Traveller

Day 29 - CT Hunter

Day 30 - T5 Scout

Day 31 - T5 Marine

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Character 31 of 31: T5 Marine

Shera Tinnent

6B5C6A Marine Reserve 1st Lieutenant, 5 terms, age 38, Disability Mustered

2 Purple Hearts, 4 Exemplary Service Medals

Leader-5, Fighter-2 (Slug Thrower-1, Beam-1, Blade-1, Battle Dress-2, Unarmed Combat-2), Driver (Grav-2), Survival-2, Pilot (Small Craft-2), Tactics-1, Explosives-1, Author-1.

Cr90,000, hand gun

Growing up on the desert planet of Yori, Shera often took long weekends out in the desert, blogging about her experiences. At 18, she joined the Imperial Marines, having seen them guarding the Ancient site. The news sometimes posted stories on Imperial Research Station Beta, which also had Marine squads out and about. She was impressed by those battle-dressed enforcers guarding both sites. And she just thought the uniforms were cool.

Her first term of service gave her plenty of combat. Wounded a bit, she received both a Purple Heart and a Medal for Exemplary Service for leading her small squad when the sergeant was wounded. Her next tour of duty saw yet more combat, yet she survived unscathed, as well as passing her commission testing as her leadership qualities expanded along with her social network. Her third term she spent three years in school, though it took the first year for her to get into the groove of learning versus fighting. She picked up her coveted Battledress as well as learning to pilot the grav APCs the Marines use to haul equipment and soldiers. She was got promoted to 1st Lieutenant. Her fourth term saw a return to school but more combat; schooling taught her to pilot the Marine dropships and shuttles she saw back on her days on Yori in the newscasts, and combat honed her leadership skills. Her 5th and final term she was severely wounded, and was forced to muster out. There was some rehab, but not enough to get her back to her full strength.

Through the years she became a feared fighter and a respected leader, in the battlefield as well as the military bars. Quick to use fists when she started the Marines, she has learned to think more tactically about the situation. A leader through natural ability and 20 years of fighting, people are quick to follow her lead. She is still a fighter, though she favors her right side a great deal as well as wearing an eye patch, and there is some extensive scaring that she hides with tall collars and often wears gloves.

Strength: 11 (5)
Dexterity: 10 (5)
Endurance: 5 (2)
Intelligence: 7 (1)
Education: 5
Social: 7
gender 2, female

Started off with some nice high rolls, but then it went down hill a bit. Looking over the Traveller 5 careers, I can almost guarantee getting into the Marines, and hopefully play off the risk/reward so see if I can get some decorations. Or hurt badly...Though the commission roll is against my endurance so we'll see what happens there.

Home world 3,3 = Yori, a rich, desert planet. Picking up Survival-1, and an art. As there are 6, a 3 gives me Author-1.

Enlistment, Branch selection

Rolling a 7, we're in the Imperial Marines. Boo-ya! I'll roll for the branch, and with my education there is no DM. A 6 = Commando. There is a note for DM of 2 for this branch, which I think is just used as the base DM for the risk/reward roll. The Marine Operations table (aka, branch assignment) table has a set of DMs by branch. Also, the highest mod from the operations is what we use as a DM for the risk/reward roll: apparently no choice?

Term 1 (18-22) Lance Corporal

4 assignments: 4, 4, 3, 3 gives me Missionx2 and Peace Keeperx2. Highest mod is 2. So I'll take the -2 for the risk making it riskier for this term as it goes against my strength of an 11. However, rolling an 11 + 2 gives me 13, so I get a wound badge, and have to roll a flux roll and add that to the 2 for how much I am hurt. I could get really lucky...rolling a 3-2 for +1, I only have to subtract 1 from my strength. Rolling a 5 and subtracting 2 I have a 3 for the reward roll, Looking over at the table, I get a medal for Exemplary service. To get the big ones you have to roll really high...I also get 4 skill rolls. Rolling a 9 I do not make a commission, and a 4 I do get promoted

M1 Rank, Private: Fighter (Slug Thrower-1)
M2 Rank, Lance Corporal
Wounded, strength -1, UPP AA5757
Personal: 6 = +1 social. UPP AA5758
Peace Keeper: 2 Fighter (Slug Thrower-1, Beams-1)
Mission: 5 Leader-1
Personal: 6 = +1 social. UPP AA5759

Rolling a 4, which is less than the 10/strength I need to continue, I'll continue to term 2.

