Hi Seth: Just wanted to let you know that this video was life-changing for my 8 year old. I find your Call of Cthulhu reviews really valuable (and enjoyable!), but don't play Traveler so I wasn't going to even watch this one. However, the beginning autoplayed, just enough for my son to hear a snippet and be utterly fascinated. He persuaded me to let him watch it, and has now seen it multiple times. He used it to gradually create his own Traveler robot build sheet, and piece together the rules as best he can. Never seen him so focused and meticulous about this sort of technical activity. He's pushing his reading and math abilities so he can build along with you. One of those "lights on" moments you see where a kid finds something he really loves. So now I'll obviously be buying him this sourcebook for his birthday, which fortunately is coming up! Anyway, this meant a whole lot to a youngster named Jules in Washington State. Huge fan.
UPDATE: I missed listing the Wireless Data Link on the Final Robot Record Box at 40:49 That's a simple cut-and-paste typo. The Wireless Data Link was listed on the robot itself as a free Default Zero-Slot Option. It was a free part and not the cause of the price issue.
My Travellers have been toting around a large metal briefcase for about 29 sessions. It has a seal on it that says "Open Only in Emergency". It contains a semi-inflatable "emergency defensive bot" init, a la Big Hero Six. They have never opened the case. I reminded them they had it when they bought a new ship. They dutifully put it in the ship's locker and have yet to ask about it and have no idea what's in the case.
@@SSkorkowskylol, I figured it's not just me. You've spoken about something like this in at least one of your videos. Funny thing is that one of them kept asking about acquiring high TL bots.
I think the price difference is because the robot you made is just the cost of making the robot, while the book version is a commercially sold robot (ie they need to make money off every bot sold, and 20k is a pretty solid profit)
That's the in-universe reason. The published book reason is because 150k is a nicer number than 130k. Also, they are effectively rewarding players for learning how to build their own. 🙂
My thinking was that he did his math wrong... in the beginning he had one modifier on base price (which he calculated) and then had another modifier onto BASE price which he calculated using the modified price. Near the middle there was another odd mathematical 'error' but it didn't stick out to me like the first. *shrug* if his table is fine with it then fine. I might not of said anything if I was there (just make a note on how they do their math; be consistent). Does this account for 20k? Nope! (If anything the price would go down)
Locomotion Increase of 10% Base Chassis cost was done correctly - not a mistake. But it it were, the price result would be cheaper. "...another odd mathematical 'error'..." - very specific But thanks for playing
I'm just at the default sensor suite part and I find it amusing how this is basically a guide to upselling. Sure you could take the basic suite but for only a few thousand credits more you'd get so much more!
I know, right? I was watching the video and kept being floored by how each little improvement over a base bot hiked the price. This "simple" crew robot is getting expensive fast!
I've been so eager to see another Traveller video!!! I found them a while back... but in the last month my game group and I rediscovered your review series and we've been going over it multiple times with all the updated books, it's been so much fun! As a group of players who started their TTRPG hobby with D&D 5E about 8ish years ago , then we moved to Pathfinder 2E a year ago... we've been deep into different flavors of Fantasy... this is the first time we've all got to get our SciFi genre fix and we've loved the content you put out to inspire us and guide us into a new game system!! Thanks so much for the videos!
Wow, I just started watching the Glass Cannon Voyagers of the Jump campaign and now this video. It looks like the universe wants me to pick up Traveller...
I liked season 2 even more than 1. I thought Alicia was the MVP, she picked up a lot of items that ended up being very useful to the crew. I appreciate her sense of humor.
Thing with the robot pc's is that it isn't super advanced. It's like a full page or so but there is not limit on what character you can make, which is fun but make it fully up to the gm to approve or disapprove your character and there is no guide-lines. Plus they can't level up. But one can of course upgrade them with new parts. So in theory i can build a fully sentient battle robot with basically all the skills at +4 or 5 or something and it can fly and go in space and have stealth systems or whatnot and it's just as "viable" as the crew droid or a Roomba. So it's cool that there is no limits. But also a bit sad there are no guidelines and it's all up to the GM.
Side question on Traveller: What is the best place to look to get into traveller, both for where to get rules and perhaps look for people to do online sessions with?
If you want the physical book, the Mongoose Website or your FLGS if they use the Bits & Mortar Program. Reason being is through those, if you get the physical book you also get the PDF for free. If all you want is the PDF and no physical book, then the Mongoose website or DriveThru RPG. As far as where to find online games, dunno. Maybe check the Mongoose forum, Reddit r/Traveller, or the various Traveller Facebook groups.
@@SSkorkowsky Thanks a lot! My bro and I had some bad game experiences of recent that has spoiled our enjoyment of TTRPG. I am from back in AD&D era so we are wanting something fresh. Your info on traveller has us finding is really in our interest, but of course hard part is finding players.
Thanks again. I dont want to underestimate how your videos have helped restore our long time passion for TTRPG. Between list vids and game reviews, it helped us see the toxicity in our games that we had just tolerated and began to see how it was harming our experience. When doing video gaming, we do find ourselves sometimes shouting "For Thor!" Of all the videos, War Stories were the biggest reminder of why we started.
