First off don't forget where you put your glasses it can delay things like reading and reviewing game rules. The next section is DIE ROLLING CONVENTIONS which doesn't relay anything controversial or worth extra comment on. CHARACTERS, ah now we get to something worth some consideration. First thing I would like to mention is TAS form 2 and maybe ID cars from Supplement 12 Forms, you should consider using them as a visual cue that you are playing Traveller. It may seem silly to some people but any subtle minimal effort required assistance to help players slip into the Third Imperium is welcomed by me. Even with my limited computer skills I can convert the PDF to an image file and then with minimal effort create a personalized card as a piece of digital bling at very least I think I will do this with the Imperial Draft Registration Card from the JTAS bundle. Not much real use but neat at least to me.
INITIAL CHARACTER GENERATION covers generating the base UPP; naming and possibly a title due the character. I had thought about allowing assigning the rolls as desired but upon reflection I think rolling in order is closer to the intent of the game and should allow for a better reflection of a modern too far future reality. We get the body we are born with and it is difficult, though not impossible, to change it too much; we have opportunities to chart our lives but outside forces heavily influence what skills we end up choosing. But I don't want to role play my life you say! and you shouldn't, however what this can be used to do is make your pudgy 48 year old ex-merchant even more heroic when he is holding the doorway of the Basilica of Ste. Besophere on Focaline against a squad of Vargr raiders to save the Nuns and Orphans inside. You are going to end up with a character who probably won't have stats as high as you would like and lacking the skills you want but if you and your players can get the right mind set it will be that much more awesome because they don't.
I have to pick some nits with the some characteristic definitions specifically Intelligence; Education and to a lesser degree Social Standing. Intelligence is described as "corresponds to IQ" which I find less than helpful from the stand point of playing the game. I don't know enough about the scale to use it in game terms instead I believe it is better thought of as a measure of how quickly a character can process and use information. Die rolls and characteristics should only really come up in dramatic situations so it is only game relevant when you are under the gun so to speak. How about a situation like the poem in Adventure 3? In case like that it is more a matter of mental discipline anyone with access to a Google like service can get the needed information but not everyone will when instead there are kitten videos they could be watching.
Education can be thought of as what degree you possess but I tend to think of it more as the amount of crap you retain, your built in Google result as it were like knowing the phrase "Damn the Torpedoes!" actually refers to mines not what most people would think of as torpedoes.
Social Standing is generally ignored unless the PC has a title and I am not entirely sure how to use this stat during a game. I am thinking about a DM in social situations relative to the each person involved. Two people of SOC 7 I think will relate better to each other because of a common style of upbringing than a SOC 2 thug and a SOC A debutante but I am not sure how much effort is involved and if it would be worth trying to figure out.
A final characteristic I am of two minds on is PSI or psionic strength. Should it be generated when the character is created or only when they have it tested? In the first case a player knowing their character has a high strength will probably cut their career generation short and push to find an institute right away. On the other hand it would suck to put in all the effort to find an institute only to have a PSI of 2. I am inclined to generate it at the start because players having this knowledge can be explained by their character having flashes of a 6th sense throughout their life. In a society that knows psionics are real it is a reasonable goal. Also getting bounced after one term can be explained as rumors and suspicions the PC is one of them dirty mind freaks as a spur to exploring the whole psi prejudice if that is desired by the player and GM.
ACQUIRING SKILLS AND EXPERTISE are the general rules for a PC's prior career and allows some speculation on how to use them to make the Imperium different than today. I plan on another post covering my thoughts on the 19 different careers available (6 in ST, 12 from Supplement 4 and 1 from MT) but I will say I am not a fan of the expanded careers. As I said earlier I like the idea of our plucky heroes (or comic reliefs) dealing with situations without having the optimal skill set or high levels of skills which the expanded systems get around with many more skill levels on the whole. If we start looking at the prior career system from a distance it does provide a very different way a government could try and run things.
With no higher learning options it seems the Imperium has decreed 18 to be the age of majority and apparently has mandatory Imperial service. I am inferring this from the start at 18 and enter a career as a simple member with no automatic officers, the Noble career is not part of this discussion as it is unique. So you turn 18 and try to pursue a career that is of interest to you but if you fail in that you get "drafted" even into non-military and perhaps non-governmental careers. I like this idea to make the Imperium different everyone who turns 18 (again lets skip the two careers that start at 14 for now) must serve at least 4 years in a branch of the Imperium. It means the Merchants become the Merchant Marine service instead of corporations and tramp traders to start which also explains how to enforce the fixed rates for passages and cargo. Also everyone starts as an equal level nobody and has to earn a commission into the officer (or leadership) ranks in a real or propaganda meritocracy.
The DM's allowing the simulation of the advantages various characteristics can provide. This also can quiet down the justifiable complaint of why only 1 career can be pursued. In my Imperium the pre-game career is your obligation to the Emperor and after that you start the rest of your life. So the Emperor has pirates and rogues? I suppose I could try and justify it but instead I think I will defer those until I am going through my takes on the different services.
Next is the most common house rule the muster out instead of die in generation rule. I am going to let the player make the call on which option they want to use on this after all if you do have a dreadful set of characteristics there is no reason not to allow suicide by scout enlistment as an option.
As for gaining skills I am really torn. I am leaning toward using the MT skill tables in place of the ST and supplement 4 ones. This is because I am much happier with the random roll to get a skill area and then the player picks a specific skill from a list. If you don't have MT let me give an example instead of getting "Pilot" you would get a table result of "Space" from which you pick one skill out of pilot;navigation;communication;sensor ops or computer (not sure that is an accurate list I don't have the books with me). So why not just use the MT system of basic character generation? It is tempting however I am not convinced the increase in number of skills would end up adding to the game "feeling" I mentioned at the start of this post. Special duty for more skills sounds cool but then you add the extra skill for distinction and you can really bulk up how many skills you get per term.
Now I am aware that it is easy enough to end up with a character that didn't enlist where the player wanted them to enlist and have only two skills neither of which are flashy or exciting and that this isn't a great way to get the player to buy into the game you want to run. On the other hand I do like the "feel" it gives the setting. I will use two additional house rules one is a player can always choose a +1 in EDU in place of a skill roll to dodge the annoying no more skills than INT+EDU which is rarely a problem in basic character generation and any survival or reenlistment roll that is 4 or higher than required earns distinction and a bonus skill roll. The final thing this section mentions is retirement and I will use a modification someone else had suggested but I can't remember who to give them credit for it. Retirement pay is the amount given times the final rank.
Holy crap that is a wall of text. So keeping in mind the point of this series of posts is to use the rules to have a setting that is different without needing a ton of work to accomplish we can have the following points to consider.
1) Every Imperial citizen is an emancipated adult at 18
2) Every citizen must serve the Imperium in some form for at least 4 (optionally 2) years
3) How you serve and what training you receive is determined by the needs of the Imperium not personal choice
4) Everyone is more or less equal in the eyes of the Imperium to start.
So Bob Farmerson turns 18 in Hayseed City on Regina and gets a notice to report to the office of his Imperial Noble where he is briefed on his options and applies for a career. In a couple weeks he leaves for either the service he applied to or for one the Imperium picks for him and does 4 years work in a field that best suits the needs of the Emperor. This suits my goal of having a government that is omnipresent but impersonal
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