• Welcome to the new COTI server. We've moved the Citizens to a new server. Please let us know in the COTI Website issue forum if you find any problems.
  • We, the systems administration staff, apologize for this unexpected outage of the boards. We have resolved the root cause of the problem and there should be no further disruptions.

T5 Only: First Try at T5 Character Generation

Having gotten my copy of the T5.10 books last week, I decided to take try out the process of character generation for myself. At one point, I had quite a few Classic Traveller characters generated, and it's always been a minigame I've enjoyed in many systems. Here's my first attempt at generating a Traveller: 5 character.

Meet Coronel Sir Elden Cox, IM (ret), SEH, XSx4, WBx2, BA (Hons). Born on 195-1063, he is a native of Preslin/Gulf (Dene 0633). One of the few non-Jonkeereen natives of the world, he ended up dropping out of high school, and finding some work around the Navy Base. Seeing how unpleasant life was during that period, he completed his basic education at the Downport Education Company, to apply for college at the Imperial College of Preselin, where he obtained a honors degree in electronics, and joined NOTC, where his massive physique got the attention of the Marine Sergeant-Instructor. With his humble background, and previous lack of academic success, he opted to join the Marines instead. After completing the Deneb Marine Officer's School, he was assigned to Protected Forces, meaning Meteoric Entry and Ship's Troops his entire career. On his first tour, on mission against the Kforzeung corsairs, he was decorated with the Starburst for Extreme Heroism, with the following citation: "While in action against hostile Kforzeung Corsiars, he entered with a few enlisted men the mouth of a cave occupied by a desperate enemy, this act having been ordered after he had volunteered several times. In this action 1st Lieutenant Cox was wounded. An inspiring and courageous leader, 1st Lieutenant Cox's extraordinary heroism and supreme dedication to his comrades were commensurate with the his rank and reflects the highest credit upon himself and upon the Imperial Marines." Other than schools, his career showed a typical alternation of units, moving between command of Marine Detachments aboard ships to that of Meteoric Entry companies.

UPP: D69AAB, Skills: Driver-1, Electronics-5, Fighter-4 (Battle Dress-2, Blade-3, Slug Weapons-2), Flyer-2(Grav-1), Forward Observer-2, Hostile Environment-1, Leader-4, Liasion-1, Medic-1, Philosophy-2, Robotics-2, Survey-1, Stealth-1, Steward-1, Survival-2, Tactics-2, Vacc Suit-1.
Languages: Anglic-9, Battle-8, Gvegh-7
Equipment: BVIGR-13, SEH, WBx2, XSx4, TAS Membership,1 Ship Share, Cr 50,000 cash, Life Insurance, Cr 36,000 pension

My general conclusion is that it's kind of clunky to use for generation, and a little opaque, especially with respect to the Knowledge/Skill for Fighter and the like. I do like the Risk and Reward mechanic, and the flux for damage. The E5 course listed is a godsend, and makes sense in the setting, and may find it's way into future Mongoose or Classic Traveller games I have.

Roll by roll record is available on my blog here: https://travellersandbox.blogspot.com/2019/10/t5-character-generation.html
 
That is an insanely lucky individual, cherish him!


A few nitpicks from my own attempts at reading the Char gen rules:

Age 22
Risk 12-2-3=7, roll 8. Flux roll is +5, no permanent injury, Wound Badge

Five skills, rolled on Combat (4), Combat (6), Peace keeper (3) Personal (1), Occupation (1)
No injury, no wound badge (B1 p65 "If The Risk Roll Fails"). Note that characteristic is reduced by negative mods + flux, so -5 +5 = 0. Lucky! With a Flux of +1 or lower he would have been disabled and hence discharged.

I don't believe the Occupation skill table is available, only Personal, Peace Keeper, and Combat (B1 p65-66 "Spacer-Soldier-Marine Term Skills" & Eneri Dinsha example). Note that the Promotion skill can only be rolled on the Personal table?

As an Honours and NOTC graduate you could have tried Flight School.