Some of the artwork seemed a little cartoony, but it was nice to see the Zhodani "floating torso of ill omen" (aka the Zhodani Medium Warbot) back again.
Already got to use one of those Medium Warbots two sessions back. I've had the old RAFM miniatures of them for years, but never the stats. So it felt good to say, "It looks exactly like this." Sadly, it never got a shot off before the PCs overkilled it out of pure fear.
This video let me remember the droid character I made for WEG Star Wars. The last couple years WEG had the license they put out a droid book with construction rules. The droid I made had similar features to this one. However he was a full technician, and repair droid. Had a blue collar personality, and had no patience for the prissy Cybot Galactica tech models.
The cutting torch text says that "a" cutting torch is included, not necessarily an improved one. I'd say that the torch that's included in the toolkit is the 500 cr Basic torch, even at TL 12.
"The robot industry hates him! Expert spills the secrets they don't want you to know! Click *here* to find out how you can save cr20000 or *more* on your next crew droid!"
Reminds me of Gurps Vehicles & Gurps Robots by David Pulver. You needed a calculator and either an Excel Spreadsheet or several pieces of paper to note down all characteristics. There was also a disadvantage that you never knew exactly how much of a size your construct would finally end up with as you crammed more and more esoteric gear in it. Though it was still a fun experience and more fulfilling than to write down a simple human character.
My money for the $20000 is that a basic crew robot was probably created early on in developing the book. Latter a price or two got lowered for "balance" and the fact that the crew robot used an old higher price slipped under the radar. That being said, yours being a cheaper knock of lends itself to having a fun and strange quirk or two.
Seth, do you read minds or something? We just randomly decided to play Traveller and ome of the characters chose to go into robotics, and here you are! Thanks for the awesome video!
I loved the robot book, but it took me a week or so to wrap my brain around building them. Thanks for making this video, I definitely noticed some mistakes that I made with the few robots I've made.
Sorry to be off topic but I was playing around with c# and created a map viewer for 96 of the published sectors. The main map is where you pick the sector you want to look at, then the form updates to a TAS form 5 and 6 side by side. You select the subsector to render on the TAS form 5. All the data from the PDF booklets are displayed including political boundaries. The next step is to allow the user to click on a system and get detailed system information on planets moons asteroid belts and gas giants. Select a world and the TAS global map that folds into a 20 sided dice shows the land distribution based on hydrographic for the world in question. That will take awhile since I’ve only loaded 3 sectors of the 96. I would like to offer this software as shareware. Any suggestions or interest? Recently retired and trying to automate Traveller as I was doing in college on a PC Jr with no hard drive. Love having time and technology to make the dreams of my youth come true.
I can just imagine the 150K vs 130K difference with the "offbrand" version is one could sell a similar model for 110K or so and still make a profit, so in a used car salesman fashion the seller is all like "well usually I sell these for 150K, but for you my friends I'll give you a little discount"
Awesome video Seth, thanks! I followed along with the Mongoose spreadsheet and I came up with a higher price than you did, but I didn't suffer the armor bug you found. My robot came out to Cr146,000 with a "rounded off" price of Cr140,000. I can't explain it...but I loved the video and the play along exercise, anything Traveller!
I have to blame you, Seth. I bought the Call of Cthulhu Bundle of Holding because of you. Your videos make CoC sound so engaging and entertaining that I could not resist the urge to dive into the game head-first.
While I watched this in a couple chunks I appreciate your in-depth dive into how you went through the process and the variant cost you discovered. Thank you again for all the work you do covering Traveller and other RPGs.
Not many cover this game. First heard about the first edition years ago but it was your coverage that really brought the system to my attention. So far, I've only managed to buy a few books with my limited budget and was debating what to save up for next. Glad to see you cover one of the books that I was considering. Hope you keep covering this series.
Recycle "used up" PCs by popping them into a low berth running for a hi-tech world and making your ex-pilot into the ships "auto-pilot". "Good news Bob even though you got yourself shot up we went to a TL14 world and now you ARE the ship instead of just the pilot." Now to hope Bob does mind his 2nd life.
many thanks for the video Seth. Literally did up my first robot (a protocol droid) this evening having just got the Robot Handbook (largely due to your video) and used the video to go through the process step by step. And NPC Jack was spot on lol. First it was character creation that was such a hoot to mess with getting started into the game, then building (modifying an existing model) a starship to a hang on those rules. Now building it is robots. Almost as addicting as building characters and ships lol. Any game for which learning how to play it is as fun as actually playing it is pretty awesome man. It is games within games.
Auspicious timing on this video, one of my fellow players (who is a Robotics expert in game) was just discussing how to kit out a robot he is building.
I think the additional 20k is convenience, sure you can build it yourself, but who says all the parts are going to be available in the same sector? The price conscious traveler knows that the most efficient robot is the robot you find (hit really hard with a terrestrial vehicle, and repair with spares) along the way.
