General One-term Wonders

[BlindGuy]

So I just rolled up this gentleman…

Starman Davon Fynnegun, Age 22, 1 term.
686BAC
Ship’s Boat-1 Pilot-1
CR. 20,000

The navy didn't like him enough to let him stay on, apparently.

What have you done with one-term characters like this? I'm honestly tempted to use him in a solo game and see how he does—he has a ready-made place as a pilot if only he can find a crew to sign on with.

 

[pendragonman]

Ready made high port to low port "bus driver." Shuttle pilot. Boring, but steady money.

 

[kilemall]

Which system?

If it were CT, I'd look into 4-year sabbatical to get him a Skill-2 you like.

Maybe psionics, more powerful the younger you start.

If some of the later versions, run him through a second career.

Brains, education AND bigtime SOC- this boy can go places.

 

[BlindGuy]

Which system?

If it were CT, I'd look into 4-year sabbatical to get him a Skill-2 you like.

Maybe psionics, more powerful the younger you start.

If some of the later versions, run him through a second career.

Brains, education AND bigtime SOC- this boy can go places.

this guy was originally generated using CT. i'm actually kind of curious to try out other systems and see how far he gets. I'm curious, what's the sabbatical rule you mention?

 

[Timerover51]

So I just rolled up this gentleman…

Starman Davon Fynnegun, Age 22, 1 term.
686BAC
Ship’s Boat-1 Pilot-1
CR. 20,000

The navy didn't like him enough to let him stay on, apparently.

What have you done with one-term characters like this? I'm honestly tempted to use him in a solo game and see how he does—he has a ready-made place as a pilot if only he can find a crew to sign on with.

His intelligence is B=11. his education is A=10, and his social standing is C, which is equal to Baron/Baronet. How did this guy not get a commission and promoted? At the least, he can now pilot his own yacht.

 

[kilemall]

this guy was originally generated using CT. i'm actually kind of curious to try out other systems and see how far he gets. I'm curious, what's the sabbatical rule you mention?

It's in the Experience section, LBB2 Pages 42-43, or TTB, page 103.

It costs KCr70, so theoretically beyond your character's means. However, I recently posted on using the starship loan as a template for other loans.

Your character could finance it all, working out to a 40-year loan for Cr292 a month.

Or Cr10,000 down gets you a Cr250 monthly payment.

The Experience section is tailor-made for powering up one term characters.

The psionic term effects on psionic skill rolling also beckons the young character to 'even the odds'.

 

[kilemall]

His intelligence is B=11. his education is A=10, and his social standing is C, which is equal to Baron/Baronet. How did this guy not get a commission and promoted? At the least, he can now pilot his own yacht.

Ne'er-do-well scion that didn't get mommy and daddy's full attention in carrying on the family name? Or just so space-crazy he wanted to do nothing but fly and didn't pay attention to the politics or career? Troublesome brat with talent which is why he got no commission and kicked to the curb?

A lot of character building to be had here, figuratively and literally.

 

[GypsyComet]

this guy was originally generated using CT. i'm actually kind of curious to try out other systems and see how far he gets.

The mechanics of switching careers are remarkably similar across a number of editions. Take a -1 DM penalty for enlistment attempts after the first career, cumulative per actually held career. In the context of CT, consider allowing Other to be entered automatically, or if you have the careers article from (I think) Different Worlds with the "Citizen" career, maybe allow that one instead.
Take Muster Out rolls for each career as you leave it.
Keep going until Aging rolls scare you off or the character has the narrative you want to enter play with. Done.

 

[whulorigan]

The mechanics of switching careers are remarkably similar across a number of editions. Take a -1 DM penalty for enlistment attempts after the first career, cumulative per actually held career. In the context of CT, consider allowing Other to be entered automatically, or if you have the careers article from (I think) Different Worlds with the "Citizen" career, maybe allow that one instead.
Take Muster Out rolls for each career as you leave it.
Keep going until Aging rolls scare you off or the character has the narrative you want to enter play with. Done.

Alternately, this particular character automatically qualifies for the Nobles Career, presuming one is allowing additional careers beyond the first.

 

[Orr]

A lot of character building to be had here, figuratively and literally.

Funny how one man's impossibility is another man's inspiration.

 

[creativehum]

So I just rolled up this gentleman…

Starman Davon Fynnegun, Age 22, 1 term.
686BAC
Ship’s Boat-1 Pilot-1
CR. 20,000

The navy didn't like him enough to let him stay on, apparently.

What have you done with one-term characters like this? I'm honestly tempted to use him in a solo game and see how he does—he has a ready-made place as a pilot if only he can find a crew to sign on with.

