What are we playing here?

Welcome.

Here we can chat about anything and everything, including what this game will end up being.

We may create a setup thread for more detailed discussions once we have settled on a game.

Some (non-exhaustive) things we need to decide:
• Tone
• Genre
• System
• Pace
• Duration
• Public visibility

As mentioned in the earlier chats, I am flexible and can run most things.

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My weak points are:

Superheroes. I don't have the grounding and find the lack of sense that spawned (presumably) from the 'comic book' origins... baffling. I have no problem with super-powers or characters being 'heroes' but don't expect those words to smash together to form 'superhero' in the common sense.

'School' games. They all seem to be based in some American media portrayal of what things (or kids) are like and I can not relate to the pettiness. Even as a kid I did not tolerate 'bullying' or 'power dynamics' and those around me quickly adopted the same attitudes, so I have only encountered such things a few times --in new environments, before establishing better habits there-- and remember being baffled by the idea the first time (age 6, maybe?). I find it really hard to come up with suitable set-trimming for 'school' games and tend not to run them.

Horror. More than a 'weak point', let's say "I don't do horror". I have no interest in the genre, do not often watch such movies (and find them 'funny in a silly way' when I am forced to), and have only read a few such books and looked for the depth there rather than the horror. though I was intrigued by Don't Rest your Head when I read it, and almost thought about trying to run it.

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Anything else is fair game. We can chat and find what we want to play, then we can chat about what system to implement that idea in. Or we can decide on a system and then work on what we want to play within it (or skirting outside its box).

Probably we will do a combination of those steps, bouncing back and forth as needed.

We don't appear to be able to set the game Private on the game creation screen.

• Do we want to disallow others from seeing what we do here? Doing so could allow for some more... risque topics, if we want.

We can always change this later, and there are also ways to prevent it from showing up on the homescreen every time we post, if we want a middle ground.

I've got the most experience with fantasy themed games, but I'm open to switching things up! I think I'd also enjoy a sci-fi game. Maybe something star wars-ish (but not exactly star wars, cause I don't have enough knowledge about that universe. So I'd rather create a universe together)

Vague, do you know any world building starter kits? We just did something similar in another game I'm in and it was pretty fun to get a basic starting point.

Preferably not too extensive though. Something like in Ironsworn's starting ideas might work.

Speaking of Ironsworn, since it's just the 3 of us atm, would a coop ironsworn game be something you both are interested in? That way vague can be a player as well as guide us through the system. Just a thought :)

Likewise. Most of my games are fantasy, and I would like a bit a sci-fi, just for the variety.

We can always go back to fantasy later if it does not work, sci-fi has some extra work/effort ('because magic', is not an available default answer) and that can get tiring (which partially explains fantasy's bigger appeal).
'Space with some magic' is an easy enough genre. Many space sci-fi systems have some form of 'force' or 'psionics' or such.

I do have in my notes for a game idea:
but that might harder science fiction than 'star warish'. :)
Not really. I have never needed more than what the games give or what we came up with naturally.

I was intrigued by James D'Amato's The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Worldbuilding Guide, when I heard someone else use it, but then gave up when I started reading it. Sometimes they can be too restricting.
That is about the amount I can usual stand. If we go 'space' we could use Starforged --it has some magic/force/psi-- and uses the same type of 'Truths' system as Ironsworn does. I was less enthused with its options than I was with Ironsworn, and we may create our own Starforged Truths (something I did not feel the need to do in Ironsworn).
TrailHead and I were just chatting about that, and the difficulties with GMless games and lack of direction. We can let them weigh in.

If it fits, I can happily 'Play the Iron Guide' in Ironsworn or Starforged. There is a lot to like about those systems, though I do find they have a few too many Moves for Guided Play (more than are needed, not more than can be borne). But then, my go-to for 'Space with a little magic' is usually Impulse Drive, and that has a lot of Moves as well (it was my go-to example of PbtA with almost-too-many moves till Ironsworn came along:).

I still find myself thinking about Traveller for space, but I would need to get the newest rules (I do like what I saw of the '2022 Update' version). It is possible it was just the Character Creation that was good, but the rules looked OK as well, from my quick glance. I read Cepheus Light, and then bought Cepheus Deluxe, there are some rules in Deluxe that I might steal for Traveller, but their 'simplified, nonrandom' character creation process takes away the main draw in my opinion.

Traveller does do 'turn order' stuff ('initiative' in D&D parlance), which is non-ideal in PbP, so I tend towards PbtA to avoid having to fix that sort of system. I don't know where you guys' interests lie, if you want to explore new systems or stick with simple mechanics that work. There are systems that I am keen to play, but rather not in PbP, Traveller is still OK.

My normal go-to for Star Wars is Star Wars World, which is just a reskin of Apocalypse World with appropriate playbooks.

I'd be happy to learn Traveler.

I agree that a guided Ironsworn/starforged game feels like there would be too many GMs as the moves are often enough to interpret a logical result. That's why I suggested coop play. Not sure how feasible that is with 3 ppl.

I once almost started an apocalypse world game, so I'm down for that variant as well.

Let's see where Trailhead's interests lay :)

I would have to learn it as well. :)

The last version I looked at was the in '81, and I am not sure I actually read any after the '79 version (have I got those dates right... need to check... 1977, not '79). I glanced at Traveller 2 (MgT2) but found it too hard to read, the 2022 Update seemed to fix many of those issues.
Many of the Moves end up being superfluous, when you have a GM, the GM takes on the role that most of the Oracle Moves fulfill, but the GM can use the Oracles (and their Moves). When I play the Guide, I tend try to allow the players to use as many of those Moves as possible, but that can slow down PbP.

Happy to do it if we want, but there are other systems that might be a better fit if we have a GM.
Very feasible. It can become a bit slow, but there are more problems with 2, and 3 allows us to 'break the deadlock'. In many ways 3 runs smoother than 2... if everyone can get on the same page.

I find that, when playing GMless games --and especially in PbP, where these problems are amplified-- someone needs to be authorised and to take on the responsibility for the sorts of things a GM does, especially when it comes to moving the story along.

I am happy to try making that work (I tend to be the 'facilitator' and teacher in such games anyway), but am happy to be the GM for you two if we want to try a game of this type. I am slightly more interested in Starforged, because it is new, and because of the aforementioned 'variety from fantasy'.
I has been a long time since I did AW, but it is still --theoretically-- my go-to. With the right group Fallen Empires would be my go-to 'fantasy' game, and Star Wars World is my go-to 'actual Star Wars', and I have run 'generic space' and espionage, and 'monster of the week', and 'cyberpunk' using vanilla AW. It is a good and comprehensive ruleset, especially 2e with its vehicle and building damage rules.

I've found that with coop Ironsworn (and by extension starforged), even though everyone has their own character, it's best that anyone can move the entire group along. This solves a lot of blocking issues. And if anyone missed an opportunity, we can always flashbacks that part.

So everyone can take the GM role when it's useful, I guess. But it requires the players to all have that "we'll make it work" attitude

Agreed. But someone needs to have the responsibility to do so. It is in those times when a GM would be required to step in that someone has to step in, and that person needs to be required to do so, else everyone waits for someone else.

