Rules Only: [Silhouette/Traveller] Character Generation Sample

[Kilgs]

SILHOUETTE/TRAVELLER HYBRID

I’ve been working on a Silhouette system version of Traveller. I’ve used the Megatraveller Enhanced Character Generation and bolted Silhouette mechanics to MongTrav. The shorthand is that it’s worked really well. I’ve run two different Merchant Prince solo runs with Star Trader and those mechanics mapped really well.

Silhouette has rules for advancement that mesh well. I like the combat mechanic more and an integrated vehicle design/combat system. Not to mention, I like the probabilities better. It also works well with characters having more skills and room for growth. Utilizing the Megatraveller Enhanced CharGen provided the ability to get the characters the higher number of skills that I prefer in games. I added a number of skills and the system seems to be working so far. I like skills. Sue me. One thing that is a bit apparent though is that characters are competent a bit younger... early to mid-30's a Silhouette character is usually in fairly good shape for a beginning Traveller character. When you push into the 40's, they get very competent.

So I thought I would show folks the end result… and then I’ll run through some mechanics.

CHARACTER GENERATION IN GENERAL

Most of this is ginned from Megatraveller except Aging, Mustering and a few other things. The obvious stuff below is for those who play different kinds of Traveller without those mechanics/definitions.

Brownie Points:
These are used in Megatrav to get bonuses on rolls. They exist here and can be transferred at the end of the CharGen process into Emergency Dice for Silhouette mechanics.
-A BP spent reduces/increases a roll. Any amount of points can be spent on a roll.
-Any points left over from Attribute Point Buy become Brownie Points.

Cascades:
A cascade skill has subsets that gain rank-0 and can be improved separately. Ex: Engineer (Jump-1, Maneuver-0, Systems-0).

Clusters:
A collection of skills that a player may choose from when getting a skill.

Skill Levels
In Silhouette, the mechanic is attempting to beat a Threshold (Target Number) by rolling a number of d6 and keep highest roll. A. Your Attribute provides a bonus (+1, etc). Your skill level provides the # of d6 you roll. If you roll more than one “6”, you get a +1 (or + number of 6’s rolled).

So Bob has Cooking-2. If he has no Attribute bonuses, he rolls 2 six-siders. He gets a 4 and 2. His roll is a 4.
If he rolled two 6’s, his roll would have been 7.

I did institute 0-level skills as I like that aspect of Traveller.

DAMIL FIRSKALAV
Since this is an example, I’m going to build a small crew centered on a detached S-Type. For that, we need a Scout! Damil is going to be focused on getting himself one of them detached S-Types and all the skills needed to run it!

Step One, Attributes-Point Buy
The attributes for Silhouette map well with Traveller and add some additional aspects. The Attributes are, with Traveller analogs/substitutes in parentheses, Agility, Appearance, Build, Creativity (INT), Fitness, Influence, Knowledge (EDU), Perception, Psyche (Social Class), and Willpower. The attributes are fairly self-explanatory.

I removed Psyche completely and replaced it with SOC. I considered leaving it and having SOC a non-attribute but Traveller has considered it such since time immemorial. Also there are a number of mechanics/rolls that benefit from the use of SOC.

All Attributes are rated -5 to +5. With anything beyond +/- 3 quite extraordinary. In essence, if we ignore the 2-15 range of Traveller and focus on the Mong Trav bonuses, we’re in good shape.

Since Traveller is a Gritty game and there are opportunities to increase Attributes, I start with 20 Attribute points. Each Attribute starts at -1. I’m not going to list all the costs, just the ones I use here…

Damil Firskalav is going to be a Scout (hopefully) and eventually the captain of his own scout ship. A guy can dream… so we want him to be in good health, smart and resourceful. But I have room for improvement and want to start with some Brownie Points.

I don’t need a high SOC to get into the Scouts so we’ll leave that at -1. I want to ensure that all others are at least 0. For Influence, Creativity and Knowledge, I spend 18pts to get those at +1.

I have 2pts remaining and hold onto them as starting Brownie Points.

