Connections

[CaptainOrs]

I never had the chance to play the Mongoose version and there is a question regarding connections on both Mongoose version that has always bothered me.

What happens when players are generating characters and form a connection early in their career but end their careers at different times (maybe even several terms apart), where their early contact no longer makes sense as they have a 12 or 16 year difference in their age now. Do refs just force players to end careers around the same time to avoid these types of issues?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

They are just old friends that haven't seen each other in awhile. Hopefully the referee has ideas for how the players meet up. I tend to to have players start at various parts of a game session rather than all starting instantly the session begins.

 

[-Daniel-]

I never had the chance to play the Mongoose version and there is a question regarding connections on both Mongoose version that has always bothered me.

What happens when players are generating characters and form a connection early in their career but end their careers at different times (maybe even several terms apart), where their early contact no longer makes sense as they have a 12 or 16 year difference in their age now. Do refs just force players to end careers around the same time to avoid these types of issues?

What I do is not resolve the connections until they have all completed their "terms". Then we align them and look for interesting options for the connection. For example one Character participated in a notable navy battle in his third term and another Character had a marine event that could have been part of a planet landing in their first term. But because one was a 2 term Marine and the Navy Character was a four term this caused the two to line up. Not sure if this makes sense, but I found by waiting it allows the terms to be lined up and make sense. The young Marine and an experience Navy Officer met during the same battle/war.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Oh, yes. Very important what Daniel is saying. Not all your Travellers will be born the same year. One Traveller could be born after another one has had 3 terms. Better to do connections after all Travellers are retired.

Or... they are all born the same year. Anyone who retires early is frozen until everyone is retired.

 

[CaptainOrs]

Doing them post creation would certainly fix the issue, and was the only way I thought it would work when I read the first edition rules.

I have read people specifically touting how great the connection rules are during the creation process though, more fun etc. That's where it just doesn't seem like it would work unless you had a strong idea how many terms each player was going to have by the end.

For the people who do the connections during the character creation process as opposed to the end, how do you handle the concerns I mentioned? If there isn't really a process, Daniel's suggestion certain seems to make the most sense to me as well.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I just assumed players were joking around about possible connections their Travellers could have with each other during chargen. But not actually make any literal connections until that step was reached in the process. Until that point, connections are still just the contacts being collected from allies, rivals, enemies, etc.

 

[CaptainOrs]

Hmm..., I never cosidered they may be joking. The connections section in the rules indicates rolling up characters together term by term for this purpose:

"If two players agree, then any event rolled for one Traveller can involve another. Only one Traveller needs to have rolled the specific event, though you will find it more exciting if Travellers can link events together (this is why it is best to create Travellers as a group activity, going through terms one by one together)."

Would love to see an official response to this and more clarity in the rules on the intention. Does anyone roll up characters term by term together and if so, do you still hold off on finalizing connections and skill gains from them until the end?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Most Traveller games have lots of players joking around. I don't think it's meant to be done like a study hall with the principal in the room.

 

[CaptainOrs]

Most Traveller games have lots of players joking around. I don't think it's meant to be done like a study hall with the principal in the room.

I'm not sure I understand where you are going with this. It sounds like some sort of dig at either the rules as written or my question, but I really don't understand why. The rules appear to suggest rolling characters up together to form connection and add to the enjoyment. I'm not sure why that would be like a study hall with a principal.

That said, if you take that term by term approach the rules suggest, how does it work regarding my original question?

 

[-Daniel-]

Doing them post creation would certainly fix the issue, and was the only way I thought it would work when I read the first edition rules.

Just to be clear about what I do, I don't think of it as post creation so much as part of the muster out/finalization of Character creation. I like to finalize connections at the same time we are doing the Character creation the same way I like to do the skill packages as part of the finalization.

I have read people specifically touting how great the connection rules are during the creation process though, more fun etc. That's where it just doesn't seem like it would work unless you had a strong idea how many terms each player was going to have by the end.

Oh trust me, the players do discuss it as various events come up, sort of flag them for possible use. We just do not finalize them until the end of the process for the exact reasons you gave. But we do discuss it along the process.

The connections section in the rules indicates rolling up characters together term by term for this purpose:

Yes, as we roll up the Characters various ideas spring up and we write them down if they seem useful.

And if the two players want a connection to work we can always make it work. Older Character is a "Family Fiend" of the young Character. He hung out with the family and often took them out on the town. As Time went by, the older Character took an interest in the younger Character's schooling. Thus the younger Character took Science-1 as part of their connection.

I just wait until the finalizing of the Characters to make the connections "official" and write down the skill in order to make sure the connections make sense.

I too never saw the table talk as just jokes. We often had great ideas come up during those conversations. And yes, it can be quite fun to do Character creation as a group together at the table. :mrgreen:

 

[CaptainOrs]

That makes a lot of sense Daniel, thanks!

 

[chiron0224]

In my groups we always do Iron Man character creation (survival rolls are actually about survival and your character can die if you fail) and so connections during creation would really be a nightmare for us. I really like waiting until all characters are finalized, but before the skill package is chosen for the group. Another thing I like doing is looking at their ages relative to the starting year (I tend to start at 1115 or 1116 just before the collapse that occurs in MegaTraveller) and see if any of the characters might have taken part in some of the history of the region. I always run in the Marches so a character who was in the military (especially Navy or Marines) between 1107 and 1110 might have taken part in the Fifth Frontier war for example. How might that color their opinion of Zhodani characters (or if Zhodani, where were they during that war? Did they fight for the consolate? Were they a traitor to the Imperium? etc.)