Hiya,

We're reading the Classic Trav book and my platers are going apeshit because they don't understand the experience rules and are afraid that they won't never ever raise any score and this idea makes them freak out like the whiny bitches that roleplayers can be.

I haven't got to read that chapter thoroughly yet (still wrapping my head around the starship combat rules, fucking shit, you have to calculate fucking vectors) but I'd like to ask if someone experienced in this game can explain to me how is experience earned so I can tell my crew to shut the fuck up already.

Thanks in advance.

Classic Traveller doesn't have XP. I don't have the books in front of me, but the gist of it is, PC's have to find an Instructor, or other teaching method, then study a while (don't remember if it's six months or a year) to get one new Skill or one new Skill Level.

In other words, kind of like real life.

After all, in Character Generation, PC's only get 1-3 skills per TERM (4 years). So it's assumed it will be no faster in play.

Instead of XP, Traveller PC's earn pay, get new gear, new contacts, etc. All in play.

Yup no XP in Traveller.

In Classic Traveller the skills start low and then don't improve much

There are options......

We used to add a learning by doing rule.
Everytime you used a skill in a stressful situation you got a tick. you could burn 12 ticks on that skill to roll 2d6 the target was above 7+ your current skill level. If you rolled above you added an extra skill level.

Trouble is that
i) its a lot of paper work
ii) Combat skills get up to 3 or 4 very fast and thern sucess is really easy so you have a feedback.... so we restricted increases to per combat (rather than per sucess) and that kind of fixed it.

Tell the players that they should focus on wealth, social status, information, and contacts.

yup, as nightwind1 and others have said.  you may want to add on another form of xp/advancement system, like the one from megatraveller, for example.

You can also try some alternative means of xp - like reward - they still need to seek training to get new/upgraded skills, but for example - if a player successfully employed his combat skills a lot on the prior session, perhaps he has a right to reroll those combat skills once during the next game/day/adventure (choose the least metagaming type if that pains you), to represent his growing experience and specialisation with combat skills. That stuff.

Quote from: estar;531676Tell the players that they should focus on wealth, social status, information, and contacts.

This, or you can come up with something.

Honestly, this was one of the things I loved because it gave me room to experiment and find a system that worked for each group I was running. The only maxims that seemed to apply to each group was that the xp system should be simple and make level-0 skills relatively easy to achieve while it gets progressively harder to achieve higher levels of skill.

Awesome. Anyway I will bring kleenex to the game so the tears won't drown me.

You have to understand them, they just came out of a 34 - session 7Th Sea
campaign and they're used to getting XP and regularly gaining dots in stuff

Another Trav question!

Am I a bloody heathen if I ever consider running MegaTraveller? Which are the differences between CT and MT? My only contact with MT was through an old videogame called MT: The Zhodani Conspiracy a million years ago. Can I find useful things in MT to mine for CT? Am I dumb?

Quote from: Imperator;531697Another Trav question!

Am I a bloody heathen if I ever consider running MegaTraveller? Which are the differences between CT and MT? My only contact with MT was through an old videogame called MT: The Zhodani Conspiracy a million years ago. Can I find useful things in MT to mine for CT? Am I dumb?

I despise MT, but the one single greatest contribution it has given is one that I use in every game I run. That is the "visual nugget" adventure format that was described in the Megatraveller Referee's Screen.

Quote from: jeff37923;531704I despise MT, but the one single greatest contribution it has given is one that I use in every game I run. That is the "visual nugget" adventure format that was described in the Megatraveller Referee's Screen.

Could you elaborate on this when you have some spare minutes? I mean elaborate about ypur despise and the reasons to it, and that nugget you speak about.

