Ship Benefits Thoughts

 You rolled a ship but so did another party member . . .

"If two or more Travellers have gained ships, you should debate who actually gets a ship. The other players will receive an additional pension of Cr25000 every year for every time they rolled a ship as a benefit. This represents part ownership in a commercial vessel and the dividends received on the investment." - Traveller Core Rulebook, Mongoose 2e.

That kind of sucks, IMO. You get 25% of a ship as a career benefit, a value of KC3 11,333 or more and you get 0.2% (or less) annual return on that. (Scout ships are different because you only get the use of it, you don't get to own it). I'd rather keep my 25% and lease the ship out to an NPC group.

The design goal is that each party should have only one ship. Understandable. But maybe there's a better way to get to that goal where cool career benefits can still contribute in significant ways. Maybe a matrix?

I note that it is entirely possible, and actually probably, that a Traveller party can be generated with no ships shares or ship benefits at all. How do they start with a ship? 

To buy an older ship, the maximum discount is 50% for a ship over 100 years old with 10 rolls on the Spacecraft Quirks table - this is likely to be very damaged sensors, more difficult repairs and much higher maintenance costs (there are only 11 results on that table, only 3 of which are positive - and if those quirks stack (the rules are unclear), that's going to be horrible.

But a decommissioned Scout/Courier that age woudl cost only MCr 18.384. Without ship shares, I don't think that's achievable to a party unless they have MCr 2+, i.e., ~10% down.

Player Ship Matrix (first scratch draft)

This assumes removing ship and ship share benefits from career benefits tables, those items could be replaced with various things such as ship's boats and personal vehicles.

The party must have a veteran of one of the careers in a column to choose ship. The number of shares is a function of the number of terms in a career and sometimes rank in that career.

Initially, I tried to base the above on the Free Trader - 25% is approximately MCr 11, and with one generic ship share being equivalent to MCr 1 towards the purchase of a ship, that would mean 11 ship shares (which I set down to MCr 10 for round numbers and the impacat of negative quirks). However, with the randomness of the benefit table and the fact that several careers have no ship shares as benefits, I reduced the share cost and added incremental steps to allow players to purchase down negative quirks or add positive quirks to preserve the value of ship shares. (The best possible benefit result for Rogue can skew things as it is 2D ship shares, an average of 7, meaning an experienced and lucky Rogue with a one term Merchant colleague could start with a Free Trader. I don't think that's a problem I'm bothered to solve, in fact, it sounds like it could a Rogue using a naive Merchant as a front/fall person).

Ship shares become a function of number of terms in a career with a bonus if the character has reached rank 5 or greater. I did my best to approximate the chances of a share from how often they appear in the published benefit tables. 

What if no qualifying career or enough shares?

Older ships is probably the answer. I did some math (with a little tweak or two for simplicity) and you're still going to want some ship shares, but even just one can get you started. I think any assortment of Agent, Army, Citizen, Drifter, Entertainer, Navy, Rogue, and Scout ought to end up with at least one ship share. (I'm assuming that the most available ship will be Free/Far Traders).

Expanding Ship Benefits for Merchants, Nobles, and Scholars

While we're here . . . what if Subsidized Merchants, Subsidized Liners, and Safari Ships were added? In this case, I would strongly consider being more generous with ship shares.

Another NPC: Mad Jump Scientist and Bodyguard

Professor Juliux Rask

"The power to control Spacetime is the greatest power in the universe!" 

8889E8: Age 46, Scholar.

Zealously dedicated to researching the secrets of greater Jump technology and connections to the Ancients and related academic fields. As a villain, he is more of the driving force of activities, i.e., going to place X to investigate Y for scientific breakthroughs to gain power. His skill set is not very antagonistic towards possible player groups, only his goals. He would surround himself with useful people, possibly employing characters, probably in cahoots with other very antagonist other parties - he could be partnered with criminals, greedy megacorps, powerhungry governments, and the like - any of which might be Zhodani fronts.

