Classic Traveller: Closing Thoughts

So, takeaways from Classic Traveller:

• Weapon vs armor to-hit tables solve my gripes with MgT's armor as DR (namely that weapons that both pierce armor and don't instantly pulp anyone not wearing armor end up involving irritating math at runtime).  Turns out CT already had that one figured out.  I don't think the overhead would be terrible as long as folks copied the mods list for their weapon down beforehand (turns out character sheets are just caches); a close table lookup is faster than a division and a subtraction, as most armor-piercing schemes for Mongoose entail.
• I like their psi rules, where psi is "spend points, magic happens", without a roll.  Turns out that back when, Trav skills were more like feats than skills, which gives me some extra freedom to maneuver should I ever desire to pick the Fantasy Traveller project back up.  Also gradual talent increases and Special talent are neat.
• Edu improvement is as it should be.
• Encumbrance seems slightly more reasonable.
• Starship combat is a funny thing.  We've had trouble with Mongoose's being sort of boring before, if I recall correctly.  I don't know if CT's solves this problem, but it does add maneuver (which Mongoose handles very abstractly) and reprogramming (which Mongoose does not handle at all).  On the downside, more complexity and needs a gridless wargaming table and vector tracking and whatnot.
• Morale, surprise, reaction rolls, hirelings, and other OSR-type mechanics are good fun and I should use them in Mongoose.  Glad to know the elder travellers shared this wisdom.
• The limited selection of careers has sparked some discussion among my crew, and I think the fact that the initial system basically only supported military+merchant+thief might help explain why noncombat characters in both T20 and Mongoose are less than amazingly compelling to play.  Basically, the system just wasn't designed with them in mind; they're late-stage grafts, afterthoughts.  The conclusion we drew for future Mongoose games was "make sure PCs each have at least one term from Agent, Army, Marine, Merchant, Navy, Scout, or Rogue - you can have civilian terms if you want, but get some prior adventuring experience."  In our case, the explanation may be "we're recruiting crew for a privateer vessel, and if you're not a veteran or a criminal, you're probably not hired."
• Though the addition of hirelings has led to the suggestion of having an "away team" hireling from an adventuresome career, coupled with a "command crew" PC who stays on the ship or at base.  This was not really feasible previously. 

In short - there are some good ideas here that I would like to steal and atavize back onto MgT.

Fantasy Traveller - Wilderlander

Wilderlanders are those who spend most of their time out in the woods, either by their own choice or from necessity.

Qualification: End 6+.  -1 DM per previous career.  -2 DM if 30 years of age or more.

Barbarian: You lived amongst a savage tribe or bandit clan, raiding and fighting for food and power.  Might made right, and only the strong survived.
Survival: Str 7+.  Advancement: End 5+.

Druid: You lived in perfect harmony with nature, listening to the wisdom of the trees or the waves.  You may have lived among a community of druids, as a shaman of a barbarian tribe, or alone as a hermit.  In any case, you needed sharp instincts to listen to the spirits, and often great endurance to seek out the wisest of them, who lived in the harshest climes.
Survival: Int 5+.  Advancement: End 7+.

Ranger: You were tasked by a civilized society with guarding its borders and exploring far-off lands, or perhaps you were an outlaw all-in-green.  In either case, you came to know the woods like the back of your hand, and cultivated a fearsome skill with the bow.
Survival: Int 6+.  Advancement: Dex 6+.

Personal development:

1. +1 Str
2. +1 Dex
3. +1 End
4. +1 Int
5. Survival
6. Navigation

Service skills:

1. Survival
2. Melee (Any)
3. Missile (Any)
4. Animals (Any) or Seafarer
5. Navigation
6. Athletics (Any)

Barbarian skills:

1. Melee (Any)
2. Survival
3. Athletics (Any)
4. Athletics (Any)
5. Carouse
6. Recon

Druid skills:

1. Druidism
2. Animals (Any)
3. Survival
4. Melee (Blunt or Unarmed)
5. Navigation
6. Recon

Ranger skills:

1. Survival
2. Melee (Any) or Missile (Any)
3. Alchemy
4. Navigation
5. Recon
6. Stealth

Barbarian ranks:

1. Bandit -> Melee (Any) 1
2. Raider
3. Barbarian -> Athletics (Any) 1
4. Wolf Brother
5. Berserker -> Druidism 1 or +1 Str
6. Beast-in-Man's-Flesh

Druid ranks:

1. Awakened -> Recon 1
2. Speaker with Bees
3. Druid -> Druidism 1
4. Greenspeaker
5. Elder Druid -> Druidism 2 or +1 Int
6. One-With-All

Ranger ranks:

1. Hunter -> Missile (Bow) 1
2. Outrider
3. Ranger -> Navigation 1
4. Explorer
5. Master Ranger -> Stealth 1 or +1 Dex
6. Greenshadow

Fantasy Traveller - Rogue

Rogues are vagrants who lie, beg, cheat, steal, or swindle for a living.

Qualification: Dex 6+.  -1 DM per previous career.

Assassin: You worked as a murderer for hire, likely as part of a criminal organization or religious cult, or in the service of an unscrupulous noble.  Maintaining a cover identity and reaching your targets required stealth and guile, while deadly strikes and a quick escape mandated agility and speed.
Survival: Int 7+.  Advancement: Dex 5+.

Minstrel: You wandered from place to place, playing before noble audiences in exchange for food and a place to sleep.  However, such nobles are often quite protective of their daughters, and you were often forced to leave rather...  abruptly, and so mastered the arts of hiding and evading pursuit.  You depended on knowing people and ability to interact with the nobility for food, and quick thinking to get out of tough spots (plus, clever jesters are the best jesters).
Survival: Soc 5+.  Advancement: Int 7+.

Thief: You stole things.  Lots of things.  Pretty much anything that wasn't nailed down, really.  Flexibility and agility were important for going places you weren't supposed to be, and keen powers of observation for picking valuable things to steal.
Survival: Dex 6+.  Advancement: Int 6+.

Personal Development:

1. +1 Int
2. +1 Dex
3. +1 Soc
4. Gambler
5. Jack of Trades
6. Carouse

Service skills:

1. Stealth
2. Deception
3. Streetwise
4. Recon
5. Melee (Rogue Weapons)
6. Athletics (Dexterity)

Assassin skills:

1. Stealth
2. Deception
3. Alchemy or Wizardry
4. Missile Weapons (Any)
5. Melee (Rogue Weapons)
6. Athletics (Dexterity)

Minstrel skills:

1. Diplomat
2. Art (Any)
3. Carouse
4. Jack of Trades
5. Melee (Any)
6. Advocate

Thief skills:

1. Stealth
2. Deception
3. Mechanic
4. Streetwise
5. Melee (Rogue Weapons or Unarmed)
6. Persuade

Assassin ranks:

1. Cutthroat -> Melee (Rogue Weapons) 1
2. Initiate
3. Assassin -> Stealth 1
4. Master Assassin
5. First Assassin -> Wizardry 1 or +1 Int
6. Left Hand of Darkness

Minstrel ranks:

1. Fool -> Carouse 1
2. Performer
3. Minstrel -> Art (Any) 1
4. Troubadore
5. Court Jester -> Advocate 1 or +1 Soc
6. Virtuoso

Thief ranks:

1. Footpad -> Streetwise 1
2. Cutpurse
3. Thief -> Stealth 1
4. Burglar
5. Master Thief -> Recon 1 or +1 Soc
6. "Retired"

Query-Based Reconnaisance

One of my objectives with Fantasy Traveller is to make it somewhat 'older-school' than the 3.x derivatives my group tends to play, though not to go as far as OSRIC and similar retroclones.  So far, I think I've done fairly OK - I have a more-or-less rulings-based magic system (while there are rules for specific effects, there are also a ton of things you can do that aren't well-defined, and which hopefully will never be) and a core which is more closely aligned with Combat as War than Combat as Sport.  However, the problem of Recon and Lore skills has been bothering me for some time.  For those unfamiliar, the stance of the Old School community of skills as a concept is pretty negative (example), with observation skills being a particularly favorite target, since they let the players bypass hazards without any degree of cunning at all.  From the Old School Primer:

Player Tip #5) Ask lots of questions about what you see. Look up. Ask about unusual stonework.  Test floors before stepping...  In other words, die rolls don’t provide a short cut or a crutch to discover and solve all those interesting puzzles and clues scattered throughout a dungeon. The same goes for handling traps (unless there’s a thief class).

So, that's the OSR's stance on observation skills.  Tricky.

Cut back in time to the Traveller game I played in earlier this semester.  As a player, I tend to ask a good number of questions in combat.  Things like "What're they armed with?", "Any grenade belts or sidearms?", "How are they armored?", "How many of them are there?!", "Do they have any distinguishing markings?", "Any obvious alarm systems that it looks like they might try to set off?", and so forth.  I may ask fewer questions during exploration than I should, but during combat, I feel like I go perhaps a little bit overboard.  If all of my questions are answered (and sometimes they're not), it kind of strains suspension of disbelief; sure, I had a high Int and ranks in Recon, but I was absorbing a lot of information really really quickly.  This bothered me a little.

