Oh to be a fly on the wall,,,

[AndrewW]

One could always just use point buy if they prefer not to use random generation.

 

[crossmlk]

Life is random and we all wish we could control our fate, but sometime we (like our PCs) must accept the random nature of the universe!

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn"
"In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."

Your point on the random nature of the universe got me thinking about the ultimate randomness which is the Ctuhulhu mythos. Funny how the mind works.

I agree especially on your point that players min/maxing can suck the life right out of the game.

 

[zacharythefirst]

To each his own indeed. Everything you listed about MGT that you don't like is exactly WHY I like it. Of course, if I want a non-random chargen game, I'll play something else entirely. Like GURPS.

I feel the same way. I find the random chargen elements make for a simply amazing character creation session. Everyone has an AMAZING time finding out what happens term-by-term for the characters. And from a philosophy standpoint, I think there's something pretty cool about discovering a character that isn't 100% perhaps what he set out to be. A few more foibles, failings, and challenges present themselves that way.

Case in point: For our new campaign, we had a guy who really wanted to be in Naval Intel. Couldn't make the rolls to do it, ended up in command instead. Went a different way, and it really worked as a character concept, as he ended up being highly decorated due to events. Still, that failure to get into Intel really drove him....

 

[Greg Smith]

For example, in my settings and campaigns the charac-
ters need rather specific sets of skills to fit into their roles, and
Mongoose Traveller's random system does not generate these
skill combinations.

Isn't there a final stage of MT char gen that allows selection of additional skills to suit the setting, to be split up between the group?

 

[rust]

Isn't there a final stage of MT char gen that allows selection of additional skills to suit the setting, to be split up between the group?

Yes, but even with this the chance that an otherwise randomly
generated character gets all of the skills required by the setting
is rather small.
My usual solution for the problem is to let the players pick the
required skills from the (modified) career tables until the charac-
ter has all of the required skills, and then to add all other skills
randomly.

 

[apoc527]

Personally, I like the chargen system as laid out in Terra/Sol Games' Tinker, Spacer, Psion, Spy supplement. It's the best of both worlds and I like how it de-couples the second skill roll from advancement and links it to survival instead. Good stuff!

 

[GamingGlen]

I had an idea the other day about the randomness and a way to have some control over it.

When the die is rolled on a skill table the character has the option to take the skill rolled, or the one above or the one below. Of course, if he rolled a one or a six he'd only have two choices instead of three. As an incentive to take the one rolled, you get Cr1000 if you take the skill rolled. Call it having a short-time part-time job that might relate to the skill. But maybe Cr1000 is too much?

*goes to look for my TNE book... gone.. must have sold it*

 

[mattman]

That's a great idea.

This is getting off-topic but we've done something similar to that except that the ref handed out two points at the beginning of character generation to each player to spend in order to go up or down by one on the skill table. It was fun.

Trading benefit rolls for skill fudging like this sounds like fun too.

 

[crossmlk]

Back in the 80's I ran a 1st Edition C&S campaign. C&S could be a difficult system for character creation and time consuming. So I rolled up a bunch of different characters and handed them out to players. Now there was some negotiation to the extent of I want a fighter type or I want a thief type, but within those parameters you got what you got. I always used the line you were born not made.

Now I admit this wouldn't even come close to working if the players weren't willing. But I didn't have a bunch of improv actors as players. They were mainly power gamers who loved to make the most out of their characters. What I think they got from the campaign was a challenge. It was more of a challenge to create a kick-ass character from the random one I gave them than to min-max the character from the start.

As I said that's not going to work for every group, probably only a small fraction. But what I think it does do is illustrate that there are a lot of different ways to do character creation. You've got to find out what's right for your group. Don't be afraid to get them involved in the process. The game is yours and it doesn't matter what edition of Traveller you're using treat the character creation model they present as your starting point. Some groups will be happy with it as it is others will want different things like more control over skill selection. Find out how your group wants to create their characters not necessarily what the book tells you to do and you'll all have more fun.