My house rules for chargen

[Fritz_Brown]

OK, I am finally getting my "house rules" together, and I thought I would post my first go. The Character Generation Flow document is here. It links to the Skills List, Background Descriptions, and Career Descriptions, as well. (If anybody has trouble linking to those, PM me.)

(BTW, I thought about piggy-backing of Golan's old thread, but decided I would avoid a Thread Resurrect. )

Obviously, this is the place for feedback - good or bad. Go ahead; flame away; I can take it! :toast:

 

[Fritz_Brown]

This is sad. I'm my own thread ender.

 

[Jame]

It's quite different than what I'm used to. Maybe I need to study it (yeah, right, I'd focus that long!) or mull it over.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Yes, it's sortof a cascade for everything. And, I haven't put up the tables or numbers yet. Thank you for at least looking.

 

[Berg]

Interesting stuff....

 

[Golan2072]

This is sad. I'm my own thread ender.

No, my full-time job is. But I have weekends to spare - and I'll soon hop in and comment.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Rationale

Why did I do things the way I did them? I mean, besides the fact that I am an unhappy person who really needs to do things my way? Well...

I like the idea of lots of possibilities in career selection, but I didn't want to do TNE. I especially didn't want to abandon the random chargen of CT/MT. So, I took the CT/MT skill table layout and played with the skills.

I added the "métier"s for three reasons: 1) I couldn't fit all the careers into 12 slots, 2) so many of the careers fit neatly into "archetypes", and 3) I wanted to be able to have "Commandos" and such.

Then, I lined up all the rolls (which I haven't posted yet) for college and such to the same table spots. (I also added specialties to College, rather than have a bunch of different options.)

On the skills, I tried to line up the cascades to general pursuits. I hated the idea of learning one skill for an Auto Pistol, and having to learn a different skill for Body Pistol, when they are essentially the same weapon. I admit I have a lot of cascades, but it looked necessary.

Lastly, I added the Mundane and Esoteric skills to keep from having blank spots for some of the careers. You know that you aren't learning nearly as much (Traveller-wise) if you're sitting behind a desk, rather than humping a ruck or piloting spacecraft or walking a beat. So, I added the Mundane skill for all the everyday things that clutter up your head (like how to run a Xerox machine or how to get to your son's friend's house to pick him up) and Esoteric for all the things that are only relevant to you, your job, etc. (like the exact specs for the communications equipment you designed or some single piece of equipment you use and doesn't get used anywhere else in the 'verse).

 

[Golan2072]

Skill substitution is cool - it allows for interesting and varied characters without breaking the career system or allowing too much abuse (it is one table per chargen, and only one roll on it per term).

I'd add a Decoration roll for military careers (or award a decoration for high results in the Survival roll) and its equivalent - a Bonus roll - for most civilian careers. Decorations earn prestigue - Bonuses are windfalls of money.

Anyhow, what I'd like to see are examples of chargen using your system; I might try some myself soon.

 

[pendragonman]

Interesting. Have you gotten around to the die roll aspects yet?

 

[Golan2072]

I'd replace Celebrity with a Performer career and a Débutante career: one for people who make a living out of performing arts/sports in front of an audience, and the other for those who have quite a lot of money and time to waste. Being a celebrity per se is IMHO the matter public awareness - you could become a celebrity in almost any kind of career if the public is aware of you enough.

 

[Jame]

I'd replace Celebrity with a Performer career and a Débutante career: one for people who make a living out of performing arts/sports in front of an audience, and the other for those who have quite a lot of money and time to waste. Being a celebrity per se is IMHO the matter public awareness - you could become a celebrity in almost any kind of career if the public is aware of you enough.

I think I like that!

And there was someone else on this board who made a cascade where a civilian rifleman had semiautomatic weapons (no SMGs or assault rifles) but the military rifleman had both semiauto and full auto weapons.

Oh - how many skills would a typical 3-5 term person have?

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Good feedback. Thank you!

Skill substitution is cool - it allows for interesting and varied characters without breaking the career system or allowing too much abuse (it is one table per chargen, and only one roll on it per term).

It also allows for specialization without the whole extra framework of LBB4-7 advanced chargen.

I'd add a Decoration roll for military careers (or award a decoration for high results in the Survival roll) and its equivalent - a Bonus roll - for most civilian careers. Decorations earn prestigue - Bonuses are windfalls of money.

I am looking at that right now.

Anyhow, what I'd like to see are examples of chargen using your system; I might try some myself soon.

