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YPU
2015-07-23, 07:38 AM
Yes you read that title correctly.

I have been playing some games left and right for the past few years since my current circumstances and those of my previous group no longer leave much room for a steady game. The idea of playing a solo game has always intrigued me but never enough to actually get me to do it. I tend to binge read one rule system and then move on to the next these days. A returning flavour has been Traveller (mongoose publishing edition, mostly) the lifepath system turns character creation into a game of its own and I keep coming back to it. A few weeks ago I discovered Star trader (http://www.rpgnow.com/product/118337/Star-Trader), a small pdf with a lot of tables and flowcharts allowing you to play traveller solo. Really much of ST feels like traveller character generation turned into a whole game.

ST also suggests writing down your actions when playing solo, as this makes declaration of action as permanent as saying something during actual play. While I could just do that I thought that having some feedback and interaction might be a fun and motivating addition to solo play. (Yea, I know) Which brings me back to this forum, which I haven't visited in a long while but appears to still have the same fun and interesting community as when I left it.

So there we are, I am hoping to start posting the events of my solo campaign. I'm hoping that this will gain some traction allowing me to put some things up for vote rather then me deciding everything. But first I need to know a few things. First of, would anybody at all read this here? or would I be better of somewhere else? Secondly, what sub-forum should I put this in, if any? Thirdly, it would be highly beneficial to have a small wiki or database of the sector and characters encountered, I am considering wikia or tavern keeper, but there might be better options, or should I keep it all in one big topic?

So, grab your brown coat and combadge and set of into the starry void where your life is determined by a single die roll with me!

YPU
2015-07-24, 02:51 PM
While interest is rather minimal I have started moving my current material to tavern keeper as I prefer its wiki structure, focused on RPG's. The campaign section should be public and can be found here (https://www.tavern-keeper.com/campaign/983/about).

I should also point out there is a traveller SRD (http://www.travellersrd.com/)for anybody interested in the system!

I have decided on some things concerning my game, detailed below. this might all appear a bit rules heavy to those not in the know about traveller, I hope to give a more detailed description of the rules once I actually put them to use, for those in the know tough here is what I am doing right now:
I am generating a corner of a sub-sector to start play in, I enjoy creating worlds and would like to keep doing so throughout play, so for now I have only generated systems within 4 parsecs of our starting world. I need to roll up 3 more of the plannets and will upload their info to Tavern keeper. Then I will start on character generation. Star trader is somewhat vague on this, so I will do this closely to how I would run it in my regular group. I will create 5 characters, rolling for their stats in order. I will also create a list of starting planets close to our starting point (I think within a jump-2?) and randomly generate a planet of origin from this. Then I will assign each character a role, or at least a role I'm hoping for much like a group of players might pick a niche during character generation. I personally tend towards max term characters so I will limit myself with another roll. I will limit terms to 6 as suggested in the rules, in addition after each term I will roll a d6, if I roll equal or under the current number of terms it will be the last. that way I can't plan ahead for "one more term" these characters will be in the middle of their lives, rather then a cherry picked moment.

Here is a quick map of what I have so far, a lot of "backwater" world but also a lot of trade routes. The brown systems still need to be rolled for, the grey ones I will roll when we get nearer. note I have rolled down to the 0x06 row for system presence and gas giants.

https://d2folr83karyot.cloudfront.net/image/3261.png

YPU
2015-07-26, 05:22 PM
I rolled up all the near systems, still a lot of backwater stuff but also some more high-tech. It looks like most systems out in Yaw sub-sector are incapable of being self-sufficient, which means there is a profit to be made trading.

I made a list of 6 starting planets I will roll for my 5 characters. Some might end up coming from the same place, and that's good!

1 Yaw (https://www.tavern-keeper.com/campaign/983/page/3645), the capital of the subsector with a low population but the largest starport and high tech level. The planet has very little "native" population instead it it ruled by many groups of visitors who have settled down temporarily or permanently. The third empire has a consulate and a navy base here. There is also a Traveller’s Aid Society Hostel. The planet itself it hot and the air requires a filter to breath.
2 New venus (https://www.tavern-keeper.com/campaign/983/page/3646) A roasting huge ball of rock and dust with a totally unbreathable atmosphere. It has a population in the low thousands and is mainly governed by a mining corporation. It is also home to some pirates.
3 Kugantu (https://www.tavern-keeper.com/campaign/983/page/3649) A small planet which lacks resources, agriculture and has an atmosphere so thin it requires a respirator. What is does have is eight hundred million living souls. No wonder some of them have turned to piracy. Their nobility and bureaucracy are not allowed to lay eyes on its populace, many of them blinding themselves or wearing blindfolds.
4 Vaalbara (https://www.tavern-keeper.com/campaign/983/page/3644) A earth sized desert planet with an atmosphere so insidious the entire 4 million populace lives underground. Their is a tradition of "allotted air" for each person, after which they are excommunicated. The scouts operate a base here and actively recruit.
5 Vespae (https://www.tavern-keeper.com/campaign/983/page/3648) This planet would be earth like if not for its small size and low gravity. It features epic landscapes housing six hundred million inhabitants. The planet is mainly ruled by a very strict hereditary ruling cast. Their strict rules have led to a amber travel zone, still many rich tourists visit this place due to its beauty.
6 New Oberon (https://www.tavern-keeper.com/campaign/983/page/3647) Another tiny planet, new Oberon features impressive flora and fauna. Host to eighty million people who mostly work as farmers. New Oberon also has an imperial research base at its starport due to its exotic plants and creatures. The culture of New Oberon has deeply complicated table etiquette, where eating particular things in a particular order might send a very wrong message to your host.

