Thats important for all rpgs.
After character creation the GM provides a list of essential skills from which the players can pick if they miss something, so you can nudge them into a specific direction.
Traveller RPG (Looking for Opinions)
After character creation the GM provides a list of essential skills from which the players can pick if they miss something, so you can nudge them into a specific direction.
MGibster
Legend
While I try to adapt the campaign to best suit the characters, typically I pitch 2-3 campaign ideas to my group, they select which one they prefer, and then they make characters suited for that campaign. This might be a fun little exercise on how to run a more sandbox game for me though.
I am worried about some aspects of character generation with the randomness being my number one concern. I literally cannot remember the last time I ran a game using random character generation. But I'm hoping the career path is fun enough to mitigate any hesitation regarding randomness.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
For Traveller, the session zero will be long, and campaign pitches maybe should evolve out of the character creation process.
payn
He'll flip ya...Flip ya for real...
I had some trouble getting into Traveller with my players about 10 years ago. I had the same idea of having a crew trying to work off their ship mortgage. It seems like a natural backstory and reasoning for being a trader/adventurer in a sci-fi game. However, my players got bogged down in ledgers and accounting and it got stale pretty quick. They would avoid plot hooks I dangled in front of them as "too dangerous" and would rather find the most lucrative trade good between nearby systems.
There are a few ways around this. One of the best is the Pirates of Drinax sandbox campaign. This product heavily details the Trojan Reach sector of the setting. Basically, a backwater section of space that was once a former sprawling empire. Now, its a loose connection of independent systems sandwiched between two quarreling empires. The players are tasked with attempting to unite the reach and restore the empire. It's up the players to achieve that enormous goal through any number of deeds. If anything, you can chop up Pirates of Drinax for your own purposes. The material is a good deal for the money (digital cheap, physical solid material).
One other aspect was the spacehip travel. Players often think of Star Trek and Star Wars where it takes a few hours to travel across the galaxy. Traveller by default is much more akin to the sailing world of the past centuries. It takes a week to get to another system. Once in a system, it may take hours or even days to reach a planet/station. Space is BIG and Traveller treats it as such. Framing travel more in a sense of sailing helps a lot.
For example, a player wants to create a ship pilot type character. Naturally, the Navy seems like the best career to do this. However, you can also get piloting as a merchant marine, scout, pirate, etc. Its more important to focus on the skill packages of the careers, than the idea of a career being a class. Being a navy pilot, gone merchant marine, gone pirate doesnt make you multi-class in the traditional D&D sense. For example, being a merchant marine instead of a navy pilot in Traveller doesnt mean you are a bard instead of a cleric. These are important distinctions to raise during session zero when it comes to playing Traveller, IMHO.
What the dice driven chargen does is create unique backstories for each character. It helps build NPC allies and enemies for the GM to use. It also can help explain how the PCs know one another. This complicates things for players who like to envision exactly every detail of their characters past, but once again this is something of a departure from D&D.
Cheers!
There are a few ways around this. One of the best is the Pirates of Drinax sandbox campaign. This product heavily details the Trojan Reach sector of the setting. Basically, a backwater section of space that was once a former sprawling empire. Now, its a loose connection of independent systems sandwiched between two quarreling empires. The players are tasked with attempting to unite the reach and restore the empire. It's up the players to achieve that enormous goal through any number of deeds. If anything, you can chop up Pirates of Drinax for your own purposes. The material is a good deal for the money (digital cheap, physical solid material).
One other aspect was the spacehip travel. Players often think of Star Trek and Star Wars where it takes a few hours to travel across the galaxy. Traveller by default is much more akin to the sailing world of the past centuries. It takes a week to get to another system. Once in a system, it may take hours or even days to reach a planet/station. Space is BIG and Traveller treats it as such. Framing travel more in a sense of sailing helps a lot.
Lots of folks get caught in a trap assuming that Traveller chargen makes all the important decisions for a player. I believe a lot of that comes from D&D's class system. Traveller is heavily dependent on skills, not class. The best way to frame chargen to players is around the skills they want to get the character they envision.
