Traveller 2nd Edition Character Creation
Well I find myself with time on my hands, so I’m going to go through the lifepath generation of the new 2nd edition of ‘Mongoose’ Traveller.
For those not in the know, Traveller is to science fiction rpgs what D&D is to fantasy. Traveller is interesting in that you may start with a character idea, but you play through various stages of the character’s life, so what you may anticipate at the beginning may not reflect where you end up at ‘game start’.
Perhaps a bit close to real life?
At any-rate, let us meet our future adventurer: Hillary Sanders Trump.
Hillary is from Earth, around TL 10 (Tech Level 10, which means jump drives are available, but recently, we will say for the last 50 years or so.) This would be a fairly… disruptive time, as every person, corporation, religion and other organization will be rushing to carve out ‘their’ own piece of the cosmos, and many current governments will struggle to maintain control.
- The first step in character creation is to roll 2d6 six times and allocate among strength, dexterity, endurance,intellect,education and social standing.
The pool I end up with is:
5,3, 11, 8, 7, 9 and 5.
Ugh
Well let’s make her smart and educated. Perhaps due to frequent illness she focused inward on her intellectual growth::
Strength 3 (-1), Dexterity 5 (-1), Endurance 5 (-1)
Intellect 11 (+1), Education 9 (+1), Social 8 (+0)
2. Background Skills
Hillary gets to choose a number of ‘Background Skills’ at level 0 equal to her education DM (die modifier, which in her case would be 4, as her DM for education is +1)
Given she appears to be an explorer of the great indoors, she is probably not going to start with much in terms of physical skills, so let us give her Admin 0, Broker 0, Science 0 and Medic 0 due to all the time she spent with doctors growing up.
It should be noted that the purpose of a 0 level skills is it allows a straight roll without being penalized for not having the skill.
3. Careers are what define a Traveller’s life, and in this edition we have the opportunity to have pre-career education such as University or a Military Academy. The latter appears to be a bad idea for Hillary, so she will attempt to enroll in University.
To enter University, she needs to roll a EDU of 7+. She would get a bonus if her social standing is high enough, but unfortunately it isn’t.
Hillary rolls an 8 + 1 from her EDU, so she makes it into University!
She gets to choose one skill at 0 and one at level 1
For Hillary we will choose Electronics 0, and Engineering 1 (J-drive) (Huge demand for people who know how jump drives work)
If a skill has a specialty, such as Electronics or Engineering, once the Traveller reaches level 1, she selects a specialty. When you get to level 2, you can either go to level 2 with that specialty or level 1 with another specialty.
Her Education stat also goes to 10.
She now rolls on the event table and gets a ‘Life Event’ and gets ‘Good Fortune’ something happened during college that will allow her to get a +2DM to a later benefit roll. In her case let’s say that she writes a very clever analysis about the limitations of a certain standard J-Drive that may come to the attention of someone down the road…
Now she needs to roll INT 7+ to graduate or 11+ for graduation with honors:
Hillary agains rolls an 8 + 1 from her INT DM, so she graduates normally which bumps her
ELectronics to\ Electronics 1 (Computers) and Engineering to Engineering 2 (J-Drive) and bumps here Education stat to 12 which means she is at a DM +2 for Education rolls now
TERM !
Hillary is going to try to be a Scholar (Scientist)
She gets a +1 to qualify due to her graduation and an additional +1 for her Intelligence. She needs to roll a 6 or better to qualify and does.
Given this is her first term, she get all of her basic skills at level 0 if she does not already have them:
Drive,Electronics,Diplomat,Medic,Investigate and Science.
She now rolls on the scientist table:
Science 1 (Physics)
Next step is to see if she ‘survives’ this term and she needs to roll EDU 4+, which given she has a +2 modifier due to her Education bonus is assured.
Events for the term happen next: She is given advanced training in a specialist field if she can roll EDU 8+, which amazingly she doesn’t. Life sucks sometimes.
Advancement: Now she needs to roll a INT 8+ to ‘advance’ as she is currently a ‘Rank 0’ Scholar, and she gets a 10 which bumps here to ‘Rank 1’ gets her a Science level which she adds to Physics, as well as another development roll, this time she spends her time on personal development and gets DEX +1.
Perhaps she started playing Space Squash?