Science (Physics - Jump Science)-3, Science (Cosmology-1), Science (Archaeology)-1, Science (History)-1, Engineer (Jump Drives)-2, Engineer (Maneuver Drives)-1, Language (Vilani)-2, Language (Oynprith)-2, Electronics (Computers)-2, Electronics (Sensors)-1, Investigate-1, Medic-1, Jack-of-All-Trades-1, Deception-1, Streetwise-1, Gun Combat (Energy)-1, Art-0, Carouse-0, Diplomat-0, Drive-0, Flyer-0

Relevant Event: Stole research from an Enemy. I imagine this might be Jahn Rax . (If you read this, Bob, I named this character before getting the event and thinking about connecting it to your character, but now I think this guy abused similar initials and names as part of the event).

Azalee Alanen

"Painu vittuun, perkele."

ADA872: Age 38, Rogue (Enforcer)

Rask's Sword Worlder* bodyguard with a thick accent (those familiar with that culture would recognize her accent is very low class). The nature of her relationship with Rask is not clear, it doesn't appear to be romantic. Perhaps she appreciates his lack of concern for her somewhat aggressive demeanor. Or perhaps something in their past explains her dedication to him. I imagine a Social Standing this low (lowered by the School of Hard Knocks) to be suggestive of a significant lack of empathy.

Melee (Unarmed)-3, Melee (Blade)-2, Gun Combat (Slugs)-2, Stealth-2, Streetwise-2, Deception-1, Drive (Wheel)-1, Mechanic-1, Language (Galangic)-1

( * I've taken the last name and the profane expression from Finnish, not Icelandic, which is much more associated with Sword Worlder culture, at least on Gram.)

Best Stats Ever?

The pair of double-six dice on the desk called to me, so I answered by rolling:

BA89AC-B

Probably the highest set I've ever rolled.

How can I not make that a Zhodani Noble Psionic Villain?!  "Dr. Zho"!

Doctor Lir Iirkum 

True name: Dr. Tiad Biartlasche'. The good doctor likes to mingle in all levels of society, probably using access to various drugs (probably including anagathics) as a licensed medical professional as a cover for meeting with contacts high and low (some of which are probably Zhodani allies). An expert at managing different euphorics and managing the reactions to them. Some sedatives and similar probably assist planting suggestions and conducting mind probes.

Doctor Lir would try to insinuate themself amongst players investigating relevant happenings or travelling to locations of interest, probably offering to serve as a ships doctor who can also mix a mean martini.

The cover name is Vilani. In the cover identity, I would probably treat the Social Standing of E (14) as an A (10), or at least non-noble, though I would give the character full modifier.

Version 1: using this character generator as much as possible.

BA89AE-B Age 42, 3 Terms as Psion (Psi-Warrior), 3 as Agent (Intelligence)

(The automated online system kicked character from Psion career after Mishap)

Medic-2, Telepathy-2, Deception-2, Clairvoyance-1, Drive-1, Gun CBT-1, Investigate-1, Leadership-1, Melee (unarmed)-1, Persuade-1, Science (Biology)-1, Stealth-1, Teleportation-1, Recon-0, Survival-0, Vacc Suit-0

Improved Cybernetic Implant, Gun (Cr 3k limit), Weapon (Cr 30k limit), Allies: 1, Cr 60k

Version 2: using Mongoose 1st edition Zhodani Agent (Intellgence).

BA8ACE-B Age 42: 6 terms as Tozjabr Agent 

Medic-2, Telepathy-2, Melee (Unarmed)-2, Gun Combat (Energy)-2, Investigate-1, Clairvoyance-1, Deception-1, Recon-1, Science (Biology)-1, Streetwise-1, Comms-1, Persuade-1, Teleportation-0, Drive-0, Flyer-0, Computers-0, Carouse-0, Athletics-0, Art-0, Vacc Suit-0, Survival-0

Weapon, Ship Share, Cr 50k (Cr 12k/year retirement pay)

One "Unusual Event" (Life Events result 12) TBD.

Referee Version: If I was just choosing. Each of the above versions has 16 levels of skill (not counting zero-level skills). The assumption is that this character is an antagonist and undercover.

