CT Only: Player Career Choice

[Supplement Four]

Here's a problem that I sometimes run into when playing Traveller.

I allow the players to pick any career they want (I usually limit their choices to the Basic Careers in Book 1 and Supp 4), and I end up with most PC from the Army/Marines.

Which...messes with my standard tramp-freighter focused adventure. I end up having to create robots and NPCs to fill the ship roles, while the PCs all have combat skills.

Do you run into this problem?

 

[McPerth]

Personally, I've rarely had this problem, as my players use to have a broader career base. In fact I'd say the Army is among the least popular of the careers among my players, while Navy, Merchants and even Scouts being quite more popular, the Marines bieng in betwen and an occasional noble or other career player.

Of course, this uses to give a broader base of skills and I use not to have problems on filling the crew of a ship, though I've needed sometimes an NPC or robot to fill some of them...

 

[mike wightman]

Don't have a tramp freighter themed adventure...
if you allow your players to generate anything they want then the adventure that follow has to be tailored to the group.

If you have a pre-conceived campaign in mind it should be agreed with the players and some careers tagged as less than useful. I can see a ship's crew accepting an ex-Army buddy to work as a steward or medic. The other option is have the useless ex-Army character do another term in college pre-game - take money off them - and gain a useful ship skill at 2.

Another option is the ex-Army characters are passengers onboard when the excrement hits the rotary gas displacement device.

 

[Supplement Four]

I'm sure it's partially or mostly my fault as Ref in that I usually run combat heavy games.

 

[McPerth]

I'm sure it's partially or mostly my fault as Ref in that I usually run combat heavy games.

As I see it, that's not a fault, that's a game style, and, if your players like it, probably the right way. Combat uses to be rare (and deadly) in the games I run.

Probably your players will become bored in my games, and mine will be scared in yours, and that does not make (IMHO) neither you nor me a better referee, just different, and probably aimed to different players.

 

[Supplement Four]

Probably your players will become bored in my games, and mine will be scared in yours, and that does not make (IMHO) neither you nor me a better referee, just different, and probably aimed to different players.

Agreed.

 

[khadaji2002]

For me as a player, if I know the GM favors combat heavy games, I'm going to go with a combat heavy character every chance I have. If I know the GM is running a tramp freighter game where combat is rare, I'm far more likely to gen up a merchant, or a belter, or a retired Scout. I do my best to find out from the GM what the game is about before I gen a character as there is nothing worse than creating a character who (regardless of backstory coolness) is useless for the scenario.

 

[kilemall]

Sounds like you go merc, and the players work for people who provide a ship or if they are successful enough they own or hire ships/crew.

 

[Supplement Four]

Sounds like you go merc, and the players work for people who provide a ship or if they are successful enough they own or hire ships/crew.

Well, like the Traveller Adventure. There's a lot of combat to be had in that tramp freighter based campaign.

My games tend to parallel the TA in style.

 

[mike wightman]

The pre-gems in the Traveller Adventure include:
ex-Army - steward
ex-Other - medic
ex-Marine - deckhand/working passage

 

[Vercintol]

A GM I had in past had us players roll 2 characters. One was shipboard action oriented the other was a ground/combat oriented character. Game play that session would dictate the character active,

 

[AsenRG]

Here's a problem that I sometimes run into when playing Traveller.

I allow the players to pick any career they want (I usually limit their choices to the Basic Careers in Book 1 and Supp 4), and I end up with most PC from the Army/Marines.

Which...messes with my standard tramp-freighter focused adventure. I end up having to create robots and NPCs to fill the ship roles, while the PCs all have combat skills.

Do you run into this problem?

Usually no, since most of my players have long since learned that lacking non-combat skills is only acceptable in a military-focused game. And even then, it's not the best option, unless you fancy having trouble with all the bureaucrats on your side.

I'm sure it's partially or mostly my fault as Ref in that I usually run combat heavy games.

Then why do you prepare tramp-freighter focused adventures?

I mean, former military guys get a hold of a starship. Why wouldn't they do something closer to their specialty, like bounty-hunting criminals, hunting down pirates, offering protection to other free traders with valuable enough cargo, and the like?

