The time has come for me to stop thinking about trying to run a Play by Post game, and to actually... you know... RUN a play by post game.   So, here we are.

I am looking for players interested in PbP, who don't mind a non-technical PbP no0b GM.  I've got it planned out with the IC and OOC threads here on this forum, digital note passing (see below for reasons...) in the form of a dedicated Email account, and I plan to add a wiki/wikispaces for various details (which is an optional resource for players) in the near future.


WHO:

Characters are made by the players (naturally). Six terms maximum, a failed survival roll/Mishap ends creation. Big Boy rules (that is make it on your own. You cheat its on you).  I'm pretty much open to any ideas, any of the 1st edition Mongoose books. I'd rather not see truly weird characters (Hivers, K'kree...) but I'm open to just about any other idea.   Character creation is to be handled privately (via email), though once the game starts you are welcome to share as much or as little as you like with your fellow players.  I will offer opportunities to players to tie their characters to the setting, as well as cultural details that could inform the character's reactions to events.

WHAT:

Game's focus is going to be on exploration and mystery (not Conan Doyle mystery, you can rest easy). I run wide open sandboxes by default, and I see no reason to change that now.  

WHEN:

Da FUTURE!      Okay, so I can check in at least twice a day, maybe more, but I'll only post if the players are posting, generally.  Gotta play it by ear (Im new at this format...), and I'm ready to start as soon as I get characters.
 
WHERE:

Ah. Mystery! This will NOT BE the Third Imperium, or any other published setting, though I can and will steal liberally from them. I expect to toss in transhuman elements, interesting questions without fixed answers (see Sandbox, above) and so forth.  Seriously: I'd love to explain more but I don't wanna ruin the setup!

WHY:

That is up to the players.

HOW:

You know, the usual. In character threads, OOC threads. Emails and the like, links to a wiki (soon....), etc.


Let me know in this thread if you are interested, or if you have some sort of wonky question

I'm interested.  But have never played travler, or play by post.  

How big a deal is making a tralver charcter?  How much writing are we talking about?

Aww, and I have no Traveller in my collection. Could you make me a PC? I'd even play the starship's space pet!

I can make characters, though that deprives others of the joy of Traveller Character creation... which many fans account as a game unto itself.  I do need an idea what SORT of character you'd want.

I'm off to work now, but since I've got a nibble on this line I'll certainly force myself to check in before going to sleep in  le morning.  


Er, to answer more specifically... traveller uses 2d6 rolls on a four year life path cycle.  Six attributes, not unlike D&D but with significant differences and a smaller range (2d6, recall), and skills defining the character in play.

Off the top of my head, six life paths generates something akin to 9 or so skill points on average in Mongtrav.  Skills are direct modifiers to dice rolls against an average target number of 8+ (on a 2d6 roll, again. Simplicity!)

Have you seen this website. http://www.munsondev.com/chargen/chargendisplay.php

Is it any good?

never heard of it, I'll give it a look though


I ran through it once. It works fine as far as I can see.  A bit rough around the edges, but that doesn't effect the final product.

6 life paths? Does that mean 6, 4 year career choices?  That means we start the game at 42?

yes, but taking every possible term is optional. Also: If you fail a survival roll/have a mishap that ends your character creation right there, which ironically happened to me when I was making a sample character to test the generator...

Don't sweat aging/anagathics, though ageing effects are applied automatically by the generator (not sure how anagathics are handled, as it didn't come up in my test character... so this may only apply to book creating players...)

OK, which edition of Traveller do you have in mind? CT, MgT1e/Cepheus and MgT2e all work on 2d6+mods, so I'm guessing one of those:).
But they don't even use the same skill lists, not to mention the differnence between lifepaths, or the price of anagathics, which only looks like a small detail, or the availability of psionics;).

I  did mention in the opening post that this was Mongoose Traveller.  I even specified 1st edition, though really the difference between 1 and 2 is trivial for characters (and I may use 2 for ships and the sort... but lets not confuse folks just dipping their toes in the waters of Traveller.

For this failure I will have to launch a horrible slur upon your character, your parentage and general body odor, before politely asking if you'd like to play.  

Also: Do.Not.Sweat.Anagathics.

Also: While it isn't  a major thing, I would appreciate not posting characters beyond the concept stage in thread. If you have a link to... say... Munson's generator (I have no idea if it does that, just saying) or a google doc or something, PM me, or if you have a specific question about a working character.  I'll have the gmail address posted in the morning for full characters and dialog. Yes, yes... I've already set it up so I could post it now, but I'm weird, I want to wait until I've actually opened it up and am monitoring it (or otherwise: Not on my way out the door to work...) before I make a 'big step'. I'm weird.