It is till you inadvertently activate the "Kill everything living you can find" mode. Or return yourself to the Evil Overlord by the quickest method and it steals your starship.
You'll probably want the vehicle book and the robot book. Battlemech sized robots are vehicles with robot brains in Traveller. Battlemechs piloted by humans are walker vehicles, but you may find a use for some robot options anyway.
Well, this was timely. I just added this book to my Traveller collection I got for christmas, and this video just also just gave me the idea for a player character that's a organic robot puppet master capable of switching bodies depending on the needs and situation!
Are you sure about the efficiency in adding a power pack? From my understanding, generally when additive percentages are used, they're added together before being applied to the base number, and going by that math you'd multiply the 72 by +150% (the same as multiplying it by 2.5) which would have an end result of 180 instead of 216. I haven't read the book myself, but it seems odd that the percentage boosts would be multiplied independently like that, as that's counter to how I effectively always see that math handled. So for price, is it possible that part of the discrepancy might be due to the base model using a few more slots for battery packs at greater cost using the math I mentioned, and it being a coincidence that the final endurance time still matched up? Bit of a stretch, maybe, but without doing all the math right now to verify it is potentially something to check and rule out or confirm. As for the manipulators, it seems odd that you'd need to stat out each arm and leg as an individual manipulator when you'd think they'd be designed as, and designated in, pairs. Personally I would read the sheet as Manipulator #1 being the arms by default (at least if we're assuming a humanoid shape as our default), and #2 as the legs, unless there is a very distinct reasons why each individual arm and leg would have different values from one another. For example, if you had a robot with 6 arms that were functionally identical, it seems like a waste of sheet space to record their stats individually.
@@SSkorkowsky Alright, just seemed like an unusual way of handling the math, so I thought I'd bring it up. Suppose I didn't take enough long to look at the sheet comparison.
My instant go to for a character in scifi is a robot either as an engineer and a full on warmachine. Designation: Assurance, was my previous character who was a corporate robot, but he took firing and terminations very literally. He was very much what Omni Consumer Products dreamed robocop would be.
Seth love all your Traveller content. Just curious if you have dabbled Pirates of Drinax. Would love to see your breakdown of that adventure in the future!
Pirates of Drinax never appealed to me. I don't connect with the Trojan Reach all that well. However I will be doing a long-form campaign diary/review series on Secrets of the Ancients once we get a little further along in that campaign. It has a few issues, but those are easily overcome, and an overall badass campaign. I expect that series to start sometime this Summer after we've finished at least CH6
I just got access to the robot handbook. Which is good, since I'm spinning up to run my first Traveller campaign. I'm totally gonna try to build my favorite sci-fi robot using the game rules, just to see how close I can get. I figure it'll teach any critical lessons not covered in this video.
Depending on what tradeoffs you care to accept it looks like the creation process could cover Marvin (hhgg) to C3PO to B9 (lost in space) to a Cylon or Terminator. Perfect for recurring NPCs, GM PCs or Robot Hordes.
"Seth Proofing" ... it's not just Seth, and this is why I always, always, always practice version control on a self-calculating excel form of any sort. Back up early, and back up often.
Reminds me of the old Dataware book for TSR's Alternity, with its Robot NPC and PC chapter. I should try Traveller sometime... And you explained it so well I feel I understood most of it despite not knowing anything about the rules. Now part of this is my familiarity with games in general, but most of it is all you so good job! And yeah, it feels like the 130 vs 150 is one of those uneven discounts and such.
So happy about the Robot player Characters! Also just the robots in general! This book is all I needed for this to be added to my "I gotta run this eventually" pile of TTRPGs^^
the price difference could be that buying parts individually and then "d-i-y" building it. the in-book price is the ready-made just press the buttons and it works, and yours is the space-ikea bot, some assembly required.
Incogni can protect more vital information like your second middle name, name of your first pet, name of your current pet, name of your house plants, name of your favorite TH-camr, and so on
Great video Seth. I have a couple of theories about the extra 20k cr. First, you pointed out that the cutter comes with the engineering package, maybe that is meant to be only the very basic cutter and if you want the advanced cutter you have to pay for it separately. Granted, 20k cr seems a hefty price for that. So, it may just be the standard lazy tax - build the robot yourself and you get a discount for going to all the work. Accept one off the lot and you pay a premium.
Love your Traveler content and kudos on the sponsorship! To me, the only difference between your build and the prefab is the absence of a Wireless Data Link.
I love your how-to series's. They helped teach my group both Traveller and Call of Cthulhu. I've also seen the Star Wars D6 system books in some of your videos. Any plans on making videos about that system?
I was looking at getting into Lancer for a sci-fi RPG with mechs, but they had very little rules & equipment for out of mech combat. Now we can just add mechs to Traveller!😁
This book as well as the vehicle book are great. I also like the new adventure class ships book. Like Seth, I just wish for more art to use. I also like that they are doing 2d deck plans now, but miss the coloration and neatness of the isometric plans. I think there is also a small craft boom out that is potentially really cool as well.
