yeah, it was clear. I was still using "a" grid but not "the" (DGP) Grid.
It was more along the lines of the layout of the h2 "nozzles."
My ultimate intent IMTU was to have different ways of doing the same thing.
So that while the Coalition (and Solomani amongst others) didn't use the
DGP grids, the 1st Imperium Vilani did and so they showed up in more than a
few designs in the 3I. But it wasn't required. This would have led to
"specialized" cards where I could throw a left hook at the player who
thought he knew everything there was to know about a particular field (and
would let me introduce "new" cards if they encountered a strange alien race
who had this crazy idea... that actually worked)
Similarly, I had decided Thruster Plates breakthrough was at TL15 in the 3I
and possible at TL14 with certain TL15 advances but required close
integration of the T-plates with CG lifters that made it... dangerous to
use after the release of Virus ("Grav Pong" was practically impossible to
prevent). Most 3I designs were still HEPlaR by that reckoning, but more
due to the Vilani's cliched traditionalism and Solomani infrastructure was
still mostly HEPLaR as well due to the TL deal. But there were these
oddball prototypes running around that the players might run into...
Definitely saw the opportunity in equipment/weapons modding/repair as well
but was more interested in doing alternate technology (big B5 fan at the
time) and contemplating if I wanted to introduce hyperspace into that
Traveller Universe or do a new alternate universe game with TNE rules....
On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 12:53 PM, <> wrote:
> **
>
>
> That's great stuff. Was it clear from where you sat that we no longer had
> jump grids in the hull skin? I would have had the engineer doing a lot
> more with configuring the contours of the jump envelope to "bite into"
> j-space, allowing for anything carried externally, blah, blah, blah.
>
> Faster jump prep, more accurate jump precip, less variance to jump time,
> nice. Maybe even masking or spoofing jump entry so it would be less
> evident where you were jumping to.
>
> Of course the danger of your system is now that engineers have all those
> pretty little cards, every other skill is going to want them. So we could
> publish all of the skill/technique cards for all the skills. And we could
> sell them in packs where they would be randomly distributed, and there
> would be rare cards that you could get if you bought enough packs, like,
> "pull flying monkey out of your butt, make any one random major system
> failure go away."
>
> Ah, hindsight.
>
>
> > No worries, Dave. That's great to hear and very flattery, thank you Dave.
> > The larger idea of organizing the technobabble came from Shadis, so not
> > sure I could sell it. I sure adapted the hell out of it for my TNE and SW
> > campaigns, though. :D
> >
> > Found the description I put on COTI back in 2002:
> >
> > I started with some guidelines I got from an old Shadis article.
> > Basically,
> > Technologies, (sub)Systems and Effects are put on index cards. For every
> > "pip" [+1] in a technical skill, a player gets one card. AS GM, I gave
> > players a choice out of a number of sleections, first based on
> > fundamentals
> > "required" and then as the player's skill went up, he would gain the
> > opportunity for "electives."
> >
> > I based the cards on the DGP Starship Operations Manual extrapolated for
> > TNE tech (HEPlaR and Jump Drives both gained additional subsystems, for
> > example).
> >
> > Jump Drive was a Technology card gained from Starship Engineering. It
> > explained the basic theories, as put in the various Library data, etc.
> The
> > Jump Drive System card showed the various Individual components (hull
> > grid,
> > fuel tankage, fuel lines, HPG, links to the Main Computer [a separate
> > Technology/Systems card(s) that would have to be learned on their own],
> > etc
> > etc).
> >
> > Engineers had speciality Effects they could learn. Solo Jump was the most
> > basic (a single uncoordinated jump). Coordinated and Synchronized Jumps
> > were other skills, as were rebuild/repair procedures. I incorporated the
> > "alarm lights" as notifications to an individual system (which I had
> > compiled random tables for). I would say for example to the engineer.
> >
> > (As the Ship is preparing to go to jump. "You get an alarm light
> > indicating an issue with the (random roll): power spike from the Hull
> > Grid.
> > He consults that card, which says how the grid gets the fuel from the
> line
> > and with energy provided by the HPG, creates the jump field in the
> > ejectected h2 "bubble" around the ship [ the paradigm for jump IMTU) and
> > see's there's a possibility for misjump, which he can relay to the
> > captain,
> > who can decide if it's worth the risk or if repairs (up to and including
> > EVA) are necessary. Done either by GM fiat, or more rolls.
> >
> > If it happened while in Jump, it would be a whole lot more interesting.
> > This, along with more random rolls, made repairs a whole lot more
> > interesting, too. Naturally, the most skilled enginners ended up with all
> > kinds of cards and tricks to do. Faster jump prep. Tweaked drives.
> Greater
> > accuracy, less variance to the jump time, etc etc.