I found a solution to both of these problems simultaneously in a most unlikely place: Grognardling's post on looting libraries for useful books.  In particular, a number of his books provide the PCs with a set number of questions on a particular topic, which they can ask and the DM shall answer.  When I read this, I was immediately reminded of Matt's character in the last Traveller campaign, who had a deal with a demon, whereby he could ask questions of the demon in exchange for radiation exposure.  This mechanic worked pretty damn well, both providing a way to get limited information into the hands of the PCs and as a good flavoring device for the campaign.  So I realized that perhaps this was the solution to Recon and Lore as well.  What I am suggesting is this:

When combat begins, the GM paints things in vague strokes; "You enter a smoky cavern.  Ahead stands a great altar on a dais, with a robed figure and a massive golden idol.  Between you and it stand a mob of filthy cultists armed with an assortment of rusty weapons."  He describes only things which are obvious to the untrained eye.  PCs may then use Recon as an action in combat (Significant by default, or minor at -2 / Difficult for time-shifting) to ask a number of questions about the environment equal to 1 plus their effect.  Particularly difficult or non-obvious questions may cost 2 or more points of effect to answer (spotting a hidden opponent might require a number of points equal to his effect on Stealth, for example).  So questions here might be "How many cultists?", "Are there any chandeliers to swing from?", "Is the robed guy wearing armor underneath the robes?", "Does the idol have gems for eyes?" (though that's kind of a waste, since of course it does), and so forth.  Naturally, this isn't the only way for PCs to gain information; if you engage in melee with someone, you obviously know what kind of weapon they're wielding, if they're wearing non-hidden armor, and similar things.  Another possibility, even, would be to allow Melee + Int as a Difficult / -2 minor action to ask questions about your opponent's skill, strength, dexterity, and fighting style.  Heck, possibly morale state too - sometimes you can see that in the way an opponent fights.

Finally, Lore / Science also clearly falls into this "skills for questions" category.  More of an out-of-combat thing, but rolling Lore and asking 1 plus effect questions about a particular topic on a success does a nice job of limiting "knowledge dump" like you'd get with 3.x Knowledge skills, but also provides some degree of data to the PCs.  As with Recon, some questions may cost multiple points of effect; you're not going to know the demon's Truename off the top of your head, period, but you might know of a few books where it might be found, or what this type of demon's weaknesses are, or what sacrifices might persuade it not to kill you.  As we can see in that example, one good point of skills for questions is that there's some degree of player skill and planning involved in selecting the questions to ask.

Other promising skills for skills as questions include Wizardry for Scrying and other divinations, letting you ask a few questions about a remote locale or person, Liturgy for oracular purposes, and pretty much any of the magic skills for diagnosing things like "Is this magical?"  and "What school of magic is this enchantment?"  Backporting this rule to Traveller, you could apply the same principle to Sensors and Computers; a really good Sensors result lets you ask many questions about the target, while a good Computers check might turn up more data than you were initially looking for.  Streetwise and Survival are promising, too, for 'number of questions to ask of your underworld contacts / number of illegal goods you can procure' and number of questions to ask about natural things ("Is this edible?"  "No."  "Is this deadly poison that we could put on our weapons?"  "Yes."  "Sweet!").

I think part of what makes this a promising 'bridge' mechanic between the Old and New Schools is that, if you give New School players a mechanic for asking questions, they'll start asking questions.  Then, if you switch to an older style, they will likely continue asking questions.  Basically, it builds a good habit on top of the "roll first and ask questions later" tendencies of modern players.

Fantasy Traveller - Priest

Priests are those who devote their lives to deities and religious orders.

Qualification: Edu 6+.  -1 DM per previous career.

Specialties:

Cleric: You were the face of the church to lay people, a traveling priest often forced to defend yourself or your flock, but not devoted to the study of combat.  Strength of will and constitution were a requirement for your line of work, but the ability to pull out quotes from scripture in the tensest situation were what let you stand out.
Survival: End 6+.  Advancement: Edu 6+.

Monk: You were a member of a cloistered monastic order, dedicating your life to the upkeep of a shrine or temple.  You may also have been responsible for scribing copies of your holy book, providing for visiting pilgrims, and brewing beer (seriously, it was traditional in Medieval Europe).  Many monastic orders also taught minimalist fighting styles, in keeping with their vows of poverty.  Strict adherence to the tenets of your order were necessary to remain a monk, while feats of asceticism were looked upon highly.
Survival: Edu 5+.  Advancement: End 7+.

Templar: You were a member of a militant order in the service of a church, tasked with the defense of its temples and pilgrims.  Your faith was your shield in battle, but the church relied on your strength as well.
Survival: Edu 7+.  Advancement: Str 5+.

Basic Training: Priests may choose to take their basic training skills from their specialty rather than the service skills table.

Personal Development:

1. +1 End
2. +1 Edu
3. +1 Soc
4. +1 Str
5. Lore (Theology)
6. Melee (Blunt)

Service skills:

1. Liturgy
2. Lore (Theology)
3. Athletics (Endurance)
4. Melee (Blunt)
5. Diplomat
6. Language (Any)

Cleric skills:

1. Liturgy
2. Persuade
3. Melee (Blunt)
4. Navigation
5. Leadership
6. Deity-specific skill

Monk skills:

1. Liturgy
2. Melee (Unarmed or Blunt)
3. Athletics (Any)
4. Steward
5. Lore (Any)
6. Art (Writing) or Trade (Deity-appropriate)

Templar skills:

1. Liturgy
2. Melee (Any)
3. Heavy Armor
4. Athletics (Strength)
5. Athletics (Endurance)
6. Tactics

Cleric ranks:

1. Acolyte -> Persuade 1
2. Shepherd
3. Cleric -> Liturgy 1
4. Father
5. Hierarch -> Leadership 1 or +1 Soc
6. Messiah

Monk ranks:

1. Scribe -> Lore (Any) 1
2. Sworn Brother
3. Monk -> Liturgy 1
4. Brother Superior
5. Abbot -> Diplomat 1 or +1 Soc
6. Master of the Order

Templar ranks:

1. Squire -> Heavy Armor 1
2. Brother Militant
3. Templar -> Melee (Any) 1
4. Paladin
5. Templar Commander -> Leadership 1 or +1 Soc
6. Defender of the Faith

Fantasy Traveller - Peasant

Peasants are the common working folk.

Qualification: None.  Anybody can be a peasant.  In fact, most people are!

Craftsman: You worked as a skilled craftsman, such as a smith, architect, or cobbler.  Your ability to make quality products determined the strength of your business, but courting the favor of the nobility was what really took your places.
Survival: Edu 6+.  Advancement: Soc 6+.

Farmer: You worked the land of a feudal lord, growing crops and raising animals.  Your continued survival required long hours of labor in the fields to eke out a living, while advancement required pleasing your lord and other nobles.
Survival: End 5+.  Advancement: Soc 7+.

Sailor: You were part of the crew of a ship, boat, or riverine raft, and so are much more well-traveled than the average peasant.  Sailing was dangerous work, though; it required enough coordination to not get caught in the rigging or hit with the yardarm, and enough knowledge of the coast to avoid shoals and pirates.
Survival: Dex 7+.  Advancement: Edu 5+.

Basic training: Peasants gain their basic training skills from their specialty table rather than the career skills table.

Personal Development:

1. +1 End
2. +1 Int
3. +1 Edu
4. Melee (Unarmed)
5. Gambler
6. Carouse

Career skills:

1. Haggle
2. Persuade
3. Trade (Any)
4. Animals (Any)
5. Streetwise
6. 1 Contact

Craftsman skills:

1. Haggle
2. Trade (Any)
3. Trade (Any)
4. Lore (Appropriate to trade)
5. Art (Any) or Mechanic
6. Persuade

 Farmer skills:

1. Animals (Farming)
2. Trade (Farmer)
3. Melee (Spears or Bludgeons)
4. Survival
5. Haggle
6. Athletics (Endurance)

Sailor skills:

1. Seafarer
2. Navigation
3. Lore (Nautical)
4. Steward
5. Melee (Bludgeon or Small Blades)
6. Haggle

Craftsman ranks:

1. Apprentice -> Trade (Any) 1
2. Journeyman
3. Craftsman -> Haggle 1
4. Overseer
5. Master Craftsman -> Trade (Any) or +1 Soc
6. Legendary Craftsman

 Farmer ranks:

1. Dirt Farmer -> Trade (Farming) 1
2. Nerf Herder
3. Goat Herder -> Animals (Farming) 1
4. Farmer
5. Homesteader -> Survival 1
6. Yeoman Farmer -> +1 Soc

 Sailor ranks:

1. Deckhand -> Trade (Sailor) 1
2. Swabbie
3. Sailor -> Gambler 1
4. First Mate
5. Captain -> Navigation 1 or +1 Soc
6. Dread Pirate

Fantasy Traveller - Noble

Nobles are members of the upper class of society.