Gotcha :)

I've been checking out Traveler mechanics (specifically Mongoose Traveller Second Edition (MGT2).)
It looks like something I'd enjoy :) It seems very similar to WoDu in terms of versatility, but with more detailed character sheets and mechanics. Unlike Starforged, the 'moves' don't get in the way of the GM as much. So I think that's a better option for a guided game.

Haven't gotten into the spaceship battles yet, but as I understand it, that stuff is optional. Actually, it seems like most things are optional. :)

From what I understand MgT2 still completely compatible with the Mongoose Traveller 2022 Update, they just added back some of the rules sections that they (controversially) left out of T2 --forcing people to purchase High Guard and such to make ships.

I found the T2 PDFs too slow/hard to read, and they fixed that with 2022, as well.

As usual, they have not paid much attention to editing and spelling and such, but that is what we expect from Mongoose. :)
Yeah, it is not bad in that regard. Many claim it is is the ultimate cyberpunk system and replace the Pondsmith Cyberpunk games' rules with Traveller's (leaving out the space part), but I don't like Cyberpunk's Night City setting, and have Yesterday's Tomorrow (WoDu based) for cyberpunk rules. I recall it being good for transhuman stuff, and could do land battles, but it really is about the ships, so I would not want to use it without them.

Ships and Careers are what make it special, in my opinion.

A big draw is all the engineering options and requirements during battles. I recall games where space battles happened, but the PCs were not the ones using the guns, they were they ones doing the engineering. This means that, if the various roles are spread out, everyone has something to do, rather than the common problem of the 'pilot' being the only one with a strong role in a fight or flight situation.
Yeah, they require a GM, so they built with that in mind, whereas Ironsworn and its derivatives are really solo/coop games that could be GMed.
I am not convinced. I know they have tried for that --and the kitchen sink..-- but, while some things might not come up in a particular game, they are all fairly tightly coupled in the rules, and the character creation does not take your 'options' into account, so you may end up skilled in the things that are not relevant (and then need to rejigger), so, unless I am missing something (only skimmed the rules at a friend's place) I doubt this claim is as true as they make it out to be. Same way people claim "you can play all sorts of games in DnD".

I don't think I would use Traveller if space was not a significant part of it.

I might steal the 'Position' rules for space (and vehicle?) combat from Cepheus if we play Traveller, will need to look, but I think they looked superior. Cepheus' 'social' rules looked good to use as well.

I’m love to play a sci-fi game. I own and have read Starforged and Mongoose Traveller 1st and 2nd Ed but haven’t really played them. Just messed around a little on my own. I did play in an online classic Traveller one shot in January and that was fun - very similar to Mongoose. I bought a little black books bundle and Cepheus Deluxe, but haven’t read them carefully.

I’d be open to a PbtA sci fi game - Impulse Drive and Uncharted Worlds look good. Although I’m still new to PbP, PbtA seems to work well with PbP. Starforged is more inspired by the Apocalypse than Powered by, and that would be good. As I mentioned to VagueGM, I recently tried a GMless PbP game of that on a discord server but there were too many players and many of them were playing in real time despite having made a 1 post per day agreement up front. With a smaller group and maybe a guide that could work.

I agree a Star Wars adjacent game would be cool. I’ve seen the movies of course but I am not super literate in the lore. Star Wars World sounds interesting - I hadn’t heard of that.

And I’m a fan of Savage Worlds, which has a couple of sci fi settings, or we could do our own world building.

I’m with you, VagueGM, on not being well versed in Supers or horror. I’m not very interested in school games. I did try to run a Harry Potter game once for my wife, but it didn’t go well.

• Tone - I would prefer not too dark. Some evil in the world is understood. The tone in the FFA is fine, but I am not interested in a grim dark game.

• Genre - Sci fi would be great, but so would fantasy (as long as it was distinct from the FFA game - maybe an urban setting), modern urban fantasy, or investigation.

• System - I’m open. Several sci fi systems were discussed above. PbtA in general seems good for PbP but it seems like there are a variety of systems being played here on Gamers Plane.

• Pace - A post per day seems good.

• Duration - Good question. I’m still new to PbP, and really to playing RPGs in general since years ago in my youth. It would be interesting to play long enough to have some advancements.

• Public visibility - I don’t mind visibility. I’m not interested in risque gaming. I’d rather veil any explicit sexy stuff offscreen, fade it to black.

I also liked your suggestion to do some world building together, whatever we decide to play.

I completely agree with everything Trailhead has said :)

Let's start with the assumption that we are doing that then.
That puts you ahead of me. :)

I have not looked at Starforged since mid-process play-testing, and a lot has changed (including deliberately inverting one of the tables that I hope was reinverted). This is not a problem, I can catch up easily enough.
Yeah, Mongoose is agreed (though there is disagreement on that agreement:) to be 'closest to official' and is the spiritual-successor to classic. Miller's T5 is a bit of a mess.
Physical? I would love to get my hands a physical set of the original (or '81) booklets.
I am partway through reading Cepheus Deluxe. I can say that, while I still plan to purchase Traveller 2022 Update, I am not disappointed that I shelled out for this (despite having read and not been too enthused by Cepheus Light).

I don't think I would play Cepheus, the bits they simplify (away) are the bits I like, but I can see that appeal, and not everyone wants the random character generation, especially if the group has something specific in mind. So it might be worth considering.

However, if not for the character creation I would probably go with something less mechanically involved, mainly for PbP's sake.
PbtA is my go-to on PbP. I would like a bit of a change, but it does work so well. I was designing a system for a game idea, and really wanted to use the dice from Psi*Run (which I really like and is probably the closest I come to 'Supers' games), but without the amnesia mechanic and with the chase being optional, then came across an article about the dice system (Otherkind Dice which is a perfect fit... but that system really wants the players to be physically present, the tactile element of placing the dice is a big part of it.

Since I am mostly doing PbP I changed that system down to the skeleton of World of Dungeons Turbo: Breakers, and the three magic Moves (Use-, Big-, and Combat-) from Monster of the Week. I think it is a good fit, and works, but I really miss the Otherkind dice and the tone they brought to the game. :(

PbP does impose its limits.
I have never been able to make Uncharted Worlds work. The character creation concept is super cool, but I find the moves are clunky, and their interpretation of what the Bakers meant is a bit ... wonky. That is one of the first systems where I started my habit of eventually (once the game is established and working) replacing the system and Moves with pure Apocalypse World. AW's Moves work, and make sense together. UW was a very early PbtA game, so we have to forgive it.
Impulse Drive plays really well. There are a lot of moves, but they are mainly an impediment to learning the system, and slightly to making characters (a lot to look through), and get out of the way during play.

There is a 'free' version of Impulse Drive which has everything except the paid artwork and the scenario. I have both, but almost always pick up the free version, the layout is easier to use at the table.
Due to licencing it is not a published game, it is just a set of Playbooks and Moves for AW (1e, but I have 'converted' them to 2e in the past) to flavour it to Star Wars (or Star Wars like) done by Andrew Medeiros the author of Urban Shadows.

