Classic Traveller Character Generation

[tim_manley]

All pure Book 1

I can’t help myself. I’m working up a nice little campaign, my own universe, all CT only. I really want to have pure CT rules. But, I have to have a caveat for house-rules around char gen. This is due to some of my players that HATE the way traveler generates characters; so much so they refuse to play if I use it. The reason they give is the pure randomness of it – and that their dice rolling sucks.

So, in order for me to keep the players, I had to develop a new way that was close enough to the rules as to not really violate them. I came up with the Dice Pool.

You have an ability pool and a pool per term.

The way it works is you use a dice from the pool. A die can be used a single time.

For Character Generation you use 12 dice. The pool is such:

Die 1 = 1
Die 2 = 2
Die 3 = 2
Die 4 = 3
Die 5 = 3
Die 6 = 3
Die 7 = 4
Die 8 = 4
Die 9 = 4
Die 10 = 5
Die 11 = 5
Die 12 = 6

So, you want to roll Strength, you figure a 5 is nice. You pick a 3 and a 2, Dice 2 and Dice 4. Now you only have 10 dice left to choose from in order to make your character.

Die 1 = 1
XXXXXX
Die 3 = 2
XXXXXX
Die 5 = 3
Die 6 = 3
Die 7 = 4
Die 8 = 4
Die 9 = 4
Die 10 = 5
Die 11 = 5
Die 12 = 6

You carry on in this fashion until you’re out of dice and you now have your abilities generated.

Next each term of service. Your service takes a total of 10 dice.

The dice pool for 10 dice is such:

Die 1 = 1
Die 2 = 1
Die 3 = 2
Die 4 = 2
Die 5 = 3
Die 6 = 4
Die 7 = 4
Die 8 = 5
Die 9 = 5
Die 10 = 6

You follow the same method, picking the two dice that you rolled.

Skills are selected without rolling – the caveat is that no skill can be taken more than twice.

You roll dice for aging and mustering out benefits (gotta keep some randomness).

Thoughts? I know with some of my finicky players they will agree to play based on this as it means they get the character they want but there are still trade-offs.

 

[BytePro]

Since about my third game (early '80's) I've been generating lists of characters - and Players simply pick their PC from. Not what I originally intended, as I generated such for NPCs - and had wasted time making more complicated programs for interactive PC generation...

Random chargen creates some real interesting combinations. Makes for fast start for new games - and players get choices - so, I've never had any complaints.

 

[aramis]

I'd say, Tim, use one of the books of pregens (Sup 1 or 4), and let players pick if they're that kind of player. Don't even bother with the fake-random - it's not going to endear them to the process. Use the point based system from MGT, or one of the variations off the net.

 

[saundby]

I'll take Kimball Kinnison. Or maybe Kirth Gersen, Unless I want a pit-fighter. Then I'll take Earl Dumarest.

 

[curmudgeon]

I would agree with the others that using the pregenerated character books would make this quick, easy, and hopefully satisfactory for your players. If you are just using Books 1-3, I would suggest also using Supplements 1 (1,001 Characters) and 4 (Citizens of the Imperium) for quick and easy characters. If you are using Book 4 (Mercenary), and Book 5 (High Guard), I would also suggest using Supplement 13 (Veterans). I have not used that one nearly as much, but it still has a lot of nice characters in it.

As for the system you showed, I personally would not use it. If you want to use it, I would recommend some changes. With your dice pools it is not possible to get all the dice permutations allowable if you actually rolled dice. For example, when rolling attributes, it is possible to roll 12 on 2d6. Using your system, that is impossible. The best you could get is 11. The other extreme is also impossible, as the lowest you could get on 2d6 in your system is a 3. Also, if you were to use a 5 and 6 to get an 11 you could not get another 11. With rolling dice, no matter what you rolled before, you can get the same number again on your next roll.

What about using actual dice pools? For rolling attributes, give a total of 15 dice. Want a high Social Standing? Roll 4 dice, selecting the highest 2 dice. That would leave you 11 dice for the other stats.

Another alternative is to give each player a number of reroll chits during character creation. If they do not like a roll the made, turn in a chit and reroll it, using the better of the two. Alternatively, they could turn in a chit and both you and they would make the roll. Your roll is secret, and they can decide to use theirs or look at yours and use it.

I am one of those folks who do not like buying your character in Traveller. The randomness of the characters makes them more real to me, because they are not always perfect or exactly what you think you want. People in real life and in many books and movies are not perfect. More often than not, those flawed or imperfect characters become the ones I remember most fondly.

 

[tim_manley]

I would agree with the others that using the pregenerated character books would make this quick, easy, and hopefully satisfactory for your players.

Be it rolling or point buy there is a level of ownership ni one’s character when they create it as opposed to picking it out of book.

Since my games are not war games but Role Playing games (heavy on the RP) the more invested he players are in their characters the more fun they have.