Qualification: Soc 10+.  -1 DM per previous career.  If you have a Social Standing of 10 or more, you automatically qualify.  If you are trying to qualify for the Knight specialization, you may add your rank in Man-At-Arms or Templar as a positive DM to your qualification roll.

Specialties:

Courtier: You were a member of the court of a noble, or possibly a traveling diplomat.  Avoiding embarrassing yourself in court relied on tact, while advancing your station entailed understanding the web or power and knowing who to manipulate.
Survival: Int 4+.  Advancement: Soc 8+.

Knight: You were a member of the military aristocracy, leading armies on the field and distinguishing yourself in battle.  Heavily armored, your survival often depended on your strength, but achieving notable victories required a careful study of history, tactics, heraldry, and the hearts of men.
Survival: Str 6+.  Advancement: Edu 6+.

Magistrate: You served as a judge, arbiter of disputes, or tax collector.  Knowledge of the legal code was essential to keeping your position, while wisdom and discernment helped advance your station.
Survival: Edu 5+.  Advancement: Int 7+.


Personal Development:

1. +1 Int
2. +1 Edu
3. +1 Soc
4. Carouse
5. Deception
6. 1 Contact

Service Skills:

1. Advocate
2. Diplomat
3. Persuade
4. Investigate
5. Lore (History, Heraldry, Geography, or similar)
6. Melee (Blade)

Courtier skills:

1. Advocate
2. Diplomat
3. Deception
4. Carouse
5. Persuade
6. 1 Contact

Knight skills:

1. Leadership
2. Melee (Any)
3. Heavy Armor
4. Animals (Riding)
5. Tactics
6. Athletics (Strength or Endurance)

Magistrate skills:

1. Investigate
2. Recon
3. Persuade
4. Advocate
5. Streetwise
6. Leadership

Courtier ranks:

1. Liability -> Carouse 1
2. Adjutant
3. Courtier -> Deception 1
4. Webspinner
5. Unassailable -> Investigate 1 or +1 Soc
6. Voice of the Court

Knight ranks:

1. Squire -> Animals (Riding) 1
2. Gallant
3. Knight Errant -> Leadership 1
4. Knight
5. Knight Protector -> Tactics 1 or +1 Soc
6. Justiciar

Magistrate ranks:

1. Investigator -> Investigate 1
2. Lawyer
3. Magistrate -> Advocate 1
4. Hand of Justice
5. Justice -> Liturgy (Deity of Justice) 1 or +1 Soc
6. Chief Justice

Fantasy Traveller - Man-at-Arms

Men at arms are those who make their living through fighting prowess.

Qualification: End 5+.  -1 DM per previous career, -2 DM if aged 30 or older.

Specialties:

Constable: You enforced the peace within towns, serve as bodyguards, and investigate breaches of the law.  Your survival depended on your physical toughness, while advancement required perception and tact.
Survival: End 5+.  Advancement: Int 7+.

Soldier: You served in the armies of one or more states, fighting with sword and bow.  You survived because you were tough, but became famous for your strength.
Survival: End 6+.  Advancement: Str 6+.

Mercenary: You fought not for gods or country, but for gold.  Your survival depended on cunning and the ability to tell when an employer was about to turn on you, while your fame depended on your fighting ability.
Survival: Int 7+.  Advancement: Str 5+.

Personal Development:

1. Str +1
2. Dex +1
3. End +1
4. Int +1
5. Melee (Unarmed)
6. Gambler

Service Skills:

1. Melee (Any)
2. Missile Combat (Any)
3. Heavy Armor
4. Recon
5. Animals
6. Athletics (Any)

Constable Skills:

1. Melee (Any)
2. Heavy Armor
3. Investigate
4. Persuade
5. Advocate
6. Streetwise

Soldier Skills:

1. Melee (Any)
2. Missile Combat (Any)
3. Heavy Armor
4. Athletics (Any)
5. Tactics
6. Melee (Any)

 Mercenary Skills:

1. Melee (Any)
2. Heavy Armor
3. Haggle
4. Deception
5. Diplomat
6. Tactics

Constable ranks:

1. Rookie -> Investigate 1
2. Guardsman
3. Constable -> Melee (Any) 1
4. Bodyguard
5. Sheriff -> Leadership 1 or +1 Soc
6. Commander of the Guards

Soldier ranks:

1. Newblood -> Melee (Any) 1
2. Trooper
3. Veteran -> Athletics (Any) 1
4. Sergeant
5. Hero -> Leadership 1 or +1 Soc
6. Champion

Mercenary ranks:

1. Bravo -> Melee (Any) 1
2. Sellsword
3. Blooded -> Recon 1
4. Sergeant
5. Commander -> Persuade 1 or +1 Int
6. Warlord

Reviewsday: And My ACKS...

Picked up a copy of ACKS in pdf this last week and have been slowly working my way through it when time permits.  So far I'm very impressed.  It feels like a compromise position between 3e and OSRIC, almost, with the underlying structure closer to OSRIC, but with player options and a number of simplifications reminiscent of 3.x.  Ability scores, for example, are on a flat modifier system like 3e's.  Given that we wasted probably an hour of chargen for OSRIC explaining (and re-explaining) the ability score charts, this is a Good Thing for me.  But, the modifier categories are variable-width, with a narrower ranges of bonuses and penalties, much like Traveller.  Also nice; a high score is now good, but less overwhelmingly important than it was in 3.x.

Proficiencies are also very much along the 3e vein; they're kind of a combination of feats and skills, and you slowly get more as you level.  Since the core classes don't really have class features that increase with level (mostly), being able to differentiate yourself from other members of your class via proficiencies is quite nice.  I also really like ACKS' handling of races.  Their core only includes three - human, dwarf, and elf.  Humans have access to a wide range of classes: fighter, cleric, mage, thief, assassin (kind of a fighter-thief blend; no more instant-death attack), bladedancer (dervishy cleric variant), explorer (wilderness fighter / old-school ranger), and bard (actually not terrible).  Dwarf and elf have access to two specialized classes each; Dwarven Vaultguard (dwarf fighter), Dwarven Craftpriest (dwarf cleric), Elven Spellsword (elf mage/fighter), and Elven Nightblade (elf mage/thief).  These classes roll the racial bonuses into the class itself, and increase the XP required to level accordingly.  Demihuman level limits are back, but humans also cap at 14th in all classes, with dwarves and elves capping between 10 and 13 depending on the class.  Also interesting is the vast reduction of minimum ability score requirements; dwarves require a minimum Con of 9, and elves require a minimum Int of 9.  That's it.  No more "Arg, I can't play a gnome because my Dex is 1 point too low" dilemmas during character generation.  Each class also has one or more prime requisites, which also require a 9 or more, but these can be raised by sacrificing points from other scores, and you get bonus XP for having high prime reqs, just as in OSRIC, though there are tiers of XP bonus (+5% and +10%), and they're more standardized across classes.

Speaking of ability scores, ACKS advocates 3d6 in-order, which is harsh.  To counterbalance it, though, they also suggest that each player generate five (5) characters, choosing one to be their main PC, and two as backup PCs for when the main dies.  The final two are to be given to the DM (er, Judge in their parlance; I like the Judges' Guild homage) for use as NPCs, potential henchmen, rival adventurers, and similar.  I quite like this, for a number of reasons.  It can generate dilemma situations and interesting choices for the players without totally screwing them, but also generates free content for the DM.  Five is a lot, though, especially if it's their first time building ACKS chars.  Three might work too, with one main PC, one backup, and one NPC.

Speaking of backup PCs, they have a highly entertaining rule for generating XP for your next PC if you don't want to switch command to one of your henchmen, if you have any.  And you probably should have henchmen; porters are less important than they were in OSRIC, since you can carry more, but Charisma is useful again, since it lets you have many and loyal helpers (and backup PCs for when you die).  And you will probably die; save-or-die poisons are the norm, as in OSRIC (though some are save vs poison or be paralyzed, I believe).  The Death and Dismemberment table is also quite good; reminds me strongly of d20 Warheart's.  There's no level loss for resurrection, but you need a 7th level cleric, and you also have to make a roll on the Tampering with Mortality table, which can generate many and unpleasant side effects of going beyond the mortal coil.

For those adventurers who do make it to high level, though, awesome stuff awaits.  There's a whole chapter (and a long chapter, at that) on fun stuff like spell research, magic item creation, building castles and cities, running thieves' guilds, ritual spells (stuff like wish), raising undead armies...  pretty much everything I mentioned here as "stuff you should be able to do in high-level D&D", and then some (magical crossbreeding to make owlbears, for example).  It's...  pretty amazing.  I've seen whole sourcebooks on some of these topics that did poorer jobs of it.  Granted, those books were written for much more complex systems, but still...  ACKS has done a very concise, but functional job.

