Gen a New Character for an Existing Group

[DanDare]

In Mongoose I have found the character connections terrific for creating a new group with a back story that means much to the players and helps bring the campaign to life before it even starts.

What about when a new character is being made for an existing group? How do you handle this?

You could just gen in isolation and back date the start of char gen when they muster out but that fails to connect the character to game history and other characters.

You could set a start date and just work through terms from the past to present, maybe drifting if the character musters out early.

What have people tried? How did it go?

 

[atpollard]

What have people tried? How did it go?

I would advise starting with the rolling the most basic outline of survival and re-enlistment to just establish the number of terms. Then you can set the date for the muster out to the current story date (minus travel time to the current location).

This gives you the dates you need to make things work out.

Now go back to term 1 and start to roll all of the details you skipped, looking for opportunities to link events in the new character generation (Marine Corporal earns MCG on Mission) to events from the same time in another Character (Navy Doctor gains Medic-3) and you have an opportunity for a connection ... the newly mustered out Marine knows the Free Trader's Doctor from when he treated him following a mission. You promised to buy the doctor a beer if you ever met him again after the service.

As you fill in details look for ideas based on skills or service or random events. Anything that inspires. Then the new character enters the game as an old friend with a shared history.

 

[robject]

I also like the Life Events table.

Yes, it's hand-holding, but that's useful for conventions, as well as people who have been hand-fed D&D all these years. Yeah, I'm being a little bit snarky there about "kids these days", but I think that's the way RPGs work today. Then for those who graduate from Mongoose, there's Traveller5.

One more thought: as I was rolling up yet another MgT character, I realized that CT chargen is still the fastest system around. MgT's chargen, though not complex, has about the same number of steps/considerations/whatever as all of the other Traveller chargen systems (with the exception of GURPS, which is its own thing).

 

[flykiller]

What about when a new character is being made for an existing group? How do you handle this?

you mean retro-fitting a new character into an existing group? this seems excessively deus ex. never tried to do this, always developed the new character 1) independently and 2) with something the existing group needs or really wants that blends in with their existing vector, frequently replacing an npc that retires or is called off.

prospector meets a female prospector in the wilderness during a claim-jump incident.
pc crew needs a better navigator than the npc presently filling the role.
pc crew needs a noble on-board prior to developing contacts outside the imperium.

etc.

for a new character, seems more natural to make it a new character joining the existing group, not a retro-fit ("oh hey, where ya been?").

 

[kilemall]

Exes. Always BIG fun.

 

[Whipsnade]

What about when a new character is being made for an existing group? How do you handle this?

I don't see that as a problem. I see it as a role-playing opportunity.

(Of course I played consequence-based games rather than reward-based games.)

You've a previously established group of PCs and the new PC is the "new guy". Where's the problem there?

Sure, MgT and other RPG systems have various backstory generators that allow players to "link" their PCs in various manners, but how often does that actually translate into actual table play? I mean has one of your players turned to another of your players and - in character - actually reminisced about some shared event in both their pasts?

"Hey Eneri, 'member that time we were on Efate with Windy Lorimer?"

"What? That time we'd signed with his auxiliaries outfit?"

"Yeah, yeah, that time. 'Member that cook in Beta Company?"

"The one with the rash? Sure..."

"Doesn't that guy across the bar look like him?"

Have any of your players ever done anything like that with the fluff the character connections table produces? Or do they just mark it all down on their character sheets in the hopes it will give them a die roll modifier?

Putting it another way, do they use it or play it?

Anyway, I ran a long campaign in which the PCs were troubleshooters. In it, one PC was killed and another retired due to injuries. The players in question chose to handle those losses in two different ways. One players asked to take over a NPC who had worked with the PCs a few times. The other simply rolled up a new character who the party hired for certain skills. Neither player worried about creating some shared back story because both players were used to creating such stories through their play and not rolling it up on a table.

You can creatively use your imagination or roll dice and let a table tell you what to do. Choose wisely.

 

[DanDare]

I would advise starting with the rolling the most basic outline of survival and re-enlistment to just establish the number of terms. Then you can set the date for the muster out to the current story date (minus travel time to the current location).

This gives you the dates you need to make things work out.

Now go back to term 1 and start to roll all of the details you skipped, looking for opportunities to link events in the new character generation (Marine Corporal earns MCG on Mission) to events from the same time in another Character (Navy Doctor gains Medic-3) and you have an opportunity for a connection ... the newly mustered out Marine knows the Free Trader's Doctor from when he treated him following a mission. You promised to buy the doctor a beer if you ever met him again after the service.

As you fill in details look for ideas based on skills or service or random events. Anything that inspires. Then the new character enters the game as an old friend with a shared history.

I like that. There are some tradeoffs, as the player doesn't get to change direction based on experience, but I think its workable. A multi pass development. I think I will try this out as an exercise creating new characters for my current campaign to see what the experience is like.