Step Two, Homeworld and Background Skills
As in Megatraveller, a character receives Homeworld and Background Skills based on origin system. I randomly pick (by scrolling real fast)… Nundishaag (Ley 1228)(A300A99-D). My Homeworld skills start at -1 (level 1). My background skills start at -0.

Background
As an Average Stellar TL citizen, I receive Grav Vehicle-0, Computer-0. I also receive one Combat Skill at -0 and I go with Defense which is pretty basic and important. Just in case I don’t pick it up somewhere.

Homeworld
Nundishaag is a High Pop, Industrial planet. So I receive… Streetwise-1, Trade (Pharmacy-1). I decide it’s pharmaceuticals because Dad is in the pharmacy business.

And… prior to the start of Damil’s career. Here is what he looks like:

Damil Firskalav [Pre-Career]
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: 0
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: -1, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 2
SKILLS
Streetwise-1, Trade (Pharmaceuticals-1)
Computer-0, Grav Vehicle-0
COMBAT SKILLS
Defense-0

Step Three, Damil’s Career Entry-Scouts and First Term
All of the Career Entry, Survival, and so on rolls I’ve kept as 2d6 per Megatraveller. The charts have been modified for new skills and such.

I use the notation [Term.Year] so the first term is 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4.

Career Entry-Scouts
So now Damil, at 17 years old, heads to the IISS recruitment fair. His planet is on an X-boat route but no Scout base. He should be okay since I have those Brownie Points for my roll.

I need to roll a 7+ to get into the Scouts. I receive a +1DM for being on an Xboat Route and a +1DM for my Creativity (+1). I rolled an 11, so no worries! Damil is recruited into the Scouts in the Field Division.

Year 1.1--Basic Training
I roll for his Branch Assignment and get Communications. He has been assigned to the Xboat network and receives his basic training. The basic training for all Field Scouts is Pilot (cascade), one Branch skill and Vacc Suit-0. He takes Pilot (Starship-1) since I plan on him being a captain at the end…

I roll under Communications for his Branch skill… Vacc Suit-1. I guess after a wild time in flight training he was set to scrubbing the hulls of berthed vessels to learn some patience.

Year 1.2
Now we have fun with the Expanded Character Generation from Megatraveller. Rolling on the Assignments, Damil gets sent on a Special Mission right away. Special Missions provide, if you survive, a bonus skill from the Special Mission table so it’s a good result. If you survive.

Checking the tables, we need a 6+ to survive and get no bonuses. A 9 keeps Damil safe! There are no promotions in the Field department but we beat a 6+ for a skill also.

Our Special Mission skill is rolled with a d6 and we get Animals (cascade). I don’t like that and note that the Espionage Cluster is the next entry so I spend a Brownie Point to get a skill from there. The Espionage Cluster allows me to pick from (Comms, Deception, Disguise, Interrogation, Security, Tradecraft). You can’t go wrong with Security so Damil goes with that. His Special Mission must have involved a break-in or protection of some asset.

For his regular Skill, Damil can choose between the following tables: Communications Branch, Scout Life or Field Department. He goes with Communications since it has good ship skills. He picks up [Small Craft] as an individual skill. This goes into his Pilot (cascade) but only for Small Craft. If he did not have Pilot, it would have been received as an individual skill and not a cascade.

Year 1.3
This time Damil rolls a Mission which provides no extras. He makes his Survival roll but misses his Skill roll by 2pts. I don’t have enough BP’s to change that and it’s a high price for one skill so we move on.

Year 1.4
He rolls Routine schedule for the last year of his first term. It started off pretty exciting but ended a bit monotonous. Survival is easy but, again, I miss the Skill (7+) roll by too much to alter it.

Term Completion
Upon the end of a successfully completed Term, a character gets a bonus skill roll. Damil can choose from the same tables: Communications Branch, Scout Life or Field Department. This time, he needs to round out a bit so he chooses the Field Department table. He rolls a 3, which gets him [Weapon] so a single type of weapon and no cascades. Seems like a decent time to add a Laser Pistol since he needs a weapon that can be used in vacuum.

