Revising the expanded CharGen System

[Golan2072]

For a time, I prefered a revised "basic" approach to CT CharGen; I still do, as far as NPCs and short-term-play PCs are concerned, as my system gives varied and well-rounded characters with little effort.

However, my experience with generating a detailed PC for a play-by-post Traveller campaign has made me fall in love with the Expanded (in that case, AM6) CharGen system as a PC-creation tool. And why is that? Because the detailed account of what the character did every year serves as a very sound foundation for an interesting and detailed personal history, as befitting a PC in a long-term campaign.

The problem with CT Expanded chargen is that it was written over a whole decade or so, with the system evolving as time went on; so compatability between the systems (for example, LBB4 doesn't have pre-enlistment, LBBs 5-7 do) and between skill sets is shaky at best. Furthermore, my consolidated skill system would probably contain several skills that do not exist in some or even all of the existing systems. And, last but not least, alot of careers (from Belters to Colonists) only have basic CharGen systems.

What I was thinking about is a slow and careful consolidation, revision and expansion of the Expanded CharGen systems, starting with consolidating the pre-enlistment options, going through a few skill adjustments (especially adding cascade skills) on the existing tables and then moving on to the real task - building the new careers for the character types that lack Expanded systems.

 

[Golan2072]

For a time, I prefered a revised "basic" approach to CT CharGen; I still do, as far as NPCs and short-term-play PCs are concerned, as my system gives varied and well-rounded characters with little effort.

However, my experience with generating a detailed PC for a play-by-post Traveller campaign has made me fall in love with the Expanded (in that case, AM6) CharGen system as a PC-creation tool. And why is that? Because the detailed account of what the character did every year serves as a very sound foundation for an interesting and detailed personal history, as befitting a PC in a long-term campaign.

The problem with CT Expanded chargen is that it was written over a whole decade or so, with the system evolving as time went on; so compatability between the systems (for example, LBB4 doesn't have pre-enlistment, LBBs 5-7 do) and between skill sets is shaky at best. Furthermore, my consolidated skill system would probably contain several skills that do not exist in some or even all of the existing systems. And, last but not least, alot of careers (from Belters to Colonists) only have basic CharGen systems.

What I was thinking about is a slow and careful consolidation, revision and expansion of the Expanded CharGen systems, starting with consolidating the pre-enlistment options, going through a few skill adjustments (especially adding cascade skills) on the existing tables and then moving on to the real task - building the new careers for the character types that lack Expanded systems.

 

[mike wightman]

I sort of mix basic and expanded to quite good effect.

I use basic plus the MT derived special duty and rule of four, but for additional background it is often useful to roll for the yearly assignments from the expanded generation.

I don't resolve them at all, I just roll to find out what happened.

For example, I may roll for one year in the Navy, using the basic survival, commission, and promotion rolls, add a special duty roll, and then roll four times on the High Guard assignment table just to find out how the term was spent.

 

[mike wightman]

I sort of mix basic and expanded to quite good effect.

I use basic plus the MT derived special duty and rule of four, but for additional background it is often useful to roll for the yearly assignments from the expanded generation.

I don't resolve them at all, I just roll to find out what happened.

For example, I may roll for one year in the Navy, using the basic survival, commission, and promotion rolls, add a special duty roll, and then roll four times on the High Guard assignment table just to find out how the term was spent.

 

[Golan2072]

I'm already making use of a "special duty" roll in my revised basic system; what I'm after is not a greater number of skills (my revised basic system already gives an LBB4/LBB5-equivalent number of skills), but more details around which a detailed personal history for a long-term-campaign PC could be spun.

 

[Golan2072]

I'm already making use of a "special duty" roll in my revised basic system; what I'm after is not a greater number of skills (my revised basic system already gives an LBB4/LBB5-equivalent number of skills), but more details around which a detailed personal history for a long-term-campaign PC could be spun.

 

[mike wightman]

Would MegaTraveller not be a better starting point then?
It already has the skill cascades added to basic character generation.

 

[mike wightman]

Would MegaTraveller not be a better starting point then?
It already has the skill cascades added to basic character generation.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

2-4601, I think Sigg's suggestion is what you are talking about for the most part. You use your basic chargen, but add the rolls for how that was accomplished from the advanced chargen.

Of course, you would still have to come up with something for the other careers in CT....