Get the actual Omega version from their google drive share.
If we want to go that route, we can look at the Playbooks and Moves from Star Wars World and Impulse Drive and then pick whichever we think best fits the type of game we want to play.

Many claim there are strong links between Traveller and Star Wars, but that is mainly a result of them both coming out in 1977, and possibly drawing from similar inspirations of the time. I am sure we could do star warsish in Traveller if we want.

Starforged can also do SWish.

If we were live, at the table, I would also suggest Scum and Villainy (which started out as a Star Wars hack of Blades in the Dark, but had to drop the SW mentions due to licensing). There are too many good Sci-Fi options to bother with FitD rules on PbP, even in live (where I push for FitD, SaV is not at the top of my list).
Similar. I have seen the movies and the Clone Wars series (that was really good, especially from a game perspective), read several of the books, and played a few of the game (Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, Outcast, Academy; and Knights of the Old Republic). I am not up to date with the current TV shows, and maybe not even with the new movies.

I have played a few RPGs. I make it very clear to my players that I am not a hard-core fan and don't know the planets or species so I will describe things and players (or characters) are welcome to chime in with "that's a Trandocian!" which can become true if the others agree (often followed by a "what part of its behaviour out of character, and why?" to unmonogamise it (bit racist to think every member is the same:)). I will then, look it up in Wookiepedia and West End Games D6 Star Wars (which was used by Lucasarts to shape the aliens when they needed them for later IP).

We don't need to set it in actual Star Wars, and even if we do, we can stay away from places and people who are well known, so we can define our own.
I find Savage Worlds an OK system for most things, but not really all that exciting. There are also too many weird edge-cases in the rules (don't ask me for details, it has been a while, but they are well known) that put me off. Once a group as put in the effort to learn the quirks, people tend to want to stay with it (sunk-cost fallacy, maybe?).

I have not looked at the newest versions, but, given that they embraces the weirdnesses, and have kept them through all previous versions (despite a 'majority of tables' house-ruling them away) I can only assume they are still there.

The settings books are what make SW good, and I seldom use settings books. I think I only ever actually used Interface Zero.

Unless there is a hard push for it, I doubt we would be using SW. And someone would have to buy me the books (often a requirement for me to run things:).
Indeed. We can look at how that ruleset would shape our decision and use it if we want. I am happy to Guide.
In the early days of PbP, we used to have a maximum number of posts as well as the these-days-common required minimum. Often they would be that same (it got complicated when there was a range). I have found that if the GM manages the spotlight (as they would in a live table) then a maximum just gets in the way.

The argument of people getting left behind was only a small part, there was --legitimate-- concern that periods of fast pace could exhaust players or story and then stall or kill the game. I have actually seen that, but it is not common.

Without a GM --or someone taking on a strong moderator role-- it can turn into a free-for-all-frenzy.
'Harry Potter' is problem franchise. The world makes no sense at all (after all it was written by (or commissioned by) a kid with no understanding of how things work, and one who, I think, learned a lot more from Lockhart about the telling of one's deeds than we give him credit for (but that is a dark story that we should not speak of)).

I have successfully (and also unsuccessfully) run Hogwarts games. That is the only part of the world we know anything about, and kinda works as a setting.

The rules I found to work best were Hogwarts: An RPG, though the 'house points' system is a mess and possibly best ignored in all games.

Me too. :)
Agreed. Let's aim for that
Agreed. It can get hard to keep games separated when they all have the same feel. My Otherkind Dice idea had substantial overlap with the current FFA delve, but was otherwise much more heroic, powerful, and impactful on the world. It is also all about character growth and 'leveling'. But still needs work, so let's ignore that. There are plenty of Fantasy games out there if we go that route.
Can do. Monster of the Week is good system... if it fits the type of game, and there are others.

I was particularly intrigued by Nahual, but missed the Kickstarter and have only glanced at a friends early version. Once a PDF version is available I plan to look at that.

I am awaiting the delivery of Urban Shadows 2e, but am not all that enthused by it. I found 1e hard to run and hard to play, and the 2e changes don't really address that. It is still an option though.

Liminal looked good, but I have not played it. It might only work in a narrow style of game.

If we decide to do Urban Fantasy we can chat about the type and then find a system.
It does tend to work well and get out of the way.
Though, not all of them actually work well. Some are experiments, and other are stubborn attachment. We don't need to limit ourselves to a system that others are playing, that is part of the beauty of forming a group before settling on a game.
A good pace to aim for, yes.
That is the sort of answer that we need. 'x months' is sorta meaningless. Basically 'quick game' vs 'extended', with another option of 'long game' or 'perpetual'. But I am not aiming for 'perpetual', I get bored and want to try new systems. :)

And indeed, TheGenerator and I had this very discussion (see why I prefer to stay away from private messages, there is so much duplication:). FFA is particularly slow, but that is not WoDu's fault, that is largely part of the 'low impact' style for the 'game for new players'. We can decide how fast we want to advance and set the pace there.

I also often give out 'advancements' as rewards --maybe I give a Feat (in DnD) as a reward or such)-- so we can always say we want to level up and see something new, and then make it happen.

Fellowship has an interesting system where the players can (sorta, it is complicates) choose to level up twice at the end of each session (or is it three times, I forget), but the enemy also levels up when they do (sorta, its complicated, too:).

Often I will start characters partway (half or more) towards their first level up. This is particularly useful in oneshots and con-games, but also in PbP where things can go slowly. This is better than starting at level 2, as it is easier to get going but still brings level 2 quickly, after they had a bit of time.

In WoDu I often offer a 1000sp reward quest right out the gate, so the players can see it think "that is a whole level!" and overreach. :)
We can change that later if needed.
I almost always do that. I am lazy that way. :)

In PbP I find there is sometimes a benefit to having the GM define the world first, but that is only for the purposes of easier recruiting (players can know what they are getting into), so it does not apply here.

Is it possible to play Traveler in a more PbtA approach? I know that with D&D my group had found a nice middle ground where we often value RP over mechanics and the game flows nicer because of it.

I've been looking at some more videos about traveler and it seems quite fun tbh. Though that's just my first impression.

I'll check out Monster of the Week too.

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Are you sure that you would enjoy being the guide for Starforge, vague?

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Looks like a Star Wars type universe is something we can all get behind. I have to admit though I've only seen a few movies and have hardly any knowledge about the politics, races, famous characters and such. But I can always just play a character with no in game knowledge about those either to solve that issue.

I do like the mix of sci-fi with rare types of "magic" (force).

Space combat is not something I'm overly interested in.

Monster of the Week looks like fun too, but I can't find any sci-fi playbooks for that. Would we have to create our own playbooks or is there a hack?

That is how I play all games. Many claim reading PbtA was a revelation, I found myself agreeing with it, going 'yes, that's the way it is done', which probably explains why people had been badgering me to for ages to read Dungeon World, it was already the way I was playing DnD. :)
Always. But the mechanics are important too as they provide the scaffold for the RP. The mechanics of Call of Cthulhu make the RP be RP that fits the game style, for instance.