So lets get to rolling our first character. I will try to keep a lot of stuff random, so I will roll for gender as well as planet of origin. Stats will be rolled straight in order rather then assigned as mentioned earlier. The last roll will be for plannet of origin, the second die of that roll will be gender. Odds for male, even for female.
Here is the roll. (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4836943/)
We have a Man from New Venus with the following stats:
Strength 3 (-1)
Dexterity: 7 (+0)
Endurance: 6 (+0)
Intelligence: 3 (-1)
Education: 7 (+0)
Social Standing:8 (+0)

Well then, not so strong and not so smart, but slightly better of then average on the social ladder. Its going to be interesting to see where we are going to take him on his life path. Using the random name generator from Behind the name, this man shall be know as Slavomir Martinson.

YPU
2015-07-27, 04:34 AM
Lets speed things up by rolling the other four characters at once:

Second character:Eadwulf Jarl Bösch (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4837388/)
Strength: 8(+0)
Dexterity: 8(+0)
Endurance: 5(-1)
Intelligence: 11(+1)
Education: 2 (-2)
Social standing: 5(-1)
Home system: Vespae
Gender: Male
Eadwulf doesn't have the best endurance, but is not that special physically otherwise. He is extremely intelligent but very poorly educated, meaning he is good at figuring stuff out but lacks a lot of common knowledge and information. He is also low on the social ladder. He might be born to a lower cast or criminal parents, being denied any education.



Odhrán Capello (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4837403/)
Strength: 6(+0)
Dexterity: 4(-1)
Endurance: 5(-1)
Intelligence: 8(+0)
Education: 5(-1)
Social standing: 7(+0)
Home system: Yaw
Gender: Male
A bit fumbling and short on endurance, also not that well educated. I'm sure he's a nice guy tough.



Galchobhar Chevalier (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4837407/)
Strength: 5(-1)
Dexterity: 10(+1)
Endurance: 8(+0)
Intelligence: 9(+1)
Education: 4(-1)
Social standing: 4(-1)
Home system: Vaalbara
Gender: Male
Not so strong but nimble and smart. Another character with bad education and low social standing.

Orlanda Sitara Fowler (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4837413/)
Strength: 7(+0)
Dexterity: 8(+0)
Endurance: 7(+0)
Intelligence: 10(+1)
Education: 7(+0)
Social standing: 7(+0)
Home system: New Oberon
Gender: Female
Quite an average, blank slate besides her high intelligence.

So where do we stand? Well, intelligence is a central attribute for trading, so we are good on that. However actually finding a trader actually willing to deal with you is a education or social standing dependent roll. Finding a black market broker depends on intelligence tough. Going by this we might end up dealing in some less then legal goods here. I should probably try to focus on trading and naval careers, maybe scouts even for these characters. I was kind of hoping for somebody with a high social standing to get a rich benefactor on the team, but it looks like we are going to be your a lot more Low and Dirty Firefly style.

