AlHazred

Re: The Four Element(tal Forces)

I'm at work so I can't watch the video, but my initial instinct when faced with the subject was "What, fire, earth, air and water? How's that Science Fiction?" A moment's further consideration led me to the correct impression.

I need to read more sci-fi, stat!

Re: One Page Dungeon: The Lanisha Crisis

Winners have been announced. Head over to the website to check them out.

I really thought I had a shot this year, as graphic design has had a big impact in previous years. Ah well. It would help if I knew what was bad about my entry so I could do something more winnable next year, but everybody just says "It's great" and leaves it at that.

Re: Build the Enterprise

90 days? Definitely crackpot, with the emphasis on the "crack"! Last I checked, ion drives can only produce about a thousandth of a G acceleration; feasible for unmanned probes, but not for us humans. 90 days seems highly unlikely.

Of course, a fantastic breakthrough is always possible, in which case I'll be first on line for a ticket.

Re: One Page Dungeon: The Lanisha Crisis

As I generally take away at least one thing (be it inspiration, a cool trope, or even just an evocative name) from almost all of the entries, I will take that as very high praise indeed! Thanks!

Re: One Page Dungeon: The Lanisha Crisis

There's limits to how much you can fit on a single page.. I was hoping to hint at behind-the-scenes stuff without actually coming out and saying it. Hence the Marquis' business card, stacks of cash, and the way the news article "ends" as it runs off the page.

Re: One Page Dungeon: The Lanisha Crisis

Thanks! That's exactly what I was going for!

So, there's this One Page Dungeon Contest they've been doing for four years now. I entered last year with a fantasy entry, but this year I'm running Traveller Hero so I wanted to do a One Page scenario I could actually use. I had this idea last year, but of course I didn't work on it until a week before the due date. I figured I'd post it here; sorry if it feels rushed.

Here's the link to my submission, the Lanisha Crisis. I've made some additional materials, which I've posted to my generic gaming blog here and here. I plan to make a Classic Traveller style deckplan as well. Comments would be welcome.

So, my players went to planet Bicornn/Glisten (2331 Spinward Marches), which is listed as having a Renaissance technology level. The native race is constantly at war with the human settlers (more or less). I wanted the natives to have weapons which were useful but also appropriate. I settled on making some unusual weapons that kind of fit the tech level while still being interesting enough to give the players pause. I post them here for comments.

I basically want5ed to give the planet a whimsical air without destroying canonical science fictional bits already in the campaign. Please note that these weapons are built under my system, which gives weapons levels of Armor Piercing to represent the advances of higher technology. In general: crossbows and black powder weapons get AP, percussion cap weapons APx2, modern firearms APx3, gauss weapons APx4 and so on. Corresponding armor is given levels of Hardness: maximillian plate and reinforced chainmail get Hardness, flak vests get Hardnessx3, advanced polymers Hardnessx4 and so on.

Re: Traveller Hero: Jump Drive Causal Influence Diagram

Heck, as far as I can tell, the Starship Operator's Manual is pretty system-agnostic. I'm still processing the flowcharts - while I like the level of detail for myself, I have a feeling it's going to be too much for my player. Plus, my group has a different starship which they've customized, so the specifics in the manual are not very useful. A pity, too, as I think the idea had a lot of merit. Would have been nice to see the same treatment for a number of different ships, with deckplans and a separate stats section.

Re: Maps

Have you seen these?

 

http://silentempire.com/downloads.php

Re: WarHERO 40,000.... has anyones done this?

If you search for Warhammer 40K on the forums (do a general forum search, as opposed to just the Star Hero portion) you should find quite a number of conversions here. I have personally done conversions of power armor and Space Marine implants, and I know a bunch of weapons have been converted on the boards already.

Re: Traveller Hero: Weapon Tech Levels

I use a combination of the GURPS Traveller TL scale (which does a much more reasonable job at distinguishing the lower tech levels) and Classic Traveller (for the high end, which GURPS hand-waves as "Beyond"). In my game, a level of AP on an attack means, count the BODY on the dice, and ignore that many points of DEF. Multiple levels of AP stack.