As for the system you showed, I personally would not use it. If you want to use it, I would recommend some changes. With your dice pools it is not possible to get all the dice permutations allowable if you actually rolled dice. For example, when rolling attributes, it is possible to roll 12 on 2d6. Using your system, that is impossible. The best you could get is 11. The other extreme is also impossible, as the lowest you could get on 2d6 in your system is a 3. Also, if you were to use a 5 and 6 to get an 11 you could not get another 11. With rolling dice, no matter what you rolled before, you can get the same number again on your next roll.

Yes, I did it that way on purpose. Rolling has to be desireable to some and not just thrown away. This way, you can spend some time fully constructing the character you want within the guidelines. Sure you can’t have a 2 and you can’t have a 12, and you can only have a single 11 just like a single 3. My preference would be to roll.

What about using actual dice pools? For rolling attributes, give a total of 15 dice. Want a high Social Standing? Roll 4 dice, selecting the highest 2 dice. That would leave you 11 dice for the other stats.

That’s still rolling though. While not a bad idea, It’s still random.

I am one of those folks who do not like buying your character in Traveller. The randomness of the characters makes them more real to me, because they are not always perfect or exactly what you think you want. People in real life and in many books and movies are not perfect. More often than not, those flawed or imperfect characters become the ones I remember most fondly.

Me too. I really like the full random creation of it. And you play the hand you’re dealt – at times it comes out pretty interesting.

 

[sabredog]

I just let them roll 3 dice and drop the lowest. And "death" from a bad survival roll turns into "discharged" with the option of trying to re-enlist elsewhere. Fail that roll and you character is done.

NPC's have an average set of 7's across the board for stats and one primary skill. Usually whatever is needed for the moment. Most NPC's (such as the faceless goon variety) don't even have that - just 12 points of damage before they go down and the clothes on their backs. They usual just get a quick walk-on that lasts as long as the current combat.

If the NPC has a first name it has varied stats and several skills. Some might even be good skills. If he plays his cards right the NPC may get a last name and a backstory later. They get a few lines, but nothing to upstage the PC's.

If the NPC has two names then he will also have a colorful backstory and have been carefully designed for some purpose in the campaign. He can expect to live a long and colorful life so long as he doesn't end up on the wrong end of a PC's shotgun (or bad guy NPC with two names, too). Whole sheets of dialog, a good dressing room, and luxury-quality snacks. Sometimes they have even upstaged PC's.

 

[PFVA63]

Hi,

I guess my main concerns with modifying the way you roll a character is in trying to not over elevate all the numbers.

My usual method was to allow a player to pick the one stat that they were most interested in (say EDU, if they wanted to be sure their character could roll on the advanced EDU tables for skills, or SOC if they want to roll up a Noble character). For that stat I'd allow them to roll it first, and if they weren't happy with the results, they could reroll that one stat until they were. After that they would roll all other stats as normal (though in any order that they wish).

I guess a different thought might be instead to roll up all stats as normal and then allow the player take a few points off any one high stat and add those points to one of his low stats.

 

[Frankymole]

I used to make the player roll six scores (2D per score) and assign them as they wished to STR/DEX/END/INT/EDU and the race-specific sixth characteristic (SOC for Imperial human).

That way, they could have a bright/strong/noble character as desired, but without circumventing the laws of probability or fiddling to give unusually high-scored "supermen". And you usually got some weak stats which are interesting to place (and develop), forming character.

 

[tim_manley]

In pathfinder I let my son and the boys role 4d6 six times -- they drop the lowest die and then place the numbers on the ability they want.

Abilities play a much different role in Trav than Pathfinder. Skill is important in TRav, and your stats determine access (advanced skill table, nobility, combat and death). In pathfinder your stats are very important to how well your character can perform; that +1 to hit and damage is nowhere near as good as that +4.

Would be nice to not even have to worry about stats. Then the only thing they pay attention to are the things they can do better....

But that violates the CT only concept....

And, after chatting with some players no one is interested in playing Traveler. So this would be me creating a campaign for that sake and if time permits maybe exploring running an online game.

 

[Frankymole]

I'm interested in writing solo adventures of the programmed "choose your destiny"/interactive fiction variety. Whether to have full chargen or just pre-rolled characters, that's the question...

 

[Cryton]

I'm interested in writing solo adventures of the programmed "choose your destiny"/interactive fiction variety. Whether to have full chargen or just pre-rolled characters, that's the question...

Some of the books I have seen in the past include a pre-generated character, with an option for rolling and using your own if you have the other book to do so with.

So I guess I am advocating a third option: Both.

 

[McPerth]

I'm interested in writing solo adventures of the programmed "choose your destiny"/interactive fiction variety. Whether to have full chargen or just pre-rolled characters, that's the question...

The problem in this case about using your own characters is that they may easily miss the necessary skills to go through the adventure, so, at least, some advice about what skills will be needed is (IMHO) in order.

 

[tim_manley]

Instead of the "pick your path" style book I'd rather see a sandbox random adventure system that can take the player through an entire randomly generated campaign.

Logic behind that is pretty hefty..... but the fun factor would be pretty damned awesome

 

[Mithras]

Everyone creates three characters, takes an hour tops. Choose your favourite, or, if someone has a character they don't want to use, use that one instead...
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