Newbie Reactions...

[AKAramis]

I was over at a friend's place, and his "little" brother (aged 16) decided to roll up character's with us as we stepped through it.

He chose the ironman route. The look of absolute shock when he rolled a 2 on survival for term 1, and I reached over, picked up the sheet, and crumpled it to a ball, then tossed it to the trash was just priceless. (He opted for non-ironman with the next character...)

My friend was just howling with laughter at this....

... and then pointed out, "It's part of the Traveller experience..."

I replied, "Yup, you haven't really played Traveller unless the GM has destroyed a PC you killed off in Character Generation."

Just had to share.

 

[zozotroll]

Outstanding. Nothing like teaching the new generation the old ways.

Just think of his shock if it had been the 5th term.

 

[-Daniel-]

There is something just so "Travellerish" about that experiance. I think every real Traveller player has lived through that moment when you realize "my character just died".

Daniel

 

[EDG]

Am I the only one thinking that someone totally new to Traveller reading the OP (as phrased, anyway) might think that it's a really nasty thing to do to someone? I'm sure that'd be a great introduction to the hobby, having some guy just toss your character sheet in the trash with no warning.

 

[AKAramis]

Am I the only one thinking that someone totally new to Traveller reading the OP (as phrased, anyway) might think that it's a really nasty thing to do to someone? I'm sure that'd be a great introduction to the hobby, having some guy just toss your character sheet in the trash with no warning.

To be fair, I warned him up front that Ironman meant a failed survival means dead character. The young man in question plays several MMORPG's, and some D&D3... and is a good sport as well.

Still, the look was priceless as he realized he'd just spent 5 minutes thinking about what to do with this character, to have him suddenly wind up being a non-character.

Then again, the starting UPP was 676224...

His next character was not ironman, and good thing... he failed survival in term 1 as well. And term 4. But he does have Jack 3... Matt just doesn't roll well at all. Matt did find it an enjoyable process.

 

[Gruffty the Hiver]

Am I the only one thinking that someone totally new to Traveller reading the OP (as phrased, anyway) might think that it's a really nasty thing to do to someone? I'm sure that'd be a great introduction to the hobby, having some guy just toss your character sheet in the trash with no warning.

I warned him up front that Ironman meant a failed survival means dead character.

As any good Ref would do.

 

[nezeray]

As long as everyone's clear on what the consequences of a Dead character are, then I think it's okay.

If you have a newbie who doesn't know "the old ways" and you spring it on them, then that would be mean.

I was on the receiving end of this scenario when I first played D&D. I had rolled up a character, got him to second level, then he died (3 hit points). The gm grabbed the character sheet and tore it to shreds. This was when we didn't have scanners or photo copiers, bought our official Orange character sheets and sometimes even reused them. I was totally peeved at lossing the sheet more than the character.

James / Nezeray

 

[-Daniel-]

Yes, I agree that to do it with no warning would be mean and dumb.

I remember once doing the CharGen process back in the Ct era and two new guys joined us. When I told them it could happen, the older players all started to tell their stories. Took 40 minutes to get the night back on track, but the one new guys just laughed when his character died. It was almost like a right of passage. :lol:

Daniel

 

[weasel_fierce]

One of my friends went through 8 characters in classic traveller, before she rolled one that made it.
3 of them died from rolling double 6 on the re-enlistment roll (thus being forced to re-enlist) and then dying in the following term