Cold As Ice - Learn Traveller In The Frozen Frontier of Space

Creating your character

Character creation will be done as a group as part of session 0. I encourage people to have a character concept ready, and would also recommend having more than one just in case, but the actual mechanics of character building will be gone through together over discord. This is so that players unfamiliar with the system get to take part in the process and learn as they go without feeling singled out, and so that everyone's characters complement each other. I have made some significant changes to the Traveller character generation system as it is written. You will still be rolling for your base stats, and applying bonuses based on your species. If you are unfamiliar with the traveller character generation system, do not worry, I can walk you through everything step by step and will be doing so for everyone in either case. Just know that Traveller character creation is notorious for random events affecting your character and how they develop, and it is technically possible for your character to die during the generation process. However, that's actually incredibly rare and completely optional, but the risk can make it fun if you embrace the unpredictability. I run a low-psionic, but high-tech setting, and am happy to discuss ways to make most character concepts work. Space is big, after all. It might be strange, but it's probably happened somewhere. For those more familiar here are some details. While I still follow the career system and there is randomness involved, I have introduced some safety features to make it easier to guide your character's progression by picking skills rather than rolling for them, and banning the Jack of All Trades skill. I'll also be specifying a number of career terms that all characters will go through, to try and keep everyone roughly on par with each other. Normally this would require every character to be the same age, but I have decided to decouple the career terms from any specific timeframe. Perhaps your character simply had a very eventful few years before the game started. Psionic characters are permissible, but it is a low-psionic setting, and psionic characters are encouraged to specialise in it. Technology abouve TL 16 is not yet available, and your background and species may affect the availability of other technology.

Preparing for the session

Players will need a microphone of some kind to talk through voice chat on a Discord server I'll provide, and while I heavily prefer players have a webcam and have it turned on, that won't be strictly necessary. Once you have access to the discord server, you can also get more access to the setting-specific documents I've prepared. I will be having discussions with any prospective players before accepting them into the game, so please be prepared to just briefly chat about what kind of game you want to play and questions are very welcomed so that we can all arrive at Session 0 prepared and without any illusions. I'll be giving everyone their consent checklist as part of that discussion, so that it can form the basis of our safety discussion in Session 0 as well, and so that anyone that struggles with the open discussion is still going to have their issues addressed.

What Alex Lawler brings to the table

Firstly, for this game specifically, I am planning on running a short, self-contained arc as a sort of 'pilot episode' so that everyone can get more comfortable with the rest of the party, with the setting and system, and at the end of that arc I will have the option for people to continue into a fuller campaign, or if they prefer for any reason, to step away instead. More generally, my main focus as a GM is story and roleplay and I only write my own campaigns. I run an inclusive table, and actively encourage diverse player groups to bring different perspectives to the table. I use the rules as my base point, and will typically stick to them as written, or as homeruled in advance, but I am flexible enough to amend them when the rules prove to be at odds with everyone's enjoyment or with the kind of story being told. I tend to start hands-off, and allow my players as much freedom as possible to approach things as they wish, then make the scene responsive to your choices, focus most on what matters to you, and tailor each game, scene by scene to the party and the players. I love to do character work with my players if you struggle with fleshing out your character or need to know more about the scenario. I do character voices whenever possible and I encourage but don't require players to do the same. My challenges tend to be more based on social, political, or even philosophical difficulty, making difficult decisions and piecing together information. In general I do not kill player characters, but have more specific rules regarding that, see my profile for more information. I can provide access to PDF copies of the rulebooks for every game I run. I use Kenku FM to stream music through discord and always make a playlist, and I have a subscription to the Obsidian Portal campaign management tool, so my players can use it for free. Please see my profile for more details on all the above points!

Homebrew rules

I have made some big changes to character creation as I described before, specifically players no longer roll randomly to determine skills, but have some limits on what skills they can choose. I have also made the Social stat more like Charisma in other RPGs.

How Alex Lawler creates a safe table

I use Red/Yellow/Green card in place of X/N/O's, and they can be messaged to me privately or said verbally. Session 0 will include creating characters together so we can discuss if anything we create crosses lines for others. I will be sending everyone a consent checklist prior to session 0 as part of first discussions with any potential players. A lot of the campaign is still to be determined, so while other triggers may be introduced, I can use our discussions to avoid anything relevant to those at the table. The listed content warnings are just the things that are unavoidable with the premise and setting given. My Open Door policy is a general one, not just for safety measures, but for anything players would like to discuss. It's something I urge players to use if they have any safety concerns though, and I will never be upset if you come to me with a problem. I will be happy for the opportunity to help.