RPG Story: My Failed Game Attempt 

The noble one does sound like a normal RPG character though. Noble blood, check. Dead parents, check. On the run, check. Pirates, check.

I literally just had my first character creation for Traveller. I tried to make a medic, so he went to college. He got kicked out for cheating and over the next 30 years, went back and forth between drifting and trying to get back into school (which never worked). His loved ones died, others betrayed him, he suffered an injury which brought his strength down to 1, and when his nephew died he just broke. After his injury, he began to see the flesh as weak and life as meaningless, craving the cold certainty of steel. He got every augment he could get: combat arms, extra robotic arms, a shriekerbox, implanted weapons, and many other things. He became clinically insane with achieving a body free from the frailty of the human flesh and satiating his bloodlust. I tried to make a good natured medic and came out with a freaking Skitarii Ruststalker from Warhammer 40k... I’m really excited to play him.

Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down, and I'd like to take a minute just sit right there, this is how I went from being a prince to being deaf in one ear.

"I played a pilot for two years" "That was the one time I tried to play Traveler" WHICH IS IT??

Asks them to pick occupation: “You think you can just pick an occupation?!?”

Am I mistaken, or did the characters just have amazing adventures before the game even began?

One of my favorite pastimes to play when bored was, "A Traveller's Life in Chargen." You start with a 16 year-old Traveller, play through the normal Lifepath process, and keep going until they die or retire. All the fun of playing Traveller in two hours.

Not gonna lie, character creation in traveler is one of my favorites. You never know what will happen!

This character creation is awesome for generating OCs.

After watching you for months, I finally got to play in my first D&D campaign. Long story short, 3/5 players died and we managed to fail both options for our quest. I lived though : D I've learned a lot from you clearly

The idea behind traveler is so so so awesome, I got the rulebook and then found this and it's an absolutely amazing concept. I wish I had a group that was willing to play and would enjoy it lol.

Character creation is part of Traveller's elevator pitch, not something you spring on the players like it was a trap. Sounds like your group miht do better with Stars Without Number which is like a blend of Traveller and early D&D.

It's why when doing Traveller, I have 2 house rules: 1 - You get 3 rerolls during creation. They can be rerolling anything, but you have to stick with the reroll. 2 - Each term is 2 years instead of 4, so my players can have a bit more backstory before being old as balls.

So basically the Game of Life.

When I ran my Traveller Campaign, I ran four character creation instances for my players. Then, they had four characters to choose their favorite from while retaining that interesting randomized backstory.

Protip: Traveler, and in particular the latest version from a few years ago(2019?), is AWESOME. Pick it up, try it out. You will never forget your first character creation in that game. Freakin genius.

Rolling randomly to determine your character. . . Sounds like something *I* would do. It might have gone a little better if you told them that ahead of time, and made sure they were cool with it. It does have a certain appeal, but only if you're expecting it.

What's interesting is that from the outside, at least to me, the characters they ended up with sounded *super* interesting. Like you get a whole bizarre backstory written for you. They actually *sound* like a rag tag team of space adventurers! I expect PF likely realised this in hindsight but I think probably if the idea these things Could and Would happen to the PCs was clearer up front, I can imagine players getting really into it. Being that they knew to not invest in whatever path they selected and be more interested in whatever comes out the other side of the rollercoaster. and if they really didn't like the sound of it, cut that chunk of the rules out or bypass it, assuming players just got to be what they wanted. I haven't played Traveller but it sounds very odd and interesting!

Those characters all sounded awesome. The flaws and trials offer motivations. The player disparity was a good thing as it could create interesting dynamics in the party. You just needed to let your players understand and agree to this method of character generation ahead of time. xD

"Maybe someday I'll be able to explore the stars" sitting in a broken ship on a No Man's Sky planet...

This sounds like a case where you should have given them a bit of a heads up... have a "test play" day where you expect them to rage quit... then ask them back after like... a month of them stewing over the system.

I like to think this channel is an alternate timeline where Cartman got into D&D.

Letting your players know in advance how Traveller character generation works would have been a good thing. That way their expectations would have been reigned in and they could have had more fun with it, since character creation for Traveller is a gaming session in itself and helps if it's roleplayed through. I just started running a Traveller game and one player wanted to become a Grav Racer after having served as a pilot. In his first term at the Military Academy a war broke out and he got drafted into the military, which is what he wanted sorta, but got sent to the army and then into cavalry. He ran with it and ended up retiring as an Army General, ready to start his new life as a Traveller. This game also has a former Marine medic, Director of a spy Agency, Preacher/Conman, and a Nobleman who had sponged off his family all his life. Traveller is a great game but the players need to know how cruel it can be making your character, but then being able to have a ton of fun with what they get and having a roleplaying experience that can take them out of their comfort zone/normal perception of more typical RPGs.

you messed up puffin. those type of games you have to explain to new players on how creation works. tossing them into the deep end like that always results in a salty player.

1:21 Looks like Firefly. Curse your Sudden but inevitable betrayal.

Just like life. One guy gets everything and the others gets screwed.

