Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > Traveller

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 12-10-2017, 05:51 PM   #1
cptbutton
 
cptbutton's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Default Party Roles in Traveller

What are the essential party roles in Traveller? I mean the job functions that someone in the party has to be at least vaguely competent at. One PC could fill several slots.

Party roles -

Essential:
Pilot (includes Driver)
Navigator
Gunner
Armsman
Engineer
Medic

Very desirable:
Face/negotiater
Hacker
Stealthy person

Optional:
Scientist or other academic
Bureaucrat


What am I forgetting?
__________________
--
Burma!
cptbutton is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-10-2017, 06:43 PM   #2
trooper6
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Medford, MA
Default Re: Party Roles in Traveller

Hm.

I don't tend to think of Party Roles in general...unless there is are In Character jobs.

So, when I was running Traveller, I created positions that the Captain of the ship advertised for that needed to be covered for that particular ship.

This particular ship advertised for:
Captain (NPC)
Pilot/Driver
Navigator/Comms
Engineer
Purser/Merchant (the captain requested this person also be qualified to use ship's guns)
Steward/Medic (the captain requested this person also be qualified to use ship's guns)
NPC Crewman

So this resulted in a 5 person party with an NPC captain (who I planned to have killed...but the PCs never let that happen). If I only had 4 players, I think I'd configure a ship that could operate with 4 PCs.

But if I were running a Merc campaign, then there'd be different configurations. Or if they were running a scientist campaign, then there'd be different configurations. Or if they were running pirates...or I don't. But I was running a Free Trader campaign...so they needed to be able to...a) run a Hero class ship, b) take care of passengers, c) do cargo wheeling and dealing.
trooper6 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-12-2017, 10:43 AM   #3
DAT
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho
Default Re: Party Roles in Traveller

I normally differentiate between ship board job, and party role.

Ship Board Jobs:
Pilot
Navigator
Engineer
Merchant
Medic
Steward
Gunner
Engineering Assistant
Cargo Handler

Roles:
Leader/Tactician
Face
B&E/Infiltrater
Hacker
Gunman
Scrounger
Hand-to-Hand Expert
Red Tape Cutter
science Expert
Driver
Etc.

Each character needs to cover one or more ship board jobs, and one or more roles.

An example of a crew:
Captain/Navigator who is a leader & science expert
Pilot who is the Driver & Face
Engineer who is Hand-to-Hand & Scrounger
Medic/Steward who is a Gun man & tactician
Merchant/cargo Handler who is a red tape cutter & hacker
Gunner who is a gun man and B&E/infiltrator
DAT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-18-2017, 06:42 PM   #4
YankeeGamer
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Default Re: Party Roles in Traveller

In every Traveler game I've played, the PC's have some sort of ship.

SKILLS: At a minimum, Pilot 1 and Engineer 1 would be needed. (We played Original Traveler, enhanced by Mercenary, High Guard, Scouts, etc for more capable characters.) We later incorporated Megatraveler and a few scarce elements from other versions, but we played in the Third Imperium before Strephon's murder (and eventually prevented it.)

The things we got into, knowing how to use a gun was imperative for everyone.

Other needed skills for someone included computer, intrusion, gunner, and medic.

Roles we always had included the hotshot pilot, the combat specialist, and the greedyguts/money person. The stealth/intrusion expert was almost always needed.

There was almost always a "wizard," in the form of a psionic--lots of interesting backstories to justify someone being psionicly trained when she was a child, before aging stared to reduce the potential.

The Face, in the form of a noble, high ranking ex military, or someone else with influence was a secondary role that someone ended up with, depending on how skills ended up being rolled. (Sometimes, we were allowed somechoice in skills, but some were always random!)

Usually we didn't need to be worrying about making the next payment; we were all dealing with that enough in reality.
YankeeGamer is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
balance, party, roles

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:01 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.