The trouble is that these ventures take a lot of money.  Fortunately, ACKS awards XP per gold piece extracted from the dungeon, and even suggests a standard ratio of XP from monsters to XP from gold that should be awarded.  Thus, since you know how much XP a PC of nth level will have, you can use that ratio to determine about how much gold they should have earned over their careers.  This makes starting out of levels higher than first pretty easy.  ACKS also provides mercantile ventures / speculative trading rules reminiscent of Traveller's, but simpler and more accessible.  You know those caravans that low-level PCs get stuck guarding all-too-often?  Well, turns out they're owned by mid-level PCs trying to move silk at a profit.

Which brings us to the worldbuilding angle.  ACKS has some very interesting things to say about fantasy worldbuilding on giant hexmaps, but most interesting to me is their advice on building a 'borderlands' region as a setting.  It's like they went "Hey, you.  We heard you wanted to run Western Marches, but are a little too lazy.  Well, we were in the same position once, and here are all the things we think you should know."  It's good stuff.

In short, I feel like ACKS accomplishes several of my goals for Fantasy Traveller (relative simplicity, old-schoolishness with some degree of differentiation between characters of the same class, hexmaps, lower power curve), while also nailing high-level play.  I have a bunch of career tables queued up, though, so they're still going to come out of the pipe, despite the fact that they will likely not see use any time soon.  ACKS is definitely on the to-run list, hopefully for this summer, and quite possibly into next fall semester as well.

Fantasy Traveller - Arcanist

Arcanists are those who make their living primarily through the study and practice of arcane magic.

Qualification: Int 6+. -1 DM per previous career

Specialties:

Sorcerer: You developed a natural destructive power, and spent your time either in the service of a government or on the run from it.  Your survival depended on some degree of physical toughness, but you advanced through raw magical talent.
Survival: End 6+.  Advancement: Int 6+.

Warlock: You studied Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know.  Hunted as a witch and a heretic, you quickly learned to hide your abilities.  Your survival was centered around your ability to deceive others, while your power increased through study of further secrets.
Survival: Int 7+.  Advancement: Edu 5+.

Wizard: You studied magic formally at one of several academies, and may have served as a court mage for a noble house.  Your continued employment depended on the rigor of your studies, but advancement required pulling strings and knowing the right people.
Survival: Edu 5+.  Advancement: Soc 7+.

Basic Training: Arcanists gain their basic training skills from their specialty, rather than from the Career Skills table.

Personal Development:

1. +1 Int
2. +1 Edu
3. +1 Soc
4. +1 Dex
5. +1 End
6. Language (Any)

Service Skills:

1. Sorcery
2. Wizardry
3. Black Magic
4. Language (Any)
5. Lore (Any)
6. Alchemy

Sorcerer Skills:

1. Sorcery
2. Persuade
3. Deception
4. Melee (Any)
5. Stealth
6. Jack of Trades

Warlock Skills:

1. Black Magic
2. Deception
3. Lore (Any)
4. Language (Any)
5. Alchemy
6. Streetwise

Wizard Skills:

1. Wizardry
2. Diplomat
3. Lore (Any)
4. Language (Any)
5. Alchemy
6. Advocate

Sorcerer ranks:

1. Talent -> Sorcery 1
2. Apprentice
3. Sorcerer -> Jack of Trades 1
4. Elementalist
5. Elemental Master -> +1 Soc or Sorcery 2
6. Sorcerer Lord

Warlock ranks:

1. Minion -> Streetwise 1
2. Cultist
3. Warlock -> Black Magic 1
4. Necromancer
5. Coven Leader -> 1d3 contacts and 1 enemy
6. Speaker in Darkness

Wizard ranks:

1. Apprentice -> Lore (Any) 1 or Alchemy 1
2. Scribe
3. Wizard -> Wizardry 1
4. Sage
5. Magister -> +1 Soc or Diplomat 1
6. Archmage

Events, mishaps, and reward tables are probably going to wait until I'm mostly done with the classes.  I'm also considering doing Events on a 1d6, rather than Mongoose's standard 2d6.

Fantasy Traveller - Career Tables

Having written up magic for Fantasy Traveller, the time has come for career tables. I'm looking at seven careers, each with three specialties, as follows:

• Arcanist
• Sorcerer -> Combat magic specialist
• Warlock -> Black magic specialist
• Wizard -> Lore and court mage
• Man-at-Arms
• Constable -> Investigative warrior
• Soldier -> Standard 'fighter'
• Mercenary -> Fighter with mercantile, deception, and dirty tricks
• Noble
• Courtier -> Diplomatic specialist
• Knight -> Noble warrior; cavalry / leadership specialist
• Magistrate -> Investigation and diplomacy specialist
• Peasant
• Craftsman -> Making things, haggling
• Farmer -> Farming, animals, surviving out in the sticks
• Sailor -> Sailing, navigation, fishing, fighting pirates
• Priest
• Cleric -> Face priest; social skills, mace, prayers
• Monk -> Lore, divine magic, unarmed combat
• Templar -> Priest militant
• Rogue
• Assassin -> Poison and minor magic specialist
• Minstrel -> Jack of trades plus art
• Thief -> Standard rogue
• Wilderlander
• Barbarian -> Wilderness warrior / viking
• Druid -> Wilderness priest
• Ranger -> Hunter / explorer

This first pass through probably isn't going to do event tables, mishap tables, and reward tables; just skills, survival, advancement, and quals.  Expect a separate post for each of these, unless I get really zealous.  I feel that this particular mix hits the core 'D&D' classes that people expect, plus Noble and Peasant, which are important for maintaining the Traveller notion that sometimes, PCs are civilians (or start out that way).  Also note that this career set, much like the one in the Mongoose Core, is subject to expansion; I'd love to later expand Sorcerer to its own career with three specialties (say, Battlemage, Spellsword, and Wild Talent).  Same goes for Barbarian, which Platonic Solid handled well with Celt, Horse Barbarian (Mongol), and Sea Barbarian (Viking).  Some of the ones I have so far aren't particular expandable, though - Magistrate and Constable would both be tricky, and I doubt anyone particularly wants to differentiate between Farmer and Goatherd.  Anyways, expansions on this 'core set' may come later, but for now it's important that I build this simple, managaebly-sized core without bogging down in three flavors of every D&D class.

The funny thing is that I wrote these up some time ago, and now the desire to keep expanding them has receded.  Alex's Traveller game is ending (the main plot has kind of been completed, and most of the characters have accomplished their in-game objectives), so we're probably shifting back to Trailblazer soon (after spring break).  Thus, Traveller is kind of falling by the wayside.  The semester is also starting to get unduly hairy, so I guess it's a good thing I have a bunch of career tables buffered up...  Basically, I apologize that there won't be anything terribly insightful coming down the pipe for a week or three.  I'll try to keep posting mailbag and Starmada updates when possible.

Fantasy Traveller - Black Magic

Rounding out the five magic skills for Fantasy Traveller is black magic.  While wizards manipulate subtle arcane forces, sorcerers channel raw power, clerics ask favors of their deities, and druids command natural spirits, the black mage draws on the forces of darkness to accomplish effects including necromancy, the binding of demons, trapping souls, blood magic, curses and hexes, and similar.  Powerful black mages can achieve immortality via lichdom, raise armies of undead to do their bidding, and crush kingdoms beneath terrible plagues...  but, for every black mage who reaches such heights of power, ten succumb to weakness, temptation, and inattention, and are slain by the powers they wished to master.

Black magic runs off of Intuition and Education with similar frequency; performing the summoning ritual for a demon uses Education, but commanding it successfully requires Intuition.  Some black magic may also be governed by Endurance, for rituals and tasks which entail great pain for the caster.  Even more so than Sorcery, black magic embraces the philosophy of 'great power at great risk'; while failing a casting check in most schools is likely to simply cause the spell to fizzle, failing a black magic check often has negative consequences.  Failure to curse an enemy may curse you, failure to raise undead may cause damage to the caster as negative energies consume him, failure to summon a demon may summon something worse...  So it goes.  There is also the possibility that a failure, or even a success, will attract the attention of the powers of light, who may send their servants after the black mage.  This is a particularly good result to have occur on a check with effect -1; the spell may succeed, but has attracted the attention of powerful forces who take umbrage.

Example effects:

Place a short-lived hex on an enemy in combat - Routine (+2) Black Magic + Int, 1-6 seconds (significant action).  The target takes a penalty to a skill of your choosing equal to your effect plus one for 1d3 rounds of combat.

Raise a single humanoid as a weak undead servant - Average (+0) Black Magic + Edu, 10-60 minutes.  The effect of the check serves as a bonus to the power of the created undead.

Summon a demon - Difficulty varies by demon type, Black Magic + Edu, 1-6 hours.  The effect of this check serves as part of a task chain with the check to control the summoned demon, below.  Summoning an imp or other minor spirit is Routine (+2), hell-hounds Average (+0), succubi and nightmares Difficult (-2), vrocks and similar warrior-demons Very Difficult (-4), and balrogs Formidable (-6).

