Traveller Reign

[subplotkudzu]

I got the strange mid worm of trying to map the Reign "One Roll Character Generator" onto the classic Traveller lifepath system. I'm not sure why, other than a vague idea of pitching a free trader game next time 'round, but nonetheless it's there and must be dealt with. 

For those not familiar with the One Role Character Generator, you roll 11d10 and, as with all One Roll Engine stuff, look for matches. Each number has a general feel to it (in Reign 1s indicate skills as a beggar, 2s are thieving, 3 is performing, 4 is merchant, 5 is sailor, 6 is soldier and so on) and 'wider' matches (three ones, or 1x3, is wider than two ones, or 1x2) indicating higher levels of ability in the area. Any unmatched dice are compared to a set of 'waste die' tables that give one off life events (such as a sudden windfall, being robbed, being the center of a mix up identity 'prince and the pauper' event ans so on). Once you know the outcome of all the dice you lay the events out in the order you like ( (so 2x4, 4x5, 2x6, the Robbed! and Unexpected Windfall events might be "I spent several years as a struggling merchant, but when I was robbed blind I was forced to become a marine in the merchant service. Much to my surprise I was picked out by the captain to inherit his ship and have forged a successful career as a ship's captain" OR "when the astrologer told the captain of the HMS Matilda to give his ship to the first person to cross the threshold I was suddenly elevated to command of a warship. Much good it did me as I was roundly mocked by my crew and forced to turn into a sword-wielding pirate just to impress them, but impress them I did...until the day when the mutinied and left me for dead. Still, I was able to escape back to port, where I was able to get a job as a petty merchant, waiting for my opportunity for vengeance." etc.) 

In any event, I'm looking for advice from Classic Traveller players. My read of the classic lifepath is that it determined Longevity in the Service, Commissions and Promotions in the Service, Survival of Fatal Events and Mustering Out benefits. The Psionics rules were, either by accident or design, a mechanism to balance out PCs who had rolled poorly and mustered out too early (the cost of getting tested for Psionic strength is within reach of most characters even after a 4 year term, must be done after mustering out and diminishes with age) and so to my eye should be included. The Services are Navy, Marine, Army, Scout, Merchant and Other (which is described as a sort of general neer do well profession). 

Now, my first instinct was to let the player pick any one set and apply that to Longevity in the Service, selecting the service table of their choice (not doing so would mean being in the Other category). Other sets would determine
Survival (the wider the set the more combat/life or death experiences you've seen, increasing you coolness under fire, leadership skills and intimidation, with a 1x5 meaning you 'died on the table' but were revived by advanced medicine),
Promotions (decoupling this from actual experience means you can get Mal Reynolds style sergeants who are insanely skilled with no width in commissions vs. minor gentry who purchased their Captaincy with a 2x5 roll),
Mustering Out (with 3x4 or 3x5 meaning the Traveller holy grail of your own ship or major status bonuses) 
Psionics (with a selection of options based on width, with teleportation limited to a 4x5 roll)
and the remaining 6 numbers for things like Extra Combat Training, Extra Technical Skill, Extra Social Skills, and so on.
This would keep the Classic Traveller design of the character being in just a single service, and therefore feels more "Traveller"-y to me. It does, however, mean that you can't mix and match your lifepath order, since everything is occurring during your Longevity in the Service or shortly thereafter. 

The other option is to have each service merit its own number? There's room for the 5 classic services (maybe removing Marines, making them people with both Navy and Army training?) plus Survival, Promotion, Mustering out, Psionics and one or two other areas (Science, which is something sorely lacking in the original rules). This does mean the possibility of someone rolling sets in Promotion and Mustering out without having any time in a Service (though waste dice options could account for that somewhat), but it also means that the character can get a more varied lifepath - several years in the Navy, followed by a short tour in the scout service, with a near death experience, etc.

Bear in mind that I'd be building the tables from scratch, and the odds that I'd actually run this in ORE are pretty slim. 

Alas, I never played Traveller, so I'm curious about other people's thoughts on this. 

 

Comments

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

OK, maybe I do have to do this with d6 rather than d10 just to keep consistency. Of course, a 10d6 roll guarantees at least 4 matches, so we can get some automatic width going.

I'm not keen on the idea of having a complete set of options (i.e. a whole new table with new options for each number) for each possible career. I'll chew on it, but it strikes me as a lot of work.

Remember that each die will give a set amount of something (ORE, having a point system to graft this on to, makes this easier), so promotions will still give skills (or cash upon mustering out), just skills of a different sort then the service skills. And Survival dice also give skills or stat increases of some sort (though I do like the idea of a width of 1x5 means that the PC is just dead, just to keep the old school feel).

I'd rather see decorations be one of the events from loose dice rather than their own number. Could Fours indicate the Advanced Education skills?

Mustering out: I think I see your desired direction on the need for separate tables, as base don our off line conversations a big part service selection was to try and score the mustering out benes of that service.

Loose dice: How big a deal was starting loose currency as compared to the other mustering out benes? I'm not keen on making cash too big a deal as a character creation item as it has much less relevance after the 2nd or 3rd session.

I suppose Psionic aptitude will either have to be rolled later or is perhaps a loose die outcome (which does you no good at the start of play, but does let the player decide whether to pursue the 'vast cosmic power, everyone wants to kill me' route.

I think I'd also add major battles/events, contacts and weapons (the classic sword/gun roll) to the loose dice.