Fun Fact: Since the 1930's audiobooks were a very niche market primarily for the blind. Most major books were never even given an audio option, and even then, were usually highly abridged. But then truck drivers discovered them. They started selling books on tape at truckstops and this previously tiny market exploded. The entire audiobook market owes that to truckers. Audiobooks are my biggest market. My last novel, I told my agent that without an audiobook option I wouldn't sign. So as an author with 7 audiobooks and two Audie Award noms, I freaking LOVE you well-read truckers.
@@SSkorkowsky There's also been continued growth due to advances in portable electronics capable of playing audiobooks. I know quite a few people who are listening to a book non-stop while jogging, doing chores, shopping, etc. Not everybody zoning out on the bus is listening to music or a phone call, lot of them have a book plugged in to their ear - which is a good thing, considering the rotting corpse traditional publishing is turning into.
Oh yeah, Audible and streaming audiobooks have turned audio into the fastest-growing publishing market. I'm an audiobook addict myself and have a book playing whenever I'm driving, doing chores, or working out (back when the gym was open). But before that could happen, the market needed to show it was big enough to sink that much money into. A professionally-read book can easily cost you around $1,000 per final recorded hour to produce (and can get much higher if you have a famous narrator). That's a big up-front investment. Audible ACX and similar programs, where costs are reduced through various options has also allowed smaller authors and publishers to get into audio now, when once, it was only something the biggest names could do. One of the biggest pieces of advice I tell authors is they need to get audio editions. For me, audio is 70% of my book sales. And since I'm talking about it, might as well drop a shameless link to my audiobooks ;-) www.audible.com/author/Seth-Skorkowsky/B00JO2GKX6?ref=a_search_c3_lAuthor_1_1_1&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6880-467a-b5a7-13cef5d729fe&pf_rd_r=X2E6GPBH1T6B6E04SZXA
@@SSkorkowsky As a writer I must thank you for the excellent tip. I had not thought much of audio books, but your endorsement of the concept has caused me to reconsider.
If memory serves (it's been a couple of decades) improving skills through study was a lot harder in the original game, your character had to go on extended study leave and so was out of commission for a while AND the improvement wore off so I think Mongoose is helping out in the modern game.
God dammit Seth! You're awesome series of videos on Call of Cthulhu got me so into Call of Cthulhu, that it took me a couple weeks to convince my players to try it out. And now they're super into it and happy. So naturally this series of videos is starting to get me into Mongoose Traveller so I got to start this horrible cycle all over again. Why must you always tempt me with these shiny pretty new systems? If my players kill me for constantly changing systems, I'm blaming you!
If your players get upset at the constant system changing, try playing Golden Sky Stories with them, it's sure to improve their mood. /s (For real tho, GSS is amazing & I wish more people knew about it. It's like Animal Crossing as a TTRPG)
One thing we do is when you roll a natural 2 or a 12 you get 1/10th of a skill point. Crisis/Critical success bonus if you will. 10 of those and your skill goes up a level. One game I rolled those numbers on the same skill 5 times. 3 2s and 2 12s. You learn as much from complete failure as you do from complete success - most of the time.
Get the Companion. It plugs a lot of holes in the core book. Should have even been included in the core in my opinion. If you have more money to spend Highguard and Central supply catalogue is pretty much essential as well.
Central supply catalog is amazing!!! High guard is good if you like building ships, and the vehicle handbook if you like building non-spacecraft vehicles
I get that your intuition as a GM says that deception shouldn't be the skill for what you might considered a 'sleight of hand' check coming off D&D and CoC and such, but by Traveller's mechanics, it being a deception (dextery) check (or whichever way the system writes that up in the rulebooks) makes a lot of sense to me, and I can see what they are going for.
DnD is also very strict in how you can use your skills normally. Other systems want the players to come up with creative ways to justify and use there skills to there advantage. Traveller is clear close to this idea.
Thank you so much for these videos, Seth! You've basically kickstarted my Traveller campaign, which is scratching a Sci-Fi itch I've been ignoring for way too long.
It's official, I want to join *_your_* Traveller games. I like the house rules you've implemented regarding rolling once for combined skill checks and modifying the optional IP rule to only apply to skills the character used in the session or is actively studying.
There are many aspects this game excels in, and some given little if any clarification. I made myself a retired old spy who had acquired some good gear over his long career. In our game, we captured a ship and needed to get full control of the systems to prevent Imps from remotely taking the ship from us and allowing us access to secrets in the ships computer. So I tried to hack the ships computer. With the gear, and the modifiers I was nearly +8 to hack. The rules for hacking give it high difficulty with an additional penalty( like +4 or +6). This puts any hack attempt out of reach of any player. No bonuses for physical access, no mechanic for letting me spend X number of days/hours/weeks letting the hacking software run. Now we are forced to use NPC's for the hack. So, some areas in the game need some more polish/tweaking. Great lore and freedom of choice.
16:30 "like those truck drivers who listen to audiobooks". Hey! That's me. Nice! I drive from FL to CA and back 2x a month. Lately i've been listening to the novelizations of the "Alien" franchise to prepare for being the "Game Mother" for the RPG. A trucker GMing for Space Truckers, that should be fun. Btw, I am curious as to your opinion on the Alien RPG. It's by Free League Publishing and (I'm pretty sure) it just won the Ennie for "Best RPG" (or "RPG of the Year"? Something like that.) Oh, and review videos with tips would be awesome! I mean, I've seen you wearing Weyland Yuitani shirts so I figured you'd enjoy them. :)
I've tooled around with the Free League Alien RPG a little (just 1 session so-far). Not enough to give a review yet. For 1-shots (cinematic play) I think it's awesome. Don't know how well it'll really work yet when it comes to long-term campaign play.
5:41 I think you cover in later video that getting an alien princess to marry you is not a one roll feet. It would require multiple rolls slowly lowering the difficulty until it’s actually achievable; along with a lot of role-play.
The way you describing what skill(s) to pick for a task reminds me of Star Trek Adventures where you can Use different “skills” for the same or similar things and might vary on your strengths in the game.
This is fantastic. The game we're running uses a more homebrew version of skills. The levels of skills determines how long they have to study. Naught to 0 is four weeks, where as 0 to 1 is eight weeks. Meanwhile I have tables and tables worth of random mission and world encounters (we're doing an exploration campaign akin to Star Trek) that have their own skill and stat rewards in whatever stats were relevant for that mission. I think it helps the players feel like they're actually progressing. If it's a common encounter, yellow alert, red alert, or galactic event, there's always something small they can get if things don't go totally awry. I'm glad to see others are using a lot of alternatives though. Traveller is such a magnificent system. Super glad you're doing this series!
At 2:08 - are those the (in)famous GDW d6s? Back in the 80s, they were widely renowned as the best d6s because the pips were drilled out so deep it would make the 6 lighter than the 1 resulting in higher rolls.