Control a summoned demon - Difficulty is one step harder than summoning, Black Magic + Int, 10-60 seconds.  The summoner may give one command, plus one per point of effect, which the demon must obey.  Not that wording is important, and compound sentences (or even compound objects) may be interpreted as multiple commands - "Kill Warlord Ugrak and his war council" is two commands, while "Kill everyone in Warlord Ugrak's tent" is one, but much less specific - if nobody is in the tent when the demon arrives, then none will be slain.  Commands need not all be given upon completion of the summoning, but the next command must be ready after the completion of the previous command.  Any command which entails long-term service, such as "Permit none but me to pass through this doorway" has a maximum duration of three months, after which the use of another command is required to retain that service.

Perform a blood sacrifice to aid in the control of a demon - Average (+0) Black Magic + Edu, 10-60 minutes.  Task chains with the Control a summoned demon task, above, but requires the sacrifice of a sentient.  Particularly succulent sentients, such as virgins and paladins, may grant a bonus to this check (bonuses for paladin and virgin do not stack; too much overlap).

Research how to become a lich - Difficult (-2) Black Magic + Edu, 1-6 months.  The effect of this check task chains with the ritual of lichdom, below.

Perform the ritual of lichdom, sealing your life force into an inanimate object for eternity - Very Difficult (-4) Black Magic + End, 10-60 hours.  If the caster succeeds, they're a lich!  If they fail by -1, they take 4d6 damage, ignoring armor, and if they fail by -2 or lower, they die outright.  Failure by -6 may have special, unpleasant consequences, such as having bound yourself into your phylactery and accidentally severing your link to your body, for an eternal conscious imprisonment.


Notes:
Black magic is something which I have always found to be lacking in flavor in D&D.  Raising undead, bestow curse, and similar are just normal spells, with no particular risk attached to their use.  There is, from the rules of D&D, no particular reason that sane, right-thinking wizards shouldn't use such powers.  The increased risks associated with the Black Magic skill under these rules, as compared to Wizardry, serve as such a reason here.  With that risk, however, comes great power and great versatility, particularly with summoned demons as a means of gathering intelligence, acquiring items, and assassinating enemies.

Next up: career tables

Fantasy Traveller - Divine Magic

Today, in installment 2 of 3 on magic in a fantasy version of Traveller, I present divine magic.  As with arcane magic, there are two skills governing the channeling of divine power.

Liturgy: Liturgy is the fine art of asking deities for help and hoping that they answer.  Unlike with the arcane skills, Liturgy has specialties, as each god has their own holy book, rituals, and preferred offerings.  Liturgy 0 conveys a basic familiarity with the workings of divine magic and a cursory knowledge of the functions of the various deities in the pantheon, while scores higher than 0 must be assigned to separate deities as specialties, representing closer study of the tenets of those deities (ex: a standard D&D cleric might have Liturgy (Pelor) 2).  Note that under this system, polytheistic priests are quite possible with the spitting of points between multiple deities (ex: Liturgy (Boccob) 1, Liturgy (Wee Jas) 1 for the magically-inclined D&D priest).  The magical effects available through a particular Liturgical specialty depend heavily on the deity; a war god is likely to look favorably on requests to smite heathens, while a god of healing probably won't.  Difficulty modifiers should be assigned based on the the suitability of a given request from the deity's perspective.  Standard liturgical spell effects include turning the undead, smiting enemies of the faith, prophecy, healing the injured, curing the sick, raising the dead, and granting blessings.

Liturgy is generally governed by Education, as the governing factor of the effectiveness of prayers is making sure that you get the words right and living according to the tenets of the deity, which requires that you know the tenets of the deity and the words of his prayers.  Intuition may be relevant if you're trying to deceive a deity...  but that's a risky thing.  As a general rule, if a Liturgy check fails with effect -1, the spell succeeds, but the deity requires a sacrifice from the priest in accord with the magnitude of the desired effect; this may range from an extra two hours of prayer or the sacrifice of a goat for minor effects to a major quest or crusade for major effects.  With effects between -2 and -5, the prayer falls on deaf ears, and with effects of -6 or lower, the priest has angered the deity, with consequences such as revocation of spells for a period of time (or until ritually purified) for more merciful deities or plagues of boils, pillars of salt, rains of brimstone, impotence, leprosy, and other Old Testament-grade curses for less merciful ones.  Consult your GM to see if Liturgy is right for you!

Example uses:

Heal the injured - Average (+0) Liturgy + Edu, 1-6 minutes.  The target heals 1d6 + effect points of damage to ability scores if delivered within 5 minutes of the injury, or just the effect if delivered outside of 5 minutes.  Healing can only be administered once per injury.  For deities of growth and healing, this is an Routine (+2) effect, while for those of death and decay, this is a Difficult (-2) task.

Miraculous Healing - Average (+0) Liturgy + Edu, 1-6 hours.  This hours-long ritual is used for healing those who are terribly wounded ever after preliminary healing of injuries, and must be performed in a sanctified place.  See also Surgery, Traveller Core page 75.  As with healing the injured, modifiers for deity type apply.  Other uses of the Medic skill are likewise subsumed into Liturgy.

Bestow Blessing - Average (+0) Liturgy + Edu, 10-60 minutes.  You bestow your deity's favor on a single willing recipient, plus one recipient per point of effect, for the duration of one week.  Each recipient may 'burn' the blessing at any time during this week to gain a +2 DM on a check associated with the deity's portfolio (exception - you cannot use blessing bonuses on Liturgy checks).  Deities are jealous, however, and no character may benefit from more than one blessing in a given week.  Likewise, once a character has been blessed by a particular deity for a particular week, the blessing is 'locked in' for that week, and he cannot gain another deity's blessing for that week.

Turn the Undead - Average (+0) Liturgy + Edu, 1-6 seconds (significant action).  Nearby undead apply your effect as an inverse task chain to all of their actions for the next round (ex: Effect +6 normally generates a +2 bonus.  Instead, it would inflict a -2 penalty).  Deities of light and life may provide their followers with additional effects such as damage to the undead, while deities of death may instead provide the ability to bolster or heal the undead.  This effect also works on demons and other such entities, but this use may be Difficult (-2) or harder depending on the power of the entity.

Smite Enemy of the Faith - Average (+0) Liturgy + Edu, 1-6 seconds (minor action).  You may attempt to smite enemies of your faith with whom you are in combat.  This works much like Aiming, except that you gain a +1 plus a task chain bonus based on your Liturgy check result (ex: Liturgy check effect 6 -> +2 task chain bonus -> +3 smite bonus to attack).  This bonus stacks with Aiming, but not with itself.  Additionally, the bonus only applies to those who are actually enemies of your faith; a Cuthbertian can smite undead, liars, and thieves, for example.  Attempting to smite someone who isn't an enemy of your faith is likely to displease your deity.  This tends to be an Routine task for warlike deities, and Difficult for warmfuzzy healer deities.

Raise the Dead - Very Difficult (-4) Liturgy + Edu, 10-60 hours.  This arduous ritual must be performed in a sanctified place, but if successful, may restore a dead person to life.  The ritual requires a reasonably-intact corpse, and restores the target to life weakened and exhausted (Fatigued, and Endurance damaged to 0) by the ordeal.  Raising the dead without a corpse, or without the End damage, is Formidable (-6).  Even priests of life and growth find this ritual Difficult (-2), though deities of death can exercise their control of this domain to similar effect (they often demand sacrifices in exchange, such a death for a life, however).

Miracle - Formidable (-6) Liturgy + Int, 10-60 seconds.  Ask anything in your deity's portfolio, and hope you roll well.  Taking additional time provides a +2 DM for every two increments increased, rather than for every one increment as usual.  Ask the Dwarven smith god for a deity-forged weapon to slay the terrible dragon which plagues your people, the death god to personally slaughter your enemies, or the war god to lead your army on the field of battle.  Effects of this magnitude frequently involve the personal appearance of deities in the mortal world, or transport of the asking mortal to the deity's realm (sometimes in the form of a vision, other times physical transport).  Often deities will demand great sacrifices for service of this kind.


Druidism: The other primary form of divine magic is asking nature spirits for aid rather the deities.  Druidism does not have specialties like Liturgy does, though situational modifiers may apply based on the kind of spirits in the surrounding area - plant spirits are sparse inside a volcano.  Druidic effects include speaking with animals, skinwalking, healing, tree stride, weather control, and similar.  Powerful druids can induce natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.  Druidism relies primarily on being in tune with nature and the animal part of oneself, and so is governed by Intuition, though as with Sorcery, Education may sometimes be used for rituals from obscure texts.

Failure of a druidism check with effect -1 means that the spirits of the proper type for the chosen effect are weak in this area.  The druid may choose to force the spell, exhausting their power, which denies him the use of similar spells for a time depending on the magnitude of the effect, or he can choose to permit the spell to fail.  Effects between -2 and -5 mean that the druid has misread the spirits and failed to gain their aid, and effects of -6 or below earns the wrath of the spirits, who curse the druid in a thematically-appropriate way; animal spirits may become hostile, plant spirits may writhe and entangle him, and elemental spirits may animate the very earth against him.