Term 2 (22-24) 2nd Lieutenant

This term my risk/reward is against my intelligence...depending on the mods I may take a less risky approach. My tour of duty this term is 6, 2, 3, 2 for Combat (DM 3!), Combat (2), Peace Keeper (1) and Combat (2). So there is a 3 DM against the risk/reward. I'll take the cautious route this time: 7 - 3 = 4, so I succeed in the risk, getting an Exemplary Service badge to go with the medal. A 12 on the reward is nothing, especially as I need to add 3 to it. With my social getting bumped, I may get a commission this term: a 5 vs the 9 means yes, I am now a 2nd Lieutenant! I don't know that I can roll for a promotion as well - the order of events in the list would indicate I can't unlike classic Book 1.

01 Rank 2nd Lieutenant - Leader-2
Combat: 5 = Leader-3
Peace Keeper: 2 = Fighter-1 (Slug Thrower-1, Beam-1)
Combat: 5 = Leader-4
Personal: 6 = social +1, UPP AA575A

She is definitely a leader, both in the skills and the social climb she is on. Rolling an 8, our gung-ho Marine can continue.

Term 3 (24-28) 1st Lieutenant

At least we're back to the strength for risk/reward. So depending on the max DM we may make it a bit riskier. 5, 4, 5, 5 gives 3 years of ANM school and a mission. The ANM (Army, Navy, Marines) school info is in the education sections, and for each year she succeeds she gets a knowledge-2 from any of the Marine schools. I can roll under C2 or C3, and obviously will be picking C2 for that 10 or less! A 6 vs my 7 intelligence and I also get promoted. I am also going to assume I get 1 skill roll for that 1 year of the mission though it is not solidly stated.

Rank 02: 1st Lieutenant
Mission: 2 = Survival-2
ANM School: (12, did not learn a damn thing; failed)
ANM School: 7; Fighter-1 (Slug Thrower-1, Beams-1, Battledress-2)
ANM School: 7; Driver (Grav-2)

So we lived, got promoted, and spent 3 years in school though we failed the first year. So they sent us back. Rolling a 6, we can continue our career in the Marines.

Term 4 (28-32) 1st Lieutenant

And with the intelligence as the characteristic we roll against this term, I will be using the DM as a note of caution. 5, 6, 1, 2 means ANM School (0), Combat (3), Combat (2) and Combat (2). Having the 3 DM means a 10 or less to avoid wounded, and a 9 squeaks by, so another XS badge for me. Another 9 fails the success so no medals. A 9 means I failed to get promoted this term.

ANM School; 6: Pilot (Small Craft-2)
Combat: 4, Soldier Skill: Fighter-2 (Slug Thrower-1, Beam-1, Battledress-2, Unarmed Combat-2)
Personal: 4, intelligence +1; UPP AA585A
Combat: 5, Leader-5

She is a bit smarter and one heck of a leader! A 9 allows her to go one more term, and I think we'll do that so we can use the strength of 10 as the controlling characteristic. We may get hurt but we could get lucky.

Term 5 (32-36)

1, 1, 6, 2 for Combat (2)x2, Combat (3) and Combat (2). A 12 means I horribly fail at a promotion, though I do have a +1 from the medal. I have no idea what the WB Mods are. So, risk 10 - 3 = 7, and I roll an 8, failing by 1. And worse, my flux roll is -5 so I lose 6 strength! On the bright side, I do still get 4 rolls which I am supposed to do before the risk/reward roll. So I'll go the way I usually do regardless, and perhaps I'll gain 1 strength back. Regardless, by losing 4 or more points I am discharged from the Marines. Sadly my reward roll of 2 means I really succeed there but only get another XS medal. Had only those rolls been switched (had I been helping a player roll for my game I may have allowed that as that 2 is just that bad!). But I did see 4 years of constant combat this term.

injured! UPP 4A585A
Combat: Tactics-1
Personal: 4, intelligence +1; UPP 4A595A
Combat: Fighter, Fighter-2 (Slug Thrower-1, Beam-1, Blade-1, Battle Dress-2, Unarmed Combat-2)
Personal: education +1; UPP 4A596A

Okay, sadly did not get any of my strength back. And no promotion.