NOTE: My intention is to somehow use the Events tables from Mongoose or my own to provide a basis for the Connections with other players. For now, it’s just a Bonus Skill roll.

Term Brownie Point
For completing the term, Damil also receives a Brownie Point so he’s back to 2.

And here is Damil after his first term…

Damil Firskalav, Scouts (1 Term)
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: 0
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: -1, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 2
SKILLS
Pilot (Starship-1, Small Craft-1), Security-1, Streetwise-1, Trade (Pharmaceuticals-1), Vacc Suit-1
Computer-0, Grav Vehicle-0
COMBAT SKILLS
Defense-0
Laser Pistol-1

 

[Kilgs]

Step Three, Damil’s Second Term
Damil re-enlists with the Communications Branch and is accepted back easily. He is well-liked and a hard worker although he did grow fairly bored at the end of his last term. He thinks about switching to Exploration but decides to stick it out a bit longer in Communications hoping to get to pilot some of the craft available.

Year 2.1
In his first year back, he ends up on Routine duty again. Survival is easy but he misses his Skill roll again!

Year 2.2
Itching for something to do, Damil jumps at the chance for danger and receives a War Mission! Like a Special Mission, he gets a bonus skill if he survives. He makes his Survival with a natural 12 and can automatically re-enlist at the end of this term. He gets a Special/War Mission skill and makes his Skill roll this year for two skills.

His Special Skill roll is a 1, for Hunting. Apparently he was on-planet and needed to hunt for survival. He genuinely enjoyed it and looks forward to hunts on exotic planets.

Again, he has the choice of three tables and goes with Communications. He gets a 3, Small Craft but decides to spend a Brownie Point to reduce it to a 2. This gives him another level of Pilot (starship).

NOTE: I forgot he gets Brownie Points for all Special/War Missions. I have retroactively given him +2 BP for last term!

Year 2.3
Again, he rolls Routine and starts to get itchy! His Survival roll went fine and this time he gets a skill! Apparently his tendency to zone out when bored didn’t kick in this time. With the same three tables, he chooses Communication and gets a 1 for ZeroG Ops. A good skill likely picked up servicing Xboats.

Year 2.4
This time Damil rolls Base (5) but decides to burn a BP to reduce this to Training. Since the Scout Service runs great schools. He rolls a d6, gets a 4 for Field Training. He burns another BP to reduce this to get Ship School.

Ship School provides two rolls on the Ship School table… he gets Gunnery (cascade) and Space Tech (cluster). For Gunnery, he takes Gunnery (Turrets-1) since it’s the baseline for Scout ships. Space Tech (cluster) allows a choice between: Comms, Computer, Engineer (cascade), Gravitics and Vacc Suit.

Thinking towards his future, he takes Engineer (Ship Systems-1). As a cascade, he can use (Jump, Maneuver) as -0 level skills.

Brownie Point
He receives an additional BP for a total of 3.

Term Completion
For his completed Term Skill, he rolls on Communications and gets Space Ops (Cluster). He can choose from Communications, Astrogation, Pilot, Sensor Ops, ZeroG. He goes with Astrogation to ensure he has all the baseline skills for ship operation.

He can also automatically re-enlist.

Damil Firskalav, Scouts (2 Terms)
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: 0
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: -1, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 3
SKILLS
Pilot (Starship-2, Small Craft-1),
Astrogation-1, Engineer (Systems-1), Gunnery (Turrets-1), Hunting-1, Security-1, Streetwise-1, Trade (Pharmaceuticals-1), Vacc Suit-1, ZeroG-1
Computer-0, Grav Vehicle-0, Vacc Suit-1
COMBAT SKILLS
Defense-0
Laser Pistol-1

Step Three, Damil’s Third Term-Scouts (Survey)
Damil realizes that the Communications office work has become too boring for him to continue in it. Thinking about his options, he decides to check on vacancies in other offices. This grants him a roll on the Office Assignment table and he crosses his fingers for Exploratory… a roll of 6 puts him back in Communications. Exploration requires a 10 or more. But Survey is at 5, so he spends a BP to join the Survey Office. At least he’s out there and the planets are new to him if not to the Imperium!

