payn
He'll flip ya...Flip ya for real...
Greetings,
This is the third installment of a series on the Traveller RPG. You can find one on editions, and another on settings with those links. This thread is all about my favorite thing in Traveller; Character generation!
Whats chargen like in Traveller?
So, first of all, let’s address dying during character generation. It’s true, it’s possible, and no it’s not easy. Stats are rolled with 2D6 in most editions. If you go right down the line, it’s possible to have very low physical stats. When endurance, along with strength or dexterity reach zero, the character dies. Combine low stats with possible accidents during careers, and aging, it’s possible to reach zero and have the character die.
Why push your luck? There is another lesser known joke about Traveller chargen, “it’s a game of geriatrics in space”. In Traveller characters gain skills, connections, and benefits by living through periods of careers (4 years per career period). The more careers a character has, the more opportunities to learn things. Obviously, the older the character becomes as well. As the character ages, thier physical stats may take a hit, while their mental stats may get a bump. This is to reflect becoming wiser while becoming less agile in game terms.
One of the biggest issues folks new to Traveller have, is thinking of careers like other TTRPG classes. That is not the case in Traveller. Careers simply serve as a way to gain skills and experiences. Getting kicked out of the military and having to take a second career is not multi-classing. The chargen systems is an attempt to model the typical life path of any individual. You are likely to make 1 or more career changes in your life. When new players join my groups, I encourage them to look over skills and decide the type of things they want their character to be able to do, and more importantly, be good at. I encourage them to pursue careers then that will get them the skills and experiences to achieve their goals.
My impressions of Traveller chargen.
Where a person chooses to stop in character generation is going to vary between tables and editions. Most my experiences are with Mongoose Traveller. My players, typically, stop chargen around 38-46 years of age. That is around 5-7 career periods. A career period is 4 years and offers new skills and possible experiences. The character may end up getting married/divorced, or stopping a crime (or being involved in one), getting promoted, or possibly flaming out (failing a career survival check and having to move onto a new career).
I, typically, do not like random character generation in TTRPGs, however, Traveller breaks the typical combat role requirements found in a number of TTRPGs. Since Traveller can accommodate all kinds of characters, and is skill driven, I find randomly rolling up PCs to be a fun and rewarding process. Also, im a fan of having less detailed backstories in RPGs. My belief is that the PCs are about to engage on their life defining adventure in the campaign. Traveller, has a nice baked in way of providing acquaintances, allies, rivals, and enemies. These moments can help create NPCs to thread the PC into the campaign setting. The biggest reward is this happens at the table with everyone together. Mongoose even went so far as giving the players a benefit if they link their PCs via life events.
Traveller has been designed over the years to be very homebrew friendly. Even the official settings are left fairly vague for the Referee to fill out. I do wish at times that there was more encouragement to link PCs to actual setting places. Also, events that are less generic and more specific to the campaign they are about to play. Some Traveller aficionados may see this as a cardinal sin, but I would love to see more players guides published by Mongoose in this area (Pirates of Drinax offers this but in a less concentrated and intuitive place). I full heartedly endorse any Referee to take this on as part of their campaign prep. I think it will give extra legs to your game for your players.
How do you roll?
So, I’ll turn it over to you fellow Travellers. What do you like or dislike about Traveller chargen? What are your experiences with it? Any advice or fun homerules you have taken up that other Referees might want to test out? Any uninitiated out there want to hear from us geriatric Travellers?
Thanks for reading.
-Cheers
This is the third installment of a series on the Traveller RPG. You can find one on editions, and another on settings with those links. This thread is all about my favorite thing in Traveller; Character generation!
Whats chargen like in Traveller?
So, first of all, let’s address dying during character generation. It’s true, it’s possible, and no it’s not easy. Stats are rolled with 2D6 in most editions. If you go right down the line, it’s possible to have very low physical stats. When endurance, along with strength or dexterity reach zero, the character dies. Combine low stats with possible accidents during careers, and aging, it’s possible to reach zero and have the character die.
Why push your luck? There is another lesser known joke about Traveller chargen, “it’s a game of geriatrics in space”. In Traveller characters gain skills, connections, and benefits by living through periods of careers (4 years per career period). The more careers a character has, the more opportunities to learn things. Obviously, the older the character becomes as well. As the character ages, thier physical stats may take a hit, while their mental stats may get a bump. This is to reflect becoming wiser while becoming less agile in game terms.
One of the biggest issues folks new to Traveller have, is thinking of careers like other TTRPG classes. That is not the case in Traveller. Careers simply serve as a way to gain skills and experiences. Getting kicked out of the military and having to take a second career is not multi-classing. The chargen systems is an attempt to model the typical life path of any individual. You are likely to make 1 or more career changes in your life. When new players join my groups, I encourage them to look over skills and decide the type of things they want their character to be able to do, and more importantly, be good at. I encourage them to pursue careers then that will get them the skills and experiences to achieve their goals.
My impressions of Traveller chargen.
Where a person chooses to stop in character generation is going to vary between tables and editions. Most my experiences are with Mongoose Traveller. My players, typically, stop chargen around 38-46 years of age. That is around 5-7 career periods. A career period is 4 years and offers new skills and possible experiences. The character may end up getting married/divorced, or stopping a crime (or being involved in one), getting promoted, or possibly flaming out (failing a career survival check and having to move onto a new career).
I, typically, do not like random character generation in TTRPGs, however, Traveller breaks the typical combat role requirements found in a number of TTRPGs. Since Traveller can accommodate all kinds of characters, and is skill driven, I find randomly rolling up PCs to be a fun and rewarding process. Also, im a fan of having less detailed backstories in RPGs. My belief is that the PCs are about to engage on their life defining adventure in the campaign. Traveller, has a nice baked in way of providing acquaintances, allies, rivals, and enemies. These moments can help create NPCs to thread the PC into the campaign setting. The biggest reward is this happens at the table with everyone together. Mongoose even went so far as giving the players a benefit if they link their PCs via life events.
Traveller has been designed over the years to be very homebrew friendly. Even the official settings are left fairly vague for the Referee to fill out. I do wish at times that there was more encouragement to link PCs to actual setting places. Also, events that are less generic and more specific to the campaign they are about to play. Some Traveller aficionados may see this as a cardinal sin, but I would love to see more players guides published by Mongoose in this area (Pirates of Drinax offers this but in a less concentrated and intuitive place). I full heartedly endorse any Referee to take this on as part of their campaign prep. I think it will give extra legs to your game for your players.
How do you roll?
So, I’ll turn it over to you fellow Travellers. What do you like or dislike about Traveller chargen? What are your experiences with it? Any advice or fun homerules you have taken up that other Referees might want to test out? Any uninitiated out there want to hear from us geriatric Travellers?
Thanks for reading.
-Cheers
