2021 Character Creation Challenge: Day 5 - Traveller

 Played a LOT of Traveller in college, as I recall the much of campaign was done in concert with playing out 5th Frontier War.  But haven't played since.  I have used the generation tables to teach myself a number of programming languages.  I find that having a specific goal and good requirements makes it easier to learn.  And the Little Black Books generation systems are better than 90% of what I have gotten in professional career.

    The system is of course, notorious for characters dying during the generation process.  I even got a T-shirt shown above and it's even similar to the classic Traveller pseudo-Optical Character Recognition font.

   Still this guy survived without an issue.

Merchant 4th Officer Ilbak Mullens   973644  Age 26    2 Terms Cr 6,000

Gun Combat -1, Medical - 1, Jack-of-all-Trades -1

Born: Wardn/Lunion/Spinward Marches

Discharged: Bendor/Glisten/Spinward Marches

1st Term:   Young Ilbak did poorly in school, knowing that his family connections would get him into the Longshoreman's Guild at the starport.  Shortly after starting there as laborer (+1 Endurance), he was working inside the cargo bay of the Free Trader Luisa Karnak when a group from the Sword Worlds' based Nightmare Snow pirates attempted to hijack the ship by rushing up the ramp.  When a nearby guard went down in the initial volley, Ilbak picked up his weapon and returned fire (Gun Combat skill), enabling the crew to raise the ramp and lift ship.  The ship's doctor having been caught dirtside, he grabbed a bulkhead mounted EMT unit and used it to stabilize the wounded (Medical skill).  

    The captain enlisted him in the Merchant Service on the spot and as the Karnak's 4th officer had been killed in the firefight, appointed him acting 4th Officer based on his quick responses in the emergency. (Commission)

2nd Term:  While eager and likeable, in the long run Ilbak's lack of education was destined to stall his career.  He was willing to help everywhere (Jack-of-all-Trades) but didn't have enough background to do the work on his own.  After his second hitch he left the service with 6000Cr in savings and was presented a shotgun to commemorate how he joined the ship.   

He's now on Bendor/Glisten/Spinward Marches, looking for adventure.

Reasonable physical stats, intelligence, education and social standing are poor: Strength 9, Dexterity 7, Endurance 3, Intelligence 6, Education 3, Social Status 4

He enlisted without a problem in the Merchant Service, having a +3 for meeting the bonus Intelligence and Strength scores.  He survived gaining +1 Endurance, Gun Combat and, surprisingly, a commission as 4th Officer, which gained him a skill point in Medical.  

He successfully reenlisted and survived, but wasn't promoted.  He did pick up the coveted Jack of all Trades skill allowing him to perform any skill check without a penalty.

Mustering out he got a shotgun and then had the two lowest rolls on the cash table.  The rest is fluff. 

Character Creation Challenge Posts:

2021 Character Creation Challenge

Day 1 - D&D 0e

Day 2 - Empire of the Petal Throne

Day 3 - Metamorphosis Alpha

Day 4 - Chivalry & Sorcery 1e

2021 Character Creation Challenge: Day 4 - Chivalry & Sorcery 1e

   

Day 4 brings me to the first game I ever bought, Fantasy Games Unlimited Chivalry & Sorcery by Ed Simbalist and Wilf Backhaus.   It's been one of my favorite games for over forty years and I did a write up of it here several years ago so I'll let you follow the link rather than repeating the text in this post.  I've written a fair number of posts over the years about or referencing the game.

I will say the mechanics are kind of kludgely and after spending 2020 doing solo-play with it off and on, I'm probably done with most of the game system mechanics.  Other systems are just more streamlined.  With that said, it is still, after four decades on my shelf, one of my go to books for world and campaign design.

    Character creation would take me about two hours - if I hadn't wrote my own Google Sheets character generator.

Name: Aquila Heyworth

Aquila did very well on his d20 characteristic rolls.  The 20(2) Superhuman strength level makes him into a killing machine, for as we'll see below C&S doesn't add damage - it multiplies it.  His only real poor characteristic is his low Constitution, probably due to poor childhood nutrition or something like that.  The Frame of Average Height & Average Weight determined how to read the tables on which his height and weight were rolled.  He's very average.