YPU
2015-07-27, 07:35 AM
I'm thinking Orlanda will be my "face" character for this game. (tough I will be playing all to some degree) She is maybe the least interesting stat wise but is the most suited to actual trading.
In traveller you start with a number of skills from your home planet, this number is 3 plus your education modifier. Which is 3 for Orlanda. New Oberon has the Agricultural trade code which means Orlanda must take Animals as her first homeworld skill. In traveller skills start at 0, if you don't have that you take a -3 on your skill check. Since your trying to get a 8 or higher on a 2d6 plus modifiers check that means that on a average check without other mods untrained has a 8.33% chance and a trained at 0 has 41.67% chance to make it. So that 0 makes a big difference.
We have 2 starting skills left, but New Oberon has no other trade codes so we get to pick from the normal education list. I could actually take trade but I am aiming to get that from our career (which might fail!) but let at least take computer 0 and admin 0 both should be useful and sound like the kind of skill you would learn in school. As the book says this character is 18 years old now. Lets see what she is going to do with her life!
I'm going to try and make her my main trader so lets try to get into the Merchants, she has a good head on her shoulders and might just have what it takes to make a profit out among the stars. For the speciality I am going to go for free trader, I don't see her as the marine type and the standard broker might be a bit to high class for the rest of our group, but free trading might just be the way she gets into contact with the rest of the group. I am going to roll a lot of dice at once for trying to get into the career, and then the stuff you roll after that. I'll roll it in groups of 2d6 and take only the first dice where Necessary. So the first roll is to get into the merchants (free trader) career, which gives us basic training. Second roll will be a 1d6 on the merchant service skills table, then for survival for this term of 4 years, then event, then advancement, then for the extra skill should she advance (this one free trader table), and the last one should the first die be a 1 this is her first and last term. Should she fail to enter she is going drifting. Should she fail survival or other we take the same rolls for what we should be rolling. I am rolling an extra pair of d6 just in case we need a check for the event or such. Here we go! (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4837484/)
Entrance is Intelligence 4+, she rolled a 8 +1 so that's no problem. She gets all the service skills at 0. That means Drive, vacc suit, Broker, Steward, comms and Persuade. Her skill roll is a 2 so Vacc suit is now at 1. Next survival is dex 6+ (free trading can get rough) and we fail with a roll of 4! So Orlanda spend 4 years or less as a free trader, lets find out what went wrong. a six on the Mishaps table is "A series of bad deals and decisions force you into bankruptcy. You salvage what you can. You may take a Benefit roll for this term as well as any others you are entitled to." So somewhere in her first four years of trading Orlanda actually goes bankrupt, and this is probably our captain people! Still we do get a benefit roll, we could go cash or benefit, lets take the second one as those are more interesting. 4 gives us a gun. Apparently our trade went so bad we considered a firearm to be the most important thing to take with us! The last roll is not a 1 so we can keep going. Orlanda is now 22 and can never enter the Merchants career again except for trough the draft should we end up going that route.

With her merchant career in the dust Orlanda decides that her best option lies with the Scouts, everybody knows that Scouts are technically for life but she is somewhat desperate. Enlistment is Int based so that should be easy, the survey speciality uses int for advancement but endurance for survival, still lets go with that. Again the rolls as mentioned before, and again should we fail we shall go wandering. Here we go! (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4837493/)

Enlistment is int 5+ with a -1 for each previous carreer, we have a +1 but we roll a 3. Fail! In traveller when you fail your enlistment roll you can either take the drifter career or enter the draft (which is a d6 roll to see what you get) I mentioned before I would pick the Wanderer speciality, alternatives are scavenger and barbarian. We get to pick a single skill at 0 as basic training as this is a new career, with the drifter you get basic training from your speciality rather then the service skills as they are so different. Lets takes streetwise, it might help us in trade and makes sense. Our actual skill roll gives us recon 1, not terrible. We just make our survival roll of 7+ endurance. so lets roll for event. 6 says: "You encounter something unusual. Go to the Life Events table (page 34) and have an Unusual Event." which might get good. We might have ended psionic, but a 2 says says: "Aliens. You spend time among an alien race. Gain Life Sciences (biology) and a contact among an alien race." well that is interesting! I'll note the contact for now and work that out later I guess, I need to figure out where and what aliens live in our sector.
next up advancement, which is int 7+ which we make with a 7+1. We are moving up in the world. Rank 1 gives us streetwise 1 as well. We also get another skill roll. I'll go for personal advancement this time. a 2 ups our endurance by one. (I was kind of hoping for Jack of all trades) Our last die is a 5 so this is not our last term yet. Orlanda is now 26 and spend her past years wandering the stars, meeting aliens and getting a bit tougher. Drifter does not have that much to offer in the long run, so we are going to "muster out" here. Rank one gives us a bonus mustering out benefit. Lets go for the benefits instead of cash again as drifter does not pay well. a roll of a four and two means this past four years leaves us with weapon, twice! We could take another weapon but I think its smarter to convert this to gun combat (energy pistol) 2 to use our previously gained Gun, lets say thats a tl 11 laser pistol, a very nice weapon and how were actually pretty good with it!

My roll says we are going another term, lets try to become a scout once again, tough it will be harder this time as we have another career under our belt. Enlistment is int 5+ -2 for previous carreer and +1 for our attribute. Should we fail lets draft this time, Orlanda is tired of wandering by now. Here are the rolls. (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4837518/) Oh my, one to low for enlistment. So drafting we go! a roll of 3 makes us marines, we can pick any speciality. I was going to say support but we have gun combat 2! So lets go Star marines, we serve as spaceship security, so at least we are still out there among the stars. Basic training again, so lets take athletics at 0 for that, it sounds the most useful. Rolling on the specialty table a 4 gives us Melee (Blade) 1, orlanda is becoming a bad-ass. Or not, survival roll is a 2! So to the Mishaps table we go "You are ordered to take part in a black ops mission that goes against your conscience. If you refuse you are ejected from the service. If you accept you may stay with the marines but gain the lone survivor as an Enemy." Orlanda is done with getting booted out, so she swallows it and does things she is not proud of. Well then, lets try to get a commission instead of a normal rank. Its a Soc 8+ roll. We roll a 7, pity there! Our last roll gives us a 1 so this is the last term for her. lets spend this last mustering out benefit on cash a 5 gives us 20,000 cash. as Marine Fletcher musters out at 30 years old, ready for adventure.

