Traveller t20 and d20 Future

[Psion]

I'm just going to use the starship combat rules and probably some of the design/equipment rules (as well as those for generation star systems and such, because that is lacking in d20 future).

Well, it's more extensive than d20 future, but can still produce some planets that technically aren't feasible (i.e., below a certain size (~4, IIRC), you will not have atmosphere better than trace in the habitable zone.)

If you are really concerned with such nitty gritty details about planet generation, the best book currently on the market is First In for GURPS, and it's not that hard to adapt the results to T20.

Alternately, a quick fix I use (since I use existing data from Gateway to Destiny) is to re-define the size digit the represent mass (1=1/8 earth mass), which handily eliminates most of the problems with technically unfeasable atmospheres and lets you use existing data, though you will have the recalculate things like gravity.

 

[Psion]

Can anybody give a brief summary of the T20 starship combat rules? It seems to be the one thing they left out of the T20 Lite preview.

Really?

Okay, there are two combat systems, the basic, and the advanced. The advanced uses a map and has all the nitty gritty details.

The basic system isn't complicated. The starship generation sequence generate battery ratings for your different weapons, damage, etc.

The combat use the basics of d20 combat (which is not all that unusual for variant vehicle combats) except it doesn't use a map. But things like initiative, to hit rolls, damage, criticals, etc., are similar.

The beauty is that everyone on the ship has something they can roll for (well, except the medic until things go wrong. But in the ENWorld gameday game we had, the medic was a good astrogator and participated.) Even multiple characters with similar skills can contribute. For example:

Astrogators can control range, which can place you optimally for weapons your ship mounts (or suboptimally for your opponent.)
Pilots can erratic maneuver and increase your AC
Captains can influence initiative, contribute tactics or leadership bonuses.
Gunners... shoot. (They use a skill instead of a BAB-based roll.)
Engineers can do things like allow you to compensate for damage (or owning an underpowered merchant. ) or they can overpower your weapons so they can do more damage.

In most vehicle combat systems I have seen, the driver and the gunner become stars. In T20, the whole crew participates, which makes them more than spectators.

I really never realized what a beautiful thing this was until I actually played using it.

 

[Pbartender]

Hrm...

After having played a short one-shot D20 Future adventure, my group's on the verge of beginning a campaign.

For us, the advantage to D20 Future is that my group is already familiar with the D20 Modern rules (learngin curve is a big consideration with my group), and the fact that both D20M and D20F have SRDs (budgeting gaming costs is another consideration with my group).

I may have to steal a few ideas from the T20 Lite pdf, though... I really like the Prior history rules, the planet classification system, and the starship/vehicle construction system.

 

[jeff37923]

Well, it's more extensive than d20 future, but can still produce some planets that technically aren't feasible (i.e., below a certain size (~4, IIRC), you will not have atmosphere better than trace in the habitable zone.)

Um, not entirely accurate, the planet generation rules allow for a size 4 world in the habitable zone to have anywhere from no atmosphere up to a dense, tainted atmosphere (atmosphere codes 0 to 9). There are actually a couple of examples in the text of previous Traveller books that use the situations of small world, thick atmosphere to show that the world is actually more dense than it should be thus having a higher gravity thus being able to retain a thicker atmosphere.

I'd also like to add my own Mea Culpa here. I was discussing this thread with a friend and he pointed out a mistake I had made with the starship combat rules for d20 Future. You can do out-of-scale combat with the rules. They are still clumsy, IMHO, but not nearly as bad as I had originally thought.

Actually, if readers want to check out a free pdf of T20 Lite, it can be found at either the QuickLink Interactive / RPGRealms website:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/cgi-bin/catalog/pview.pl?action=view&stocknum=elib0000&h=header_t20&s=

or the RPG Now free stuff site:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=251&

 

[qstor]

For a general background of the universe for new players, I'd pick up the GURPS Traveller book since it has a large library data on the Traveller Universe or in the alternate there's a website that has a lot of the library data on it.

The GT Alien books are good for background too. Most of the Alien stat adjustments in T20 could be used in a D20 Future game IMO without problems. I think the other alien races in T20 are in the sector book that they put out.

I still haven't gotten D20 Future yet but am leaning to picking it up. I have the T20 Future book but kind of lean to D20 Modern for later era games.

Mike

 

[qstor]

Well, it's more extensive than d20 future, but can still produce some planets that technically aren't feasible (i.e., below a certain size (~4, IIRC), you will not have atmosphere better than trace in the habitable zone.)

I agree with the comments about First In.

Most of the GURPS Traveller books are rules "lite" and have great background. I'm still waiting to get the Sworld Worlds book which would make a great area to set a campaign in, lots of espionage and smuggling ideas come to mind.

Mike

 

[Salar]

T20 states it can't be run without the use of one of the core D20 books from WOTC which can be D20 Modern. T20 just adds or modifies those rules to the T20 system...like the skill cascades, combat variations, prior history etc. The core elements of the game are d20 modern, or they can be D20 3.5 etc.
Salar

 

[kingpaul]

T20 states it can't be run without the use of one of the core D20 books from WOTC which can be D20 Modern. T20 just adds or modifies those rules to the T20 system...like the skill cascades, combat variations, prior history etc. The core elements of the game are d20 modern, or they can be D20 3.5 etc.

Wasn't T20 built around the 3.0 rules though? There'd need to be some tweaking on the classes to make the Advanced/Prestige instead of basic.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Yes, it was.

 

[Salar]

Wasn't T20 built around the 3.0 rules though? There'd need to be some tweaking on the classes to make the Advanced/Prestige instead of basic.

Oh, I just assumed you didn't use the classes as given in D20M. I thought you generated 8 stats and cracked on with the T20 character generation. I am fairly new to T20 and have only played a dozen or so D20 games (modern and 3.0) so I've not really looked at Prestige classes as such. I generated a 6th level ex Marine today and it seemed to go ok.(page turning notwithstanding) Guess I'll have to crack open D20M and T20 again.