Year 3.1
In his new Survey position, he receives no basic training and immediately is assigned to a Special Mission! This is far more like it. He makes his Survival and Skill roll with ease. In addition, he gets a Special Mission skill.

His Special Mission skill is Liaison-1. Apparently he was required to spend some time interacting with a government or system authority on behalf of the Imperium. His regular skill role is under the Survey Office. He receives the Survey skill after working on a vessel for the past year.

And +1 BP, I won’t forget.

Year 3.2
In the next year, his work on special status missions is getting him attention and he receives another Special Mission! He survives and makes his skill roll. His Special Mission skill ends up being from the Espionage (cluster). The Espionage Cluster allows me to pick from (Comms, Deception, Disguise, Interrogation, Security, Tradecraft). Damil decides to go with Security again to give him additional expertise. For his regular skill roll, he chooses the Scout Life and gets Hand Combat (cluster). This cluster lets him pick from (Combat Sense, Defense, Unarmed, Melee Weapons). He goes with Combat Sense.

NOTE: In Silhouette, Combat Sense is initiative. If you don’t have it, you shouldn’t get into a scrap.

+1 BP.

Year 3.3
For his third year, he rolls a Training year. The Survey Office has schools to offer him and he ends up with Field Training which gives him Vehicle (cluster). He goes with Grav Vehicle-1.

Year 3.4
In his 4th year, he is sent to Training again! This time he gets Specialist School and learns Sensor Ops-1.

Term Completion
For his term skill, Damil rolls on Scout Life again and gets Gambling. He decides to spend a BP to change it to Physical (cluster). This gives him a choice between +1 to Appearance, Build, Fitness or the Athletics skill. While Athletics is pretty useful, he goes with the attribute bonus and picks +1 Fitness.
He receives +1 BP.

Damil Firskalav, Scouts (3 Terms)
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: 0
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: -1, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 4
SKILLS
Pilot (Starship-2, Small Craft-1), Security-2,
Astrogation-1, Engineer (Systems-1), Grav Vehicle-1, Gunnery (Turrets-1), Hunting-1, Liaison-1, Sensor Ops-1, Survey-1, Streetwise-1, Trade (Pharmaceuticals-1), Vacc Suit-1, ZeroG-1
Computer-0,
COMBAT SKILLS
Combat Sense-1, Defense-0
Laser Pistol-1

Step Three, Damil’s Fourth Term-Scouts (Exploration)
At this point, Damil is in really good shape. He has all the skills needed to make his own way and he decides to go for another term to ensure he qualifies for the Detached S-Type program: his very own ship! He rolls poorly for re-enlistment and has to spend a Brownie Point to stay in the service. He decides to take a chance and get into Exploration and needs to spend another Brownie Point to get there. But finally makes it!

Year 4.1
He receives a standard Mission assignment. He makes his survival roll but misses his skill roll.

Year 4.2
He receives a Wartime Mission! He makes his Survival roll and his Skill roll. For his Wartime Mission skill, he receives Liaison as he deals with various functionaries upset about raiding in their system.

For his standard skill, he chooses the Field table. Having more than 3 terms gives him a bonus to available skills. He rolls a 5, +4 for his experience, and ends up with a 9… Streetwise.

And +1BP.

Year 4.3
He receives a Routine duty assignment this year. Bored again, he still manages to impress his superiors (12, automatic re-enlistment!). He also gains a skill. He chooses Exploration and receives a skill from the Exploratory (cluster). This allows him to pick from Small Craft, Sensor Ops, Survey, Survival, Vacc Suit or Vehicle (cluster). He goes with Survival.

Year 4.4
A Mission assignment, Damil survives but receives no skill.

Term Completion
He takes a roll on the Exploration table again and gets Recon. He also receives +1 BP.