> >
>
>
>
It was more along the lines of the layout of the h2 "nozzles."
My ultimate intent IMTU was to have different ways of doing the same thing.
So that while the Coalition (and Solomani amongst others) didn't use the
DGP grids, the 1st Imperium Vilani did and so they showed up in more than a
few designs in the 3I. But it wasn't required. This would have led to
"specialized" cards where I could throw a left hook at the player who
thought he knew everything there was to know about a particular field (and
would let me introduce "new" cards if they encountered a strange alien race
who had this crazy idea... that actually worked)
Similarly, I had decided Thruster Plates breakthrough was at TL15 in the 3I
and possible at TL14 with certain TL15 advances but required close
integration of the T-plates with CG lifters that made it... dangerous to
use after the release of Virus ("Grav Pong" was practically impossible to
prevent). Most 3I designs were still HEPlaR by that reckoning, but more
due to the Vilani's cliched traditionalism and Solomani infrastructure was
still mostly HEPLaR as well due to the TL deal. But there were these
oddball prototypes running around that the players might run into...
Definitely saw the opportunity in equipment/weapons modding/repair as well
but was more interested in doing alternate technology (big B5 fan at the
time) and contemplating if I wanted to introduce hyperspace into that
Traveller Universe or do a new alternate universe game with TNE rules....
On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 12:53 PM, <> wrote:
> **
>
>
> That's great stuff. Was it clear from where you sat that we no longer had
> jump grids in the hull skin? I would have had the engineer doing a lot
> more with configuring the contours of the jump envelope to "bite into"
> j-space, allowing for anything carried externally, blah, blah, blah.
>
> Faster jump prep, more accurate jump precip, less variance to jump time,
> nice. Maybe even masking or spoofing jump entry so it would be less
> evident where you were jumping to.
>
> Of course the danger of your system is now that engineers have all those
> pretty little cards, every other skill is going to want them. So we could
> publish all of the skill/technique cards for all the skills. And we could
> sell them in packs where they would be randomly distributed, and there
> would be rare cards that you could get if you bought enough packs, like,
> "pull flying monkey out of your butt, make any one random major system
> failure go away."
>
> Ah, hindsight.
>
>
> > No worries, Dave. That's great to hear and very flattery, thank you Dave.
> > The larger idea of organizing the technobabble came from Shadis, so not
> > sure I could sell it. I sure adapted the hell out of it for my TNE and SW
> > campaigns, though. :D
> >
> > Found the description I put on COTI back in 2002:
> >
> > I started with some guidelines I got from an old Shadis article.
> > Basically,
> > Technologies, (sub)Systems and Effects are put on index cards. For every
> > "pip" [+1] in a technical skill, a player gets one card. AS GM, I gave
> > players a choice out of a number of sleections, first based on
> > fundamentals
> > "required" and then as the player's skill went up, he would gain the
> > opportunity for "electives."
> >
> > I based the cards on the DGP Starship Operations Manual extrapolated for
> > TNE tech (HEPlaR and Jump Drives both gained additional subsystems, for
> > example).
> >
> > Jump Drive was a Technology card gained from Starship Engineering. It
> > explained the basic theories, as put in the various Library data, etc.
> The
> > Jump Drive System card showed the various Individual components (hull
> > grid,
> > fuel tankage, fuel lines, HPG, links to the Main Computer [a separate
> > Technology/Systems card(s) that would have to be learned on their own],
> > etc
> > etc).
> >
> > Engineers had speciality Effects they could learn. Solo Jump was the most
> > basic (a single uncoordinated jump). Coordinated and Synchronized Jumps
> > were other skills, as were rebuild/repair procedures. I incorporated the
> > "alarm lights" as notifications to an individual system (which I had
> > compiled random tables for). I would say for example to the engineer.
> >
> > (As the Ship is preparing to go to jump. "You get an alarm light
> > indicating an issue with the (random roll): power spike from the Hull
> > Grid.
> > He consults that card, which says how the grid gets the fuel from the
> line
> > and with energy provided by the HPG, creates the jump field in the
> > ejectected h2 "bubble" around the ship [ the paradigm for jump IMTU) and
> > see's there's a possibility for misjump, which he can relay to the
> > captain,
> > who can decide if it's worth the risk or if repairs (up to and including
> > EVA) are necessary. Done either by GM fiat, or more rolls.
> >
> > If it happened while in Jump, it would be a whole lot more interesting.
> > This, along with more random rolls, made repairs a whole lot more
> > interesting, too. Naturally, the most skilled enginners ended up with all
> > kinds of cards and tricks to do. Faster jump prep. Tweaked drives.
> Greater
> > accuracy, less variance to the jump time, etc etc.
> >
>
>
>