That would take us again to what type of player are you. What you say will be really fun for a stroy-teller of character player, but not so for a power player...
Death during Character Generation
- Thread starter Golan2072
- Start date
That would take us again to what type of player are you. What you say will be really fun for a stroy-teller of character player, but not so for a power player...
Neither S4 nor I are likely to tolerate Power Players in our groups. I generally point them to the door in short order. S4's expressed attitudes on the matter are not too far off, but I suspect he'll give them a chance to reform, first, while I won't bother.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
Yep, I'll usually give 'em a chance. I think people default to power players early in their gaming careers and many don't grow from that. I've had some success and a few missteps, too, in showing power gamers how to really roleplay and not just play like they're playing a video game. For the most part, they typically dig the rewards that come from exceptional roleplay, but they've got to learn about that type of play first.
19 terms? That's... curious. (Droyne is a partial explanation.)
Not so much for a Storyteller or Character Gamer who wants to develop a story or play a character of one kind, but rolls up something completely different. I don't have enough gaming time to play a character I don't want, just because the GM thinks I should take the first one I get. If forced, that is certainly asking for PC suicide.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
If the player rolls up a set of characteristics that he/she is not happy with, then I either toss it and have another rolled up, or break out a 4-sided die and let them roll that to add to existing stats. My duty as GM or DM is to ensure that the players have fun and enjoy the game. Hopefully, their character will survive and develop.
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But... Droyne have shorter lifespans than humans.
Droyne CGen has three major differences: earlier start (2 terms done is 20, so start is age 12), no 7 term limit, and saves get easier with age (from 10 terms, or 52 years, on, it's 7+/7+/7+/9+).
And, if you can get PSR 12+, you can suck up aging saves. I've generated a couple PSR 15 Droyne... at which point, aging stops.
Don't Droyne characters have a 1/3 chance every term of being asked to commit krinaytsyu? How does a Droyne PC survive to the 10th term? He has about a 2% chance of that happening. Or am I misremembering?
IMTU I would probably make unaging something only the mutant Ancients could achieve1. It's certainly something I'd be wary of allowing a PC to have. Unless I felt sure the player and the campaign could handle it.
1 Except that IMTU there are no mutant Droyne Ancients in the first place.
So, how many immortal Droyne do you think there are in the OTU? Does Grandfather kill them off whenever he locates them? Can he find them all or does he miss any? How many have there been since he last went walkabout around -1000?
Hans
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Well, I agree. I'm not sure if the rules give them a choice, but perhaps they do. That's not the point, though. The Droyne who is asked to commit krinaytsyu and refuses becomes a pariah. That's a career ender as sure as suicide.
Hans
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
I had my PC Droyne character suicide in a game out of sheer boredom.
salochin999
SOC-13
I like the death rule and make it a little higher but at the same time add more stat DMs, for example
Scout: 8+ for survival but DM+2 for Int 8+ or Dex 8+ (so possibly DM+4)
Navy: 6+ for survival but DM+2 for Int 8+ or Soc 10+
etc
for NPCs death becomes back story - drummed out or wounded out or prison.
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I've done it one on one in advance. I don't mind them re-rolling till they get one they like as long as the character was created entirely by chance. I don't why I like that but I do. I've done the same thing for myself in other RPGs too - created a random table and then rolled until I got a character that jumped out.
Scout: 8+ for survival but DM+2 for Int 8+ or Dex 8+ (so possibly DM+4)
Navy: 6+ for survival but DM+2 for Int 8+ or Soc 10+
etc
for NPCs death becomes back story - drummed out or wounded out or prison.
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I've done it one on one in advance. I don't mind them re-rolling till they get one they like as long as the character was created entirely by chance. I don't why I like that but I do. I've done the same thing for myself in other RPGs too - created a random table and then rolled until I got a character that jumped out.
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creativehum
SOC-14 1K
I ran Across the Bright Face at a local con last year. (It was my first time picking up Traveller in a long time. I got a lot of help getting my head around things that had puzzled me in the past. Thanks y'all.)
We did character generation at the table. I know this sounds crazy to some. But I believe that creating a character always...
a) Gets a player more invested in the character
b) Gives a player a foundation for how the game works, because in one way or another, slightly or strongly, the process of making a character and the character sheet itself usually has the DNA of the whole game baked into it
This was at a con game, when time was tight. But you know what. Rolling up a character for Traveller doesn't take very long. (We were only using Book 1, please note.)
I have this theory that character creation is (or should be) part of play. It isn't the thing before play begins. It is when playing starts. I know I might be rare in this regard. But I do believe it firmly.
Now, here's the thing that happened at the local con game. People had a blast rolling up characters. They did one... and immediately wanted to do another. I said, "Sure! Roll two, pick the one you want!"
And it worked great.
Traveller character creation is the beginning of understanding the basic mechanics, training a player to see how the odds work (so as to know what risks to take in the future), a glimpse of the skills available while looking at the table (since all PCs can do most of the skills in the game, whether they are trained or not), and more.
I honestly can't fathom folks who would want to blow past this marvelous little system for creating characters and see it as some sort of chore.
Excellent points, creativehum. Chargen is part of playing the game, particluarly for randomly generated characters -- and most emphatically for Classic Traveller characters. It's always been seen that way for me and the groups I've run as well.
How such systems are received depends on the attutude of the players, of course. If someone absolutely has to play a character with certain stats, skills, and a particular prior, then there will likely be some frustration. That's not fun for anyone. So allowances would have to be made in that case. Or maybe they'd be happier with one of the other versions of Traveller, such as GURPS Traveller or Traveller HERO.
IMO, the CT chargen minigame is just perfect for those of us who like the game part of RPGs as much as we enjoy the RP.
How such systems are received depends on the attutude of the players, of course. If someone absolutely has to play a character with certain stats, skills, and a particular prior, then there will likely be some frustration. That's not fun for anyone. So allowances would have to be made in that case. Or maybe they'd be happier with one of the other versions of Traveller, such as GURPS Traveller or Traveller HERO.
IMO, the CT chargen minigame is just perfect for those of us who like the game part of RPGs as much as we enjoy the RP.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
I definitely agree that rolling up a character gets the player invested in that character. I like to have players roll up two or three and then see which one or ones work best in what I have planned.
