Quote from: Kyle Aaron;1041879Leave the gaps on the character sheet, and let the players fill them in by roleplaying.

You're assuming that players role-play though. Most simply stare at their index card to see how they can win the game, or beg the Referee for new skills to collect. Watch one of Robert Conley's game session videos.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;1041902You're assuming that players role-play though.

Yes, it's an RPG I'm running. So I am indeed assuming exactly that...aren't you:)?
I make allowances for new players, but this just means they get some time to start roleplaying, too;).

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;1041902You're assuming that players role-play though. Most simply stare at their index card to see how they can win the game, or beg the Referee for new skills to collect. Watch one of Robert Conley's game session videos.

I'm not that interested in watching other people play. And I assume that if they've come to a roleplaying game, they want to roleplay, at least a little bit. In other news, when they come to my gym I assume they want to lift weights, and if they come to dinner they want to eat. Also if a woman puts on sexy lingerie and walks up and kisses me she wants some fun times. In your experience, are these unreasonable assumptions?

My own experience is that most people take a while to settle in and figure out how things should go, and then they step on up and participate. Those who won't participate simply leave the group.

This is another advantage of an open game table. You get access to a larger pool of players. People come and go, no need for explanation, and no hurt feelings - it's just a game. But some people stay and love it.

For example, in my current AD&D1e open game table campaign, in 11 sessions so far we've had 13 players come. 6 of them came once only each. One came once, absolutely loved it (his 3rd session of gaming ever), but his work doesn't allow him nights often. The other 5 just weren't that interested or didn't get it. And that's fine. One came twice and then was led astray by 5e, and another came twice and would like to come more but has other things going on his life. That leaves 7 players who want to come regularly, and 5 players who actually do come regularly. And if they're fine with AD&D1e they'll be fine with CT.

Don't underestimate players. A good number can figure it out for themselves and step on up and get into it.

Replying to this thread because it's relevant to the Traveller campaign I'm starting this month. I was waffling between the new 2nd edition Mongoose version (just got it a couple weeks ago) and old school 1st edition; they're basically the same, for all inventive porpoises, but with the former essentially adding a fuckton of options during character creation. At first, I figured this was a good thing, and it is to some degree, but knowing my players I decided to go with old school simply for two reasons:

1) Having more abilities waters down all the abilities. If I have Pilot-2, this means I'm a pretty good pilot, and probably do it as a major part of my career. If I have 19 skills, with 4 or 5 also rated at a 2, it makes all those skills less relevant, especially when everyone has similar skills. LBB Traveller definitely does "less is more" with stats. So far my favorite character I've rolled up thus far has Gambling-4, Blade-2, and Bribery-2. That's it. I can extrapolate a lot of interesting facts about this guy; adding a bunch of other skills seems like it'd actually make him far less intriguing.

2) We get drunk a lot, so having less crap to keep track of means those abilities will in fact be used and remembered. A laundry list of stuff usually means some important things get buried during play. Case in point, my D&D 5th edition Bard usually had so many possible actions I often forgot one or two of them that would have been tactically advantageous.

This is not to say I dislike the new version of Traveller; in fact, I think it's a pretty solid game all-around. But just from an intuitive guess, it seems like Yet Again, the more simple rpgs are the ones that provide the richer experience in-play.

A good series of articles on playing CT "out of the box", even just books 1-3. Most relevant to this thread, I think is, you are not your numbers.

   "there is a wisdom as well in letting the rules sit back a little, offering the Players characteristics and skills that affect the odds of die rolls but letting the Players fill out the rest. This allows the Player Characters to be discovered as play rolls on, and change in significant ways, without bogging down the game with excess rules and die rolls that move the game away from choosing to do things and seeing how they turn out.

"Always remember the example of character creation found in Traveller Book 1."


He goes on to talk about CT's example character. From the rolls and numbers a background story is told. How much more story will be told from the rolls and numbers during the campaign?

Quote from: Brad;1041957This is not to say I dislike the new version of Traveller; in fact, I think it's a pretty solid game all-around. But just from an intuitive guess, it seems like Yet Again, the more simple rpgs are the ones that provide the richer experience in-play.

I'd disagree. I think T4/T5 and the simpler versions are impressive in that they provide a similar experience, just with differing level of detail:).

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;1041987He goes on to talk about CT's example character. From the rolls and numbers a background story is told. How much more story will be told from the rolls and numbers during the campaign?

A lot more, barring stray bullets;)?
Here's a character I just rolled with an online generator for Megatraveller (a version I don't even own, yet, but it seems to be a lot crunchier than CT, and probably crunchier than MgT1/2 and CE as well).
UPP: AA99DC Interrogation-2, Bribery-1, Gambling-1, Handgun-1, Leader-1, Liaison-1, Persuasion-1, Computer-0, Grav Vehicle-0, NeuralWeapons-0
HomeWorld: StarPort=B, Size=Medium, Atmos=Standard, Hydro=Wet, Population=Med, Law=Moderate, Tech=Average Stellar
Age:   34 (4 Terms Diplomat, 2nd Secretary/Rank 2)
Cash: 25000 Cr, No Pension, High Passage
Anyone should be able to tell lots of stories about this guy (or gal, the stats are gender-neutral).