Damil Firskalav, Scouts (4 Terms)
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: +1
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: -1, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 4
SKILLS
Liaison-2, Pilot (Starship-2, Small Craft-1), Security-2, Streetwise-2,
Astrogation-1, Engineer (Systems-1), Grav Vehicle-1, Gunnery (Turrets-1), Hunting-1, Liaison-1, Recon-1, Sensor Ops-1, Survey-1, Survival-1, Trade (Pharmaceuticals-1), Vacc Suit-1, ZeroG-1
Computer-0,
COMBAT SKILLS
Combat Sense-1, Defense-0
Laser Pistol-1

Okay, this guy turned out way too good! However, he's an exceptional generalist. But level-2 is professional competence so he doesn't shine at anything in particular. Although I would argue that a Scout captain would definitely look something like this. Regardless, he has a lot of skills. Most characters are a bit more focused.

 

[Kilgs]

Step Three, Damil’s Fifth Term-Scouts (Exploration)
While originally planning to get out, his superior convinces him to stay in one more term (auto re-enlistment).

Aging
Starting the term, he is 34 years of age and must check for Aging. We use the Mongoose table. We roll 2d6 (-4 terms) and get 3, ending with a -1. Damil has no interest in Aging so he spends 2BP to avoid it this time ie. he works out a lot.

Year 5.1
He receives a Routine assignment. He survives and gains a skill. He rolls on the Exploration table and receives Survival but he decides to spend a BP to change it to Leader.

Year 5.2
He receives a Mission duty this year. He survives and gains a skill. He decides to roll on the Field table and gets Gun Combat (cluster). The Gun Combat cluster has Combat Sense, Defense and every type of weapon individually or in a cascade. He still has a low Defense but decides to take Small Arms (Autorifle-1). This is the projectile weapon cascade and gets him Pistol and SMG at -0.

NOTE: Due to his TL, the Autorifle option was available. It includes any type of rifle. A lower TL character taking Small Arms may have been restricted to (Rifle) which would cover non-automatics.

Year 5.3
Another Special Mission to take advantage of his special “talents” as Damil has gotten quite a reputation for being a handy person on an op. He survives and gets a skill roll. For his Special Mission skill, he receives Liaison again.

Since he has Liaison-2 already, he receives a Specialization instead of rank-3. A Specialization is just what it sounds like and provides a +1 bonus in a particular scenario. He chooses the specialization (military) which gives him a bonus when dealing with ranking military officials.

If he receives Liaison again, he may advance it to -3.

For his regular skill, he rolls on Exploration and gets Leader.

Year 5.4
For his last year, a Routine mission winds things down. He survives but fails to make a skill roll. He decides to husband the BP for mustering out.

Term Completion
On the Field Service table, he receives a +1 Perception (Attribute bonus) instead of a skill. And receives +1 BP.

Step Four, Mustering Out
For Mustering Out, we use modified tables but no Rank bonuses since Scouts don’t have any. He gets 5 Mustering Out rolls. He decides to spend his BP on two rolls (+1 each) under Material Benefits and hopes for a Scout Ship. He rolls a 2 (1+1) and a 7 (6+1). With the 2, he receives an Attribute bonus of Willpower +1. With the 7… a detached Type-S, yay! He has three more rolls. He allocates two of them to Cash and receives a total of 35,000cr. He decides to make the last one a Material benefit. He rolls a Weapon. This grants him a Weapon skill and the license to use that weapon. He goes with Laser Pistol again. He also has an Imperial license to carry one.

He has no remaining Brownie Points so receives no starting Emergency Dice.

Step Five, Organizational Skill, Relationships, Knowledge
This has not been cleaned up quite yet. These would actually occur each term but I’m putting them here since they’re drafts.
Organizational Skill
Everyone receives the equivalent of 1 experience point in their Career Organization per year of service. You trade these in at the end. So, Damil spent 20 years in the Scouts. This allows him to purchase level-0 (5pts-new skill cost), level-1 (4pts), level-2 (8pts) and the leftover 3 points are discarded.
Damil has Organization (Scouts-2). This skill covers anything institutional and is very general. It answers that age-old complaint of “But I’ve worked for them for 20 years, what do you mean I don’t know their rank structure/headquarters/policies etc?”