YPU
2015-07-28, 03:04 PM
Next up, lets go with Slavomir Martinson. Our man has some rather disappointing stats:
Strength 3 (-1)
Dexterity: 7 (+0)
Endurance: 6 (+0)
Intelligence: 3 (-1)
Education: 7 (+0)
Social Standing:8 (+0)

he is from New Venus, which is a desert, high tech and low population system, giving us Survival and computers at 0, low population doesn't actually provide a skill. So to basic education we go, since this is a planet dominated by a mining cooperation why not give this guy engineer, which seems like a useful skill to have in such a environment.
Lets aim a bit lower this time, Slavomir is going to try and be a citizen corporate, if that fails he will scrap by as a scavenger. Qualification is Edu 5+ here we go! (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4838329/) We managed to find a job working a nice cushiony, probably overseeing mining or some other support role to the mines. I was originally considering trying to make Slavomir our mechanic, but many practical skills rely on intelligence. Social interaction almost always allows you the choice of int or Social standing, making Corporate a smarter choice. For new venus we rolled "conspiracy" as a planetary quirk, and the planet has no official government but there is a cooperation with with overwhelming power. Seems like that might come into play in some interesting way if Slavomir worked for that corp.
Anyhow, just like Drifter the citizen career gives you starting skills for your specialization rather then the normal service skills. (this career is quite diverse, with corporate, worker and colonist) Giving us Advocate, Admin, Broker, Computers, Diplomat and leadership at 0. Pity we already had computers. Lets roll on the service skills table for some diversity. Also you get this skill at 1, which is better on a skill we don't have instead of the corporate skills which we all have at 0 already. 2 gives us flyer (any) at 1. New venus is high tech so flyer (grav) makes the most sense. Next up survival roll at Soc 6+ we roll a 7 so no problem. Event is a 9, "You are rewarded for your diligence or cunning. Gain a +2 DM to your next Advancement check." Cunning? Slavomir? yea right. Still that bonus might just get us a promotion. Corporate advancement check is int 6+ Our worst stat, but also a pretty low check compared to most careers. we roll a 5, with a +2 and a -1 we just make it, rank 1. Another skill, lets go service again. 1 gives us Drive (any) Looks like Slavomir likes to move around, or maybe he just has to do a lot of driving while inspecting the mines of New venus. There is a speciality for digging vehicles so I figure Slavomir might actually pilot a digger in his first few years at the Corp. Slavomir is now 22 and moving up in the world due to hard work at the company. Lets keep going on this path! Rolls (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4838344/). Service skills again, I am really hoping for Steward, which is the skill for serving fancy passengers on a ship. Roll is a 6, trade. The "making a living" skill for everything that other skills don't cover. We need to specify a trade, lets say "mine inspector" Who knows, might come in handy one day. Survival we make with a 10. to the events table! 4 says You spend time maintaining and using heavy vehicles, either as part of your job or as a hobby. Increase Mechanic, Drive (any), Flyer (any) or Engineer (any) by one level. We could say Slavomir is working with diggers even more, but I don't expect that skill a lot in actual play. So lets say he does check machinery a lot for defects, gaining Engineer 1 for his troubles. Lastly we fail our int 6+ advancement roll. Seems like slavomir is stuck in his current position for now. Last roll is a 6 so we keep going.
Slavomir is 26, and I'm thinking about a carreer switch, still this carreer does pay well in the end. So lets try to keep going. Roll on. I'm going to mix things up and roll personal development skill, and 6 gives us Jack of all trade at 1. Arguably the best skill in the game, your rank in this skill reduces the untrained penalty. (now a -2 for slavomir) cool. Survival roll of 7 we live. Event of 7 sends us to the life event table (7 is always a life event, for all careers) 8 says "Betrayal: The character is betrayed in some fashion by a friend. If you have any Contacts or Allies, convert one into a Rival or
Enemy. Otherwise, gain a Rival or an Enemy." We didn't have any allies or contacts. Hmm. Slavomir was happy with his promotion so the boss who promoted him is kind of a friend. I guess Slavomir with his low int fails to pick up on the conspiracy that's going down in the company and his boss now is suspicious of him. Name gen calls her "Katee Sarkisian" The Star trader rules tell us to make a list of these people, as that book has tables that call on you for encountering a known face. (somebody remind me to add people to that list please) Our advancement roll is a bust due to our modifier, fits with the rest of his narrative. I was going to say something about trying to stick with one career on this guy, but I noticed the first die of the last roll is a 3, and this is the third term so Slavomir is now 30 and punching out of his job as a mine inspector to go travel, probably partially due to the hostile work environment. (in more way then one!) we have 3 terms in this career and are rank 1 which gives us 4 mustering out rolls. Lets split them evenly among money and other benefits, 4 rolls. (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4838382/) first two money, then benefits. Looks like Slavomir's boss managed to gimp his final pay-check and benefits. three ones and a two! Slavomir leaves with a grand total of 2.000 credit. His benefits do provide a ally and a ship share. Ship shares are a 1% discount on ships, which is a huge amount of cash! I figure the ally is some colleague who is secretly opposing the conspiracy and takes a bit of a pity on Slavomir. Behind the name calls her Muirgen Nosek.

