The one problem I have always had with my gaming group is that the various
Traveller and MT games seem to produce characters who are a tad shy of the
old folks home. Has anyone ever created their own system for character creation
which allows for younger characters with more skills than the normal paths would allow?
The way I read this, and correct my misinterpretation if I'm wrong, the problem and solution is not where you think it lies, in the rules.
I wonder if your issue is one of several possible ones:
Age - Do you object to the characters being listed as 56 years old because you imagine that makes them decrepit? Who's to say 120 isn't the new 40 in the far future? Or is it the aging rolls catching up with the stats and making all the characters low physical specimens? I've long thought the "aging" rolls are (to quote a great line) "not the years, honey, but the mileage". Or in other words Travellers tend to "age" prematurely because they live a hard and dangerous life. That 56 year old (in the future where 120 is the new 40) looks and feels more like 170.
Skills - Is it that all your players want to be able to do everything well? Or do they each have something they want to do well and keep generating terms until they get it? Both are problems easily addressed. In the first case you need to teach them that they should each bring a different specialty to the game, not each be able to do everything. In the second, as ref you should fudge so they each get their desired skill early and allow them to improve it during play.
As to the general question, younger characters with more skills.
For the first part, if you stick to the survival rule as originally intended (fail equal death in char gen) this alone should be enough that your players will, by choice or simple probability, end up with characters averaging about 3 terms.
For the second part CT is better. The skills are fewer and broader, so they mean more. And the characters have more zero-level skill chances to make them more versatile.
Or you could just double* the number of skills awarded in CT basic char gen and really stick to the survive or die rule. That seems the easiest way to get more (random) skills and keep the characters young.
* Anywhere it says gain 1 skill you gain 2, anywhere it says gain 2 skills you gain 4. So 1st term is 4 skills. Subsequent terms are 2 skills. Rank advancement is 2 skills. Scouts get 4 skills per term.
A similar solution for MT would probably be about as good. Hard survival to encourage few terms and doubling the skill rolls to allow more skills.
