For a while now, I've been thinking about how to design a narrative-oriented lifepath character generator derived from Mongoose Traveller 2e; I started out trying to adapt that one directly to Stars Without Number but quickly found myself instead trying to build one that's system- and setting-neutral instead. There are a few mechanical incompatibilities between the systems, the Traveller tables make some setting assumptions that don't mesh with SWN, and system neutrality just generally makes a tool more useful (and more of an interesting design challenge).
Going system-neutral means either abstracting any stat outputs of the generator (reducing them to, e.g., “gain a physical attribute bonus at the GM's discretion”) or ditching them entirely. This is fine, because the flurry of stat bonuses and penalties you get in Traveller are some of the lifepath system's least-interesting outputs. I don't want wildly different outcomes in terms of power; I want distinctive characters. (One problem that does arise here is aging—in Traveller, penalties to physical stats are also penalties to health and hardiness. Aging is probably out.)
Skills are a bit more important than attributes in most sci-fi TTRPGs (some, like 24XX, don't have attributes at all), but they also vary wildly. I think they're best abstracted and left to the players and GM to negotiate (i.e., notes like “gain a generalist skill package representing basic military training” and “gain a specialist skill package representing your academic studies”).
So stat bonuses and penalties are going away, or at least being abstracted. Skills are being abstracted. Aging penalties are probably going to be limited or elided; maybe I'll slap a five- or fix-term limit on characters. What else can go? Straight cash isn't very interesting, and neither are cash budgets to acquire weapons, armor, etc. Anything that gives players analysis paralysis right at the start of the game, especially if “making the right choice” depends on system knowledge (or poring over the rulebook for half an hour), is a bad idea.
What's left—what's the good stuff? Connections. The connections rule in MgT2e, which rewards players for explaining how their characters came to know each other, is great. Gotta keep that in some form. NPC connections are great too—friends, enemies, ex-lovers, rivals, clients, and patrons. These give characters depth, give the GM some hooks and levers, and offer good bridges for PC connections. Organizational connections are interesting too: society memberships, union cards, military ranks and campaign ribbons, letters of recommendation, and so forth. Relatedly, failed checks during the lifepath can be really interesting, if handled well (more interesting than many successes). The university dropout, the sergeant who tried for a commission and failed, the assistant professor who didn't get tenure—it changes nothing mechanically, but suggests a perspective, an attitude, a chip on the shoulder.
In that same vein, and moving a bit farther from what's actually in the MgT2e rules, debts are a lot more interesting than financial assets (and debts don't have to be financial—just ask Chewbacca). Wounds are interesting too, whether emotional or physical. A gnarly scar, a utilitarian prosthetic, a tendency to flinch or start at a certain sound. Some of these things feel cheap—affected and unearned—if you just declare them by fiat while cooking up a character, but become really cool when you come by them honestly. The same goes for possessions that make a character more distinctive: a signature weapon, a favorite coat, a treasured necklace. Mementos of important events, keepsakes from important people.
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Now that I've got a decent sense of what sort of outputs I want (and don't want), how many different paths should lead to those outputs, and how complicated should they be? I want to cover as many classic SF archetypes as possible but without creating an overwhelming number of choices, yet I want enough options that two players are unlikely to roll on the same tables much, and I want a somewhat realistic menu of choices while still skewing things toward the adventurous (i.e., it should be possible for your character to be an office worker or a starving artist, but most of the paths should involve spaceships and/or lasers).
Some careers should offer structured advancement (e.g., military ranks) and some should offer more volatile and less granular advancement (e.g., that starving artist might become a superstar, or at least find a generous patron, but they'll more likely just keep starving). I probably want to avoid careers that don't offer room for advancement at all, for a pretty broad definition of "advancement."