• Psionic: Telepathy-2, Clairvoyance-1, Teleportation-0
• Cover: Deception-2, Medic-2, Science (Biology)-1 
• Social: Persuade-1, Carouse-1, Streetwise-1, Steward-0
• Agent: Melee (Unarmed)-2, Gun Combat-1, Recon-1, Investigate-1

Teleportation is cool, but I think for this character it is the absolute last resort and relies on the high Psi score. Arguably, wise use of Telepathy will help making friends and assess threats.

Traveller Skill Specialty Idea

 Traveller character skills are recorded in integer increments: Engineer-1, Mechanics-2, and so on.

In Mongoose Traveller 2e, some skills have specialties. You have to choose one of those when you reach level 1 in a skill that has them. In the case of Engineer, the player must choose one of Jump Drives, Maneuver Drives, Power Plant, or Life Support to receive the benefit of the "1", the other specialties being treated as skill "0", which removes the Untrained penalty of -3.

Disclaimer - Hot Sports Opinion: I hate level-0 skills. And I think all the above is overly complex and isn't worth the effort. Sure, they aren't complex mechanics and players can quickly learn them, but it would be better not to have to learn them at all. I think this approach is a crutch to support other inelegancies.

Let's say in character generation you end up with two levels of Engineer. That could be:

• Engineering (Jump Drives)-2, Engineering (all others)-0; or
• Engineering (Jump Drives)-1, Engineering (Maneuver Drives)-1, Engineering (all others)-0
• (substitute other specialties as you like).

What is the point of this? To reward you for being specialized but also also less useful in generic play. You could be the chief engineer of a ship with Engineering (Jump Drives)-3. But if the life support system is crapped out, you're just Engineering-0.

The more specialties as skill has, the worse this dynamic gets.

So to be most useful in the widest variety of circumstances (because Traveller play is usually very unpredictable), for skills that have specialties, the prudent character would put one level of skill in every specialty before moving to a second level of specialty. In other words: Engineering (Jump Drives)-1, Engineering (Maneuver Drives)-1, Engineering (Power)-1, Engineering (Life Support)-1 is wiser than Engineering (Jump Drives)-4.

An Alternative: For each level of skill, choose a specialty to add to.

Remove the specialization requirement and make it additive. Engineering-2? Great. You're good at all the engineering stuff. But you can choose two things to be even better at. And maybe a list that's longer than the current list of specialties. For engineering that might be Damage Control, Hull Structures. For Mechanics, which has no specialties, maybe Grav Bikes, or Firearms, or Ship Salvage. History-2 (Specialties: The Fifth Frontier War, The Ziru Sirka).

This could be extended to specific abilities such as Gun Combat-1 and take the feature Quick Draw, or Sniper. Melee-1 could be Grappling. 

Specialties can be added, optionally, for additional flavor and detail, rather than mechanically constricting a character's ability.

Mercenaries, Bonds, and Dog Tags

On Reddit, someone asked what proves someone is a mercenary? Copying my reply here for future reference.

Comparing to real world history, there are laws of war that typically require participants or "recognized belligerants" to abide by certain rules, such as wearing uniforms, in exchange for certain protections, such as the Geneva convention, access for the International Red Cross, and so on.

For mercenaries, you'd want a Repatriation Bond from an institution that is recognized by the belligerents in a war so that they honor it. For instance, if you the Zhodani and Third Imperium are fighting and you're a mercenary employed by either side, you'd want a repatriation bond backed by a powerful bank or entity that both sides recognize such as at Arden (a neutral system between Zhodani and Imperium in the Vilis subsector).

So that if you're captured, the captors can return you to your home, or an acceptable neutral intermediary and cash in that bond (or your remains for a smaller fee).

In a Traveller setting, I imagine this would involve some kind of quantumly-entangled subcutaneous chip whose authenticity could be easily scanned and verified (and probably a redundant actual dog tag or UPC tattoo.

More:

Classic Traveller Book 4 Mercenary discusses the legal conditions of a mercenary ticket listing: conditions of payment, type of service, financial support, and repatriation bond ("generally posted in an escrow account in a neutral bank with sufficient funds to provide low passage off-planet to the personnel of the contingent . . . mercenaries become non-combatants and are given free transit to the nearest spaceport." - All this in the case the employing entity ceases to function.

