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It's not a hard limit on rituals like TB is, but... it's better than nothing :p. Hm. That sounds like overkill. Me, I'd keep the power lists separate, give psion full BmB and their normal list, and handle the PsiWar like the Bard (2/3 BmB and caster level bonuses at levels where they miss...

You could keep track of separate counts of spent powerpoints - those spent on rote, those on restricted, and those on ritual. Then, a rest recovers all of your rote points, all of your restricted points if you burn an AP, and up to one ritual's worth with an AP. It's a bit more bookkeeping...

Fields of Blood does this for 3.5, but with a much higher degree of detail than you (or I, admittedly) want, since battles between armies are fought on a wargame-like degree of detail. There is an optional abstract combat system, though, where you could provide modifiers for PC actions in...

The trouble with trying to create a supplement that adds complexity, but not power, is that any sufficiently complex system has loopholes, or interactions that the designers did not foresee. I cite as an example True Sorcery, for 3.x (and while a single example is not a proof, it is an...

It varies with our group from session to session, but we get a lot more done than we think sometimes. So far in Traveller, each session tends to have one heist, one dungeon crawl, or maybe 2-3 planets' worth of minor side events. Heists definitely take the longest, since we totally overplan...

The games I run and play in tend to be like Firefly, complete with loose ends - they run maybe 8-15 episodes, too long for a mini-series, but far too short for a mid-form. I blame this on the structure of the semester system, where time is split into 15-week chunks with large breaks in between.

Randomness inside computers is actually an interesting topic, because there just isn't a good analogue to the actual unpredictability of dice under the laws of physics. Most 'random numbers' generated by computers are actually via pseudorandom number generation algorithms, which take an initial...

Huh... that theory does explain why my Trav dungeoncrawls were always quick compared to d20 ones. The PCs tended to either do a sensor sweep and get the layout that way, or if they were on a civilized world, a bit of computer hacking to get floorplans.

I'm unconvinced that even wizards need a full nine... I'd be OK with all full-casters being closer to seven (ergo other).

Vornheim might be worth investigating; don't have it myself, but have heard good things.

Nope. No way, no how. My dad tends to lightly annotate things (page numbers of other rules relevant to this section, for example) or use stickynotes, but it is not something I ever do. Especially now that I'm switching to pdf and don't want to shell out for acrobat...

In general, I find that randomness is a good way to simulate a living world, with the structure and contents of the random table serving as a description of how the world works. Traveller's random critter table is a description of underlying xenological principles, for example. So... yes...

Spycraft might be a viable option; it's mighty heavy, but may be worth looking into. Gear customization / Bond-style gadgets are definitely a thing, and I believe factions / organizations are supported in their freelancer rules (for agents who aren't tied to a single faction). Damage is...

Traveller indeed! Or perhaps Mercator if your tastes run ancient-wise. My understanding of the D&D magic item economy as it stands is that it is more profitable for PCs to be out killing things and taking their stuff than it is for them to try to craft or sell magic items, so the opportunity...

... holy crap. There are active PCs older than I am :confused:. I think my personal best for a PC both in terms of real-life time and levels gained was probably a rogue/wizard back in 3.0 who I played monthlyish for about two years. It's a rare game at college these days that lasts more than...

We had two good mid-level (7-9) TB-light campaigns over the summer; no AP, no short rest, and no extra HP at first level, but it still played pretty nicely (yeah, I know, I'm going to just get slaughtered here for saying that... :p ). Particularly pleasing compared to core 3.5 was that my...

Hrm... our benchmark since switching to Traveller has been ~1 combat per 4-6 hour session, due in part to breaking out of the levelgrind cycle. We spend a lot more time exploring and RPing than we used to; it's pretty nice. When you change the incentives, you change the game.

In general, I tend to provide PCs with no plot armor (had a plot-critical PC splattered by a merc with an auto-grenade launcher in my last Traveller game... that one was tricky, but I dealt with it, and the game went on and ended spectacularly), and to expect none when I'm on the other side of...

Used to be a kitchen-sinker, now a limiter. Setting themes and print origin I'm both pretty OK with. And yeah, I don't really have a favorite race or class, so no problem there for almost any reasonable theme (restrictions of the form "No X" are ok, restrictions of the form "Only X" are less...

Hmm... probably my best work was Golgorroth the Gnoll Demon, a Trailblazer Gnoll Paladin of Slaughter of Legend (MM2). I was running Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale with a two-man party, Godrick the Fighter and The Monk With No Name, but was dissatisfied with the ending as written, so I decided to...