So, you've failed your survival roll...

[Ptah]

Black Globe Generator welcome from another newbie.

IMTU and those of my friends years ago "death" meant severe injury such that you took a -1 to one of your strength, dexterity, endurance or intelligence and got no skill roll (to busy healing). Something like, lost an arm, vented out an airlock (but recovered), etc. The service always repaired you, but the new parts were not better than original and you still suffered the attribute loss. If you got a medal (besides a "purple heart") in the term you could autoamatically renlist, otherwise you had to renlist as normal.

Now this was only for Navy, Army, Marines, Scouts. For other "services" I might not be so generous as these organizations just don't have the committment to their people IMTU.

Another approach, the character dies but you can start again with the same stats. The new character was then often viewed as a relative (hence the same stats). This also added some nice background for the surviving family member. "Yeah, my brother was in the Marines, died in his third term in that miserable counter-insurgency on Pyhton VI."

 

[Ptah]

Black Globe Generator welcome from another newbie.

IMTU and those of my friends years ago "death" meant severe injury such that you took a -1 to one of your strength, dexterity, endurance or intelligence and got no skill roll (to busy healing). Something like, lost an arm, vented out an airlock (but recovered), etc. The service always repaired you, but the new parts were not better than original and you still suffered the attribute loss. If you got a medal (besides a "purple heart") in the term you could autoamatically renlist, otherwise you had to renlist as normal.

Now this was only for Navy, Army, Marines, Scouts. For other "services" I might not be so generous as these organizations just don't have the committment to their people IMTU.

Another approach, the character dies but you can start again with the same stats. The new character was then often viewed as a relative (hence the same stats). This also added some nice background for the surviving family member. "Yeah, my brother was in the Marines, died in his third term in that miserable counter-insurgency on Pyhton VI."

 

[Anthony Emmel]

Chello!

The way I handle it is that if the survival roll is failed, I make the play muster out. That term does not count for training or benefits (promotion, etc.). I do allow one skill roll.

Tony

 

[Anthony Emmel]

Chello!

The way I handle it is that if the survival roll is failed, I make the play muster out. That term does not count for training or benefits (promotion, etc.). I do allow one skill roll.

Tony

 

[Merxiless]

Lots of good ideas here.

I'm a follower of the Ref mostly controls the whole shebang philosophy. So I rig up a bunch of pre-gens, about 20 or so, and put them in a pile, for game session # 1 of a new campaign. Variations of scouts, merchants, marines, etc.

Some players like to just take one and play it, others like to roll up a new character.

Generally, everyone agrees that the backstory generated to explain how certain skills, near misses on survival etc, play out are almost as much fun as the actual Traveller sessions themseves.

The game-within-a-game, as was stated earlier.

Kind of like playing Talisman, and having a whole adventuring career in one night, vs. playing a dungeoncrawl campaign, over an extended period of months.

And I am also a believer in survival rolls. It's like a game show...press your luck, or die trying.

And when I was a young 18 year old playing Traveller, I didn't see the purpose of the aging rolls. Now, at 40, I can easily see how my own "Stats" have greatly deteriorated.

The more I play games, the more that I see that even Classic Traveller was way ahead of it's time.

Though I have a 9 foot wide shelf of d20 books, those games do not satisfy me as much as picking up my softcover The Traveller Book, 2d6, and a pencil, and start rolling, and generating, seeing the dream unfold via the connections I make mentally to explain the crazy numbers that come out.

Weird characters, worlds that don't seem to make sense on the surface, systems too far apart for decent trade.

Though its detractors are many, Traveller is a solid game of the imagination, even nearly 30 years later, and around here can still compete or even surpass those OGL games that have come out over the last few years.

I've seen way to many min-maxers in point-buy game systems.

I feel that a roleplayer should at least make an atempt to play the first character they generate, no matter what skills or stats, because it's a character, in the ongoing campaign story.

Each character has an addition to make to the game, however improbable. And some of the most imporobable ones make for the most interesting stories.

