New to Traveler

R

RPGFTW

Mongoose
Hi I am new to playing traveler. i just have some questions about some stuff.

I do not understand the "term" system especially during character creation how does it work and what pager could I find it on?

also I don't get characteristics it seems easy enough role 2d6 and max is 15. what i don't get is with 2d6 you can only get the max of 12 so is there something else that I am missing that could get a character at 15 if he maxed out on 12 with the dice?

any help would be appreciated. it looks like a fun game.
 
I do not understand the "term" system especially during character creation how does it work and what pager could I find it on?
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What don't you understand about, it? There are many potential areas for confusion? But the principle is thatin traveller "characters" are generated with ëxperience" this is broken up into "terms"of 4 years in length, each term is spent in a specialisation of a career. Read through the Character Generation Checklist on Page 5. Also checkout the Character Creation Example on pages 38-40 (though there are some errors in the example shown) it should give you a feel for how character generation is mean to progress.

also I don't get characteristics it seems easy enough role 2d6 and max is 15. what i don't get is with 2d6 you can only get the max of 12 so is there something else that I am missing that could get a character at 15 if he maxed out on 12 with the dice?
Click to expand...

There are various additions to the score rolled that can take place during character generation, either through personal development or through events or benefits from each term served. If a character was lucky enough to roll 12 for Strength and during his terms of service he gained 4 additional +1 to Strength (through Personal Development for example) the character would still be limited to a maximum score of 15.

Hope that helps
 
dreamingbadger said:
What don't you understand about, it? There are many potential areas for confusion? But the principle is thatin traveller "characters" are generated with ëxperience" this is broken up into "terms"of 4 years in length, each term is spent in a specialisation of a career. Read through the Character Generation Checklist on Page 5. Also checkout the Character Creation Example on pages 38-40 (though there are some errors in the example shown) it should give you a feel for how character generation is mean to progress.
Click to expand...

So in character creation when ever the it gets to the point that the character has to role if he leaves the career that is considered a term.
 
RPGFTW said:
So in character creation when ever the it gets to the point that the character has to role if he leaves the career that is considered a term.
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No.

A term is always 4 years, and a character can only serve in one career during any one term.

A character can (and usually does) serve more than one term and may serve in multiple careers (but only one career a term).

The character creation process continues, adding terms, either until the charcater fails a survival roll, or the player choses to leave character generation...

Think of it this way it is not uncommon t ohave characters starting the game aged 34 having served four terms of previous experience
 
RPGFTW said:
Ok thanks for the help it is truly appreciated now it is just a mater of getting people to play.
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you are welcome :) the best way toget people to play is to get them to roll up a character ... they tend to be quite hooked after that... heck even do a session just for character generation ... if you do it right the players feel VERY engaged and attached to their PC's and it is a great session.

Indeed some fun solo play can be had just with character generation alone :) just for the story telling
 
dreamingbadger said:
you are welcome :) the best way toget people to play is to get them to roll up a character ... they tend to be quite hooked after that... heck even do a session just for character generation ... if you do it right the players feel VERY engaged and attached to their PC's and it is a great session.

Indeed some fun solo play can be had just with character generation alone :) just for the story telling
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I can vouch for that idea. I'm also a new Traveller gm and my game is starting up this weekend. My players were solidly hooked after a night of character generation. I can only hope that I meet their expectations now :)
 
A little bit of "Traveller: The Rules System" history.

The original game generated stats just as y'all have discussed here, but each attribute was limited to one character. So base 16, aka Hexadecimal, was used for the numbering system. 0 to 9 are self explanatory. For values above that, 'A' represented a 10, 'B' represented an 11, etc. up to 'F' representing 15.

Using that system the max a stat can be is 15. We don't use hexadecimal to represent stats anymore (not for characters anyway) but the maximum of 15 was kept.
 
Or if you want to instead of character death (failed survival roll or just to be different) you can have a character receive an injury that cuts short his career (professionally) and they only get 1 skill out of the four year term and only age 2 years (ie the injury happened during the middle of the term.)

This is an old 'trick' suggestion from CT era game system.

Dave Chase
 
Well here is where you can come up with your own "house rules" like the ones I have used for over 25+ yrs as a Traveller GM. When rolling up a character, "if someone fails the Survival roll" I don't kill them but instead they make all rolls as normal and just that they had a very BAD ACCIDENT where they were discharged from their service and now have some replacement part. Oh it couple be a artificial arm, leg, eye, ear, lungs or etc. I work it out wit the player, this can have positives but there is always a GM Gotcha too<VBG>!!! Then if they want to join some other service they get a -2 modifier to enroll. I allow them to try two different new careers, if they fail both they start game play from there. I always HATED killing off freshly rolled players, and perfer my roleplaying new possibility with a replacement part<VBG>!!!

Penn
 
Death for failing the survival roll in Classic Traveller was the default, with an optional rule for mustering out with an injury. in the Mongoose version this was flipped around, you roll on the mishap table if you fail the survival roll, with an optional Iron Man rule resulting in death instead.
 
AndrewW said:
Death for failing the survival roll in Classic Traveller was the default, with an optional rule for mustering out with an injury. in the Mongoose version this was flipped around, you roll on the mishap table if you fail the survival roll, with an optional Iron Man rule resulting in death instead.
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Have to say I prefer MgT version. Blank death just seems so arbitary...And why would nobles or ENTERTAINERS be quaranteed death if they fail survival roll? How can writer have such deadly life anyway?

Mishap tables allow further fine tuning mishaps for appropriate ones for the career in question. Soldier type ones have injuries and even death, political ones have more of political standings go down and attract enemies etc and so on.
 
tneva82 said:
ENTERTAINERS be guaranteed death if they fail survival roll? How can writer have such deadly life anyway?
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ask salman rushdie... and there hae been a number of people form pop culture who have died a sudden and apprently unwarranted death...

but, I agree I prefer the MGT system, its difficult to get attached to a character if you know he or she or it is going to die in generation!
 
i love the MGT version, it was highly frustrating if after hours of detailed rolls your would end up killing the character off and have to start all over again!
 
AndrewW said:
Well, both systems allow either with an optional rule, the default just got switched.
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Thanks for clarifying that for me. One of these days soon, I am going to have to come up with enough spare cash to but the MGT products. :D

Dave Chase
 
The Chef said:
i love the MGT version, it was highly frustrating if after hours of detailed rolls your would end up killing the character off and have to start all over again!
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Oh, you can still die. Even without the default. Especially if you are a Scout, the option of being Eaten by a Grue is a definitive result in a couple of the event tables in the Scout Book.....

Besides as for the Hardcore Method, I still have fond memories, of the Wall of Dead Characters! back in the day. :D

~Rex, The Black Hand, Mongoose Infantry
 
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