Things I don't have to say yes to (because they are already cleared):

Aslan
Vargr (With the caveat that they have a significant setting change)
Psionics
Near-Human species (again: Setting Specific changes), to include Zhodani and Darrians

Things I've said No to
Hivers
K'kree
Things too weird to live.


Things that require discussion prior to saying yes, which may mean no but I hate shutting down cool ideas without hearing them (that sounds sadistic... er...  lets say I hate shutting doors on potentially awesome characters... yeah, that's the ticket!)

Hmm... Robots? Yeah, lets stick robots on this list, so its not empty.





Things players should not worry about in character creation:

Aging/Anagathics, because Reasons.
Starships (but by all means, track your ship shares)
Allies/Enemies/Rivals (again: Track them, but reserve them for GM discussion as to whom, so I can tie them into setting/set-up.)



Things the GM will do for you:

Provide specific cultural/setting context for your character, with optional homework.  I'm joking about the homework, I mean some notes one what a typical (i.e. Not necessarily your character) character would think about certain things (cybernetics, aliens, what have you).  I aim to keep it under a page (with plenty of white space), but I'm unfortunately legendary for my ability to babble endlessly.

Things your character (in specific) knows about the setting. Again, optional. And again: I will try to keep it brief so you don't feel the need to exercise optionality.  I like to use the carrot rather than the stick on these sorts of things.

I will offer minor alterations to your character to bring them more into the setting. Note that these changes are offers, I stick by my personal philosophy that the creation of characters is players choice, not GMs.  I probably am making too big a deal of this, but as this is theRPGsite, deep in the blood soaked battlefields of the Swine-Wars, better safe than sorry, eh?


Anything I provide in the form of setting notes I'll post probably by google docs (if I can figure it out), and just send on a link, so you can refer to it at leisure.  OF course, that will also mean that players who aren't down with all the mysteriousness and exploration (via character creation) can just find the docs I prepared for other characters and read those too... shame on you! Shame! (shame? Yes, three Shames sounds right.)




Hopefully I haven't scared everyone off with my evil GMing ways (actually... this is a lot more work than I usually do setting up a game. I just had this (well, stole this) neat idea for a campaign setup.  If its too much, just say something and I'll just mope about with sad puppy-dog eyes for a little while, swear.

Quote from: Spike;997636I  did mention in the opening post that this was Mongoose Traveller.  I even specified 1st edition, though really the difference between 1 and 2 is trivial for characters (and I may use 2 for ships and the sort... but lets not confuse folks just dipping their toes in the waters of Traveller.

For this failure I will have to launch a horrible slur upon your character, your parentage and general body odor, before politely asking if you'd like to play.  

Technically, you said "I'm pretty much open to any ideas, any of the 1st edition Mongoose books". I understood that to mean you're still picking a system, but Mongoose books can be used for ideas...

That's, of course, is due to the fact that this is exactly how I use them, and not to any fault of yours:).

In what regards playing or not playing, I'm simply not sure. I've got a couple games already on Myth-Weavers, and am waiting to maybe start another. On top of that, spreading my games on different forums is bound to take even more time, and make me less reliable as a player...
But on the other hand, Traveller;)!

In short, I must estimate my availability. Nobody would want me to leave the game hanging because I took one more game than I could follow, right:)?

If you're looking for players, though, there are a couple dozen players I could suggest if you'd like me to;).

by all means, suggest away!  My floor for groups is usually four players, so I'm short, and for this I was hoping for six or so.  I'll click the link in the morning, as I'm really behind schedule for work (its my Friday! Yay for Weekends!)

What would you recommend as a minimum to play from something like drivethrurpg.com?

Quote from: Headless;997321Have you seen this website. http://www.munsondev.com/chargen/chargendisplay.php

Is it any good?

Quote from: Spike;997408never heard of it, I'll give it a look though


I ran through it once. It works fine as far as I can see.  A bit rough around the edges, but that doesn't effect the final product.

w00t! that means i can play without having the materials! I'm gonna play Traveller cold, no experience!

edit: y'know this might be the first time i went beyond the chargen lifepath mini-game! (well, that and watching frustrated bickering on the starship before the table imploded. this time we might actually see spaaaace!)