For example, a player wants to create a ship pilot type character. Naturally, the Navy seems like the best career to do this. However, you can also get piloting as a merchant marine, scout, pirate, etc. Its more important to focus on the skill packages of the careers, than the idea of a career being a class. Being a navy pilot, gone merchant marine, gone pirate doesnt make you multi-class in the traditional D&D sense. For example, being a merchant marine instead of a navy pilot in Traveller doesnt mean you are a bard instead of a cleric. These are important distinctions to raise during session zero when it comes to playing Traveller, IMHO.
What the dice driven chargen does is create unique backstories for each character. It helps build NPC allies and enemies for the GM to use. It also can help explain how the PCs know one another. This complicates things for players who like to envision exactly every detail of their characters past, but once again this is something of a departure from D&D.
Cheers!
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Back to the earning money thing. There are basically two or three ways for background income.
The most passive is transporting mail or cargo. You basically just roll a easy skill if something is available and earn a fixed rate. Somewhere someone calculated that income from that would be enough to cover maintenance and mortage but nothing more.
Then there is speculative cargo where the players buy and sell cargo on their own, depending on what the planet offers and roll skills to see how much money they can make from that. This is much more involved and with good skills the players can make a lot of money with that, making it their main source of income.
There is also passenger transports. I think it works a bit like mail hauling (Roll if there are passengers) and I think its also fixed rate.
And good idea to stay away from aliens. Imo mixed species crews don't really work well because of the differences in SOC.
And I think alien character generation is nit fully thought out. Its nearly impossible to roll an Aslan with even average SOC.
The most passive is transporting mail or cargo. You basically just roll a easy skill if something is available and earn a fixed rate. Somewhere someone calculated that income from that would be enough to cover maintenance and mortage but nothing more.
Then there is speculative cargo where the players buy and sell cargo on their own, depending on what the planet offers and roll skills to see how much money they can make from that. This is much more involved and with good skills the players can make a lot of money with that, making it their main source of income.
There is also passenger transports. I think it works a bit like mail hauling (Roll if there are passengers) and I think its also fixed rate.
And good idea to stay away from aliens. Imo mixed species crews don't really work well because of the differences in SOC.
And I think alien character generation is nit fully thought out. Its nearly impossible to roll an Aslan with even average SOC.
Eltab
Lord of the Hidden Layer
The website "Citizens of the Imperium" is Traveller's home on the web. There is a subforum for characters, which can give you an idea what is possible and what can happen during chargen.
No link because I haven't figured out how to cut-and-paste on my mobile device yet. If you get into the Traveller wiki there is a link to the main forum.
No link because I haven't figured out how to cut-and-paste on my mobile device yet. If you get into the Traveller wiki there is a link to the main forum.
payn
He'll flip ya...Flip ya for real...
It's true, the core rule book does a poor job of differentiating species. I do really enjoy the Third Imperium setting, though most of the species are just, lion people, dog people, bug people, etc.
Another push for the Pirates of Drinax campaign product is that they really flesh out the Aslan species. I dont like everything they did, (Aslan males can do this, Aslan females can do that), but the culture and new careers makes a new species finally feel like it.
Another push for the Pirates of Drinax campaign product is that they really flesh out the Aslan species. I dont like everything they did, (Aslan males can do this, Aslan females can do that), but the culture and new careers makes a new species finally feel like it.
Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
IME classic Traveller is closer to Firefly/Serenity in terms of setting and usual campaign goings on. I haven't actually played Traveller of any version for decades now but back in the 890's and 90's when I did play, our ship and PC's were very much Serenity and Millennium Falcon, just without the settings around those particular ships and instead in a more generic universe where our PC's could be mercenary merchants of fortune.
MGibster
Legend
I've been making a few test characters with the RPGSUITE Traveller character generator, and boy, howdy! Sometimes you can get some unexpectedly weird results. The free version of the generator only allows you to pick a human and choose from 5 careers, Navy, Marine, Army, Drifter, and Scout. One character I made mustered out of the Navy as a commander with a 14 Education and his highest skill was Blade at 2. There have been a few characters I rolled up that I don't think any player would be interested in. Penalties on every single stat.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Yeah, rejects are always a possibility. Note that due to the 2d6 rules, +1 or +2 are great, anything more is fantastic. I'd recommend running tests long-hand using the Mongoose rulebook, as the digital format is going to be...dry...
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