So what are the archetypes I want to work toward? Firefly offers a pretty classic lineup: the Captain, the Muscle, the First Mate (essentially an extra Captain crossed with some backup Muscle), the Pilot, the Mechanic, the Doctor, the Ambassador, and the Psychic. It also gives us the Mysterious Preacher, who represents a wild-card spot—substitute Starving Artist or Walter Mitty or whatever you will. Despite the very different setting and scale, Star Trek gives us a similar cast: Captain, Chief of Security, First Officer, Helmsman, Engineer, Doctor (or Nurse), and occasionally Psychic Counselor. We might also get a Science Officer, an Operations Officer, a Communications Officer, and various wild-card alternatives to Shepherd Book (a Bartender or two, a Chef, a "Tailor").
To simplify a bit, then, I'm looking for the lifepath to spit out characters who fit at least five core roles: Captain (lead), Pilot (fly), Engineer (fix), Doctor (heal), and Muscle (fight). It would be good to represent Scientist (research), Diplomat (negotiate), Scout/Spy (sneak), and Technician (program) too, although those skills could conceivably be folded into Doctor, Captain, Muscle, and Engineer, respectively. Whether Psychic is a unique career or just a special knack a character has (or whether it's simply not an option) depends on the setting. And there should be some narrow but accessible path for the stubborn soul who wants their character's area of expertise to be bonsai gardening, interpretive dance, accounting, or something else entirely removed from spaceships and lasers.
There doesn't have to be, and in fact I don't want there to be, a one-to-one correlation between lifepath career X and in-game role Y. Some careers (especially military ones) can lead to many different specializations, and I want various paths to lead to the same role in different ways (your Pilot could be an ex-Navy hotshot, but he could also have apprenticed in a merchant crew or been a farm boy who used to bullseye womp rats in his T-16. I'd like to keep careers simple and generic (i.e., easier to use as a blank slate to project different setting ideas onto). The army, the marines/espatiers, the militia, the police—ideally, they can all be folded into a generic “uniformed armed service.”
Finally, I like the element of risk in the MgT2e lifepaths: some careers are harder than others to get into, and failing to get in forecloses on your some of your options. There should be a number of first-term choices (like the university) that you need to pass a check to get into, and the choices you don't need to roll for should offer some small perk if you choose them straight away, rather than settling for them after failing at something else (e.g., if you try to get into a military academy but fail, you get assigned enlisted service at random; if you volunteer to serve, you get to choose your skill package and get a bonus to your advancement roll to become an NCO). Nothing so major that failing a first-term roll feels like a disaster, though. Failure should be fun and interesting!
Below, an early draft of the first couple rolls/choices in character creation.
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You grew up (2d6)…
2. On a barbarous world barely in contact with the rest of the galaxy.
3. In an enclave of some sort, set apart from the dominant culture around you. (+1 to join underground organization)
4. Aboard a starship or space station, never knowing a natural gravity well.
5. In a conflict-riven environment marked by constant violence.
6. On a civilized but underdeveloped backwater world.
7. In a working-class family on a densely populated world.
8. In comfortable circumstances on a highly developed world.
9. A military brat, moving from base to base with your family. (+1 to enroll at service academy)
10. In a government compound, the child of state officials. (+1 to pass civil-service exam)
11. Among the first generations of colonists born on an untamed world.
12. In the lap of luxury, at the pinnacle of society. (+2 to any first-term roll)
As a young adult, you (d8, or player's choice)…
2. Applied to an elite university.*
3. Took the civil-service exam.*
4. Tried to join an underground organization.*
5. Joined the civilian workforce, whether at the family farm or a megacorporation.
6. Struck out on your own as an entrepreneur or entertainer.
7. Shipped out on the first tramp freighter that passed through.
8. Enlisted in the military with an eye toward becoming an NCO.
I'm very interested to see what you come up with. I love lifepath chargen and its a shame that there's a real dearth of more narrative-oriented versions.
ReplyDeleteStay tuned! I'll have some drafts of a couple of the careers up in the next week or two.
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