 

[DanDare]

you mean retro-fitting a new character into an existing group? this seems excessively deus ex. never tried to do this, always developed the new character 1) independently and 2) with something the existing group needs or really wants that blends in with their existing vector, frequently replacing an npc that retires or is called off.

prospector meets a female prospector in the wilderness during a claim-jump incident.
pc crew needs a better navigator than the npc presently filling the role.
pc crew needs a noble on-board prior to developing contacts outside the imperium.

etc.

for a new character, seems more natural to make it a new character joining the existing group, not a retro-fit ("oh hey, where ya been?").

The difficulty is that the Traveller world history can get quite rich, so even out of context of the other players it can be cool to say that "during the Mactar Migrations I was in the Navy supporting a survey of the main destination system". If you don't know how old your character is going to be you don't know which term of service lines up with which events and you lose an opportunity for richer character development.

 

[DanDare]

Sure, MgT and other RPG systems have various backstory generators that allow players to "link" their PCs in various manners, but how often does that actually translate into actual table play? I mean has one of your players turned to another of your players and - in character - actually reminisced about some shared event in both their pasts?

"Hey Eneri, 'member that time we were on Efate with Windy Lorimer?"

"What? That time we'd signed with his auxiliaries outfit?"

"Yeah, yeah, that time. 'Member that cook in Beta Company?"

"The one with the rash? Sure..."

"Doesn't that guy across the bar look like him?"

Have any of your players ever done anything like that with the fluff the character connections table produces? Or do they just mark it all down on their character sheets in the hopes it will give them a die roll modifier?

Putting it another way, do they use it or play it?

Uh, yes, all the time. The life events have become the core of ongoing adventures and the players drive them. I take their lead and generate integrating hooks into the world situation and evolve that situation around the players suggestions. I wrote up a char gen session that would show you what I mean, it was an adventure in its own right.

 

[flykiller]

The difficulty is that the Traveller world history can get quite rich ... and you lose an opportunity for richer character development.

absolutely. but I thought the question was how to fit them in, and if you're trying to graft an undetermined but fixed history onto an existing dynamic game it can lead to many interactions you may or may not want.

example: "glad to see you, where you been, hey, funny you would show up now, you were an aide for this admiral we're having trouble with, can you tell us anything about him?"

example: "glad to see you, where you been ... oh ... oh, you've changed sides ... so you're working for the bad guys now ... and you've given them all our codes and we're about to be boarded ... yeah, you have a nice day too ...."

it can work, but I just prefer to say, "new guy" and leave it at that. character baggage is heavy enough, adding previously-unknown-but-generate-it-and-plug-it-in-now interactive historical character baggage is a die-roll too far ....

 

[Whipsnade]

Uh, yes, all the time. The life events have become the core of ongoing adventures and the players drive them.

I did the same in my Active Duty IISS campaign and I didn't need a table. One of my players even suggested a campaign goal unique to his character which tied into that character's past and he didn't need a table either.

I wrote up a char gen session that would show you what I mean, it was an adventure in its own right.

I read it and it's was nice. I didn't see any in-game use of past history however. I saw players talking about their characters as they cycled through chargen at the same time. I didn't see players as PCs talking to other players as PCs referencing the supposed shared past of those PCs.

Putting it another way, I saw meta-game use of past history and not in-game use of the same.

In that IISS campaign I've mentioned, I had pre-genned a batch of scouts of various ages and told my players they needed to fill four positions each requiring certain minimum skill levels aboard a scout/courier. The players shuffled through the pre-gens, chose the ones they liked, and then customized their choices with points for stats, skills, skill levels, and money. During that process, two of the players noticed their PCs were of the same age and had attended "Ship School" during the same term.

Without needing a table, they quickly decided their PCs had know each other in school and had "running buddies". For the rest of the campaign, they played their PCs with that in mind, inventing schools stories, telling in-jokes, driving the other PCs mad with their "clique-ish" behavior, and even suggesting to me while in character that they had known certain NPCs while at school.

And all without a table.

Anyway, introducing a new PC to the group is an opportunity and not a problem. They player in question can actually role-play a new guy fitting into an established group and develop an actual relationship rather than simply roll-playing a friendship produced by a table.

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

I have never played TNE but found the 'contacts per term' parameter very useful. The only time i remember using it on purpose was to create additional NPCs for a campaign that never got started due to life interference.

And, it is relatively easy to inert new characters in an existing campaign. This is where the referee should have detailed information about the PCs during their generation, for it will help immensely. Here are a few examples right off the top of my head, formed while typing this post...

"I wonder whatever happened to Smith. We were separated during my last drop. Do we have a contact number for him?

"I haven't been to this bar in years. I am shocked to find you here. Let's have a drink and talk about old times..."

"Oh, my goodness. I'm so glad I found you. We need help and you are just the man to do it. Do it for me, please."

"I posted my resume on the socialnet and Jones called me. He invested his mustering out pay to buy a small bar. He needs help to protect him from some Yo-kuska thugs that are harassing him."

"That was our contact. His burns were so severe that I hardly recognized him, but that was Brown. I will go to the hospital and see if he can provide the location of our data packet."

"You! I thought you were dead!"