Subsector Knowledge
Also each term, a character can receive a level in Subsector Knowledge as a skill. This is a free skill. It starts as a 0-level skill. Each term, the character can add to it or receive a new one.
I'm ignoring this one since I'm not running these guys anywhere...

Relationships
Each term a character rolls on a chart to see who they met those four years. There are modifiers for medals and promotions but those don’t apply here. For Damil, we end up with the following:
Term 1-Contact
Term 2-Contact
Term 3-Rival
Term 4-Contact
Term 5-Contact

Step Six, Connections
The Connections rule applies which means Damil needs a friend! We’ll come back to this…

Damil Firskalav, Scouts (5 Terms) (90% finished)
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: +1
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: +1, SOC: -1, WILL: +1
BP (Brownie Points): 0
SKILLS
Leader-2, Liaison-2 (spec: Military), Pilot (Starship-2, Small Craft-1), Organization (Scouts-2), Security-2, Streetwise-2
Astrogation-1, Engineer (Systems-1), Grav Vehicle-1, Gunnery (Turrets-1), Hunting-1, Liaison-1, Recon-1, Sensor Ops-1, Survey-1, Survival-1, Trade (Pharmaceuticals-1), Vacc Suit-1, ZeroG-1
Computer-0,
COMBAT SKILLS
Combat Sense-1, Defense-0
Laser Pistol-2, Small Arms (Autorifle-1)

 

[Kilgs]

KILSA ANDORA
Damil needs a star-crazy companion! Kilsa Andora will try to follow the Merchant career and we’ll see where that takes us.

Step One, Attributes-Point Buy
We want Kilsa to get into Merchant Academy which rewards Influence, Creativity and Social. With her 20 points, we’ll get Creativity, Knowledge and Influence at +1. Everything else is set for 0 so no negatives. That leaves us with 1 point which goes into a Brownie Point.

Step Two, Homeworld and Background Skills
Our random zoom-in provides us with a homeworld of Evermore/Ley 0626. At TL-7, it is Early Stellar and has trade codes of Agricultural and Non-Industrial. A farming world which Kilsa is desperate to escape from!

She receives Ground Vehicle-0, Computer-0 and Animals (cascade). She takes Animals (Handling-1). For her combat skill, she takes Defense-0.

Kilsa Andora [Pre-Career]
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: 0
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: 0, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 1
SKILLS
Animals (Handling-1)
Computer-0, Ground Vehicle-0
COMBAT SKILLS
Defense-0

Step Three, Career Entry and Progression
Kilsa loves her family but she wants to see the stars. The best way to do that is to get noticed by a local merchant group. Since Evermore has a class C starport, she can try to apply at a Sector-wide Corporate Line. She needs an 8+ but gets +2DM for having a high CRE. She makes it with a 9! Her application was accepted and she tries her luck at becoming a merchant officer through the Academy.

The Merchant Academy requires enlistment with a Megacorporate or Sector Line. It also requires an enrollment roll of 9+ with Creativity, Influence and Social acting as modifiers. She receives a total of +2DM. And her roll stinks… so straight to work we go!

So she begins her career as a crewman on MAE Lines, a prominent sector line.

Year 1.1-Department Assignment and Basic Training
MAE counts as a “Large Line” for purposes of determining Department. She rolls Engineering. Her basic training consists of Vacc Suit-0 and one Department skill. This roll gives her Engineering (cascade) and she takes Engineering (Maneuver-1) being trained on the maneuver drives of the merchant vessels.

After her training year, she is granted enlisted rating.
Year 1.2
Her first tour she is on a regular Route. Merchants may test into an Officer slot only when on an established Route since they need access to the testing facilities. The initial test simply requires a roll and a Route assignment. Kilsa takes the test (5+) and passes. She spends this year being trained as an Officer. She makes her Survival roll and her skill roll also. She also is granted a Commission skill roll and access to the Officer skill table.
Her regular skill comes from the Engineering Department table and is Engineering (Jump-1). Her Commission skill comes from the Officer table and is Small Craft-1.

