Character Generation

[Hvalreki]

Welcome Travellers

In this section we'll discuss all things character generation.

[Hvalreki]

I


In an effort to keep this as OG as possible to what it was like in 1977 a few things to keep in mind as you approach the game.

Traveller is supposed to be fun. Characters are easy to roll up.

It is also totally normal and possible that your character may die in generation.

The chance of death is there at the table right from the very start. That is OK, try not to die, but if you do, roll up another character and move on. Easy peasy.

Traveller is all about tradeoffs and the consequences of your choices and actions.

You roll your stats, 2d6 in order six times (don't choke, you play what you roll in 1977). If you don't like your dude join the Scouts, they die a lot. However, your guy may surprise you and live despite your best efforts to kill him in service. That's what you roleplay.

More tradeoffs. You want the skills so you enlist in a service to get them BUT you need to survive the term first and eventually as in life you start getting old which can affect your stats. Tradeoffs, choices, player agency.

There is no need at this point for elaborate character backstories. I find it interesting to follow my rolls and try to figure out who is this guy as I'm going along and why does he have blade 3 (or whatever) in the far future? Playing the game is where you really find out who the character is and what kind of person they will be. Your actions define your character, not necessarily your stats or skills. As you play the game your character comes out. Trying to roleplay that consistently is challenging but fun. Give it a shot.

[Totalguest]

I love the character generation and agree that it’s great for figuring out who your character is! I like to track which terms I get which skills in to get a basic background together. Will there be a term limit?

[Hvalreki]

Hi Totalguest!

No limits, you decide what you want to tradeoff. More chances for skills? Check, that comes with a chance of death among the stars and/or declining stats as your space ace gets the middle age spread.

By the way - if you do not have book 1 I can help you roll up a person or alternative and totally acceptable is use the classic traveller generator online to get a character fast. I'll dig up the link, just take a screen shot of the character including the URL. The only caveat there is you will reroll the mustering out benefits using the die roller on this forum.

I prefer the books and rolling them bones but that's me.

If you do decide to roll your own (with or without my help) please roll your stats on the die roller. The link is in the upper left of your screen. You need to register (don't bother with the character sheets it's for D&D. You will want to put in the campaign number to link your rolls to this game. Roll 2d6 six times. Those rolls (in order ) are your guy, or gal.



You replied superfast so still setting up the forum. Sorry about the construction site

[Totalguest]

Haha sorry, I’m just super bored and have nothing to do tonight so compulsively scanning the various boards.
I’ve got the 77 box so I’m all set!

[Totalguest]

Poor Winston Moore met his untimely death in his 5th term as a merchant. RIP.

[Hvalreki]

Space is dangerous! That's why most folks are not Travellers. They stay safely at home and become teachers, truck drivers or middle-management .

[dongriffiths]

I always found a lot of the fun in character creation was laughing at each other desperately trying to survive that final term when you had decided to muster out. It nearly always ended in disaster.

As we can't really do that I've taken you up on the option of using the character generator and got this:

Space 1977.png (64.89 KiB) Viewed 816 times

If he looks ok I'll tidy him up when we get doing the benefits

[Totalguest]

After a few more deaths in the scouts and other categories, finally we had a survivor!

Terry Case, Scouts, Age 34, 6699D2
Skills: Electronic-2, Mechanical-2, Pilot-1, Jack of all trades-1, Medical-1

[Hvalreki]

Great! 2 down one to go.

They both look fine. Feel free to keep or change the name on your generated one Don.

Next steps for both of you is rolling muster out benefits.
Please make your rolls using the die roller and let me know the results.

You can take up to 3 benefits rolls max on cash table. Just let me know in the macro if it’s cash or benefits for each roll.

“Terry Case” gets 4 rolls for 4 terms as a scout.

“Peng Green” gets 4 (3 rolls for 3 terms + a bonus roll for being rank 1 or 2)

[Totalguest]

mustered out with:
Low passage
+2 edu
50000 cash
+2 edu

I'm very educated now haha

[Hvalreki]

Must have been all those correspondence courses out in the black!

