As part of my journey back into childhood, I have been reviewing the original little black Traveller books. Character generation in Traveller is a mini-game, where your character can die on a bad roll, so it is fun to “play” and create a bunch of characters.
Doing this made me think about two things.
First, re-reading the original character generation rules in Characters and Combat and then the more detailed character generation rules in the expansion books (Mercenary, High Guard, Scouts, Merchant Prince) highlighted a big change in how commissions are determined. (Commissions are mechanically important in granting the character access to a different table of skills and also the possibility of more rolls on the mustering out tables at the end of character generation.)
In Characters and Combat, each enlisted character would roll once during each four-year term to see if they gained a commission. For instance, an enlisted character in the marines would get a commission if they could roll a 9 or higher on 2d6, a 28% chance.
In the expanded rules, this changed. Characters have two ways to gain a commission. First, they have a chance to attend college before service, with about a 16% chance of success; this grants an automatic commission.
Second, each four-year term is broken into individual one-year assignments, resolved on a table of possible missions and outcomes. To gain a commission, the character must roll an assignment granting them a commission (usually off a training table). The chance of rolling that specific training is very small, even with four cumulative chances per term.
Service | C&C | Expansions |
---|---|---|
Navy | 17% | 2% |
Army | 83% | 12% |
Marines | 28% | 12% |
Scouts | NA | 12% |
Merchants | 92% | almost certain |
If you assume that the bonus modifiers are in place for the various rolls, there are some changes, but the broad trend is the same:
Service | C&C | C&C Modifer | Expansions | Expansion Modifiers |
---|---|---|---|---|
Navy | 28% | social 9+ | 2% | social 11+ |
Army | 92% | education 7+ | 44% | education 8+ |
Marines | 28% | education 7+ | 44% | education 8+ |
Scouts | NA | NA | 12% | NA |
Merchants | 92% | intelligence 6+ | almost certain | education 9+ |
The difference between the basic and expanded rules is significant; I think the expanded rules bring the tables more in line with reality — it is hard to move up in institutionalized services (in our world as well as the classic Traveller setting of the Imperium).
They also allow characters to better refine themselves: enlisted characters are more likely to roll attribute and weapons skills, while officers are more likely to roll profession skills like admin, computer, and electronic. This led me to think about skill-based generation as story telling device.
(This is likely old news to all of you, but it was a new thought for me, and I am still trying to work out if I agree with it or not.)
As I rolled up a bunch of characters, I found the rolls and different experiences that the Traveller tables provide make a real story: the dice rolls automatically generate a story that can provide a pretty complete background. E.g.:
_character fails to get into college and enrolls in the Scouts. After being placed in the survey group and being given initial training as a pilot, _character spends two years in the field on routine duty, during which time he manages to pick up skill as a navigator. In the fourth year of service, he is called to a special mission, in the course of which he picks up training in Vacc Suit and skill as a Liaison. Excited by this mission, he re-enlists, etc…
The results I have been getting are a lot of fun: I could see playing many of these characters, and the act of generating them using chronological steps creates a story, with setbacks, triumphs, and near misses in a way that using a set of random tables does not. (For instance in Gamma World, your mutant is generated in a static way by rolling on the mutations table. This provides a list of mutations around which you build a story, not the chronological tale of how your mutant came to be who they are.)
Some may argue that free-form imagination is a better path to super-awesome let's pretend time. But it can be nice to have a creative crutch, as well as a random influence to prevent creative ruts.