Reinventing Traveller

[Grav_Moped]

I think what's important is the relevance of the skill to your character concept, or the overall value to the game and party.

CT (LBB1-3 era, and to a lesser extent the other LBBs) approached the "character concept" from the other end: you weren't designing the character to your concept, the character was what the dice said he/she was and you had to work around it.

Mongoose works as you describe it, though: if the PC party doesn't have the appropriate skills for the campaign, it has rules for distributing those necessary skills among the characters.

 

[Dragoner]

CT (LBB1-3 era, and to a lesser extent the other LBBs) approached the "character concept" from the other end: you weren't designing the character to your concept, the character was what the dice said he/she was and you had to work around it.

Mongoose works as you describe it, though: if the PC party doesn't have the appropriate skills for the campaign, it has rules for distributing those necessary skills among the characters.

As far as we did it back in '79 we just kept rolling up characters until we got one we liked, and fit for the scenario we were playing. Sometimes the ref would give extra skills too. Expanded chargen was probably the bigger change.

 

[Jame]

I think what's important is the relevance of the skill to your character concept, or the overall value to the game and party.

I agree, though if a PC ends up with a couple skills that aren't used often but has a background explanation for them, it should be cool, because it helps add to characterization.

 

[kilemall]

If you think about it, random chargen is like the worldgen system, comes up with weird results that stimulate your having to justify why the character is.

 

[HanleyTucks]

I agree, though if a PC ends up with a couple skills that aren't used often but has a background explanation for them, it should be cool, because it helps add to characterization.

The recent couple of interviews with Miller were very interesting, him describing how he did a sociology degree, joined the army, got a commission, became an air defence officer, and was deployed to Vietnam in... the motor pool. And was then denied reenlistment.

Most of us don't really have lives carefully-scripted out, like the children whose parents book them into a preschool when they're only just in the womb, because that preschool they think will give them the best chances of that primary school, etc, leading to Harvard.

 

[Condottiere]

If only a few skill levels are available for a character, getting the relevant ones is very important; if there is a cornucopia, it matters a lot less.

 

[mike wightman]

My default these days is to allow a player to generate three characters at the table during session zero. The player then picks which character to use for the scenario, and may swap between characters as I run the introductory scenarios (the characters not in use are usually in the background somewhere and may even be met by the adventuring party).
After a while I ask the player to pick a main character and that is the one that continues into the campaign, although the others are still there in the back ground as before just in case.

I also encourage players to generate characters and planets at home so they can be used as replacements for their 'three' and as NPCs, and the planets always see some use eventually.

 

[Condottiere]

One size does not fit all.

The Dungeon Master should assess the players' needs and wishes, but outline the boundaries that they can expressed into.

This can take many forms and gaming styles.

I've had the impression that Traveller was for mature role players, because you are given a character that you have had some or minimal input, which is great for one off adventures, not that great for campaigns where players may have wanted a more defined character arc.

 

[coliver988]

One size does not fit all.

The Dungeon Master should assess the players' needs and wishes, but outline the boundaries that they can expressed into.

This can take many forms and gaming styles.

I've had the impression that Traveller was for mature role players, because you are given a character that you have had some or minimal input, which is great for one off adventures, not that great for campaigns where players may have wanted a more defined character arc.

When I ran a game for the group, several had not played Traveller before. And they hated the random character generation. They love to design the character exactly as they want it. But they also play a very small subset of characters all the time. I did give additional player input by allowing them to roll, then pick the skills table (one of my house rules that I've seen others use as well).

Regardless, like a few others have mentioned in this thread, you have to play around the character you get which to me leads to actual imaginative role playing versus playing the same character in a different game (I've a few friends that, regardless of system, play pretty much the same character in every game. While that is their prerogative and if they enjoy that, great, for me that would be boring)

So that aspect of Traveller, random character generation, for me at least does not need reinventing (see, I did manage to bring it back to the main thread concept!)

 

[mike wightman]

A reinvented Traveller would definitely include an optional points allocation system IMHO.

 

[coliver988]

A reinvented Traveller would definitely include an optional points allocation system IMHO.

Pretty sure I've seen that in one of the Cepheus versions, and the Mongoose companion has several variations where you pick & choose mostly for skills and even stats. Though that major a change to character generation would veer into the "this is not Traveller" for me at any rate. Even 1e Mongoose had the skill packages based on the type of play, so that you would have the skill necessary across the group.

