CT Only: (WIP) Enhanced Book 1 Character Generation

[Tobias]

Merry Christmas, happy holidays!

Some more house rules I have been fiddling around with. The goal here was to bring Book 1 character generation more in line with the competence levels and skill selection from Books 4-7. (Personally, I have generally liked basic character generation better, and it has always irked me how the system almost forced you to select the "advanced version" if you could.)

I know I could have also just gone with MT, but I didn't want to go overboard quite as much with the skill cascades and also to remain within CT's skill selection (including weapon skills.)

Another complex I've pondered is the question of substituted or related skills.

Hope somebody can find some use for this. Still quite WIP. I aim to finish the optional rules mentioned on the otherwise blank last page over the holidays, and possibly begin making the career and skill tables for careers from Citizens (plus maybe a few more of my own invention.)

Regards

Tobias

 

[infojunky]

See I just added the special duty roll and collage availability.

 

[Tobias]

That's the core of the changes I introduced as well. In addition, I made skills that did not exist in Book 1 (like Recon, Trader, Ship Tactics...) available to the basic character generation, added the full range of ranks (mostly for fluff) and a quick system for decorations.

 

[aramis]

See I just added the special duty roll and collage availability.

I've considered many times (back to the 90s) adding arm of service tables... but it's always been easier for me to simply backport MT char gen as I prefer its weapon skills handling. Plus there's the issue that armor and arty look very similar when I do break it out...

Roll	Infantry	Armor	Arty
1	Gun Combat	FA Gunnery	FA Gunnery
2	Weapon	FA Gunnery or Gun Cbt	FA Gunnery
3	Recon	ATV	ATV
4	Forward Observer	ATV	Gun Cbt
5	Survival	Forward Observer	Fwd Observer
6	Vacc Suit	Vehicle Tech*	Vehicle Tech*

 

[infojunky]

That's the core of the changes I introduced as well. In addition, I made skills that did not exist in Book 1 (like Recon, Trader, Ship Tactics...) available to the basic character generation, added the full range of ranks (mostly for fluff) and a quick system for decorations.

I get that, I use very liberal allowance for skill substitution and zero levels skills as well. Allowing for lots of off the book substitutions.

The MT mainworld and career background skills are in play as well. I tend to use very broad skill coverage for the scope of skills.

 

[kilemall]

My take for this is 3 basic skill rolls + commission/promotion, first skill is 0, replaced several skills with more generic ones, and added in several skills from all the versions of Traveller in an advanced service skill table (INT 8+).

 

[Spinward Flow]

Actually, simplest way to make LBB1/LBB S4 yield an "equivalent opportunity for skills" as LBB4-7 is relatively simple.

Every term, a character can earn up to 4 skills using LBB1/LBB S4.
First term = 2 skills automatic
Position = 1 skill automatic
Promotion = 1 skill automatic
(automatic in the sense that you don't need to throw dice to determine if you get a skill that term)

After the number of automatic skills granted in a term has been determined ... simply do a 4 - (automatic skills) for that term to determine how many skill throws (on 2D in CT) the character gets for that term. Simply throw dice against the threshold provided for the career.

That way, it is possible for an LBB1/LBB S4 character to earn up to 4 skills every single term ... just like is possible through "normal assignments" in the expanded chargen of LBB4-7 per term (special assignments, of course, allow for multiple skills to be earned per year, depending on assignment).



Something as simple as bringing the opportunities for earning skill points closer to parity between the two systems would dramatically improve the uptake and use of LBB1/LBB S4 as "viable" alternatives to LBB4-7. It wouldn't be an exact match of course (due to the detailed granularity of LBB4-7) but it would certainly be closer.

From a Player perspective ... being able to earn up to 4(+!) skills per term versus 1 per term is a pretty big barrier against using the "old" chargen method laid out on LBB1/LBB S4. After all, some of the most important details on a character sheet are going to be the skills, so gimping yourself before gameplay even starts by picking the "skills poor" option of LBB1/LBB S4 doesn't make a whole lot of sense to the munchkin murder hobos of the universe.

 

[aramis]

Actually, simplest way to make LBB1/LBB S4 yield an "equivalent opportunity for skills" as LBB4-7 is relatively simple.

Every term, a character can earn up to 4 skills using LBB1/LBB S4.
First term = 2 skills automatic
Position = 1 skill automatic
Promotion = 1 skill automatic
(automatic in the sense that you don't need to throw dice to determine if you get a skill that term)

After the number of automatic skills granted in a term has been determined ... simply do a 4 - (automatic skills) for that term to determine how many skill throws (on 2D in CT) the character gets for that term. Simply throw dice against the threshold provided for the career.

