Mase Cooking
339981 Cleric 1 term, age 22
Cr10,000
Language-1 (Sagamaal), Admin-0, Persuade-0, Advocate (Oratory-0), Streetwise-0, Diplomate-0
How you may meet Brother Mase
Now an itinerant street preacher, Brother Mase is often at street corners, an alms bucket at his feet, calling out verses in Old Sagaamal. Wearing the robes for Asatrul, he can cite, verse for verse, the two Eddas. While a weak looking man hunched over, his sonorous voice can fill the street for hours. He speaks Galanglic as well. He is a monk of the Forn Sidr, or the Old Way, a splinter group of the original Sword Worlders.
Initial rolls:
- Strength = 3
- Dexterity = 5
- Endurance = 10
- Intelligence = 9
- Education = 9
- Social = 6
My odd/even rolled a 1 for yet another male. One would think that 8 odd rolls in a row is not too likely, but as each roll is independent of previous rolls, it is just as likely (and my stats class was 35+ years ago so we'll just leave that roll alone).
Traveller does not have any real defined religions. While the Vargr have a few pseudo-religions I think, it is mostly just left to the group. Which I think is a good choice as the subject could get confrontational even though we're playing a game. Why, I remember in my Philosophy of Religions class people thought it was a religious class and had a hard time abstracting out personal beliefs. But I digress...Back to Traveller. The Diverse Roles from Gypsy Knights Games (which is now Independence Games) has several unique career paths. Playing a paladin in my current game I thought we'd try a clergy member in the far future! And seeing how close Joketre is to the Sworld Worlds, I decided to go with a Norse religion, so a little bit of research (very little!) got me the link above. I may try & expand it out as it applies to the far future in a future post if anyone would be interested.
Minor note: for a lot of my characters when I play them, I try to get a bit of information for the era it takes place in, if this is historical. I like having some background that exists in the assumed setting fit in. This is why Sir Zay has a family history from a few parts of the World of Greyhawk: I needed some nobility and found a map and picked a few domains. My Cthulu character was a suffragist, and I did a bit of reading into that; Anna the Gray Cat let me do a bit of history spelunking for the 1932 Olympics and 1930's slang. However, I've not read any of the Sword Worlder stuff - need to one of these days! So RPGs can be good learning tools as well.
I need an 8+ to get in, and with an INT of 9 I do not get a bonus. Going to fudge the roll as the 1st one I rolled a 4, and for some reason I have my heart set on a cleric of some sort. So giving me one more time, I roll exactly an 8. Would I allow this for a player when starting a game? Maybe - or perhaps let the player roll a new set of stats and try again with a new character. It would depend on how we both wanted to game.
Using these rules, I can again go through my childhood. I'll actually pick a planet from the Spinward Marches, one with a religious dictatorship. The TravellerMap has a search API and I found the ONLY religious dictatorship in the Spinward Marches: Joketre. I really like the TravellerMap! For background skills on a TL-7 planet with a thin atmosphere and 40% water covering, going to go with Drive-0 for those gas-guzzling cars and Admin-0, having to read real books.
Next I need to choose which sort of clergy I want to be: an evangelist, a minister or a monk. A monk of some interesting order would be fun! Plus I could use one of the other Kickstarter supplements to devise some sort of a religion perhaps.
For the ages of 4-8, I again seem to have a crappy childhood, rolling a 1,2 gives me a childhood disease robs me of 1d3 from one of my stats, and they are not great to begin with. Explains why I may look to a higher power for answers. Rolling a 1 means it is only 1 point, so as I have plenty of endurance, it gets moved to 9 (UPP: 359996). For the 2nd youth roll for 18-12 I get 5,5, getting into youth sports, I gain Athletic-0.
Hitting my teen years, 12-14 I roll 5,6 and I take up a part time job. I can gain another skill and choose Electronics-0. For 14-16, I roll crappy: 1,1. My parents are killed in an accident, and I lose 1d6 from social and 1d3 from education! Social hit: 5, Education hit: 4 or 2. UPP: 359971. A social pariah now. The monastery could well be the only place that takes me in!
Going back to my original idea, we now have multiple reasons for Mase Cooking to join a religious order as he really has no place to go, became a ward of the religious state.
Term 1 - Basic Monk Training
Survives on a roll of 9 (apparently monks can lead a dangerous life: there is a good chance of injury, needing an 8+ to survive unscathed!). First term he picks up the service skills so:
Admin-0, Language (Sagamaal-0), Persuade-0, Advocate (Oratory-0), Streetwise-0, Diplomat-0
Rolling a 10, Brother Mase moves to rank 2, picking up a language 1, giving him Sagamaal-1. I chose a Sword World language as they are the nearest non-Imperial political group. Their religion may well be a Norse-driven type of religion, a splinter group of the Sword Worlds perhaps. And it looks like beyond basic training, I still get to roll on a skills table. Sticking w/service skills to see if I can bump up any of my sad stats. Rolling a 5 gives me a +1 Education, so gaining back a bit of the lost. UPP: 359981. Looks like there is no re-enlistment roll, but rolling an 8 should allow me to stay regardless. Mase is now 22, and will take another term in the church.
Term 2 - Injury and leaving the monestary
Rolling a 5 for survival, a mishap occurs! Rolling a 9, the ship I am in crashes, and I have to roll twice on the injury table as well as being ousted from the clergy. Unless stated this does not add to his age. Rolling a 3 I lose 2 from either strength or dexterity. I choose dexterity which gives me a 3 dexterity. The 6 is a light injury, so no permanent damage.
Mustering out
Getting all of 1 roll on the mustering out table, the benefits do not offer any physical stat updates, so we'll leave him with a bit of credit: 6 gives him Cr10,000. Enough for a while, or if he is off-world, a ticket home.
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