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Traveller: Tips For A New GM
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<blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5316949" data-attributes="member: 92305"><p>First off, I'd go with Classic Traveller instead of Mongoose's version. Among many (in my estimation, most) of the long-time Traveller players play CT. MGT seems to be drawing new players, but CT is where "it's at".</p><p> </p><p>Second - a piece of general advice no matter which Traveller edition you use. Be ready with more technical explanations than you are used to with fantasy games.</p><p> </p><p>I found this out the hard way, many, many years ago. I was used to players coming up with stuff like, "Hey, we'll throw a rope over the tree brance, tie the end of it onto the toppled monolith, then use the leverage to turn it over and read the other side."</p><p> </p><p>Simple. That's they was low-tech fantasy gaming is, by design.</p><p> </p><p>With Traveller, you've got to be prepared to know about real-world science and physics. I remember the power getting shut down in the player's ship one time. The hatch wouldn't open. So, one of the players said, "Hey, there's got to be a manual over-ride, probably mechanical."</p><p> </p><p>I wasn't prepared for that. I didn't want them getting through the door when I prepared the adventure. But, I didn't think it through well enough. It made sense that there would be an emergecy over-ride, so I had a panel in the wall open to reaveal a socket and a manual wrench, not unlike the jack and accessories we all have in the backs of our cars for when we have flats.</p><p> </p><p>In another game, the PCs were fighting invaders on their ship. The PCs had managed to take the bridge, but the bad guys had the rest of the ship. Everything is can be controlled from the bridge, so I had an NPC in an access cabinet trying to cut into the bridge's connection and disable bridge contol. I thought it was cool that the players, on the bridge, could see the bad guy working on what they knew would be a major problem for them.</p><p> </p><p>That's when one player said, "Hey, there's a lot of machinery in there, right? What if it catches fire? What's the fire retardent system like? Dunno? It's probably halon, a gas that sucks up all the oxygen and kills the fire. I'm going to use the bridge controls to fire the halon system in that access compartment."</p><p> </p><p>GM: "Whaaa? Halon, you say? Now, what does it do?</p><p> </p><p>So, this is my point: be ready for a lot of high tech lingo and jargon. Think your players throw your curve balls in a low-tech, fantasy game? Wait until you're thinking about how fast the oils on a standard shotgun will freeze when a PC uses it out in Zero-G.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Water Bob, post: 5316949, member: 92305"] First off, I'd go with Classic Traveller instead of Mongoose's version. Among many (in my estimation, most) of the long-time Traveller players play CT. MGT seems to be drawing new players, but CT is where "it's at". Second - a piece of general advice no matter which Traveller edition you use. Be ready with more technical explanations than you are used to with fantasy games. I found this out the hard way, many, many years ago. I was used to players coming up with stuff like, "Hey, we'll throw a rope over the tree brance, tie the end of it onto the toppled monolith, then use the leverage to turn it over and read the other side." Simple. That's they was low-tech fantasy gaming is, by design. With Traveller, you've got to be prepared to know about real-world science and physics. I remember the power getting shut down in the player's ship one time. The hatch wouldn't open. So, one of the players said, "Hey, there's got to be a manual over-ride, probably mechanical." I wasn't prepared for that. I didn't want them getting through the door when I prepared the adventure. But, I didn't think it through well enough. It made sense that there would be an emergecy over-ride, so I had a panel in the wall open to reaveal a socket and a manual wrench, not unlike the jack and accessories we all have in the backs of our cars for when we have flats. In another game, the PCs were fighting invaders on their ship. The PCs had managed to take the bridge, but the bad guys had the rest of the ship. Everything is can be controlled from the bridge, so I had an NPC in an access cabinet trying to cut into the bridge's connection and disable bridge contol. I thought it was cool that the players, on the bridge, could see the bad guy working on what they knew would be a major problem for them. That's when one player said, "Hey, there's a lot of machinery in there, right? What if it catches fire? What's the fire retardent system like? Dunno? It's probably halon, a gas that sucks up all the oxygen and kills the fire. I'm going to use the bridge controls to fire the halon system in that access compartment." GM: "Whaaa? Halon, you say? Now, what does it do? So, this is my point: be ready for a lot of high tech lingo and jargon. Think your players throw your curve balls in a low-tech, fantasy game? Wait until you're thinking about how fast the oils on a standard shotgun will freeze when a PC uses it out in Zero-G. [/QUOTE]
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