The only calculated value in this section is Charisma and his is through the roof due to his Appearance (helped by his Dexterity, Bardic Voice, Intelligence and Wisdom.  His Strength is the cherry on top as people have a lot of respect for someone who can tear them apart.

The Combat section are all calculated based on the Characteristics.  His Body & Fatigue (hit points basically) are mostly due to his character class (see Vocation below), Superhuman Strength and his Intelligence - he fights smart.  His low Constitution isn't low enough to penalize him.

Carrying Capacity is calculated as a multiple of his Weight - in this case 5* again due to his Superhuman Strength.  And I just discovered two bugs in my character generator, his Strength is really 20(20). not 20(2) so there's a display issue and I haven't factored in that Strength has a Constitution minimum, he should have a Constitution of 14!  Oh well.

Military Ability is tied into the Campaign Battle rules in C&S (no need for Chainmail) and is a determination of how good a Military Commander he his.  And if not a Napoleon, he's at least equal to U.S. Grant.  It's the sum of Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Strength and Charisma divided by 10 with bonuses for high Wisdom, Charisma and Dexterity.  

Command Level is half Military Ability plus a bonus for Charisma.  It determines how well he can lead the rather flighty feudal troops he may be working with.

Personal Combat Factor is just how good a fighter you are.  It's calculated from Carrying Capacity, Military Ability, Dexterity plus a "Class Factor" that depends on what you do for a living and where you are in Feudal society.  Experience will improve it, but this guy is a first level killing machine.

Finally we have background data.  I created an algorithm based on Social Class and the Characteristics to determine if the character would be a Fighter, Magic User, Cleric or Thief.  The only classes C&S offers in Feudal society.  With his Strength and being the younger son of a Serf, Man-At-Arms, where he has been accepted into the service of his feudal lord, is the best he could do.

Every Character gets a Horoscope and he's a Well-aspected Libra enjoying a 5% experience bonus.  His father was a herdsman Serf with NO social status, but being very Charismatic, young Aquila has a very good chance of Influencing people.

To finish him off. using my Wilderlands charts - he is quite Exotic looking with his Metallic Silver hair, Dark Brown skin (unusual around the City State) and Violet eyes. 

Character Creation Challenge Posts:

2021 Character Creation Challenge

Day 1 - D&D 0e

Day 2 - Empire of the Petal Throne

Day 3 - Metamorphosis Alpha

2021 Character Creation Challenge: Day 3 - Metamorphosis Alpha

     The second RPG I ever bought - I think.  I'm really no longer 

sure when I picked it up, I believe I wasstill in High School, so that puts it in the 1977-1979 date range.  I only played it once or twice, but made a lot of maps of the various levels of the starship Warden.  There wasn't enough setting details to give me traction on how to run a campaign in this system.  After a few decades of experience, yes, just make a McGuffin and build a few adventures around it.  I have used the mutation tables as a source of inspiration and had a duralloy shield show up as a treasure once.  That campaign took a different turn and they never encountered the landing party.

    Anyway, it's James M Ward's "Fantastic Role Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventure"  and cost me a cool $5 plus tax new.  Players have the option of playing human, mutated human, or mutated creature (animals or plants!).  All of them are barbarians living in a generation ship voyaging between the stars, a la Robert A Heinlein's Orphan's of the Sky - from which it draws obvious inspiration.

   It's influence is seen in Gamma World (coming up on the January 7th) and, of course, the classic module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

Six stats are created by rolling 3d6:

 Radiation Resistance - the ability to withstand the damaging effects of radiation

Mental Resistance - the ability to withstand psionic and mental attacks.  This one is increased by one for every 5 successfully resisted attacks.

Dexterity, Constitution, and Strength are the same that we see in so many RPGs, although Your Constitution determines the number of d6s you roll for Hit Points.

 Leadership Potential - Really it's D&D Charisma stripped of the unfortunate connotation of physical beauty.   It's how many followers you can have and how likely a friendly mutant will follow you.  Only humans have Leadership Potential, no one likes the mutants.

