Traveller: Character Challange 2023: 1/31

Sunday, January 01, 2023

Character Challange 2023: 1/31

As in the last 2 years, I'll try & do this again. With the always caution that I'll probably do a few on the weekends to stock up as sadly work had gotten pretty intense lately (not a fan of deadlines for doing things we've never done before. Hard to predict things like that). Regardless, this year's twist I am adding will be to use a mini I have. While I'd love to do a double challenge, paint a mini and come up with a character for it, seeing as my average minis painted per year is not great, I don't see that as viable. So you will get some painted minis, some partially painted minis, and some that have no paint at all. Why? Because oddly enough Fantasy Series 1 actually showed up! More boxes of plastic shaming me! It would have helped has I managed to play face to face games, but the last three years have shredded that. Most of my previous group are also older and several have some serious health issues, and we've moved apart, so face to face is a real challenge. Even my sole Sunday player & I have not managed to meet up in over a month. Between our jobs and he and his family getting sick, we just have not managed to link up.

Anyway, we'll at least start with Traveller. I bought these minis a long time ago and have yet to actually do anything with them. I figured I would have an entire starport full of guards and civilians. Something to place on all those nice 0-Hr posters I have.

Rolling up the stats, I have 874BC8, and rolling get an odd for a male. Going with human, a middling physical specimen who apparently spends way too much time reading, researching or whatever. With those very high intelligence and education stats, going with a scientist. Now, which scientist career to use? Opening up Supplement 4 for the Classic Scientist career. With a +3 to get in, as long as I don't roll snake eyes, our scientist is in! He also gets an automatic skill of Computer-1.

Term 1: Easy enough to survive: as with getting in, as long as I don't roll snake eyes, he lives. Also, going with the rule that, as the scientist career has no ranks and promotions, 2 skills per term. I'll just go straight down the tables: personal he picks up Carousing 1, and service blade combat, choosing Dagger-1. Note that tis supplement indicates that all characters get a half-level skill in all the weapons, meaning they can use them with no penalty. I do prefer the 0-level skill vs a half. But they mean the same thing. Interesting combination of skills: our scientist has apparently been out partying in dangerous places, showing a lack of caution or perhaps he has friends in low places.

Term 2: easily survives again, and the advanced tables gives him Gravatics-1 and +1 intelligence, for a UPP of 874CC8. The man spent these 4 years honing his background in gravity manipulation. With that C education, he is finishing off his PhD and had little time to hit the bars of his youth.

Yet I failed his re-enlistment roll - snake-eyes! He has graduated with his doctorate and is now out and about in the real world.

I used this random name generator and learned a bit as well! As he has an Urdu name, using Google translate gravity in Urdu is saqal. Hence SaqalTech.

Dr. Jawad Bucha

874CC8 Scientist, 2 terms, age 26

Computer-1, Gravatics-1, Dagger-1, Carousing-1

Dr. Jawad Bucha graduated college at the age of 18 and finished a PhD after 8 years. His first few years, out of his family house, he tended to party a bit too much as he reveled in his freedom from all the schooling he had been in previously. Working for a scientific group, SaqalTech, he finished his doctoral thesis on gravitational muons, and then decided he had enjoyed the 1st few years a lot more than the last, he left SaqalTech with Cr20000 in savings, and a body pistol he can at least shoot though with little accuracy.