So, a Gauss Rifle round at 2d6+1 that does 8 BODY (3 and 4 rolled on the dice, +1) ignores 6 points of DEF from primitive armors, but only 2 points from Kevlar. And, I've messed up my chart somewhat, since I had already decided that Gauss weapons have two levels of AP over Kevlar, and then four levels over primitives, so that round would ignore 8 DEF of a plate armor, but only 4 DEF from a Kevlar vest. But versus TL 12 Combat Armor, it only gets to ignore 2 DEF, so even though the Combat Armor has a lower PD and ED score than the full plate armor, it's more resistant to the effects of higher-tech weapons.

So, one of the difficulties of running a plausible Traveller Hero campaign is the differing technological levels of the various member worlds of the Imperium (to say nothing of worlds outside the Imperium that may be either unimaginably magic-tech or savagely primitive). I've seen various methods proposed on the boards for reflecting the advancement of weapons technology.

Some prefer the idea of just giving higher-tech weapons more dice. So, where my longbow can maybe shoot a 2d6 RKA arrow, the .30-06 shoots a 3d6 round, the Gauss Rifle a 4d6 flechette, and the Laser Pistol a 5d6 beam. Armor of higher tech levels would have a correspondingly higher DEF. There are many proponents of this system but it falls a little flat for me; intuitively, it doesn't feel right. I mean, by these standards a laser can cut through a concrete slab in seconds, but in practice it takes a beam quite a bit longer to do its magic. Then, also, it means the power-armor guys can just ignore the vast swarm of savages attacking them as they wade into battle on the jungle planet; this may be great for Warhammer 40K campaigns, but in Traveller there's a feeling that a savage with a sharp knife can be deadly to even a well-trained soldier, as long as he gets a lucky stab.

Others go for increasing levels of Armor Piercing for weapons and Hardened for defenses. The problem with this method is there's no hard-and-fast rule for it. I've seen people propose one leve of AP for each Tech Level the weapon is higher than the defense, but this can lead to Gauss Rifles that just ignore Plate Armor, no matter how thick. On the other hand, it doesn't have the Warhammer issue.

So, I was thinking of using a modification of the second method. How's this for beginners?

[TABLE=width: 506]

[TR]

[TD]Weapons

[/TD]

[TD]Weapons

[/TD]

[TD]Superior (+1 AP)

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]No AP

[/TD]

[TD]Swords, Axes, Spears, Bows[/TD]

[TD]Stilettos, Picks[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]AP x 1

[/TD]

[TD]Crossbows, Early Firearms[/TD]

[TD]AP Bolts[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]AP x 2

[/TD]

[TD]Modern Firearms (AK47, H&K MP5)[/TD]

[TD]Teflon Rounds[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]AP x 4

[/TD]

[TD]High-Tech Firearms (Gauss Weapons)[/TD]

[TD]Etc.[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

[TABLE=width: 286]

[TR]

[TD]Defenses

[/TD]

[TD]Armors

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]No Hardened

[/TD]

[TD]Leather, Chainmail, Plate

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Hardened x 1

[/TD]

[TD]Lamellar, Maximilian Plate

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Hardened x 2

[/TD]

[TD]Kevlar Vest, Ballistic Cloth

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Hardened x 4

[/TD]

[TD]Combat Armor, Battle Dress

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Laser weapons go against Armor ED, which is generally half of PD, except for specially-designed armors and Reflec. Plasma and Fusion weapons have Penetrating, and maybe Armor Piercing as well. No Armor has Impenetrable, it's a function of robots and inanimate objects.

Comments? Concerns? Constructive criticisms? All welcome.

Re: Traveller Hero: Bicornn/Glisten (2331 Spinward Marches)

I've updated the character brief cards to reflect what I used during this weekend's session. I decided the human natives brought black powder to Bicornn, but the development of firearms has been slow because of a lack of easily-exploited metal resources on the planet.

I've since decided Bircornn, smaller than Earth but with almost the same gravity, has significant heavy metal deposits in the core, including veins of lanthanides and radioactives. I would be interested in speculation on the use of spent-uranium slugs in black-powder matchlock/wheelock firearms! Armor Piercing? Penetrating? Huge surprise for high-tech PCs not expecting significant native resistance due to superior Tech Level?

Re: Battletech Starter Kit

This should probably go into the General Roleplaying forum.

Re: Traveller Hero: Jump Drive Causal Influence Diagram

I have acquired a copy of the Starship Operations Manual (best not to ask how) and will have to read it for version 2 of the diagram.

Re: The Cage Opens

I tend to agree with Manic Typist.

