Hailing frequencies open (Intro & OOC chat)

I poked at some ideas for armor too. I'll leave it here to be used or discarded.Also what benefit would a medpack give? Reducing DC? + dice?
It seems like there could be a tier chart of how equipmient gives benefits. ... Like a Kit does X, a Pack does Y, a Workstation dos Z, a Workroom does W... ?
Would be an easy way to extrapolate all the "tools" Medpack, vs medbay. fabrication facility vs crafting table, thieves tools vs infiltration kit.... etc

I will use the armor, thanks! I'm playtesting something offline and will update our collaborative thread soon.
I was thinking about non mechanical benefits, mainly influencing the narrative and the results, like allowing a PC to roll for healing in the first place.

But I like your idea. Let's just wait a little longer to see if we will need those kind of charts/tables/equipment for our adventure.

Oops. I got impatient.
I'll be good.

@spaceseeker19 - Corbin would have been heading for the Captain's office as soon as he was done talking with Hank. Do you want to invite him in and prompt a question or to and I'll do the answers?

@Esidrix
I think your conversation started.

Hey everyone, just to let you know, it's been weeks since Katzle sent us a message and I also tried to contact her without success, both using a DM and with a message in this thread, so I'm assuming real life has taken her away from the gaming table.

@ImperfectBeing just DMed me telling that he is sorry but will have to drop out.

So I'll keep them as NPCs until the time is right for their characters to leave. All of you can also ocasionally write something for their characters if you need to keep the game moving.

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When I picture a shuttle, what am I picturing?
Is there all one room or like a cockpit and small general room?
Or is it a bit closer to a small private jet?
And for sleeping what are we thinking? Chairs that recline? Bunks?

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I am picturing a relatively spacious cockpit with a door (that we likely just always keep open). Behind that is a passenger space with fold-down chairs that fold flat into makeshift beds. Behind that is the cargo area. Behind that is the engines and stuff. Somewhere in the passenger space is a fresher or two. Also in the passenger space is probably a mini-galley. That's how I envision it (based on what htech said before).

I envisioned it exactly like Daryen described. From those pictures, something similar (but not with the same rooms) as the MK3 Shuttle.

Hey everyone, I have been playtesting (In real life) some of our rules and I think that they are not very well balanced. Perils of the homebrew system, I think.

I also don't have the motivation and energy to fix and improve it anymore, homebrewing is something that takes a lot of effort that I don't have at the moment. Sorry, I think I underestimated it.

So I've been thinking about giving up on this system in the near future, using something published like Stars Without Number (a free RPG available here) instead. I can tell the same kind of story/game that we are playing now and its free, so everyone can read those rules. It also has the things that we are missing, like starship design and a full equipment list.

But I am commited to this game and liking the story and the characters that we built together, so I wanted to check with all of you how we should proceed. I will follow the majority.

You can vote more than once, if you fell the same about more than one option.

I would like to try to convert my characteraccurately, as opposed to rerolling.

That's a possibility. You could keep or duplicate some of the attributes, the name, avatar, etc.

The skills, class, background bonuses and special abilities would be similar but different, though, as they don't match between systems.

If that's the majority choice, I will try to help everyone with that translation.

I would also like to put Savage Worlds out as an option.

I like the setting, story, and characters we have. I am not terribly worried about the system. I agree with PhoenixScientist and would like to just convert what we have to your preferred system. I honestly don't even care what the system is. I'll do Traveller, Tiny Frontiers, Savage Worlds, SWN, GURPS, Star Hero, Death In Space, whatever. I don't have modern Star Hero or Savage Worlds, but those are solvable problems.

I can't believe I forgot I own the Serenity RPG PDF that I like the system of.
I think it could certainly work.
I am willing to loan out the RPG .... For reference purposes only .. of course....

Honestly, I am completely down for either Savage Worlds or SWN as I have absolutely zero experience with either, and am kinda curious about them. From what I have seen of people talking about either system, both would likely fit well.

Oooo. I forgot! You can also make use of Cepheus, which is "I'm not saying it's Traveller. But it's Traveller." There is also an adaptation of Cepheus called Hostile that tries to take Alien and Outland and such as inspiration. But in the end, it's just another Traveller.

Also, as a compromise with what you tried to do and what is available, you could just take Traveller (either CT, Cepheus, or MgT) pretty much straight up, but modify it so that you use 3d6 instead of 2d6 for attributes and use a d20 instead of 2d6 for resolution. That lets you do all of the d20 stuff (ad/disad, attribute scaling, etc), but stick with the base Traveller chasis. And since you were scaling your skill levels at what Traveller did (basically, skills ranged from 0-5), none of that has to change with the move from 2d6 to d20.

Thinking a little more, that might be something for you to try here. Take Cepheus (since it is free and is intended to be screwed with), make the change from 2d6 to d20, then just run with it. I am sure there will be bumps along the road, but it will be very, very close to what you were trying for, but it will get you much farther along that you were starting with. It will be very, very close on the skills and careers, too. That would let you continue to try the home-brew stuff, but give you something that is mostly already there to start with. Plus, the other cool thing is that it would be a combination that I have not really seen anyone mess with. (Everything I see using a d20 is pretty much based off of the old 3.5-type d20 system or a 5e system. This would be very different in approach, but still work with a d20.) Plus I think the lift to get there would not be very bad at all!

Anyway, something to think about!

Honestly, the balancing and style of 2D6 I think is better than a D20.

The big difference is whether you want the bell curve or not. d20 removes the curve so that each + or - is a 5% increment; 2d6 has a bell curve to its probability, so each + or - can have a radically different effect on your chances of success. I have to say that the 2d6 is truly burned into my brain at this point, so that is what I am used to and will generally default to.

But ...

Like I said, making a d20 version of Cepheus/Traveller would be different and could be kinda cool. Plus, using Cepheus would let us get extremely close to what @htech was trying to do. The other really, really cool thing is that the Cepheus SRD is available as a DOCX file. This means that he can quickly go through it and make it match what he is looking for. To the point that he can literally just change the careers to match his careers and change the skills to match his skills. All of which would then just sit right on top of the otherwise existing framework that wouldn't have to change. The main thing I'd want to check is combat. Changing from 2d6 per attribute to 3d6 per attribute will affect taking damage, but that is purely a scaling issue, not a balance issue, so that is just being careful.

Honestly, now I want to try it. In fact, if I can scrape up some time this weekend, I want to see just how feasible this is. I think I can modify the character generation and person combat quickly and see if it is even remotely workable.