I missed it on the final summary box. It was included on the worksheet from which the price came. The price was free. It wouldnt have changed it in the slightest.
I like how you did both videos for how to build robots as well as built ships, but was wondering if maybe you could do another video where you build an original ship as well. As an original robot.
it the next book on my list of Traveller stuff still to get, right now just got the core rules supply catalogue and the companion highguard is on the way, using Amazon since i prefer Physical copies.
You could do a whole series designing famous robots from sci-fi. Kryten, Marvin, Robbie, Hewey & Dewey, Bishop - so many possibilities!! 40:20 That spelling brings me joy. There is hope for you Americans yet! :D
Love the Traveller content! I've gotten my hands on the Traveller Mercenaries books and would love to see a review on some of that stuff if you get the chance!
Seems more understandable than the Star Wars D20/Saga Edition rules for building custom droids, though I might be misremembering it; it's been at least five years since I've read those rules. This might be what gets my group to try Traveller, if we ever get back to tabletop RPGs at all.
I played GDW’s New Era. Robots in that were rather unpredictable. I’m guessing there wasn’t a Virus in the Mongoose version of Traveller. That homicidal computer virus meant robots were extremely rare. I had fun with the droid creation rules for Star Wars Saga Edition. I couldn’t play a Jawa, but I could probably duplicate my favorite character’s spaceborne salvage yard and foundry with these rules for Traveller. I usually play the mechanic in sci-fi games, so I am loving this.
Wound up here looking for info on a robot design I vaguely remember. The cost difference is probably due to merchant mark up. In example, You could buy a ROG gaming computer OR build your own and save a few bucks. I imagine most players who want to buy a robot want it now. So they pay a convenience tax and get it immediately or spend time waiting on parts and people to assemble the robot. Anyway, I haven't thought of Traveller in a while so here's a sub. I'll check out your channel for more Traveller stuff.
I think the price differnece could be a good in game hurdle. Make them roll a knowledge check to know the right price and call out the seller, allow them to bargin (regardless if they passed the previous check), maybe give he discounted price if the players can pay in physical currency, bullion or some other intracable form of payment, or soemthing in need like meds, weapons, passage for a family mamber who might have a warrent on the planet etc.
![สาวเมืองเพชร - ธีเดช ทองอภิชาติ [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kEt7F9PvO3I/mqdefault.jpg)
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as we all know chicks dig giant robots
Same here
Congratulations on getting sponsors!
But I wonder how long until RAID Shadow Legends start beating down his doors. 😆 Seriously, they are unrelenting.
@@zimattack9994Nice!
Love you have an advertiser
Hi Seth: Just wanted to let you know that this video was life-changing for my 8 year old. I find your Call of Cthulhu reviews really valuable (and enjoyable!), but don't play Traveler so I wasn't going to even watch this one. However, the beginning autoplayed, just enough for my son to hear a snippet and be utterly fascinated.
He persuaded me to let him watch it, and has now seen it multiple times. He used it to gradually create his own Traveler robot build sheet, and piece together the rules as best he can. Never seen him so focused and meticulous about this sort of technical activity. He's pushing his reading and math abilities so he can build along with you. One of those "lights on" moments you see where a kid finds something he really loves.
So now I'll obviously be buying him this sourcebook for his birthday, which fortunately is coming up! Anyway, this meant a whole lot to a youngster named Jules in Washington State. Huge fan.
UPDATE: I missed listing the Wireless Data Link on the Final Robot Record Box at 40:49 That's a simple cut-and-paste typo. The Wireless Data Link was listed on the robot itself as a free Default Zero-Slot Option. It was a free part and not the cause of the price issue.
My Travellers have been toting around a large metal briefcase for about 29 sessions. It has a seal on it that says "Open Only in Emergency". It contains a semi-inflatable "emergency defensive bot" init, a la Big Hero Six. They have never opened the case. I reminded them they had it when they bought a new ship. They dutifully put it in the ship's locker and have yet to ask about it and have no idea what's in the case.
That sounds pretty accurate to my players.
@@SSkorkowskylol, I figured it's not just me. You've spoken about something like this in at least one of your videos. Funny thing is that one of them kept asking about acquiring high TL bots.
I hope it's a hyperactive hovering saw-blade bot named "The Bonesaw"!
I think the price difference is because the robot you made is just the cost of making the robot, while the book version is a commercially sold robot (ie they need to make money off every bot sold, and 20k is a pretty solid profit)
That's the in-universe reason. The published book reason is because 150k is a nicer number than 130k. Also, they are effectively rewarding players for learning how to build their own. 🙂
My thinking was that he did his math wrong... in the beginning he had one modifier on base price (which he calculated) and then had another modifier onto BASE price which he calculated using the modified price.
Near the middle there was another odd mathematical 'error' but it didn't stick out to me like the first. *shrug* if his table is fine with it then fine. I might not of said anything if I was there (just make a note on how they do their math; be consistent).
Does this account for 20k? Nope! (If anything the price would go down)
Locomotion Increase of 10% Base Chassis cost was done correctly - not a mistake. But it it were, the price result would be cheaper.
