Stan's 2015 NTRPG Con Traveller Game

The Neutron Star

Stay tuned! More information on Stan’s 2015 NTRPG Con Traveller Game will be posted here prior to the convention, including details on Stan’s house rules and where to get access to Classic Traveller. Don’t worry though — you don’t need to prepare anything for the game!

Overview

Event Title: The Neutron Star Directive
Event Type: Role Playing Game
System: Classic Traveller (using Starter Traveller Rules)
World: 3rd Imperium
Day/Date: Thursday
Session Time: 18:00 – 23:59
Number: 5 to 8 players
PCs: We’ll roll up characters together
Experience: None required
GM: Stan Shinn

Game Details

Description: Against the bright field of stars, the neutron star can only be seen by the black smudge where its gravity well bends space. You don’t feel much like stargazing though; you and your companions are down on your luck on a seedy and crowded space station, trying to keep your creditors at bay. An agent representing the defunct corporation OmniSolv hires you to retrieve sensor data from the abandoned research station Delta Sierra 17.

Retrieving it won’t be easy: you’ll have to venture deep into the asteroid belts circling the treacherous gravity well of a neutron star! Hopefully your pilot will be up to the task because those who fail to follow the proper space lanes will encounter gravity shears that will tear your ship apart!

Smuggler intrigue, EVAs, radiation bursts, and spinning asteroids are only the beginning of the challenges: the research station DS-17 has long been abandoned, and you’ve got a niggling feeling this job will be even more hazardous than you’ve imagined!

Rules Version: We’ll use the Classic Traveller rules from the late ’70s/early 80’s (and more specifically, the Starter Traveller Rules version which is a bit simplified). You can also use the LBB (Little Black Book) original Book 1, or The Traveller Book. If you’re using these other books to roll up characters just avoid Psionics as they aren’t allowed in the game (and are absent from the Starter Traveller basic rules). Both the LBB, The Traveller Book and Starter Set editions are roughly compatible; the minor differences are more on the Referee side of things.

Introduction to Traveller: See this great ‘Understanding Traveller’ PDF from FarFutere.net.

Character Creation: We’ll roll up characters together — and yes, you can die during character creation! (Don’t worry, you can start again until you get a surviving character). If you have time check out Classic Traveller  prior to the game you can try rolling up characters — you can use the better of any characters you’ve rolled up at home (don’t cheat!) or the one you roll up at the beginning of our Con game.

House Rules

Character Species: Humans only.

Psionics: No Psionics for player characters allowed.

Death at CharGen: If your first character dies in character generation, he simply dies. If your 2nd character dies in character generation, they don’t die but instead are “wounded with disability discharge” and grant one extra mustering out benefit roll.

Late-to-Game Characters: Players joining a game late roll a d100 under the service of their choice in the ‘1001 Characters’ LLB and use those characters stats.

Skill Notation: Most skills grant +1 DM per skill level. Skills with > 1 bonus per level are noted as 3 (1) where the 3 shows the actual bonus to the dice roll, and the 1 shows the skill level. Skills with +4 DM per skill level are Forward Observer and Vacc Suit. Skills with +2 DM per skill level are Administration, Engineering, Forgery, and Ship’s Boat.

Standard Ship Skills: These are skills every ship crew should have:

• Pilot
• Navigator
• Engineer
• Steward
• Medic
• Gunner

After everything is done in character generation, each player should pick one of the skills from the list and add one rank of it to their character sheet. It cannot make an existing skill go past rank 2, and each skill may only be taken once. If your group is small enough, do two rounds of the table and give everyone two skills, but make them pick in two rounds, not both at once.

Critical Failures: Natural roll of 2 always fails, usually with dire consequences. Something bad happens, but maybe totally unrelated to the failed check.

Skill Checks and Task Resolution: Roll characteristic or less to succeed. Modify based on the situation. Referee should use a graded DM scale: +0/+2/+4/+6.

Downloads

I’ll bring copies of these to the Con, but feel free to print them out and use them in your own games!

Classic Traveller Character Sheet — Behold! My take on a character sheet for Classic Traveller.
https://goo.gl/BEHM7r (Not form fillable, but if anyone wants it to be form-fillable, just go to the free http://www.pdfescape.com/ and reshare when you’re done.)

Classic Traveller Introduction — Intro to the Traveller Universe and to a Few Key Rules
https://goo.gl/BGLTfK

Classic Traveller Rules Summary — 1 Sheet Summary of the Key Classic Traveller Rules
https://goo.gl/mU1E8b

Questions?

Feel free to contact me at stanshinn@gmail.com with any questions.

Custom Classic Traveller Character Sheet and other Props

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