 

[pendragonman]

Here's a problem that I sometimes run into when playing Traveller.

I allow the players to pick any career they want (I usually limit their choices to the Basic Careers in Book 1 and Supp 4), and I end up with most PC from the Army/Marines.

Which...messes with my standard tramp-freighter focused adventure. I end up having to create robots and NPCs to fill the ship roles, while the PCs all have combat skills.

Do you run into this problem?

This is the D&D mentality. Everyone needs to be a "fighter" or a "healer" and you get those skills most often in the military careers.

I encounter the opposite problem. Entire parties want to be able to play with all of the Gee-Whiz high tech toys, and then no one has combat skills or at best GC-1

Then everyone dies when their use of the gee-whiz toys comes to the notice of XYZ agency or ABC criminal gang (because of how the party is going about making money).

 

[Supplement Four]

This is the D&D mentality.

That's very true for my group. They love D&D above all else. Not me. But, they do.

 

[Condottiere]

Or a pilot.

 

[Brandon C]

The fundamental problem is that random character generation is poorly suited to the campaign you want. A player who wants to be the pilot is unlikely to get a good Pilot skill. A player who wants to be the engineer is unlikely to get a good Engineering skill. The first player can end up with better Medical skill and the second with better Steward skill. IOW, the player is unlikely to get the character they want to run.

OTOH, an Army or Marine character, rolling mostly on the service skills table, is very likely to get a character good in a fight.

Let the players pick their skills rather than rolling for them.

 

[khadaji2002]

The fundamental problem is that random character generation is poorly suited to the campaign you want. A player who wants to be the pilot is unlikely to get a good Pilot skill. A player who wants to be the engineer is unlikely to get a good Engineering skill. The first player can end up with better Medical skill and the second with better Steward skill. IOW, the player is unlikely to get the character they want to run.

OTOH, an Army or Marine character, rolling mostly on the service skills table, is very likely to get a character good in a fight.

Let the players pick their skills rather than rolling for them.

As mentioned elsewhere on this board I now have the player roll for their skill, then pick which table to use. That way the dice still have a say in what they learned that term, and the player has input as well. However, this is a mechanics answer to a question about player behavior. I'll stop this thought here.

Again, for me as a player who also GM's at times, the issue is more one of communication up front. If I am a player, I talk to the GM about what kind of game I'm getting into so I can work to make a PC that will fit in the storyline. As a GM I discuss the storyline with the players so they know what types of scenarios are likely to come up. And if I'm clear with everyone that I'm going to run a sneak and grab style game, and everyone sets up a "Bang, you're dead" character....they will have consequences to face. And those consequences can actually lead to other story lines that are fun for everyone involved. YMMV.

 

[mike wightman]

If you want a group of ex-Army and ex-Marines zipping from adventure to adventure in a ship you could look to show like Killjoys and Dark Matter for inspiration. Have the ship run by an AI (Killjoys) or have an NPC android who runs the ship (DarK Matter, Andromeda).

 

[Brandon C]

Again, for me as a player who also GM's at times, the issue is more one of communication up front. If I am a player, I talk to the GM about what kind of game I'm getting into so I can work to make a PC that will fit in the storyline. As a GM I discuss the storyline with the players so they know what types of scenarios are likely to come up. And if I'm clear with everyone that I'm going to run a sneak and grab style game, and everyone sets up a "Bang, you're dead" character....they will have consequences to face. And those consequences can actually lead to other story lines that are fun for everyone involved. YMMV.

When it comes down to it, the GM should run the kind of campaign the group wants. If the players really want to run a guns-for-hire campaign, that's what the GM should run. He shouldn't force the players into something.

 

[Supplement Four]

When it comes down to it, the GM should run the kind of campaign the group wants. If the players really want to run a guns-for-hire campaign, that's what the GM should run. He shouldn't force the players into something.

I usually have to sell them on Traveller or some game other than D&D. Once we get going, though, they usually love it. We had a ball with D6 Star Wars. And, they're loving my current Conan game (which is close to D&D, of course).