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?

Traveller [Mongoose] Dynasty Walkthrough part IV

Commodore Winston J.D. Breckingsbridge
Hero of kappa Marfik
Savior of Saiph

Commodore Breckingsbridge was responsible for extracting the remaining Confederation fleet from the Marfik Salient and delivering a major blow to the Imperial Fertod Navy in its attempt to capture the Confederation capitol on Saiph.  The Imperial Fertod Navy was so utterly crippled that not only were hostilities with the Confederation ended, it could no longer enforce the Emperor's will.  Within 5 years the Fertod Empire crumpled, breaking into numerous small polities.

A product of the Saiph Naval College, Commodore Breckingsbridge attained flag rank on his merits and experience unlike many of his superiors within the Confederation Navy, whom attained their flag through political connections.  Destined to never attain the rank of Admiral, the Commodore developed a cadre of like minded officers to operate his task force of fast cruisers.  When the Imperials threatened to finalize the destruction of the ineptly led Confederation fleet that had be exposed in the salient around Marfik, Commodore Breckingsbridge coordinated the rearguard action that allowed the remnants of the fleet to escape to Saiph for its final stand against the Empire.

The Confederation council promptly dismissed the remaining senior flag officers that held their positions on political connections and gave Breckingsbridge overall command.  With little time to prepare for the final Imperial assault, Breckingsbridge and his staff devised a strategy of using privateers and support vessels as decoys and bait in an attempt to require the Imperial fleet to spread its fleet around to handle the potential threats.  There were many heroes as Breckingsbridge's adhoc raiders were able to distract the Imperial fleet allowing the main Confederation fleet to defeat in detail the Imperials forces as they attempted to contain the Confederation to Saiph for the final assault.

After the final battle in the outer zone of the Saiph system and the subsequent collapse of the Fertod Empire, the Confederation, always a fractious collection of self-interested polities, started to splinter into its original form of separate but associated planets.  The remnants of the Confederation fleet flocked to Breckingsbridge and with the help of his command staff, they formed the dominant fleet in the region, the Knights of Saiph.

The first 100 years of Knights' reign have seen the fleet continue to grow and spread its influence.  With the breakup of the Fertod Empire and the Confederation, war is commonplace and it is big business.  Things were going better than planned and the Knights continued to improve their abilities.  When colonists from outside the region, the Knights assistance with the initial colony and protection from locals looking to take advantage of the fledgling colony led to a public relations dream, made even better when the colonists shared some of their newer technologies with the Knights.

The Knights have over the years shown their political adroitness by avoiding being embroiled in the intrigues that continually hamper the region.  Even when many government contracts were coming up empty, the Knights avoided potential losses to its coffers by remaining flexible and taking advantage of the many commercial contracts that became available.

In recent years the Knights have made a concerted effort to recruit professional soldiers in an effort to bolster the dynasty's defenses.  This has sapped some of the dynasty's available wealth, but the results with improved fleet capabilities and better security within its territory indicate the wealth was spent well.

Traveller [Mongoose] Dynasty Walkthrough part III

Now that we have our initial derived statistics for our Dynasty, its time for us to make a few decisions for the improvement of our Dynasty. First we get to chose three Characteristics we wish to improve and roll 2d6 plus said Characteristic's DM against each chosen Characteristic's current value. If we roll higher than the current value, the value is increased by 1; if a natural 2 or 12 is rolled, the value decreases by 1 or increases by 1 respectively. As indicated below, the Knights of Saiph failed all three of its rolls, but did not lose any values.

Next we have the option to deduct one point from a trait and apply it to another trait.  You may do this equal to the Cleverness DM + 1.  The Knights choose just to increase its Territorial Defence at the expense of its Fleet value.

Aptitude training follows, allowing the player to attempt to train up to five skills.  However, you do not recieve any Characteristic DMs to assist in this training.  The die roll is modified by the current Aptitude (Skill value) with untrained skill providing a -2 DM.  As with the Characteristic practice, the Knights failed to improve any Aptitudes.

The final step before delving into the dynasty's early history is the calculation of its Values.  These values represent the available resources for task resolution.  If any of these values are reduced to 0 at the beginning of a generation phase, the dynasty  has collapsed.

Name: Knights of Saiph
Archetype: Military Charter
Power Base: Starship/Flotilla
Management Asset: Command Staff
	Subtotals	Characteristic practice	Trait Management	Aptitude Training	Final Value adjustment	Initial History adjustments	Dynasty Starting Characteristics, Traits, Aptitudes & Values
Characteristics
Cleverness	12 +2	fail					12 +2
Greed	11 +1						11 +1
Loyalty	12 +2						12 +2
Militarism	12 +2						12 +2
Popularity	10 +1	fail					10 +1
Scheming	11 +1	fail					11 +1
Tenacity	12 +2						12 +2
Tradition	13 +2						13 +2
Traits
Culture	3					1	4
Fiscal Defence	3					1	4
Fleet	9		-1			1	9
Technology	5					1	6
Territorial Defence	2		1			1	4
Aptitudes
Acquisition	x			fail		1	0
Bureaucracy	x						x
Conquest	2						2
Economics	0						0
Entertain	x						x
Expression	x			fail			x
Hostility	x						x
Illicit	0						0
Intel	3						3
Maintenance	1						1
Politics	0						0
Posturing	0						0
Propaganda	x						x
Public Relations	x			fail			x
Recruit	1						1
Research	0			fail			0
Sabotage	x						x
Security	0			fail			0
Tactical	3						3
Tutelage	x						x
Values
Morale					16		16
Populace					19	-1	18
Wealth					16	-1	15

The Knights of Saiph decided to take 5 rolls on the history/background table. The choice of 3, 4 or 5 rolls must be made prior to any dice are rolled.  I rolled the following:

• 35 - War is commonplace and war is big business [-1 populace, +1 culture, +1 fiscal defence]
• 63 - Things couldn't go better [+1 acquisition]
• 34 - Historic event #8 - Colonists from distant place setting up a colony in dynasty's territory with dynasty's help - roll public relations [pass - +1 technology] 
• 41 - Government contracts come up empty but commercial ones are booming - roll politics [pass]
• 51 - Professional soldiers being recruited to bolster defence [-1 wealth, +1 fleet, +1 territorial defence]