Evening all,

After Parental Advisory died in an in-game fireball nearly six months
ago now, I'm starting to get an itch to run Traveller again.

I've got a few ideas, and figured would ask the Learned Members (yes,
Collision, that means you as well) for feedback and advice.

As for mechanics:

MGT2 - mechanics creaked way too much - I found the sensor and economic
rules, for starters, ultimately nonsensical.  About all I found worth
salvaging was the lifepath (NOT the aging).

MGT1 - not no.  HELL NO.

T5 - I really, _really_ wanted to like this edition.  I liked the dice
roll mechanics - being able to simultaneously critically succeed and
critically fail on the same roll would be side splitting with my mob.  I
found the skill system confusing, lifepath both confusing and too
detailed (FreeTrav, STOP THAT SNIGGERING), and the less said about
psionics in T5, the better.

CT/MT/ - Don't know much about it.  Now there are alternatives, I
suspect ironman chargen is something that sounds nice, but will really
cheese off players with bad dice karma (such as Herr Sweep's Wheatonic
level thereof).

TNE/T4/T20 - Don't know much about it.

GT/GT:ISW, through its parent systems, scratch my itches for
consistency, character development, etc.  However, one thing notably
lacking which powered _a lot_ of Parental Advisory was a lifepath.

Best idea I have to fix that is to knock off MGT2's lifepath, and beat
the stuffing out of the character conversion notes in GT: 2e.  However,
concerns about point balance still have currency.

Referring to Parental Advisory, it would be sheerest folly to expect the
raw recruit, Rhett Shird (age 26, blamed for causing IW2) to work out to
the same point value as Badass Badass-Moustache or Old Joe (both
psykers, Joe in his 70s, Badass-Moustache (I think) in his mid 60s).

Learned Members, thoughts?

If MGT2 was any indication, untrained psi abilities weaken with age.  G3
handled this straight up with explicit power levels for

each ability which can fade with age.  G4, not so much.

For example, out of G4: Psionic Powers, the Life Extension ability. 
Level 1 allows the character to attempt a yearly skill roll to retard
their own aging.  Levels 2 and up (as written) allow the character to
affect (level - 1) _other_ people - which slams headlong into the
in-setting restriction of self-healers being unable to affect anyone else.

Same book, Emotion Sense (aka telempathy - the added m is deliberate) -
level 1 requires skin contact, level 2 is penalised by _normal_ range
penalties (additional -6 per 10x range), level 3 is penalised by 
_long-distance_ range penalties (additional -2 per 10x range), and level
4 points and laughs at range.

Third example, out of the same book, Cyberpsi (directly interfacing with
a computer). Level 1 requires touching the box or a network cable
plugged into it, level 2 is penalised at -1 per yard of distance, level
3 uses normal range penalties, and level 4 uses long-distance range
penalties.

Each separate ability has an eponymous skill driving it - simply
penalising those skills across board by some time-related figure (like
-1 per term of adulthood before psi training) seems like too much of a
kludge.

Should I simply follow GT:ISW's lead - doesn't seem to give three fifths
of one half of sod all about untrained psi powers fading. Or, as
Einstein's Theory of Negativity put it, "SOD IT!".

Again, Learned Members, thoughts?

So far, I've got the following rough concepts:

1 - Firefly-inspired Ziru Sirka renegades, legging it across the Terran
border to save their own necks.

TU: Advisoryverse, early 2130s AD.

2 - Mid-level students of the Shockwave Riders, the psi institute that
Old Joe (of Parental Advisory infame) co-founded with his adoptive brother.

TU: Advisoryverse, late 2130s - early 2140s AD.

3 - Daryen Confederation Navy personnel barely survive a Framing
Conceit-powered misjump, ending up (eventually) with a chance to avert
the Maghiz.

TU: Departing Naturallyverse c 1140s Imperial, into a new TU. The
canonical timeline will not survive contact with my players (that's sort
of the point).

Why would I return to the Advisoryverse?

I had a hell of a lot of fun GMing in it.

For reference, the Naturallyverse is my other (and much older) TU, 1140s
Imperial Lorenverse, as Imperial-Zhodani tensions build towards the 6FW.

Alex

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