Mustering out

Nice thing is that there are some automatic mustering out benefits. Being a fighter-2, I can keep a personal weapon, and choose a hand gun of some sort. And perhaps, with any luck I may be able to regain strength. Note that as I was disabled during my final term so get double benefits: twice as many rolls so I get 10 rolls, assuming I am interpreting that correctly. I am bound to pick up some strength! I am also going to make the +2 from the officer rank 02 optional as the +1 strength is 2 and with a +2, I will never roll that! And we add the number of terms to the cash table...

Benefit: 5 intelligence +1: UPP 4A5A5A
Benefit: 4 education +1: UPP 4A5A6A
Benefit: 2 strength +1: UPP 5A5A6A
Cash: 1 + 5 = Cr40,000
Cash: 6 + 5 = Cr50,000
Benefit: 1, Forbidden Knowledge; 4 = Explosives-1
Benefit: 5, intelligence +1: UPP 5A5B6A
Benefit: 2, strength +1, UPP: 6A5B6A
Benefit: 4 + 2, dexterity +1, UPP 6B5B6A
Benefit: 5, intelligence +1, UPP 6B5C6A

okay, getting double benefits I think the goal may have been to allow for rehab and hope you can regain some of your physical stats. Our marine mostly got a lot smarter and a bit more educated. And only gained a third of her lost strength. And I did not even do the aging rolls...I think we'll just assume her post-mustering out physical therapy was helping that along.

Challenge Recap

Managed to get through 31 characters, though there was a bit of caching some over the weekends...And the ratio of males and females evened out though I've not counted. Going through the T5 rules a bit more, and getting a little bit better about generating the characters and reading how the skill rolls works lets me think I could possibly run a T5 game. For instance, in a bar fighter, it is a a difficult roll, so 3D < Str + unarmed, or 3d < 6 + 2 or 8. Had she kept her 11 strength, she would have been hard to beat in a brawl. Now it is not nearly as certain - the skill and stats are weighted equally. I am not so sure I agree with that as as well-trained person should be able to take out a stronger one in general. However, T5 does give you some really high skills, sadly her best skill is Leadership. And in most games, that won't come into play, though I'd allow it for intimidation rolls I think, so it could be twisted into something useful in a non-combat scenario.

Day 29 - CT Hunter

Day 30 - T5 Scout

Other Sites Doing the Challenge

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Saturday, January 30, 2021

Character 30 of 31: T5 Scout

Katha Rookson

977765 Scouts 1 term, age 22

Hostile Environment-2, Grav-1, Trader-1, Comms-1, Survey-1, Teacher-1, Trader-1, Gravatics-1

Growing up off the hostile world of Boughene, Katha learned early on the dangers of it's methane atmosphere, and using the station's grav shuttles learned to get to and from the station. Her attempt to get into the station's only college failed. Wanting off the station, she somehow ended up in the Scouts, in even smaller ships. She lasted all of a single term, the Scouts feeling she was not quite the fit they wanted. Despite that, she still has a love of the ISS and exploring new worlds and meeting new people.

She is patient with others, and listens well. Observant about cultures, Katha is quick to be able to evaluate goods in the context of that world, and enjoys helping others learn new things as she loves to learn new things. She does have a bit of hostility to college graduates, never having been able to get in herself. Out in the universe on her own, she is trying to figure out the next chapter of her young life.

Katha prefers comfortable clothes when on her ship

Falling on a Saturday and having a bit more time, we'll see if I can muddle through the T5 character generation process. And unfortunately she only lasted a single term, failing the intelligence roll for re-enlistment. It was a shorter process than expected but I think I am finally figuring out the mechanics a bit.

Initial stats, with the genetics (1st die) in parenthesis

Strength: 7 (2)
Dexterity: 7 (1)
Endurance: 7 (2)
Intelligence: 7 (3)
Education: 5
Social: 5
gender 6, female

And that was a series of 7s which was really boring. So nothing outstanding for this character in terms of stats, nothing to help figure out just who she is. Other than her education and social status are below average. Perhaps the birthworld will give us some info. A d66 table is give, and a 1,2 gives us Boughene, a fluid, non-industrial world.

