January 2022: Character Creation Challenge. Part Twenty Five

And here we are, the start of the final week. For today we have the last Traveller character for this challenge. Galaxy trotting journalist Wanda Orr.

I’m finally getting to grips with Traveller character creation. It just took a few practice characters but then I found I got into the rhythm of the system, what to roll and when.

Wanda here is pretty much a career journalist and holographer, finding stories wherever she is and bringing them to light.

Honestly probably the least inspired of the characters I’ve done for this game. The way the stats fell and the resulting best career options didn’t really spark anything for me. I guess thats a risk of the system, and the “ah I get it now” moment could be found in play, but in creation this one didn’t really flow for me.

All in all though I have to say after making four characters for Traveller I d like the chargen system, it’s different, surprising and a fun little game in its own right.

As for puns/references, well I’d run out of luck based names by this point (I never said I was imaginative) I looked for synonyms for Traveller, and settled on Wanda Orr as it sounds like Wanderer.

January 2022: Character Creation Challenge. Part Eighteen

And we’re back on track day wise. So today being a Tuesday that’s another Traveller character, Dr Chance Wood.

A bit up and down on the rolls for this one. In the end that makes a potentially interesting character though.

Rather than wait for the Psion career to occur naturally, I used the early even which indicated Psionic potential as an excuse to use the “Dude can I play a Psion?” “Yeah, ok” method I saw in a Seth Skorkosky video on traveller.

From that, with a career change in the middle I got a handle on who this character was. A Successful doctor who used his latent psychic gifts to aid in his work, but was rumbled at some point and had to go on the run. Later, after being trained to control his abilities, he then finds himself out looking for work and for a crew he can trust.

Ad the name, well, Chance Would be a fine thing. You’ll be glad to know I ran out of luck based puns here.

January 2022: Character Creation Challenge. Part Eleven

Day eleven is a Tuesday, therefore Traveller. Where my last character had kinda medium luck in generation here’s one where all the rolls went her way. Presenting Marchioness Ambassador Charlotte Ray-Winner, “Lottie” to her friends.”

Rolling the stats in order the one that stood out most was the SOC score, so I decided to try a diplomatic career. Entry to University went well, but graduation was not to be, I put this down to too much carousing. After that entry to the Noble – Diplomat career went really really well. Promoted almost every term and ridiculous mustering out benefits including TAS membership and a Yacht half paid for. And her SOC score now being 13, well that means a title is appropriate. (It would be nice if the book had more than just the masculine titles, but google exists)

Personality wise the high carouse and SOC from the start made me think of the flirty posh aunt stereotype, just “Iiiinnn Spaaaaaace” this time.. Perfectly happy with people she knows of all social standings calling her “Lottie.” Able to blag, bullshit or bribe her way out of most situations.

Oh and the name, originally she was called Lottie Ray to sound like lottery, which describes Traveller creation, but with those rolls her surname had to be double barrelled to Lottie Ray-Winner.

January 2022: Character Creation Challenge. Part Four

Day four is a Tuesday, which means Traveller (Mongoose 2nd ed). Here’s Roland Hope, a former Star Marine now freelance Vacc Suit specialist.

Traveller is a system I’m still getting used to, and as a result I’m still building confidence with the character creation method. I do like how different it is to most other games I own, if any of those have a lifepath it’s more for background and has minimal mechanical impact. Whereas here it’s everything, you get what you roll. This leads to me not being 100% that I did everything right during creation, but it kooks like a character to me, I’m sure this confidence will grow as this challenge progresses and I get used to it.

I do find it weird seeing so many zeroes on a sheet and that being a good thing.

As for Roland, well from his life events , I see him as a man who was stuck on a backwater homeworld and joined the military to get away. There he found he had a natural aptitude for strapping on a vacc suit and flinging himself at enemy ships to board them, and aptitude that carried him through four terms of service. Being promoted each time it was possible. Leaving when he started to feel age and the injury he got in Term 3 start to catch up, but before they could actually impact his performance. He now seeks employment as a freelance vacc suit operator. I also see the armour he got on mustering out as the service letting him keep his personalised suit as it was tailored for him and would be of no use to anyone else.

I maybe should have gone for a bit more variety in the career path, but this was a learning exercise and I guess I saw him as having a stable, if dangerous, career.

And the name? yeah It’s a pay on Roll and Hope, describing how I make Traveller characters. His homeworld Thedus’ name is taken from Alien.