 

[Fritz_Brown]

2-4601, I think Sigg's suggestion is what you are talking about for the most part. You use your basic chargen, but add the rolls for how that was accomplished from the advanced chargen.

Of course, you would still have to come up with something for the other careers in CT....

 

[Golan2072]

The following is the outline of what I'm going to do. It is partially inspired by the "CT Plus" discussion in the summer, and intended to provide a compromise between simplicity and reduced page-flipping (each career's entire CharGen system should fit into ONe A4 page IMHO) and the interesting details and varieties provided by the Expanded system. So here is the outline:

- No "General Assignment"/Command Determination" roll; this is a relatively minor detail that, from my experience, adds alot of confusion and over-complexity to the chargen system.

- The difference between branches will now effect only the skill selection rather than the mission resolution (except for Commando and its likes, one per carrer type, that will provides a negative DM for survival and a positive DM to skill reception and decoration).

- 8 Skill Tables per service - 5 Branch-specific Tables (DMs for preferred characteristics), 1 Officer Table (DM for high comissioned rank), 1 Service Table (DM for high non-comissioned rank) and 1 Advanced Education table (EDU 8+ only, DM for high INT).

- Player chooses one of the four main branches; the fifth, "special" branch could only be entered through a Special Assignment.

- Simplified "Special Assignment" table, see the following example (Army):

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">1D SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT
1 OCS (Rank O1 and roll once on the Officer Skill table)
2 OCS (Rank O1 and roll once on the Officer Skill table)
3 Cross-Training (roll once on another Branch's skill table)
4 Commando School (Transfer to Commando and roll once on its Skill table)
5 Recruiting (recieve Recruiting-1)
6 Protected Forces (Recieve Vacc Suit-1 and Zero-G-1)
7 Intelligence School (Choose 2 Clandestine skills)*
8 Command College (Recieve Tactics-1 and Leader-1)</pre>[/QUOTE]DM +2 if a Comissioned Officer
* Clandestine is a cascade skill - choose between Bribery, Carousing, Forgery, Gambling, Interrogation, Stealth or Streetwise.

So each year you roll:
1) Assignment Selection (2D6, DM+2 if Commando)
2) Survival (depends ONLY on the Assignment, not on Branch, but DM-2 if Commando)
3) Promotion (depends ONLY on the Assignment, not on Branch; only one promotion allowed per 4 years)
4) Decoration (depends ONLY on the Assignment, not on Branch, but DM+2 if Commando)
5) Skill Eligibilty (depends ONLY on the Assignment, not on Branch, but DM+2 if Commando)
6) Skill Table (roll once if eligible; everyone could roll on her Branch's table; characters with EDU 8+ could roll on the Advanced Education table instead; commisioned officers could roll on the Officer Table instead).

Every 4 years you roll:
1) Re-Enlistment (DM+2 if officer, additional DM+1 if Commando)
2) Aging (if applicable)

 

[Golan2072]

The following is the outline of what I'm going to do. It is partially inspired by the "CT Plus" discussion in the summer, and intended to provide a compromise between simplicity and reduced page-flipping (each career's entire CharGen system should fit into ONe A4 page IMHO) and the interesting details and varieties provided by the Expanded system. So here is the outline:

- No "General Assignment"/Command Determination" roll; this is a relatively minor detail that, from my experience, adds alot of confusion and over-complexity to the chargen system.

- The difference between branches will now effect only the skill selection rather than the mission resolution (except for Commando and its likes, one per carrer type, that will provides a negative DM for survival and a positive DM to skill reception and decoration).

- 8 Skill Tables per service - 5 Branch-specific Tables (DMs for preferred characteristics), 1 Officer Table (DM for high comissioned rank), 1 Service Table (DM for high non-comissioned rank) and 1 Advanced Education table (EDU 8+ only, DM for high INT).

- Player chooses one of the four main branches; the fifth, "special" branch could only be entered through a Special Assignment.

- Simplified "Special Assignment" table, see the following example (Army):

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">1D SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT
1 OCS (Rank O1 and roll once on the Officer Skill table)
2 OCS (Rank O1 and roll once on the Officer Skill table)
3 Cross-Training (roll once on another Branch's skill table)
4 Commando School (Transfer to Commando and roll once on its Skill table)
5 Recruiting (recieve Recruiting-1)
6 Protected Forces (Recieve Vacc Suit-1 and Zero-G-1)
7 Intelligence School (Choose 2 Clandestine skills)*
8 Command College (Recieve Tactics-1 and Leader-1)</pre>[/QUOTE]DM +2 if a Comissioned Officer
* Clandestine is a cascade skill - choose between Bribery, Carousing, Forgery, Gambling, Interrogation, Stealth or Streetwise.