I really like the idea that which skill you use controls the side effects of the action. Bluff and the guard might be intimidated but annoyed. Fake a missing ID and the guard will have different feelings about you. Most cases this might not matter but if you have to get out past the same guard, the way you got in may matter a lot...
i'v just started to learn Traveller to play with my friends and i want to thank for all the explanation videos you'v make its so clear to understand so thank you for your work
12:00 it is a task chain. Creating forged ID. ahead of time (deception +edu [to make it by memory]) allowing the persuade (soc) roll to better succeed at bluffing that he is meant to be there.
Boons and banes is the exact mechanic from Shadow of the Demon Lord, but you can have more than one boon and bane dice, but still only using the highest
Hey Seth is there any chance you could do a video going over all the things you think a GM should definitely know to play Traveller? Me and a bunch of friends got really interested in the game and we got even more interested after watching your videos so after I get back from Basic Training we were gonna try and run a game.
Awesome!! Love that you do this Seth. I find your videos extremely helpful and entertaining. Any chance that you would do a Traveller session or 2 for us to view?
yours is really one of the most entertaining rpg channels on the net. Although I am also an old hand gm who has more than 30y experience I am still fond of your tipps and tricks. I also like traveller alot but recently I looked a little bit at Stars without number from Kevin Crawford. Do you know this traveller inspired OSR-system?
The skill roles of mixing and matching character stat with skill points are similar to the WoD mechanics without having to count 1's and 0's. However, there are those charts to consult, which might slow down the gameplay for new players/referees. All in all, it does seem to be a pretty reasonable system.....now, about psionics... :P
Thanks for the info about the alternative experience option. I ran mongoose 1st ed and the advancement was the only compliant I got. This video series is really informative.
At 12:30 a skill to read someone elses intent. In classic Traveler there was a skill called interrogation. This was not rubber hoses in the back room but the ability to closely question a person. Possibly without their knowledge. (I tend to be very liberal on skill description.)
Seth, thanks for inspiring me to start a Traveller campaign, we started with High and Dry (modified a bit). So far so good, planning on running Marooned on Marduk in a couple weeks when they get there. Loving your videos on Traveller. Many Thanks
Traveller is a game I've been almost interested enough to try. I had MegaTraveller for a time and while the background stuff was cool, all those digits describing a spaceship were too much. At the time there was no one to play the game with. Your review so far is showing I should give Traveller a shot.
MegaTraveller had a fairly complex system for vehicles and starships (though nowhere close to TNE or T4). Mongoose Traveller is simpler, though not so much as starships from Classic Traveller. It's probably my favourite version, although there were parts of other editions I do prefer.
Extremely helpful. I ran my first session this week, and found I'd made a few mistakes, but I tend to learn best by doing, and by watching example, so just reading the books wasn't enough. These videos help make tackling the system much easier, and for that I'd like to say thank you, good sir!
Much waited for Bring on the reticulan parasites... Excellent series... I have been using classic traveller for 40 yrs with a few mods... Quite interested in adding further mechanics....
Around the 18:30 mark of the video skill levelling is addressed. I decided to try something a bit different and I keep track of skill the characters commonly use (you can have the players tic mark or have a Ref notepad). You determine what you consider to be abundant use of a skill and then just have the player level that skill up. The way I moderate the use of this is that I only allow for skill levelling if the character doesn't have the skill or has only level 0 in that skill. So this way, I am allowing for someone with no skill to be considered to have a generic understanding of that skill (level 0) after a lot of use. Then, they can actually get to be considered skilled in it by going to level 1. I don't allow progression beyond L1. I justify that by saying the character is so involved with life and is not getting direct instruction as one would in a university or some program of education. I don't allow OJT to account for becoming someone considered advanced in knowledge, though a Ref certainly could do that. But for me, since your career progression ended before you became a Traveller, that kind of progression is off of the table (kind of a "coasting" phase of life).
You can award a week of training equivalence towards a skill when players use it well during role-playing. It serves as a useful stand in for experience points without altering the essential game mechanics. And players get a sense of advancement without becoming supermen in the course of a campaign.
i'm using a variant system that incorporates XP into the usual learning system, basically they can spend XP to automatically succeed their roll for a study period (if they have a point to spend) i've also reduced study periods down to 4 weeks instead of 8, just to speed progress up a little, my players aren't the most patient of people so they would get bored if progress was at the normal rate, anyway, great series so far.
Sometimes if there are two skills that are similar you can use the trained skill w/ a -1 DM vs. the character having to make a roll w/ -3 [ untrained ] in situations where the character doesn't quite have the exact skill. Ex -> Pilot Small boats-3 could be used as pilot starship-2 or even pilot starship-1 if its a very large ship or maybe a system they're not used to.
Home brew advancement I use along with the normal study method: Hands-on Experience: each game session where a skill is applied at least 3 times in the field counts as 1 week of study towards the 8 week period. This reflects hands on experience as being a really efficient way to learn something while at the same time not introducing XP to the game system. Example- PC gets into an actual gun fight and shoots 3 times, that’s worth 1 week of firearm skill study (which to me would normally include reading about guns, cleaning them, and spending some DT at a gun range practicing).
Yeah...dunno what that's about. First thing I do when I load a vid is change the name from my the file name, but it's just not updating. UA-cam is wacky today.
UA-cam seems to wake up every morning and spin the Wheel of Whacky to decide how it'll behave. Today's error was "Not Updating Titles". I'm just happy it wasn't "Delete Your Channel For No Reason" so I'll consider this annoyance as lucky it wasn't worse. Weirdest one they ever did was after it was all loaded and all that, the video inserted a random frame from somewhere else in the video about every 4 minutes. Real quick little flashes. Evidently other people got it that day, too. Probably the ghost in the UA-cam server screaming for help.
A few thoughts on learning skills.. - The XP rules you showed seemed to largely trade XP for days of training at a 1-to-1 ratio. It might be easier just to go with that in order to mix time and XP. - It might be interesting to treat the EDU check as any other task roll and let players try it at enhanced difficulty earlier, or lower difficulty later. Failing it could have various fun consequences.
I did a mod of Traveller where we used a D12 to replace the 2D6. We actually did this for MegaTraveller because it has a weird combat system and we wanted to use a system similar to Twilight2000 v2.2. We also wanted to roll a number of Hit Dice equal to the number of bullets in a burst of autofire (like Twilight2000 uses). Using the D12 enabled this.
This is the 2nd game system you've talked me into buying and running (CoC 7th being the other), hopefully the new Cyberpunk will be a series you can do in the future.
I think having to decide in what "style" your character wants to achieve something brings alot of dramatic flavour into it. If you want to solve something in a streetwise style as opposed to an advocate style, really paints different mental images.
My style has gotten to a very narrative approach so the idea of picking the skill or stat that best describes what it is you want your character to do is a selling point for me.
Your sessions run eight hours? I'm envious. I've been running for younger people (college students) for a while now; it's hard to get them to sit down for a four-hour session. I envy you your players.
