Iron Man rules

[chiron0224]

I always loved the Iron Man character creation rules that harken back to the good old days of CT. Lethal character creation has always been something unique to Traveller and while I completely get that it's not the thing these days, my group actually plays that way. I think there should be a little rules sidebar with a quick blurb about Iron Man as an optional rule. It's a Traveller tradition and I think it should always be in the core rulebook, even if my little band of misfits are the only players still doing it.

 

[Garran]

Sure, it's conceptually interesting, but what benefit does it actually give on a practical level? The only thing I can see it doing is resulting in a lot of wasted time as a player has to start over (and over and over) again.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Sure, it's conceptually interesting, but what benefit does it actually give on a practical level? The only thing I can see it doing is resulting in a lot of wasted time as a player has to start over (and over and over) again.

Those characters get used as NPCs. So not a waste of time.

 

[chiron0224]

Exactly. Also in my group we treat character creation as a game in itself and get a kick out of marking tombstones at the top of our character sheets to remember the fallen. Also we use it to add some tension back into character creation where it's treated as a press your luck system. Do I do another term and risk losing this guy or do I go ahead and play now? Helps to curb some players' tendency to try and roll geriatric bad asses. Besides, what I'm suggesting is just a little blurb like this.


*************************************************
Note: In earlier editions of Traveller a failed survival roll actually
meant that the character was dead. For a more "classic" version
of character creation you could implement this "Iron Man" rule.
*************************************************

Or

***************************************************
Optional Rule: Iron Man Character Creation
In earlier editions of Traveller a failed survival roll actually meant
that the character was dead. With the Iron Man rule all survival
target numbers are reduced by 1 but a failure is lethal and you have
to start over with a new character
***************************************************


As I stated in my original post, I understand why Mongoose revised the whole "dying during chargen" thing but I feel like a little blurb like the ones above would be a nice nod to tradition.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Lots of things I wish were in the new core rules but my impression is that options like this are being left out of the core and put into a separate publication.

 

[chiron0224]

Right. In which case I really hope to see the Iron Man variant in that separate publication.