We had (I think) a good session on Thursday celebrating our five year anniversary and 30th episode of The Traveller Adventure. This morning's project is to write it up. But in the interim, I've been thinking. Never a good idea.
(I actually started this as questions about the Tradewar chapter but having just reread it *closely* for the first time in about 3 months, I realize they're pretty much answered... <sigh>)
There are six tables so I use them as a large d666 table. And they give the engineer (and others sometimes) lots of work to do. My house rules for using these are appended.
However, I think I may have identified why I don't quite find them the panacea I'd hoped. While I do like them to a) show the March Harrier is aging; b) life springs surprises on us - often at awkward times; c) spend *some* of the money the ship earns! , I'm not quite sure they offer much beyond die rolling especially if your engineer has superlative skills. Unless you take a glitch and expand it to become a whole role playing thing. Maybe I just need to be better at that.
I think I need to work out a way to up the ante so that the crew have choices (or rather have to make choices) about what to fix and when and a pile of jobs to do for which there's never quite time. So I think I need to do four things:
- get the six d66 tables into a Word document rather than six PDFs/print outs so that they're more "usable" (e.g. copying them into Discord rather than typing out an entry each time!)
- Travellerize the ones that are a bit marginal. The tables are not Traveller specific and a few have jargon that's not very appropriate. I might also consider removing some of the verbiage - although I quite like that in some ways.
- many have cost of repairs already but check they all have Credit and/or time frames associated with each one so that it's easier to guide PCs to repairs
- consider whether more of them need to be not just "engineering" but other ship systems that involve other characters - there are some and I think I'd like more (or at least just add stuff to what's there).
I don't know if this helps anyone?
Comments?
(If I have one doubt about my rules below it would be the odds of needing a port/shipyard. I've already reduced 'needs a repair yard' from "3-5" to "3-4". Should it just be "3" and maybe 'needs to be done in port' an "11" only?)
Using the What’s Wrong With the Ship? Tables
Timothy Collinson
Roll
an Average Engineering task once per week. Failure means rolling on
WWWtS? 1+D3 times.
Increase difficulty level by one for
every decade of ship age. With all six
tables roll d666 to determine problems.
(NB: Some need tweaking to make them Traveller appropriate.)
For
any task, roll 2D to determine severity of breakdown:
2 = needs an A-B class starport (or 1D
weeks wait for part)
3-4 = needs a repair yard (A-C class
starport)
5-9 = can be done in transit (if the
task warrants, roll 1D: 1-2 = EVA required)
10-11 = needs to be done in port
12
= needs to be done in a repair facility with specialist engineer(s) or a 2D
weeks wait for parts. Adjust if task seems to demand it.
For
any task, roll 2D to determine difficulty of task to fix:
1 = Simple
2-3 = Easy
4-5 = Routine
6-7 = Average
8-9 = Difficult
10-11 = Very Difficult
12 = Formidable
For
any task, roll 1D to determine length of time of repair job:
(DM+1
if Average; DM+2 if Difficult or harder. Additional trained crew can
reduce time)
1 = seconds of repair
2 = minutes of repair
3 = minutes of repair x 10
4 = hours of repair
5 = hours of repair x 10
6 = days of repair
The tables themselves, from CyborgPrime, can be found at:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/249232/d66-Whats-Wrong-with-the-Ship-6-Pack-BUNDLE