Mongoose Traveller 1E Book 1 Mercenary has a whole several pages on the mercenary ticket but adds to the repatriation bond as a form of guaranteed payment for a mercenary when the employer ceases to function. 

Sir Friedrich, my Perpetual Traveller character

Sir Friedrich of Glisten 69766B

Male Human Noble Dilettante Rank 2 (Ingrate), Age 30

Skills:

• Carouse-1
• Gambler-1
• Investigate-1
• Melee (Blade)-1
• Jack-of-all-Trades-1
• Shipboard Operations-1
• Gun Combat-0
• Advocate-0
• Diplomat-0
• Electronics-0
• Mechanic-0
• Persuade-0

Resources:

• Cr 250,000
• Rapier ("Isolde")

Contacts:

• Ally (Romantic, Improved relationship)
• Enemy (Jealous relative: cousin Albrecht)

Position and Assignments: 

Troubleshooter, FCL Industries (Current) (North Texas RPG Con 2026, two sessions)

Corporate Information

• Outcomes Unlimited
• FCL Industries ("Fast, Cheap , Legal. Pick Two")
• "The Pick Two II", an Empress Marava Class Far Trader
• Stilletto Investigations & Security Services (S.I.S.S.)

Medieval Far Trader

Motivated to gather my scant notes on converting the trade route system GURPS Traveller: Far Trader (a project on which I was the junior author) for use with a medieval setting after talking with Rob Conley of Bat in the Attic at North Texas RPG Con.

Settlement Trade Number

This is a function of population and the quality of port and market (in GT is is starport). Population is straight forward enough. For port and market, I think some generic modifications can work.

Port / Market

This list just describes things that might indicate or be typical of the various classes, it isn't a list of requirements.

• Class V: Major docks, ship and vehicle construction and repair. High quality roads. Permanent market space, probably multiple and/or specialized. Good storage, warehousing, factors, trading houses, vendors, currency exchange, labor for loading, crews for hire, provided security, defensible position.
• Class IV: Minor docks, ship and vehicle construction and repair. Medium quality roads. Permanent market space. Some storage and trading houses, and labor. Medium security and defensibility.
• Class III: Minor ship and vehicle repair. Medium to low quality roads. Regular (weekly or less) single market space. Light storage. Light security and defensibility.
• Class II: No dock or ship repair, minor vehicle repair. Low quality roads. Weekly market. Little to no storage.
• Class I: No dock, limited shore access. No improved roads. Irregular market days (monthly to seasonal)
• Class 0: No dock. No shore access. Difficult roads, if any. No market.

In GURPS Tech Levels, the medieval period is 3, which helps simplify some math so we can simply cross-index the population and port/market to looking up the Unmodified Settlement Trade Number (USTN).

Bilateral Trade Number

To calculate the trade routes, we need to find the Bilateral Trade Number between any two settlements. To do this add the two Settlement Trade Numbers and any Trade Classification Modifiers then subtract the Distance Modifier.

BTN = STN 1 + STN 2  + TCMs - Distance Modifier

Trade Classification Modifiers

These are limited in GT:FT and intended for use in a far future space travel setting.

• One settlement is Agricultural and the other is Non-agricultural or Extreme: +0.5
• One settlement is Industrial and the other is Non-industrial: +0.5
• The settlements are of different political allegiances: -0.5

With some flexibility, I think these can still be useful in a medieval and fantasy setting. I think realistically every settlement would be agricultural with a very large percentage of its population dedicated to providing food, I think it's reasonable to still have a modifier for settlements that are very much less so, that are dependent on agriculture from a greater range than average - perhaps Paris, Rome, or Constantinople would be examples of this.

"Extreme" meant an inhospitable environment, hostile to life - that could be a cursed place.

The medieval setting is all non-industrial, almost by definition, but I think there is still value in adjusting trade values to reflect that some settlements are much more focused on producing finished goods than others.

Distance Modifier

In Traveller, the main unit of distance is the parsec, which is 3.2 light years, a bit outside scope of medieval trade. However, it takes one week to make a jump so I think substituting one week for one parsec might work. (I haven't tested this and am not likely to be able to anytime soon).