The rules shape the narrative. But they are just there to shape the narrative, it is the narrative we are looking for.
@TrailHead, you've read the rules. What do you think? Shall we bite the bullet and pull the cord and commit to this? If so I will get the book and start reading, we can start with character creation in a day or so, or maybe recruit another player or two.
Sure, with this group it could work. It might not be my first choice, but is probably somewhere in the top four.

I have not Guided it before, and the rules have changed a bit (I think they even added some GM advice) so I will have to read it again to see if it seems interesting. I did get all sorts of ideas for using it (Solo and as a Guide) when I first read it, so I have no doubt it will work.

If it proves clumsy, we can always change to something else.

The rules system is largely for the players anyway, most of what I value from a game is the character creation process and potential. How the characters work is the whole point of role playing, after all. Go back 10/15 years (or don't because we don't like time-travel) and see how little there was in the books that was actually aimed at the GMs (and not monster statblocks), it is all about the players who are playing the roles.
Unless we actually want to set it in 'Star Wars' we can look at what we like about that and make our own universe.

Outside of the far away galaxy, Star Wars is very generic 'space sci-fi with magic powers' so that describes many (most) systems.
If we are particularly into the 'magic' and we go with Traveller, we can discuss if we want to force the inclusion of psionics. Some groups don't want it at all; most are happy to leave it as a rare thing that there is a small chance of getting during character creation, or may try to push the mechanics and choices to try get it during character creation; and some want to guarantee getting powers, in which case we leave psionics out of the character creation and shoehorn it on at the appropriate point, or make the first mission be about getting powers, or whatever the group wants.

I don't know Traveller's builtin setting (Third Imperium), it came after my time, but did not object to what I heard about it. We don't need to set our Traveller game there, but I will look at what they say about it in the core book. If we have to buy more books for the setting then I will probably just skip it and make our own (though the group can decide otherwise).

I have heard stories about games where they players do all the setting stuff, looking in the books and wikis, researching the best trade routes and prices and planning trading missions, and the GM just has to toss challenges in the way of their getting there. That does have a certain appeal.
I do think Traveller did have a robust space combat system (but had important jobs for those who were not doing the fighting). It does also have politics (can be substantial), and significant exploration, and intrigue, and a lot of trading and scrounging to get by.

I will need to check, but it is possible Traveller is not the best fit if we want other things a lot more than space combat. Though, I don't actually recall a lot of space fights happening very often, most of it was ground-level stuff and politics.

The careers the players pick will influence this a fair bit, of course.

Impulse Drive tucks much of the technical space stuff away behind a few simple moves and some clocks (called 'fuses' (they renamed a lot more things than I am happy about, but 'burning a fuse' is one I heartily approve of)).

Monster of the Week would be for an Urban Fantasy game, not sci-fi. There are some slightly more sciencey Playbooks in the Tome of Mysteries, but still not 'sci-fi'.

If we wanted sci-fi-ish Urban Fantasy, I would probably just go with Apocalypse World and set it in 'modern times'. Might bring in some of the Patreon Playbooks for that.

@TheGenerator: What about Sci-Fi are you interested in? We can tailor the system choice around that.

I wanna shoot lasers, talk to robots, replace limbs with machines, explore planets and abandoned spaceships.
If we're doing sci-fi, I'd like to go all out!

I asked about MotW on the GP discord and Falconloft showed me this:
Planet of the week
What do you guys think about that one?

So you are OK with space combat, you just don't want it to be a dominant factor? That is fine for most of the space game systems we have discussed.

I do feel I should also mention Offworlders to this group since it is WoDu based space/sci-fi. It is a pretty nifty game, and I am a fan of WoDu, but I did find that 'space' needed a wee bit more structure than WoDu or Offworlders offers. If we are keen, I can easily make it work.
I had not seen that. Like others, it is just reskinned Playbooks and Moves, so it is easy enough. I am not sure what MotW brings to the table though, aside from Use Tech and Technobabble (terrible name for the Workshop Move).

We can take a look at those Playbooks and Moves, compare them to Impulse Drive, Star Wars World, or Offworlders (I must check if Offworlders' reference sheets are available, else I will dup them here (I have them in markdown, so it is easy enough to export to bbcode (missing the bulleted lists)), or make a drive share with what we need), and we can decide on a system, or Traveller. If people have strong feelings, I can make do with Uncharted Worlds as well.

Yes, pretty much that. I'm fine with having spaceships, but no emphasis on huge space battles. Something like Engage ship -> shoot a few times -> board -> normal battle/dungeon would be fine by me.
I'd like a character sheet with a few more bits on it. In FFA I find myself lacking inspiration at times because my character sheet is so limited.
Exactly. I didn't mention is because it's a preference for me, but it's PbtA and I've seen some MotW recommendations going around, people seem to like it.
I'm quite curious to try Traveler, tbh. So, definitely would be up for that still. Or any other system you/we feel is appropriate.
Haha, I totally agree there!

You think you might be a ship-taker? Is 'hostile boarding' a thing you are particularly keen on, or just an example?
Yes, that is why I keep trying to point out to people that these simple games are not the best fit for new players. Really new players can benefit from the simplicity, but once they get past the stage where they have to rely on the GM for all answers at each decision point anyway, the lack of any guidance hurts, they can't branch out on their own. Normal PbtA is good at that stage, since they have a nice list of things they can do, this lets them know what to think about, and then PbtA Moves get out of the way once they gain some proficiency.

WoDu is ideal for both very new and very experienced players --who have seen hundreds of Moves and Playbooks-- but most players fall somewhere in between those and need a little more from a system.
I like it. I still maintain that it has the best magic system of any game.

We can always do a MotW game as well. There is a fair bit of interest. Maybe once this is settled in?
Me too, but it does not need to be with this group.

It was just an example. A space bounty-hunter type of game in a star wars universe could be pretty fun. Instead of "Planet of the week" it could be "Bounty of the week" for instance.But it can be. And if it doesn't work, we can always switch. Maybe we should just set up a poll and vote on it? We could be playing the "But this might also be interesting"-game forever :P

Adding it to the list.
With two players?

My problem with polls is that they don't come with discussions about why a choice is made. So often, during follow up, it turns out everyone just went with what they thought the others wanted, but most often the answer I see is "it was an option from the list, and I had to pick one".
If we want to go with Monster of the Week, then sure. If we want to go with sci-fi first, then we go with that. We can always make an MotW game later.

If we go with sci-fi, then we have a few systems to look at, and can weight the pros and cons easily enough once we know the sort of game we want to play.

If sci-fi/space, we would decide on Traveller vs PbtA; and, if PbtA, we can look at which one to use, by examining the Playbooks and Moves and seeing which set fits the game the best.
We have a fairly narrow list (think about the 'off the top of my head' list I started this thing with:). Really only three decisions, leading on from each other. (With a possible fourth of 'do we recruit a red shirt... er... spare... er...nother).

Let's see what @TrailHead says.

Fair points.

Yes, let's see what his opinion is. :)

Sorry for the delay - I started to write a post yesterday but then got interrupted.