"...another odd mathematical 'error'..." - very specific
But thanks for playing
@@brianpembrook9164 you can download it and show where the math was wrong.
Did you get Jack to check your working-out? @@SSkorkowsky
I'm just at the default sensor suite part and I find it amusing how this is basically a guide to upselling. Sure you could take the basic suite but for only a few thousand credits more you'd get so much more!
I know, right? I was watching the video and kept being floored by how each little improvement over a base bot hiked the price. This "simple" crew robot is getting expensive fast!
**slaps top of the robot's cockpit**
This baby can fit so many player options... _FOR MONEY!_ 🤌
I've been so eager to see another Traveller video!!! I found them a while back... but in the last month my game group and I rediscovered your review series and we've been going over it multiple times with all the updated books, it's been so much fun! As a group of players who started their TTRPG hobby with D&D 5E about 8ish years ago , then we moved to Pathfinder 2E a year ago... we've been deep into different flavors of Fantasy... this is the first time we've all got to get our SciFi genre fix and we've loved the content you put out to inspire us and guide us into a new game system!! Thanks so much for the videos!
I'm so happy to see people getting outside the box, and also sad that you said you started 8 years ago with 5e. Am I that old?
Wow, I just started watching the Glass Cannon Voyagers of the Jump campaign and now this video. It looks like the universe wants me to pick up Traveller...
Those GCN Voyagers campaign videos are really good!
I loved season one but I just cannot watch season 2... because frankly Alicia ruins it for me
@@tomkelly00 wait, what did she do?
I'm curious, too. And I was there.
I liked season 2 even more than 1. I thought Alicia was the MVP, she picked up a lot of items that ended up being very useful to the crew. I appreciate her sense of humor.
As soon as you mentioned robot PCs I was immediately hooked on the idea.
Yet another book to add to the wishlist…
Thing with the robot pc's is that it isn't super advanced. It's like a full page or so but there is not limit on what character you can make, which is fun but make it fully up to the gm to approve or disapprove your character and there is no guide-lines.
Plus they can't level up. But one can of course upgrade them with new parts.
So in theory i can build a fully sentient battle robot with basically all the skills at +4 or 5 or something and it can fly and go in space and have stealth systems or whatnot and it's just as "viable" as the crew droid or a Roomba.
So it's cool that there is no limits. But also a bit sad there are no guidelines and it's all up to the GM.
Side question on Traveller: What is the best place to look to get into traveller, both for where to get rules and perhaps look for people to do online sessions with?
If you want the physical book, the Mongoose Website or your FLGS if they use the Bits & Mortar Program. Reason being is through those, if you get the physical book you also get the PDF for free. If all you want is the PDF and no physical book, then the Mongoose website or DriveThru RPG.
As far as where to find online games, dunno. Maybe check the Mongoose forum, Reddit r/Traveller, or the various Traveller Facebook groups.
There is two big Traveller Facebook groups, and one big traveller discord i know of
@@SSkorkowsky Thanks a lot! My bro and I had some bad game experiences of recent that has spoiled our enjoyment of TTRPG. I am from back in AD&D era so we are wanting something fresh.
Your info on traveller has us finding is really in our interest, but of course hard part is finding players.
Happy to help. Best of luck to you both.
Thanks again. I dont want to underestimate how your videos have helped restore our long time passion for TTRPG. Between list vids and game reviews, it helped us see the toxicity in our games that we had just tolerated and began to see how it was harming our experience.
When doing video gaming, we do find ourselves sometimes shouting "For Thor!" Of all the videos, War Stories were the biggest reminder of why we started.
Some of the artwork seemed a little cartoony, but it was nice to see the Zhodani "floating torso of ill omen" (aka the Zhodani Medium Warbot) back again.
Already got to use one of those Medium Warbots two sessions back. I've had the old RAFM miniatures of them for years, but never the stats. So it felt good to say, "It looks exactly like this." Sadly, it never got a shot off before the PCs overkilled it out of pure fear.
@@SSkorkowsky Glorious! (I had the original alien book for the Zhodani, which ISTR featured stats for the LBB edition.)
Funny thing about traveller is 2300AD is more realistic in next 100 years but base traveller is closer to what we could see in 2300
This video let me remember the droid character I made for WEG Star Wars. The last couple years WEG had the license they put out a droid book with construction rules. The droid I made had similar features to this one. However he was a full technician, and repair droid. Had a blue collar personality, and had no patience for the prissy Cybot Galactica tech models.
The cutting torch text says that "a" cutting torch is included, not necessarily an improved one. I'd say that the torch that's included in the toolkit is the 500 cr Basic torch, even at TL 12.
"The robot industry hates him! Expert spills the secrets they don't want you to know! Click *here* to find out how you can save cr20000 or *more* on your next crew droid!"
The 20000 upcost is clearly from the apple logo and paint.
‘Twenty eyes in my head’. Great T Shirt and excellent video!
Hopefully, in Voyagers of the Jump season 3, someone will be able to play as a robot PC!
