MGT Only: Character Generation Optimization Guide

[DeZrog]

So... I bought the MGT2 Core Rulebook several months ago, and for some reason, I love creating characters. I made so many that I thought I'd share my observations about character creation in a post.

I put the article up on my (non-commercial) website:

http://www.gaming-strategy.com/role-playing-games/traveler-mgt2-character-creation-tips/

I'd appreciate some feedback from the community, as I haven't played the game itself a lot, so I'm making some assumptions about "useful" skills (which are also campaign-dependent, I realize...).

You can post here, or on my site, but I don't approve comments on my site all that regularly, so here might be better...

Thanks.

 

[by_the_sword]

Hello DeZrog,

I had a look at your Character Creation (Chargen) methods and I think that if the Referee is okay with vectored generation like that, then it is an excellent way to create a party with all of the "roles" filled.

One of the interesting things about Traveller Chargen, is that you never get exactly what you want. In fact most times you get something completely unexpected. Which is part of the fun of the game. Mongoose allows for "Party Skills" which allow a group to have skills that would be useful in a Traveller Campaign. So you can get that "Pilot" skill even if you are a colonist.

I recently started a Traveller campaign with three completely new players. I hadn't played the game in years so we got off to a rough start with Chargen and the players had some pretty crappy rolls. I offset this by allowing a player who has no stat higher than 9 to make any of the six stats a 9 (giving them a +1 to rolls related to that stat). It seemed to help things a lot.

I completely agree with you about Int, and Dex being the most important stats.

 

[chipla]

I’d argue that ‘optimising’ chargen in Traveller takes away one of the joys of the life-path system (in that you’re not meant to be designing ubermench but ‘real’ people). That said I do allow my players up to three re-rolls on stats and they have to pick which of the three arrays they liked best. I’d also put INT and EDU as the two most important stats - as they apply to a wider range of characters than DEX and ofc because of the skill limit.


Regarding utility skills it depends on the referee, the players and campaign type. I’m currently running through Pirates of Drinax with some guys who’ve never touched Traveller before. One of them was enamoured by the idea of playing a noble of Drinax. He has no combat skills (aside weirdly from Tactics (Naval) that he got via event) but is the god of social interaction. Another is a repeated failure at life because he had just terrible rolls at character creation but has a good number of medical and combat skills and has piloting and astrogation skills. The third is a decent engineer but can’t talk to anyone without swearing or calling them an idiot. The characters cover each other’s weaknesses and compliment each other’s strengths. If all of them focused on the same skillsets they’d work less well as a crew. That said while the only skill I think every character should have is vacc suit (armour for non-space campaigns and basic survival for space campaigns) I think that a well complimented ‘party’ (assuming space travel) should have a character with pilot, a character with astrogation a character with engineer, a character with electronics, and a character with broker. Stuff like gun combat and gunner tend to come from player careers anyway but astrogation is something that players should actively seek out (either career wise, through connections or through skill packages).

 

[CaptRet]

In Mongoose Traveller, if your band of characters come from the same institutional source (e.g. Navy; or Marines) you can easily get multiple characters with some of the same skills. Certain skills are awarded with promotion within the hierarchy of the institution (attaining rank), so you can have various characters who each have Leadership, as an example.

 

[Jason]

Shouldn't Scouts be the top career to get a ship, since if they do get a ship it comes completely paid off, whereas any other ship will still have a hefty mortgage on it unless you roll it four times? Being subject to recall by the Scout Service is an adventure hook, not a disadvantage.

 

[Condottiere]

Sure, but not everyone want to be the chauffeur.

 

[Dagrill]

So... I bought the MGT2 Core Rulebook several months ago, and for some reason, I love creating characters. I made so many that I thought I'd share my observations about character creation in a post.
Thanks.

Excellent post, a lot depends on what type of campaign you are running, but I agree with all your archetypes.

I'm not keen on switching careers, so I can end up with a Navy Gunner without any Gunner skill... therefore, I think the MgT skills need tweaking depending on your vision for the character ie. if rolling for a Gunner and get Engineer or Mechanic change to Gunner.

I have created NPC Gunners on RPG Suite by taking the Pirate career option and I think the survival roll is too easy...

Kind Regards

David