I have a hard copy of the Mongoose Traveller 2e core book, but all my other Traveller materials are pdfs. It would be cool to have physical copies of the little black books.

I am interested in playing Traveller but also would be up for one of the PbtA options discussed above.

I have not looked at MotW, but have heard good things. I would rather try a sci fi game first, though, and we seem to have momentum towards that.

So I think you’re right that it comes down to picking Traveller or PbtA. I’m good either way, seriously.

Traveller could be bent towards Star Wars, but that’s not it’s natural flavor of sci fi, at least to me. If we decide to go for a Star Wars science fantasy space opera feel, then I’d vote PbtA. Having our game be in the spirit of Star Wars is not a must for me, though I think I’d enjoy it.

Another thought I had about Traveller is that character generation is a cool mini game in itself but I’m not sure how that would translate to PbP.

I agree having a more substantial character sheet or playbook would be helpful, compared to WoDu.

Oh and I agree about ship to ship space combat being short and sweet rather than a focus.

It happens. :)
Apparently they are easier to come by than the original brown (or were they beige?) books of DnD (from the same time).
Settled then. Sci-fi it is.
OK, let me get Traveller and give it a read, unless I find it unpalatable (decades old nostalgia might not live up to the hype, or PbP may conflict) we can start with that. If we find it does not work, then we can change later.
Yeah, I don't recall it being a perfect fit, we can make Psi (The Force) a large part of our Traveller if that is what we want from Star Wars, if it is just the grunge aspect, we can emulate that easily enough by sticking to such locations.
Yes, I think you are probably right.

@TheGenerator: How much 'fantasy' do you want in your sci-fi? Traveller can do quite hard sci-fi, if we want.
I think it would play very well in PbP. We may have to make a few decisions ahead of time to streamline it.

If we know that we are all doing the same number of Terms (and now my age is showing and I can not recall what they are called... let's go with 'Terms') we can do what the books suggested (but what seldom worked at the table) and look at/for Connections between the characters after every cycle. All players can do their Term at the same time, rather than needing to wait and take turns --as they did at the table-- so PbP could make that easier.

We don't have to decide on the number of Terms, just that we are starting at the same point in time, then we can do what I preferred, which is to keep playing Terms together till we decide to stop (everyone needs to stop at the same point).

I was also almost thinking about doing Traveller Character Creation as the whole game. I have had groups that did not continue after CC and enjoyed the 'game' tremendously. I am not proposing we do that here, just saying that it is also an option, just an extreme version of 'we can change systems later'. :)
Offworlders has 'proper' playbooks, but is still closer to WoDu (as it is WoDu) than it is to bigger PbtAs.

As with Star Wars, I think psychic powers should be a rare thing. The movies are all about people with powers, so it's a bit biased in that regard. Most people/aliens in the universe do not have that ability. And there are definitely some bad-asses without powers.

Basically, I'd like to have rare occurrences of unexplained mysteries.

Technically you can always explain magic as science we haven't figured out yet. So where does Sci-Fi end and Fantasy begin?
From what I gathered (Disclaimer: it was just a YouTube video), any character can keep going with new terms until they feel like stopping. Others can keep going if they want to. The terms also determine your age, which would mean all characters would be the same age when we start. Or am I thinking of the wrong thing?

Cool, that is the default for Traveller. Feel free to try to angle the random character generator to give them to you, but don't hold your breath. You can always pursue Psi training during the game.
Yep, which clashes with the other rules that suggest Finding connections between the characters after each four year Term.
Yes, the rules are unwavering (though I am not) that you start your first Term at age 18 and each term is 4 years, and your age matters.
By the rules yes...

But, as you observed above, the ending Term defines your age when we start playing, and therefore also defines when you started. So we can each do a different numbers of terms, but then we have to either wait till the end before making Connections (a significant mechanical element of the game which gives Skills and such on the sheet), or know ahead of time how many Terms each character will do, else we can not work out during which Term they may have crossed paths. We basically have to work backwards from the current date, which works well enough, especially with PbP where can go back and read what happened during each Term.

We can work out the details, and decide which method of Connecting the characters we want once we have looked at the book. The new books may have solved this problem, but I don't believe so, they yew fairly close to the original.

I always preferred letting the Mustering out happen when it seemed right during character creation, rather than knowing we are only doing 'X Term characters'.

Depending on the number of players, making Connections can be quite straightforward. I recall having much larger groups back then.

Oh, I see. I did not know that. I'm fine with doing it your way if that would make things easier :)

Thread renamed. Nobody panic. Keep your and hands and heads inside the thread at all time.

I doubt I will have time to open Traveller before tomorrow night, but will try to read it over the weekend and decide (but I am optimistic).

I kind of like our characters not necessarily being the same age, the way Traveller usually works, with each player deciding how many terms. It’s a little of a push your luck mechanism. But if it makes it easier, we could decide up front on a minimum number of terms, then when we reach that decide together whether or not to continue, one term at a time. That way we could make connections after each term and end up the same age, but have some flexibility on the number of terms.

I like what TheGenerator is saying about magic/psionics being rare and that this is the source of unexplained mysteries. And that it is science we haven’t figured out yet. That is how I picture it, too.

Have a good read, VagueGM. I’ll break out my book and give it a reread this weekend as well.

I generally agree. It has the small benefit of making stronger connections (you could have grown up together) but often makes for less interesting relationships going forward.
True. I remember that now. That was one of the main reasons we left it open ended, and was an important part of the fun of Character Creation. I would not want to loose that part.

You can't die in character creation anymore, so there is less luck being pushed (I think) till aging comes into play. But it is still a big part of the process.

Ignore what came before. We can just go back and find connections when everyone is finished. I will make a thread for each character and they can run at their own pace.
Good. That is how the book does (did?) it by default. So that is easy.

This all sounds good to me. Getting excited about playing - including character creation and group world building.

I highly recommend Seth Skorkowsky’s series of you tube videos on how to play Traveller.

Me too.

I have got the rulebook open, and hope to get a moment to start reading soon... (here's hoping:)
Cool, thanks. He does some good stuff. I don't usually care for other-people's-RPG-stories, but his are good.

I've watched a few of those already 😁 good stuff!
I'm also excited to start this.

Looks like the other WoDu group I was starting in has a ghosting GM unfortunately. Died in character creation :(

Hey! That's my line!
-Traveller RPG, circa 1977)

😁

😀

For the record, I got up to page 22 (Agent) before having to leave off. I will probably skip reading most of the careers until the players need me to read and advise on specific ones.

So far I am still enthusiastic for the system.

---

Reading the rules through completely really helps, there are things that are unclear till later parts have been read, so don't stress if things don't make sense right away, it should come together later (a second reading definitely seems called for).

So, should we wait to get started until everything has been read?
Cause it seems like we're all on board with a low "magic" sci-fi traveller game.
Also, I have no plans this weekend so I'd love to roll up a character!

I have not gotten back to the book yet.

But I also feel confident I could run a character creation session with what I have read, we will need to look up the Careers that interest us, and I can not give advice on which to pick (or comparisons) till we do (I can comment on the differences between University and Military Academy, but that is all:).
It does seem like it.

