Old Traveller adventures - the emptiness of space

I recently bought the Mongoose edition of Traveller, as you might remember me mentioning before. It is a good game, and a fun read. Now I have brought som eof my other Traveller stuff out of storage as well, browsing it since the mind is full of Traveller anyway. You know what? I think I'm seeing a trend in these adventures.

A classic Traveller adventure is describing a locale, either a space ship or a planet. There is usually a task to be done, and some hindrances in the way.

Does that sound familiar? I noted another thing. Quite often the party is stuck in this research outpost, APC, starship, desert, jungle, whatever and need to use their tools to get out alive. More often than not there are rules for how to handle the environment and/or the technology at hand.

I'm missing something.

This setup there's the party, and this locale. That's it. Who the hell are you supposed to interact with?

If you look at classic D&D adventures, there are always NPCs. Remember Lareth? Remember the nutty lich in D2? Remember the zoo of factions in the Caves of Chaos? Space is empty in comparison.

I think I've found out why I so often fail at making science fiction games fun. Space just is too big, cold and empty.

Gender, gaming, are you serious?

How the hell can you make such a fuzz over such a thing?

You think the old AD&D contained boatloads of stupid stuff? I sure think so. Ignore it! Nobody used all that stuff anyway. If they did, we had more fun than them. Wrongbadfun, right?

You think WotC must|must not include whatever such moronic stuff in their new game? Well, who cares about that Type V thing, when we have the old stuff, right? Right?

And if you are a moronic misogynistic twit, I will just ignore you.

The 'net is full of idiots. Ignore them.

More T&T resources!

I don't know if any reader of this blog have missed them, but if you have I think you should check out to nice resources for Tunnels & Trolls.

First, wander over to Tavernmaster Games and have an ale. Behind the fancy name and beautiful website you'll find well known writers and artists. Personally I find Andy Holmes adventures to be excessively brutal, but even accounting for differing taste, it's quality stuff!

Second, I hope you know about the T&T fanzine, TrollsZine? The latest issue, number four, is out. Many pages of interesting stuff. It's a bit like Fight On! in that's it's a mix of everything. Check it out!

Call of Cthulhu on rails

So, we played another session on CoC last weekend. It was the second of two sessions covering the scenario Blood on the Tracks by J. Todd Kingrea from the Pagan Publishing scenario collection Out of the Vault.

The scenario is basically a train ride on a train hijacked by a monster. The intent is to have a feeling of being locked in, of having someone around hunting you for mysterious reasons. I think it is an interesting set up. I'll do a short summary of events and then talk about what went well and what didn't.

So, our investigators left Boston for New Orleans, following the letter our intrepid reported had gotten from her old friend there. Everyone settled in and talked to the other travellers and had dinner on the train. After dinner and cigars most people retired to their rooms, some for "medical tonics for better sleep". Suddenly the peace was shattered when the priest yelled at the top of his lungs that he had seen the conductor run out from Ms Browns compartment, all bloody. The brave investigators broke down the door to the washroom and found the dead conductor.

They spent the night doing autopsies (good with a MD in the group, eh?), examining the blood trail and searching staterooms. Sooner or later the professor of anthropology they had talked to was missing and they started a search, finding him stuffed in a box in the baggage car. By now they all suspected some vampiric activity, considering the blood was missing. They did find, and open, the big crate in the baggage car. Interestingly enough, this lead to the conclusion that Sir Alexander's wife must be a vampire!

Now they had noticed that the radio was smashed and that communications with the engine was down. Our war hero decided it was time for more pulp hero antics and climbed over to the engine via the coal box! He had his big gun with him and managed to blow the two living corpses away. Then there was a fight in the railroad car with the vampire and his acolyte. They ran down the whole train and the fight ended in the baggage car with a stake through the heart of the vampire. Then they had managed to slow down the train and had a lot of explaining to do when the authorities arrived.

So, how was it? Well. I more than once used the guidelines from Unknown Armies about 30-50% being professional level and had everyone with that level automatically succeed at crucial checks like in Trail of Cthulhu. I never had anyone need to be pushed by their Drive into action. Also, I actually forgot to check if anyone's Pillar of Sanity was threatened when they rolled for SAN. The latter was a failing on my part.

