"When you see Trin's Veil for the first time..."

[pyat]

doc_mystery has suggested I run a Classic Traveller game once our current eight-year-long D&D game winds to a close. I do have a short campaign in the wings for that, and I've been going through some old notes.

One idea I had was to use the curiously skewed pre-generated characters from the 1981 adventure, The Argon Gambit. The first four characters presented for use in this adventure have very unbalanced, almost unplayable, stats, as presented below.

The string of numbers after the descriptive title is the Universal Personality Profile (UPP). Each number reflects a physical, mental, or social characteristic. In order, they are Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education, and Social Status. These range from 1 to 12 (or higher, if you're lucky), with numbers greated than 9 represented by a letter. Thus, 10=A, 11=B, and so on.

1. Retired Merchant Captain 616668 Age 50 8 terms Cr1,000
Navigation-1, Admin-1, Steward-1, Medic-1 , Pilot-1 , Shotgun-1
Benefits: Ship

2. Ex-navy Lieutenant Commander 118894 Age 34 4 terms Cr2,000
Gunnery-1 , Computer-2, Engineering-1 , Pistol-2

3. Ex-scout 365BB4 Age 34 4 terms Cr1,500
Vacc-2, Pistol-1 , Pilot-1, Electronics-1, Brawling-1
Benefits: TAS member

4. Ex-navy Starman 961797 Age 50 8 terms Cr1,300
Dagger-4, Admin-1, Ship's Boat-1, Computer-1, Navigation-1, JOT-1

With the exception of #3, they are all crippled in some way. #2 is almost certainly wheelchair bound. Once upon a time in this blog, I speculated on their backstories, which I shall now expand upon! In a series of posts...

Comments

[kisekileia.livejournal.com]

Military guys with rock-bottom physical stats? That makes no sense. I guess we have to assume they were seriously injured in adulthood. I wonder what on earth you could come up with to explain #1--severe arthritis plus dyspraxia, maybe?

[thebitterguy]

Well, the Merchant captain could have an inner ear infection, causing his lowered dexterity. The LtC probably lost a couple limbs (note his rank for his somewhat young age; a field promotion for heroics after a horrid battle?), and the Starman suffered horrible radiation poisoning.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Ah, but remember - they're all currently unemployed. They're "ex" military or merchant, etc.

I'm sort of amused that they were presented as sample characters at all.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Those are good ideas, sir!

[athelind.livejournal.com]

The Scout is so totally my character.

"Screw physical stats. I'm REALLY SMART and REALLY WELL EDUCATED. Wait, I don't actually have any science or tech skills besides Sensor Ops? Just what does an 11 in Intelligence and Education GIVE me, anyway? Aw, who cares. All that matters is that I'M SMARTER THAN YOU."

I understand that they've cleaned up the Task system since First Edition, so those stats may actually DO something now.

[the-vulture.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... #3 may be less crippled in terms of stats, and he's even gifted in a couple of them, but the stats are completely mismatched compared to his skills.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

While #4 certainly won't be running any marathon shivving sessions, they don't look too bad of a bet in the 100m sprint and stab.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Well... the 10m jog-stab-nap, perhaps. :)

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

What?!? ::grindgrindgrind::

Ah, well! I hope you guys have lots of fun!

[thebitterguy]

I figure they're just lucky they survived chargen.