CHARACTER CREATION CHALLENGE 2023: Classic Traveller (6 of 6)
THE GAME: Traveller (1977)
Book 6 - Scouts (1983)
Book 6 - Scouts came out in 1983, relatively late in the Classic Traveller cycle. This book did for Scouts what Book 4 - Mercenary and Book 5 - High Guard did for Army, Marine, and Navy characters by opening up more detailed character creation to year-by-year lifepaths with much more granular results. Scouts were always an interesting career- in the basic character creation system Scouts were considered to have no ranks, so they missed out on the benefits thereof. They didn’t get a free skill for commission or promotion, and they couldn’t get the +1 on benefits tables or additional benefits for final rank. Three things mitigated this, an automatic level in Pilot just for signing up, TWO skills per Term for the duration of service, guaranteed, and the chance of being granted the use of a Scout ship upon retirement regardless of rank- since there were no ranks. Now, this ship technically still belonged to the Imperial Scout Service, and could be recalled at any time. But it was a ship, payment-free.
Book 6 does more than just expanded Scout character creation. It also presents an expanded system for generating star systems which is pretty cool, and one of the examples for a fully fleshed-out star system in the book is… Regina! Let’s generate ourselves a Scout.
Traveller Character Generation
Generate Characteristics
Roll to enter Career
Terms of Service
Another term? Go to 3.
Muster Out/Retire
Step 1: Generate Characteristics
Throw 2D6 six times in order: 58B384.
Hmmm. Well, our Scout is really hardy, fairly fast, but kind of weak. They are also well-educated but a bit slow on the uptake. They also come from a lower-class background. One might assume they joined the Scouts to get out of their potentially low-income situation. Fantasy Name Generator gives us a Basque name, Pitako Ugaran, and he walks on down to the Scout office to enlist.
Step 2: Career
Enlisting in the Scouts requires a 7+, with a potential bonus for high Intelligence and Strength. Pitako scores the bonus for neither. Pitako rolls a 4. Welp, so much for that. Pitako is drafted into the Merchants. Except I’m going to activate GM Fiat and pretend we made that roll. Because we’re trying to showcase Book 6. So we’re going to pretend Pitako got into the Scouts, and drive on.
Steps 3 and 4: Terms of Service
The first year of the first term in the Scout Service is Initial Training. The Scouts book has an option to attend College, and since Pitako has an Education of 8, we’ll give it a try. Pitako needs a 9+ to get into college, with a DM of +2 if Education is 9+, which it is not. Pitako rolls 9. Huh. Off to college he goes. He succeeds on a 7+, no modifier because his INT is not high enough by a long shot. 3. So, Pitako didn’t finish College. So, Pitako loses a year off his first term and goes to Initial Training. As a non-college graduate, he is assigned to one of the Offices in the Field- a 5, so Survey. As a Survey Scout, his Initial Training grants him Pilot-1, and a rank of IS-1, Recruit. So Scouts in the Scouts book actually do have a rank system. This counts as year 2 of his first term, so he rolls into Year 3.
Pitako rolls an 8 for Duty Assignment, Base duty. 3+ for Survival, a 5 is rolled with a +1 for high Endurance. Skill is picked up on 8+, 6. No skill. A slow year.
Year 4 is a Routine Assignment. Survival 3+, 6. And a Skill on 7+, 10. Pitako rolls on the Scout Life table, 4- Carousing.
So, wrapping up his first Term in the Scouts, Pitako has learned how to pilot a starship, and party. Pitako rolls 5, needing a 3+, and re-enlists.
Term 2, Year 1. A 10 indicates a Special Mission. This means one skill from the Special or War Mission column in addition to other skill chances. 3- Equestrian. Huh. How about that. Survival on 5+, 9. Skill on 6+, 8. Pitako chooses to roll on the Special Mission table again- 5, Streetwise.
Term 2 year 2. 11- Special Mission. A 3 results in another level of Equestrian. 7 means Survival, and 8 means another skill. This time on the Scout Life table. Gun Combat. Pitako chooses Auto Pistol.
Year 3 is a Routine mission. 4 means survival, 8 means a Skill is learned. Pitako rolls on the Survey table, and learns Vacc Suit.
Year 4 results in a 9, Mission. 4+ for Survival, 8. 6+ for Skill, 5. Darn. This completes Term 2, and Pitako attempts re-enlistment. 10. Easy. Note that Pitako is not even rolling for promotions- Field scouts do not roll for promotion, only Scouts that are part of the Bureaucracy. But those Scouts must be promoted at least once per Term, or the Scout service will boot them out due to an “Up or Out” policy. Interesting.
Term 3, Year 1 is another Mission. Survived by the skin of Pitako’s teeth, rolling 5 needing a 4, and learning a Skill. Pitako rolls on Survey, and gets Navigation since he is now in his third Term, and gets a +4 on the Skill table.
Year 2, Routine. Oooh… Snake Eyes! Pitako is KIA.
Step 5: Muster Out/Retire
So, today I realized something that’s been true for forty years or more- while Traveller is the game where you can die in Character Creation, and we always felt the expanded character creation rules in Books 4, 5, 6, and 7 created characters with an unfairly higher number of skills to those created with Book 1 or Citizens of the Imperium, there is a balance. That balance is the Survival rolls being made yearly instead of once per Term. Even when the rolls are low, such as with Pitako’s Scout service needing 3s and 4s, there are so many rolls the chances of getting that unlucky snake-eyes roll are so much higher. Note that none of the characters we rolled with the basic rules or Citizens of the Imperium died in character generation, but both the ones we created using the advanced rules died to an unlucky roll. So, if your Referee is requiring hardcore by-the-book rolls, staying in the service to reap those sweet skills and retirement benefits becomes so much more of an exercise in risk-vs-reward than standard Traveller characters. Request advanced character generation at your own risk.