There's also a great deal of chit-chat and bullshitting we do during it. Now that's we're using Roll20 thanks to the Covid, we start winding down in about 5.
I would suggest that with "skills" xp thing you just say some number of uses of a skill equals a given study session, modified by EDU/INT. Also... SOC should be gained or lost when used based on how well they do. If someone fails a lot they're going to lose SOC. If they do well they're going to gain, and likewise someone that attempts to be social will have that effect multiplied. Just a thought-o ^.^
Hey Seth, what would you say about using Experience earned to advance a training period by a week (or even for the whole period) without having to spend the time to do it, OR to add a DM to the next training roll? I feel like this would be a good way to allow players to 'save' experience points, without letting them pool them all up into one big thing.
I'm not quite following the question (but I also haven't had morning coffee yet). With the XP, the player sticks them in 1 or more Skills/stats right away. It might take several sessions for those to still add up to raise that stat/skill, but they have to be sent to a specific one, that way they don't just have a general pool to decide on later and dump a ton of XP on. With Training (which I also allow) the player must state upfront what skill they're training for, and then that takes X number of 8-week Study Periods to raise the skill. So with both methods, the player is moving toward a specific goal. Because the XP and Study Periods almost but not quite line up, I'd treat 1 XP as a Study period if the player applies it toward a skill they're currently training in.
@@SSkorkowsky Ooookay. See, I hadn't gotten the bit about the XP still adding up, and had thought it had to be spent on something it could buy all at once. Honestly, amidst the otherwise absolutely FANTASTIC editing for the other books, a lot of Traveller companion gets a bit hard to read and oddly worded at times.
The house rule you adopted for multiple tasks, where you only roll once but apply it to two separate DM’s for each task... do you still increase the difficulty of the two tasks? By the books’s stated amount, if you do?
@@SSkorkowsky Only drawback I can see to that is that (assuming skills and stats involved in each check are similar) you won't often get the "did one thing well, but botched the other" results that two separate rolls can produce. For ex, your "climbing a wall while sneaking past a guard" should be able to go either way - climbed fast and safely but got heard or spotted and the guard is alerted, or slipped and fell but didn't make enough noise doing so to give yourself away. It's pretty common for skill+stat mods to be clumped very closely, within a range of 0 to 3, which isn't much of a spread.
Seth Skorkowsky I like that approach, I like how the roll almost represents the situation, and since that is this once instance you roll once! Each total if the combo of the character effort and that situation, made harder by dividing their attention. I dig it!
Rich, yeah, the spread between the 2 checks is narrowed to only what their individual DMs are, but the big benefit I see is the chances for overall success are better. Let's say that the PC wants to do that Stealth/Climb. Their chances of succeeding each is 50%. If the player rolls one, and then rolls the other, the chance of making both rolls is now 25%. That means the character is most likely going to fail the full attempt. So saying they only roll one time and treat that roll as if it were 2 separate rolls, the character still has their 50% chance of pulling it off. I'd much rather give up the possibility of that wide range between the 2 checks if it means the player has a better chance of pulling it off and is therefore more likely to attempt those daring combined-checks.
@@SSkorkowsky That's certainly true. More die rolls will always reduce the odds of full success, but they do produce a few less fluke results than a single 2d6 bell curve will.
I'm going to be using a house rule for learning skills in the field, each Exceptional Success counts as one week of study and gives a DM+1 to the roll to confirm study period. I'm also going to make a sheet for this with each skill listed and 8 boxes next to them that they will put in a X for a ES and an O for a week of study so it's easy to track for all the skills at once.
The using different Attributes with certain skills, depending on what the player wants to achieve, is something I've pulled across into my Cyberpunk games - it makes more sense than saying "Handgun/Drive skill *only* teaches you how to shoot/drive" (REF + Handgun or Drive as per RAW) when the wealth of experience from gaining that proficiency would also confer other advantages: "I've used/owned/seen numerous firearms/vehicles in my time so I've got a pretty good chance that I've seen/used the ones the BBEG's mooks are using and can identify them and know things about them - like magazine capacity, effective range, strengths, weaknesses, limitations etc" (INT + Handgun or Drive). I like the idea of rolling once to cover the combined skills, I can see that being a house rule here if I were to run a Traveller game.
I love that multiple skills or characteristics could be used in a situation. My players love trying to convince me how INT is the best one for their Piloting roll. My players try to gain an edge with their best characteristics, and with a good justification, I let them roll for it.
OJT is a great idea for skill improvement outside of the classroom. Honestly I'd say the hands on nature of OJT makes it the faster method of learning when compared to book study.
I just purchased the Traveller Companion a few days ago and it really does have great rule expansions and alternatives. It feels strange even as a referee to play a system that has no real progression system for players. I appreciate the alternate rules for experience. I haven't started a group yet but glad they work well in your game. Do you find with the experience points that the Travellers get too powerful compared to the threats in the modules?
Not really. Part of it is that getting higher levels in skills still takes a long time. But the other thing is equipment make a bigger difference in quickly spiking power levels. A group with a bunch of really powerful toys will scramble an adventure faster than a group with high skill levels. Thankfully Law Levels and the like keep that aspect in check for a lot of locations. The no experience thing really bothered me when I first read the Corebook. Studying to get better is great, but experience should count for something. It was my biggest complaint with the system up until the Companion came out.
Seth, ever review Gamma World modules? I would love to hear your review on GW1 Legion of Gold. Am currently running it, and it's awesome, reminds me of old school basic d&d.
If I remember correctly, in the first edition of Mongoose Traveller, a training session required no toll, but took a length of time equal to the sum total of all your skills, with 0 counting as 0, 1 as 1 week, etc. I might be forgetting some key element, but I like the 2nd edition method better, to be honest.
I think streetwise is probably the best “insight” for most situations, otherwise I was considering home brewing a psychology skill which can be studied in college or the standard 8 week class etc
I have elected against using boons and banes. They modify the roll way too much (something like a 1.5 DM, depending on where you are on the probability curve). I feel that the only weakness Traveller has is that it's not very granular. The difference in chance between rolling at least 7 and at least 8 is almost 17%. I'd love to have some kind of mechanic that increases/decreases your chance of success by lesser than 1 DM, but I haven't been able to come up with anything so far, except modding the whole game to 2d10 instead of 2d6. Anyone have any ideas?
Joel Tarnabene: That's why I preferred the d20 system in TNE over the 2d6 skill checks in CT and MT. 1d20 gives more even distribution of odds than 2d6, so each +1 DM was always equal to 5% rather than a much more variable amount with a 2d6 system. 🤔
Boons and Banes show up in a game called shadow of the Demon Lord as well. It's by Robert J schwalb, who is done quite a bit of work in RPGs for the last two decades, having his hands in Warhammer fantasy role-play and even Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. I do believe the Boon and Bane mechanic is his oh, but I am unsure
What do you do when your player really roleplays well when it comes to a task such as carousing; do you still make them role for the task but lowering the difficulty or do you forgo the role all together?