So each year you roll:
1) Assignment Selection (2D6, DM+2 if Commando)
2) Survival (depends ONLY on the Assignment, not on Branch, but DM-2 if Commando)
3) Promotion (depends ONLY on the Assignment, not on Branch; only one promotion allowed per 4 years)
4) Decoration (depends ONLY on the Assignment, not on Branch, but DM+2 if Commando)
5) Skill Eligibilty (depends ONLY on the Assignment, not on Branch, but DM+2 if Commando)
6) Skill Table (roll once if eligible; everyone could roll on her Branch's table; characters with EDU 8+ could roll on the Advanced Education table instead; commisioned officers could roll on the Officer Table instead).

Every 4 years you roll:
1) Re-Enlistment (DM+2 if officer, additional DM+1 if Commando)
2) Aging (if applicable)

 

[Berg]

If you do this for All the careers (sup 4 too!), then that would be really ambitious...
and welcomed, and downloaded, and used, etc...

 

[Berg]

If you do this for All the careers (sup 4 too!), then that would be really ambitious...
and welcomed, and downloaded, and used, etc...

 

[Golan2072]

Ambitious but doable - I already revised the Basic Chargen, INCLUDING S4 and three additional careers, after all. But its alot of work - which I will do.

 

[Golan2072]

Ambitious but doable - I already revised the Basic Chargen, INCLUDING S4 and three additional careers, after all. But its alot of work - which I will do.

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

I do sort of the same thing...

I have the computer generate character for me, with the program noting if they were wounded, promoted, etc. It also prints skill acquiaition on a term by term basis. Then i look at the characteristics and skills, and sort of pull a description for the year's activities out of my head.

This works very well with newbies. I just have them roll dice and talk, and when we are done, his character has a background and I have adventure seeds...

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

I do sort of the same thing...

I have the computer generate character for me, with the program noting if they were wounded, promoted, etc. It also prints skill acquiaition on a term by term basis. Then i look at the characteristics and skills, and sort of pull a description for the year's activities out of my head.

This works very well with newbies. I just have them roll dice and talk, and when we are done, his character has a background and I have adventure seeds...

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
I sort of mix basic and expanded to quite good effect.

I also mix basic generation and expanded generation fairly well. Common sense says that to balance out some professions, the GM *must* use some house rules such as:

"All characters are allowed the option to enter College before their service terms. Use the same table for all characters as detailed in High Guard."

These little house rules end up being the great equalizer. For example, the Citizens of the Imperium careers do not have the College option, but High Guard and Mercenary do. Well, the solution is obvious. Allow EVERYONE the option for College. Of course, make one or two sane exclusions as well:

"All characters, EXCEPT FOR THOSE OPTING TO BE BARBARIANS, have the option to go to College."

IMTU, I also add a few other flavor rules, such as:

"Any character with a starting Imperial Social Standing of 11+, or Solomani Party Standing of 6+ will receive automatic entry into College, IF they choose to go into College. Automatic admission does not entail automatic success. The character must still roll for College Success, Honors, etc."

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
I sort of mix basic and expanded to quite good effect.

I also mix basic generation and expanded generation fairly well. Common sense says that to balance out some professions, the GM *must* use some house rules such as:

"All characters are allowed the option to enter College before their service terms. Use the same table for all characters as detailed in High Guard."

These little house rules end up being the great equalizer. For example, the Citizens of the Imperium careers do not have the College option, but High Guard and Mercenary do. Well, the solution is obvious. Allow EVERYONE the option for College. Of course, make one or two sane exclusions as well:

"All characters, EXCEPT FOR THOSE OPTING TO BE BARBARIANS, have the option to go to College."

IMTU, I also add a few other flavor rules, such as:

"Any character with a starting Imperial Social Standing of 11+, or Solomani Party Standing of 6+ will receive automatic entry into College, IF they choose to go into College. Automatic admission does not entail automatic success. The character must still roll for College Success, Honors, etc."