However, I could see many alien races developing an abhorrence to physical violence, under the idea that after tens of thousands (heck, why not millions?) of years of development and evolution, they've found ways of psychological and economic violence which are far, far more effective. Similar to the idea of civilized diplomats trying to deal in a regular way with uncivilized peoples in distant (Third World?) parts of the universe (a la Retief).

After the last season of my Traveller Hero campaign ended, I read an article on Winchell Chung's site (authored by Neel Krishnaswami) regarding Causal Influence Diagrams and their application to gaming. I decided I really, really wanted to do something like this for my game, to more thoroughly involve the engineer PC. Well, the second season of my campaign has started up and it's time to put my money where my mouth is. So, I whipped this up today. What does the collective think? Did I get anything egregiously wrong? Are there more options to consider? And should I adapt this to maneuver drives (though they should be an order of magnitude simpler) and other starship systems like life support and such?

EDIT - Well, I had no problem getting the article, but I've redone the link and also uploaded the file to my file storage here, which should resolve the problem.

Jump Drive Causal Diagram

Re: Help me populate a dying space colony

You might get some mileage out of certain Jack Vance stories -- they're chock full of quirky, outrageously self-interested individuals who would fit right in in Omicron Eridani. I recommend "Coup de Grace" (murder on a space station), "The Dogtown Tourist Agency" (another hive of scum and villainy), and the Demon Princes series, every book of which is chock full of unsavory individuals.

So, I'm four sessions into the second season of my successful Traveller Hero campaign, Flight of a Thousand Years. The players decide they will stop by Bicornn. They've been to the planet before, but didn't set foot off ship due to the Library Data entry (pulled from the GURPS Traveller Behind the Claw supplement: "The human states are engaged in a constant fight for survival against the Krvn, a semi-sentient species of human-sized burrowing arachnoids.") They met a couple of (human) natives off-world, were impressed with their resolve and survivalist mindset, and expect to go a little touring this time around. Checking elsewhere, it would appear that the GURPS: Traveller (GT) entry was written for this incarnation -- there is no canonical Classic Traveller (CT) reference. There have been some fan writeups of the world (like this one on Zho BERKA's site) which go in completely different directions.

Reading the GT blurb puts me in mind of "The Kokod Warriors" by Jack Vance. In this classic space opera tale, the world in question has an indigenous population of sapients with a hive-like societal structure (the hives are called "tumbles"). Periodically, the tumbles send their warriors to do battle; warfare is strictly guided by a large number of Codes of Combat, each of which specify the maneuvers that may be used, the weapons allowed, and so on. I posit three different groups on the planet.

The native "aliens" are the Krvn. They have a society with extreme biological stratification. The males are the warriors and the females are the Matrons of each colony (I might keep the name Tumble, it has a good ring to it). Due to the extremely limited space (it's a tiny world) the Tumbles are engaged in constant ritualized warfare. The Krvn are semi-sentient in the way that they have no real identity as individuals; instead, each warrior or Matron identifies so strongly with their home Tumble that they have almost no individuality. The constant warfare has become highly structured, and is devoted to acquiring the battle standards of opposing forces. In this conception,perhaps the nucleus of each colony is actually something non-organic, like the radioactive piles used by the ghosts in another Vance story The King of Thieves (which can also be found by following the Vance link in my first post). If so, this source of radioactive ores would be a hidden source of revenue if it is ever discovered, albeit to the destruction of the native life.

The first human group are the remnants of a colony ship that crashed here shortly before the Long Night. The passengers regressed, due in part to a lack of metal ores, and partly because of the extreme savagery of the native fauna, including the Krvn. They adapted and also engage in ritualized battle with the natives, although their inclusion probably required the inclusion of a new set of Codes of Combat. They call their strongholds Tumbles as well, and otherwise fit in. I have already established Venom Brandy as a local export, so this now becomes something stoked with the venom of another predatory arthropod. Their battle brotherhoods (see above) restrict them to specific (Renaissance tech) weapons and tactics, which neatly explains their given TL without problem.

The second human group is a set of capitalists who have created a betting lodge (or more than one?) on the planet. They have the highest tech level on the planet, and make their money from tourists betting on the local battles. This also allows me to add morally-bankrupt corporate chicanery without using one of the more established megacorporations (I get bored with them after a while).