Actually, this is close and it comes from my playtest document for T20. The Epic Adventure System also is not bad to use and is very similar to the Visual Nugget system.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Epic Adventure System

The problem with many adventures is that they are very 'linear' in design, in that encounter one typically leads to encounter two, which inevitably leads
to encounter three, ad-nauseum. This is fine until you get player characters involved who always seem to want to go from encounter one, to encounter
12, back to encounter 3, over the woods to an area you haven't developed yet, and general cause mayhem to the plot of an otherwise great adventure.
The Epic Adventure System provides a new way to design and organize adventures, that allowing the player characters the 'freedom to roam' without
causing the referee nightmares. An Epic Adventure is broken down into 6 parts:
The Cast of Characters
The Background – The background provides the Referee with the information needed to prepare himself, and lay the groundwork for introducing this
adventure to the players.
Minor Scenes – Minor Scenes or just Scenes, are encounters or events that involve the player characters in some form. Many are directly related to the
adventure, and may provide clues, equipment, or other information and materials needed to eventually complete the adventure. Others are merely to
provide diversion and amusement. Scenes, unless noted in their descriptions, do not need to be played in any particular order, and may be sprung upon
the player characters when the Referee deems appropriate.
Plot Keys – Plot Keys or simply Keys, make up the heart of the storyline for the adventure. They contain key pieces to the plot that must be played for
the adventure to make any sense to the players in the end. You may play any number of Scenes before and after each Plot Keys, but each Plot Keys
should eventually be completed in their proper order.
Chapters – A Chapter is made up of one of more Plot Keys. They outline the plot to the referee, and provide tips and information for playing the Scenes
and Plot Keys that are contained in the Chapter. In order to complete a Chapter, each Plot Key within must be completed. Each Chapter must be
completed, and played in order to successfully run the adventure.
Because of the 'cinematic' nature of this adventure, it is easy for the Referee to allow the player characters to temporarily deviate from the current
adventure storyline to follow a false lead or pursue another short adventure that has interested them. When you are ready to return the player characters
back to this adventure plot line, simply pick up with the next Scene.
Adventure Checklist – The Adventure Checklist provides newer referees a recommended guideline of the order in which various Scenes and Plot Keys
in this adventure should be presented to the players. As the player characters complete each Scene or Plot Key, the Referee simply checks it off the list.
When every Plot Key in a Chapter has been played, that Chapter has been completed the Referee may begin the first Scene in the next Chapter.
You will note that not every Minor Scene is included in the Checklist. This allows Referees who would like to use the Checklist, but would like to changes
things a little bit to swap out scenes, or included their own custom scenes. If you feel comfortable in letting your characters stray from the order of the
checklist, you may determine the 'cinematic' order of the scenes as you see fit, or use the weekly events chart below to determine the course of events.
2D Weekly Event
2-8 Play a Minor Scene/Find a Ruin
9-11 Starport Run. The Professor has some errand requiring the characters to go to the local starport for the week.
12 Plot Key
Play a Minor Scene – Select one of the Minor Scenes detailed later and run the scene as directed.
Starport Run – This is an excuse and an opportunity to bring in sideline encounters, patrons and scenarios unrelated to this adventure.
Play a Plot Key – Plots Keys should be played in order for the adventure to make sense to the players as it was written. If you change the order of the
Plot Keys, you should be sure to adjust any of the other scenes to ensure the adventure flows properly and makes sense.

megatraveller was my big thing back in the late 80s & 90s.  however, there are tons of errata, so you're best off winging some stats or just treating a lot of stuff as guidelines.  i got lucky, and most of my group just took what was printed (or what i ruled) as law and didn't delve too deeply into the mechanics.  gearheads now have the errata to work with, but back then it was a lot of seat-of-my-pants adjudications, LOL

the two big things to take from MT are the experience system, and the task system.

oh, and anything produced by Digest Group Publications.  pure gold for MT.

if i was to run trav these days, it would be a CT base with those two MT mechanics.

Quote from: Imperator;531705Could you elaborate on this when you have some spare minutes? I mean elaborate about ypur despise and the reasons to it, and that nugget you speak about.

I'll post more when I can, but I have to go to work now.

Sorry for the eye-killing wall of text above, I will reformat it when I get home.

Quote from: estar;531676Tell the players that they should focus on wealth, social status, information, and contacts.

This is something I've always loved about Traveller... coming to it as I did straight out of D&D where everyone was obsessed with raising XP/levels. Traveller was a breath of fresh air.
One of the things I like about Eclipse Phase is its emphasis on the PC's reputation with various groups... because in that setting it really is worth the trouble.

Take it with a grain of salt, but for Trav inspiration:  Futurama?

Double bonus points if your patron pitches every mission with "Good news, everyone!"