OK, I get the rule for increasing or decreasing difficulty by shifting the time frame. But IMHO there are many circumstances when this rule does not make any sense at all. So I just need to role high enough and I build something in minutes that normally require hours of work? And I get a big bonus when I decide to wait some minutes before jumping over an obstacle?
There would be points where a task could not logically be sped or slowed down to some level, like rebuilding a car engine in seconds rather than hours. The system probably needs a means to decide how feasible such an action would be, some kind of referee or master of the game to handle those cases. If only there were such a person...
"Those are some well read people." Heh... My audible account has been getting some interesting additions lately; including some lecture courses and audio versions of several RPG related books Like Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering and Your Best Game Ever. They do pass the time while driving. :)
Depends on the setting and/or situation. If in an official capacity or with alien races or governments, Diplomacy. Talking with the guy down the street, Persuasion. If the player wants to use the other, then they should explain how they intend to use their skills at Diplomacy to get the door guard to let them into the building.
I think you kind of inferred this during the personal hurdles portion regarding a lack of a specifically named skill. Whether intentional or not, the lack of a specific skill rewards skill diversification. In DnD, for example, it's been my experience that a lot of people pretty much always have their PC be proficient in Perception. Mainly because it is frequently useful. When the system allows the flexibility Traveler does, it gives players "permission" to diversify not only their Traveler's skills, but, the rest of the team's. Helpful video. P.S.: I checked out that Traveler map site. It is helpful, but, also not. How the heck do I figure out where to start them!? 😅
What if you used the standard training rules for skills. BUT, when things happen in game where their use of a skill would be a great 'teaching moment' they can put a star by the skill. Then, the next time they are making that training roll, they can get a +1 to the roll for every star they have in the skill. Or, they can erase the star to subtract a DAY from the required training time.
Not sure if this was comment on, but if you gain all the service skills at a "law enforcement, at level 1, for "first occupations, and then you get a promotion, and you get streetwise, as a bonus, but it don't help any since you don't a full skill. Is that a mistake?
For First Occupations, you get all the skills at in the Service Skills field at Level 0. So if you get that, then are promoted, you gain Streetwise1 unless you already increased your Streetwise to 1 another way.
Hey I wanted to ask about how you've gone over how much you like the Traveller character creation system, and I was wondering how you flavor characters when it's all completely random. I'm in love with the system and everything but I'm having a hard time getting an idea of what my character is like and then having them be completely different after they're rolled. Do you have any tips?
My tips are pretty simple. The very beginning and very end are when you get total control (pre-career skills then, package/ connection skills). Any must-have skills you fill in then. You get to decide their personality. So how did they take their career's twists and turns? Did they grow, change, become embittered, etc.? The personality is always under the players control. For me, the character, the real character, is the personality. Skills can be acquired later. So you wanted a pilot, but somehow missed all the times you could have gained that skill (even the part where you got control at the end) then start there. "Bob always wanted to be a pilot but life never worked out that way. Now he's a Traveller, has control of his destiny, and his life-long desire to become a pilot will be his character modivation." Or you could embrace the turn life gave you. "When he was a kid, Bob wanted to be a pilot. But as he grew up, he learned he was better for working on ship engines than flying them." During any RPG the player loses total control of their life once the game begins. Things happen. Some good, some bad, some just unexpected. The player then responds and grows their character off those experiences playing. The only difference with Traveller is the journey begins before character creation is done instead of after.
@@SSkorkowsky Alright, thanks! That actually really helps me settle in my mind how that works. I'll definitely use those tips once I get to play a character again.
Watching this video 3 years later so dunno if this'll reach you or anyone -- in the experience points section, you label how players get xp points per four hours of session, but must spend it immediately; for those bigger skills that need 4 or more xp, how would they save them up to get their skill levels even higher? forgive me if this is in a later video, i'm binging them now (life saving!!! starting my campaign soon and these videos are to die for
They save them toward that skill. So, if over 4 sessions they spend 1XP toward that particular skill they want, once it hits 4, the skill improves. They simply can't save the XPs in a general pool to decide where they go later.
So I pulled the trigger and bought a few traveller books, I cannot wait to dm these with my friends. Appreciate all the effort you put into these videos On a side note, you should ask people to like the video to help you get up on the UA-cam analytics. I know I forget, but it's always nice to be reminded
Hope you enjoy Traveller! I do ask at the very end, but I have a weird hangup about mentioning that early in the video because I really hate channels that spend the first 5 minutes telling you Like, Subscribe, join Patreon, and all that stuff. So I kinda compensate too far the other way.
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Hey seth!!! I'm one of those well read truck drivers!! Thank you for the shout out and the Valducan series. Stay safe and healthy. :)
Fun Fact: Since the 1930's audiobooks were a very niche market primarily for the blind. Most major books were never even given an audio option, and even then, were usually highly abridged. But then truck drivers discovered them. They started selling books on tape at truckstops and this previously tiny market exploded. The entire audiobook market owes that to truckers.
Audiobooks are my biggest market. My last novel, I told my agent that without an audiobook option I wouldn't sign. So as an author with 7 audiobooks and two Audie Award noms, I freaking LOVE you well-read truckers.
@@SSkorkowsky There's also been continued growth due to advances in portable electronics capable of playing audiobooks. I know quite a few people who are listening to a book non-stop while jogging, doing chores, shopping, etc. Not everybody zoning out on the bus is listening to music or a phone call, lot of them have a book plugged in to their ear - which is a good thing, considering the rotting corpse traditional publishing is turning into.
Oh yeah, Audible and streaming audiobooks have turned audio into the fastest-growing publishing market. I'm an audiobook addict myself and have a book playing whenever I'm driving, doing chores, or working out (back when the gym was open). But before that could happen, the market needed to show it was big enough to sink that much money into. A professionally-read book can easily cost you around $1,000 per final recorded hour to produce (and can get much higher if you have a famous narrator). That's a big up-front investment. Audible ACX and similar programs, where costs are reduced through various options has also allowed smaller authors and publishers to get into audio now, when once, it was only something the biggest names could do. One of the biggest pieces of advice I tell authors is they need to get audio editions. For me, audio is 70% of my book sales.
And since I'm talking about it, might as well drop a shameless link to my audiobooks ;-) www.audible.com/author/Seth-Skorkowsky/B00JO2GKX6?ref=a_search_c3_lAuthor_1_1_1&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6880-467a-b5a7-13cef5d729fe&pf_rd_r=X2E6GPBH1T6B6E04SZXA
@@SSkorkowsky As a writer I must thank you for the excellent tip. I had not thought much of audio books, but your endorsement of the concept has caused me to reconsider.
@@SSkorkowsky I have read (listened) to two of your books off audible. How do you get paid with the return, streaming options? Seems hard to track.
So I've never bought any other rpg then d&d and now I own COC and traveller
Nice
Similar to me. Just bought traveller.