Age 26
Marines, C4
Risk: 9-2-3+2=6, roll 5

Continue 13+1=14, roll 9
This is extremely risky, given that any failed Risk roll will likely lead to a Disability Discharge (injury -2 -3 +Flux). I would have chosen a greater Caution mod.

Not that it matters to Sir Elden, but I don't think you add terms to the Continue rolls, only Agents and Rogues do that (B1 p73, p86).


Age 30
School checks: Roll against END (9) twice, roll 8 and 7, gain Flyer-2 and Robotics-2
AMN School is Education (B1 p59,p60). Education can only give contained Knowledge, not Skill (B1 p63 "THE KNOWLEDGES-ONLY SKILLS"). It should be Grav-2, not Flyer-2. The Schools columns on p60 does not allow the Flyer skill, only the Grav knowledge for Marines.


Age 34
Aging: Roll under 5. STR (5) fail, DEX (9) fail, END (8), fail.

Command College: roll under INT (10) to pass, rolled 7
Ageing is a Check so "<" actually means "≤", just as it does on B1 p64 (See p131 "The Aging Action"). Sorry, that bugs me...
Hence 5 is a "success"; STR decreases.

Command College: B1 p60: Roll Int or Edu to apply, roll Int or C5 to succeed.


Age 38
Risk: 13-2-3=8. Roll 11, fail, injured by 3, Wound Badge. Flux is +4, no long term effect.
Characteristic is reduced by negative mods + Flux, so -2 -3 +4 = -1. CC = C1 reduced by one. Get a Wound Badge. See B1 p66 "Eneri Dinsha 9AB58A Serves The Empire", First Term.
 
I'm dying to know how he utilizes his Philosophy skill. I guess in place of Medic he can act as a Metaphysician ?
 
Thanks for the inputs. I'll keep them in mind for the next character I attempt with T5.

As for the Philosophy skill, I saw it as a random college skill to take. And nice pun.
 
I'm dying to know how he utilizes his Philosophy skill. I guess in place of Medic he can act as a Metaphysician ?

First, :rofl:

But I like skills that have no direct play in the game - seems to make a more well-rounded character and give interests outside of immediate play value (which, for me, actually increases play value!) And they can be used in a more oblique manner at times: this situation is similar to the Moral Crisis of Ruie in 884, when the avant garde poet doctors decided that the Universe was a mere flawed reflection of a deeper reality and had no intrinsic value to those living. So many patients died in those tumultuous years!
 
The T5 character generation seems to gin up a huge number and level of skills. This character has Electronics-5, Leader-4, not to mention various 2's (and his language skills). In other systems, having a 3 makes that person a renowned expert.
 
The T5 character generation seems to gin up a huge number and level of skills. This character has Electronics-5, Leader-4, not to mention various 2's (and his language skills). In other systems, having a 3 makes that person a renowned expert.

The skill levels in T5 interact and scale differently with the "roll-low/multiple-dice-of-difficulty" task-mechanic as compared to other versions "roll-high-on-2D" task-mechanic.

Converting between the two task-mechanics, a CT skill level roughly converts to a T5 skill level by doubling the CT skill level and adding 1.

CT Skill-0 = T5 Skill-1
CT Skill-1 = T5 Skill-3
CT Skill-2 = T5 Skill-5
CT Skill-3 = T5 Skill-7
CT Skill-4 = T5 Skill-9

etc.
 
The skill levels in T5 interact and scale differently with the "roll-low/multiple-dice-of-difficulty" task-mechanic as compared to other versions "roll-high-on-2D" task-mechanic.

Converting between the two task-mechanics, a CT skill level roughly converts to a T5 skill level by doubling the CT skill level and adding 1.

Ah, I see. Completely different system (so what else is new) sharing a common OTU.
 
Ah, I see. Completely different system (so what else is new) sharing a common OTU.

Marc has claimed that he's always used multiple dice for no more than stat+skill.

There are hints of this in a few CT adventures, and in CT Bk 0.
 
Back
Top