Per the Classic Traveller rules, Davon also has an expertise of 0 in all weapons (most folks have a DM -5 for weapons) which puts him as quite capable in a fight. He's a pilot, knows his way around ships. We could assume he's traveled a bit in the four years in the navy and thus knows his way around starports and encountering new cultures and people.

He is very smart and very educated, which means he can figure things out on the fly and the Referee can often feed the player "things your guy would know."

He's a noble, which means he can tap resources and contacts on occasion. He's young and healthy, with an about average build. He can handle himself in a fistfight.

Questions abound: Kilemall already noted several in terms of his social standing. And what did happen in the navy? He clearly had the goods to make an officer. What is his temperament? Who did he piss off? He's still young, perhaps hot-headed. Or perhaps he has a moral compass that prevented him from doing something he knew was wrong?

Is he already in trouble? On the lamb from authorities? Is his noble house in crisis? Is he an adrenaline-junky who needs to keep getting into bad situations, which means trouble with both the navy and at home?

Who is this guy? What will happen to him? What does he want to accomplish? What will he do with the characteristics and skills he has at hand?

As for skills, if the Player wants, he can have Davon take advantage of the Experience rules, allowing him to improve his capacity with a firearm and a melee weapon, allowing him to receive an expertise of 1 with each. Alternately he could increase his Pilot and Ship Boat expertise to 2, making him quite valuable as a pilot.

********
I know that lots of people look at the number of skills a Traveller character possess to determine his worth -- but that's not how the game was designed to work and certainly not how I judge the character.

The Player can use this character to accomplish a great deal -- an exciting amount of activity, in fact.

The thing to remember that original Traveller, like the rules for original Dungeons & Dragons or Basic D&D, wasn't built to create a character with skills to handle every situation. The Player was supposed to be creative, come up with solutions -- often without ever even rolling dice or rolling Throws created by the Referee on an ad hoc basis. The sparse bonuses of characteristics or skills were to be used on occasion to help in those Throws, not to define what a character could or could not do.

 

[marginaleye]

I've never understood why Classic Traveller characters who fail to re-enlist in "Service A" can't attempt to begin another term of service by enlisting in "Service B."

Your one-term former Navy man could, for example, easily end up becoming Merchant, or a Pirate, or a Belter.

He might get a job as a dropship or gunship pilot for a mercenary company, which might be treated as joining the as Marines for character generation purposes.

He might join the crew of a safari ship and thus become a Hunter -- a particularly plausible option for this sample character, given his extraordinarily high Social Standing.

Finally, he could always decide that four years spent "before the mast" was enough, swallow his pride, creep back to his ancestral fief, and thus become an "active" Noble.

Some transitions would make more sense than others, but almost anything is possible with enough creativity (a Barbarian, for example, might end up as a Merchant after stowing away aboard a visiting far trader). As I see it, failing in enlist in "Service B" after failing to re-enlist in "Service A" would trigger the irrevocable transition to active PC status.

 

[BlindGuy]

Food for thought

Thanks, all, for the insights. I'm kind of in love with CT because of its raw simplicity, but it does take a bit of getting used to as someone who grew up on more defined RPGs.

Given that this guy is rolled up tabula rasa, I have no idea what setting he's from. I suspect some variation on the Third Imperium, though I always preferred to omit the number from my TU, for some reason. I'll have to consider further.

 

[rhialto]

I've never understood why Classic Traveller characters who fail to re-enlist in "Service A" can't attempt to begin another term of service by enlisting in "Service B."

Your one-term former Navy man could, for example, easily end up becoming Merchant, or a Pirate, or a Belter.

He might get a job as a dropship or gunship pilot for a mercenary company, which might be treated as joining the as Marines for character generation purposes.

He might join the crew of a safari ship and thus become a Hunter -- a particularly plausible option for this sample character, given his extraordinarily high Social Standing.

Finally, he could always decide that four years spent "before the mast" was enough, swallow his pride, creep back to his ancestral fief, and thus become an "active" Noble.

Some transitions would make more sense than others, but almost anything is possible with enough creativity (a Barbarian, for example, might end up as a Merchant after stowing away aboard a visiting far trader). As I see it, failing in enlist in "Service B" after failing to re-enlist in "Service A" would trigger the irrevocable transition to active PC status.

Precisely this reasoning led me to house-rule CT chargen to what you describe: justify why you'd want your ex-Navy character to join some other career, roll and let's move on. The reward (more skills/benefits) is balanced with the risk (potentially failed survival roll).