8:13 - "He he he, hey, Butt-Head, check it out! He he. Seth's talking about robot slots, he he!
Seth adds robot options like I shop at Target
Reminds me of Gurps Vehicles & Gurps Robots by David Pulver. You needed a calculator and either an Excel Spreadsheet or several pieces of paper to note down all characteristics. There was also a disadvantage that you never knew exactly how much of a size your construct would finally end up with as you crammed more and more esoteric gear in it. Though it was still a fun experience and more fulfilling than to write down a simple human character.
Traveller - a simple, flexible system that works for ANY sci-fi setting. Why is it not as big as D&D is for fantasy?
My money for the $20000 is that a basic crew robot was probably created early on in developing the book. Latter a price or two got lowered for "balance" and the fact that the crew robot used an old higher price slipped under the radar. That being said, yours being a cheaper knock of lends itself to having a fun and strange quirk or two.
Seth, do you read minds or something? We just randomly decided to play Traveller and ome of the characters chose to go into robotics, and here you are!
Thanks for the awesome video!
Hope you and your group enjoy Traveller as much as we have
I loved the robot book, but it took me a week or so to wrap my brain around building them. Thanks for making this video, I definitely noticed some mistakes that I made with the few robots I've made.
Happy to help. The learning curve is steep but short. My second robot took me a fraction of the time as the first.
Sorry to be off topic but I was playing around with c# and created a map viewer for 96 of the published sectors. The main map is where you pick the sector you want to look at, then the form updates to a TAS form 5 and 6 side by side. You select the subsector to render on the TAS form 5. All the data from the PDF booklets are displayed including political boundaries. The next step is to allow the user to click on a system and get detailed system information on planets moons asteroid belts and gas giants. Select a world and the TAS global map that folds into a 20 sided dice shows the land distribution based on hydrographic for the world in question. That will take awhile since I’ve only loaded 3 sectors of the 96. I would like to offer this software as shareware. Any suggestions or interest? Recently retired and trying to automate Traveller as I was doing in college on a PC Jr with no hard drive. Love having time and technology to make the dreams of my youth come true.
I can just imagine the 150K vs 130K difference with the "offbrand" version is one could sell a similar model for 110K or so and still make a profit, so in a used car salesman fashion the seller is all like "well usually I sell these for 150K, but for you my friends I'll give you a little discount"
Awesome video Seth, thanks! I followed along with the Mongoose spreadsheet and I came up with a higher price than you did, but I didn't suffer the armor bug you found. My robot came out to Cr146,000 with a "rounded off" price of Cr140,000. I can't explain it...but I loved the video and the play along exercise, anything Traveller!
I have to blame you, Seth. I bought the Call of Cthulhu Bundle of Holding because of you. Your videos make CoC sound so engaging and entertaining that I could not resist the urge to dive into the game head-first.
This type of video is why you are the best. Videos like this are why I'm on your Patreon! Thanks for this.
While I watched this in a couple chunks I appreciate your in-depth dive into how you went through the process and the variant cost you discovered. Thank you again for all the work you do covering Traveller and other RPGs.
Not many cover this game. First heard about the first edition years ago but it was your coverage that really brought the system to my attention. So far, I've only managed to buy a few books with my limited budget and was debating what to save up for next. Glad to see you cover one of the books that I was considering.
Hope you keep covering this series.
Now i absolutely need to play traveller. I love robots as playable characters.
Yay! I have been binge-listening to your videos at work. This helps a lot while cleaning up other people's messes.
I just got this for Christmas! You Sir, are a King among men. Thank you!
"Biological meat brains in a box..." Hey, it's Captain Grimbo!
Recycle "used up" PCs by popping them into a low berth running for a hi-tech world and making your ex-pilot into the ships "auto-pilot".
"Good news Bob even though you got yourself shot up we went to a TL14 world and now you ARE the ship instead of just the pilot."
Now to hope Bob does mind his 2nd life.
The Mi-go have this tech down pat! 😅
Used to like making bots for the Heroes Unlimited game.
many thanks for the video Seth. Literally did up my first robot (a protocol droid) this evening having just got the Robot Handbook (largely due to your video) and used the video to go through the process step by step.
And NPC Jack was spot on lol. First it was character creation that was such a hoot to mess with getting started into the game, then building (modifying an existing model) a starship to a hang on those rules. Now building it is robots. Almost as addicting as building characters and ships lol. Any game for which learning how to play it is as fun as actually playing it is pretty awesome man. It is games within games.
Auspicious timing on this video, one of my fellow players (who is a Robotics expert in game) was just discussing how to kit out a robot he is building.
Appreciate the intro to to robot building.
Sounds almost as much fun as starship building, which I enjoy very much.
Excellent and thorough review! I just started watching this channel and this was impressive.
I think the additional 20k is convenience, sure you can build it yourself, but who says all the parts are going to be available in the same sector?
The price conscious traveler knows that the most efficient robot is the robot you find (hit really hard with a terrestrial vehicle, and repair with spares) along the way.
