Classic Traveller Skill System for NPCs

 I am not thrilled by the rule in Book 3 which states "Weapon skill is generally considered to be 1 for all encountered persons." The reason is it contradicts, if not by the letter, but spirit of the game, are the rules for Untrained Weapon Usage. Basically any character untrained in a weapons use is at a -5 penalty. But who are these untrained individuals? Yes, there are the rules surrounding Routine Encounters, but they merely suggest these NPCs need no statistics. They perform a function in the course of play and are usually ignored by the PCs. The amount of words used indicate it is an important distinction, trained/untrained use, seems out of place if all PCs have level zero in weapon skills, and unknown, unimportant NPCs have a skill of 1 with a weapon (if they have one). I ask again, who is this untrained penalty for?

Here is what I have decided to do. Refer to the Additional Weapons Table in the Encounter chapter of Book 3 to randomly determine skill, if any, an NPC has with the weapons in their hand. You use the Additional Weapons Table to determine if one of the NPCs in a group is "armed extraordinarily." Which I interpret as having more than one weapon. Kind of an involved table for such a simple decision. Instead, I will use the table to find out if any of the NPCs are untrained, have zero level, or skill level 1 in their weapon, or more! 

The way you use the table is to roll on the first column. If you get a result you stop. If no result you make another roll. Again, the same happens. Get a result you are done. If not make a final roll on the  third and final column. Instead of weapons I will interpret results as indicated skill level with weapon. On the first roll there is a 1-2 chance of the NPC (or group, for that matter) being untrained. Therefore incurring the -5 untrained penalty. Second roll there is a 1-3 chance the NPC is zero skill level, no minus or bonus. Third roll there is a 1-5 chance the NPC has the usual skill level 1. Still no result? Well than I guess the PCs have run into a stranger with a skill level 2 in their weapon! 

How to Play TTRPGs Solo

I’m assuming this question asked ad-nauseum on game forums is mostly from players, as GMs will have been doing this for as long as they have been pursuing the craft. The ability to entertain oneself. I am at a loss at how this basic fact is so missed it is the only assumption I can make. If you have no taste for being a Game Master, you will not have a good time playing a ttrpg solo. 

This stuff is easy. Just like the concept of ttrpgs is dead-simple. You are going to have to make shit up. And I mean you. There is no other active entity in a solo game. I am at work right now, but I can put something together here in a flash for an example. I’m in the break room, what do I have to work with. I don’t even have a concept/genre/idea… nothing. Cold start. I have a nice, elongated sticky notepad. Perfect for recording a simple character. Not that I must make a simple character for my game. I can spend as much time on character creation and any other aspect of the game I want. I’m just not in the mood, and I want to run this fast.

I will define the character with 3 stats. Action, Wits, and Moxie. You roll a 1d6, which becomes your character’s “score” in their attribute. I roll a 4, a 3, and a 6. This unknown, yet-to-be-decided PC has an Action score of 4, a Wits score of 3, and a Moxie of 6, a real charmer! But what will this character be expected to do? 

For this, I need to know what the genre and the adventure will be. Ah, another random piece of paper. This has the company’s Secret Santa Questionnaire. Not a bad idea actually. Instead of just pulling a person’s name out of a hat, the name comes with likes, sizes, and “favorites”. A list of questions to help a person purchase a more useful gift than some innocuous piece of trash. 

Counting off the entries I can apply a 2-12 graduation on one table and (after crossing out chocolate or vanilla) 1-6 items on the second. I write these numbers next to each list item. I now have two random lists to start generating ideas. Even better, the first list is a list of leading questions called Favorites. So I can just go stream of consciousness and fill out the list with the first things that come to mind. Color: Red, Food: Pizza, Snack: Cookie Dough, Store: Kohl’s, Brand: Eddie Bauer, Scent: Eggs, Movie: Jaws, Show: and Tell, Hobby: Hunting, and Restaurant: McDonald's. I roll 8, eggs. Scent of eggs. Do not know what I am going to do with this yet, but eggs always speak of aliens and horrible hatchlings to me.

See the solo roleplaying began literally just thinking about what and how I am going to do it? You notice I do not even have any rules for the game yet. Well, I  do know how characters are created. I’m not even using an existing system, I am just making shit up. Like I do when I run a game. Okay, the next list is a short list titled This or That. I roll a 2, Books or Movies? I will let the dice decide. Movies it is.

Okay, movies, so modern. How about a Drive-In showing the movie Jaws? So the main character is at the drive in watching the movie Jaws. And then there is the scent of eggs? Something starts hatching. On the ground, under the cars. That is kind of creepy. But still, who is this person? All his stats are good. Especially Moxie. Good looking, charming, physically fit but with average intelligence, and wits. This guy is a damn teenager. Everyone looks good when they are young! But what does Jimmy do? Yes, I decided on a name. Actually, many things are going on now, and being decided on. This is full-on solo roleplaying. Everything is being created at the moment, I had no idea where this would go at the outset, and people are eating lunch and talking loudly because I work at an airport and drive a fuel truck up to planes.

Jimmie Dallas from Oregon is watching the movie Jaws at the drive-in with his date. And I have already decided something is going to hatch from eggs and start attacking everyone. But what? And why? Bring on the power of entertainment! I mull over these thin details built in so far and let something bubble up. Here we go,

“300,000 years ago a spaceship passing through our solar system ejected a toxic, biological experiment. A clutch of eggs. This dangerous discharge found its way into Earth’s gravitational pull and plummeted into the ice of the frozen north. To lay buried inert in the ice for a very, very long time. Now with climate change, the permafrost of the frozen north is starting to melt. Methane gas emissions are increasing. So okay, yeah, just moved Jimmie up into the Yukon. He is Canadian. And so is his girlfriend, Claire. The rising temperatures have activated the eggs to begin their dormant evolutionary cycle and are now emerging from the Earth! Right under the cars of a bunch of horny teenagers.

