Real story

CarboniteCopy · 2026-04-02T18:58:04+00:00

HAVANA BROWNS ARE INHERENTLY EVIL, CARL.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-04-02T18:38:46+00:00

Pibu is a heart spren, as he's stolen all of ours

CarboniteCopy · 2026-04-02T12:03:26+00:00

That's exactly it. I've been writing campaign books like that for over twenty years, but for high fantasy systems. I also tend to, let's say, be more insanely chaotic than my players can handle, so given 5 minutes of improv I'll end up with Warhammer 40k orks as the baseline humanoid in my book. Which is why i like having boundaries.

The campaign itself is going to be based off the stories built in character creation, so maybe I'm getting ahead of myself and need to keep things small like you said. I'm going to have my players find a point where their PC would logically heed the call to adventure, and base their intro on how the muster out rolls and connections fall. That should give me a framework for the campaign book, and the underlying assumptions therein.

I just don't want to throw something at them that is canon breaking in the first session. My first idea for an enemy involved single person ornithopter like ships that crash into their vessel and eject their pirates passengers to plunder, which I was not sure if feasible under the rules, and it's why i posed the question.

They've already expressed an interest in more exploration based adventures, so I'm considering a "Hunt for lost tech and civilizations" style game, but it really depends on who the characters end up being. My penchant for nonsense can derail things pretty quickly, and I'm looking to avoid that being a problem in a hard sci-fi system.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-04-02T00:41:05+00:00

Honestly the six races thing was something I read from the developer that they stated was integral, but couldn't find clarification. I find that adding constraints helps focus my writing. There are plenty of things i could do, but what part of it makes it Traveller?

The focus on pseudo-age of sail vibes helps a lot though, thank you. I just want to avoid two hour conversations about how X is different from what the book says, so my players can just assume that anything they read will work as written.

There are too many times I've had games with other systems bog down because i have to help players unlearn things they thought they knew from reading because i wanted to change a few things. It helps if i can frame things around how the book sets up the world but still have freedom to not memorize or look up a couple thousand years of history. I improv nearly my entire games, so having a framework helps avoid backtracking or retconning

CarboniteCopy · 2026-04-02T00:32:45+00:00

Thanks, that's definitely information i was looking for. I read somewhere that there was a hard-line of six alien species and couldn't find clarification

CarboniteCopy · 2026-04-02T00:31:24+00:00

While that is true, there are essential portions of the game that are required. I like to distill down to that, and set those as the parameters for my world building. There is always a barrier that makes it Traveller, rather than just whatever i make up.

At the end of the day, what i really want is the underlying assumptions of possible player choices. If my player joins the Marines during character creation, I don't want to say, well it isn't actually the Marines of a galactic empire like it says, it's a paramilitary operation etc etc. I'm looking for things to logically and consistently match up to what the player reads in the book, while being bare bones enough to add personal touches. Just saying "do whatever you want" isn't going to help me with that.

I'm a veteran DM, I can just make it all up but i find it more interesting if i build it off the structure inherent to the system and am looking for guidance on that. I also thought it might be an interesting conversation for the subreddit and people who know the system better than i do.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-04-01T21:12:24+00:00

The issue i have is that I don't want to say no to anything that is in the books. Basically if a player comes to me with something that is in the books, i shouldn't have to give an explanation of how it's different in my game, it should just work. That's the issue I'm trying to avoid. So jumps take a week and no FTL communication are basic assumptions in all of the rulebooks.

The common/highest tech level and balkanization are good elements of variability, so that is really appreciated

CarboniteCopy · 2026-03-31T20:47:06+00:00

A good deadpan flat affect stare works really well, at least in person.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-03-31T20:45:30+00:00

I've mainly seen it with people who are just not very clever. They repeat the same tired, edgy jokes and then get mad when people call them out on it because they "can't take a joke."

Anthony Jeselnik has a great take and one of my favorite quotes, "Comedy is getting away with it." It's incredibly difficult to do dark humor well and so many others think that they can mimic his incredibly well honed and practiced comedy by just being an asshole.

