Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 20

We continue with the 'random' encounters section. After determining the clone-characteristics of the group encountered, there is a chance on the weapons table that there will be some special weapons. It's a bit convoluted, and I haven't seen the table to see how it works yet, but basically you roll on the weapons table, first column, and if you get a number, someone in the group has the weapon that corresponds to that number; if you don't, you roll again on the second column, and so on. Anyone with one of these weapons is considered to have skill level 1 with that weapon.

The encounter table has six blanks, which are to be treated as 'no encounter' results, although they can be filled in later at the referee's option to customize the table.

After the random encounter is actually encountered, reactions are checked to see what they think of the PCs. They might be hostile, in which case combat may erupt, although the procedures from Book One will sometimes allow one party to escape the other without conflict. But where's the fun in that?

Ah, looting the bodies! The most classic of role-playing tropes. That's why people usually play, isn't it? To kill things (or people) and take their stuff? Well, this is actually the first mention of that in Traveller. But yes, when you have a combat encounter and emerge victorious, the spoils of war (i.e., whatever the other side was carrying) are yours for the taking. That's comforting to know.

And that ends the random encounters; next up: Patrons!

This section starts out by telling us that an adventurer's primary and recurring goal in the game is to find someone rich who can help them get rich and famous. Patrons, then, are people who hire the PCs for a specific job. Best of all, if they hire you, they pay your expenses. Within reason, but I've not yet met a player whose definition of 'reasonable expenses' wasn't stretched to the breaking point.

So, these patrons hire the PCs to do their dirty work; it might be something routine, like guarding someone or something, or it might be riskier, like assassinating a target, for example, or stealing something valuable, or just exploring a recently-discovered planet and seeing if the place is worth setting up a colony of some sort. And if they do hire you to get something, they only expect to receive the something at the end of the job; anything else acquired in the process belongs to the PCs, not the patron. Sweet deal.

The patron system seems to be a pretty significant part of the expected style of play. You can look for one patron a week, through the usual channels: bars, taverns, etc. You get one die roll a week, and a 5 or 6 means you found a likely patron. More dice then determine what kind of patron you've found, and what they want. Oh, and they get a reaction roll, too. It doesn't matter if they are in dire need of adventurers to save their planet from a giant amoeba in space; if they don't like you, they'll wait for someone else to come along.

Once the patron is established, it's up the referee to get the details of what they actually want the PCs to do, and what obstacles might get in the way. So, patrons are basically quest-givers, and the referee has to figure out the rest himself. Well, it's not like that hasn't been a staple of gaming since the very beginning.

So, an interesting page. Obviously, patrons are going to be a big part of any game. It's actually a part of the D&D game that gets glossed over for the most part. I mean, most adventures have a 'patron' handing out the mission, sure, but random patrons? That's something new and different. I like it.

And that wraps up this page. More to come!