How do you generate child characters?

[Tom Kalbfus]

Usually you don't have enough character development points for kids to be outstanding in any or a number of skills or characteristics, unless the game sort of focuses on these overgrown rugrats.

You could somehow figure out what they sacrificed to devote ten thousand hours to develop that skill.

If they are spacebrats, it would be irresponsible for parents not to teach them basic space skills.

You know a lot of what kids learn after Elementary School is fairly useless to their future careers. For instance Social Studies isn't needed to operate a spaceship, neither is Music or Gym. A person probably needs to learn how to read and math is good to know, substitute technical training for the fine arts and the humanities. What do you think of that?

 

[Condottiere]

That's because we have the luxury of giving them a generalist education, rather than shuffling them off immediately to an apprenticeship.

Kids can pick up knowledge and skills from adults they hang around with; they may devote an inordinate amount of time to some hobby that could have some practical application.

You could always lower the prime education characteristic, and in brackets have an increased characteristic specific to some field of science or art, which reflects the greater amount of time spent studying that.

 

[NOLATrav]

I have a very simple Birthworld/Early History mechanic that occurs before char gen IMTU, which can result in being an Orphan of various flavors. Same 3 + EDU DM BG skills but provides some flavor and bones for the player to hang character ideas on.

This thread has inspired me to let those orphans begin a career at a younger age (thinking 18 - 1D3 years) or perhaps enter play directly at that younger age with their handful of level 0 skills. Connections and game package skills can give them a focus. Not 10,000 hours of focus obviously but enough to make the character viable.

Good job, team!

 

[BigDogsRunning]

Freelance Traveller has a number of articles that address this very topic in the "Doing it my way" section.
https://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/rules/index.html

 

[NOLATrav]

Freelance Traveller has a number of articles that address this very topic in the "Doing it my way" section.
https://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/rules/index.html

Ha! Beat me to it

 

[steve98052]

I found the specific Freelance Traveller article:
"Suffer Unto Me the Little Children" by Richard Morey, April 2013

 

[Jame Rowe]

Choose a homeworld to generate a character from. Starting age is 13 +1D4 - 1D4. Don't give them a career or anything. Done.

I might borrow this if child characters ever comes up, since it gives a range of 10 to 16.
Then decide on the spot how to generate physical stats (at a minus for Str, End and EDU, unless they're 15 or 16), and normal for Dex, Int and Soc, then roll 1d6+3 -Edu for the number of 0 level skills they get, and only 3 plus Edu are retained if they then enter a career.

 

[FreeTrav]

There are three articles at Freelance Traveller about this:

1. Traveller: Child's Play (https://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/rules/childsplay.html)
2. Suffer Unto Me the Little Children (https://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/rules/children.html) (previously mentioned in this thread)
3. Starting Early (https://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/rules/chardet/startearly.html)

if you have any additional ideas, feel free to write another article.

 

[swordtart]

The Robot Handbook also has information on clones. These are effectively children as they mature in a much shorter time frame. The information on clone creches might be helpful as a hand rail to what an intensive education might generate vs a generalist (and possibly less stressful) schooling might produce.

Children's physical stats might well be lower than normal characters (except maybe dexterity). They might be less intelligent (indicating lack of confidence or impulsiveness rather than lack of natural "brain power"). Their SOC will probably be lower for the same reason (and because they are dependent on others). Their EDU should absolutely be lower. What skills they do have will probably not particularly unless your campaign has useful Recite script of My Little Pony - 2.

My daughter didn't want to play a 40 year old, so we have started her adventures as an 18 year old. However she is a child prodigy so she generated the character normally and has also had a term in Naval Academy in those 18 years. That has given her a wide swath of useful level 0 skills and 4 at level 1 (she aced her graduation) and so gets melee(blade)-1 as well. Her event was being discovered as a Psion and while her PSI score is low, she still has 4 talents she can also draw on. As a result she can probably handle herself.

The thing I have been unable to compensate for is that my daughter is 13 and she thinks like a 13 year old and doesn't spontaneously come up with ideas to solve problems even though her character has the skills. That is also probably the key thing about a child traveller character, they might have the skills, but they won't necessarily know what to use them for. If she is told what to do she can do it (though she will get frustrated that she is constantly being told what to do) That is what experience brings, and that is exactly what they don't have. Of course many of my adult colleagues are similarly clueless so that may just be a personality thing.

The things that make a child character are not the skills or stats, it is confidence and experience in using them.

 

[rinku]

Any skill in the background list is probably okay for an older child. Some may even be mandatory - Spacer kids are going to have Vacc Suit-0, kids from the city likely have Electronics-0 (remembering that MGT2e Electronics is operating stuff, not repairing it), kids from a farm likely have Animals-0. Athetics-0 or Art-0 don't need any justification. Carouse or Profession might need more scrutiny for a 12 year old.
You could extend the Terms backwards:

Term 0 (15-18yo) Same as rulebook 18yo that starts adventuring with no career.
Term -1 (11-14yo)
Term -2 (7-10yo)
Term -3 (3-6yo)
Term -4 (0-2yo)

Development in the two youngest brackets is rapid, but you could do worse than apply the term number to the rolled characteristics and number of background skills for Term -1 and Term -2. So a typical 8yo might be 555555, have an EDU mod of -1 and a base number of background skills of 2, further reduced to 1. That might work out for Term -3 too, but it's probably better to treat toddlers and babies as skill-less blobs.

 

[Condottiere]

Gymnasts peak early.

According to Dickens, you can learn pickpocketing quite young.

Electronics, likely as well.

Can fit into tight spaces, so mining, mechanics, chimney sweeps.

Gangs recruitment; even gig economy as hired assassins.

And, of course, child soldiers.

 

[rinku]

Agreed.

I didn't think a "like" was appropriate there...

 

[swordtart]

Boy scout training originally was to prepare boys to run an empire. They were supposed to be running the troop with the assistance of the leaders not simply be lead. This was based off the use of boys during the siege of Mafeking where there were trained to relieve the adult soldier to free them up for actual fighting.

The most important skills being taught were resourcefulness and responsibility and problem solving using the practical skills they were being taught.

In Baden Powell's memoirs he considered scouting within the military as an elite sort of soldiering using different skills to the average infantryman. Scouting for boys was just an extension of that idea to youth (to create an elite sort of youth). Hitler had similar ideas and of course the Hitler Youth were actually pressed into battle later in the war and were certainly technically capable, if not psychologically ready.

Car Wars also gave us the Boy Scout Commando Corps (which, though a joke, isn't that far off what the original manual talks about).

 

[Condottiere]

There is the naval tradition of midshipman.

And, you can always send your kids to a military school.

 

[Limpin Legin]

I like the system from Tales from thee Loop, regarding kid characters: a young character starts with high luck and then, with age, their luck decreases and their skill increases, until they reach adult.

 

[Anstett]

I like the system from Tales from thee Loop, regarding kid characters: a young character starts with high luck and then, with age, their luck decreases and their skill increases, until they reach adult.

That is a nice mechanic to port over.

I just introduced two fresh from University NPCs for one of the Cohorts to transport. I think I will experiment with that with them.

 

[Condottiere]

When you're a kid, there's usually someone looking out for you.