We still maybe have one more player incoming, but I think the decision is made and they will need to decide if they want to join and live with that choice.
That is another benefit of leaving the inter-character connections till after, we don't have to wait for other players.

---

@TheGenerator: Shall we make a thread where you can get started?

What do you need from me to get started? A summary, or advice? Anything?

Do you want this first attempt to be a 'test character' (warning, they tend to be sticky:) to experiment with the system?

Just the thread will do, I think. I might do a test-run on my own and if I have any questions I'll ask before starting my 'official' PC.
Sweet! :)

Do you want a 'test character' thread where we can all learn, and use that thread afterwards. I don't think it is necessary. You can do the test character in 'TheGenerator's Character Generator' thread.
And ask questions along the way of the test character. This is not meant to be 'lonely fun'.
If not, we can may look at recruiting. Else we may need to adjust the rules about number of Connections pre pair.

So I was looking at some of the term end events and one of them was "a war breaks out and you are drafted". Technically, it would be possible for 2 PCs to roll that event on a different term, right?

It would make sense then that both PCs were in the same squad (to link PCs). But since it was on a different term in their career they were not the same age when that happened.

Is that the way it's supposed to be done?

---

Second question: Can I be a robot/android? I know you can be an alien race, but how about mechanical constructs? In RL it wouldn't make sense that robots go to school and learn a career, but maybe in the Traveller world it does?
Or am I just going to over-complicate things?

Indeed. We will make it work. If you roll that war breaks out in year 2344, and another player rolls that war breaks out in 2348 (and we only learn this when all the Terms are over and we know the current date and work backwards) we could simply ignore the exact time and force the character together in that shared event; or we can learn that the war took a few years to reach where the later player was; or we can have them get drafted later in the war than you did; or we can have two wars (look at history, we live in unique times when it comes to 'number of wars per decade').

Mainly I found in useful to build a list of Events, and then shift them around to make interesting connections.

The 'you must start at age 18' can get in the way, but we can fudge that a bit too, maybe you started at age 15 and then bummed around for 3 years (not even being a Drifter), maybe you started at age 20 and skipped 2 years and graduated 'early'. The final numbers do actually matter, but everything in between could be the result of sloppy-record-keeping. We can also buffer the ages and dates a bit at the end.
Would be nice, but the rules fight that a bit (and still don't seem to realise it:). We can work to make that happen if we want.

I have had Life Events in one player's character creation affect other player's. "Oh, so that's why you joined the rebellion in your third Term?"
Forget 'supposed' we will make it work. This still feels very much like a game from the pre-internet 70s, it relies a lot on the people at the table to deal with these issues.

I am generally not a fan of 'aliens as painted humans', so I tend not to have intelligent/playable aliens unless the players are able to lean into the alienness (similar with 'Elves', really:).

I don't know if the book gives rules for being robots or androids. I have a recollection that the aliens in the setting were problematic (boring, one-dimensional, racist, humans with fur, all of the above?), but I could be wrong.

If the group wants we can make a plan and make it work. It is possible (with them going to school, as you say) that they are just 'synthetic humans', which could just be an extreme set of prosthetics (all parts) by the rules. We should look at the rules for Prosthetics before we say more.

I have had some success with character learning later that they are (or are not) actually androids. Sometimes with the players already knowing, and sometimes a surprise to everyone.
I am not sure if the rules allow it. We can look. But first:...

Question to the group:

What is the in-world situation with robots, androids, AI, and such things?

Do we want to explore this, outlaw this (which means it is real and part of the game and will come up), or leave it out of our setting.

What about 'aliens'?

We might need to know this answer if it affects character creation. Else we can change our minds later, or learn the truth during play.

If anyone knows, offhand, what the book says, let us know.

What type of game do we want, what is out tone?

See page 4 of the rulebook.

I vote for 'continuous campaign', with occasional 'episodic' bursts, but mine is just one vote.

What 'type' of campaign are we wanting? Trader, Military, Explorer? Probably a mix, but which do we care about most?

Suggestion: How about a universe where Robots, androids, ... do exist, but only as an aid to sentient races. Kinda like in the movie "I-Robot" if you've seen that. Before they go berserk.
Basically, they are advanced versions of Alexa with a humanoid (or other) shell.
I'd say yes to aliens, but not the ones specifically from the book. I'd like there to be all kinds of weird creatures. If someone wants to be an alien race, that's fine by me. The book mentions stats shifts for alien races. One stat -2, another +2. I have no issue with that either. It would be nice if there was a story behind those stats though. From our FFA experiences, I don't think any of us are power gamers :)
I agree with "a mix". For me it would be Trading first, Exploring second, Military third.

Do we want to keep things light or go for a serious thing? I think I'd enjoy a futurama-style game where we get a job to do something simple, but end up in some complicated situation that only we can fix (either through skill or sheer luck).

To all players:
I created a character sheet template.

I like that idea.
I’m not a power gamer. I am okay with PC and NPC aliens, but I’d imagine the alien-ness would be more narrative than stats/mechanics. They think and behave differently than humans.
For me, I think it would be exploring first, trading second, military third. I like trading as a story beat but I don’t want to get bogged down in the Traveller math of tonnage and finding just the right seller and just the right buyer where we can make a profit. For example, in Firefly, they were trading but the details of the business deals were glossed over, unless it was important for the story. That’s the approach I’d prefer. Similarly, Han and Chewy agreed to take Obi-Wan and Luke on as passengers without much bargaining back and forth.

I also could see us responding to a distress call - either real or a fake one sent by pirates.

A continuous campaign with episodes sounds great, VagueGM. I have enjoyed how you have divided the fresh faced adventure into chapters.

Sounds good to me! :)

Sure. That shoves them to the background of the story and is pretty much the same as not having them as a factor.

With this we don't have to think about them yet. If they come up as a more involved part of the story we can deal with them then.
I read the book, but I believe it was quite different from the movie... and was a long time ago.
They went berserk? Do we want ours to follow suit?
OK. So not playable (that we know of).
I think we can work with that. I agree about not being enthused by the aliens in the book, I got bored and stopped reading that section. Can go back to it if we need.
Noted.
Hmm... Maybe more along the lines of Firefly than Futurama?

It can be lighthearted, but I don't see Futurama-style being sustainable, I don't think it can deal with consequences in the long-term (but it has been a long time since I saw the show).
Um? Have you played and RPG before? It sounds like you are describing 'an RPG'. :)

What do you like about it? If this is more than just set-dressing, I fear I am missing the significance.
Given the wildly different stats characters can have at the end of character creation, I don't see the +/-2 being at all significant unless the player chooses (as I would) to push stats to the extreme. I like low stats, so I would definitely want to put the -2 in my lowest stat, to get it extremely low. I care less about high stats, and it would be coin-flip, but can help embody the alien.
What stumped a lot of players (though it took a while to notice) and what I really liked at Star Wars World (and Impulse Drive?) is that they don't do 'alien stats', you pick whatever 'race' you want, and use your words to make them come to life.
One would think that they should but they seldom do. :(

I do want my aliens to be alien, but it is really hard to play alien, especially for the sustained duration being a PC calls for. If you want to try it, I welcome it, and if they end up humanish in most situations we can live with that too.

