Leif's DISCONTINUED GURPS Traveller Game OOC01

[grufflehead]

Good gravy! A post! From all of us! In a row! Consecutively! But wait....it's the *OOC* thread.. It won't be a forklift I'm looking for, it's a lamp-post...

 

[Leif]

I'm sorry! Just...I dunno...having trouble 'finding' this character for some reason.

Bummer! Guess probably the best any of us can do to help is leave you alone? If you need anything, info, whatever, just give us a shout!

Doc's got nothing to do but "Doc" around until he's done with what he's doing.

Your free to describe what Doc is doing back there. Hmm, maybe I'll give you a hand...

Good gravy!

Save me some of that gravy, Gruff! I hear it goes well with PC Steak...

 

[Leif]

Sorry, wrong thread.

 

[Leif]

Folks, I'm sorry for letting this continue for as long as it has, but the time has now arrived to set things right!

Shayuri, you're a great player and terrific fun to game with, but for whatever reason, you've never really wanted to be in this game, except when I first opened the recruiting thread. I think it's time to wake up and smell the troll burning. I'll take no offense if you would like to withdraw, and actually, it'd be something of a relief. We can make a go of it with 3 pcs because ... well, because I said we can.

And, Shay, we'll just catch you in all the other games we're in together, ok?


As far as the rest of the party goes, we do have a backup pilot, don't we? If not, then I guess someone will need to adjust some skills or something. Or I can always spot you a low passage ticket?

Insight, if you're still itching to dump Doc now would be a good time. Take note however, this opportunity is not likely to be repeated in the foreseeable future, if ever. Change your character now or not, but you'll be stuck with whatever you choose, unless you make any subsequent changes IC. And we're not going to wait around while you decide -- we've been spending entirely too much time in this game waiting! And notice that I said CHANGE your character, NOT ADD a second character. One pc apiece for now, please? [FYI: There may be, almost certainly will be, times when you're going to wish you had a scientist if you don't have one. Doc Hannigan fills that role well, imho.] [Or were you guys just wanting to become ship-stealing pirates? I don't think so! Not in my Imperium/Consulate!]

Scotley, Grufflehead, I guess it might just be the three of us, with me running off one player and telling off another one. Ooops. You guys ok with that?

 

[Shayuri]

Understood. Thanks for being nice about it.

Have fun.

 

[grufflehead]

That's a shame, Shayuri. We seem destined not to go more than a few weeks in a game together. Oh well, there's always next time.

Have no fear, oh mise and wighty GM, Gruffle isn't going anywhere if Spider isn't (difficult to keep going on my own...) and hopefully the Doc is sticking with it. I can sympathise with both Insight and Shayuri to an extent, in that while pretty much all sci-fi shows/movies/books have a crew with a pilot and a medic, in game they are somewhat specialist, and not only need a bit of GM love, but when they are doing their thing, there's usually not a lot anyone else can do ('Dammit, Gruffle, hand me that scalpel. He's going into shock!').

At least you were very generous on the points front to allow people to pick up other things - the doc has a skill list as long as Gruffle's, so although a lot of it is window dressing up to a point (can't imagine either of us are going to have make many Machinist checks unless you are planning on turning this into the A-team in space?) we should be able to handle a broad range of challenges.

If I might suggest, as I hope the Doc will continue (possibly growing a pair of pointy ears if required...), then the only time we need a pilot (or to put it in meta-game terms, someone with the *pilot skill*) is if you feel it is dramatically appropriate for us to have a space chase or something else requiring that level of skill. And another thing about pilot and medic, not only are they specialised roles, but the skills are not good 'game' skills IMO in that you can set up a situation specifically for them, but a failed check at the wrong time is potentially disastrous. Blow a stealth check? Or a Perception check? GM might have to think on the fly to re-adjust the plot. Fail your medic check to save the important NPC? Oops... Or the pilot check to navigate through that deadly asteroid field and escape the bad guys? Oh, you crash and the whole crew dies. Anyone want to play Toon?

So I'd propose we either hand wave the piloting, we have an NPC do it, or someone trims a few points and gets enough skill to do the basics and lets the flight computer do the rest.

Furthermore, GlassEye was saying he regretted missing out on recruitment. Maybe you could ask if he'd like to pick up one of the crew slots? Then we'd get to game together - just in case you were looking for an excuse to drop out of my game

 

[Leif]

IMO, a Traveller party without a pilot is like a D&D party without a fighter -- sure, you could do it, I guess, but why would you?? [I mean, My Whirtlestaff's Wizard's Academy game aside and everything.* ] But like you said, just some minimal skill is all we need with Piloting and Navigating. Now I may at some point want to throw some tougher situations at you, so more skill might be a good thing to have.

Yeah, [MENTION=40413]GlassEye[/MENTION]! I knew there was someone who wanted in. Consider him summoned.

*http://www.enworld.org/forum/playing-game/259886-whirtlestaffs-wizards-academy-reprise-ic3.html

 

[Shayuri]

Gruffle, to the extent that this was the result of destiny, I suppose. That seems overly generous though. It was choices that led to it; choices made by me, and choices made by Leif.

It's probably for the best. In hindsight, we (Leif and I) were never a good match. Knowing that doesn't make it easier though.

 

[Insight]

I think some of the consideration should be in terms of what sort of game we want. In this setting, and with this game system, you can have a lot of different sorts of games. It seems that Doc is too specialized to be much fun to play unless the game is focused on medical procedures and the minutiae of developing patents and business contracts. That said, I think Doc could still be useful, but he really should be an NPC.

I've created another character and Leif knows all about it. The question is, while this character is more useful in a "typical" game, what is this game going to be? I doubt I'll have too much trouble finding use for this character no matter the situation, but still, it depends on what Leif wants to do with this game.

 

[GlassEye]

Wha...?! So there I was eating my cheerios when suddenly I'm in the milk nebula and my head's being orbited by a cloud of little O's.

Consider your summons received.

I am interested in joining in. I'm very interested in the responses to Insight's question of 'What sort of game do we want?' It can be a little awkward/hard to fit in at first when jumping into a game in progress and the answers to that question will help me get my head into the proper mindset for the game, world(s) and character. And speaking of characters, do you have a rogues gallery? I'd kinda like to look 'em over and see what you've got so far since I haven't been lurking here since early recruitment. Would you want me to take over Shayuri's character? I could do that but think I might need to engage in a little character metamorphosis so s/he fits me a bit better. Or if you prefer I could come up with something else. Just so you know, I'm not that familiar with the Traveler universe. And, finally, are you using GURPS 3rd or 4th edition?