iainjcoleman
Banded Mongoose
I've rolled up a few very old anagathics users (40+ terms each), and it's an interesting process.
A key point is that, when a character is using anagathics, their characteristics will (almost) only ever increase.
(The almost is because some events impose a characteristic reduction. Injuries do not: a character can cancel the effect of injury through medical debt.)
So, if you just keep on keeping on, you will eventually get a character with most characteristics in the 12-15 range, whether through personal development rolls, mustering out benefits or promotion benefits.
At this stage, the character will be relatively untroubled by the double survival roll imposed by anagathic use, being able to choose careers where they will only have to roll 2+ or 3+ to survive.
The real crux comes when the character reaches Soc 10+. They can then enter the nobility. It is vitally important that they reserve all their cash benefit rolls until this point.
Rolling for cash after a noble career, even just using the core rulebook, it is not hard to amass enough wealth to pay off many, many terms' worth of medical debt. After all, by this time the character has probably picked up Gambler skill somewhere along the line, and will have the characteristic bonuses that make rank 5+ quite achievable.
If you use the Dilletante book (which I highly recommend) then the character is likely to be even wealthier, and will find even eye-watering levels of medical debt a minor administrative matter.
The resulting characters are superheroes - or supervillains. Outstandingly tough and smart, crack shots with an array of weapons, experts in a vast range of skills - and if they haven't picked up Jack-o-T-3 by this time, making them all-round improvisational geniuses, then they just haven't been trying.
Player characters like this fundamentally alter the flavour of Traveller. These are not real people in an unreal universe, these are hypercompetent superhumans: James Bond, Captain Kirk, Lara Croft - even Doctor Who, depending on what psion careers you allow.
There's nothing wrong with such a game - it could be a lot of fun. But it is very different from mainstream Traveller, and it's worth being aware of that.
If you don't want a game like that, the fix is simple. Just use the optional term limit rule and all will be well. Your PCs can still use anagathics, but only to become pretty fortysomethings, not superpowered bicentennarians.
But there's a more interesting implication. If the character generation rules reflect the Traveller universe, and if the term limit is simply an arbitrary cutoff for game purposes rather than a reflection of some deeper aspect of that universe, then this kind of anagathic use must be possible.
So there should be a cohort of wealthy, youthful people who have lived for hundreds of years, amassing knowledge, expertise and physical perfection. Who are these people? What is their place in society? And what trouble are they going to get your player characters into?
A key point is that, when a character is using anagathics, their characteristics will (almost) only ever increase.
(The almost is because some events impose a characteristic reduction. Injuries do not: a character can cancel the effect of injury through medical debt.)
So, if you just keep on keeping on, you will eventually get a character with most characteristics in the 12-15 range, whether through personal development rolls, mustering out benefits or promotion benefits.
At this stage, the character will be relatively untroubled by the double survival roll imposed by anagathic use, being able to choose careers where they will only have to roll 2+ or 3+ to survive.
The real crux comes when the character reaches Soc 10+. They can then enter the nobility. It is vitally important that they reserve all their cash benefit rolls until this point.
Rolling for cash after a noble career, even just using the core rulebook, it is not hard to amass enough wealth to pay off many, many terms' worth of medical debt. After all, by this time the character has probably picked up Gambler skill somewhere along the line, and will have the characteristic bonuses that make rank 5+ quite achievable.
If you use the Dilletante book (which I highly recommend) then the character is likely to be even wealthier, and will find even eye-watering levels of medical debt a minor administrative matter.
The resulting characters are superheroes - or supervillains. Outstandingly tough and smart, crack shots with an array of weapons, experts in a vast range of skills - and if they haven't picked up Jack-o-T-3 by this time, making them all-round improvisational geniuses, then they just haven't been trying.
Player characters like this fundamentally alter the flavour of Traveller. These are not real people in an unreal universe, these are hypercompetent superhumans: James Bond, Captain Kirk, Lara Croft - even Doctor Who, depending on what psion careers you allow.
There's nothing wrong with such a game - it could be a lot of fun. But it is very different from mainstream Traveller, and it's worth being aware of that.
If you don't want a game like that, the fix is simple. Just use the optional term limit rule and all will be well. Your PCs can still use anagathics, but only to become pretty fortysomethings, not superpowered bicentennarians.
But there's a more interesting implication. If the character generation rules reflect the Traveller universe, and if the term limit is simply an arbitrary cutoff for game purposes rather than a reflection of some deeper aspect of that universe, then this kind of anagathic use must be possible.
So there should be a cohort of wealthy, youthful people who have lived for hundreds of years, amassing knowledge, expertise and physical perfection. Who are these people? What is their place in society? And what trouble are they going to get your player characters into?