NPC's come in 4 categories during character generation. Contacts are handy people you know, they will listen to you if you call but still expect to be repaid for their services. Allies are ready to help you due to friendship or some other connection. Rivals are people who just happen to be in your way every now and again. They know this and will try to hinder you if they get a chance, but not greatly. Enemies on the other hand have it out for you.


I Mentioned the list of NPC's in the above char gen. I've been thinking on Orlana's alien contact and decided she spend some time with a pack of vargr, a race of uplifted wolfs. Many are raiders or drifters, fitting for where she was in her career at that point.

YPU
2015-07-28, 04:14 PM
Well I am on a roll today so why not go for another one.

Eadwulf Jarl Bösch
Strength: 8(+0)
Dexterity: 8(+0)
Endurance: 5(-1)
Intelligence: 11(+1)
Education: 2 (-2)
Social standing: 5(-1)
Home system: Vespae

I'm quite curious how this guy will turn out, I love the name the generator spewed forth in any case. If we manage to gain another point of intelligence he actually has a +2 mod, and if we manage to gain some education we would at least be up to a -1.
Vespae is ruled by a charismatic oligarchy, and the law level is absurdly high. Eadwulf has a low social standing and an even lower education, clearly the system is not nice to him. We only get one starting skill due to our education modifier. Vespae is Rich, which give us Carouse 0. The skills used for drinking contests but can also be used to find people looking to travel on your ship. I guess that on Vespae even the low know how to party. So how do you get round in such a live? Eadwulf thinks he could make it as a Entertainer (performer) since getting in and surviving requires intelligence, and advancement is up to dexterity. If he fails he's going to give in and go for the draft. Qualification requires a 5+ int, we roll a 11 total. nice. We get art twice, carouse, Deception, persuade and steward at 0. Not bad. Too bad art is on there twice, since 0 twice is still 0. I mentioned trying to raise his stats, so we roll on personal development. 1 gives dex +1. Not what I was looking for, BUT it does take our dex modifier up to +1! Now we roll for survival int 5+ this time we roll 12 total. cool. event time. 9: "You go on a tour of the sector, visiting several worlds. Gain 1d3 Contacts." whoop. Need to define those, roll is 3. cool. Advancement is going to be harder, its dex 7+, but we just improved our dex, cool. we roll 8 +1. Nice. rank 1 performer, gives another +1 dex. Funny how these things go in different directions then you expect. Personal development is is again. 3 is Social +1, hey, moving up in the world, no longer a penalty there! 22 and a growing performer, Eadwulf's fingers grow swift and climbs the ladder. Next term! (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4838444/) I'm thining, do I still want the personal development? one more I say! 4 +1 edu! yeah, Guess our boy learned something on his tour. byby -2. Survival is another 12 total, why all the good rolls on that 5+ tough. event: "4 You are a part of your homeworld’s celebrity circles. Gain one of Carouse 1, Persuade 1, Steward 1 or a Contact." Ooh, I'll take steward there, lets say eadwulf is mostly performing for the celebrities then actually one of them, but still a big step for him. Advancement 4+1, we need a 7+. darn. Eadwulf is 26 and has learned a lot since begining, lets keep playing man. (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4838454/) Lets actually roll on our specialist table for once, 3= carouse. Looks like Wolf is living it down up there. I hope whatever boat we buy has a lot of rooms for passengers cause the wolf is going to draw them in and care for them. survival: we only roll a 4, but with our mod we make it! event: 7 another life event: 3 "Birth or Death: Someone close to the character dies, like a friend or family member. Alternatively, someone close to the character gives birth (or is born!). The character is involved in some fashion (father or mother, relative, godparent, or similar)." Wolf started out as a duo, but his partner and best friend died at this point. Rip sheep. Advancement roll 8, we made it. rank 2, specialist table again? sure. 6 is streetwise. On his own the wolf learns to prowl the streets. last roll is a two, we stop here. Wolf is 30 and looking to get out, get of. He fondly remembers his tour and wants to travel the stars again. 3 terms and rank 4 is another 4 mustering out rolls, even split again, money first. roll 'em. 20.00 cash. this table goes from 0 cash at one and two to 80.000 at 7 (requires a mod) wide swings, were at the lower middle. We leave with another contact and int+1. lotta contacts to figure out for this guy, but he should manage with his 12 int! I guess he will be our face. I kind of think of him as looking a bit like a younger Sean Connery.