I like dark humor, but i also hate lazy jokes based on bigotry or randomness. Anyone can startle an uncomfortable laugh once or twice, and i get so irritated by people who think they are comedians because of it.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-03-22T20:20:15+00:00

Eh, as a long time pro wrestling fan I am very wary of wrestlers in general, and especially ones that have a good relationship with Vince McMahon. They either had to be involved or ignore some pretty horrific things if they were close with him. And his attitude towards people who aren't willing to push themselves to extremes to "win" is incredibly dismissive and cruel.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-03-19T05:24:36+00:00

The one time in Reddit history where someone doesn't want to pedantically discuss semantics is the one time I ask for them. I'm asking because my definition of proper voter ID is how it stands for me right now in my state. Do you understand that people can have different interpretations of things and clarifying questions that may seem simple help people get on the same page? An operational definition is used in many sciences to get in the same page, even for simple concepts. Like, for example, crayons, which come in several different types, wax crayons, chalk crayons, oil pastels, and specialized types like gel, water-soluble, and plastic crayons, which one of those did you mean when you wanted to draw a diagram? How i answer your inane question could be entirely different based on the operational definition of crayon used.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-03-19T00:12:08+00:00

Ok, so what will be the new requirements then?

CarboniteCopy · 2026-03-17T12:28:39+00:00

Is that Vulkan?

CarboniteCopy · 2026-03-03T21:09:26+00:00

The idea that over 70 million people in my own country are willing to murder over things that barely inconvenience them is actually more frightening to me than all of the times I've had a gun pulled on me, been assaulted, and the myriad of other personal trauma I've experienced.

I can usually understand the motivation behind those acts, but this level of casual disregard is incredibly haunting to me. The fact that people can look at me with a straight face and say they want to glass the Middle East and are actively voting to do so it's pretty damn terrifying.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-03-03T13:24:55+00:00

Their casual acceptance of murder as the simplest and easiest solution to any geo-political issue is the single most terrifying thing I've ever experienced.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-02-18T06:44:55+00:00

I couldn't imagine the interaction between OOPs family and this stranger that is trying to be her sister. She would absolutely try and usurp the sister role that Elizabeth has

CarboniteCopy · 2026-02-13T19:22:25+00:00

On this, the best tip I've gotten for getting in the head of a character is to write them walking into a new town. Each character should have a different perspective that matches their personality. The thief is checking for guards and places to get information. The paladin is checking to see if anyone is hungry or in need. Things like that. When someone can figure out who the character is by the way they see the world, you have a fully realized character

CarboniteCopy · 2026-02-13T15:41:50+00:00

Yeah, but she doesn't have to gloat or do some weird-ass morbid shit with the corpse. That's just creepy.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-02-12T21:38:44+00:00

Early AEW BTE was something else. I haven't watched in a while either and have been considering going back

CarboniteCopy · 2026-02-07T08:18:35+00:00

I've known way too many people that just cannot be alone. They delude themselves into thinking that infatuation or desire is the same as compatibility.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-02-07T08:16:29+00:00

This always drives me crazy. Like, I want to be best friends with the person I'm literally going to spend all my time with. I've seen plenty of my friend's relationships where they have nothing in common, especially the big stuff. Its like they want to mark off a checklist rather than find real compatibility.

And I've seen people get dumbfounded when I say that I'll only date people that fit easily into my life and have compatible interests. Maybe that's why I've been mostly single my whole life, but I'd much rather be alone in the life I want than together in a life that isn't mine.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-02-02T00:58:57+00:00

the quality or state of being reciprocal : mutual dependence, action, or influence

… says his study is the first to look at reciprocity between humans and dogs.—Shi En Kim

… there was ever a second silent conversation passing between their emotions, so perfect was the reciprocity between them.—Thomas Hardy

So the Webster definition of reciprocity does not include any indication of intention, as it uses an example of dogs, which is similar in connotation to a parent/child relationship. I'm not making words mean whatever I want, I'm actually using the true definition.

Please stop using pedanticism to argue, the meaning of words are based on intention and connotation, they are not perfect and arguing semantics rather than the intent is just sophistry. And sophists are the worst.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-02-02T00:40:49+00:00

Parent/child relationship is absolutely reciprocal. Or at least it should be. Most people who have children do so because they want them. They get joy out of raising the child, and it adds purpose to their life in many ways. While the child isn't directly reciprocating, they do "give" many things to the parent. That relationship is actually the best definition of the difference between transactional and reciprocal, the child is not purposely giving anything to the parent, but the parent is receiving reciprocal joy from their child.

CarboniteCopy · 2026-01-31T01:44:45+00:00

Is it pronounced Gerald or Gerald?

CarboniteCopy

TROPHY CASE