Looking at T5 Character Creation

[Supplement Four]

Character creation in T5 may at first seem daunting, largely because the rules make up a few chapters that are 69 pages long, from page 58-127.

But, I have good news for you. The basic method of character creation in T5 is no different from what you've been used to in other editions of Traveller. The extra pages are devoted to new ideas and methods, many of which are purely optional.

At its core, T5 character generation consists of the same five steps that you've seen in most other editions of the game:





STEP 1: Create or Pick a Homeworld for the character and determine Homeworld skills based on the world's Trade Classifications.

STEP 2: Roll the character's UPP. Humans roll all six stats using a single 2D throw. The Human character is now considered 18 years old.

STEP 3: Attempt Advanced Education (go to college or the Naval Academy, for example), but this step is optional. A character can jump right into a career, skipping any advanced Education.

STEP 4: Attempt a Career. Terms are still 4 years long, no matter the Career attempted.

STEP 5: Muster out of the Career. Obtain goodies and perks for your time in the Career. Start adventuring.



Nothing new and scary there, right? Real familiar, isn't it?

OK, let's continue.

 

[Supplement Four]

STEP 1 NOTES:



Homeworld.

A character's birthworld can be a different world than his Homeworld.

Homeworlds can be created in a number of ways. You can pick from an official list (such as The Spinward Marches). There's nothing wrong with Ref requiring all PCs to be from the same Homeworld or from a world in the same subsector or region of space. In fact, it is most likely, given the expense and difficulty of space travel, that this is the case more likely than not.

You can use the generic world creation system provided in the T5 Character Generation Chapters.

You can use some other method for creating a character's homeworld. For example, the Ref can just make up a world by picking the various values of the UWP and figuring the world's Trade Classifications.

Your character may not know his Homeworld.

Your character may want to keep his Homeworld a secret and lie to people about where he is from when asked.

All of these options are covered in the game.





STEP 2 NOTES:

Personal Characteristics.

Nothing new here. Just roll 2D for each attribute, coming up with a UPP that represents the character at age 18.

You'll want to record these original rolls if you decide to use the Genetics rules that I will cover later.





STEP 3 NOTES:

Pre-Career Education

If you want, you have the option of your character attempting to complete an advanced education program. This totally optional. If you want, you can skip this step and go right into your character's career.

But, if you want to go the educational route, you have a lot of choices:

Trade Schools provide training in typically non-academic areas.

College will increase your EDU characteristic.

University is akin to attending a prestigious Ivy League school or getting your Masters Degree.

College or University students may also join the schools Officer Training Corps, its Naval Officer Training Corps. University students can also attempt Medical School or Law School.



To be continued....

 

[BlindGuy]

I hope you'll continue this series sometime soon. T5 character generation is marred by extensive errata, not all of which makes immediate sense to me. I'd appreciate more walkthrough.

 

[Supplement Four]

I hope you'll continue this series sometime soon. T5 character generation is marred by extensive errata, not all of which makes immediate sense to me. I'd appreciate more walkthrough.

Sorry, but I'm not sure that I will. I've set T5 aside for now and maybe forever.

I'm sure that there are some T5 players out there who will help you if you have questions. Heck, there may even be a YouTube video on it.

 

[Hemdian]

Sorry, but I'm not sure that I will. I've set T5 aside for now and maybe forever.

Er, aren't you in the personal combat review group? I'm not asking you to speak out of turn but does this mean it's almost ready?

I'm sure that there are some T5 players out there who will help you if you have questions. Heck, there may even be a YouTube video on it.

Yup, here. It's short and I made a couple of goofs.

 

[Supplement Four]

Er, aren't you in the personal combat review group? I'm not asking you to speak out of turn but does this mean it's almost ready?

I am and will continue to be, but that doesn't mean that I'm playing or studying other sections of T5.

 

[Supplement Four]

Yup, here. It's short and I made a couple of goofs.

You know, I didn't think that a video is probably no use to BlindGuy.

 

[Draconian]

I hope you'll continue this series sometime soon. T5 character generation is marred by extensive errata, not all of which makes immediate sense to me. I'd appreciate more walkthrough.

I will chime in with what I often say: a key errata was to reshuffle the rolls for skills such that a character can't be given a "Commission" in their career AND be Promoted in the same 4-year term. That was possible before but they fixed it by making the sequence as follows for all relevant careers:

--Officer Promotion check
--Enlisted Commission check (to turn into Officer)
--Enlisted Promotion check

So if someone is an Officer (or equivalent in that Career), they can only do Promotion checks. If an Enlisted person (or equivalent) succeeds at a Commission, they immediately become Officers and are ineligible for the last step, so no Commission followed by Promotion in the same 4-year term.

There were many changes to the skill-roll tables for many careers as well, and a whole new table printed for the "Citizen" career.

In T5 you're getting a minimum of one new skill increase a year, plus commission/promotion increases each 4-year term. CHANGING between careers before a new 4-year term is possible but the table discussing that was in the earlier draft of T5 (MasterText Old) found on the T5 CD. It did not make the final print edition but it's fun if you want to try it. Not all transitions from every career to every other career were possible.

Like classic Traveller, you can't guarantee a skill for your character. If the skill you want is on a table, you have to roll 1D and you may in fact get another skill for that career and particular service within the career! This is at odds with most other games that came out later. If you want to house-rule that, say, tell them that if they expend 2 possible skill-rolls they can explicitly pick one skill on an allowable service, without fail.

Some skills are in fact broken down into different Knowledges, which means that upon the first successful award of a skill-level, you must pick one Knowledge in particular. Suppose the skill is Driver, which is composed of several types of land-vehicles such as Wheeled and Grav. On the second successful award, you can pick that Knowledge again to make Level 2 in the Knowledge, such as Wheeled-2, or a different Knowledge (to make one level in each knowledge, e.g. for Driver skill you may end up with Wheeled-1 and Grav-1). On the third successful award, the entire Skill is lifted up and all Knowledges within it increase by 1. So you might end up after 3 successes with Driver-1 but effectively Wheeled-3 (if you chose only Wheeled the first 2 times). The Knowledge will always be higher than its root skill in subsequent increases. The Task tables keep things separate and may show it as Driver-1 Wheeled+2, but tell you to roll < (less than OR equal to) Characteristic+Skill+Knowledge in a roll, so the effective Knowledge total is still 3.

 

[Daddicus]

This thread has a helper workbook.