@@dsan05 the Seth effect
@@theknightofbadassness301 Indeed. This is not the first time this has happened!
seth inspired me to get every rpg i have other than DnD. Traveller, cthulhu, pulp cthulhu, Alien and i'm hopefully going to buy cyberpunk red soon
Great video. Played lots of Traveller in the 80’s. Watching your videos inspired me to pick up the game again and get it to my table in ‘22.
If memory serves (it's been a couple of decades) improving skills through study was a lot harder in the original game, your character had to go on extended study leave and so was out of commission for a while AND the improvement wore off so I think Mongoose is helping out in the modern game.
I'm happy you like Traveller. It's nice to see people playing one of my faves.
God dammit Seth! You're awesome series of videos on Call of Cthulhu got me so into Call of Cthulhu, that it took me a couple weeks to convince my players to try it out. And now they're super into it and happy. So naturally this series of videos is starting to get me into Mongoose Traveller so I got to start this horrible cycle all over again.
Why must you always tempt me with these shiny pretty new systems? If my players kill me for constantly changing systems, I'm blaming you!
If your players get upset at the constant system changing, try playing Golden Sky Stories with them, it's sure to improve their mood.
/s
(For real tho, GSS is amazing & I wish more people knew about it. It's like Animal Crossing as a TTRPG)
It does sound pretty cool. I’m not even that into the sci-fi setting that much but I want to try it.
One thing we do is when you roll a natural 2 or a 12 you get 1/10th of a skill point. Crisis/Critical success bonus if you will. 10 of those and your skill goes up a level. One game I rolled those numbers on the same skill 5 times. 3 2s and 2 12s. You learn as much from complete failure as you do from complete success - most of the time.
Ordered my Traveller core book now. I'm thinking I'll be getting the Companion as well. Thanks Seth.
Get the Companion. It plugs a lot of holes in the core book. Should have even been included in the core in my opinion.
If you have more money to spend Highguard and Central supply catalogue is pretty much essential as well.
Central supply catalog is amazing!!! High guard is good if you like building ships, and the vehicle handbook if you like building non-spacecraft vehicles
I get that your intuition as a GM says that deception shouldn't be the skill for what you might considered a 'sleight of hand' check coming off D&D and CoC and such, but by Traveller's mechanics, it being a deception (dextery) check (or whichever way the system writes that up in the rulebooks) makes a lot of sense to me, and I can see what they are going for.
DnD is also very strict in how you can use your skills normally. Other systems want the players to come up with creative ways to justify and use there skills to there advantage. Traveller is clear close to this idea.
Thank you so much for these videos, Seth! You've basically kickstarted my Traveller campaign, which is scratching a Sci-Fi itch I've been ignoring for way too long.
Seth dropping awesome videos that make my day is a mundane action & doesn’t require a skill check ☺️
It's official, I want to join *_your_* Traveller games. I like the house rules you've implemented regarding rolling once for combined skill checks and modifying the optional IP rule to only apply to skills the character used in the session or is actively studying.
Ive only just found Traveller and this series of review. This is excellent stuff and really building my appetite to play!
For skills like recon you could say they aren't necessarily reading but running VR simulations of training scenarios.
I used to strictly play old-school stuff til I found your channel. These in-depth reviews are real great. Thanks for all your work.
There are many aspects this game excels in, and some given little if any clarification. I made myself a retired old spy who had acquired some good gear over his long career.
In our game, we captured a ship and needed to get full control of the systems to prevent Imps from remotely taking the ship from us and allowing us access to secrets in the ships computer. So I tried to hack the ships computer. With the gear, and the modifiers I was nearly +8 to hack. The rules for hacking give it high difficulty with an additional penalty( like +4 or +6). This puts any hack attempt out of reach of any player. No bonuses for physical access, no mechanic for letting me spend X number of days/hours/weeks letting the hacking software run. Now we are forced to use NPC's for the hack. So, some areas in the game need some more polish/tweaking. Great lore and freedom of choice.
I greatly appreciate you making these.
Just rewatching because i got a upcoming traveller project and need a refresher.
16:30 "like those truck drivers who listen to audiobooks". Hey! That's me. Nice! I drive from FL to CA and back 2x a month. Lately i've been listening to the novelizations of the "Alien" franchise to prepare for being the "Game Mother" for the RPG. A trucker GMing for Space Truckers, that should be fun.
Btw, I am curious as to your opinion on the Alien RPG. It's by Free League Publishing and (I'm pretty sure) it just won the Ennie for "Best RPG" (or "RPG of the Year"? Something like that.) Oh, and review videos with tips would be awesome! I mean, I've seen you wearing Weyland Yuitani shirts so I figured you'd enjoy them. :)
I've tooled around with the Free League Alien RPG a little (just 1 session so-far). Not enough to give a review yet. For 1-shots (cinematic play) I think it's awesome. Don't know how well it'll really work yet when it comes to long-term campaign play.
5:41 I think you cover in later video that getting an alien princess to marry you is not a one roll feet. It would require multiple rolls slowly lowering the difficulty until it’s actually achievable; along with a lot of role-play.
I am officially getting into this game because of you. Please keep up the awesome content!
The way you describing what skill(s) to pick for a task reminds me of Star Trek Adventures where you can Use different “skills” for the same or similar things and might vary on your strengths in the game.
Thank you for this series Seth,it's helping me a lot with the understanding of the system.
I love this series. I bought the Core Rule Book after watching this and I'm having so much fun playing Traveller with my son. Thanks Seth!
Awesome to hear! Hope you both have fun storming the galaxy.
This is fantastic. The game we're running uses a more homebrew version of skills. The levels of skills determines how long they have to study. Naught to 0 is four weeks, where as 0 to 1 is eight weeks.
Meanwhile I have tables and tables worth of random mission and world encounters (we're doing an exploration campaign akin to Star Trek) that have their own skill and stat rewards in whatever stats were relevant for that mission.
I think it helps the players feel like they're actually progressing. If it's a common encounter, yellow alert, red alert, or galactic event, there's always something small they can get if things don't go totally awry.
I'm glad to see others are using a lot of alternatives though. Traveller is such a magnificent system. Super glad you're doing this series!
At 2:08 - are those the (in)famous GDW d6s? Back in the 80s, they were widely renowned as the best d6s because the pips were drilled out so deep it would make the 6 lighter than the 1 resulting in higher rolls.
I really like the idea that which skill you use controls the side effects of the action. Bluff and the guard might be intimidated but annoyed. Fake a missing ID and the guard will have different feelings about you. Most cases this might not matter but if you have to get out past the same guard, the way you got in may matter a lot...
i'v just started to learn Traveller to play with my friends and i want to thank for all the explanation videos you'v make its so clear to understand so thank you for your work
Such a great game, hopefully you're creating a spike in fans and sales
12:00 it is a task chain. Creating forged ID. ahead of time (deception +edu [to make it by memory]) allowing the persuade (soc) roll to better succeed at bluffing that he is meant to be there.