There are many ways to justify all the aliens we meet being human or human-like: Panspermia, Diaspora, Convergent Evolution (or "Intelligent Design"), Ancient Alien Kidnap, Penal Colony, ..., are a few that come to mind, or it could just be that real aliens are 'too alien' for us to interact with often.

We can also just play and see how it turns out, this does not need to be a big deal, we are already fudging and f-ing with most of science, so realism is out the airlock.
I also put military last, but had no opinions on the other two. That can change based on our whims.
We can let the player who is interested in this take the lead (in-character or out) on this and set up the deals, then we head out there and explore. The amount of detail that goes into the 'trading' can depend on how much anyone wants to put into it each time, and can happen in the background to a more immediate situation (brokering deals in the midst of the firefight sound like... not sure 'fun' is the word:).

I have not looked at that section of the rules, but we can (and I am sure the rules will back me up) toss some dice to decide profit any time we don't want to 'do the math'
They did not need to. Mainly because Obi-Wan was offering to way over-pay, and Han was happy to take advantage of him, and Obi-Wan was quite possibly not really planning on making the second payment. I strongly suspect the Jedi are the bad guys of those stories. :)
Good.
That is mainly to keep the threads at manageable length, but something like that will probably happen here too.

Lol, true.
I've seen many mentions of Firefly when ppl talk about traveller, but I have no idea what it is and have never seen/read/heard it. I'll just take your word for it :)
Probably not significant to the story, but significant to the setting. So yes, set-dressing. I guess it's significant in the same way that we can use a vacuum cleaner instead of having to use a broom. I'd say that's pretty significant in my life :P
It does rule out being a robot PC (which is fine by me)... unless we go for one of those "first sentient robot" stories.

Sacrilege! Where is the unfriend button... :)
If you were a reader, I would highly recommend Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells. Actually I will still recommend the books. :)

Welcome Airshark.

First: Don't stress about participating here before you go fishing. Anything you can add is welcome, and we will try get you a summary, but we will continue while you are away and should have a clearer picture (and be ready to start) once you get back.

Addressing your concerns from the recruitment PM:

We are not doing Star Wars, at most we will draw a bit from its tone and levels of seriousness.

If keeping up with the pacing becomes a problem we will talk about it. We appreciate the offer to step off, and also won't hold you to staying if it is not working out.

Humor is nice, and we can keep it lighthearted, but I don't want it to be 'silly'. 'Zainy', or 'whacky', or 'hijinks' are fun at times, but there will probably be serious moments too. Most of that is up to the players, and shifts and changes with the seasons. Sci-fi often lends itself to cultural references better than fantasy does.

Hi Airshark!

Hi everybody!

Saw the SpongeBob gif, wanted to give it a try.

I read most of this thread. Everything so far is fine by me! Looking forward to Explore travel some planets.

Agreed that while Futurama is hilarious I don’t see that as a sustainable model for gaming.

I like the idea of AI and robots as an aid to humans not a playable "race". And not going beserk.

I don’t plan on playing an alien but I wouldn’t object to others playing one.

Understood about Obi-Wan overpaying, I just was trying to come up with well known examples where a trade deal was made without getting too detailed.

Welcome Airshark!

I read the (really short) Trade chapter. It is simple enough, but also versatile enough, and does not impose on our options much.

The players can choose to engage in as much trade as is desired.

Often we --the players-- do not even need to know what is in the cargo the PCs picked up --maybe just the category. If we are doing boring trade runs where the goods are legal it can all happen in the background.

I don't know how the numbers hold up, it looks like --with a little bit of effort-- you can make millions on the right trades. I assume it is set easy enough so it does not become frustrating, the GM probably has to throw in complications to set the appropriate rate of wealth gain. The Trade system does look interesting enough though, and could help us flesh out the world (assuming we are not using the existing one).

On the other hand, players can roleplay the process of locating and negotiating for cargo if they don't want to use the dice. I found myself wanting to roleplay out solutions to the dice's answers, and that is wrong of course, we should pick one or the other, each time, and live with the consequences. This applies equally for Speculative Trade, Freight, finding Brokers or Passengers.

If we want, we can turn the process of finding cargo or buyers into a mission that needs some sessions to complete. Whatever the players find fun. Lucrative cargo hauls could be rewards for jobs well done, and so on, too.

The book does not mention it, but you could take on passengers (or --less likely-- cargo) heading towards your 'current destination' or anywhere you are stopping along the way. Or take them partway if your destination moves them closer to the passenger's destination (but that might pay less, as they need to pay for another flight, and layover costs).

For the record: I have read most of the book, I skipped the Psionics chapter --we can look at it if it comes up-- and did not make it back to Vehicle and Spaceships after jumping to Trade. I went on to read World and Universe Creation.

I have more notes about the World and Universe chapter than all the others combined. But that should not be a surprise, it is the chapter aimed at the GM. :)

We (or I if all y'all choose to stay out of it) will have more work once we have seen how the characters turn out. What happens during Character Creation will affect what sort of universe makes sense. I will start a thread for this in the meantime, though.

So, how should we get started? Just start rolling a character?

Yeah, let's continue to work on characters.

@TheGenerator: Do you want to do more work on your test character, it really is the later Terms that define the character of the character. Or you can start on your 'for real' character.

@TrailHead: Do you want me to make a thread for you to work on characters stuff, maybe with a test character or two?

We can wait for Airshark to get back and get caught up before starting playing, but we can start work on our characters while we wait, then fill in connections once we have everyone.

I'll start the real one, I think I got the basics down.

OK. Take it slow. Take it Step by Step. Fill in what fiction you can at each stage of the process, adjust as needed when the dice deny you your goals.

I don't know why I was asking if you want me to make your Character threads, we will need them eventually anyway.

Don't hesitate to ask questions, and I am sure TheGenerator will be happy to help with the process if I am not around.

Stop whenever you need to and we can work out details.

Get involved with each other's Character Creation process, I am missing all the back and forth happens during this at the table. But don't feel like you need to force it, we will do the actual linking of characters once the Terms are done.

Yes please start me a character creation thread

There you go.

Thanks

vagueGM, maybe we need a thread where we sum up all career events. Since my char creation thread is already 3 pages long it's probably a bit annoying to find them for Trailhead and Airshark
Or should I put this is the char sheet?

I was thinking the same thing. For now I think we could use a 'summary so far' post from time to time in each Character Creation thread, that way we don't clutter up any final summary thread.

How strict should we be with our events when it comes to linking characters together? If it all has to make sense chronologically, I might have to make some kind of flow chart ;)

It is really cool when we can go "what were you doing 8 years ago? Oh, we were both in prison? That would be because of <link>...", or "... you were fired and I was promoted, I wonder if those services (Careers) are linked, yes, maybe Rival we each got a term and two ago was secretly running both and that is why I got fired the next term, it takes them that long to notice and act...". That way the dice make a story.

