On 12/29/2017 6:46 PM, Niels Kobschaetzki wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My group and I are nearly through our first small Traveller-campaign
> (the Tinath-campaign from the starter box). Most of my players have a
> problem that their characteristics and their skills do not fit well
> together. The ex-scout courier is a better shot than the ex-space marine
> because the scout has a better dex-characteristic than the space marine
> for example. With other games they created a character and they have an
> idea in mind what the characters thing is and then he is good in his
> thing.
> Is there any character generation in Traveller (we play 2nd Edition
> Mongoose) that allows this? Or at least some kind of modification that
> bring characteristics and skills of some chosen profession closer
> together? Maybe a character generation that isn't that randomized?
>
> Thanks
>
> Niels
>
> P.s.: I have no problem with the lifepath generation and find it great.
> But several of my players have a real problem with it. The cop was
> pretty useless most of the time and not having a Vacc Suit skill gave
> him certain severe disadvantages. The space marine hates it that pretty
> much everybody is better in shooting than him, even though he has
> several weapon skills and even higher skills than others but his Dex -1
> reduces a skill of 2 more or less to 1. And the scout has Dex +1 or +2
> and one weapon skill on 1 and is therefore a pretty good shot already
> etc.

	I remember reading, lo these many years ago, a similar complaint in the Dragon
magazine. In this case it was a friend of the author who wanted to play Han
Solo, able to pilot a ship through the asteroid field.

	The article went on to describe the solution: Give each player a pool of points
(IIRC 30 or 50) to act as DMs on the rolls they choose during character
generation. Dex rolled too low, give it a nudge up a few points. Miss the
survival roll by one, add two to the roll to make it ok. Want a specific skill,
for 3 points you can select it.

	There were some specific rules, like you could buy psionics + training for most
of the points up front. And a few others that I'm forgetting. This requires a
strong trust with your players, both with you as Referee and each other. This
gives you the lifepath event generation, but with a little player control over
the events.

--
         Thomas Jones-Low
Work:	xxxxxx@softstart.com
Home:   xxxxxx@gmail.com