Awesome! I've been waiting for this one!
Boons and banes is the exact mechanic from Shadow of the Demon Lord, but you can have more than one boon and bane dice, but still only using the highest
Hey Seth is there any chance you could do a video going over all the things you think a GM should definitely know to play Traveller? Me and a bunch of friends got really interested in the game and we got even more interested after watching your videos so after I get back from Basic Training we were gonna try and run a game.
Awesome!! Love that you do this Seth. I find your videos extremely helpful and entertaining. Any chance that you would do a Traveller session or 2 for us to view?
I was just think about the lack of "sense motive," yesterday. I am glad I continued my join down these video :)
yours is really one of the most entertaining rpg channels on the net. Although I am also an old hand gm who has more than 30y experience I am still fond of your tipps and tricks. I also like traveller alot but recently I looked a little bit at Stars without number from Kevin Crawford. Do you know this traveller inspired OSR-system?
The skill roles of mixing and matching character stat with skill points are similar to the WoD mechanics without having to count 1's and 0's. However, there are those charts to consult, which might slow down the gameplay for new players/referees. All in all, it does seem to be a pretty reasonable system.....now, about psionics... :P
Thanks for the info about the alternative experience option. I ran mongoose 1st ed and the advancement was the only compliant I got. This video series is really informative.
At 12:30 a skill to read someone elses intent. In classic Traveler there was a skill called interrogation. This was not rubber hoses in the back room but the ability to closely question a person. Possibly without their knowledge. (I tend to be very liberal on skill description.)
Seth, thanks for inspiring me to start a Traveller campaign, we started with High and Dry (modified a bit). So far so good, planning on running Marooned on Marduk in a couple weeks when they get there. Loving your videos on Traveller. Many Thanks
Awesome. Have fun with it.
Traveller is a game I've been almost interested enough to try. I had MegaTraveller for a time and while the background stuff was cool, all those digits describing a spaceship were too much. At the time there was no one to play the game with.
Your review so far is showing I should give Traveller a shot.
MegaTraveller had a fairly complex system for vehicles and starships (though nowhere close to TNE or T4). Mongoose Traveller is simpler, though not so much as starships from Classic Traveller. It's probably my favourite version, although there were parts of other editions I do prefer.
Thanks!
Than you very much.
@SSkorkowsky, watching you on the Glass Cannon podcast, and these review videos led my crew and me to start playing traveller.
Extremely helpful. I ran my first session this week, and found I'd made a few mistakes, but I tend to learn best by doing, and by watching example, so just reading the books wasn't enough. These videos help make tackling the system much easier, and for that I'd like to say thank you, good sir!
Much waited for
Bring on the reticulan parasites...
Excellent series... I have been using classic traveller for 40 yrs with a few mods...
Quite interested in adding further mechanics....
Boons and Banes look like a good add.
Around the 18:30 mark of the video skill levelling is addressed. I decided to try something a bit different and I keep track of skill the characters commonly use (you can have the players tic mark or have a Ref notepad). You determine what you consider to be abundant use of a skill and then just have the player level that skill up. The way I moderate the use of this is that I only allow for skill levelling if the character doesn't have the skill or has only level 0 in that skill. So this way, I am allowing for someone with no skill to be considered to have a generic understanding of that skill (level 0) after a lot of use. Then, they can actually get to be considered skilled in it by going to level 1. I don't allow progression beyond L1. I justify that by saying the character is so involved with life and is not getting direct instruction as one would in a university or some program of education. I don't allow OJT to account for becoming someone considered advanced in knowledge, though a Ref certainly could do that. But for me, since your career progression ended before you became a Traveller, that kind of progression is off of the table (kind of a "coasting" phase of life).
You can award a week of training equivalence towards a skill when players use it well during role-playing. It serves as a useful stand in for experience points without altering the essential game mechanics. And players get a sense of advancement without becoming supermen in the course of a campaign.
i'm using a variant system that incorporates XP into the usual learning system, basically they can spend XP to automatically succeed their roll for a study period (if they have a point to spend) i've also reduced study periods down to 4 weeks instead of 8, just to speed progress up a little, my players aren't the most patient of people so they would get bored if progress was at the normal rate, anyway, great series so far.
Sometimes if there are two skills that are similar you can use the trained skill w/ a -1 DM vs. the character having to make a roll w/ -3 [ untrained ] in situations where the character doesn't quite have the exact skill. Ex -> Pilot Small boats-3 could be used as pilot starship-2 or even pilot starship-1 if its a very large ship or maybe a system they're not used to.
Right now your my favourite UA-camr keep going man
The skill learning system and being stuck in jump space for weeks at time reminded me of Nathan Lowell's Quarter Share. Great series of books.
Home brew advancement I use along with the normal study method:
Hands-on Experience: each game session where a skill is applied at least 3 times in the field counts as 1 week of study towards the 8 week period.
This reflects hands on experience as being a really efficient way to learn something while at the same time not introducing XP to the game system.
Example- PC gets into an actual gun fight and shoots 3 times, that’s worth 1 week of firearm skill study (which to me would normally include reading about guns, cleaning them, and spending some DT at a gun range practicing).
Thanks Seth for another great video for a game system that my group really enjoys!
Thank you for making this series Seth. I run Savage Worlds but I can see implementing some of these rules into that system.
Got here so soon that the title is still 'Traveller 3'
Yeah...dunno what that's about. First thing I do when I load a vid is change the name from my the file name, but it's just not updating. UA-cam is wacky today.
@@SSkorkowsky Lol just today XD
UA-cam seems to wake up every morning and spin the Wheel of Whacky to decide how it'll behave. Today's error was "Not Updating Titles". I'm just happy it wasn't "Delete Your Channel For No Reason" so I'll consider this annoyance as lucky it wasn't worse.
Weirdest one they ever did was after it was all loaded and all that, the video inserted a random frame from somewhere else in the video about every 4 minutes. Real quick little flashes. Evidently other people got it that day, too. Probably the ghost in the UA-cam server screaming for help.
...wandering the chasms of the UA-cam datacenter's cold rack wailing "compression... compression!"
Do you have backups of your videos in case UA-cam deletes one?
I love these videos so much
Sound like the next RPG für SciFi-games ;-)
You make it sound really interesing. Thanks for the review.
A few thoughts on learning skills..
- The XP rules you showed seemed to largely trade XP for days of training at a 1-to-1 ratio. It might be easier just to go with that in order to mix time and XP.
- It might be interesting to treat the EDU check as any other task roll and let players try it at enhanced difficulty earlier, or lower difficulty later. Failing it could have various fun consequences.
I did a mod of Traveller where we used a D12 to replace the 2D6. We actually did this for MegaTraveller because it has a weird combat system and we wanted to use a system similar to Twilight2000 v2.2. We also wanted to roll a number of Hit Dice equal to the number of bullets in a burst of autofire (like Twilight2000 uses). Using the D12 enabled this.