Year 1.3
This year she is on a Charter. Now that she is an Officer, she needs to see if she can serve in that position. She is unable to find an O0 position on the charter and serves as enlisted. She automatically survives and gains a skill. She rolls from the Shipboard Life table and gets ZeroG-1.

Year 1.4
She receives a Route assignment but not an officer’s slot. Unfortunately, this means that she cannot attempt the test for the next rank. Since she does not have the requisite skills, this is not a major issue. She survives and takes a skill from Engineering Department. She gets Mechanical-1.

Term Completion
She completed the entire term and takes a skill from Engineering Department. She gains the Space Tech (cluster). This allows a choice from Comms, Computer, Gravitics, Electronics and Vacc Suit. She needs Gravitics to take the next test and takes that.
She gains +1 BP.

Kilsa Andora (Merchant 1 Term)
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: 0
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: 0, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 2
SKILLS
Animals (Handling-1), Engineer (Jump-1, Maneuver-1), Gravitics-1, Mechanical-1, Small Craft-1, ZeroG-1
Computer-0, Ground Vehicle-0, Vacc Suit-0
COMBAT SKILLS
Defense-0

Step Three, Second Term
She makes re-enlistment easily. There’s no way to transfer out of a Department without cross-training so she’s stuck in Engineering. She likes the work but wants to learn the skills to make her own way in the stars.

Year 2.1
She gets a Route and has the requisite skill to take the test. Unfortunately, she is not serving in an officer position so can’t take the test. She survives but misses her skill roll.

Year 2.2
Despite her poor last year, she is tapped for Special Duty! Recognizing something in her, the management sends her to Deck school. She has the chance to learn how to operate one of these vessels! She gains Computer and (spending a BP) Comms at Deck School. She is also eligible to transfer there at the end of this term. She gains a BP also for Special Assignment.

Year 2.3
She gains a Route again but is still not able to find a position. She picks up Admin from her Department as she gets trusted with more duties.

Year 2.4
Another Route assignment and no position. This is frustrating for her and she feels like she’s being held back. She picks up Gambling this year as she wastes time and money in boredom.

Term Completion
She receives +1 BP. Rolling on the Engineering table she gets Mechanical.

Kilsa Andora (Merchant 2 Terms)
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: 0, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: 0
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +1, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: 0, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 2
SKILLS
Mechanical-3
Admin-1, Animals (Handling-1), Comms-1, Computer-1, Engineer (Jump-1, Maneuver-1), Gambling-1, Gravitics-1, Small Craft-1, ZeroG-1
Ground Vehicle-0, Vacc Suit-0
COMBAT SKILLS
Defense-0

Step Three, Third Term

She decides not to transfer to Deck yet. Positions are even tighter there and she has all the requisites to test in the Engineering Department. Re-enlistment is easy.

Year 3.1
Route Assignment! She rolls a 7 for a position and needs an 8+. A BP spend gets her there and she takes the test for O1, Drive Hand. It’s actually a hard test (8+) and she has to spend her remaining BP’s to get it! She survives her year, is promoted to O2 and gets her regular skill.

For her promotion, she rolls off the Officer table and picks up Small Arms (Pistol). She also picks up Engineer (Systems-1) from her Department. She now has a base in all of the Engineering subskills.

Year 3.2
Another Route and no O1 position. At least she’s serving as an Officer (O0) though! So she can access the Officer skills table. She survives but gets no skills. Doh.

Year 3.3
Another Route and no O1. She survives and gains Carousing from Merchant Life.

Year 3.4
Disdainful of promotion, she secures a Speculative Trade assignment. For the first time, she has a real chance of getting a Bonus and does! She rolls once on the Merchant mustering cash tables and receives half the listed amount… 2500cr. For skills, she picks up Trader from Merchant Life. This is a good step on her way to independent trading!

Term Completion
She gets Physical (cluster) and decides to get Appearance +1. She also gets +1 BP.

