Just got old traveller.

[iron warrior]

I just got "the traveller book" from GDW, circa 1982. I pisked up a very gently used copy at a game store for a few $.

It was a nice stroll down memory lane, I do regret not getting onto the big T earlier, but then again I still don;t like random chargen and such. Still, it's nice to see how it began and I'm glad I grabbed it.

 

[jawillroy]

That's a good find.

It's funny, but I never really warmed up to nonrandom character generation, and always loved Traveller's career-generator...

 

[hdan]

The Traveller Book is still my favorite publication of Traveller, though that's probably as much to do with the memories as the game. It has everything you need, including some patrons, the Regina Subsector and two "canned" adventures, as well as a lot of fun illustrations.

My son and I had some fun going over that big two-page Tech Level table and noticing the penciled in tech I added for our game back in High School.

 

[iron warrior]

That's a good find.

It's funny, but I never really warmed up to nonrandom character generation, and always loved Traveller's career-generator...

I really only like points buy chargen. I mean, maybe I want to play someone like a scientist or other intelligence based character and instead the dice give me corporal bonehead. No thanks.

 

[jawillroy]

I really only like points buy chargen. I mean, maybe I want to play someone like a scientist or other intelligence based character and instead the dice give me corporal bonehead. No thanks.

I think it might be an old-timer thing. But for me, half the point - half the play was to take what the dice gave you, and make what you could of it.

At the same time, I don't think I ever met a GM that wouldn't let players fudge to one degree or another: swapping one roll for another, dropping the lowest roll, roll three and drop the lowest and what have you.

Besides, even unadultered, I always thought basic chargen offered lots of opportunities to improve your character if you played it right.

 

[Dragoner]

I just got "the traveller book" from GDW, circa 1982. I pisked up a very gently used copy at a game store for a few $.

It was a nice stroll down memory lane, I do regret not getting onto the big T earlier, but then again I still don;t like random chargen and such. Still, it's nice to see how it began and I'm glad I grabbed it.

LBB 1 isn't random, but you have to roll to get in, the Traveller Book must be a change.

 

[iron warrior]

I must say that I like traveller as an idea, but I'm not crazy about the classic rules system. I mean, apparently it used the terrible old D&D like mechanic of armor just making you harder to hit. The rules just list armor as having die modifiers to the attack roll. I really prefer armor as a damage reducer rather than a to hit modifier.

Still, looking at this CT sourcebook i can see that GDW had a lot of higher quality writing and thought in it than a lot of TSR products of the day had.

 

[Icosahedron]

I think it might be an old-timer thing. But for me, half the point - half the play was to take what the dice gave you, and make what you could of it.

I agree, sometimes it can be fun just taking a random character and going with it, making up a rationale for the way the character turned out.
But like the random planet gen, it can get a bit wearing after a while. I prefer a rule set that generates coherent characters.

I really only like points buy chargen. I mean, maybe I want to play someone like a scientist or other intelligence based character and instead the dice give me corporal bonehead. No thanks.

Corporal Bonehead I can play, no probs. The hard character to play is the one with zilch physical stats, high Int and Edu, but only manages to roll Science-0. All you can do is keep him in chargen until he dies (and hope you're using Ironman rules). Which is basically a waste of my time.

 

[rancke]

Corporal Bonehead I can play, no probs. The hard character to play is the one with zilch physical stats, high Int and Edu, but only manages to roll Science-0. All you can do is keep him in chargen until he dies (and hope you're using Ironman rules). Which is basically a waste of my time.

The problem with Corporal Bonehead is that his combat skills are so low due to low skill limit (from low Int+Edu).


Hans

 

[jawillroy]

The problem with Corporal Bonehead is that his combat skills are so low due to low skill limit (from low Int+Edu).

Although:
a) due to his PC-ness, Corporal Bonehead can still use any weapon he picks up with a skill - 0; plus, he's already got at least Rifle-1 (or cutlass-1, if he's of that persuasion.)

b) if the rest of the party's not all maxed out on uberskills - and they wouldn't be, had they been taking the character death rule seriously - then Corporal Bonehead won't actually be that far out of the running.

c) the character's stats are the platform upon which the PC builds The Character.

I maintain that in a properly balanced CT game, even a 1 term "other" character without a skill to his name is eminently playable.

 

[iron warrior]

I'll still stick with that new fangled, fancy-schmancy character build system to avoid getting an unplayable character.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

I find it more fun with weaker characters. You have to roleplay more!

 

[jawillroy]

an unplayable character.

No such thing! Just lazy roleplayers!

 

[far-trader]

I've seen a few "hopeless" characters (not just in Traveller) role played into life threatening situations at the first opportunity to thwart the ref's insistence on playing what you rolled. Even the simple expedient method of falling on one's sword... though I seem to recall one very unlucky PC who even failed that roll o:

My favorite (oft retold) story though is of my Accidental Scout. Rolled a sucky set of characteristics and wanted a Marine. So enlisted in Scouts to, as per the suggestion, get killed in char-gen and try again. Kept making my survival rolls though, and 2 skills per term soon had him fixed up characteristic wise (also kept making my aging rolls) and with lots of good skills. And upon mustering out got money, a ship and other stuff. My most memorable character of the lot I've had And to think, if I'd used any of the "cheats" (which we later did too) it wouldn't have had a tenth the personality and history...

 

[Mithras]

I find it more fun with weaker characters. You have to roleplay more!

Same here. The NPC (my PC) I've attached to my son's PC party is a 26 year old scientist with Str 3 and Dex 5, he had a near death experience, I postulated studying dinosaur-sized beasts on a jungle planet IMTU. He limps, he's a bit of a coward, he;s a Computer-2 tech genius. I love him!

 

[Mithras]

We used to create 3 characters each and choose our favourites; keep the others as contacts and acquaintences.

 

[hdan]

We used to create 3 characters each and choose our favourites; keep the others as contacts and acquaintences.

Now THAT'S a great idea....

 

[Mithras]

What is it... 10 minutes to create a typical Book 1/Supp 4 character?

 

[iron warrior]

I still kind of like the ability to really customize a character, including buying ads and disads.

And in traveller having a disad like "excessive flatulence" can actually be serious, especially in a small vessel during jump...:rofl:

 

[Mithras]

One guy I remember, even swapped one of his for a character someone else didn't want.