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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8253760" data-attributes="member: 82106">There is a big difference in Traveller though, older characters are not NECESSARILY stronger. You could keep going through more 'tours of duty' and probably boost your skill ratings, but you would CERTAINLY get older and your physical stats would degrade, and those were vital because they are your hit points. A character that spent 8 terms (32 years) in his career would have lost several points in CON/DEX/STR (and they were 2d6, so that would be pretty significant). I think the dying part was more to make the career system more fun as a mini-game. You got to 'gamble' and if you got unlucky, then you had to go back and start again. We spent endless hours just rolling up PCs because it was FUN. Eventually you'd get mustered out/layed off and then you'd have to go play the actual RPG, which I think was the real point of that rule. So, yes, really excellent characters were a random, and more uncommon, occurrence but it is more just &quot;this is the random distribution of rolling dice&quot; vs &quot;certain things are walled off.&quot; I mean you could ALWAYS be a Space Marine, you just said &quot;I'm going into the Space Marines!&quot; You might get booted after 1 term with nothing but basic weapons training, but at least you wouldn't have aged, and you were an ex-Marine, which was probably the RP you were after.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8253760, member: 82106"] There is a big difference in Traveller though, older characters are not NECESSARILY stronger. You could keep going through more 'tours of duty' and probably boost your skill ratings, but you would CERTAINLY get older and your physical stats would degrade, and those were vital because they are your hit points. A character that spent 8 terms (32 years) in his career would have lost several points in CON/DEX/STR (and they were 2d6, so that would be pretty significant). I think the dying part was more to make the career system more fun as a mini-game. You got to 'gamble' and if you got unlucky, then you had to go back and start again. We spent endless hours just rolling up PCs because it was FUN. Eventually you'd get mustered out/layed off and then you'd have to go play the actual RPG, which I think was the real point of that rule. So, yes, really excellent characters were a random, and more uncommon, occurrence but it is more just "this is the random distribution of rolling dice" vs "certain things are walled off." I mean you could ALWAYS be a Space Marine, you just said "I'm going into the Space Marines!" You might get booted after 1 term with nothing but basic weapons training, but at least you wouldn't have aged, and you were an ex-Marine, which was probably the RP you were after. [/QUOTE]

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