For my Day 3 entry into the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge I am using the latest version of a classic science fiction roleplaying game, Traveller. This is the edition that was recently released by Mongoose Publishing (at least the copyright on my Starter Set is 2017). If you wanted a good comparison, this version of Traveller is like Wizards of the Coast releasing Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Yes there are older versions, such as the Classic Traveller, different editions like Traveller20 and retro clones, such as Cepheus Deluxe. All of which I’ve had the pleasure of using in past character creation challenges. But this version is the currently supported by Mongoose. To my knowledge, there is no special add-on to the name, like Traveller The New Era, or MegaTraveller, just Traveller.
I had picked up a Humble Bundle sale which contained the Traveller Starter Set, a book called the High Guard, a Central Supply Catalogue, a Companion, a Referee’s Screen and a few other items. As it turns out, the Starter Set is different than the Core Rulebook 2022 Update that Mongoose has released, but it should fill my needs for character creation.
So the Starter Set has three books, 1- Characters & Combat (image seen above), 2- Spacecraft & Worlds and 3- The Fall of Tinath (a starting adventure). There are also several character cards and sector maps provided. I’m not finding an ISBN, but that may have been on the actual box itself (which I don’t have). The only book that I’ll be looking at for this entry is the Characters & Combat. The Traveller Creation is detailed in the first chapter on page 7. It also talks about creating your character at the same time as your fellow players for group balance and cohesion. The character sheet is two pages long. Oh, there’s a character creation flow chart on page 10, I’ll run with that. I’m also thinking I need to decide what type of character I’m going to make before getting to deep into the process. I don’t think I’ve made a scientist character yet in any of my Traveller/clone entries. His name is Denton Wilkinson and he’s a member of the science team for some explorers. Let’s go with that.
As discussed in other systems based off of Classic Traveller, a character has six Characteristics. The physical characteristics of Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX) and Endurance (END) and the mental characteristics of Intellect (INT), Education (EDU) and Social Standing (SOC). These are randomly rolled with two six-siders (2D is how they list it in the book) and adding the results together. I get to assign the roll results to the characteristics. I’ve written these down on my notes.
OK, now the flowchart takes me to Background Skills, choose EDU DM+3 for the total number of background stills that you get before starting your career. But I’m confused, the example text says it would be 0 to 6 depending upon the EDU score. But the description for a Dice Modifier (DM) on page 5 says the number after the DM is added or subtracted to the roll. A DM of plus three added to the Characteristic Score of 12 would be 15 if I’m reading this correctly. Not finding anything else that would clarify this for me, I took a picture of the Background Skills description and sent it to a Facebook page for Traveller fans. This was the closest I got to asking a Referee. The group members explained that I was reading it wrong, the EDU DM is a +2 because of the score of 12. Add that to the +3 for the background skills and he starts with five total. OK, that makes sense now. Which I had this access with some of my other games. On with the show, five starting Background Skills with the level 0. I wrote them down on my notes.
Pre-education check is the next step. Denton is smart so he should be able to get into University. I also get a DM bonus for having a SOC of 9. I rolled an 8 which beats the target score of 7, so he’s in. I choose some additional skills (written down on my notes) and I get to increase my EDU by 1. Now did I graduate? Another roll results in an 8 that beats the target number (but I did not roll high enough to graduate with honors). I wrote down the benefits and skills that were earned. Rolling on the event during the pre-career education resulted in a Life Event roll (finds another chart) and that came up with Birth of Death (not Cake or Death? Oh, OK.) Denton’s father passed away while he was in college. As someone who had inspired him, he elected to go into field research like is father instead of going for some cushy corporate research position.
Now the flow chart says I start a new term. Specifically the first term that the character has in his career and it needs to be picked. Denton meets the minimum requirements for a Scholar-Field Researcher, so I don’t need to roll anything there, but he still needs to go through Basic Training. I write down these skills at level 0. Then the flow chart says I roll for survival (made it) and then roll for event, I rolled a 6 which gives me an advanced training if I rolled above a certain EDU rating, which I did. Woot, one skill goes up by 1 point. Next I roll to see if I advance and he did not. So I guess I’m still a Scholar level 1 (shrugs). OK, I add four more years to the character’s life and come back for the second term. Since this is not the first, there is no basic training, but I’m sticking with the career Denton has now. I’m going to pick from the Personal Development table and roll 1D, his Dex goes up by one. As with the initial career, I roll for survival (passed) and advancement (still no, hmmm… I guess he didn’t include the cover to his TPS reports). Now we loop around with four more years added and try again, this time I’m going for one of the Field Researcher skills, which earned me a Survival 0. Survival roll passed and advancement roll finally passed so he must have sucked up to the right boss. Onto the last term and we are picking from Advanced Education (earned Art 0) and Denton survived and advanced. He’s mustering out and if I’m reading this correctly gets two benefit rolls. They are some money, INT+1 and more money and a lab ship with 25% of the mortgage paid off on it. But now I have to roll on the outdated ships table in Book 2 (scrambles to pull that up). Wow, it’s 30-40 years old and has a ton of problems with it. I guess it’s held by duct tape and wires.
The last step on this flow chart is picking Skills Packages (which should be done with other players). I picked the Explorer Skills package and wrote down the skills. But now the flow chart is done and other than getting a ship, I have no equipment. (goes searching through book) I was really hoping that there would have been an Explorer’s pack or some sort of pre-generated go-to list of equipment to get done quickly, so I wrote a few things down that I thought my Field Researcher had and called it a day as it’s really late. Ugh, moving everything over from my notes to the character sheet and I see that the other characteristics haven’t been filled in yet (I don’t remember seeing them on any flow charts or lists). I’m ready for bed so I won’t bug the Facebook people tonight. I had downloaded the character sheet so they might be extras. Especially when Morale didn’t pull up on a quick search of the Character’s book PDF. I’m tired and done. Here is the character sheet, I only scanned one page since didn’t get any information for the second.
Afterthoughts:
I liked how they had two pages to explain everything that was on the character sheet (and what page it could be found on). But I had a different character sheet so it was slightly different.
I can see where there has been some improvement from the Classic Traveller and OSR clones (while there were still a few sections where I needed to ask questions). I could see myself playing this if the opportunity arises. I don’t know if I could home brew for it until after I’ve had a chance to play, and I don’t know how likely that is. But who knows. I think this would be my flavor of Traveller if I were to play a game.
Additional Notes:
More real life events have caused delays and it’s been bugging me. Nothing serious like a health wise or computer issue, but so far 2025 has decided to be a drag. I’m still playing catch up and I’m feeling like I’ve been letting others down as the person who came up with this challenge. So these additional notes may not be very big until I’m all caught up. I’ve already moved a few games around to see if I can get a few easy builds done.
Coming Up Next:
Castles and Crusades Reforged
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