Mood wise I think it worked ok. Having one after another being killed off did heighten the sense of being hunted somewhat. I think the fact that things were moving along a pace determined by the villain was a good thing. It meant that even though the investigation could inform the decisions of the players, nothing had to stop because they didn't figure it all out. In fact, I don't think they ever did. The fact that guns are so deadly in close quarters made any gunfight slightly lopsided. I rolled really bad on my part and every second (no, really!) shot fired was an impale! Maybe you need to have a mix of "gun fodder" and some nasty mythos critters to drive home how useless guns are against those.

One of my house rules that will come to matter is how I handle SAN recovery. The doctor who did the autopsies and with reckless abandon ran after the vampire with his hunting rifle did suffer. He gained a temporary insanity and how have this thing for cleanliness. It will affect his work, I gather. But, more importantly he lost 8 SAN which he will never get back. They ended up with a train filled with bloody murder, corpses and guns had been fired. No chance of plausible denial there, so no SAN recovery even though they defeated the monster. That rule will colour this campaign!

Now they will arrive in New Orleans and there are cults, murders and monsters up ahead. I can't wait.

A really good piece of advice on game mastering

Al over at Beyond The Black Gate posted something really good that I just had to share, in the hope somebody reads it that hadn't otherwise. I'll quote the juicy bits.

Lets say, for instance, the party is battling trolls. One of the players, in the midst of combat, wishes to light a torch and start burning troll bits to stop a defeated troll from regenerating back up into the fray. In a "DM vs. Players" scenario, the DM would most likely be inclined to favor getting "his" troll back into action to whup up on the PCs some more, and tell the player its going to take a couple of rounds to light the torch, a couple more rounds to effectively burn troll bits, and all the while suffering the undefended attacks by the remaining trolls.

Unfortunately, what this DM is actually doing is punishing creative play. "Get back to unimaginatively rolling 'to hit' and damage", he might as well say, "or you're going to get pounded on."

Read that again. While it might be tempting to squash that irritating player, god knows I have done it myself!, it is really crucial not to. 

That's some really good advice there for how to be a better DM/GM/whatever.

Say yes!

Are feats that uninteresting?

Amazing. I had a big peak in readership when I posted about my take on FrDaves old school feats, but only one guy left a comment. Odd.

I wonder if there's a flame war going on somewhere that I'm missing...

*shrug*

I think they look cool anyway.

Old School feats - my take

In a post some while back, FrDave posted his ideas about how to spice up the use of stats in old school D&D by some "feats" for those with exceptional stats. I liked the idea of some extra ability that set just that level 2 fighter apart from the dozen next to him in line at the dungeon entrance. Stats mean very little in earlier editions, and while I think the way it works in, say 1st ed AD&D, is a a bit excessive I still think some more use could be had out of them.

Here are my lists for "old school" feats.

This is build for the B/X edition of D&D, with a +1 for 13-15, +2 for 16-17 and +3 for 18 in a stat. The reverse applies for stats lower than 8.

Fighter

• STR - 1-3 times a day, the fighter attack may stun an opponent who must make a save or dazed only defend himself.
• INT - Once a day, you can find and exploit a flaw of the opponent. Adjust his and/or your AC up or down 1-3 points.
• WIS - 1-3 times a day the fighter can feint an opponent, who then looses his next action.
• DEX - 1-3 times a day, a successful attack may disarm an opponent.
• CON - 1-3 extra HP added at character generation.
• CHA - daily an intimidate attempt may be made, and 1-3 bonus gained to one to hit roll.

Magic-User (repost from Blood of Prokopius)

• STR - 1-3 spells per day have their durations doubled.
• INT - 1-3 spells with variable effects are maximized.
• WIS - 1-3 spells may be spontaneously cast in place of memorized spell of equal or lower level.
• DEX - 1-3 spells with an area effect have it doubled.
• CON - may use 1-3 weapons or armour chosen at character generation not normally available. Leather must be the first choice and no heavier than chain.
• CHA -  1-3 spells a day require two successful saves.

