New Traveller pbp character

Name: Ishmael Attilas
Age: 30
Appearance: Average height, average weight, fit not buff, close-cropped brown hair, brown eyes

Former Marine Corporal - Medic

Homeworld: Curgi III [High Tech/High Pop]


Characteristics:
Str: 9 (+1)
Dex: 9 (+1)
End: 7 (0)
Int: 11 (+1)
Edu: 11 (+1)
Soc: 8 (0)


Equipment:
TL10 Cloth Armour
TL8 Medikit
Dagger
Autopistol w/ 2 clips

Credits: 39,770



Skills:
Athletics[Endurance]: 0
Battledress: 0
Computer: 0
Gun Combat[Slug Pistol]: 1
Gun Combat[Slug Rifle]: 0
Heavy Weapons[Launchers]: 0
Medic: 3
Melee[Blade]: 1
Recon: 1
Social Science[Economics]: 0
Social Science[History]: 0
Stealth: 0
Streetwise: 0
Survival: 1

History:
Term 1 - Marines - Support
Rank 0 - Marine
Unit was detained/arrested for alleged illegal wartime activities during conflict; Ishmael wasn't charged but SOC was diminished due to belonging to the unit

Term 2 - Marines - Support
Rank 0 - Marine
Unit was tasked with garrisoning urban planet; Ishmael learned the importance of recon-ing an area

Term 3 - Marines - Support
Rank 2 - Corporal
Promoted to Lance Corporal and had SOC increase due to contact with non-Marine professionals.
Passed advancement roll

Tabletop Forge for Google+ Hangouts

Played around with Tabletop Forge tonight with one of my face to face gamers, Brian.  It is still in Beta but works pretty well.  I use Chrome and everything seems to work fine but Brian was using Firefox on a wireless router and had some difficulties.  I like the grid overlay and the ability to import maps and tokens.  My only complaint is that the chat and die roller are in a separate window instead of along one of the sides.

I'll play around with the macros next time I try it.

Mercenary map version 2

Progress on my map for my upcoming Traveller Mercenary campaign.  This is a backwater area of the Thune Empire with a few of its semi-autonomous regions (comte').  Thune will be my equivalent of the 3rd Imperium and the Gashnr is dominated by non-humans.  I don't know how much I want to develop the whole region as I really just want to focus on the mercenary aspect.  I plan on different regions offering different weapons at differing tech levels and qualities as well as availability.

Test overview map for new Merc campaign

I'm going to start putting together a Traveller mercenary campaign and here is my first draft of my area map.

The sage area (which stretches off map as well) will be my version of the Imperium with all other colors except gold representing minor human polities.  Areas without shading represent independent areas.  The gold area represents another major race besides humans, but I haven't thought that out yet.  It may be unimportant for actual gameplay, just fluff.

Immortals - The Movie

The wife and I rented Immortals over the weekend.  The wife complained about the lack of plot, but I thought there was enough plot to make the story work.  What I really liked about it was the hero's, Theseus, motivation to do what was right no matter what odds he faced or without regard to being cool.  Now how do I get my players to adopt a motivation even a fraction of Theseus'?

Test Map

Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated.  Does anyone know of a better software application than Powerpoint that is free to use?

Testing Blogger Google+ link

This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The broadcasters of your area in voluntary cooperation with the FCC and other authorities have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency.If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed to tune to one of the broadcast stations in your area and prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse.

Sir Jordans the Pious

Meet Sir Jordans the Pious, my entry in Mike's FlailSnails Jousting Tourney

Sir Jordans, a landed vassal Knight, will travel to the tourney with his faithful, if not spoiled squire, Miles the Haughty.

Sir Jordans coat of arms:

Tabletop Forge for Google+

I haven't done any gaming via Google+ yet, but I stumbled across an app someone is creating for Google+ that will add a battlemap and dice roller, among other things.  It's called Tabletop Forge and it looks pretty nice so far.

I don't see anything on the site about whether there is going to be a price.  Anyone know anything about that?  I would like free, but probably wouldn't mind paying for a product I actually use (unlike Fantasy Grounds II, which became too cumbersome and had too may connection issues and was too pricey for new users).

The Battletech Inner Sphere is a little bigger than I realized

I'm playing around with mapping out the Inner Sphere in Hexographer and am starting to realize that it is much larger than I thought.  I downloaded a database of Inner Sphere worlds with their coordinates from The Inner Sphere Cartographer Society which lists a little over 2,100 settled worlds.  And after an hour or so mapping my 51x51 hexmap, I've realized that I may have to rework my idea of limiting jumps to 10 light years.