However: a point-based system would allow people to create characters that they had in mind.

Note my sig: I do tend to pick and choose among rule sets, so "my" version of Traveller is equally likely to veer out of others view of what Traveller is. Though I am mostly (75% or so) Classic. I'm old, that's what I used and learned, and by golly, it is good enough for me. Mostly. I do like the rule from one of the far too many versions I have where you can trade in 1 benefit role for 1 rank improvement. Think that is the Deluxe Cepheus which also gives out automatic promotions every other term, and no chance of death, and a few other things that veer off my Traveller reservation. But the exchange of a benefit for a promotion I like and would use.

 

[Spinward Flow]

I've had the impression that Traveller was for mature role players, because you are given a character that you have had some or minimal input, which is great for one off adventures, not that great for campaigns where players may have wanted a more defined character arc.

It kind of depends on what you want ... and if you're willing to "reverse engineer" the character creation system in order to get it.

For example ...

The character that I'm playing in the Boughene Station Blues PbP campaign on these forums was one where the "party" (mainly of NPCs aboard a ship) were already generated and there were crew positions open, so some very specific skills were needed for specific crew roles for new PCs to enter the campaign.

I chose the Navigator position (partly because it lets me kibitz ideas on where to take the ship next and use the sector map to argue my points) ... meaning I needed a character with Navigation-1 skill in order to qualify for the position.

Next, I needed to search through all of the CT careers that offered Navigation as a possible skill result. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the LBB S4 Noble career had Navigation as an potential skill gain result. So I discussed the possibility with the Referee, got approval to make the attempt and started rolling dice.

I burned through a LOT of character rolls (on my own time) before producing a character who was a former Noble (career) who had Navigation skill and did NOT have a Yacht musting out benefit (since that would have been more trouble than it was worth in the context of the campaign).



Basically, I figured out what I "needed" in a character to slot into the campaign that was already underway and left "everything else" up to random chance ... and wound up with a 1 term Noble (who got position and promotion during that one term) who has four Skill-1 skills and a Travellers' membership (and some credits) as mustering out benefits. So my character is really young (and thus, really "green" in life experiences) who needs to "keep up" with the rest of the crew ... and I would like to think that so far I've been pulling my own weight in the campaign thus far, despite my character's lack of terms and a christmas tree of skills. Everyone else on the crew is ... older ... so my character is the "baby" of the group, and that's fine.

Sometimes you just need to play the CHARACTER, not the character SHEET ...

 

[HanleyTucks]

When I ran a game for the group, several had not played Traveller before. And they hated the random character generation. They love to design the character exactly as they want it.

My experience is that players who expect character generation to be exactly according to their preconceived ideas will have a similar attitude during play, expecting a campaign tailor-made for their individual glory. Which could work, but while their tailor-made campaign may fit that player, it's unlikely to fit the other players in the campaign.

So they're not worth the trouble. Which is part of why I enjoy running open game tables: unhappy players can move on to other game they'll be happy in.

 

[Condottiere]

To get to the mature role playing stage, you have to let the players develop and try out various styles, whether genre, character, playing and so on.

 

[Dragoner]

Is fifty-five mature enough? I finished a multi year CT game a while back, a mongoose one before that, also a years long campaign, and there are things both do well, and both need work; I mean I like to have stealth, deception, and persuade as skills, ablative armor also, where as the minimal LBB2 spacecraft, and surprise/simultaneous combat is better. I added things like say a particle barbette at 5 tons which did 1d6+1 damage, just to spice it up. I also was a player in a T5 game, the GM recently said they prefer a system where skill is more important than the stat and I agree. This is all the same in a lot of ways, myself I like the characters to have more development, though then the game can't be as lethal; except character options are always good, imo.

 

[Condottiere]

Maturity is a mindset.

 

[Dragoner]

I'll tell my knee that, it was hurting walking around at gencon, I bet it won't listen tho'.

 

[Condottiere]

Well, my doctor told me to cut out pork and alcohol.

A colleague told me it was to cut down on gout.

 

[Dragoner]

Then the promaja gets you, can't win.

 

[Condottiere]

I only take red wine, one swallow for me, one for the steak to be soaked.

I have increased my intake of beef.