This is the 2nd game system you've talked me into buying and running (CoC 7th being the other), hopefully the new Cyberpunk will be a series you can do in the future.
Traveller is awesome!
I think having to decide in what "style" your character wants to achieve something brings alot of dramatic flavour into it. If you want to solve something in a streetwise style as opposed to an advocate style, really paints different mental images.
My style has gotten to a very narrative approach so the idea of picking the skill or stat that best describes what it is you want your character to do is a selling point for me.
Your sessions run eight hours? I'm envious. I've been running for younger people (college students) for a while now; it's hard to get them to sit down for a four-hour session. I envy you your players.
There's also a great deal of chit-chat and bullshitting we do during it. Now that's we're using Roll20 thanks to the Covid, we start winding down in about 5.
I would suggest that with "skills" xp thing you just say some number of uses of a skill equals a given study session, modified by EDU/INT.
Also... SOC should be gained or lost when used based on how well they do. If someone fails a lot they're going to lose SOC. If they do well they're going to gain, and likewise someone that attempts to be social will have that effect multiplied. Just a thought-o ^.^
A-ha! I thought it was one of the prime numbers of the Zeeman series. *I* haven't changed. - Dr. Hans Zarkov - Flash Gordon (1980)
Hey Seth, what would you say about using Experience earned to advance a training period by a week (or even for the whole period) without having to spend the time to do it, OR to add a DM to the next training roll? I feel like this would be a good way to allow players to 'save' experience points, without letting them pool them all up into one big thing.
I'm not quite following the question (but I also haven't had morning coffee yet). With the XP, the player sticks them in 1 or more Skills/stats right away. It might take several sessions for those to still add up to raise that stat/skill, but they have to be sent to a specific one, that way they don't just have a general pool to decide on later and dump a ton of XP on. With Training (which I also allow) the player must state upfront what skill they're training for, and then that takes X number of 8-week Study Periods to raise the skill. So with both methods, the player is moving toward a specific goal.
Because the XP and Study Periods almost but not quite line up, I'd treat 1 XP as a Study period if the player applies it toward a skill they're currently training in.
@@SSkorkowsky Ooookay. See, I hadn't gotten the bit about the XP still adding up, and had thought it had to be spent on something it could buy all at once.
Honestly, amidst the otherwise absolutely FANTASTIC editing for the other books, a lot of Traveller companion gets a bit hard to read and oddly worded at times.
The house rule you adopted for multiple tasks, where you only roll once but apply it to two separate DM’s for each task... do you still increase the difficulty of the two tasks? By the books’s stated amount, if you do?
Yeah the target number for both is still raised. The only difference is the player rolls one time, and applies that roll to both checks.
@@SSkorkowsky Only drawback I can see to that is that (assuming skills and stats involved in each check are similar) you won't often get the "did one thing well, but botched the other" results that two separate rolls can produce. For ex, your "climbing a wall while sneaking past a guard" should be able to go either way - climbed fast and safely but got heard or spotted and the guard is alerted, or slipped and fell but didn't make enough noise doing so to give yourself away. It's pretty common for skill+stat mods to be clumped very closely, within a range of 0 to 3, which isn't much of a spread.
Seth Skorkowsky I like that approach, I like how the roll almost represents the situation, and since that is this once instance you roll once! Each total if the combo of the character effort and that situation, made harder by dividing their attention. I dig it!
Rich, yeah, the spread between the 2 checks is narrowed to only what their individual DMs are, but the big benefit I see is the chances for overall success are better. Let's say that the PC wants to do that Stealth/Climb. Their chances of succeeding each is 50%. If the player rolls one, and then rolls the other, the chance of making both rolls is now 25%. That means the character is most likely going to fail the full attempt. So saying they only roll one time and treat that roll as if it were 2 separate rolls, the character still has their 50% chance of pulling it off. I'd much rather give up the possibility of that wide range between the 2 checks if it means the player has a better chance of pulling it off and is therefore more likely to attempt those daring combined-checks.
@@SSkorkowsky That's certainly true. More die rolls will always reduce the odds of full success, but they do produce a few less fluke results than a single 2d6 bell curve will.
I'm going to be using a house rule for learning skills in the field, each Exceptional Success counts as one week of study and gives a DM+1 to the roll to confirm study period. I'm also going to make a sheet for this with each skill listed and 8 boxes next to them that they will put in a X for a ES and an O for a week of study so it's easy to track for all the skills at once.
Definitely gonna try this system out soon
The using different Attributes with certain skills, depending on what the player wants to achieve, is something I've pulled across into my Cyberpunk games - it makes more sense than saying "Handgun/Drive skill *only* teaches you how to shoot/drive" (REF + Handgun or Drive as per RAW) when the wealth of experience from gaining that proficiency would also confer other advantages: "I've used/owned/seen numerous firearms/vehicles in my time so I've got a pretty good chance that I've seen/used the ones the BBEG's mooks are using and can identify them and know things about them - like magazine capacity, effective range, strengths, weaknesses, limitations etc" (INT + Handgun or Drive).
I like the idea of rolling once to cover the combined skills, I can see that being a house rule here if I were to run a Traveller game.
I've got the first edition, but 2nd doesn't seem much different, so I'm quite enjoying these. Stay safe everyone.
Really want to grab a copy of traveler but sounds like definitely need the supplemental books that's alot of money
I love that multiple skills or characteristics could be used in a situation. My players love trying to convince me how INT is the best one for their Piloting roll. My players try to gain an edge with their best characteristics, and with a good justification, I let them roll for it.
hey seth where'd you get that flask? it looks cool
OJT is a great idea for skill improvement outside of the classroom. Honestly I'd say the hands on nature of OJT makes it the faster method of learning when compared to book study.
Great work!
I just purchased the Traveller Companion a few days ago and it really does have great rule expansions and alternatives. It feels strange even as a referee to play a system that has no real progression system for players. I appreciate the alternate rules for experience. I haven't started a group yet but glad they work well in your game. Do you find with the experience points that the Travellers get too powerful compared to the threats in the modules?
Not really. Part of it is that getting higher levels in skills still takes a long time. But the other thing is equipment make a bigger difference in quickly spiking power levels. A group with a bunch of really powerful toys will scramble an adventure faster than a group with high skill levels. Thankfully Law Levels and the like keep that aspect in check for a lot of locations.
The no experience thing really bothered me when I first read the Corebook. Studying to get better is great, but experience should count for something. It was my biggest complaint with the system up until the Companion came out.
This skill system reminds me of World of Darkness. Combining different skills and attributes to specify how exactly you do things.
Seth, ever review Gamma World modules? I would love to hear your review on GW1 Legion of Gold. Am currently running it, and it's awesome, reminds me of old school basic d&d.
If I remember correctly, in the first edition of Mongoose Traveller, a training session required no toll, but took a length of time equal to the sum total of all your skills, with 0 counting as 0, 1 as 1 week, etc. I might be forgetting some key element, but I like the 2nd edition method better, to be honest.
