Sunday 8 November 2015

Classic Traveller character creation. Character sheet scan included!

Back in 2010 Classic Traveller was free at DriveThruRPG, so naturally I snatched it. I've heard it's a good game, so why not. Unfortunately I never read it, or played it. I've read some topics lately about the character creation and decided to give it a try! I will create this character as I read the character creation the first time ever, so there might be mistakes.

I have played Finnish translation of 2300 AD but some of the rules were confusing thanks to bad translation and editing. Still, loved that game!




Basics
All characters start untrained, inexperienced and 18 years old and from that point are generated with random die rolls. Sounds fun! Characteristics are 2d6, quite similar to D&D.
There also is an optional Universal Personality Profile (UPP) what basically shows the stats with numbers and alphabets (if I understand it right). For numbers are used for double digit numbers (10, 11, 12...) so UPP doesn't get confused. It could look like this 777B77. You need to memorize the stat order to read this, but I think it's quite easy.
Then the naming what is up to you, and social title what is determined by social standing.

Also, you'll need two books, book 1 and 2, to create the character. Character generation checklist (very handy) and all necessary charts are found in book 2.

Characteristics
There are six of them: Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education and Social standing. Other attributes are age, rank, money, skills and possessions.

I'll start roling my Characteristics, the results are: Strength: 8, Dexterity: 7, Endurance: 10, Intelligence: 4, Education: 7, Social Standing: 4

Or, as in UPP format: 87A474 (side note: stats in UPP format look very scifi)

Skills And Expertise
There are six services, and as I am not very intelligent and my social standing is low, I choose to be in the army. Just a number without a name.
First, I need to try to enlist for the army. I need to roll 5 or higher and could get bonuses from dexterity and endurance. My bonus total is +3 so I only need to roll 2 or better using 2d6. I'm in!

Now I must roll for survival... wait a second, can't find it. Ah, too easy. So, army's survival is 5+ and Education gives bonus for me. I roll 4 +2 so I survive first term of service (four years). If I didn't make this roll, my character would have died in service. Brutal.

Then commission roll. +1 from Endurance, trying to get 5+. Success! Now as I got commissioned, I try promotion. 6+, Education helps, result is 11. Igot promoted and am rank 1 now! That's Lieutenant!

Skills time! First I check my free automatic skills. Rifle-1 (skill_name-skill_level) from navy and SMG-1 from being promoted to Lieutenant in first four years. In the character sheet there are three places to write skills into. Primary Skill, Secondary Skill, and Additional skills. Didn't find an explanation, so I'll put my first automatic skills to primary and secondary and the rest in additional.

I (think I) get two skills from initial service, one from commission and one from promotion. That's four skills. There are four table to roll random skills I've learned during a term, but the fourth table needs 8+ education to access. Luckily, my education is A-10, so I'll roll once every table to get the following four skills:
+1 Endurance (that's not skill, but an improvement. Well, suits me.)
Blade Combat-1
Blade Combat-1 (that's probably Blade Combat-2 now)
Tactics

No aging effects, that's after fourth or later term of service. I do roll reenlist and if successful, return to survival and to next term. My survival rate is good, so I try to reenlist again. Even if I didn't want to reenlist, I still should roll 2d6. With a result of 12, I must reenlist, because they need my services. 5+ with bonuses, I basically can stay in army as long as I want to! Survival successful. Commission check, that's a new skill for me. Promotion successful, second skill for me. I am a captain now and my new skills are Gambling-1 and Gun Combat-1.

One year more, I am 30 years old, promoted to Major, my Dexterity is one better and I know Computers-1, and decide to leave the service. I get to roll five times (ranks, terms) and get +1 to Cash rolls from my Gambling skill.. There are two tables; Benefits and Cash. I can choose which table to roll, but only can roll Cash table for three times maximum. I had to ask Google Plus Classic Traveller community how to read the table, and the solution was really simple.

Two for cash, three for Benefits. From benefits I get +2 to Intelligence and a gun (I choose SMG). For cash I rolled two fives (+1) so I am damn rich! I get 40,000 credits! Wow!

My name is Remy Morre and I am ready to adventure and explore spaces! My character record would look like this in real Classic Traveller form:

Army Captain Remy Morre / 88A674
3 Terms / Cr 40,000
Skills: Rifle-1, SMG-1, Blade_cbt-2, Tactics-1, Gun_Cbt-1, Gambling-1, Computer-1
__________________________________________

This was fun. I think you'll get Classic Traveller characters created really quick when you've done it a couple of times. I like random character creation with different paths and careers like in this one. Character creation with mini-game is so much fun.
Sure, your character might die in the process, but there is an optional rule to cover that so you don't roll dead characters. It's very good, actually.

I liked this a lot! Also the rules system sounds simple enough so I could actually enjoy playing this game.

If you don't want to roll dice, you can download a character generator like this from RabSoft site. Googe gives several options to choose from, but this looked coolest to me. Haven't tried it though...
There is also this web based by +Paul Gorman found HERE.

You can download scanned character sheet from HERE (pdf).


1 comment :

  1. A better CT character generator is found here: http://www.batintheattic.com/traveller/

    It allows you to select your career and has additional careers from COTI (Citizens of the Imperium).

    ReplyDelete