YPU
2015-08-03, 10:12 AM
Two more to go, I'm going to roll up Galchobhar Chevalier next
Strength: 5(-1)
Dexterity: 10(+1)
Endurance: 8(+0)
Intelligence: 9(+1)
Education: 4(-1)
Social standing: 4(-1)
Home system: Vaalbara
Gender: Male

I think we could use a pilot, somebody with the skills to actually fly the ship, so what I am mostly looking for is the Pilot skill and Astrogation. I should point out that by the end of character generation we get to pick a skill package suited for the intended campaign and pass out a batch of skills at 1 to make sure we have somebody who can actually do the important stuff. Still having two people be able to do it would be much better. The two skills I am looking for with Galchobhar are to be found in the Navy Pilot career, which requires Int to get in, Dex to survive and Edu to advance. The pilot career has a high survival roll an and a low advance, so we might make it. But first starting skills. Vaalbara is a serert which gives us Survival, and we get to pick one more skill. Lets do Coms as I don't think anybody has that yet.
So we were going to try and become Navy (pilot) if we fail lets jump into the draft. Rolling again, (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4842032/) Getting in requires a Int 6+ roll and we have a +1 rolling a 5 is just enough! we get Pilot (any) Vacc suit, Zero-G, Gunner (any), Mechanic and Gun combat (any) at 0. I plan on rolling on the specialist table all the time, since there are the skills I want. with a 4 we get pilot (small craft) Not what I was looking for but can come in handy. Survival requries a 7+ dex, and we roll a 4 total. darn. Mishap table says we are injured, we haven't had that before, like the Life event table the injury table is shared among all careers, tough sometimes you get to roll twice and take the best or worst. Roll is a 1... Nearly killed. Reduce one physical characteristic by 1d6, reduce both other physical characteristics by 2 (or one of them by 4). Pretty much worst we could end up with. I guess we are taking d6 from dex, and 2 from strength and endurance. d6 roll is a 3, Reducing our modifier down to a +0. The reduction of the other skills isn't pretty either. Now we could get this fixed up at a price of 5000 redits per point, and hope the navy covers it (they are pretty good about that) the modifier becomes +1 again on a stat of 9 so lets try to get 2 points fixed, costing 10.000 credit. On a roll of 8 navy would have covered all of it, but with a roll of 7 they only do 75%. still bringing our debt down to 2.500. Great first term! (not)
So here we have Galchobhar, 22 years old, scarred by a nearly lethal accident in the navy, in debt from treatment and not sure what to do with his life. Looking at ways to pick up Pilot and Astrogation there are two options beyond Navy. Scouts, but their roll mostly rely on endurance and education. The other one, Rogue (Pirate) I guess that might not be such a strange place for a washed out navy Pilot to go. Another option would be the Drifter (scavanger) branch, so we shall try that if we fail to become a actual pirate. The pilot (come pirate?) rolls the die, (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4842037/) Pirate requires a dex roll of 6+, with a -1 for each previous career. We make it. Guess those surgeries were worth it. We get to pick a service skill at 0. Lets do Recon, a skill that's always good to have. Rolling on the pirate table with a 4 gives Engineer (any) Lets take Jump drive as that is nececary for actually jumping. (tough that is a edu roll, on which we have a penalty) Survival for Pirate is Dex 6+ a roll of 10 total gets that sorted out. to the event table! 7 goes life event again, I was hoping for something a bit more piraty but lets see what happens. Betrayal: The character is betrayed in some fashion by a friend. If you have any Contacts or Allies, convert one into a Rival or Enemy. Otherwise, gain a Rival or an Enemy. I guess that stuff happens when your a Pirate. We don't have contacts or allies yet, but lets make this some Pirate who doesn't like Galchobar much and runs with the loot both of them made one day. Maybe we have more luck advancing up the ranks? we need int6+, but only make a 4. Pitty. 26 and a betraded pirate. Sounds like Galchobar Might be a bit brooding.
Still we are not yet kicked of our pirate ship, so lets keep rolling them. Skills give us Gunner again, so we need to pick a specialty there. Turrets is by far the most logical choice. I'm sure Galchobar Still fears the survival roll after what happened in the navy, but a 7 does good. event 9 goes like this: You become involved in a feud with a rival criminal organisation. Roll Stealth or Gun Combat (any) 8+. If you fail, roll on the Injury table. If you succeed, gain an extra Benefit roll. We don't have stealth, and gun combat is at 0 but its dex based so we get a +1. we make it 11 total, another benefit roll. Maybe we managed to get one over on our rival this time? Maybe we can also get some more status among the pirates, lets try to advance. we roll a 5, +1 int is just enough. We move up from lacky to henchman Chevalier. This rank gives us Pilot (any) or Gunner (any) at 1. Lets make that Pilot (Space craft) 1. and the last die is a 1 so galchobhar also ends up at age 30. Seems to be a pattern here. We get 4 benefit rolls For Pirate, one from rank one from the event and two from our terms. Pirate cash goes from none to 100.000, so its a gamble. Lets do an even split again, hopefully buy of our debts a bit. First two cash, then stuff. (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4842040/) 3 and 5 leave us with 60.000 cash, enough to get rid of the debts at least. 3 and 6 gives us +1 int and +1 dex. Maybe we should have gotten back all our points couse that would have been a 12 dex (+2) this way. ah well.