Two new vehicles for MBTU

Actually just one new vehicle, but two variants.  The first variant uses a standard engine and so far play tests well, even if I used an 8:5 battle value ratio for the new vehicles.  Through 4 rounds of combat, the four hovercraft handled the Vindicator and Jenner well, scoring an engine hit on the Vindicator and slagging the Jenner's center torso armor completely off, with only a few hits scored against the hovercraft for minor motive hits.  The hovercraft can move fast enough at a cruise speed to gain a +3 target modifier.  It could be conceivable to get a +4 target modifier at cruise speed if terrain allowed it, and considering that the max modifier for flanking speed is +4 as well, flanking would only be necessary for closing on the enemy or putting distance between the enemy on itself.

           BattleTech Vehicle Technical Readout
                      VALIDATED

Type/Model:    Saxinis M1
Tech:          Inner Sphere / 3025
Config:        Hovercraft
Rules:         Level 1, Standard design

Mass:          25 tons
Power Plant:   120 Galas Micro-Fusion Fusion
Cruise Speed:  108.0 km/h
Maximum Speed: 162.0 km/h
Armor Type:    Riese-100 Standard
Armament:    
  1 BlazeFire Systems Large Laser
  1 Holly-4 SRM 4
Manufacturer:  Krupp Armaments Works
  Location:    Storfors
Communications System:  Scarborough Talky-1
Targeting & Tracking System:  Wayne Marksman

--------------------------------------------------------
Type/Model:    Saxinis M1
Mass:          25 tons

Equipment:                                 Items    Mass
Int. Struct.:  12 pts Standard               0      2.50
Engine:        120 Fusion                    0      4.00
Shielding & Transmission Equipment:          0      2.00
    Cruise MP:  10
     Flank MP:  15
Heat Sinks:     10 Single                    0       .00
Cockpit & Controls:                          0      1.50
Crew: 2 Members                              0       .00
Lift Equipment:                              0      2.50
Armor Factor:   72 pts Standard              0      4.50

                          Internal    Armor
                          Structure   Value
   Front:                     3         26
   Left / Right Sides:        3      16/16
   Rear:                      3         14

Weapons and Equipment    Loc  Heat  Ammo   Items    Mass
--------------------------------------------------------
1 Large Laser            Front    8          1      5.00
1 SRM 4                  Front    0   25     2      3.00
--------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                           8          3     25.00
Items & Tons Left:                           7       .00

Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:        783,000 C-Bills
Battle Value 2:    607 (old BV = 450)
Cost per BV:       1,289.95
Weapon Value:      195 / 195 (Ratio = .32 / .32)
Damage Factors:    SRDmg = 11;  MRDmg = 5;  LRDmg = 0
BattleForce2:      MP: 10H,  Armor/Structure: 0 / 3
                   Damage PB/M/L: 1/1/-,  Overheat: 0
                   Class: GL;  Point Value: 6

The second variant has a lighter fusion plant allowing slightly greater speed and a little more armor, but the cost almost triples.

          BattleTech Vehicle Technical Readout

                      VALIDATED

Type/Model:    Saxinis M2

Tech:          Inner Sphere / 3050

Config:        Hovercraft

Rules:         Level 2, Standard design

Mass:          25 tons

Power Plant:   145 Galas Micro-Fusion XL Fusion

Cruise Speed:  118.8 km/h

Maximum Speed: 183.6 km/h

Armor Type:    Riese-100 Standard

Armament:      

  1 BlazeFire Systems Large Laser 

  1 Holly-4 SRM 4 

Manufacturer:  Krupp Armaments Works

  Location:    Storfors

Communications System:  Scarborough Talky-1

Targeting & Tracking System:  Wayne Marksman

--------------------------------------------------------

Type/Model:    Saxinis M2

Mass:          25 tons

Equipment:                                 Items    Mass

Int. Struct.:  12 pts Standard               0      2.50

Engine:        145 XL Fusion                 2      3.33

Shielding & Transmission Equipment:          0      1.67

    Cruise MP:  11

     Flank MP:  17

Heat Sinks:     10 Single                    0       .00

Cockpit & Controls:                          0      1.50

Crew: 2 Members                              0       .00

Lift Equipment:                              0      2.50

Armor Factor:   88 pts Standard              0      5.50

                          Internal    Armor

                          Structure   Value

   Front:                     3         32 

   Left / Right Sides:        3      20/20 

   Rear:                      3         16 

Weapons and Equipment    Loc  Heat  Ammo   Items    Mass

--------------------------------------------------------

1 Large Laser            Front    8          1      5.00

1 SRM 4                  Front    0   25     2      3.00

--------------------------------------------------------

TOTALS:                           8          5     25.00

Items & Tons Left:                           5       .00

Calculated Factors:

