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[Grakelin]

I was confused as to what Cthulhu meant, until I realized he meant listing all the skills you earned in one category as well as in the history of where you got it.

I was digging through some old character example sheets I did, trying to find the ones where I actually notated the skills bit by bit (I did not find any, so everybody should look to Cthulhu and Pseudonymous for guidelines as to their own sheets), and I realized that I had different ranking systems for different faction armies. Specifically, Imperial Colony soldiers and officers could grow to the rank of Paladin and the like. As I recall, the rank structure (for officers) went like this:

Commissioned Ranks - Army Career Path
Imperial Colonies       United Earth Parliament
Lieutenant               Lieutenant
Lancer                    Captain
Knight                     Major
Paladin                    Lt. Colonel
High Paladin             Colonel
Templar                  General

As you can see, the United Earth Parliament uses the ranks listed in the book. It's not overly important, I used it mostly for flavour and to help me differentiate between NPCs from different factions at a glance. You would be able to quickly tell between General Edward Smith of the UEP and Sir Edward Smith, Templar of the IC at a glance, for example.

I will list these ranks in full and post them on the (currently empty) Imperial Colonies article on the wiki this weekend. It's not terribly vital that you use them, unless you decide that you want to be from the IC or PLC.

[Pillow_Killer]

Still waiting on point buy details...

[Sir Pseudonymous]

I was planning to, but I was pressed for time when I posted that, so I just copied the record I'd kept in notepad++ and added the roll urls. I'll see if I can't clean it up...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Characteristics
STR 3
DEX 9
END 5-1 (4)
INT 7+2 (9)
EDU 9
SOC 6

Admin 0
Advocate 0
Astrogation 1
Athletics 0
Broker 0
Carouse 0
Drive 0
Engineer () 1
Gun Combat 0
Gunnery (Turrets) 1
Investigate 0
Mechanic 3
Recon 1
Streetwise 0
Trade 0
Vacc Suit 0
Zero-G 0

Homeworld: Asteroid
  Zero-G 0
Education:
  Advocate 0
  Carouse 0
  Trade 0


18
First Term: Law Enforcement (Customs)

  Basic Training:
    Investigate 0
    Streetwise 0
    Admin 0
    Gun Combat 0
    Athletics 0
    Drive 0

  Specialist roll:
    Recon 1

  Mishap:
    10 - A criminal goes free because of one of your mistakes.

22
Second term: Smuggler (Blockade Runner)

  Basic Training:
    Vacc Suit 0
 
  Specialist roll:
    Gunnery (Turrets) 1
 
  Mishap: None
 
  Event:
    31 - A rival smuggler tries to steal one of your markets.
      Drove off rival, +1 benefit roll.
     
  Promoted to Rank 1

26
Third Term: Smuggler (Blockade Runner)
 
  Specialist roll:
    Engineer () 1
 
  Mishap: None
 
  Event:
    46 - Life Event:
      7 - New Contact
   
  Promoted to Rank 2
    +1 Benefit roll
   
30
Fourth Term: Smuggler (Blockade Runner)

  Specialist Roll:
    Astrogation 1
   
  Mishap:
    5 - Your cargo turns out to be dangerous.
      Medic 1
      END -1
      Scarred
     
  Mustering Out: 5 Benefit rolls (2 terms +1 for highest rank reached +1 for Blockade Runner rank 2 +1 for event)
    210K Credits
    +2 INT

  No Aging penalty

34
Fifth Term: Merchant Marine
 
  Basic Training:
    Broker 0

  Specialist Roll:
    Mechanic +1

  Mishap: None
 
  Event:
    7 - Life Event:
      8 - Betrayal

  Promoted to rank 1
    Mechanic 1
 
  No Aging Penalty

38
Sixth Term: Merchant Marine

  Specialist Roll:
    Mechanic +1
 
  Mishap: None
 
  Event:
    6 - You make an unexpected connection outside your normal circles. Gain a Contact.
   