Rabidmuskrat
2015-08-04, 03:02 PM
I am loathe to disrupt the continuity you have going here, but I feel that I should show that there is at least someone who is interested and following this thread.

Never played Traveller before but this has gotten me curious.

YPU
2015-08-05, 11:16 AM
Hey thanks! I am hopping that during actual play people will jump in with suggestion, or jokes or whatever. It's good to know at least one person is interested.

golentan
2015-08-05, 12:21 PM
Okay, as a huge traveller fan who just saw this, 2 things: 1) may be worth mentioning in the Older/Other games subforum, and 2... I think I have to try playing this...

YPU
2015-08-17, 01:43 PM
Sudden breaks from games like this is why I don't play a regular game right now. Anyhow.

Odhrán Capello
Strength: 6(+0)
Dexterity: 4(-1)
Endurance: 5(-1)
Intelligence: 8(+0)
Education: 5(-1)
Social standing: 7(+0)
Home system: Yaw
Gender: Male
A bit fumbling and short on endurance, also not that well educated. I'm sure he's a nice guy tough.

Since he is from Yaw he gets Computers 0 because Yaw is high tech, and one other to choose (-1 edu and all) lets say language at 0, as the book says: "Having Language 0 implies that the character has a smattering of simple phrases in many languages." Makes sense to me since Yaw holds travellers in a high regard they might also copy their languages a bit. We still don't have much cash lying around, so I'm hoping to to fix that on our last man. So lets try a long shot for our first career, the Nobility has the best payoff (naturally) and the option that seems the most likely for Mr Capello to actually succeed at would be Diplomat. Now getting in requires a social standing 10+ roll so this is pretty unlikely, I'm not sure what else to do, scavanger springs to mind but lets instead do the draft again. Of to the dice we go! (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4850794/) Lucky, we got a 10 on the first roll! We get admin, Advocate, Comms, Diplomat, investigate, and persuade at 0. We roll a 1 on the service table so Admin is now 1. Lets see if we actually manage to make it trough our first 4 years of Diplomacy. Its a 5+ int check, and we rolled an 8. Up to events we go, with your common 7. Life events, 4 "Ending of Relationship: A romantic relationship involving the character ends. Badly." Poor Odhrán. Somewhere between his 18 and 22 he probably put his new job as a intern diplomat first and paid a price for it. Intern is the official name for a rank 0 diplomat btw. Lets see if this sacrifice pays of for him with an advance. Geting higher up as a diplomat requires a 7+ social roll, pretty tough! we roll a double 1! lucky we did that now, if you roll lower then your total terms in a career on a advancement roll you are kicked out. (for being to ambitious I guess) No advance now, but not to terrible either. (The ex-probably wouldn't agree, lets mark her down as a notible NPC tough! name: Hawa Horak)
No reason not to stick with the Job. So we rolling we go. (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4850852/) Service skill 5, investigate at 1. seems like Odhrán is pretty serious about this job, specializing in administration and investigation. Survival roll next, 7 does is and events it is, 5 You inherit a gift from a rich relative. Gain a +1 DM to any one Benefi t roll. Oh my. that will come in handy! well, no reason not to try and climb the ladder. 8 is enough and we get another skill, lets roll specialist this time. make that steward 1. We could provide for quite a few high class passengers this way, nice. Oh and were 3rd secretary to a actual diplomat now, which provides us with a course of admin 1 but Odhrán finds he already has the skills thought there. Last roll a 6, we stay for now, 26 and slowly becoming a actual diplomat.
Right next roll to go. (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4850856/) Specialist skill again, deception this time. I wonder how he learned that as a diplomat eh. Survival we make, yay. Event then, 6 "You become deeply involved in politics on your world of residence, becoming a player in the political intrigues of government. Gain one level in Advocate, Admin, Diplomacy or Persuade, but also gain a Rival." OOooh. well then mister Capello. I'm going to take diplomat since that is what he is, and write down our political rival as... Marija Wronski. No pun to be made with that last name. We don't advance this term, but just roll over current terms so were still on. last roll also doesn't boot us so Odhrán is going to get us past 30 for once.
next rolls, (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4850859/) I'm hoping this guy gets real old, but I wonder the way I decided on ending the terms.
Lets do personal development for a change, 5 is melee (blade) 1 Not something you would expect from otherwise feeble and quick to tire Odhrán. I'm getting a firefly vibe there, where all the nobility fence. Chances are that Odhrán learned this more because of the person he's working for than anything else, but that's interesting still. Lets see if his sword fighting skills actually help him survive. a 3, not at all then. mishap table: "4 Political manoeuvrings usurp your position. Increase Diplomat or Advocate by one level and gain a Rival." Lets increase advocate then, our last time to do so. The person responsible? Gertie Kinnaird. we reach 34 and now aging becomes a thing. we roll 2d6 minus current terms and consult a chart. 6-4 is a 2, anything above 0 is fine. If you go lower you start to reduce stats. Chargen in traveller can be a bitch. looking down the list this is it for Odhrán Capello. He never did make it far as a diplomat before getting booted, making more enemies then friends. But maybe we did make a lot of cash? Mustering out is next, and last for him. We get 5 rolls total, and a single +1. Lets roll (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4850863/)3 times money, with the +1 on the first, and two other benefits.
4+1 and 3 twice. 100.000 and 50.000x2. So 200.000 decent I say. 4 +1 social. meh, doesn't increase mod so not great. and 2 Two Ship Shares. Hey that's nice at least. I was kind of hoping for the roll that gives you a bigger number of shares towards a Jacht ship. but this allows more options.
Odhrán Capello is 34, has more money then the rest of the group combined and a decent suite of political skills, however he has not friends and some political rivals out there.

