Any Traveller RPG (Mongoose version) fans here?

[Morrus]

We're currently playing a Traveller RPG campaign - I believe it's called Secrets of the Ancients or something similar (I'm not running it).

My character, unfortunately, is somewhat sub-optimal.

STR: 2
DEX: 2
END: 4
INT: 11
EDU: 6
SOC: 3

At one point during character generation he actually failed to remain in the drifter career. He failed to be a failure and was forced - briefly - to be an intergalactic sports star instead. Although with those scores, I'm not sure how that worked out.

He does have one decent characteristic - INT - but that one decent characteristic is still less than that of the party 'tank' (for want of a better word) who has INT 12.

The low scores have created an interesting character. He has a rank of 6 in the Deception skill (that's pretty much all he's good at), so I'm playing him as a bitter, pathological liar in a wheelchair. It's actually working out rather well, though I'm pretty much pointless in combat! At first, I was incapable of making the basic roll to hit a target (which defaults at a DC of 8 on 2d6, and with my -3 for no skill in firearms and my -2 for my low DEX, the max I could roll was 7 - so there was no chance I could ever hit even a stationary target in combat).

Since then I have a big wheelchair-mounted gun which I have to remove every time we leave the ship because it appears to be illegal to carry firearms anywhere! So I haven't actually used it yet.

Anyway, all that aside. Do we have any other Traveller fans here?

 

[Serendipity]

I do loves me some Traveller. Last year I ran a short campaign using classic traveller - the characters were the employees / crew of a retired Darian scientist (a really really old scientist as it turns out), trucking about the Marches on his lab ship.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I bought the mongoose traveller because I really enjoyed classic traveller back in the day. I've not had a chance to play it yet, but still enjoy the chargen 'minigame' !

I think they have improved it over the original wi more details to the background and a way to link together the pasts of the PC group.

Were you tempted to call him 'Rath' as an in joke? Seriously though, it is great to hear of a character with poor die rolls still proving interesting and fun - I like the idea of making him wheelchair bound, it opens up a lot of interesting possibilities.

I remember running a classic 'Secrets of the Ancients' module way back in the 80's, I wonder if this is e same adventure... Or an updated one?

Cheers

 

[Bluenose]

There's a Secret of the Ancients campaign for MongT. It's probably that.

With a character like that, the Merchant career might have been a decent idea. High Int is (or at least it was in CT, I don't remember in MongT having not really looked at character generation for careers I wasn't using) a good stat for that career. Scientist, perhaps, but higher Edu was probably useful. As for his sports career, I can imagine a few games where a quick-thinking individual directing the more physical members of the team to actually perform would be possible - imagine Chess, with pieces actually fighting each other rather than automatically taking each other.

Now I'm getting nostalgic. Time to get the Sky Raiders Trilogy out.

 

[Morrus]

Were you tempted to call him 'Rath' as an in joke?

Actually, I called him Sorvad. Points for whoever can guess why!

 

[Morrus]

With a character like that, the Merchant career might have been a decent idea.

My career rolls were consistently as bad as my ability score roles. He failed at every single career - including, as I mentioned above, failing at being a drifter!

As for his sports career, I can imagine a few games where a quick-thinking individual directing the more physical members of the team to actually perform would be possible - imagine Chess, with pieces actually fighting each other rather than automatically taking each other.

I kinda just assumed it was the Space Paralympics.

 

[Flatus Maximus]

Actually, I called him Sorvad. Points for whoever can guess why!

Davros (from Dr. Who) spelled backwards?

 

[Treebore]

I looooove Traveller! Just wrapped up a several month long campaign a month or two ago.

Hurry up and get a Rank 0 in Gun Combat to get rid of that -3!

Then again, I guess that depends on how your GM handles training. I have done a lot of training, both as an instructor and a student, in the Military, College, and day to day life, so have built up a system based on that. So in my game you would be able to learn Gun Combat 0 in one or two Jumps worth of time. By the Book, assuming your using Mongoose, you would likely have to take months.

 

[Plane Sailing]

.

Now I'm getting nostalgic. Time to get the Sky Raiders Trilogy out.

I used that trilogy with a different system, but it was among the most epic set of adventures I ran. Loved the feel of them.

 

[Mark CMG]

We played a campaign last Spring that went for about four months. I had an aristocrat on the run from another aristocrat who also worked for the Imperium. I kept funneling some points into sword fighting so that eventually I could have a duel with him. Unfortunately, the GM did the same for my rival so we had to slip into his cabin at one point and weaken his dueling sabre with a laser scalpel we jacked from the infirmary. I got pretty chopped up later that day when we finally dueled before his blade snapped and I won.