It’s interesting that you can’t use XP to increase social, but your can increase endurance and strength and reverse the effects of aging lol!
Would love to get your take on Zweihander
I think streetwise is probably the best “insight” for most situations, otherwise I was considering home brewing a psychology skill which can be studied in college or the standard 8 week class etc
That xp rule sounds similar to how it was in Star Frontiers
Oh I still regret selling my signed copies 20 years ago ,,,
I have elected against using boons and banes. They modify the roll way too much (something like a 1.5 DM, depending on where you are on the probability curve). I feel that the only weakness Traveller has is that it's not very granular. The difference in chance between rolling at least 7 and at least 8 is almost 17%. I'd love to have some kind of mechanic that increases/decreases your chance of success by lesser than 1 DM, but I haven't been able to come up with anything so far, except modding the whole game to 2d10 instead of 2d6.
Anyone have any ideas?
Joel Tarnabene: That's why I preferred the d20 system in TNE over the 2d6 skill checks in CT and MT. 1d20 gives more even distribution of odds than 2d6, so each +1 DM was always equal to 5% rather than a much more variable amount with a 2d6 system. 🤔
In Classic Traveller the skill used to detect deception is either Interview or Interrogation
Boons and Banes show up in a game called shadow of the Demon Lord as well. It's by Robert J schwalb, who is done quite a bit of work in RPGs for the last two decades, having his hands in Warhammer fantasy role-play and even Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. I do believe the Boon and Bane mechanic is his oh, but I am unsure
What do you do when your player really roleplays well when it comes to a task such as carousing; do you still make them role for the task but lowering the difficulty or do you forgo the role all together?
Case-by-case. What I should do more of is remember Boon Dice for those occasions (If I keep reminding myself, eventually I'll remember).
OK, I get the rule for increasing or decreasing difficulty by shifting the time frame.
But IMHO there are many circumstances when this rule does not make any sense at all.
So I just need to role high enough and I build something in minutes that normally require hours of work?
And I get a big bonus when I decide to wait some minutes before jumping over an obstacle?
There would be points where a task could not logically be sped or slowed down to some level, like rebuilding a car engine in seconds rather than hours. The system probably needs a means to decide how feasible such an action would be, some kind of referee or master of the game to handle those cases. If only there were such a person...
@@SSkorkowsky Good answer, tnx. Can't wait to see the rest of your Traveller overview.
"Those are some well read people."
Heh... My audible account has been getting some interesting additions lately; including some lecture courses and audio versions of several RPG related books Like Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering and Your Best Game Ever.
They do pass the time while driving. :)
Great video, do you have the award available as a download?
Do you use diplomacy and persuasion interchangeably?
Depends on the setting and/or situation. If in an official capacity or with alien races or governments, Diplomacy. Talking with the guy down the street, Persuasion. If the player wants to use the other, then they should explain how they intend to use their skills at Diplomacy to get the door guard to let them into the building.
I think you kind of inferred this during the personal hurdles portion regarding a lack of a specifically named skill.
Whether intentional or not, the lack of a specific skill rewards skill diversification. In DnD, for example, it's been my experience that a lot of people pretty much always have their PC be proficient in Perception. Mainly because it is frequently useful.
When the system allows the flexibility Traveler does, it gives players "permission" to diversify not only their Traveler's skills, but, the rest of the team's.
Helpful video.
P.S.: I checked out that Traveler map site. It is helpful, but, also not. How the heck do I figure out where to start them!? 😅
What if you used the standard training rules for skills. BUT, when things happen in game where their use of a skill would be a great 'teaching moment' they can put a star by the skill. Then, the next time they are making that training roll, they can get a +1 to the roll for every star they have in the skill. Or, they can erase the star to subtract a DAY from the required training time.
Not sure if this was comment on, but if you gain all the service skills at a "law enforcement, at level 1, for "first occupations, and then you get a promotion, and you get streetwise, as a bonus, but it don't help any since you don't a full skill. Is that a mistake?
For First Occupations, you get all the skills at in the Service Skills field at Level 0. So if you get that, then are promoted, you gain Streetwise1 unless you already increased your Streetwise to 1 another way.
Hey I wanted to ask about how you've gone over how much you like the Traveller character creation system, and I was wondering how you flavor characters when it's all completely random. I'm in love with the system and everything but I'm having a hard time getting an idea of what my character is like and then having them be completely different after they're rolled. Do you have any tips?
My tips are pretty simple. The very beginning and very end are when you get total control (pre-career skills then, package/ connection skills). Any must-have skills you fill in then. You get to decide their personality. So how did they take their career's twists and turns? Did they grow, change, become embittered, etc.? The personality is always under the players control. For me, the character, the real character, is the personality. Skills can be acquired later. So you wanted a pilot, but somehow missed all the times you could have gained that skill (even the part where you got control at the end) then start there. "Bob always wanted to be a pilot but life never worked out that way. Now he's a Traveller, has control of his destiny, and his life-long desire to become a pilot will be his character modivation."
Or you could embrace the turn life gave you. "When he was a kid, Bob wanted to be a pilot. But as he grew up, he learned he was better for working on ship engines than flying them."
During any RPG the player loses total control of their life once the game begins. Things happen. Some good, some bad, some just unexpected. The player then responds and grows their character off those experiences playing. The only difference with Traveller is the journey begins before character creation is done instead of after.
@@SSkorkowsky Alright, thanks! That actually really helps me settle in my mind how that works. I'll definitely use those tips once I get to play a character again.
I'd argue that Streetwise could be an Insight roll. Your streetwisdom makes you aware when you're being hustled.
I think the name of the video came wrong but the video is nice
Title is the filename I used. UA-cam is wacky and refusing to use the video title I told it to use.
@@SSkorkowsky No big deal man, keep up with the good content
Watching this video 3 years later so dunno if this'll reach you or anyone -- in the experience points section, you label how players get xp points per four hours of session, but must spend it immediately; for those bigger skills that need 4 or more xp, how would they save them up to get their skill levels even higher? forgive me if this is in a later video, i'm binging them now (life saving!!! starting my campaign soon and these videos are to die for
They save them toward that skill. So, if over 4 sessions they spend 1XP toward that particular skill they want, once it hits 4, the skill improves. They simply can't save the XPs in a general pool to decide where they go later.
@@SSkorkowsky ahh that makes a lot of sense, thankyou so much!!!
Seth, great shirt! Might I inquire where you got it?
So I pulled the trigger and bought a few traveller books, I cannot wait to dm these with my friends. Appreciate all the effort you put into these videos
On a side note, you should ask people to like the video to help you get up on the UA-cam analytics. I know I forget, but it's always nice to be reminded
Hope you enjoy Traveller!
I do ask at the very end, but I have a weird hangup about mentioning that early in the video because I really hate channels that spend the first 5 minutes telling you Like, Subscribe, join Patreon, and all that stuff. So I kinda compensate too far the other way.