Hostile Environment-1
Driver-1 (Driver (Grav-1)

Hostile environment is a new skill for me, and gives her the ability to recognize and better prepare for hostile environmental issues. Bad news is the example skill check is less then her education, which as noted is not good. So we would need to boost her education to make that hostile environment useful other than as chrome for the character. There was a slim chance, 2 on 2d6, that the character was born in space. A 4 means that did not happen (and I noticed this after reading through the birthworld options).

Note that the dice mechanics are a dice pool - the difficulty is tied to the number of dice and you have to roll under. The example given for hostile environment is: Difficult (3D) < Edu + Hostile. So if something domes up, she would need to roll 6 or less on 3d6. So on the one hand, I actually like the idea of more dice = more difficult. On the other hand, it is just not Traveller for me. Note that by the end of her single term, she picked up both another Hostile Environment skill and a +1 on her education. So she has to roll 3D vs 6 + 2, or 8. So still not quite a 50/50 chance but a lot better than 3d vs 6 per her original generation!

So, looking over the education section, Katha really only has college as an option: the pre-requisites for any of the higher education are all education 5+: college at 5+ is her only option as the more prestigious schools require an even higher basic education to apply to. Now, there is an option to get the GED equivalent if your education is 4 or less, just roll 2d6 under your intelligence and get an instant education of 5. So that is also a nice touch. So Katha applies to the Winsanch College, and fails the roll of getting in: 2d6 vs intelligence, and a 9. Trying for a waiver, meaning I need to roll a 5 or less against my social ranking. Katha has no strings to pull. Rolling an 8, and there is no college for young Katha. So off to find a career, perhaps angry that she never got to go to college.

T5 presents 13 careers: it bridges the classic Book 1 and Supplement 4 careers. While some are pretty safe (hard to die as a craftsman, but you can create a masterpiece), others vary in lethality. Though T5 does not have the kill your character in generation except as an option. Looking over the careers, with her stats Katha has a 50/50 chance of most of the careers. Seeing how Boughene has a corrosive atmosphere, she was raised on the station according to the Wiki article, she may want to explore other worlds. So I can see Scouts, Spacer or Soldier to get out of this system. 1 die roll of 1 for a d3 roll and Scouts it is. To get in I have to roll 2d6 against any 1 of my physical stats. They are all 7 so it makes no difference. Interestingly, there is a retry roll should I fail against my education. So it is even less likely. Rolling a 7, Katha gets into the Imperial Scout Service!

Term 1 (18-22)

Risk and Reward. All 4 characteristics Katha uses for this roll are 7. I'll just go through them sequentially. Now we can do the same mechanic as per classic Book 5 and make an adjustment on the risk roll that has the opposite affect on the reward roll. Exactly the same as the survival and decoration rolls I finally figured out. Being exactly a 50/50 chance, I'll not use any mods for either for at least this term. So, using strength of 7:

Risk roll: 6 (< 7 so nothing happened)
Reward roll: 9 ( >7 so nothing good happened either)

Scouts have no ranks, so looking at the Scout table, and as Katha did the risk/reward process and so is an explorer this term, gets 8 rolls. We'll just go sequentially through the tables, skipping the Academic table as she did not go to college, and the courier table as she was exploration.

Personal: 1 = strength +1; UPP 877755
Exploration: 3 = Hostile Environment-2
Business: 3: Trader-1
Vocation: 6 = Comms-1
Avocation: 1 trade (okay, no idea where those are listed, we'll defer figuring that out. And they are listed at the end of the skills chapter): Gravatics-1
Personal: 1 = +1 strength again! UPP 977755
Exploration: 1 = Survey-1
Business: 4 = Teacher-1

So Katha's 1st term out among the stars she had to learn to trade with various others for resupplying on the fly, increased her hostile environment skill so must have visited some hostile worlds, learned the ins and outs of using the comm equipment and how to survey new worlds, and started getting buffed up. Too bad we picked strength as this term's controlling characteristic. And we can't use that until we cycle through the others. We also need to roll a 7 or less (intelligence) to continue in the Scouts, and rolling an 8, she is mustered out after a single term! She also picked up gravatics, learning to work on the air/raft that she flies about in on occasion still.