It's strange to me to see others comment about not "liking" the character generated. To me, it's a challenge, to see if I "CAN" play it, as rolled. to see if I can come up with the story that justifies the stats.

Age 22
777777
Rifle-1

Is this guy:
- An Army slacker
- A Genetically engineered Spy, a Joe Average, meant to blend in to whatever Service he mustered out from, but forgot his programming?
- A guy who was more intelligent and dextrous, but has been wounded, and can't remember half the battles he's in?
- A helper from a local low-tech gun store, who gets caught up in interstellar events when adventurers meet him, buying ther "Stash of Guns"
- A really poor character with no flavor, because the potential player didn't immediately see 9BCADA, and Battledress-5?

There is something to be said for GURPS, or Last Unicorn's systems. I have played, and enjoyed those, also. But there is also the idea, "Use the tools that you have at hand."

Whole campaigns can be run from The Traveller Book, and 2d6, and the survival rolls make it...challenging from go.

Without risk, there is no drama.

Oh yeah, and I hate 20th level D&D characters, too.

 

[Merxiless]

Lots of good ideas here.

I'm a follower of the Ref mostly controls the whole shebang philosophy. So I rig up a bunch of pre-gens, about 20 or so, and put them in a pile, for game session # 1 of a new campaign. Variations of scouts, merchants, marines, etc.

Some players like to just take one and play it, others like to roll up a new character.

Generally, everyone agrees that the backstory generated to explain how certain skills, near misses on survival etc, play out are almost as much fun as the actual Traveller sessions themseves.

The game-within-a-game, as was stated earlier.

Kind of like playing Talisman, and having a whole adventuring career in one night, vs. playing a dungeoncrawl campaign, over an extended period of months.

And I am also a believer in survival rolls. It's like a game show...press your luck, or die trying.

And when I was a young 18 year old playing Traveller, I didn't see the purpose of the aging rolls. Now, at 40, I can easily see how my own "Stats" have greatly deteriorated.

The more I play games, the more that I see that even Classic Traveller was way ahead of it's time.

Though I have a 9 foot wide shelf of d20 books, those games do not satisfy me as much as picking up my softcover The Traveller Book, 2d6, and a pencil, and start rolling, and generating, seeing the dream unfold via the connections I make mentally to explain the crazy numbers that come out.

Weird characters, worlds that don't seem to make sense on the surface, systems too far apart for decent trade.

Though its detractors are many, Traveller is a solid game of the imagination, even nearly 30 years later, and around here can still compete or even surpass those OGL games that have come out over the last few years.

I've seen way to many min-maxers in point-buy game systems.

I feel that a roleplayer should at least make an atempt to play the first character they generate, no matter what skills or stats, because it's a character, in the ongoing campaign story.

Each character has an addition to make to the game, however improbable. And some of the most imporobable ones make for the most interesting stories.

It's strange to me to see others comment about not "liking" the character generated. To me, it's a challenge, to see if I "CAN" play it, as rolled. to see if I can come up with the story that justifies the stats.

Age 22
777777
Rifle-1

Is this guy:
- An Army slacker
- A Genetically engineered Spy, a Joe Average, meant to blend in to whatever Service he mustered out from, but forgot his programming?
- A guy who was more intelligent and dextrous, but has been wounded, and can't remember half the battles he's in?
- A helper from a local low-tech gun store, who gets caught up in interstellar events when adventurers meet him, buying ther "Stash of Guns"
- A really poor character with no flavor, because the potential player didn't immediately see 9BCADA, and Battledress-5?

There is something to be said for GURPS, or Last Unicorn's systems. I have played, and enjoyed those, also. But there is also the idea, "Use the tools that you have at hand."

Whole campaigns can be run from The Traveller Book, and 2d6, and the survival rolls make it...challenging from go.

Without risk, there is no drama.

Oh yeah, and I hate 20th level D&D characters, too.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Amen! Merxiless.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Amen! Merxiless.