Total Cost:        1,948,000 C-Bills

Battle Value 2:    696 (old BV = 510)

Cost per BV:       2,798.85

Weapon Value:      235 / 235 (Ratio = .34 / .34)

Damage Factors:    SRDmg = 11;  MRDmg = 5;  LRDmg = 0

BattleForce2:      MP: 11H,  Armor/Structure: 0 / 3

                   Damage PB/M/L: 1/1/-,  Overheat: 0

                   Class: GL;  Point Value: 7

Further MBTU thoughts

• The Houses and their subdivisions will remain but at a much smaller scale
• Jump drives are going to be limited to 3 parsecs
• No instant communication; x-boats (Traveller) will be needed for interstellar communication
• No sentient aliens; maybe evidence of precursor sentients?

I'm going to borrow freely from both Traveller and Battletech as I do this, keeping what I think works from a strategy/tactical game perspective.

I found a data file for the Inner Sphere from the Inner Sphere Cartography Society that I'm going to use to map out my starting area.  I don't want to start from scratch, plus I want some continuity back to the OBTU.

Creating an alternate Battletech Universe

Of course I have no clue how to go about it.  I've never been completely happy with the canon and over the last week or so, I've been thinking about finally going ahead and start fleshing out My Battletech Universe (MBTU).  I've thought about it and have made a few assumptions, but every time I sit down to write it down I get distracted making vehicles of my own design or fiddling around with Gimp to make my own paper miniatures for play.

So I'm going to jot down a few assumptions or concepts I want in MBTU so I have a place to review them and to see if anyone wants to give me some feedback on these or other general pointers on moving forward.

• MBTU will have many more factions;  think Europe during the mid-11th century
• The technology is limited to Inner Sphere tech that is still in production in 3001; no left over tech from the Star League era
• No instant communications (HPG) and therefore no ComStar (at least in the canon meaning)
• There will be mercenary free companies, but no MRBC
• Mechs and vehicles are expensive, so there won't be individuals that bring their own to their unit when the sign up
• Most organized units should have a limited number of mech/vehicle types for logistic purposes

I'm thinking of using some of the Traveller rules to help flesh out a few polities to get an idea of their economic resources and build from the bottom up.  This way I can setup a few scenarios to play without creating the entire BTU, and slowly fill in the details as I go.

DM-ing can be frustrating

Saturday's session was frustrating and instead of having to break up around 10pm for those players that needed to get home to their families, I ended up ending the session at 9:30.

I don't want to point fingers at anyone individually so I'm not going to go into detail (in case they read this here blog).  And I'm not entirely sure that its any of the players' fault.

As I dwelt upon it, I've realised that when I last had a regular group that I DM'd for, it was back in 1992 and nearly everyone was military.  And why is that important?  Because everyone was used to being presented a scenario with basic assumptions and then were able to work together in accomplishing the tasks necessary to realize their goals.

We still had odd-ball characters, inter-party strife, randomness, etc.; in other words, fun.  But we didn't seem to get distracted by every little thing or have PC groups within the PC group.

Does any of this make sense?

Gender limitations on ability scores

Males and females are different in the real world.  This is true for humans and all other animals.

Since the 1E Player's Handbook doesn't differentiate between male and female except for strength, I really don't see the issue that has reared its head lately.  As a matter of fact, the industry's insistence to be inclusive of females and their feelings/self-esteem was a big turn-off for me.  Frankly I was shocked at the amount of gender mamby-pamby when I picked up the 3.0 AD&D core books and I lost interest in playing it anymore.

So go ahead and call me what you will, but I will continue to treat females in my fantasy campaigns as females.  Yes, there will be the occasionally exceptional female character, however I won't bend over backward to elevate females to help a player's self-esteem.

Using Niven's Ringworld as a fantasy setting

Using Niven's Ringworld as a fantasy setting!

Has anyone done this?  Would it work?  Psionics instead of magic.  Plausible reasons for multiple sentient creatures.  Massive amount of surface area.

I think I may want to try doing this.  Any pros or cons you would share?