  Promoted to rank 2
 
  No Aging Penalty
 
  Mustering out benefits: 3 rolls (2 terms +1 for highest rank)
    Two Ship Shares
    A Blade

Spoiler: "Vague and tentative backstory" (click to show/hide)

Well, our unnamed hero, let's call him 'Skippy' for the time being, grew up on a floating rock in space. The idealistic little fucker decided to go into law enforcement, and aimed to get into customs so he could remain in space. Unfortunately, he was a mediocre cop, and fucked up an investigation, getting thrown out of the force on suspicion of corruption.

Disillusioned with the system, 'Skippy' became a smuggler himself, amassing a small fortune over twelve years, before a toxic cargo leaked, leaving him layed up in a hospital for a year or so, at which point someone else had taken over his route.

Seeking to continue working in space, he signed on with a merchant marine, during which time he was betrayed by an old contact from his smuggling days, but gained a connection in (some other profession, to be determined later). Over eight years he earned two ship shares and reached the rank of fourth officer, for which he was given a ceremonial blade on retirement.

If we don't get a proper pilot, I'll take Pilot (Spacecraft) 1 from the skill package, otherwise I suppose I'm the mechanic and gunner, with the ability to fill in as a doctor or trader in the absence of a properly trained one... :/

It also occurred to me that the -1 END suffered in the mishap would probably be fixable with medical care, for 5K credits, unless that applies exclusively to injury rolls.

[Grakelin]

Still waiting on point buy details...

Reading the thread will serve you will. The character sheets so far have been rolling.

[Pillow_Killer]

Meh, three characters got injuries on their survival rolls and got 1's, another even got an injury crisis and died, and fourth didnt make it into any careers, drafted, and got injury crisis. What the...
Meh, I'll try again tomorrow, if it wont improve, dice might be telling me something.

[Knave]

It looks like a rolled up a bit of a War Hero. Tried to replicate my successful test character and got some fair results. For a Marine he's not terribly combat oriented, but I think that works out. He'll be able to cover on a variety of rolls in a pinch.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 
Stats
str 7 (+0)            
dex 7 (+0) -1 in term 5         
end 10 (+1)    +1 in term 5         
int 5 (-1)         
edu 9 (+1) +1 in term 5         
soc 14 (+2) +8 in term 4, +4 in term 5      
                  
homeworld   vacuum               
background skills   vac suit 0   Medic 0   Computer 0         
                  
Term 1                  
career   marine      qualified         
spec   star marine               
basic training   athletics   battle dress   tactics   hvy weapons   gun combat    stealth
skill training   Zero G   Gun Combat Slug    (From rank 0 Marine)         
survival   no mishaps               
events   commanding officer takes interest +4 to next advance               
advance   commissioned   leadership   admin         
                  
                  
Term 2                  
career   marine               
spec   star marine               
skill training   Engineer 1            
survival   pass with flying colours               
events   trapped behind enemy lines +1 streetwise         
advance   Promoted to Rank 2 gain blade 1            
                                    
Term 3                  
career   marine               
spec   star marine               
skill training   Pilot               
survival   no mishaps               
events   heroism on the battlefield promoted to rank 3 gain tactics military (from rank 3)
advance   promoted rank 4 gain Medic 1         
                                 
Term 4                  
career   marine               
spec   star marine                                 
skill training   tactics military               
survival   no mishaps               
events   trapped behind enemy lines again? Deception +1               
advance   Promoted to Rank 5 gain +8 soc from rank 5 gain battle dress 1                  
aging   no effect               
                  
Term 5                  
career   marine               
spec   star marine               
skill training   Gunnery               
survival   no mishaps               
events   Lead a Successful Assault on an Enemy Fortress  +1 leadership         
advance   Promoted to Rank 6   gain Gunnery                            
aging   - 1 dex               
                  
muster out   5 full terms +3 for Rank 6 +1 to all rolls         
                  
3x cash rolls = 40,000 20,000 5,000 = 65,000 cr
5x benefits                  
7   +2 soc               
7   +2 soc               
6   Combat Armour               
3   +1edu               
6   +1end               
                  
skills                  
streetwise 1               
medic 1               
computer 0               
athletics 0               
battle dress 1               
tactics military 2               
heavy weapons 0               
gun combat (slug) 1               
stealth 0               
Zero G 1               
Leadership 2               
Admin    1               
Melee Blade   1               
Pilot 1               
vac suit 0               
Deception 1
Gunnery Turret 2               
Engineer 1               

Very high Social coming from a Social of 2. I'd imagine my character doesn't really know what to do with all his new found fame.