Example uses:

Heal the injured - As with Liturgy.

Miraculous Healing - As with Liturgy, though a sanctified place for a Druid is one where the spirits of life and growth are strong.

Read a druidic standing stone - Average (+0) Druidism + Edu, time depends on amount of text.

Speak with Animals - Routine (+2) Druidism + Int, 1-6 minutes.  The subject animals must not be attacking, though they will generally not flee from a druid who is trying to speak with them.  Having appropriate food provides a +2 DM.

Influence Animals - Difficult (-2) Druidism + Int, 1-6 seconds (significant action).  The druid can alter try to alter an animal's reaction to the party's presence.  A successful check allows the druid to modify the animal's reaction result (per page 72 of Mongoose Core - Animal Reactions) by an amount less than or equal to his Effect in either direction.  For example, a party encounters a bull triceratops, which is a Grazer.  The DM rolls for its reaction, and gets a 9, so it attacks the party.  The druid rolls Influence Animals, getting Effect 3.  He can change the reaction roll to anything between 12 and 6, and so can cause it to cease attacking or to flee.

Enter a trance and transfer your consciousness into a nearby animal - Routine (+0) Druidism + Int, 1-6 minutes.  You gain nominal control over the mind of a nearby animal, though your perceptions are filtered through its.  Performing this on a tamed animal is Routine (+2), but truly wild, powerful, or savage animals may be Difficult (-2) or harder.  Modifiers based on size and utility may apply; controlling a raven is much easier than controlling a bear.  While in this state, your body sits motionless and defenseless.  You can be wakened by a slap, water, or damage to either your body or to the animal.  Maintaining the trance in the face of one of these interruptions requires a Druidism + End check of difficulty varying with the strength of the interruption.  Such a check is also required to maintain the trance for long periods of time.  While in such a trance, the only other druidic magic you may use is to speak with or influence animals, though speaking with or influencing animals of the type you are currently possessing is of Easy (+4) and Average (+0) difficulty, respectively.

Shapeshift into a small animal, such as a cat, monkey, or bird - Very Difficult (-4) Druidism + Int, 1-6 minutes.  While in this form, you gain the physical stats, special abilities, and senses of the animal into which you have changed.  You remain in this form indefinitely, though you revert if slain.  The animal's instincts are overlaid on yours, and it is dangerous to remain outside your natural form for too long; for every 24 hours you remain continuously in a foreign form, you must make a Druidism + Int check with a -1 DM per previous check to retain your sanity.  If you fail, you lose yourself in the animal nature and become a normal animal of that type.  Shapeshifting into larger, more powerful animals is possible, but difficult and dangerous; such animals tend to have stronger natures, and so sanity check frequency and difficulty are increased.  Additionally, you may cast no other spells while shapeshifted.  Resuming your natural form is a significant action.  When you shapeshift, damage persists across forms - if you have more damage than your new form can handle, you die.

Predict tomorrow's weather - Routine (+2) Druidism + Int, 1-6 minutes.  You can determine what the weather will be like tomorrow, and can look one additional day into the future per point of effect.

Make it stop raining - Difficult (-2) Druidism + Int, 1-6 minutes.  You can alter the weather in a small area surrounding you, such as a forest glade or stretch of beach.  This alteration persists for an hour, plus one hour per point of effect.

Induce berserk - Difficult (-2) Druidism + Int, 1-6 seconds (significant action).  You can cause yourself or a subject to enter a berserker frenzy by angering their animal spirits.  Using this ability on an unwilling subject increases the difficulty to Very Difficult (-4).  During the frenzy, the subject gains an extra minor action per round of combat and suffers no penalties for wounds taken.  Additionally, they add your effect to their Strength score for the duration.  However, they also cannot distinguish between enemies and allies, may only move towards targets and attack in melee (may not aim, hide, lurk in cover, cast spells, retreat, and so forth), and do not know how much damage they have sustained (this information is kept secretly by the GM; when a berserker runs out of physical ability score points, he just drops dead).  Berserk rage lasts until there are no further apparent conscious targets, or until the subject is slain.  Particularly tragic or poetic actions (killing one's wife, brother, or liege lord, for example) may also end the rage immediately as the target comes to his senses.

Cataclysm - Formidable (-6) Druidism + Int, 10-60 hours.  After a long and painful ritual, you cause a natural disaster in a nearby area, such as an earthquake, tsunami, tornado, or volcanic eruption.  If the area was already prone to such a disaster (ie, you're on top of a geologically active area), then the check is Very Difficult (-4).


Design notes:
Both of the divine skills are strong support skills which highlight the differences between Education and Intuition.  One of my goals with Liturgy was to move clerics away from the "Armored wizards who call down Flame Strikes and crap" and to emphasize the importance of the temperaments of each deity - the Trickster God's blessing doesn't provide a bonus to attack unless it's a backstab, the War God won't help you weasel your way out of things, and so forth.  With Druidism, similar concerns manifested themselves with shapeshifting, which has been historically pretty damn broken.  I think this fix should suffice; skinwalking allows druids to use animal forms, but leaves their own bodies vulnerable, while shapeshifting itself is difficult, especially for combat forms, and damage persists across them, so that if you're badly wounded as a bear and you shift to human form, you will likely perish.

To part 3 - black magic

Fantasy Traveller - Arcane Magic

First, design goals.  One of the things that I found dissatisfying about Traveller psionics is that it is a very, very limited-use resource.  Playing a character whose primary function is psionics is nigh-impossible, because psionic strength points are very limited, and your ability to use more psi talents decreases as your Psi DM drops.  This was something I wanted to avoid in the design for FantTrav's magic system.  However, I did like the relative simplicity of Traveller's psionics system - it's about 10 pages, all told, including spell listings.  In comparison with D&D's magic system, it is positively minimalist.  Finally, in core, there are five skills associated with it (telepathy, telekinesis, awareness, teleportation, and clairvoyance).  I feel that this is about the right number; it's hard for any one character to be good at all of them, which means that at least two characters can 'do' psi in the same group without stepping on each other too much.  On the other hand, it's also not so many skills as to be mind-boggling.

Initially, I tried to look at all available effects producible by magic in D&D, and then to group them into categories.  This proved to be a massive and fruitless task.  Instead, I ended up with something...  a bit simpler.  Five categories, five skills, grouped heuristically and intuitively, and with effects loosely defined.  Today, I present the arcane skills, with divine coming soon.

Also, note that with each skill is a list of sample effects.  These are just that: samples, not binding restrictions on the use of the skill.  Season to taste.

Wizardry: Wizardry is the study of the subtler manipulations of arcane magical forces.  Skilled wizards are adept at creating illusions, manipulating the minds of others, seeing across great distances, the construction of complex wards, teleportation, and the destruction of other magical effects.  Wizardry is primarily powered by Education, as it depends on careful study of arcane mysteries, though Intuition may sometimes be suitable for trying untested, experimental magics in the heat of the moment ("I need to create an illusory smell, but I only know how to create illusory images...  tricky.").  After you do it a few times, write it up, and publish, though, a particular effect may switch to Edu.

As a general guideline, if a Wizardry check fails with effect -1, the spell fizzles but the caster knows what they did wrong, and if they begin re-casting the same effect immediately following the failure, they gain a +1 DM.   Between effects -2 and -5, the spell has failed, and at effect -6 or lower, the spell has opposite the intended effect - you make the party fighter more vulnerable to fire, bolster an enemy caster's spellcasting check, or otherwise make life more difficult.  Teleportation is an exception to this guideline; at effects below -1, you just end up somewhere you weren't planning on going, with effect below -5 resulting in going places you really, really didn't want to go to (the court of the enemy king, or Hell, for examples).

Example uses:

Create an auditory illusion to muffle your footsteps - Routine (+2) Wizardry + Edu, 10-60 seconds, as part of a skill chain with Stealth (incidentally, I aim to make the skill chaining rules more merciful, and to make extensive use of chains - but that's another post).

Convince a guard that these aren't the halflings he's looking for - Average (+0) Wizardry + Edu, 10-60 seconds, with a negative DM equal to the guard's Int DM, as part of a task chain with Deception.

Counterspell an opposing spellcaster in combat - Difficult (-2) Wizardry + Int, 1-6 seconds (significant action).  You apply twice your effect as a negative modifier to the opposing caster's skill check to cast.

Disable / dispel a static ward outside of combat - Average (+0) Wizardry + Edu, 1-6 minutes.  Some modifiers may apply depending on the type and magnitude of the ward.

Teleport a short distance during combat - Average (+0) Wizardry + Edu, 1-6 seconds (significant action).  You may teleport yourself and your equipment up to 6 meters, plus 1.5 meters per point of effect.  Teleporting an ally this way is Difficult (-2).

Teleport across the continent, taking all of your allies and their gear with you - Very Difficult (-4) Wizardry + Edu, 10-60 minutes.  Additional penalties may apply if you're trying to teleport to somewhere you've never seen, or bonuses if you're going to a place you have ritually prepared or are overly familiar with (your sanctum, for example).