The characters at one time tried to smuggle a shipment of TL9 weapons to their buddies on Bicornn, since they figured the "life and death struggle against man-sized spiders" meant that the people needed all the help they could get. After rolling well for port inspectors, I ruled that the "farm implements" had been seized by port security, and they figured that local law must have prohibited advanced tech. I'm now wondering if perhaps the lodge owners have had local import laws tightened to prevent the importation of higher-tech goods, in order to maintain their own monopoly on the equipment. Of course, by the previous reasoning, neither the native humans or the Krvn would have use for such weapons -- they don't fit any Codes of Combat! But still, I like to be consistent with my previous rulings, even when I never gave it much thought before.
Caption: "Typical Krvn fingerling (from Rock River Tumble). Thousands of fingerlings are born every year in each Tumble. Semi-sentient until adulthood, they are left to fend for themselves by the adults; about 90% perish in their first year."


Caption: "Typical Krvn warrior (from Rock River Tumble). Note the cuirass, derived from a local predatory arthropod."

Sources:
http://firecrows.blogspot.com/2010/04/alien-spider-mite-parasite-thing.html
http://matlatart.deviantart.com/art/alien-jungle-184734557
http://rajooda.deviantart.com/art/Alien-Sword-Weapon-115981915
http://www.kormax.com/images/KR0025.jpg

The beaked monkey is a creature from Traveller, frequently found as a pet aboard starships. They were delineated in Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society number 3. It became popular mostly because of its effect on psionic powers, something highly illegal in the Traveller setting.

The pdf character sheet is attached.

Re: Here is my take on the Traveller Tree Rat

It looks pretty good. Some comments:

• "adapt to change": I wouldn't give it No Conscious Control. It's a Life Support that costs 0 END; the limitation is not actually limiting, so it's not worth any points.
  
• "Prehensile Tail": We usually put Inherent (+1/4) on Extra Limbs that cannot be retracted.
  
• Clinging: I would make the value of the Only Surfaces Where Their Claws Find Purchase -1/2, as that would seem to be a Common circumstance in Traveller (ship hulls and other smooth metal surfaces, for example).
  
• It's listed as 70-80 cm long, true, but it also says "two-thirds of that is tail." That would make its body 23-27 cm, which is closer in size to Tiny (+18m KB).
  
• Running/Leaping/Swimming: The article makes no mention of their speed, but I would definitely buy these back a bit.
  

I hope you don't mind, but I've put together an HD file for this:

EDIT - And why not? Let's add a pdf of this lovely beastie...

Re: Women of the Champions Universe (Fanpictorial)

Was I the only one expecting more cheesecake from a fanpictorial named "Women of the Champions Universe"?

Admittedly, then we wouldn't get to see it on the Hero Boards...

Nice jorb!

Re: Augmented Reality Start-Up Ready to Disrupt Business

See, I can't see this being deployed to every planet. You're talking about a massive high-tech computer infrastructure necessary to support this as a viable business model. Sure, you could walk around TL7 (think 1940s tech) planet and put your own virtual signposts and stuff, but where is the information being stored? Such a world doesn't have ubiquitous computers, let alone ones dedicated to this kind of commercial virtualization. I'd say you need a couple of things in place: computers everywhere, prominent use of virtual experience technology (i.e., VR glasses), and computing resources dedicated to sustaining such a virtual world. Eventually, everyone needs to pay the bills, so it's a peculiarly fragile business ecosystem unless every business can dedicate its own resources to the project. And many planets with strict laws might take exception to the idea of a virtual world that their own citizens can modify ("What? You want to live in a world not controlled by our Glorious Beloved Dictator For Life?!? That is a treasonous thought, citizen! Under Section 3, I am obliged to liquidate you for the greater glory of the State!") Similarly, some religions might hold virtual worlds as inherently evil due to their manufacture by human (and therefore innately flawed) hands. Lastly, some worlds might have such a system in place, but it's been so abused and overcommercialized that its use has fallen out of favor; the citizens know not to go there, and the only saps...people who do are tourists renting the VR gear.

http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/09/20/dutch-augmented-reality-start-up-ready-to-disrupt-business/

I've got to figure out how to port this into my Traveller Hero campaign, maybe as the foible for a really annoying planet. I can definitely see this as being illegal in many areas, perhaps under some broad fraud statute or as theft of business.

EDIT - In fact, you can combine it with this technology and all hell breaks loose.

http://www.gizmag.com/celebrity-face-substitution-system/19901/