@Sir Pseudonymous - I noticed that you received several promotions, but I didn't see any extra skill rolls. Did you remember to take the bonus skill roll for successfully advancing? On pg 9 in the core rules...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If you make a successful Advancement roll, then you move to the
next rank and gain an extra roll on any of the Skills and Training
Tables for this career.

[Grakelin]

Meh, three characters got injuries on their survival rolls and got 1's, another even got an injury crisis and died, and fourth didnt make it into any careers, drafted, and got injury crisis. What the...
Meh, I'll try again tomorrow, if it wont improve, dice might be telling me something.

Post up your failed characters, and I will insert them as NPCs in the galaxy somewhere. Might add to flavour.

[Sir Pseudonymous]

@Sir Pseudonymous - I noticed that you received several promotions, but I didn't see any extra skill rolls. Did you remember to take the bonus skill roll for successfully advancing? On pg 9 in the core rules...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If you make a successful Advancement roll, then you move to the
next rank and gain an extra roll on any of the Skills and Training
Tables for this career.

Oh shit, I completely missed that. Of course, I've also managed to miss entire pages in the Warhammer 40K rulebook... I'll have to fix that...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In order:
Term 2: Mechanic 1 (>:| invalidating the much later promotion benefit of mechanic 1, leaving mechanic unchanged...)
Term 3: Gunnery (Turrets) +1 (For 2 in all)
Term 5: Social Science () 1 (does this even do anything?)
Term 6: Admin 1

Ok, so the completely random chargen process is somewhat fun, the completely random skills are kind of annoying, though. Ah well, at least he's a fuckwin mechanic and decent gunner, eh? And damned if he didn't take Intro To Anthropology! >:|

[Grakelin]

Social Sciences is a very important skill, assuming you intend to spend time observing the citizens of a planet and studying their culture.

[Cthulhu]

So any idea of when we might have a first session?

[Pillow_Killer]

They just keep dying or screwing up. RNG doesnt wants me to participate. Drop me out.

[Grakelin]

Maybe we can get a session in for either next weekend (26-28 or march) or the weekend after (April 2-4). What do you guys think?

[Sir Pseudonymous]

They just keep dying or screwing up. RNG doesnt wants me to participate. Drop me out.

I just have to ask here, are you sure you're rolling 2d6 and not 1d6 for survival rolls? Because there should be a very low chance of things fucking up badly, even more so on a regular basis. In most careers there's less than a 50% chance of a mishap, especially with a stat bonus to the roll, where I think it comes down to less than 30%, and even there there's not that big a chance for injury...


Edit: any time works for me, I suppose. What medium are we using? IRC? Vassal mod?

[Grakelin]

Whatever works best for you guys. We will take a vote.

[Sir Pseudonymous]

Well, there are a few Vassal mods for Traveller, though I haven't actually looked at any of them. The plus to that would be convenient die rolls, a graphical table to play on, and easy room control. The downside is vassal is written in java, and so is something of a resource hog, and has a mildly annoying chat window.

IRC would probably be more familiar, and would have a somewhat better chat (being its whole purpose...), but it lacks a graphical board and built in die rolls, though a bot to handle that would be easy enough to find... It would also mean having a channel and room, to play in, something vassal provides automatically.


My vote would probably be for vassal, because I like it in general, but then the mods for it might be irrelevant/shit, since I'm not seeing any connection for them in the server stats, and neither vassal nor traveller is that obscure... (though I must admit, the majority of traffic on vassal seems to be for V40K, which is ironic considering how hard it is to find if you don't know where to look) I have nothing against IRC though, it's quite nice even if I don't use it much anymore.