Radiation Resistance, Mental Resistance and Poison all use cross reference charts of attacking strength vs defending strength that were so basic to the hex and counter military board games of the day.  The intersecting values for Radiation showed how many turns you would last before taking damage; Mental Strength gave you target number or auto success or failure - rather like the Clerical Turn Undead charts.  Poison works against Constitution and shows which of three possible outcomes are faced by comparing the Poison Strength to the Constitution: Ignore it, Die and 'Get an Antidote with N Turns or Die'.

Mutations:  Character's roll d4 apiece for Physical and Mental Mutations.  The DM rolls d4 and assigns "defects"

Character

Name:  Ix Kaknab                         Mutated Human

Radiation Resistance:  11              Constitution: 12           

Mental Resistance:       10             Strength:        13

Dexterity:                     12             

Physical Mutations (2)                        Mental Mutations (3)                       Defects (2)

1. Poison Claws or Fangs                    1. Telekinesis                                    1. Hemophilia (physical)

2. Heightened Touch                            2. Density Control (others)               2. Epilepsy (mental)

                                                             3. Force Field Generation

Ix Kaknab often passes as a regular human with his brunette hair and reddish brown skin.  His eyes give away his true nature as they are milky white orbs including the pupil and iris, so he is usually encountered wearing a deep hood.

His hands have short claws that can inject a Strength 11 Poison.  His Heightened Touch gives him a better chance of figuring out the use of ancient technology or identifying weaknesses in an object.

He can use Telekinesis to mentally move objects around.  Useful when you want to see if that's a vine or snare on the ground.  Once a day he can project a Force Field ahead of him that will absorb 5 dice of damage.  He can also change the molecular density of another being once a day, increasing their armor class (useful for a friend) at the expense of their speed (a slower enemy is one he can run away from).

He avoids combat, as Hemophilia means he needs attention to every cut to avoid bleeding to death.  His epilepsy is triggered by joining large (>4) groups.  There is a 5% chance each time he is in one that he suffers an attack of paralysis.

Character Creation Challenge Posts:

2021 Character Creation Challenge

Day 1 - D&D 0e

Day 2 - Empire of the Petal Throne

2021 Character Creation Challenge: Day 2 - Empire of the Petal Throne

   The first RPG I ever played at a new wargaming club at the University of Minnesota in 1977.  I don't remember where we saw the announcement - probably a story in the Duluth News-Tribune, but my friend Brian Sorvik were experimenting with creating our own abstract wargame at the time.  He had his licence, so he picked me up out in Clover Valley and we drove in to meet these like minded people.  In addition to learning to play Go, and being introduced to a large number of Avalon Hill hex and counter board games, I was invited to go on a little excursion to Jakalla.

     I'm generating this character with the 2017 PDF reissue of the rules, it contains both Gygax's 1975 forward and Arneson's 1987 forward to that revision.  If you are not familiar with Tekumel and works of Professor M.A.R. Barker visit the Tekumel Foundation. He was a visionary who built as original and compelling a world as Greg Stafford's Glorantha or Dave Hargraves' Arduin.  One of my few regrets is that I went to college at the University of Minnesota when he was teaching and was completely unaware of the connection between him and the game.  Of course, I took Norwegian and Russian while he was a Middle Eastern language professor, so never had a class from him either.  

Starting on Page 12, the rules jump into Basic Talents, better known in the hobby as Prime Requisites. EPT uses percentile dice for a linear progression, rather than the 3d6 bell curve. 

Name:   Kisin hiCoyopa                             Class:  Priest

Strength:  73                  Intelligence: 44              Constitution: 55

Psychic Ability:  73       Dexterity: 96                    Comeliness: 67

He has chestnut hair, reddish bronzed complexion and dark brown eyes.  

His strength of 73 gives him a +1 to hit

Intelligence and Constitution are only average providing no bonuses or penalties

Psychic Ability is a measure of the character's ability to use magic devices and cast spells.  He is somewhat Psychic, having a +5% chance of spells working and can cast all levels of spells

His high Dexterity makes him Agile and he receives +2 to hit and +1 on damage.