It is till you inadvertently activate the "Kill everything living you can find" mode. Or return yourself to the Evil Overlord by the quickest method and it steals your starship.
Poor Jack - he was so looking forward to having a mobile beer fridge!
First time I’ve heard a promo code that sounded like an evil wizard. “It is I! Sethskor the Great and Terrible!”
41:47 self repairing misspelled but given how much work it is.still understandable .
Yay, another Traveller video.
I really love that game. It got me started in RPGs back in the days. This and Star Frontiers.
oh hell yes I've been jonesing for another Seth vid, and a traveler vid at that, great vid Seth!
My inner-Battlemech is intrigued.
You'll probably want the vehicle book and the robot book. Battlemech sized robots are vehicles with robot brains in Traveller. Battlemechs piloted by humans are walker vehicles, but you may find a use for some robot options anyway.
Robots.... cool..
Seth’s replacement is a good upgrade.
In blue.
I really appreciate the walk through,
I got this book for Christmas and built my first robot a few weeks ago, a Mechanical Bull!!
Well, this was timely. I just added this book to my Traveller collection I got for christmas, and this video just also just gave me the idea for a player character that's a organic robot puppet master capable of switching bodies depending on the needs and situation!
Oh, this was a nice surprise review! Thank you!
This is an awesome vid, thanks. This has helped me with navigating my way through the robot creation process.
The note about cost disparity is just Mongoose covering their hides knowing they played fast and loose with the example robot costs.
That ending is great!
Thanks Seth. I need to get this book for my Pirates of Drinax campaign. Tech World and all that.
Are you sure about the efficiency in adding a power pack? From my understanding, generally when additive percentages are used, they're added together before being applied to the base number, and going by that math you'd multiply the 72 by +150% (the same as multiplying it by 2.5) which would have an end result of 180 instead of 216. I haven't read the book myself, but it seems odd that the percentage boosts would be multiplied independently like that, as that's counter to how I effectively always see that math handled. So for price, is it possible that part of the discrepancy might be due to the base model using a few more slots for battery packs at greater cost using the math I mentioned, and it being a coincidence that the final endurance time still matched up? Bit of a stretch, maybe, but without doing all the math right now to verify it is potentially something to check and rule out or confirm.
As for the manipulators, it seems odd that you'd need to stat out each arm and leg as an individual manipulator when you'd think they'd be designed as, and designated in, pairs. Personally I would read the sheet as Manipulator #1 being the arms by default (at least if we're assuming a humanoid shape as our default), and #2 as the legs, unless there is a very distinct reasons why each individual arm and leg would have different values from one another. For example, if you had a robot with 6 arms that were functionally identical, it seems like a waste of sheet space to record their stats individually.
I did it correctly. The example bots did it the same way. I also ended the build with the same number of Spare Slots as the Crew Droid in the book.
@@SSkorkowsky Alright, just seemed like an unusual way of handling the math, so I thought I'd bring it up. Suppose I didn't take enough long to look at the sheet comparison.
It's kinda weird.
If that is indeed the "intended" way to calculate it, it is leaning more into "simplified step-by-step" rather than "total additive effect."
My instant go to for a character in scifi is a robot either as an engineer and a full on warmachine.
Designation: Assurance, was my previous character who was a corporate robot, but he took firing and terminations very literally. He was very much what Omni Consumer Products dreamed robocop would be.
Dammit Seth, I'm still recovering from the holidays. WHY DO YOU TEMPT ME. My wallet cries out for succor. Oh well, what's one more rpg supplement.
Seth love all your Traveller content. Just curious if you have dabbled Pirates of Drinax. Would love to see your breakdown of that adventure in the future!
Pirates of Drinax never appealed to me. I don't connect with the Trojan Reach all that well.
However I will be doing a long-form campaign diary/review series on Secrets of the Ancients once we get a little further along in that campaign. It has a few issues, but those are easily overcome, and an overall badass campaign. I expect that series to start sometime this Summer after we've finished at least CH6
Thanks for the thoughtful reply
I just got access to the robot handbook. Which is good, since I'm spinning up to run my first Traveller campaign.
I'm totally gonna try to build my favorite sci-fi robot using the game rules, just to see how close I can get. I figure it'll teach any critical lessons not covered in this video.
Depending on what tradeoffs you care to accept it looks like the creation process could cover Marvin (hhgg) to C3PO to B9 (lost in space) to a Cylon or Terminator. Perfect for recurring NPCs, GM PCs or Robot Hordes.
"Seth Proofing" ... it's not just Seth, and this is why I always, always, always practice version control on a self-calculating excel form of any sort. Back up early, and back up often.
Reminds me of the old Dataware book for TSR's Alternity, with its Robot NPC and PC chapter. I should try Traveller sometime...
And you explained it so well I feel I understood most of it despite not knowing anything about the rules.
Now part of this is my familiarity with games in general, but most of it is all you so good job!
And yeah, it feels like the 130 vs 150 is one of those uneven discounts and such.