It is at this point you have enough information to roleplay for hours, with or without rolling dice. Just start asking yourself questions and answer them. If you cannot decide, roll the dice. Here is where I went…

Jimmie is a typical cocky teen with a pickup truck and a shotgun. He works as a lumberjack and is out of school. Claire is the most popular girl in town, and he is making his move. Now I quickly roll up Claire. She is going to have a minimum Moxie of 3, Jimmy is very object-orientated. Not looking for sparkling conversation. I do roll a 3, so it is her 3 versus Jim’s 6 to see if he can get to third base. Once again, here you can roleplay the shit out of this. In any direction you want to go. Everything is appropriate. Have a conversation with the characters, or not. Think up details on the town they live in, or not. Because it is a solo game. Nothing is off-limits. My rolls end up with Jimmy at least getting a blow job in the back of the truck, but she isn’t ready to fuck him.

So, Jaws is playing, teenagers are doing their heavy petting in their cars and trucks, and Jimmy Dallas can’t help but notice there is a struggle going on in the car in front of him. Jim chuckles. Someone is not as smooth a talker as I am. Self-satisfied smirk. But wait, this is serious. The woman is screaming! Motherfucker! Decisions, decisions. Roll some dice, Jimmy can’t stand by. He pulls his pants up, Claire asks what is wrong. “Look” he yells and points. Now the girl has got out of the car. More like fallen out of the car. She is crying and shrieking on the ground, crawling frantically away. Then something unknown, unexplainable, something truly awful reaches out from the car and grabs her back in. Her shrieks peel ever louder as she is ripped to shreds by the alien thing. Now Jim can see these blubbering flesh monstrosities coming out of the ground all over the place. “We got to go!” he says to Claire as he jumps into the front seat of the truck, fumbling for the keys. Then they are struck from the side. Another vehicle, its driver panicking, slams into the side of his Dodge truck. Does he black out…?

And now there is a call for another fuel order and I got to stop. But that is how you solo roleplay! I don’t even need to take this any further if I don’t want to or keep on going some other time. Doesn’t matter. It is all made-up, non-real stuff. I entertained myself for twenty minutes with all this shit, mission accomplished.

Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes AP House Rules & Custom Character Sheet

Inspired by DC Heroes Attribute Point system, I propose some House Rules to support a more cinematic, pulp-paced adventure genre with the game's Adventure Points (APs).

When rolling a Saving Throw, APs may be spent to score "doubles". The cost is the difference between the two dice. The number of "Pips" it takes to make the dice equal. Then the dice are tossed again, and so on. If at any time double "Ones" (Snake Eyes) are thrown the action attempted is a failure, and no further rolls may be made.

Now, the experience point system, the method in which Adventure Points (APs) are awarded, does not need to be attached to this mechanic. For each session/adventure arc, each PC gets Adventure Points to spend in this way equal to their Luck score. This is perfect for this genre's cinematic, pulp nature of adventures. If the GM intends to run a realistic, gritty game, this mechanic should not be used. 

I also found the "official" character sheet/folder for the game dreadful. This is not unusual. Many companies cannot get their character sheets right. Therefore, I have made my own custom sheet for the game. Feel free to download it here and use it freely in all your fantastic adventures.

Holdings of the Zombie Queen

I would love to run a campaign of Encounter Critical!, for money though, and if I am going to charge I should have a decent idea of what the Mighty World of Vanth looks like where the game starts. I think I want to start PCs in the north east of the continent. From the Slaver Kingdoms in the north all the way down to The Forbidden Waste and the Unknown Highway. The names for areas of western Vanth all have a fantasy taint to them. I want to stay more gonzo space fantasy. Steel Warlords, Ape Sultans, and Darth Viraxis feel more in line with Mad Max/Gamma World then does City of Blackhawk and the Silent Glade. Though the City of Bloodhaven may have promise and The Limb Traders is dope as hell.

But my eyes are irresistibly drawn to the Holdings of the Zombie Princess. I envision a cracked, dead land endlessly broken by narrow ravines, carved over millennia by acid-rain storms driven by violent, pale winds. The Princess's Keep, her Holdings themselves, are these same cataracts found everywhere else in the realm repurposed by the gods for who knows what purpose. The Zombie Princess uses them as a vast subterranean prison to cage the living and her hungry horde of Zombie Armies. 

It is very difficulty to travel the land without a knowledgeable guide, someone who knows how to navigate the twisted and blasted landscape without getting hopelessly lost. Unfortunately this leaves only the feral ghouls which haunt the black corners as such people, and they are more interested in eating you then being of service. The numerous cannibal tribes of dead flesh eaters nightly crave live sacrifice for their evil rites spoken in ghastly gibberish. These hungry hordes plague their nearby neighbors with continuous raids and infuriate the Slave Lords the most. Passing the Holdings along the Unknown Highway has become untenable, and the Klengons refuse any entry to their mountain colonies to the east. If the Slaver Kingdoms need to search westward for buyers, the people of the east become the supply of new slaves being sold in the other direction. Viraxis would not want to see their situation reversed, and has agreed to assist in a joint venture to gather intel on the Zombie Princess's power and strength. Enter the PCs who now must travel through the Holdings and seek court with the ruler of the dead. To find out what it will take to curtail ghouls raiding the Unknown Highway. 

I would crib T2-T4 The Temple of Elemental Evil for the underground city of the Zombie Princess. I'll read over the module itself and see if anything else is worth lifting, or just the maps.