Re: [TML] "Dark" Imperium? Rupert Boleyn 03 Jun 2020 06:10 UTC


On 03Jun2020 1629, xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote:
> Well, with a medic 1, you would succeed on a 5+ which starts to look
> bad, but as you say, the damage effects were weak enough that the
> average damage would be 10.5 pts and spread across one good and one
> moderate stat, or three moderate ones, you'll usually live.
>
> And that does look like a GDW/Marc approved change. So either Marc was
> in favour of that change or else wanted to give the DGP people
> latitude and just let it slide. (It isn't the biggest of fishes in the
> game system to focus on)
>
> Now, the Mongoose needs an 8+ as a Medic Check with a +END DM and
> Medic skill with a +1 TL 12+.
> So that looks like you'd likely have +2 to 3 from Medic+END which
> means a 5 or 6 needed, 4 or 5 on a TL12+ ship.
> That's more dangerous than MT so it seems to have trailed back the
> other way.
MgT's stat bonuses are more generous, so you can expect a +2 from End
unless you've low End. Medic-1 as a minimum, assuming you didn't board a
really dodgy ship gives +3 or better. So 5+ on a low TL ship, 4+ on a
nice TL12+ ship, as a minimum. However, in a failure, the passenger
dies. There's no auto-fail on a 2 (unlike MT), so an average person with
a skilled doctor (Medic-3 or more) and a TL12+ low berth has no chance
of death or injury.
>
> CT: Dangerous
> MT: Less dangerous
> GT: Not very dangerous at all
> MgT: Dangerous like the original ish
> TNE:
> T20: No idea...
>
CT says 5+ to survive, -1 DM is End 6- (which is not unlikely), +1 DM
for a Medic-2 or better attending (which is a bad bet when travelling by
independent traders, I'd say). So your odds could be as 'good' as 33/36
of surviving, or as bad as 26/36.

GT's rules weren't perfectly safe: with a skilled attendant (skill-10+,
which is fairly minimal but isn't nothing, about Medic-1 in CT/MT I'd
say) you were safe. Without an attendant, or with an unskilled one, you
rolled your HT and on a critical failure (17-18 on 2d6 for almost
everyone) you died. Otherwise you were fine.

TNE's rules were: Upon revival the attending character makes a Difficult
roll vs Medical (Diagnosis). That's an unmodified roll on a D20 vs
EDU+Diagnosis (their 'asset'), and for anyone who's done a term of
training as a medical student that should be a 9 or better, even if they
specialised in something other than diagnosis. A professional doctor
should have 12-16 or even more. A paramedic or nurse at least 8,
probably 10 or more. On a success (I'd give the attendant on your
average trader a 10- for 50% odds), it's all good. On a failure, roll 1D6.

1-2: 1D6 damage to the chest, which doesn't start healing for 1D6 days,
skin loses some tone and colour for 1D6 weeks, looking gray and wrinkly.
[Note: 1D6 damage to the chest in TNE is trivial for almost everyone.]

3-4: 2D6 damage to the chest, which doesn't start healing for 1D6 days,
poor motor function for 1D6 weeks, giving -2 Agility, and skin as 1-2.

5-6: 3D6 damage to the chest, no healing without surgery due to organ
damage. [This is the first amount of damage that might actually result
in a penalty to the average PC from the damage itself. The book doesn't
say, but presumably the Agility penalty from 3-4 also applies.]

On a Catastrophic Failure (on a failure by 10+, roll again, any failure
means a catastrophe), the passenger dies. If the passenger had Con 2-
(Edu in older editions), the attendant's task is Formidable (half their
asset, rounded down, on 1D20).

Overall, fairly safe but with a good chance of some annoying
side-effects, but with a small chance of death if the attendant isn't
highly skilled (about 2.5%).

T20's rules were: If a medic is present they make a DC10 check (a pretty
good chance if they're good, 50/50 or so if they're not). If it's a
pass, all is good. If not, or there's no attendant, the passenger makes
a Fort save (DC6, so for the average citizen a 75% pass chance, for a PC
more like 85-95%), with +1 per skill rank of the attendant (so with a
decent attendant even if they fail their skill check there's a 95%
chance of making that Fort save). Failure means death. I'd say for most
people on most ships there's about a 1% chance of death. Safe compared
to CT and MgT, not at all safe by sane standards.

So, TNE moved back towards CT a bit, by having a small chance of death,
but only if the attendant was missing or not decently highly skilled. GT
kept this, and removed the chance of niggling side effects that MT and
TNE had. T20 is much like GT, though you need a highly skilled medic to
avoid all chance of death. Traveller Hero I have no clue about, having
never seen it, let alone read it. For T5 I can't find any rules for
revival. MgT has reverted to CT, pretty much.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>