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Classic Traveller - a dice-driven game
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<blockquote data-quote="5ekyu" data-source="post: 7302719" data-attributes="member: 6919838"><p>its entirely possible We started with the little black books, did play mega traveller, TNE, T20, wherever it was Striker got into the mix that got added too and likely other flavors in between. i think we actually had at least one campaign with every flavor of T we ever found. Even started with the earliest styles of DIE during CHARGEN options.</p><p></p><p>Was all fun.</p><p></p><p>That said, while it was all fun and the Gms often used the random system generations in their pre and such, I don't think any of us every got into worrying about the "pure design and intent" or went in for the joy of rolling a new system when it was found kind of thing that i believe is being described here.</p><p></p><p>Although, on an unusual or ironic aside, i actually use a flavor of the random scenario design in my own current 5e driven games. For each session, the players deal me a card from typical 52 card deck face down, i use those cards to determine the "drivers" for that session. Low cards (2-6), High Cards (7-10) and face cards (J-A) of each suit determine a magnitude and a theme behind things like events occurring, NPC attitudes, types of treasure etc while the overall arc of the set remains intact. HEARTS = compassion, mercy or helpful (treat wounded, feed hungry, reunite missing, help woo) DIAMONDS = greed or loot ("I gotta plan that can make us rich", stealing back from rich, finding missing treasure), SPADES = Environmental threats (storms, disease, quakes, poisonous frogs, tainted shipment of wine) and of course CLUBS = Hostile active BGS ready to do very bad things. The players find it fun to see the cards flipped at end of session and then fill in for themselves how that "drove" or even "flavored" the scenario they just finished.</p><p></p><p>The beautiful part of this approach *in practice* is that it has led me to build my sets differently and IMO a little more robustly. in addition to the BIG STORY parts of the set, i build in for "the cards" a face card, midcard and low card element for each suit. Obviously many will not play an active role in any given scenario/session but having to put them in gives me lots of little bits that i want to foreshadow which adds to a very robust set when the players guide their characters through it. They overhear rumblings of another raid last night as they walk through town and when they walk into the merchants guild they hear the magister being briefed on the latest flood reports from the mines, etc etc etc. Any one of those may "get played" as a major (or minor) element along the way and also of course the players' characters can decide to "look into this flooding thing" even though its not their main focus all on their own.</p><p></p><p>So, really, planning for this "random introductions" end sup helping me build and employ better sets for my players to explore through their characters and give them a variety of "things we choose to do" along the way that augment or maybe even at times supplant the "BIG QUEST" i had in mind.</p><p></p><p>So, i do kind of see how a "rolling development" approach can have its benefits and appeal to some/many (and drawbacks of course.) This is not at all a whole all on my own idea and i fully admit it draws a lot of inspiration from many types of setups presented in and around traveller where you would have "patrons" or "scenario" snippets with 1-6 different flavors presented from "all is as it appears" to "its a trap" to "its a trap but not for you your are the bait" to etc etc etc.</p><p></p><p>PS same approach can also be employed for a "search through blah blah" type scene using the cards to flavor the find while the player's choices and character abilities guide who finds how much. ("Hey guys look what i found. What do you think this is?"... low trembling in the ground... ...ground erupts with big red angry eyes gleaming from the dust cloud...Player responds "i think you found the ace of clubs") possibly with me revealing the card in question at that very moment and if i am in a particularly inspired evil moment, the king of diamonds too. "Wait, no, we cant run. That's the freakin' king of diamonds there... aw come on... guys its not that big... look at those teeth... its a veggiesaurus... crap... this is why i can never have nice things")</p><p></p><p><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="5ekyu, post: 7302719, member: 6919838"] its entirely possible We started with the little black books, did play mega traveller, TNE, T20, wherever it was Striker got into the mix that got added too and likely other flavors in between. i think we actually had at least one campaign with every flavor of T we ever found. Even started with the earliest styles of DIE during CHARGEN options. Was all fun. That said, while it was all fun and the Gms often used the random system generations in their pre and such, I don't think any of us every got into worrying about the "pure design and intent" or went in for the joy of rolling a new system when it was found kind of thing that i believe is being described here. Although, on an unusual or ironic aside, i actually use a flavor of the random scenario design in my own current 5e driven games. For each session, the players deal me a card from typical 52 card deck face down, i use those cards to determine the "drivers" for that session. Low cards (2-6), High Cards (7-10) and face cards (J-A) of each suit determine a magnitude and a theme behind things like events occurring, NPC attitudes, types of treasure etc while the overall arc of the set remains intact. HEARTS = compassion, mercy or helpful (treat wounded, feed hungry, reunite missing, help woo) DIAMONDS = greed or loot ("I gotta plan that can make us rich", stealing back from rich, finding missing treasure), SPADES = Environmental threats (storms, disease, quakes, poisonous frogs, tainted shipment of wine) and of course CLUBS = Hostile active BGS ready to do very bad things. The players find it fun to see the cards flipped at end of session and then fill in for themselves how that "drove" or even "flavored" the scenario they just finished. The beautiful part of this approach *in practice* is that it has led me to build my sets differently and IMO a little more robustly. in addition to the BIG STORY parts of the set, i build in for "the cards" a face card, midcard and low card element for each suit. Obviously many will not play an active role in any given scenario/session but having to put them in gives me lots of little bits that i want to foreshadow which adds to a very robust set when the players guide their characters through it. They overhear rumblings of another raid last night as they walk through town and when they walk into the merchants guild they hear the magister being briefed on the latest flood reports from the mines, etc etc etc. Any one of those may "get played" as a major (or minor) element along the way and also of course the players' characters can decide to "look into this flooding thing" even though its not their main focus all on their own. So, really, planning for this "random introductions" end sup helping me build and employ better sets for my players to explore through their characters and give them a variety of "things we choose to do" along the way that augment or maybe even at times supplant the "BIG QUEST" i had in mind. So, i do kind of see how a "rolling development" approach can have its benefits and appeal to some/many (and drawbacks of course.) This is not at all a whole all on my own idea and i fully admit it draws a lot of inspiration from many types of setups presented in and around traveller where you would have "patrons" or "scenario" snippets with 1-6 different flavors presented from "all is as it appears" to "its a trap" to "its a trap but not for you your are the bait" to etc etc etc. PS same approach can also be employed for a "search through blah blah" type scene using the cards to flavor the find while the player's choices and character abilities guide who finds how much. ("Hey guys look what i found. What do you think this is?"... low trembling in the ground... ...ground erupts with big red angry eyes gleaming from the dust cloud...Player responds "i think you found the ace of clubs") possibly with me revealing the card in question at that very moment and if i am in a particularly inspired evil moment, the king of diamonds too. "Wait, no, we cant run. That's the freakin' king of diamonds there... aw come on... guys its not that big... look at those teeth... its a veggiesaurus... crap... this is why i can never have nice things") :-) :-) [/QUOTE]
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