days. Cancer, maybe. Or a heart condition. Or a mysterious poison some old enemy gave him? Or maybe he knew too much, and the service (or a rival) tried to take him down? They think he's dead, but he's just biding his time on some civillian garbage scow full of losers! Or, he's genuinely afraid of his life, and is playing the part of the genial old Navy quartermaster, forced into retirement because of a bad heart? And one day, someone tries to mess with that sweet new Techie we hired, and out comes the service dagger...
I forgot what my point was.
Uh... I think I was going to say that most players would ditch these characters minutes after rolling them. But now I think they're cool, and almost want to run a PBEM game that features them.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-29 04:32 pm (UTC)This is the true genius of Traveller, and also the single factor that attracted me to Burning Wheel. In my opinion the truly great RPGs don't provide settings: but they do provide implied setting features revealed through mechanical suggestions here and there.
I know there are folks who like their vanilla rule systems wedded to intricately detailed published background, but I think the Traveller/BW/D&D/C&S approach produces the games that have the most legs and attach themselves to players' passions the most (presumably, because players are led to invest much more of themselves in their play than with games that spoon-feed so much background).
Personally, my fondest gaming memories come from Traveller and HERO.
Breadth over Depth
Date: 2007-01-29 05:49 pm (UTC)Of course, Trav comes from an era in which most RPGs ASSUMED you'd be coming up with your own game world. D&D certainly didn't have an offical published setting at the time, and RuneQuest didn't appear until later. About the only Setting-Heavy RPG of the period was Empire of the Petal Throne. By the standards of the day, even the minimalist Imperium implied by the character creation rules was pretty substantial.
The Traveller Imperium was defined just enough to provide common ground -- but it was so BIG and OPEN that you could almost treat different individual campaigns as if they were happening in the same greater setting.
And it pulled it off without ever making the PCs seem trivial or ineffectual. Trav was a setting where you could, with determination and a willing GM, garner vast fortunes, achieve great military victories, or carve out your own little pocket empire, without compromising the structure of the larger milieu.
I can't think of another RPG setting that's managed that balancing act.
When MegaTraveller and TNE came along, they screwed all that up by saddling the setting with Too Much Plot.
Re: Breadth over Depth
Date: 2007-01-29 07:22 pm (UTC)The infrastructure crumbles, populations are decimated, a lone band of heroes manage to seal off the choke-point and then there's the long business of re-building.
Not exactly canon TNE, but I figure all sorts of adventure could be had. Virus-overcome Cylon-like androids would figure prominently of course...
no subject
Date: 2007-01-29 07:02 pm (UTC)Ditto. But I suspect it's very hard to "go home again," y'know?
no subject
Date: 2007-01-29 07:19 pm (UTC)In the end, the campaign had a consciously pre-WWII European tinder-box feel - imagine Foyle's War or Poirot mysteries crossed with Blake's 7. I had great fun. The players seemed to be enjoying something. Then life got in the way.
I will run Traveller again. I will, I will.
As for HERO, it's been our gaming group's lingua franca for over twenty years, and I don't expect that will stop anytime soon. I've been involved in something HERO-ish pretty solidly since fifth edition hit the streets. The Wednesday-night group is currently involved in a round-robin campaign (each member owns "one continent" and hosts one adventure as part of the ongoing campaign). The year is 1912. Heroes first appeared in 1908, in a diasporic pattern fanning out from northern Russia. I GM'd first and had "Europe", so I set my adventure in Paris.
The PCs were hired by a mysterious figure who turned out to be Le Comte de Saint-Germain. He was attempting to build some sort of large Tesla-coil device on top of the Eiffel Tower. Things went Horribly Wrong(tm). The resulting explosion managed to level a large percentage of Paris.
On the upside, as one of the players has said, WWI may now not happen...
no subject
Date: 2007-01-29 07:20 pm (UTC)Apropos of my more recent employment post today, KW seems to be a hot area for tech writers. I don't suppose you know of any leads?
no subject
Date: 2007-01-29 07:27 pm (UTC)As for moving to Hamilton, since both my wife and I were born, reared, schooled, employed, and childrened all within a 30km radius, the chances of me being able to uproot and move to another city are slim to none, sad to say.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-29 07:32 pm (UTC)Yeah, I don't expect you would want to leave, for the same reasons we have no real desire to leave Hamilton.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-29 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-29 08:41 pm (UTC)IMTU : tc+(++) tt+ to+ t4-- ru ge 3i+jt-@ a(u-) pi+ ls+ so
no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-29 08:57 pm (UTC)::B::
w00t
Date: 2007-01-29 09:18 pm (UTC)Although Jazrael's invasion of LA by Tharkhold was pure fan-service.
Re: w00t
Date: 2007-01-29 09:21 pm (UTC)The gaming world is a strange, strange place.