Thief

• STR - thrown weapons gets +1-3 damage
• INT - 1-3 times a day the thief manoeuvre himself so to grant initiative for his side. Ignore the dice.
• WIS - daily the thief may push and shove enemies in a fight, granting +1-3 to one attack/save on a friendly side.
• DEX - 1-3 times a day, an attempt at sleight of hand will automatically succeed.
• CON - 1-3 times a day you get +1 to a save of your choice.
• CHA - you can tell 1-3 totally convincing lies each day.

Halfling

• STR - 1-3 times a day, you can re-roll a to hit or damage for one ranged attack.
• INT - 1-3 bonus once a day to find hidden things.
• WIS - once a day, your sixth sense will warn you of impending danger, on a roll of [1-3] in a six.
• DEX - one fight a day, you get 1-3 bonus to AC.
• CON - 1-3 bonus to any save, once a day.
• CHA - 1-3 times a day, you may sing a silly song gaining a 1-3 morale bonus for the whole party.

Cleric

• STR - if an opponent if of a faith directly opposing your own, you may once a day smite the unbeliever for 1-3 extra damage.
• INT - 1-3 memorized spells may be swapped out for a healing spell of equal or lower level, at will.
• WIS - once a day, turning attempts will affect 1-3 extra targets.
• DEX - 1-3 spells of variable area of effect is doubled once a day.
• CON - daily after a short prayer, the cleric will regain 1-3 HP.
• CHA - the true intentions of 1-3 individuals with whim he has conversed will be revealed by the cleric's god.

Elf

• STR - once a day, you get 1-3 bonus to a save against spells with physical effects.
• INT - 1-3 times a day, a spell cast will be retained in memory.
• WIS - on a [1-3] in 6, small woodland creatures will give you warnings of dangers and happening in the wild you are travelling through.
• DEX - 1-3 rounds a day the elf may shoot twice in combat.
• CON - 1-3 days an adventure the elf may survive without sleep/food or water.
• CHA - on a 1 in 6 the elf might know, once a day, a snippet of knowledge of greater or lesser relevance to the adventure at hand.

 Dwarf

• STR - 1-3 attacks a day will not only harm, but also stun the target into loosing their next action.
• INT - may identify the make and/or source of gems and precious metals, on a [1-3] roll in six once a day.
• WIS - once a day 1-3 spells of the dwarfs level or lower will not affect him.
• DEX - when an enemy falls for your axe, you may 1-3 times a day immediately roll to also attack the closest enemy.
• CON - 1-3 days a week, the dwarf may drink any amount of alcohol without passing out.
• CHA - once a day, saves against any fear effect will get a 1-3 bonus for everyone within 10' of the steady dwarf. 

So what say you? I think these can be used to great effect to make that character of yours stand out a bit from the rest, without degenerating into super heroics of a kind not fitting for B/X.

Game giveaway

Now I have rearranged stuff on my selves, and some of the stuff I have put aside to one day put up on eBay have showed up. I'm sick of them.

The first person(s) who send me an email (i.e. the one that ends up higher in my sorted inbox) and agree to pay shipping costs (from Sweden) gets these for nuthin.

1. Rippers - the horror wars : It's a minis game based on Savage Worlds
2. Tales of the Reaching Moon #13 : a great Glorantha fanzine, this issue is a special about the West. I already have a copy.

Email away.

A lack of commenting ability

It seems like whatever I do, I can't comment on blogs that use blogger, and have a comment box beneath the comments. Like mine. It seems like I can't use my google account, only OpenID. Very annoying. If anyone have any hints, feel free to suggest them! I am using Firefox v10 and it was the same with v9. I would have stayed with 3.6 sites had not started bug me about upgrading. Not your business, bud! Anyway, I can tried clearing a cookies and restarting to no effect. *sigh*

Gaming in the slow lane

Now I have sent off my first letter in a De Profundis game. This will be interesting. I have tried gaming by forum and that is too slow to be fun. I wonder how physical letters will feel?

Interesting.