That way, it is possible for an LBB1/LBB S4 character to earn up to 4 skills every single term ... just like is possible through "normal assignments" in the expanded chargen of LBB4-7 per term (special assignments, of course, allow for multiple skills to be earned per year, depending on assignment).



Something as simple as bringing the opportunities for earning skill points closer to parity between the two systems would dramatically improve the uptake and use of LBB1/LBB S4 as "viable" alternatives to LBB4-7. It wouldn't be an exact match of course (due to the detailed granularity of LBB4-7) but it would certainly be closer.

From a Player perspective ... being able to earn up to 4(+!) skills per term versus 1 per term is a pretty big barrier against using the "old" chargen method laid out on LBB1/LBB S4. After all, some of the most important details on a character sheet are going to be the skills, so gimping yourself before gameplay even starts by picking the "skills poor" option of LBB1/LBB S4 doesn't make a whole lot of sense to the munchkin murder hobos of the universe.

School assignments in Bk4/5/6 can grant up to 5 skills in a year.

 

[Spinward Flow]

School assignments in Bk4/5/6 can grant up to 5 skills in a year.

True ... but ... it is extremely unlikely (not impossible, just highly improbable) to get all 5 potential skill awards in a single year.
A more reasonable assumption is that a school assignment will tend to (on average) award 1-2 skill points per year ... not (up to) 5 as a baseline default starting assumption.

Yes the opportunity to gain is wide in the school assignments ... but it's also possible to "flunk" each and every one of the skill gain chances (had that happen to me during chargen on more than one occasion).

 

[Tobias]

Advanced chargen skills can fluctuate rather extremely. It is not entirely unlikely to roll garrison duty four times in a row during a term and thus receive a grand total of zero skills.

 

[Tobias]

Done with the optional rules for now.

 

[Tobias]

I crunched some numbers re: skills.

Using Book 4 Marines and not cheating I arrived at ~2.8 skills per term for Educ 7- characters and 3.8 skills per term for Educ 8+ characters (since these have twice the chance of special assignments). Actually it would be a bit less since repeated assigments of the same school (commando school etc.) yield diminishing returns for skills. By my estimates, non-commando Army characters get ~0.5 skills less per term because of the high chance of a garrison assignment, which yields no skills at all. (Interestingly, a reversed situation from basic generation, where Army characters generally got more skills because commission and promotion was so easy.)

Book 5 Navy officer, Line/Crew, ~3.0 skills per term. Difference for enlisted personnel would be negligible, but branch may make for a noticeable increase or decrease.

Book 6 Scout, Communication branch, ~2.5 skills per term. Other field branches probably a bit (+0.1 or 0.2) more.

Book 7 Free Trader, assuming no transer, ~3.0 skills per term.

So, aiming to have characters generally get ~2.5 to 3.0 skills per term on average (nerdy Marines and Army types being outliers...)

 

[Tobias]

With that in mind, I have slightly adjusted the odds for "special duty" results for balance (also ironed out a few other niggles here and there) in the newest version:

 

[Tobias]

A few minor fixes:

 

[Tobias]

Last uploaded a version of this more than a year ago. Just some minor formatting fixes in this one, but TBT I don't know how much I'd changed from v5-7.

 

[Tobias]

A somewhat cleaned up and tightened version, also brought into my new house rule version numbering system.

 

[Tobias]

Btw I'm currently (for a given value of "currently") working on bringing Citizens into the same scheme, also adding a few additional careers: Scout Admin (as a basic career), Entertainer, Athlete, Law Enforcer (from MT), Scholar (split off from Scientist) and Spy. Something from JTAS 22 (which I' using as a source) that made me laugh.

 

[kilemall]

Btw I'm currently (for a given value of "currently") working on bringing Citizens into the same scheme, also adding a few additional careers: Scout Admin (as a basic career), Entertainer, Athlete, Law Enforcer (from MT), Scholar (split off from Scientist) and Spy. Something from JTAS 22 (which I' using as a source) that made me laugh.

I use Social Engineering on my engineering table, along with Civil, Process, Vehicle, Space (equivalent of naval architect) and Equipment.

Not ironically, I view politics and governance as tools/technology and when there are billions of credits on the line megacorps/governments are going to front load a big project for success including the sophonts running it.

 

[Tobias]

I just found it amusing that the author basically stated: Political science is not what highly intelligent people study.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I just found it amusing that the author basically stated: Political science is not what highly intelligent people study.

Or at least not what highly intelligent player characters study...