She is now 4 years older, so at 22 this is Hillary:
Strength 3 (-1), Dexterity 6 (+0), Endurance 5 (-1)
Intellect 11 (+1), Education 12 (+2), Social 8 (+0)
Admin 0, Broker 0, Broker 0, Drive 0, Diplomat 0, Investigate 0, Science 2 (Physics), Engineering 2 (J-Drive), Medic 0, Electronics 1 (Computers)
TERM 2
Rolling on the Scientist skills and talents:
Another level of Science, which she is putting into Physics
She automatically ‘survives’
Events: Life events table shows that she gets an Ally from a Romantic Relationship (character creation is suggested as a group activity as PCs can connect their characters on events such as this and gains some free skills)
Advancement: Yes, she barely gets an 8. Scholarly fields are easy to survive, hard to advance which is the reverse of military careers. She is now Rank 2, no formal title unlike military careers (which have O and E tracks) She gets another level for Electronics (Computers) and another roll on development which she is going to use on the personal development table again (focuses on attribute and language improvmenets) Her Social is bumped by +1, perhaps as a result of her new romantic relationship boosting her confidence or introducing her to ‘better’ people.
Hillary is now 26
Strength 3 (-1), Dexterity 6 (+0), Endurance 5 (-1)
Intellect 11 (+1), Education 12 (+2), Social 9 (+1)
Admin 0, Broker 0, Drive 0, Diplomat 0, Investigate 0, Science 3 (Physics), Engineering 2 (J-Drive), Medic 0, Electronics 2 (Computers)
She has an Ally as a result of a Romantic Relationship
Rank 2 Scholar
TERM 3
Rolling on the scientist table:
Admin 1… Yep as any scientist will tell you…
She automatically survives
Events: You gain a prestigious prize for your work, garnering praise and envy of your co-workers. +1 DM for one benefit roll.
Advancement: Yes, with an 11 this time. This bumps her to Rank 3, which gives her Investigate 1. And another roll, which bumps her Endurance to 6.
Hillary is now 30
Strength 3 (-1), Dexterity 6 (+0), Endurance 6 (+0)
Intellect 11 (+1), Education 12 (+2), Social 9 (+1)
Admin 1, Broker 0, Drive 0, Diplomat 0, Investigate 1, Science 3 (Physics), Engineering 2 (J-Drive), Medic 0, Electronics 2 (Computers)
She has an Ally as a result of a Romantic Relationship
Rank 3 Scholar
+ 1 DM to one benefit roll, +2 DM to one benefit roll.
TERM 4
Rolling on the Scientist table:
Investigate +1
She automatically survives
Event: Life event: You commit or are convicted of a crime. Lose one benefit or serve a Term as a Prisoner. Oops. Let’s keep those benefits and send Hillary to the crossbar motel. (Maybe she used her newfound Investigate skill to look into someone she shouldn’t have?)
Aging roll!
She is now 34 and has to make aging rolls at the end of every term going forward, and she has at least one more in prison… Fortunately no impact yet.
Interestingly she still gets to roll for advancement, but doesnt make it.
TERM 5
Hillary starts in jail. Looking at the tracks available, trying to be a ‘fixer’ is her best bet as just ‘doing her time’ relies alot on her non existent endurance whereas Fixer relies on Intelligence
Parolel Threshold is rolled as 5 (she needs to beat this with an advancement roll to leave)
Skills (from the Fixer options)
Deception 1
Survival: Really not a sure thing now, and she fails.
A prison gang decides to persecute her. I f she doesnt fight back she loses her benefit roll, if she fights back and loses… well off to the injry table repeatedly.
She choses to fight and gets a natural 12… So even lacking any notable skills she manages to fight them off, gaining a bonus to her Parole threshold of +1
Advancement: She rolls a 7, needed a 6 after her prison fight.
Aging roll: No problem
We are done with Hillary’s Career. Once a promising scientist, perhaps she found something she shouldnt have, was sent to prison and is now free again after 4 years.
Now we see see what Benefits she gets:
For her Science careeer, she gets 4 for her 4 terms, plus 2 for her rank.
- Lab Ship (With %25 mortgage paid off)
- Using her +2 DM, she get 100000 CR
- Using her +1 DM she gets Lab Ship again (So now %50 paid off)
- INT +1
- Two Ship Shares
- 30000CR
For her Prison career, she gets nothing as the failed survival roll means it wasn't a ‘successful’ prison term.
So as we begin play:
Hillary Sanders Trump, Age 38 (Maybe) framed scientist looking for revenge.
Strength 3 (-1), Dexterity 6 (+0), Endurance 6 (+0)
Intellect 12 (+2), Education 12 (+2), Social 9 (+1)
Admin 1, Broker 0, Drive 0, Deception 1, Diplomat 0, Investigate 2, Science 3 (Physics), Engineering 2 (J-Drive), Medic 0, Electronics 2 (Computers)
She has an Ally as a result of a Romantic Relationship
She has a Prison Gang as an enemy due to… well prison.
Lab Ship that is %50 paid off, 2 ship shares, 130000CR
Rank 3 Scholar
Rank 0 Prisoner
did it go well?
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