So happy about the Robot player Characters! Also just the robots in general! This book is all I needed for this to be added to my "I gotta run this eventually" pile of TTRPGs^^
Everything you do is great thank you
The ending skit was very, very funny
the price difference could be that buying parts individually and then "d-i-y" building it.
the in-book price is the ready-made just press the buttons and it works, and yours is the space-ikea bot, some assembly required.
Now I'm going to be making Robot Traveller! Let's Go!
That's crazy helpful. Thanks
Incogni can protect more vital information like your second middle name, name of your first pet, name of your current pet, name of your house plants, name of your favorite TH-camr, and so on
Great video Seth. I have a couple of theories about the extra 20k cr. First, you pointed out that the cutter comes with the engineering package, maybe that is meant to be only the very basic cutter and if you want the advanced cutter you have to pay for it separately. Granted, 20k cr seems a hefty price for that. So, it may just be the standard lazy tax - build the robot yourself and you get a discount for going to all the work. Accept one off the lot and you pay a premium.
Yeah, the cutter is 5k, so that wouldnt fill the gap. Also the robot from the book has 2 spare slots, just like mine. A cutter would have taken those.
Love your Traveler content and kudos on the sponsorship!
To me, the only difference between your build and the prefab is the absence of a Wireless Data Link.
Mine had one. I simply missed it on the final summary box.
I love your how-to series's. They helped teach my group both Traveller and Call of Cthulhu. I've also seen the Star Wars D6 system books in some of your videos. Any plans on making videos about that system?
Great review. Now I'm curious about robot PCs. Calculating social standing must be interesting.
Hail, Seth! This looks freaking cool. I've never played Traveller but now I kinda want to.
9:33 man, for some reason I was misreading Aslan in size 6 for Asian and I was just really confused why that was there
I was looking at getting into Lancer for a sci-fi RPG with mechs, but they had very little rules & equipment for out of mech combat.
Now we can just add mechs to Traveller!😁
This book as well as the vehicle book are great. I also like the new adventure class ships book. Like Seth, I just wish for more art to use. I also like that they are doing 2d deck plans now, but miss the coloration and neatness of the isometric plans. I think there is also a small craft boom out that is potentially really cool as well.
Re: sheet discrepancies. You also missed out on the Wireless Data Link that the book version has, but I can't imagine that it costs Cr20000.
I missed it on the final summary box. It was included on the worksheet from which the price came. The price was free. It wouldnt have changed it in the slightest.
I like how you did both videos for how to build robots as well as built ships, but was wondering if maybe you could do another video where you build an original ship as well. As an original robot.
it the next book on my list of Traveller stuff still to get, right now just got the core rules supply catalogue and the companion highguard is on the way, using Amazon since i prefer Physical copies.
This makes me want to play as an android in Traveler so much!
You could do a whole series designing famous robots from sci-fi. Kryten, Marvin, Robbie, Hewey & Dewey, Bishop - so many possibilities!!
40:20 That spelling brings me joy. There is hope for you Americans yet! :D
What I want to use in my next campaign is Bonesaw as robotic, flying arc sword (totally not a light saber!)
Robots as NPCs? This makes me want a robot PC!
Good luck finding a Referee who allows that
I was definitely mishearing ‘slots’.
Sethproofing costs extra.
Gratz on the sponsor 😎
Love the Traveller content! I've gotten my hands on the Traveller Mercenaries books and would love to see a review on some of that stuff if you get the chance!
Robotic Manual for Spacemaster is great as well.
Can you make a Roomba with these rules?
Seems more understandable than the Star Wars D20/Saga Edition rules for building custom droids, though I might be misremembering it; it's been at least five years since I've read those rules. This might be what gets my group to try Traveller, if we ever get back to tabletop RPGs at all.
I played GDW’s New Era. Robots in that were rather unpredictable. I’m guessing there wasn’t a Virus in the Mongoose version of Traveller. That homicidal computer virus meant robots were extremely rare.
I had fun with the droid creation rules for Star Wars Saga Edition. I couldn’t play a Jawa, but I could probably duplicate my favorite character’s spaceborne salvage yard and foundry with these rules for Traveller. I usually play the mechanic in sci-fi games, so I am loving this.
Wound up here looking for info on a robot design I vaguely remember. The cost difference is probably due to merchant mark up. In example, You could buy a ROG gaming computer OR build your own and save a few bucks. I imagine most players who want to buy a robot want it now. So they pay a convenience tax and get it immediately or spend time waiting on parts and people to assemble the robot. Anyway, I haven't thought of Traveller in a while so here's a sub. I'll check out your channel for more Traveller stuff.
Sponsored?? Damn, man - moving up in the world! Congrats!
I think the price differnece could be a good in game hurdle. Make them roll a knowledge check to know the right price and call out the seller, allow them to bargin (regardless if they passed the previous check), maybe give he discounted price if the players can pay in physical currency, bullion or some other intracable form of payment, or soemthing in need like meds, weapons, passage for a family mamber who might have a warrent on the planet etc.
You actually did have an attack, the cutter does 3D damage.
I'd love to see a guide on how to create a robot PC using these rules.