Comeliness is a measure of physical appearance - he is somewhat good looking

After generating the Basic Talents, a roll is made to determine 'Original Skills' representing skills learned during childhood.  These set the character's background.  With a roll of 77, Kisin can pick one Plebian, one 'Skilled' and one Noble skill.  He chooses Merchant, Scribe-Accountant and Interpreter, providing him a background as a member of one of the merchant clans which crisscross the Five Empires in their chlen-cart and slave caravans of goods.  He's learned to bargain, keep the books and has picked up Mu'ugalavyani in travelling to trade with the Red Hats.

Professional Skills are next and as a Priest he rolls a 31 allowing him to chose three out of the first four skills listed (2 modern languages, 2 ancient languages, Produce Light and Detect Evil/Good).  As he expects to help his clan with his professional abilities he chooses 2 modern languages: Salarvyani and Yan Koryani, Produce Light and Detect Evil/Good.  After all one does not negotiate with the dead.  The last two are spells and as a Level 1 priest he has a 60% that the spells do NOT work, modified by his Intelligence and Psychic Ability.

As a Priest he has 1d6 hit points- and rolls 4.

His clan must have experienced a set back recently, as he only has 27 Kitars (gold pieces) to his name right now.  Fortunately, the temple provides him with room and board for now.  He purchases a lead weighted mace (as a Priest he cannot use edged weapons outside of sacrifices) [7K]and a shield [10K].

Final stats are 

Name:   Kisin hiCoyopa of the Clan of the Golden Sheaf  

Class:  Priest of Ketengku

Strength:  73                  Intelligence: 44              Constitution: 55

Psychic Ability:  73       Dexterity: 96                    Comeliness: 67

Gold: 10 Kitar                                            Experience: Nil

He has chestnut hair, reddish bronzed complexion and dark brown eyes.  He speaks Tsolyani, Mu'ugalavyani, Salarvyani and Yan Koryani.

He can cast Produce Light (30' radius/10 Turns) and Detect Evil/Good (2 Turns) once each every day.  He has a 55% chance of NOT casting the spell correctly.

He has AC 8 (Shield) and 4 Hit Points

He is armed with a Mace that he hits AC 9 (No armor) on a roll of 8 due to his Strength and Dexterity and does 1d6+1 damage.  The bonus point coming from his Dexterity

He is a priest of Ketengku the Many Eyed, Knower of All and Cohort of Thumis.  His holy symbol is a a stylized eye. 

Character Creation Challenge Posts:

2021 Character Creation Challenge

Day 1 - D&D 0e

2021 Character Creation Challenge: Day 1 - D&D 0e

   Starting the challenge as I described earlier with the original.  Truth be told I never played using the Little Brown Books, they were out of stock in the game shop in Superior Wisconsin, so I bought Chivalry & Sorcery instead.  I picked up PDFs of them a couple of years ago, legally I think.  Anyway, from page 10 of Men & Magic  the DM - not the player rolls the stats and and additional 3d6*10 roll for starting money.  Pretty simple.  

     I'm using a variation my friend Jim Parker uses in his games, roll 3d6 in order, but do it three times and select the best roll for each stat.  Yes, I'm going to run a spreadsheet for character generation.  

     In order to round out the characters backgrounds, I'm going place them with in my version of the City State of the Invincible Overlord.  Here goes:

  On my City State background table, I roll a 98 and get an Amazon!

Name: Kresida                                                Class:  Fighter

Strength: 18                  Intelligence: 14              Wisdom: 14

Constitution:  10          Dexterity: 7                     Charisma: 13

Gold Pieces:   130                                             Experience: Nil

She has blonde hair, pale white skin and amber eyes.  She speaks Amazon, an language descended from Slyvan and Elvish as well as Common.    With her background as an Amazon, no further rolls need to be made to place her within the society of the Wilderlands.

With her good roll for starting gold, she buys "Chain-type Mail", a Composite Long Bow, Quiver of Arrows and Sword to handle combat, then a backpack, 50 feet of rope, 3 stakes and a mallet, 6 torches and a week's worth of Iron Rations.  Spending 124 of her 130 gold.

She has one d6 + 1 hit points, rolled a 5 so HP = 6.