[perryb413]

Robot overlord generated. Name change is the only thing I did to alter the result:

Navy Lieutenant Dmitri Vlodnak 6987B7 Age 30
3 terms Cr75,000

Skills: Admin-1, Bayonet-1, Computer-1, Engineering-1, Gunnery-1, Navigation-1, Pilot-1

Benefits: Bayonet

Service History:
Rolled attributes: 6987B5
Automatic Enlistment accepted.
--------------------------------------------
Term 1 age 22
Commission roll 4 + 0 vs 10
Learned Pilot-1
Learned Admin-1
Survival roll 9 + 2 vs 5
Reenlistment roll 12 vs 6
Mandatory reenlistment for second term.
--------------------------------------------
Term 2 age 26
Commission roll 6 + 0 vs 10
Learned Computer-1
Survival roll 5 + 2 vs 5
Reenlistment roll 8 vs 6
Voluntarily reenlisted for third term.
--------------------------------------------
Term 3 age 30
Commission roll 12 + 0 vs 10
Increased social by 1 to 6
Commissioned during third term of service as Ensign.
Promotion roll 11 + 1 vs 8
Increased social by 1 to 7
Promoted to Lieutenant.
Learned Engineering-1
Learned Navigation-1
Learned Gunnery-1
Survival roll 4 + 2 vs 5
Reenlistment roll 6 vs 6
Chose not to reenlist after third term.
--------------------------------------------
Mustered Out
5,000 credits
20,000 credits
50,000 credits
Bayonet
Learned Bayonet-1

Do you have any guidelines on starting equipment? The only books I have are Mongoose 2e.

Also do you have a good CT character sheet I can use (pref fillable PDF) to put this into an easier layout for future use?

[Hvalreki]

Hi Perry!

Instead of character sheets we'll just use a very basic format


Former Service Rank Name UPP Age
Terms

Skills:


Example -

Army Captain Zoe Popov 8B846A Age 22
1 term

Sills: Bayonet-1, Rifle-1, SMG-1

I'll setup a holding pen to post characters to and you all can keep track of equipment and finances there. Feel free to find a picture of your character and include it there.

As far as equipment goes everyone is going to start out with just the basics:

A space bag (think seabag but in spaaaace)
Their old service uniform (if any)
Several changes of basic civilian clothing
Belt
Working boots
Toiletries
Field jacket
Hat
Gloves

Whatever you mustered out with (cash, weapon, tickets, etc.)

The gearlist in CT is a lot shorter than Mongoose. Anything you want to buy you can buy in game. The assumption is you've made your way "here" from way back in the Imperium and have been travelling for months. Your cash on hand has been converted to local currency. Your tickets are good here and also convertible to cash should you wish to sell them.

[Totalguest]

A couple lines on an index card are all you really need. If you look at my character above, once I add a bit of equipment, that’ll be my whole character sheet

[Hvalreki]

The player sheets look great. I'm looking forward to finding out more about this lot as we play.

We have

Former Merchant 3rd officer Alphonse Le Grange. Only promoted once in 12 years of service who winds up somehow with what looks like the "Other" career skill set
His last term barely survives (5 of 5) and picks up the Sword skill? A master bribing streetwise steward with a sword! Who is this guy?

Former Navy Lieutenant, Dimitri Vlodnak. Had a routine first term and forced to stay for a second then his third term gets commissioned and promoted!
That third term picks up nearly every "ship skill" he didn't already have and would have died on survival except for the +2 from his high intelligence. Who is this guy?

Lastly former Scout Terry Case (love the photo by the way, very much how I always pictured the Scouts. Looks like 1977 hair and moustache too! Straight out of Darkstar)
Very Scoutlike skills including the handy when you're on your own Jack-of-All trades skill. Nearly had a ship in mustering out benefits but went for cash instead of benefits on that roll (that had to hurt).
Also he somehow wound up with a D education - F is human maximum. Oh and a 2 social class, a 2?!? - Who is this guy?

From John Carpenter's Darkstar- 1974 Film

[Totalguest]

Haha, yeah the 2 social standing is something else, I’m gonna have to think on that one.

[BackworldTraveller]

I think I'm going to be playing
Rando Jordan (Yep born with that from the random roller - though with my relative age I suspect I'm going to be called "Son" a lot)
7C9B99 Age 22 Cr0.
Army Captain (1 Term). Well I guess I was a short commission volunteer!
Drives, Shoots and calls for artillery. Classic Armoured Recon Skillset.

Dexterous, Rugged, Clever, Reasonably educated and posher than the rest of this rabble group, but not actually properly posh.
And Broke and Jobless and how the heck did I know you lot?

Portrait.png (505.16 KiB) Viewed 710 times

[Hvalreki]

Hi David,

Rando Jordan (that's definitely a keeper name ) looks good.
You can post him to the Crew Common Area.

Keep track of equipment, notes, etc. there.

You should also re-roll his Muster Out benefits here in this section using the die roller instead of the generator.
Just put in the macro if it's cash or benefits.

2 rolls for Rando, 1 for term +1 for Rank 1 or 2 - good luck!

[Thumper]

New Dmitri player.