I’ve been in an interesting conversation on a Classic Traveller Discord channel concerning (and this is my wording) “At what point is a Classic Traveller character so bad that a player would think it is a bummer to play?”

The example given is a PC with a reasonable UPP and Vac Suit 1.

So when you look at the character record sheet, you see somthing like this (I’m making up the UPP):

768976 Vac-1 Gear: shotgun, cloth armor, candy bar

So yeah, most players are going to look at that and say it’s pretty boring. I get that. In fact, I don’t disagree. It doesnt' matter that the character could still contribute to the game. Most players are going to want a bit more than that to start. How about adding in auto pistol-1, nav-1, and forgery-1.

Still, the dice can be cruel. One term, no commission, 2 skill rolls (resulting in 1 skill and 1 UPP improvement) and failure to reenlist, and you have this very minimal character. Now, you could immediately use the Experience ruless to bump him up to having Shotgun-1 and Blade-1 or something, but still.

Now, compare to Barney, my friend William’s character when we rolled up for our campaign. This was his first ever Traveller character. Survived 4 terms in Scouts.

Barney 4 terms Scouts 887995 Pilot-1, JOT-1, Eng-3, Auto Pistol 2, Vacc-1, Elec-1,

So, above average UPP. Good enough luck to spend 16 years in the Scouts and not die. Not a combat monster but an Engineering miracle worker, competent pilot, and good with a pistol. Engineer-3 is not a skill that a lot of player would probably choose to have at level 3 (I think?), but it a nice thing make that PC seem special.

Something to note: even in the very minimal experience system of Classic Traveller, if you play it by the book, a brand new character can immediately embark on a program of study to increase a level 1 skill to level 2 and immediately get the benefits.

Still, if a player comes from D&D or some other system with massive character record sheets Barney’s record sheet might seem pretty sparce. Pretty boring.

I feel lucky that my original three players didn’t get too hung up on their character record sheets. For whatever reason (trust in me?) they just rolled up their characters and gave it a try and kept at it. No complaints about lack of experience points or superpowers. They just played.

And now, eight years later, their character are mostly the same. Here is Barney today. After several years of play, I made is Comp-1 study permanent and a +1 DEX.

Barney
4 terms Scouts
887995
Pilot-1, JOT-1, Eng-3, Auto Pistol 2, Vacc-1, Elec-1, +1DEX
Learned: Comp-1,
Studying: Auto Pistol +1, Comp +1

So still not a fighting bad ass. A good, versatile retired Scout.

But here’s the thing. William is attached to Barney, because after a year or two of play Barney has a history. The character isn’t just his stats. He’s his entire history in the game, which is frankly a lot more exciting than some numbers.

So my point is not that you should play crummy characters you don’t like, but that the PC becomes what they have done, and even a pretty typical PC at the beginning can do a lot!