Just what the title says, any CharGen system that doesn't take 35-40 minutes and can end with your character dead? Or do I have to houserule it?

Use a web app? They're fast.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;1097051Use a web app? They're fast.

And if there's no internet? Something we get a lot here in México, or no celphone coberture. Thanks but I would rather have to roll the dice but not waste 45 minutes per character.

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1097049Just what the title says, any CharGen system that doesn't take 35-40 minutes and can end with your character dead? Or do I have to houserule it?

People have been houseruling that since its creation. I did when I was just trying to roll up a Belter and the character died 13 times in a row. Just ignore the death result and say that the career ends there.

There is also CT Ultralite and their instant characters (see PDF attachment to post).

But if you want to listen to Driscoll (and nobody has on Traveller since the disaster that was the MgT2 playtest). Then you might want to try:

Supplement 1: 1,000,001 characters

Traveller Character Generator

The Mark Munson Traveller Site

The Classic Traveller Character Generator

MegaTraveller Basic Character Generator

Hope these all help!

Why is Cepheus chargen so slow?

Classic Traveller chargen was usually 10 minutes. I mean using Book 1 or Citizens of the Imperium, not the year by year crazy of Mercenary or High Guard. Most PCs won't do more than 4 terms and that's only a handful of rolls.

Neither Classic Travelle, either editions of Mongoose Traveller, or Cepheus are slow. The chargen rules can fit on a single digest size page. Two if you want include a skill list with terse description.

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1097049Just what the title says, any CharGen system that doesn't take 35-40 minutes and can end with your character dead? Or do I have to houserule it?

Serious suggestion: just write some stuff down that seems reasonable. Takes about one minute.

Also, it only took me about 45 minutes total to roll up 10 Traveller characters the other day for a Solo game I was gonna run...why is it taking you so long to do one? I think some familiarity with the tables helps speed this up quite a bit.

Quote from: Brad;1097100Serious suggestion: just write some stuff down that seems reasonable. Takes about one minute.

Also, it only took me about 45 minutes total to roll up 10 Traveller characters the other day for a Solo game I was gonna run...why is it taking you so long to do one? I think some familiarity with the tables helps speed this up quite a bit.

Because I'm not that familiar with the game, also I might be exaggerating a bit, but it took me way more than what it usually takes in other games. Admittedly I'm way more used to play those games.

The fastest that I've used:
Roll or assign attributes*, pick (or make up) a career that you were in before becoming an adventurer, set your age, pick 3 skills and assign a +1, a +2 and a +3 respectively. Combat skills and skills that "make sense" for your career default to Skill-0. Go play.

*assign attributes method: start with a standard array of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9. Then add a +2 to any two of those or a +4 to any one.

Credit: This method stolen from the Traveller: Out of the Box blog.


P.S.: Look into the chargen method used by Zaibatsu as well. It's very quick and doesn't use the life path roulette.

Here are the Navy Career Columns from Classic Traveller

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3630[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]3631[/ATTACH]


Here how Luke Sato, Navy Starman was generated

QuoteNavy Starman Luke Sato   973944    Age 30
3 terms                        Cr22,000

Skills: Fwd Obsvr-1, Jack-o-T-1, Ship's Boat-1

Starting out
Rolled attributes: 873944

Enlistment Roll,
Attempted to enlist in Marines.
Enlistment roll 4 + 3 vs 9
Enlistment denied.
Drafted into navy. (rolled 1d6 and rolled a 1 for the draft)
--------------------------------------------
Term 1 age 22
Skipping commission because of draft. (Book 1, page 10)
(you get two skills first term; Book 1, page 10 table in the lower right)
Learned Ship's Boat-1 (by picking the Service skill table and rolling a 1)
Increased strength by 1 to 9 (by picking Personal Development and rolling a  1)
Survival roll 8 + 2 vs 5
Reenlistment roll 10 vs 6
Voluntarily reenlisted for second term.
--------------------------------------------
Term 2 age 26
(Now a character can start rolling to see if they become an officer)
Commission roll 2 + 0 vs 10
(you get one skill; Book 1, page 10 table in the lower right)
(If you have gotten commissioned you get one more skill, promotion also give an other skill, and you can be commissioned and promoted on the same term; Book 1, page 10)
Learned Forward Observer-1 (by picking Service Skills and rolling a 3)
Survival roll 10 + 2 vs 5
Reenlistment roll 6 vs 6 (whew that was close)
Voluntarily reenlisted for third term.
--------------------------------------------
Term 3 age 30
Commission roll 3 + 0 vs 10
(Again 1 skills there was no commissions or promotions)
Learned Jack-o-T-1 (picked Advanced Service Skills and rolled a 6)
Survival roll 7 + 2 vs 5
Reenlistment roll 7 vs 6
Chose not to reenlist after third term. (Time to get out)
--------------------------------------------
Mustered Out
 (3 terms of service give 3 rolls. You would get extra if you gotten commissioned and/or promoted)
(Opted to roll all 3 rolls on the cash benefit table)
1,000 credits
20,000 credits
1,000 credits

Hope this helps.
You can see a verbose breakdown of character generation by clicking version at the following link
http://www.batintheattic.com/traveller/

Cepheus works more or less like the above, but is slightly more generous with skills due to getting all the service skills at level 0 at the start.

Also note both in classic, Mongoose, and Cepheus, some career give you skills automatically for joining, some careers will give you a skill once to get to a certain rank.

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1097105Because I'm not that familiar with the game, also I might be exaggerating a bit, but it took me way more than what it usually takes in other games. Admittedly I'm way more used to play those games.

Yeah, no familiarity can definitely make it take longer. When I first rolled up a Traveller character years ago, took me a LONG time. Once you get the process down, with the tables it's super quick.

I really like the Mongoose T2 chargen, but that's much more complex. Unless I want to use it as a minigame, I just use one of the generators.

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1097053And if there's no internet? Something we get a lot here in México, or no celphone coberture. Thanks but I would rather have to roll the dice but not waste 45 minutes per character.

Point-buy then. Quickly build your character how you want.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;1097132Point-buy then. Quickly build your character how you want.

Thanks, seems this will be the only way, much as I dislike point buy systems.

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1097133Thanks, seems this will be the only way, much as I dislike point buy systems.

It doesn't have to be point buy, exactly. Just increment skills by +1 at a time. Give yourself a limit of +1's to use.

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1097053And if there's no internet? Something we get a lot here in México, or no celphone coberture. Thanks but I would rather have to roll the dice but not waste 45 minutes per character.

You can run the generator in chrome without an internet connection. Just download this.
https://github.com/robertsconley/travellercharactergenerator/archive/master.zip

install Google Chrome
unzip
and double click on index.html to open it up in Google Chrome.

It works because Javascript (the language it written in) works in the browser not on a server.