Optional Companion Rules + more

[rcruk]

Look I've gone and dropped more money and picked up the companion module on the summer sale...

I'm now trying get into some of the automation and not sure how it's supposed to work? - I'm making an effort to up my FGU game. Up until now we've pretty much done things in our heads just using FGU to roll and refer to, but it would be nice to get some value out of the tools we have.

I'm looking to use hit location, with it's wound effects. When I roll a hit, then damage I'm instructed [NO HIT LOCATION SET]... how does the automation work for this?

Does the system indicate when a traveller suffers a Minor/Major or Severe Wound (or Critical if used)? Is this status recorded on the combat tracker or somewhere?

Is there a way to key armour damage mitigation to body locations? if for example, a protective jacket is worn leaving head and legs exposed.

Another question since I'm on a roll. Are NPC skills and characteristics supposed to apply to combat automatically or do we have to enter them manually in the modifier box. I've dragged and dropped skills into the NPC's but they don't seem to affect any attack rolls?

Also, I'm thinking of making some short YouTube videos showing things I've figured out or found useful, for others in the same boat. Is it okay to show the FGU Traveller VTT on youtube?

Kind regards,
R.

[Mallorylover23]

I am kind of in the same boat. It's hard to wade into the automation when you get no feedback or roadmap of how to engage with it. at best it's hidden and counter-intuitive. At worst it's not completely implemented. This is not to impugn MBM or even Smiteworks. There's only so much time and resources to devote to a ruleset that has a fraction of the engagement of others. I understand why they don't spend that much time going over every little piece of the ruleset's automation. The bugs and features are being smoothed out and addressed and changed on a month-to-month basis, so any video made will very quickly become outdated. We're between a rock and a hard place when it comes to taking advantage of anything more advanced than tables & the most basic combat automation.

For now I've just been using FGU as a way to keep track of story, PC sheets, maps, lore and some of my own table automation I've made for piracy/encounters. Leaning on the automation in any way but the most simple combat tracking just leads to grinding the action to a halt.

To answer your question on NPC skills. They are not fully implemented into the combat automation. When you're making an NPC you need to total up their Characteristic DM and appropriate skill for each weapon and add that number to the "attack" column of that weapon in the actions section of their sheet.

Also, rolling skills from their sheet does not prompt for a characteristic so you need to add that bonus either in your head or the dice stack. For example, my Security Chief NPC has an INT of 11 (+1) and a Streetwise of 1. I can roll the Streetwise from their sheet by double clicking on that skill that I dragged there but I need remember to add the +1 for INT manually.

[rcruk]

That all resonates here. Over the past couple of years I've seen MBM and his team work hard to keep up with Mongoose's output, and to engage with and be responsive to the player base. Quite often it seems that FGU coding itself just doesn't allow what is required easily - and I gather this is because it was designed primarily with D&D in mind?

One of the great things about the Traveller game is that it provides a versatile system which can be used in a great many ways, with optional rules dotted around here and there in supplements. I can appreciate must be challenging to add and maintain an equally adaptable VTT system where these options are introduced alongside new supplements. Also add in some flexibility for home-brew rules. Saying that, it sometimes feels like there are some really straight forward, useful things which are missing.

To name a few, not being able to use NPC skills with characteristics, as you've described. Racial characteristics/traits not creating auto modifiers/useable traits on the PC sheets. My current gripe is the optional rules in the companion being integrated with the system automation - looking over other threads, hit location/different armour values to different locations being one that provides an official rule system for something a number of people have asked for over the years (please add an adjustable body location code to armour sets!)

Why does it come up with [NO HIT LOCATION SET] it seems there is some sort of automation there?

I hope any of the devs reading this don't take it as a dig. It is a criticism, but only one that I am giving as I have hope that over the coming years the fundamentals will be smoothed out to make the ruleset more complete, intuitive, and appealing to new players, alongside the output to release new material.

Fly true Traveller,
R.

[esmdev]

My understanding is that a revamp of the character sheet for both PCs and NPCs is in progress which will fix many of these things (NPC skill + stat, etc.). Unfortunately there is no timeline, but MBM has been working on Runequest, which does make heavy use of hit locations, so one will likely help to solve the other.

[rcruk]

Sounds good, looking forward to hearing more about it.

[donpaulo]

I would use a table for hit location and hotkey it

doesn't solve the issue, but is a workable albeit analog solution

will be interested to hear when the "fix" is in

[Boldtaar]

I used hit location a few week back and didn't get [NO HIT LOCATION SET], but now when I test I get same massage.
Still have players with leg wound. So something is broken after a update.
It think armour body locations was to be included in next update

[rcruk]

It seems that automated hit locations only work on hit to PC's, not NPC's. It would be good if at least Humanoid NPC had this enabled?