Traveller Campaign Tips 3: Skills

The driving force of most Traveller games. Please go to Patreon.com and look under Page121 to help support the channel. Thank you. #TTRPG #RPG #FRPG #Traveller

[@ericnull3470]

I will admit that I don't play traveller (yet), but the system interests me enough to watch videos like this. In defense of balanced "boon" and "bane" modifiers. You said you don't like "the dice" to determine when bad things happen to players. That said, these seem like situational modifiers (based on your examples). So, if the players attempt something when the situation would be unfavorable... seems to me like that was player choice. They chose to do something difficult, and you are effectively robbing them of that choice if you make it routine. It's just up to the DM (Ref?) not to hide "mandatory" rolls that further the story behind any dice checks. But if the players devise a whacky plan that involves making unfavorable skill checks... THAT is the players choice. To not assign bane dice and let them roll normally seems to take away some of their agency. If it's a normal check then it's not difficult... it's normal. You don't usually cheer when you succeed on a routine roll with standard difficulty. The most memorable rolls are when the odds are stacked against you, and you succeed anyway. Also, i would be remiss if I didn't point out the fact that any action that rolls dice at all is always decided by the dice and not the player. Regardless of boons or banes. Can always roll three 1's. Can always roll three 6's. So, if they decide to do something unfavorable... you reward them with bane dice. It's not a punishment. You are honoring their decision.

[@mkang8782]

Regarding the more Boon than Bane: First, obviously, do what works for your table and group. Secondly, as a corollary, I have found that a lot of players like succeeding in challenging circumstances. This is something that definitely needs to be discussed in Session Zero.

[@S0nyb1ack]

Task chains to me are incredible :D I loooove them - recent example: my players were searching for a hidden research facility in an asteroid belt. So a "Electronics (sensors)" check, immediately the ships engineer wants to adjust the sensors to be more finetuned for scanning the structure of rocks. Amazing we got a task chain :D Though I ruled that any kind of bonus they'll get to find that facility will also be a negative modifier for normal sensor operation, since they finetuned them for this one task. At least at our table my players come up with great ideas how to help somebody else and task chains are pretty common. And the think I like is that more different skills are getting used and also players seem more involved, whenever somebody wants to roll anything significant they immediately start thinking how they could assist (another example - the broker of the group wanted to find a buyer for some goods they had and the high social standing character immediately wanted to maybe visit some "high society events" to maybe meet some potential candidates for the broker, so again we did a task chain)

[@mnkyj9]

In some situations I allow leadership to inspire some tasks as part of a chain.

[@Kevlar-78]

This is great. Relearning and enjoying your read through / overview

[@Imustscream]

I appreciate your “player forward” outlook as I share it and am glad (at least so far) I see eye to eye with you.

[@S0nyb1ack]

An example for a simple task from the book: plotting a jump is a 4+ astrogation check (I think, I don't have the book open in front of me, but I remember seeing that number), taking d6 * 10 minutes, meaning this task will almost always succeed if you have any astrogation skill, additionally if the player takes their time to do it is a guaranteed success even with a +0 to the check. But hurrying with the task is a -2 to the check -> similar as if you would increate the difficulty to 6+. This can easily come up in combat, since a space combat round takes 1 minute, so d6 * 10 minutes is to slow, but d6 minutes is equal to d6 rounds.

[@dustinmitchell4711]

For the easy/impossible examples, remember a task can be made more or less difficult by taking more or less time to do it. So something that is normally routine could become difficult if you're in a rush. I don't have the updated book, but in the old version there was a table outlining how difficulty changed as the time to perform the task changed.

[@S0nyb1ack]

That table is still there :) I do think time is quite an essential tool for tasks in traveller - I try to make sure the players have some kind of schedule to keep (or competition, or some other form of slight time pressure - it usually don't need to be much), so they won't take their time for every task...

[@DahVoozel]

Not just time, but also making impossible tasks a task chain to give other players a chance to help.

[@benjamineisenhofer8174]

Otoh the time modifier also helps the other way around: Player didn't make the roll? Ok, instead of saying "It didn't work" check how much longer it would thake them to make it work. Exceptional success could then mean they did their task in record time. That's super handy for tasks they could in theory just repeat over and over.

[@tamsinp7711]

Given her Belter background, I'd say that Naomi would also have Streetwise although perhaps at a lower level than Amos; Miller would probably be on a similar level to Amos.

[@martinbowman1993]

In Traveller there isn't really a success or failure in definitive terms. You can perform a surgery and the patient lives only for another week. I did the breaks on my truck and a bolt fell out a month later. I failed the mechanic roll, but my breaks stilled worked. I just had to go to the junk yard and get a bolt before I had a break disaster.

[@HeadHunterSix]

If you're using 2 as an auto-fail, there will never be a call for a trivial task. And Impossible tasks are possible on a 12, providing you have 4 levels of skill... so 12 generally shouldn't be an auto-success, unless you want to remove formidable and impossible tasks completely.

[@mikefontana3324]

Great review of skills. As a note and a long time HERO GM the Ultimate Skills book on Drive Thru is 400 pages. I have the PDF as I've been moving over to having electronic copies for easy access. My guess is the page count on the site is a mistake and no one's caught it yet.

[@page121tabletoproleplaying4]

Thanks for the info and thanks for watching.

[@martinbowman1993]

What we do is - tell me what you're doing. This explains how the attribute DM and Skill go together, but also what the player is trying to do. After the roll the player is expected describe what happened.

[@S0nyb1ack]

One rule I regularly use form the Compendium book (from mongoose for this edition) is the rule for a better grouping of specialities for very broad skills - like science or profession. Basically it combines the specialities into groups and you are considered to have a 0 in every speciality in the same group as long as you have any skill in it (similar how you usually have a 0 in each speciality if you have knowledge of any other - e.g. if you have gun combat (slug) 1; that automatically gives you 0 in (energy) and (archaic), though these broad skills where an exception to that rule in the core rulebook - of course) :)

[@OntarioRimrunner]

This has inspired me to take a detailed look at background skills especially with regard to 18 year old starting characters.

[@bgmill70]

Another great video. I like how you broke down how skills work as tasks with die rolls explaining that very well. I prefer less cascade and more well rounded wide skills in my games but you covered this well. another great Traveller video

[@page121tabletoproleplaying4]

Thanks for the kind words and thanks for watching.

[@HeadHunterSix]

I like to give certain level-0 skills to all players. Vacc Suit, Gun Combat, Melee Combat, Drive, Flyer and Athletics are good choices. The Cepheus system does it that way and it seems reasonable (nothing more frustrating that a combat where everyone keeps missing, etc.)

[@DahVoozel]

Or a chase where all the pcs are out of shape and can't keep up or can't climb a rope under stress.

[@DrHirn]

Where did you get your shirt? I love it.

[@page121tabletoproleplaying4]

I bought that one from Steve Jackson Games around 1999 during GURPS Traveller.

[@fireice27]

You are forgetting the ability bonus....

[@Kevlar-78]

As for skills. I think I saw Seth’s overview on his channel. What do you use for “judge intentions “ “read person” to notice a lie / behavior etc during social encounters ?

[@page121tabletoproleplaying4]

Streetwise is a good one.

[@SwiftJustice]

Opposed Int

[@zombietotseater3894]

Man that cover is ugly. Book is fine, but that cover is lame 😒

[@SwiftJustice]

It's bretty neat close up