Among the far-flung stars of the Third Imperium, a rag-tag band of heroes tries to change the universe. You’d like to join them, so it’s time to make a character for that Traveller game you found on StartPlaying Games!
Before You Begin
Traveller character creation often happens as a group activity with the other players. Traveller has a robust character creation system that guides you through the pre-adventuring parts of your character’s life, making it fun to see how everyones’ characters are developing. You’ll also create bonds and connections to the other characters during character creation, which is harder to do if you make your Traveller beforehand. You should check with your GM to find out if you’ll be doing character creation before or during the first game.
Whichever it is, you’ll need a character sheet. The book lacks one, but the Mongoose Publishing website has both static and form-fillable versions. If you’re doing this as a group, the GM will likely lead character creation, but if you’re making a character on your own, you’ll need the core rulebook, which you can also get from Mongoose.
Characteristics
First, before figuring out your Traveller’s Characteristics, you need to choose a name and whether or not your character is an alien. Being an alien will affect your Characteristics scores depending on what species you choose.
Travellers have two sets of Characteristics: Physical and Mental. Physical includes Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), and Endurance (END), while Mental encompasses Intellect (INT), Education (EDU), and Social Standing (SOC). Scores for these are determined by rolling 2d6 six times and plugging the numbers in wherever you like. I recommend assigning them in order, as this embraces the idea that your Traveller, like a character in real life, is subject to the whims of the universe.
If you do decide to choose where to assign your numbers, now’s the time to consider what hopes you have for your Traveller. Are you set on becoming a galaxy-famous influencer and personality? Put a high number in SOC. Do you see yourself playing a scrappy engineer on a rust-bucket ship, barely keeping it all together with a wrench and some bubblegum? INT and DEX should be pretty high.
In any case, your Characteristics will change as we continue with character creation and life happens to your Traveller.
Skills
Many Skills are going to be a product of career choices later on, but you get starting Skills equal to your EDU modifier +3. Are you wanting to be a hotshot G/Racer pilot? Take the Flyer Skill at least, and Mechanic if you can. Is your dream to be a sportsball hero? Athletics will be important.
Where your Traveller comes from can also affect your choices here. Where do you see them having grown up? Planet-wide super city? Farming world? Or were they born and raised in zero-g on a spaceship jaunting from colony to colony? Perhaps your Traveller was a water farmer on a desert planet, dreaming of becoming a space jockey. In that case, Animals and Survival might make sense, but you could still slip in Flyer if you justify it by saying you used to bullseye womp rats in your T-16.
Careers
The real meat of Traveller character creation happens in the Careers phase. From deciding if you want to try for a pre-career education (either at university or at the military academy) to choosing (or having the dice choose for you) how long you’ll be in any of the careers you qualify for, this is where your Traveller gains benefits, money, and skills, and possibly loses it all through injury, bad luck, or even death.
Keep in mind that each ‘term’ (time spent in education or in a career) is four years. Your Traveller starts off at age 18, but when they finally ‘muster out’, leaving their careers behind in order to start adventuring, they could be in their 30s, 40s, or older!
Why would you stay at the daily grind for so long? Because of the benefits. If you manage to ‘survive’ a term of a career, you get cash and benefits that can better prepare you for a life among the stars, as well as create connections to your fellow Travellers.
Each time you roll a life event or a mishap, you might make an ally or an enemy. Talk with the other players to see if one of them might fit into one of those roles. Or perhaps your characters are going down the same path, or went to university together. These connections will make the interactions between your characters all the richer once you start adventuring in the stars together.
Your first decision, though, is whether or not to try for a pre-career education, and if so, do you want to go to a regular university, or to a military academy? What path makes sense for your Traveller? If they have aspirations toward becoming a super-scientist, best start studying now. But maybe you’re willing to let fate have its way, so you sign up for the draft instead. Or perhaps try straightaway for a career in Scholar.
If you try for pre-career education and don’t qualify for it based on the roll of the dice, then you’ll have to select a career or choose to be drafted by the military. After the pre-career education term, though, during any term where you switch careers and fail to qualify you’ll have to enter the draft or become a drifter for that term. So despite your best efforts, your Traveller might wind up wandering the planets with little to no direction. But don’t worry, after four years of this, you can try for something else, unless you wind up in prison, of course.
So, okay, you’ve gone to Uni, picked up some skills, and now you’re ready to enter the workforce at age 22. Things have changed a little since you were that water farmer back on Planet Dust. You no longer want to be a space jockey, instead deciding to become an Entertainer (sportsball hero). Alas, you don’t make the qualification rolls. Drift for four years and try for Entertainer again, or sign yourself up for military service through the draft? That depends on how important your current life trajectory is for your character concept. If you go into the military, there’s a good chance that your Traveller will become that space jockey you wanted early on, but also just as good a chance that they might get injured in action and take a hit to their Characteristics.
Once you qualify for a career path, though, and choose a specialization inside of it, you’ll reap the benefits–as long, that is, as you ‘survive’ the term. The dice will decide. If you survive, you’ll have the choice of continuing or mustering out. I suggest that as long as you’re young enough, stay in a career for a couple of terms if you can. This gives you more resources when you finally muster out.
Mustering Out
Once you decide to Muster Out of your current career, you’ll have the choice between taking cash and taking benefits. Often you’ll be able to make 2 or 3 rolls on the appropriate tables, so I recommend using at least one or two rolls for cash. Once you have a little bit of spending money, use the rest of your rolls on the Benefits table. You might get a weapon, or boosts to your Characteristics, or even shares in a ship!
After you’ve made your benefits choices, you can either try and qualify for a new career, or leave the workaday world and start adventuring!
Finishing Up
Once you’ve mustered out of your final career (and are hopefully still young enough to adventure!), you need to deal with your medical debt, if you have any. If you mustered out with enough cash, you could just pay this off. However, any debt you don’t pay off, well, someone is going to want to come and collect that. When they do, that makes for an interesting game, so you might think about not paying off all your debt, and letting your GM have some fun with your backstory.
One last thing is to answer, “Why is my Traveller travelling?” After all they’ve been through–the injuries, the friendships made and broken, the years under the bridge–what is it that drives them to go out into the stars and cast their fate to the solar winds?
Once you’ve figured that out, it’s time to play that Traveller game you found at StartPlaying Games!
Online Tools
If you’d like to build your Traveller without having to page through the core book for all the tables you’ll need to reference during character creation, check out this online Traveller Character Generator.
C. Patrick Neagle is a writer, podcaster (The Gothic Podcast, currently in its 6th season with Ghost Hunt TV), and professional gamemaster currently living just outside of Portland, OR.
