Characteristic creation puzzle

[bigflyer]

OK, I haven't played Traveller since the 80s so I'm reading this manual as a noob.

On page 8-9, I got 'stuck'. I'm told to roll 2D (range 2-12) but I'm presented with a table showing values 0-15+, and then for Background Skills I'm told that I may have 0-6 background skills depending on my education roll (which needs rolls in the range 0-15)

Now, I suppose this could make sense later, when something comes along and tells me how my initial rolls could be modified. If so, tell me that now, because it's confusing and I could start thinking that this is all too complex and giving up.

It's made more confusing because it says that "the maximum score is 15, there are exceptions to this which will be covered later". I'm looking at that and thinking, "hang on, how do I get to 15, if it's mentioning special cases for getting over 15, then surely it must be normal to get 15 on a 2D roll, but that doesn't make sense - am I missing something?".

So, please, give a hint about how rolls of 0,1 and 13+ may be achieved so I know I'm not being thick, or change the wording at this point so it doesn't include rolls outside of the normal 2D range.

 

[mlooney]

All the careers have a "Personal Development" option. They let you increase a stat like it was a skill. It's also a possible mustering out option for some careers.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

On page 8-9, I got 'stuck'. I'm told to roll 2D (range 2-12) but I'm presented with a table showing values 0-15+, and then for Background Skills I'm told that I may have 0-6 background skills depending on my education roll (which needs rolls in the range 0-15).

This needs to be fixed. I'm not a fan of new-ish players getting stuck on things that regular players probably know which hoops to jump through.

 

[iwakun]

I can confirm that I too (also a newbie) got "stuck" on this. Re-read it a couple times trying to see what I was missing. Continued on and saw that some characteristics could be modified as you created the character, which sort of explained it, but it would have been much better if that was cleared up earlier.

Also, it seems like something was missing in the previous paragraphs. The sentence is "The basic characteristics for humans are:" and then nothing.

Here's my attempt at rewriting for clarity:

Characteristics
Every person and creature in Traveller has several characteristics that describe their base mental and physical potential. The basic characteristics for humans are: Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intellect, Education, and Social Standing. The values for these characteristics will be determined during the character creation process.

Rolling Characteristics
Determine your Traveller's starting characteristics by rolling 2D for each of the six characteristics, starting with Strength. Record them on your character sheet.

Next, determine the Dice Modifier for each characteristic by using the following table.

Throughout the character creation process, your characteristics may be modified, and if they are, be sure to adjust your Dice Modifier if needed. However, note that the maximum score for an unaugmented human character is 15. There are exceptions to this, but they will be covered later for specific rules and circumstances.