Interesting. Have you gotten around to the die roll aspects yet?

When I get the numbers finished, I would love to see folks try it out.

I'd replace Celebrity with a Performer career and a Débutante career: one for people who make a living out of performing arts/sports in front of an audience, and the other for those who have quite a lot of money and time to waste. Being a celebrity per se is IMHO the matter public awareness - you could become a celebrity in almost any kind of career if the public is aware of you enough.

Hmmmmm..... That would certainly mess up the "12 careers" bit. I'll think about it, though.

And there was someone else on this board who made a cascade where a civilian rifleman had semiautomatic weapons (no SMGs or assault rifles) but the military rifleman had both semiauto and full auto weapons.

Weapons cascades were some of the hardest. I wanted to get rid of the idea that somehow your skill with a body pistol was less than your skill with an autopistol. One of the things that actually helped with that was to limit the number of cascades I would have to a 2d6 roll (2-12).

Oh - how many skills would a typical 3-5 term person have?

When I figure that out, I will have the numbers figured out. I just realized why the task system is so important....

 

[aramis]

CT and MT had 18 each...

 

[Fritz_Brown]

CT and MT had 18 each...

Yeah, and though that was a good number, it didn't cover all the possibilities. Whereas, TNE covered most of the possibilities, it wasn't really a system for chargen at all, but a "pick your skills" system. This way, I get 48 different careers - sorta.

 

[Golan2072]

I get the feeling that your cascades sometimes tend towards specialization - there are very specialized sub-skills in some of them (such as a different skill for a RAM grenade launcher vs regular grenade launcher, or Air-Jet vs Air-Propellor or Light Grav vs heavy grav). Or are these optional specializations? I'm worried about characters being over-specialized; one way around this would be to allow a character to use one skill in lieu of a similar one (i.e. Light Grav when flying a heavy grav vehicle) with DM-1, similar to how Pilot and Ship's Boat are related.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Yes, some of them might be over-specializations (and you may convince me to modify that). I divided things like the Vehicle cascade in the manner I did because there are fundamental differences between driving a car (Wheeled-Small) and driving a big-rig or tour bus (Wheeled-Large). The big problem is that those who have skill in the harder one (Wheeled-Large) can carry that skill over to the other one, but not vice-versa. But, I didn't want to just make a higher skill level denote being able to drive larger vehicles, as its a special set of skills. (You ever tried backing a 50 foot long trailer?) The way I was going to handle that (if I keep these cascades) is designating which skills get "substituted" at full level and which don't. (Because, normally, you would get similar skills at half-level or so.) It's not satisfying to me to do it that way, however, as the mechanics would change depending on skill.

I may have to look again at MWM's "Knowledges" concept in draft T5.

 

[Golan2072]

Another way to deal with this is to combine the skills BUT require a minimum skill level to properly operate the harder item/vehicle or perform the more complex job, similarly to how Vacc Suits are treated as opposed to Battledresses. For example, driving a ground car should be perfectly within the ability of someone with Wheeled-0 (i.e. the average guy who drives to work) but properly operating a large truck would require Wheeled-1 for the very least.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Yes, but someone with a Wheeled-1 wouldn't necessarily know how to drive the big-rig, though he would be a better ground car driver. Keep hammering at it, though - I need to be convinced one way or the other.

I'm leaning more toward a CT skill level concept - where 6 is top of your field, though a 7 might be possible. This takes my task mechanic back to 2d6 roll-over. I'm having real trouble with the idea that 2d6 rolling under a skill level of 1 just couldn't be done. Heck, it can barely be done with a 1d6!

 

[Fritz_Brown]

And, the RAM v regular Grenade Launcher was based on reading the descriptions of each weapon. However, I have a couple of different lists, and I need to check and see that I didn't replace that with something else.

Very occassionally I felt obliged to add a cascade to round out the numbers to a d6 possibility (6, 11, 16 possibilities). That's probably not necessary, but it would enable someone to randomize the cascades. (And, yes, I know Arts violates this. )

 

[Golan2072]

Yes, but someone with a Wheeled-1 wouldn't necessarily know how to drive the big-rig, though he would be a better ground car driver.

Someone with a Vacc Suit-1 wouldn't necessarily know how to use the Battledress, though he would be a better vacc suit user. It is a matter of game assumptions made for ease of gaming - compromises, if you wish, between realism and the ease of gameplay (and the need for having a smaller number of broad skills in order to avoid having players pigeonholed to unwanted roles due to random chargen).