Final stats are 

Name: Kresida                                                Class:  Fighter

Strength: 18                  Intelligence: 14              Wisdom: 14

Constitution:  10          Dexterity: 7                     Charisma: 13

Gold Pieces:   6                                                   Experience: Nil

Hit Points:     6                                                     Armor Class: 4

She hits Armor Class 9 (no armor) on a throw of 10 and all of her weapons do 1d6 damage.

2020 Year in Review

    I set a goal at the beginning of the year to do 48 posts this year, up from the 24 of 2019 and way up from the 3 of 2018, but less than half of my most loquacious year, 2014 where I posted 117 times.  The old Blog Carnivals helped that year.

    With this post I'll have posted 46 times this year, and have been looked at a bit under 20,000 times.  Probably my most visible year ever, as I came in with less than 100,000 views since I started on October 7th, 2012. For that the RPG communities of MeWe have been a great source of exposure, but an even better source of ideas and I'd like to thank everyone who has been interested enough to click on a link and read my musings.

     My most read post this year was the Real Life Hexcrawl Manual concerning Captain Marcy's guidebook for prairie travelers during the settlement of the West.  Right behind it was one of my Wilderlands posts working out the size of a barony.  The whole Wilderlands series, where I'm working out how to set up a Chivalry & Sorcery kingdom using the Wilderlands maps and doing some soloplay with C&S has been very well received.

    On a personal note, made it to Colorado to see one son in January, Belize in February for our regular winter vacation and that's it.  Had to scrub the fall trip to Scotland for obvious reasons, perhaps next year, but more likely 2022 I think.  Have a new granddaughter in Colorado who we haven't been able to meet yet, that's going to happen in 2021 for certain.

    Other than that, we've come out of the pandemic to date much better than many people.  I no longer have to commute thirty seven miles each way, so I have less stress in my life.  My oldest brother and his third wife, along with her son have come through COVID successfully.  And we did manage to meet them at our other brother's cabin on the lake this summer, where I also got to drive a jet boat.  Probably won't bother doing it again, poor visibility at high speed.  I also managed to step off a raised deck and bang up my legs, spending a good month wearing the boot of shame.

    If you see a silver Jeep Gladiator with with a 1st Navy Jack grill insert, wave  - it's probably me.

A Happier and More Prosperous New Year to Everyone

2021 Character Creation Challenge

      Been stuck on a soloplay post and on a Call of Cthulhu adventure for most of the month.  My oldest brought the Character Creation Challenge to my attention, so I thought I'd at least map it out.  I will confess in advance that I expect to cheat and create characters in advance or in arrears as needed.  My schedule being overbooked and my time and energy being limited.

     Here's my intended schedule, doing the systems in order of publication until I run out of major systems, then picking up some variants of Chivalry & Sorcery and finishing with a few books that are currently misplaced.

1 - 1974 D&D 0e

2 - 1975 Empire of the Petal Throne  

3 - 1976 Metamorphosis Alpha

4 - 1977 Chivalry & Sorcery 1e

5 - 1977 Traveller

6 - 1978 Runequest

7 - 1978 Gamma World 1e

8 - 1979 AD&D 1e

9 - 1980 Morrow Project

10 - 1981 Judges Guild Universal Roleplaying Adventure

11 - 1986 Warhammer FRP 1e

12 - 1988 Space 1889

13 - 1992 Shadowrun

14 - 2000  D&D 3e

15 - 2005  Infernum

16 - 2006 The Dark Eye

17 - 2010 Lamentations of the Flame Princess

18 - 2011 Labyrinth Lord

19 - 2011 Carcosa

20 - 2012 Swords and Wizardry

21 - 2013 Adventurer, Conqueror, King

22 - 2017 Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea

23 - 2017 Castles & Crusades 7th Printing

24 - Undated Barsoom (lots of copyright violations I suspect)

25 - 1978 Chivalry & Sorcery: Swords & Sorcerers: Nordic

26 - 1978 Chivalry & Sorcery: Swords & Sorcerers: Celt

27 - 1978 Chivalry & Sorcery: Swords & Sorcerers: Mongol

28 - 1979 Chivalry & Sorcery: Saurians 

29 - D&D 2e (If I can find my book)

30 - Pathfinder (If I can find my book)

31 - Tiny Dungeons (If I can find my granddaughter's book)