YPU
2015-08-17, 02:23 PM
Well, that's the biggest part of character generation. But wait there's more. One part is skill packages. To make sure you have at least somebody who can do the important stuff in your game you pick a package of skills and divide it among the players, going round the group until they are gone. I always think of these as the skills the characters learn before leaving in the hopes it will help them in their new life as travellers. Now generally I would prefer the "traveller" pack as its good all round, but for this game the trader seems far more logical. the package has:

Trader Skill Package:
This skill package is for campaigns where tradingand commerce are the primary activities of the player characters.
Pilot (any) 1. Sensors 1. Medic 1. Streetwise 1. Broker 1. Advocate 1, Diplomat 1, Astrogation 1.

Note the 1 in there, this means that is characters will simply get the skill at 1. nothing or 0 doesn't matter, and if its already 1 or higher there's no point. Lets go down the list. Pilot any, I think I want Orlanda to be able to fly the ship, so she gets Pilot (space craft) 1.
Slavomir is our general tech guy (despite his int score) So he gets sensors 1.
Eadwulf is pretty light on skills but by now he has int +2 so broker 1 is for him.
Galchobhar, having been a pirate and all should probably take streetwise 1.
Odhrán Now, the only skill he doesn't already have is Medic 1, which is is education based, so less then perfect but I'll take it. (he was probably concerned about bodily harm then?)
Orlanda will get Diplomat 1, since she is my "face"
the last advocate then goes to slavomir, who already has it at 0 but that's fine.

Another step to character generation is the connection rule. During any event in a characters life he may have met another player character. If both players agree both may increase a skill rank, starting at 1 but not higher then 3. You may do this twice. This greatly encourages you to weave a web of character connections and gives you some extra control over your skills. It is suggested you find some connection between your skill and what happened tough. Now I'm hoping that there are still enough people interested in this to send me suggestions as to where these people have met and what they learned from it!
To get us started, Star trader has a big table of random relations between characters. Taking the list of characters above I am going to roll up 5 types of relations between these people, and from there we can build when they met and what they learned I hope.
rolls here (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4850875/)

Orlanda (64) Knows a dark secret about Slavomir.
Slavomir (51) Related (but feuding or cold) to Eadwulf
Eadwulf (64 again, ignored and 63) Friendship through guilt with Galchobhar
Galchobhar (45) Divorced over differences With Odhrán (Hey, these two were married, I guess that makes Galchobar the ex we generated in Odhrán's background. Cool)
Odhrán (quick home roll, actual dice 34) Old (and these days, ex-) friends with Orlanda.

Well these people do are all love and warm feelings aren't they. Still they all have a reason to take a huge loan on a spaceship and set out.

So please send your suggestions for connections and the skills from them!