Traveller: Chararcter Challenge 17 & 18

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Chararcter Challenge 17 & 18

Friday got busy and I never got to doing a character. Tody will have to be a double character challenge. And Sunday (tomorrow) perhaps as well as Mondays are always busy as well. Spelunking through some of the physical games I have and never played, I found Eric Bloat's Destination: Uncharted. I bought this when I was going to start the Cowboys & Dino game, thinking it may be a way to play that. Then I was pointed to the Apex game and it already had dinosaurs. I went with that.

I've not really looked though this game. It has the same 6 stats as most RPGs. and throws in Luck like many other games do as well. It abstracts distances like Traveller range bands, Close, Nearby, Faraway and Distant. The game is intentionally theater of the mind, and the rules promote that sort of play.

There are 5 classes: Archeologist (well-versed in history), Mercenary (often former military), Occultist (student of the Dark Arts), Street Rat (quick-witted and agile on your feet) and Treasure Hunter (thrill seeker who loves seeking treasure).

There is a really cool mechanism I like and may have to try: you roll both a d20 & a d6 when needed. The d6 can add a hindrance on a 1, and a benefit on a 6. 2-4 are ignored. This allows for a more theatrical approach I think in running a game. This gives you 3 success types (success with a benefit, success, and success with a hindrance). Same for failure. A success could be something like this for the 3 cases: with a benefit, your leap across the chasm was successful but your landing cleared the dirt, and you found the symbol you have been looking for. Plain success is you succeeded the jump and nothing else. Success with a hindrance is you made the jump, but you dropped your binoculars. Failure the same way: you failed the jump, but managed to catch a ledge below, so could still clamor up. Failure means make a saving throw! And failure with a hindrance is you failed, and your pack managed to fall to the chasm below. Still make your saving throw! But the rules stress that this should be collaborative and everyone can make suggestions, and I think with the right group it could be a lot of fun.

The suggested rolls for d20 are 10 = easy, 15 = medium, 20 = difficult and near impossible = 25. You add your appropriate stat, and like most d20 games, 20 = always a success, 1 is always a failure.

Character generation is straight-forward, though a bit different. The 6 stats are generated by rolling 6d6, then picking which roll to apply to which stat based on 6 => +3, 5 => +2 and so on to 2 => -1 and 1 => -2. Not sure what that bell curve looks like, but it is different.

For my two characters, going with a brother and sister: an archeologist and the mercenary. The woman is the archeologist and the brother the mercenary trying to keep her safe as she digs in ancient ruins in places she probably should not be in.

Rolling 5,5,5,4,3,1 and think this is the mercenary as he has mostly positive stats. Not too bright though:

Strength 2 => 3
Intelligence -2 => -3
Wisdom 0
Constitution 2
Dexterity 2
Charisma 1

Mercenaries get a +4 HP at 1st level, 1d8 Hit Die per level, have 4 armor points (heavy armor), and attribute bonus of +1 strength and -1 intelligence. He is NOT going to be the brains in this group. He gets advantage for explosives, once per session he can lose a tail or pursuer on foot or driving, and once per session can take an enemy on one on one with advantage for that fight. He also uses 1d8 for attacks.

I rolled a few 6s on the other roll, and thinking I was hasty. But I'll give the sister the brains and charisma.

Strength -2
Intelligence 3
Wisdom 3 => 4
Constitution 0
Dexterity 2 => 1
Charisma 3

As an archeologist, she gets +1 hit point at level 1, 1d6 hit dice, wears light armor that can absorb 2 points of damage, and has a 1d4 for attack damage. Also, a boost in wisdom but a minus in dexterity. She gets advantage when attempting to decipher an ancient language or identify antiquities, or even a knowledge check by saying "I've studied that!". She also is lucky and once per session avoid something that would have caused significant damage. Similar to the luck usage. And once per session, she can reach into her bag and pull out the right tool for the job.

You know, in reading this, I can see this as a fun game. I may have to run a quick game this year using these rules after all, I think.

Steven and Stepanie Serendipity

Growing up in Utah, Stephanie was always digging around for arrow heads and artifacts. Steven rough-housed a lot and got into several fights, often protecting his geeky older sister. While Stefanie went to college and ended up with a doctorate in history, Steven joined the Navy Seals and had a successful career, a lot of which he never talks about.

Their parents died and left them enough so that Stefanie decided to get into independent archaeology, funding her own trips. After almost getting killed in the desert in Kuwait, Steven decided to protect her and together they have been traipsing the world. While Stefanie is oblivious to dangers around them and has a singular focus on finding the artifacts to be placed in the appropriate museum, Steven is always alert but is easily swayed by others. They have 2 partners in this venture. Who will be figured out tomorrow!