Sorcery: While Wizardry is the subtle, calculated manipulation of arcane forces, Sorcery is the incautious channeling of raw arcane power.  Sorcerers are good at flinging fireballs, calling down lightning strikes, telekinesis, flight, calling elemental beings from the very fabric of nature to their service, and similar effects.  If it's big and flashy, it's probably sorcery.  Sorcery runs primarily on Intuition; most sorcerers don't have a damn clue what they're doing, and don't care as long as it works.  Sorcerous rituals for doing things like calling fire and brimstone down to level a city, however, may run on Education, as careful study is required to enact effects of that magnitude.

As a general rule, if a Sorcery check fails with effect -1, the caster should be given a choice between having the spell fail / fizzle, or having it succeed with collateral damage to the caster, a party member, or something else valuable.  If a Sorcery check fails with effect between -2 and -5, it just fizzles, and with -6 or below, it backfires completely.

Example effects:

Attack a nearby foe with elemental energies - Routine (+2) Sorcery + Int, 1-6 seconds (significant action), inflicting 2d6 damage plus your effect.  You may increase the difficulty of the check to gain +1d6 damage per -2 DM taken, but this must be declared before the check is made.

Attack a group of nearby foes with elemental energies - Average (+0) Sorcery + Int, 1-6 seconds (significant action), inflicting 2d6 damage plus your effect to each target.  For each target beyond the second, you take an additional -1 to your check.  As with Attack a nearby foe, you may voluntarily increase the difficulty to gain extra damage; see above.

Armor yourself or another in telekinetic force - Average (+0) Sorcery + Int, 10-60 seconds.  The recipient gains Armor equal to your effect for ten minutes, which does not stack with nonmagical armor.  You may voluntarily increase the difficulty of the check to increase the duration, at a rate of +5 minutes per -1 DM taken in casting, but this must be declared before the check is made.

Armor yourself or another in flame - Difficult (-2) Sorcery + Int, 10-60 seconds.  Each opponent who strikes the recipient in melee for the next 10 minutes takes 2d6 plus your effect points of fire damage.  As with Attack a Nearby Foe and Force Armor, you can increase the difficulty of the check to increase the damage or duration; see above.


A few design notes:
Wizardry is more of a support school - it's good for making everyone else better at what they do, whatever it may be.  Sorcery, by comparison, is great at combat...  and not a whole lot else.  Sorcery's "increased risk for increased reward" theme also seemed appropriate to the reckless, intuitive nature of the school.  The omission of flight from the sample sorcery effects is intentional; flight is a sufficiently powerful ability that it should not be given lightly, and its utility varies significantly across circumstances.  Overland flight for the party might be of a 'capstone' difficulty on part with cross-country party teleport, but combat flight is significantly more powerful than combat teleportation.  Assign difficulties wisely.

Next time: divine magic.

Fantasy Traveller - Review of Literature

Most good ideas have been thought of before.  Taking Traveller and altering it for fantasy settings is one of them.  Most of the fan-made versions, however, appear to be written as conversions for Classic Traveller rather than Mongoose.  The first of these which I encountered was Adventurer by the good Doctor Grognard, followed by The Fantasy Traveller at Alegis Downport, and most recently Wanderer.  I've read Adventurer, and it generally seems pretty sensible, but it is a conversion of OD&D / 1e to Classic Traveller, so it has a lot of crufty bits from both systems.  Also a nice-looking but relatively heavyweight magic system with magic points, much as with MgT's diminishing Psi score.  Doc mentioned the other day that he's doing an update, so I might have to read it again as he goes.  Alegis' Fantasy Traveller is remarkably lightweight, but also not quite what I'm aiming for, and Wanderer seems to actually be just kind of a notion on some forums without a condensed rules document.  An interesting variant on this category of fanbrew systems is Mercator by Mithras over on the CotI boards, which rather than being a fantasy adaptation is a conversion of Classic Traveller to a Roman Empire setting.

There is one fan-conversion for Mongoose Traveller, Adventurer by Nathan at Platonic Solid.  However, development appears to have stalled with only a skills list and career tables for Barbarian, Ranger, and Fighter completed.  It still provokes some discussion on the MgT forums, though.

There are two commercial ventures into fantasy for MgT that I'm aware of.  The first is Flynn's Guide to Magic in Traveller.  Flynn's admitted purpose is to get someone to develop a full fantasy Traveller game using his magic system.  However, from the advertising copy of "150+ sample spells", it sounds a bit heavier than what I'm aiming for...

The second commercial product of this type is Netherell, by Terra-Sol Games.  It gets good reviews, but is fairly pricy and has thematic trouble as a result of Mongoose's licensing rules, where if you publish MgT-based things, you have to fit them into a subsector (Reft or Twilight; I'm not exactly clear on it).  Since I don't intend to publish for profit, I can probably get away with something similar to what Platonic Solid did with respect to licensing (namely not worrying about it), but it is inconvenient to have to mix sci-fi into one's fantasy.

Coming next week: a Traveller magic system of my own devising.

Fantasy Traveller - Ability Scores

As mentioned previously, I've been kind of grinding away on a fantasy variant of Mongoose Traveller for a while now, as an alternative to d20-based systems.  While 5e looks promising, I'm not quite willing to wait that long.  I've only recently started making any real headway, so here're a few bits and pieces that I think I've nailed down.

There's been some debate over Traveller's array of ability scores in our current group, with people favoring d20's.  Without attacking the merit of some of d20's distinctions (as Roger does at Roles, Rules, and Rolls), I'd like to provide a defense of Traveller's stats.  While Traveller's ability score set, of Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education, and Social Status, isn't perfect, it should work well with a few tweaks.  First and foremost, Intelligence needs to be renamed.  As it stands, it causes all kinds of confusion with D&D players who think it does what Edu actually does.  Two promising candidates are Instinct and Intuition.  Instinct is defensible for the sensory and deductive aspects which fall under Int in Traveller; the hairs on the back of your neck prickle up, or you just "have a hunch."  Intuition works nicely also; for tasks where you're not that familiar, you run on being good as guessing and just an innate understanding of how things work, rather than a formal knowledge.  It does have the problem, however, that it abbreviates to Int, rather than Ins as with Instinct, which may, again, cause confusion with D&D Intelligence.

Education is also tricky in a fantasy setting, where generally formal education is confined to the nobility, and therefore should likely be strongly correlated with Social Standing.  However, I think this can probably be handwaved away with a reasonable bit of imagination; a character with high Edu but low Soc may be a former noble who was disgraced and removed from his station, or reasonably even a medieval-style monk or friar, with very little social clout but quite a bit of book learning.  So that's not a huge problem.

Finally, Social Standing has caught a lot of crap in our game for being useless and nonsensical.  This is, to some degree, true in a more-or-less egalitarian science fiction setting.  However, Social Standing is a beautiful tool for modeling the social system of medieval society.  The king isn't just going to listen to some uppity peasant, even if he happens to be a competent swordsman or very persuasive; it would be unseemly, and betoken weakness.  Mechanically, this can produce barriers to entry, as with "Look, they're not going to let you join their knightly order because your father was a dirt farmer, and you haven't done anything noteworthy enough to earn yourself a title.  You need Soc 9 or more to get in."  However, on the flip side, Social Standing is also a great mechanical consequence mechanism for player actions instead of gold or XP.  Caught red-handed and branded an outlaw?  Set Soc to 2.  Slay the dragon, save the kingdom, and enjoy the accolades of the people?  +1 or +2 Soc.  Gain a noble title and lands, or become the archbishop or archmage?  Set Soc to 10ish.  Marry the princess?  Set Soc to 12.  That kind of thing.  Thus, the problem isn't with the Social Status ability score; it's that we've been using it wrong.  Hell, you could even base starting gold off of starting Soc; that'd make sense, and make it useful.

I also dabbled with the idea of a Piety score to run divine magic, but I think I've abandoned that because it would be a real pain to keep track of, and would vary with deity.  Speaking of magic, that's next in this series, I think...

Games I Want to Run 3; also, Why Traveller Psionics Are Better Than d20 Magic

School starts up again tomorrow.  This may or may not mean the death of this blog, since free time is about to get a lot scarcer.  I do still intend to run Wilderlands or something along similar sandboxy hexmap lines, but at this point I'm looking primarily at systems.  Here are the contenders:

• Trailblazer
• Legends and Labyrinths Beta
• LBB9: Adventurer

All three of these have features and bugs.  Here's the rundown:

Trailblazer is already known to the folks I've been playing with, and is well liked as 'fixing most of the problems with 3.5'.  On the DM side, I'm still itching to try out their monster upgrade rules and possibly their simplified encounter budgeting as well.  A previous post of mine proposes a magic item replacement that would work nicely for TB in the Wilderlands.  The main issues here are that it's a heavy system, with kind of slow combat, complex monster statblocks, and NPCs that take a while to assemble.  There's also my lingering trepidation over their action points and rest rules; on the one hand, APs are a balancing factor for casters, but on the other, they introduce per-level resources, which I really hate, and the rest mechanic is terribly suited for overland travel where random encounters are fairly frequent (in that those random encounters don't actually cost anything in terms of party resources due to rapid rest availability).