 

[Kilgs]

Step Three, Fourth Term
Frustrated, she decides to switch to Deck to get the skills needed to break out on her own! She’s been to Deck School so, after re-enlistment, it is automatic. She transfers over as an O1 despite not having the requisite skill. Which she needs to get ASAP.

Year 4.1
She receives a Route assignment but needs to get her Astrogation certificate first (minimum for O1). Luckily, she studies hard and picks up Astrogation-1 this year.

Year 4.2
Another Route assignment and she is not in an O1 slot. She burns a BP to ensure she receives a skill this year. From Mercantile, she picks up Broker-1.

Year 4.3
Another route, no position. She picks up Admin again.

Year 4.4
OMG, a Route and she’s actually serving in an O1! She can take the test and passes by the skin of her teeth. The required skill for O2 was Admin-1 so she was in good shape. She takes a Deck standard skill and gets the Economics (cluster). She decides to take Legal to round out her education. She also picks up Technical (cluster) from Shipboard Life and chooses Electronics.

Term Completion
She takes Persuade-1 from Interpersonal. And gets a Brownie Point.

Step Four, Mustering Out
She gets four rolls plus one roll for her rank. She does not need a ship so takes three cash and two material. She gets Blade-1 and a license. She also gets Knowledge +1. She receives 46,500cr.

Step Five, Organizational Skill, Relationships, Knowledge
This has not been cleaned up quite yet. These would actually occur each term but I’m putting them here since they’re drafts.
Organizational Skill
Everyone receives the equivalent of 1 experience point in their Career Organization per year of service. You trade these in at the end. Kilsa spent four terms in the Merchant Marine, so she receives 16pts. This ends up being (-0, 5pts)(-1, 4pts)(remaining points not enough to get to -2).

Relationships
Each term a character rolls on a chart to see who they met those four years. There are modifiers for medals and promotions but those don’t apply here. For Kilsa, we end up with the following:
Term 1-Contact
Term 2-Contact
Term 3-Rival
Term 4-Contact

Step Six, Connections/SOLO Life Events
I’ve decided to SOLO adventure with this group so I’m adding the Connections as part of their Relationships results. In addition, there are LIFE EVENTS that they may be involved with as well.

The Connections rule applies so we’ll add hers together now. I have already generated the third crewmember so we’ll include him.

-DAMIL/KILSA-While Damil was stationed at a Scout station, Kilsa was doing regular runs through the system. They met and became friends while sharing experiences out in the vacuum. As a Relationship, she rolls Inseparable Buddies from SOLO. Kilsa takes +1 to Engineer (Jump).

-CARABAS/KILSA-After being released from prison, an honest Free Trader agreed to give him a chance. This captain had served with Kilsa’s line while she was coming up in the ranks. Her tremendous respect for him engineered their meeting and eventual friendship. While she really likes him, she is privy to his dark secret of being a former member of an criminal syndicate. Damil knows of his criminal past but not the danger posed by this connection. (+1 to Defense).

LIFE EVENTS
-Fell in love with professional rival. Affair flip-flops between passion and rivalry.
-Were caught up in political turmoil. Villain (aided or against Solomani or something else?)
-Fled your homeworld after disaster

Kilsa Andora (Merchant 4 Terms)
AGILITY: 0, APPEARANCE: +1, BUILD: 0, CREATIVITY/INT: +1, FITNESS: 0
INFLUENCE: +1, KNOWLEDGE/EDU: +2, PERCEPTION: 0, SOC: 0, WILL: 0
BP (Brownie Points): 1
SKILLS
Admin-2, Engineer (Jump-2, Maneuver-1, Systems-1), Mechanical-2
Animals (Handling-1), Astrogation-1, Broker-1, Carousing-1, Comms-1, Computer-1, Electronics-1, Gambling-1, Gravitics-1, Legal-1, Organization (Merchant)-1, Persuade-1, Small Craft-1, ZeroG-1
Ground Vehicle-0,
COMBAT SKILLS
Defense-1, Blade-1
Small Arms (Pistol-1)