An aside for short distances

(The distance modifier is subtracted from the bilateral calculation but for distances less than a week, I wonder if adding a modifier might be interesting? Thinking out loud, perhaps something like +.5 if less than 3 days).

The Silk Road was about 6,400 kilometers long but I'd wager that most of the goods transported along it would be classified as "speculative trade" in Traveller terms, i.e., not contracted, regular trade. Contrast that with trade amongst the Hanseatic League, which I believe would have more regular trade.

Example 1: Paris and Rouen circa 1300 BCE.

• Paris population: 200,000+. Assume Class V Port/Market: STN 3.5
• Rouen population: 40,000. Assume Class IV Port/Market: STN: 2.5
• Distance: 120 km, approximately 4-5 days. Modifier: 0
• Trade Classification Modifiers: none apply.
• Bilateral Trade Number: (Paris) 3.5 + (Rouen) 2.5 + 0 - 0 = 6.

In GT:FT terms this equates to 1 Million - 5 Million trade in Credits/Year (see GT:FT page 16). That's the value of trade in both directions. The volume and weight of cargo is different and is unlikely to be balanced. GT:FT assumes a value of freight between 10,000 and 50,000 credits per displacement ton (which is 14 cubic meters in Traveller) - I have my doubts that value works for a medieval setting but it would be 100-500 displacement tons/year or 5-10 displacement tons per week. (I started looking into medieval wagon and ship cargo capacity but that is a rabbit hole I'm not prepared for).

Having said all that, 5-10 wagon loads per week going each way between Paris and Rouen seems reasonable?

Example 2: Rouen to Le Havre

• Rouen population: 40,000. Assume Class IV Port/Market: STN: 2.5
• Le Havre population: 2,000 (a total guess). Assume Class III Port/Market: STN 2.0
• Distance: 120 km, approximately 4-5 days. Modifier: 0
• Trade Classification Modifiers: none apply.
• Bilateral Trade Number: (Rouen) 2.5 + (Le Havre) 2.0 + 0 - 0 = 4.5
• Credits/Year: 50,000-100,000.
• Volume: 5-10 displacement tons/year.

Example 3: Paris to Marseille

• Paris population: 200,000+. Assume Class V Port/Market: STN 3.5
• Marseille population: 40,000. Assume Class V Port/Market: STN 3.0
• Distance: 750 km, approximately 4 weeks. Modifier: -1
• Trade Classification Modifiers: none apply.
• Bilateral Trade Number: (Paris) 3.5 + (Marseille) 3.0 + 0 - 1 = 5.5
• Credits/Year: 500,000-1,000,000.
• Volume: 50-100 displacement tons/year, 0-5/week.

Paris-Marseille has a step less than Paris-Rouen but the distance explains that. Does that gives results that are interesting and useful? Remains to be seen. But a couple of quick examples that might be helpful.

Example 3: Paris to Cairo

• Paris population: 200,000+. Assume Class V Port/Market: STN 3.5
• Cairo population: 400,000. Assume Class V Port/Market: STN 3.5
• Distance: 4,400 km, approximately 25 weeks. Modifier: -2.5
• Trade Classification Modifiers: different allegiances: -0.5
• Bilateral Trade Number: (Paris) 3.5 + (Cairo) 3.5 - 0.5 - 2.5 = 4.0
• Credits/Year: 10,000-50,000.
• Volume: 0-5 displacement tons/year.

Example 4: Paris to Hangzhou 

• Paris population: 200,000+. Assume Class V Port/Market: STN 3.5
• Hangzhou population: 800,000. Assume Class V Port/Market: STN 3.5
• Distance: 14,500 km, approximately 2 years (100 weeks). Modifier: -4
• Trade Classification Modifiers: different allegiances: -0.5
• Bilateral Trade Number: (Paris) 3.5 + (Hangzhou ) 3.5 - 0.5 - 4 = 2.5
• Credits/Year: 500-1,000.
• Volume: --

Displacement tons might benefit from a conversion to wagons or multiple wagons, maybe small caravan? Similarly, Traveller credits might better be converted to silver pennies or something.