Justin Alexander released the L&L Beta a few days ago, and my copy came in this morning.  I've given it a skim, and there are some good things and some bad things.  The design goal here was a very stripped-down 3.5 derivative that remained backwards compatible.  The monster design rules are a real standout; I am fairly confident I could put monsters together during play with it, and that they'd be about right in terms of CR.  That's an awesome thing in a 3.x derivative, and while I'll still probably buy the TB Monster Book when it comes out (hopefully soon...) for what I imagine may be a better-researched monster design system along with a pile of 'Trailblazered' classic monsters, this one has the speed for use in play.  The hazard design system is also very cool, providing a quick way to generate CRs for all manner of traps, perilous crossings, and environmental hazards.  The stunt system provides a mechanism very similar to Traveller's task chains, as well as flexible combat options; I wasn't impressed on first read, but going back for a second, it actually looks pretty slick.  The skill system is kind of nice and simple; you're considered at max ranks for all of your class skills.  If you have a low Int, you choose a number of class skills equal to your penalty to not know.  Very straightforward, and it means that you're good at the things your class is supposed to be good at; similar to Iron Heroes' skill groups in that regard, but a damn sight less complicated.  Other highlights were some notes on wilderness adventures, good rules for hirelings and henchmen, and a number of unusual slimes and molds which didn't make into the 3.0/.5 DMGs (think along the lines of green slime, but different).

On the other hand...  man, when he said he was going to strip down the classes, he really, really stripped down the classes.  Only Barbarian, Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Wizard, and Sorcerer made the cut, for one.  Feats are gone, but at levels where you would get one, you get a pre-selected one based on class (for example, Barbarians get Power Attack at 6th).  He seems to have dropped the first-level feats, though...  likewise, humans kind of got the shaft and stepped on the half-elf's toes, since that bonus feat got converted into a racial bonus to Diplomacy and Sense Motive.  I'd be happier with a +3 to any one skill.  This solution would be on par with 3.5 Skill Focus, works with whatever class you might happen to be, and reinforces the 'versatile' nature of humans.  Finally, he doesn't appear to have really touched the balance issues underlying 3.x; Clerics, Sorcerers, and Wizards will still dominate, since casting still works as normal, unless he nerfs the spell lists pretty hard (updated spells aren't in the beta).  Granted, this move makes sense in the light of his stance on balance in general.  Iterative attacks are still at the old -5, and rogues are still running at 3/4 BaB, so they're going to have a rough time hitting, especially since they never get Weapon Finesse (though they do get Vigilant Shot, which allows readied ranged sneak attacks under some circumstances, making ranged rogues much more viable).  The feat selection on some of the classes is...  questionable, with Rogue being probably the best example.  No finesse, no TWF, just ranged feats.  Barbarian also picks up Expertise, which is an unusual choice for Barbarians in my experience...  I guess as long as one keeps in mind that those feat selections are really just suggestions, and could be swapped out for other 3.5 feats, things should work OK.  Otherwise, I would foresee rioting.  Likewise, while multiclassing is still around, the problem of base save multiclass stacking persists.  At least this time there are fewer classes to multiclass between...  It also doesn't address caster multiclassing like TB did.  I guess the thing here is that if I decide to run L&L, I'd have to Trailblazer it (yep, it's a verb now).  This would basically entail switching iteratives to -2/-2 with decreasing penalties later, chosen good saves at character creation, combat reactions rather than stock AoOs, Combat Tactics for the rogue, upgraded turning on the cleric, BMB for casting...  I think those'd be the big ones.  And allowing players to choose their feats, too...  the classes with pre-chosen feats seem to be primarily a resource for new players and for DMs who need an NPC in a hurry.  Used with that understanding, I think the system in general would work pretty nicely.

Finally, there's the black sheep, Adventurer, over at Crawdads and Dragons.  Adventurer is basically the Classic Traveller rules converted to run OD&D.  This has the advantage of being pretty rules-light; statblocks are small, simple, and easy to assemble.  It also avoids the 'ever upward' problem of D&D in all its incarnations, where the numbers just keep growing, because skill training is still fairly slow (they do introduce some faster rules for it than Mongoose's version, though).  Being essentially Traveller, it has a number of random tables for things like dungeons and areas of wilderness, which goes beautifully with the style of Wilderlands.  But...  on the minus side, it's a conversion of one old, quirky, non-standardized system to run another old, quirky, non-standardized system.  There are tables of attack DMs based on your weapon type vs. your opponent's armor type.  That kind of thing.

Likewise, there's a whole book devoted to spells.  Part of what I liked about Traveller was that its psionics served an essentially different purpose from magic in D&D.  In D&D, magic is the main and exclusive activity of many characters, and the system encourages this by making spell slots readily available at mid-to-high levels, and by providing mages with very little else to do.  In Traveller, while it is possible to try to make psionics your sole activity, it is neither efficient nor necessary.  First, the resource behind Traveller psionics is distinctly limited; the more you use, the lower your psi score drops, and the harder it is to use more of it.  This is in contrast to d20's magic, where you know exactly how much magic you can put out per day, and running low on slots doesn't make any of your remaining slots less effective than they were at the beginning of the day.  Thus, Traveller's psionics are categorically weaker than d20's magic in this 'declining ability' sense.  Further, Traveller's psionic recovery mechanism is non-boolean; rather than resting for eight hours and then being fully recharged, psionic strength recovers gradually across hours as long as no further powers are used.  This again encourages conservation.  Finally, when you look at the things Traveller psionics can do, and the prices on them, it becomes apparent that they fill kind of a 'special projects' role; they can do things that you just can't do otherwise, but it's hard to pull off and expensive.  Further, most of the Traveller psionic powers seem to be intended primarily for non-combat use; sure, you could teleport in combat, but it's really expensive and the benefit is probably minimal.  They're not built with combat as the first consideration, whereas most d20 spells definitely are.  d20 mages are multibarrel weapons platforms that carry loadouts specified at the beginning of the day, while a Traveller psion is more like a solar-powered multitool.  However, the need for psions in Traveller to be able to rain hellfire and lightning down on their enemies is significantly less than that of their d20 counterparts for two reasons.  First is that it's really hard to generate a Traveller character with no other combat-useful skills, both given the skills on the tables, the group skill package, and the connections rule.  In d20, if your wizard is out of magic, he's stuck with a crossbow and an abominably low base attack bonus.  In Trav, if you have Gun Combat 0 and a decent Dex, you're in reasonable stead for combat as far as offense goes, and then it's just a question of keeping your head down.  Second, Traveller in general places a lower emphasis on combat than modern d20 does, meaning that combat prowess is less necessary, and therefore characters who aren't focused on combat are significantly more viable.

This all kind of leads up to the implicit fourth option: hack my own system together based on Mongoose Traveller, with a similarly 'fuzzy' magic system.  The things necessary to achieve this task would be:

• Updated (er, downdated) skill list.  Remote operations and astrogation aren't really things in fantasy settings.
• New background term tables and careers.  3.5 has 11 core base classes, which would fit roughly into 4 careers of three branches each with one new one.  The expanded education column might be used for a prestige class relevant to each branch.  I think Warrior (Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin?), Thief (Rogue, Bard, Ranger?), Priest (Cleric, Druid, Monk), and Mage (Sorcerer, Wizard) would be traditional ways to split things up.  Alternatively, ditch D&D classes as specialties and make things more interesting.
• Races should be very straightforward.
• Medieval-era gear selection would need expanded significantly, as well as rules for magic items.  To be honest, a lot of magic items could just be standard Trav gear - a potion of Cure Disease is not so different from a Medicinal Drug, for example.  Likewise magic weapons could be modeled as weapons with expert computers.  This may not be the best course, but it's an option.  The other would just be to cook up magic gear, hand it out, and see what happens.  Naturally, that sounds more fun.
• Magic proper is the hard part.  I need maybe 3-5 'schools' / skills for each of arcane and divine, each of which has about 4 fuzzy, non-combat-centric effects of varying difficulty.  Tricky.  I'm actually tempted to go with the four classical elements, plus life and death, and nix the arcane / divine divide, but then things like summoning and teleportation get lost in the noise.  Alternatively, the five colors of Magic the Gathering might work very nicely...  They're familiar to a lot of gamers, sufficiently general that I only need the five of them to cover most any effect that could come up, and reasonably clear-cut in most cases.  Heck, I was going to have four caster specialties already; it's trivial to map each to a color and its two allied colors, and to introduce a fifth specialty for that last one.  Cleric gets white, druid is green, sorcerer is red, wizard is blue, and necromancer is black.  Then it's just a question of intuiting difficulties and mana costs for each attempted effect, which is not significantly harder than assigning difficulties on the fly to tasks run by other skills.  Boom magic system complete.

So, with those points in mind, I do believe it's time to hack together a system.