Traveller's character creation is still unsurpassed
A literary reflection about Traveller's character creation
It’s a shame that it has all been reduced to the “die in character creation” meme. In newer editions you can’t die, but the fundamental idea is the same and still hardcore. Survival rolls every four years.
The way characters are created in Traveller can be utterly alien when compared to other games.
In most games, when creating a character you have trade offs (a point here, but one less point there, spell casting but low HP, high attack bonus but few skills...) or develop narrative contradictions (double edged aspects, convictions and compulsions, power with temptation...). But in the harsh emptiness of Traveller’s space: character creation has risk and reward. Every +1 stat and starting gear you got them in a gamble, where the bet was your character. Traveller is still unique in how it brings risk to character creation.
You will end with broken, hurt, disillusioned, traumatized, remorseful people. Broken in uncomfortable ways you won’t like. This isn’t the sob story of your beloved OC. You were just stupid and mediocre.
Why? Because you wanted more money, you wanted a new gun, a promotion, a bigger ship, and made your character go through 4 more years in the marines or the cut throat world of nobility and finance. You took a gamble and it got bad. 2d6 with a bonus is a safe roll. But sometimes things still get bad. Happens to all marines, to all intelligence agents, to all business people and all nobles... Lost a leg, made a mistake and got demoted, lost a loved one, gained an enemy, medical debt and life long dependency on drugs, infamy, pain and loss. And you didn’t get the extra money. Just the hurt.
Your characters enter the table indebted. Feats? Cantrips? Dark vision? Nah buddy you have mortgage. Drop the monthly pay in the station’s ATM before payday. Sharpen your pencil, whip out your phone and do the math well and see you next month space cowboy. This ship isn’t yours. I dunno what a laser carbine does to a knee and I hope this trade run covers the costs so we don’t find out. Because some people find out.
And you know what’s the worst part? That the player next to you got lucky. They are a retired major with medals and a cool rifle, a high SOC rich big wig putting more money towards the ship than everyone else, with their stupid TAS membership and their stupid once a month passage to anywhere. You are a reject, someone that worked their ass to barely stay blue collar. The main thing about your character is broken dreams. Every credit and contact they generously use to bankroll the party... you won’t admit it but it will kinda hurt.
Few games have that fuel for intra party dynamics. Few games but that intensity in session fucking zero. Almost 50 years later the idea of playing failures with a mortgage and other debts still sounds insane.
An obvious answer is that this process is not for everyone. Of course not. I’m not going to be elitist, it’s fine to not vibe with this. I understand that in these 4 hours of free time, a lot of people don’t want to think about mortgages and being traumatized war veterans. For many games that I love to play, this character creation process wouldn’t jive well. In World of Darkness, as a player, I should make a flawed and hurt person forced to be a monster. But those pains and flaws need to be entirely authored by me, the other players and the ST.
But life up there, buckaroo? The one week jump on unrefined fuel? To a place you don’t really know? With illegal freight, a bribe and a smile that you hope gets you out of trouble? Yeah, up there sometimes you take a gamble and lose. Heck, sometimes you play it safe and still get nasty shit. The passenger was a terrorist with a bounty, horrible grenade in the cargo bay with your life savings in the form of tons of merch. Sometimes the system is safe but you still get the pirate hail. Worst part is that two months ago those pirates were free traders like you.
For some games, is best if you don’t choose your sad past. Is best if your sad backstory really interferes, if is really messes up the picture you had in mind for your character. No need to role-play something that in a way you didn’t choose and really experienced. I will never forget my psychic marine. She was rejected in the psionics academy and in marine boot camp got the boot in her ass. No cool space marine, just a moody army bitch.
Traveller turns character creation into a tutorial. The referee doesn’t need to explain the basic mechanics of dice rolls because players already do them when they create a character. They already know the 2d6+mod vs target number. Next time the referee tells them “Roll EDU+Science” they know what to do.
And they also know that rolls are risky. No need to tell them “are you sure?” before they fuck up because they fucked up already and paid for it. They will think twice before entering a gun fight where one shot can leave them on the floor, the nearest hospital is two jumps away. Before doing something illegal in an authoritarian planet. Before stepping outside the ship without using their sensors and world data.
Yet they will keep going. Because, like the player next to them, they might get lucky. They will say yes to that risky job, that will make them real money, more than annoying passengers, stupid freight runs and boring spreadsheets for speculative trade. It will be scary, it will be tempting. They will get too little for a lot of pain, but they will feel at the top of the highest space port at the end.
The fundamental questions at the center of every party are answered from the get go. Why they are together? Because ships are expensive. No one person can buy the dream of freely flying through space, at least not the small fry like you. Why they still get along, despite everything? Because they got two skill points, by virtue of their shared history: a skill package and a point the time their characters were together. In a world where 2d6 rolls are risky and can get lucky, that’s a hard bond to break.
Why they accept the shady jobs? Credits. Loan sharks have slick ships and messy thugs.
They need credits and are broken people.
They want to get what life owes them. They want to replace that missing leg with a real cybernetic implant. Hidden knives, crome and a good pair of boots. In this game you can be really cool, you can be the top dog in the sector, but you gotta earn it.
Or they may chose to be heroes. They will decide to take the higher road, take risks just because it’s the right thing to do. To win the struggle against jadedness and cynicism. The glimmer of youth drowned in illegal anti age drugs. They might dare to dream again, old dreams shattered by enemies and mistakes. They might look into the machine that already chewed and spat them out, and try again to change it for the better. They won’t be the everyday heroes standing up. Sometimes too mediocre to even be punks.
Being a hero will be a real choice.