But those are less important then making the links, so we can fudge things if we need.
It looks complicated from this side, but working backwards --once everyone is done-- should be simple enough. Those '4 year Terms' can have overlap with each others, we can generalise the specifics.

Question to all players and GM.

As my character backstory is that his whole home planet was sealed and erased from official records... by "the government" and his whole career he will try to find some information about this by the official channels... at the point we will gather to become real Travelers... he will have a very low trust to officials... and will have very high demand to find the truth... he may start to have some inclinations for... well... criminal activities.

I'm not asking about pursuing my character backstory - if it will ever come to this: it has to be natural and by other players intentions. But I started to wonder what you think about introducing some kind of mafia/rebel themes in our game? So called "good guys against corrupted system". But such attitude "sometimes" leads to some criminal activities... of course only in government's official's eyes... :)

But I mean more "mafia-like" then rebel -> cyberpunk. Gaining power to "do good things"... hopefully in the end there will be more good things then bad ones... But we would have to balance on the line sometimes.

What do you think about such themes?

Traveller, and Travellers seem like a good fit for 'rebels'. 'Law-abiding traders' does not sound like the most interesting story. :)
Of course. I am not keen on us being pirates, but skirting or stretching the law is almost expected.
I think Traveller could do Cyberpunk quite well. I have heard of people using Traveller's rules to run Cyberpunk 2013 (stupid name) to get around its wonky rules. There are adequate rules for 'hacking' and such.

I am a big fan of mafia related stuff (movies, series, boardgames) so that would work for me , but I'm not sure how to fit in my character. Have to take a look at that first.

My character was a smuggler and a spy, so he's definitely had experience with the not-so-legal side of things. A mafia-like faction would be something he might have come in contact with.

Cat would not mind some shady dealings. I'm starting to picture her rebelling against her family, so getting involved with those on the wrong side of the law would work with her.

It looks that my character Rafael has acquired a Free Trader(or Far Trader) ship during his career as Marine Merchant! I'm really happy, as it could be a good fit, vessel for some "special businessmen and businesswoman" that we are talking here about. But it should be equipped with some weapon. And I think it is possible?
Do any other character got a ship so far? What day you guys think about flying in this thing? Should we choose the Far trader version instead ? From what I was looking at this subject so far - probably it could be a better choice - for activities that may be not the best in government eyes...

I didn't rolled for its quirks yet... wonder what that will be:)

Go for the Far Trader. It's got more range and cargo capacity.

The Far Trader has less Cargo capacity, 63 tons vs 81 tons. It does have a bit more fuel capacity, but remember that we are TL9, so there is no Jump2.

Both of those examples are TL12 ships, so we will need to make something comparable.

Isn't it that, every ship is TL12 or more? Even most basic SCOUT/COURIER ? At least in core book? So we won't get any ship? :(

And why you have chosen this limitation to TL 9 ? You have established it before I came to this game, so I won't discuss with that... but I would like to know what is the reason ? I have read most of the discussions here, but don't remember reasoning for that?

To precise: I'm not claiming that there is no reasoning for that:) Just don't remember where it is? Or don't remember reading about it.

Their examples might be mostly TL12+, but they are only examples.
No, you still get a ship. It just won't have any Tech higher than TL9 or maybe TL10 for the miraculous/cutting-edge stuff. The only things that are likely to be impacted is that there is no Jump2 (though people are working on it, and you may end up getting it as a special treat), even Jump1 is outside the reach of most people, so your having a Jump Drive at all makes you special.

'Crystaliron' armour is also not available, but this applies to everyone, so it leaves you on equal footing.

I think that you may be limited to a Semi-Streamlined Hull. Don't expect to be taking your 200ton spaceship into atmosphere all the time.

This is off the top of my head, we were thinking about working out ship details in the story, and possibly creating our own, but we can work this Benefit into that, using your choice as a basis, Cat's Ship Shares can contribute too, and your time in Scout Services might affect things as well. You are (currently) 'majority share-holder' of the players (though the group still only owns a quarter of the ship), and the main Pilot, so maybe you are the 'captain'?

Presumably you don't have possession of your Trader while working for the Scouts? Or are you more of a Free Trader --still a 'Merchant'-- but out on you own? The Scouts are not very tolerant of trading on their time (so don't tell them).
That's a really fancy ship! What do yo mean 'most basic'? :)
It is what the players chose. It is also what the recruitment was for, and what I have been thinking of ideas for since than. I had not expected it to be that low, but once the players suggested it the potential was clear, it is an exciting time to be exploring, technology as not become commonplace and 'normal'. It is much more Firefly and BSG than Star Trek/Wars.
We did not need a lot of 'reasoning', it was what everyone wanted, I initially proposed higher (on basic assumption) but everyone wanted lower, and we had to drag it up to TL9 to ensure we had Jump Drives.

We did not 'reason' about it much since it was clear that lower TLs were better for gameplay. We can talk about it --and what it means-- here, but don't expect it to change at this stage.

Finalizing my character creation I had some ideas for the mishap that I rolled:
MISHAP: You have no idea what happened to you – they found your ship drifting on the fringes of friendly space.

This is it:
What do you all think about that? I think it supports earlier idea about us becoming a "good mafia-guys". And gives some reasons to cross the line of so called official law? It of course doesn't mean that every character was falsy accused for that crime. It could be that as the were working for the officials on that case, they found out that there is something fishy... and reporting their doubts to officials... made them also enemies of the state? Or something like that?

See my point about trying to align all the Connections in my reply in the Character Creation post. Reply there, since this is a question about that Character Creation.

Let's maybe sort out our connections and histories in the How do we know each other? thread before thinking too much about this recent event?

If that will be the case, I think we will need further modification for the example from the core book, as that example don't have any Air Raft or even place for it. No?
Ship shares are good potential for connection between our PC indeed. I don't mind to be a captain - of the ship. Raf's strong resolve would be handy in this and he will probably be very distrustful for others, but it is not a bad thing for a captain of a ship I think.
Raf's main purpose of enlisting in scout was to make the most contacts he can, and find good "markets" for his future activities.

"Trading on a duty? Never! Unless... you have something very valuable to sell? We Scouts have to examine extraordinary things, you know." :D

But certainly Raf didn't allow any scout official to have even a hint about that... as he naturally don't trust any officials. And wasn't doing too much of it. Only in really "safe" situations. About the Trader while in Scouts - as I written in my PC creation thread:So... I don't think Raf had the Trader during the time he was at Scouts.
"Yyy... I meant of course "the first choice ship" as it is sooo good!" ;) And I heard it is iconic for Traveller RPG? And it has some weapons... I would like to take part in at last one space battle at some time... So maybe we shouldn't limit ourselves for this one roll, and only leave this 25% ownership to lower the debt? But I also think that this ship being mainly for "trading only" is an interesting limitation, to have - to overcome. But probably it is not my "dream ship". But... (again) sometimes learning to go with what you have, can be more interesting then getting exactly what you wanted - at very beginning?
The BSG is the best show for me. So: I don't have any other questions:)

I hope I have done that?
Ok, good point.