Mustering out

Having a single roll, I'll use the benefits table - perhaps she picked up some forbidden knowledge! With no fame from discovering anything, there are no DMs. A roll of 5 means is C5 +1, or education. So we've had a bit of education.

Benefit: 5 = +1 education, UPP 977765

Okay, I think I am getting better at generating T5 characters. I'll do another for the final character challenge tomorrow, and hopefully will get better stats and something a bit more complicated. The fame stuff has had some serious questions over on COTI and I'd like to see how that plays out.

Day 29 - CT Hunter

Other Sites Doing the Challenge

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Friday, January 29, 2021

Character 29 of 31: Hunter

Janie "JJ" Jackson

A94A45 Hunter 5 terms, age 38

Hunting-2, Electronic-1, Mechanical-1. Shotgun-1, Rifle-1, Laser Rifle-1, Body Pistol-1

Cr0, High Passage, body pistol, hunting rifle, hunting laser rifle, shotgun

Growing up on Dalia in District 268, Janie, known as JJ to everyone, Janie and her parents hunted in the game preserves, learning to hunt most animals before she graduated high school. Shipping with her uncle in his Safari Class Hunters Dream, she picked up some basic skills for maintaining the ship and handling the inevitable paperwork involved with getting hunting licenses on various worlds. She is an excellent shot with a variety of weapons and has extensively customized her personal guns. She has had a few close scrapes, including one time hunting the very elusive kobrai of Avastan: not from the hunt itself but crossing too close into a setter's land. Some of those people are very intense about property rights.

Younger looking than her 38 years, she is quiet until you get her started on hunting. Then she will have tall tales, expert advice, and a yearning you can hear to get on her next hunt. Eternally calm, she knows how to wait and has a great deal of patience. She also has a complete lack of understanding about animal rights people. She also rarely eats her greens but is a vigorous carnivore and gets along very well with Aslan and Vargr. She is looking to follow in her uncle's footsteps and wanting to get her own hunting ship and crew.

Toting her custom LasTek 15H Laser Rifle

Kobrai of Avaston

Strength 11
Dexterity 7
Endurance 5
Intelligence 10
Education 4
Social 5
gender 4, female

Going for a hunter this time around as the strength gives a +2 to the survival roll. And she may end up with a safari ship!

Enlistment is hard with a 9+ to get in and lacking any of the DMs to help. But we do manage it on a 10 (okay, so it took 3 times, but I really wanted a hunter, but no more faking rolls now!)

Term 1 18-22

Survival: 10 + 2. No ranks, so she gets 2 skill rolls a year. Though in re-reading book 1, all classic characters get 2 skills for the 1st term, and up to 4 if they get both a position and promotion if I am reading that correctly. And I've had a string of characters unable to use the advanced education table it seems. Though my gender rolls have evened out.

Personal 2 = +1 dexterity UPP B85A45
Service 1 = Gun: Rifle-1
Career = Hunter-1

Re-enlist on a 5+, and 9 is good to go.

Term 2 22-26

Survive on an 11 (okay, so now I am rolling high again!)

Education 2 = Electronic-1
Personal 5 = Gun: Shotgun-1

Re-enlist on 10

Term 3 26-30

Survive on an 8.

Education 1 = Mechanical-1
Personal 2 = +1 dexterity UPP B95A45 (she now gets a +1 DM on shooting things)

Re-enlist on a 12

Term 4 30-34

Survive with 5 + 2 for 7, so it was a close call this term!

Service 1 = Gun, Laser Rifle-1
Education 6 = Admin-1

Re-enlist on a 7, probably last term

Term 5 34-38

Survive with a 7

Personal 5 = Gun, Body Pistol-1
Service 4= Hunting-2

I did not roll a 12 (and not sure that really applies), so I can get out. Aging rolls of 7, 9, 7 means I lose a strength & endurance. UPP A94A45. Time to leave!

Mustering Out

5 Rolls, and I really want a safari ship since they are cool. So we'll roll on the material benefits a bit to see if we can roll a 6.

Benefit 5 = Weapon, her custom hunting rifle
Benefit 2 = High Passage
Benefit 3 = Weapon, her custom laser rifle
Benefit 3 = Weapon, her custom body pistol
Benefit 2 = Weapon, her custom shotgun

Well, dang, never a 6 though she has a crapload of guns. And a high passage ticket...