Wow, imagine dying in the middle of character creation

That sounds like an epic start for those two. Plenty of character quirks and backstory to show up during play.

That noble guy got a Char Aznable start and that's pretty rad. Also this sounds like it'd be great for outlaw star.

I personally think travelers character gen system is really cool! It really helps give your character a detailed history and place in the world! But yeah... not the best if you already have something specific in mind. Definitely should'a warned players beforehand.

I would play Traveller with you, and I could probably round up 2 or 3 other people. Yes, old skool hardcore players who are all familiar with this system. We actually loved it. Edit: We all rolled, I think, 6 or 7 character each, then picked what we wanted out of that. If you just roll one character playing this, you will be severely disappointed in the game. Pick one, keep all the rest as backups, or give to the GM so he doesn't need to roll NPCs. It worked very well. Yes, we made a day of just doing characters, then we sat as a group, and figured out who would play what so we have most or all bases covered. You really need to do this in Traveller, lest your group is stranded on a primitive planet with now way off, then you might as well break out the D&D rules as the planet is Tech 0 and you start a campaign in the Bronze age. Good luck!

I have a theatre background from before I became a board gamer. When I look at a role playing game I am really looking for a dramatic experience. I am not trying to win. These characters sound awesome and the disparity between each of them creates a great group dynamic.

Those sounded like pretty amazing backstories. Shame the players werrent on board with them. Reminds me of something... A year ago, I made a character in DnD who was a dwarvish immortal mystic named Nolir Galhmar. He was a sworn mute who wore a mask and spoke with telepathy. When I rolled the stats, my strength was higher than the barbarians' and I had the charisma to bluff a god, but everything else (in other words, all of the stats I ACTUALLY depended on) bombed. I crunched the numbers and discovered that my average modifier was the same as everyone else's, so I couldn't make a case for re-rolling. An armorless magic mask wearing mute with nothing but strength and charisma. The. Irony. Hurts. Then I discovered that the setting we were in was incredibly prejudiced against anything magic. Which I very clearly was. So I was the mute and faceless unintentional face of the party and nobody outside of the party liked me. Welp. Looking at how I gained my powers, it was determined that I had begged a reluctant master who now treats me like dirt and forces me to do things contrary to my ideal, alignment, and personality. Great. Just great. In order to figure out why I was so desperate, I consulted the DM, and he suggested that I was cursed to become and atropal on death, hence seeking the path of immortality. We fleshed it out by devising a curse that reduced my hpm on a failed con save every day, (I got it back on successes,) along with causing bouts of uncontrollable insanity. No upsides, just madness. This character was so affected by his more than a decade of desperate servitude before attaining level 1, that he actively sacrificed his interests to make sure everyone was safe and happy and had clean gear. This resulted in me playing the character like a tank, even though he had no AC or hit points. And you know what? THAT WAS THE BEST CHARACTER I HAVE EVER PLAYED. Being so beholden to the other characters caused a lot of interplayer interaction. The druid in particular made a habit of taking care of me during my bouts of madness, and we grew rather close. I had a blast roleplaying, because the charisma prompted me to find ways to be expressive despite being mute and not having access to facial expressions. I have actually never had a character as expressive as poor Nolir, especially when he started using his mystic abilities to share emotions through touch. That got real deep on a regular basis. The abusive master thing gave him an unbelievable character arc, though we never got far enough to see him outgrow his master. My overall weakness combined with my devotion to force me into vulnerable situations, both physical and emotional. That is not an experience I will soon forget, I'll tell you that. I wish I could play him again... Good times...

I love how the character gets depth, and forces you to play something different.

I like the tough-luck-git-gud attitude that comes along with the Traveller generation system when something doesn't pan out the way you want. Still, in my experience, Traveller gives you enough options to steer the character in a direction you want.

I run an online space TTRPG, and what I did was give players a budget, and let them construct their own ship/space station(and also they're not absurdly expensive). It gives players a sense of freedom and they aren't encouraged to sell the ship/station. I'd say it's working pretty well so far.

Ah Traveler. Perhaps the only game that can give you a TPK during Character *Creation* I did a number of Charater creations for one game that never got off the ground (with allowances from teh GM). I ended up with Seven Cycles. Several of those in the highly dangerous "Scout" profession. My Character kept saying "I am to old for this bleep" way to often.

I remember the first time I played traveller. Me and one of my friends decoded we were going military. He rolled to be an officer. So he said we were friends my first roll for years and I didn't make my first term and was dishonarably discharged. Tge gm asked me what happen. I told him my CO told me to move some atvs and I kinda got drunk and had an accident. My friend rolled he was dishonorable discharge to. My gm turned to me and asked was my friend the jr officer in charge to which i said of course where do you think i got the booze from. And the other guy died in character creation

Knowing what to expect going in makes this game sound absolutely incredible

The adventures of the first two soundlike the adventures of standard action movie heros, interesting injuries and mishaps and everything. The third sounds like a prime example of the phrase: Life isn't fair, to everyone but me.

TBH, my favorite game I ever played in was a traveller game where my character totally didn't get what he wanted (fighter pilot), But I had a lot of fun with him being a freighter pilot with delusions of grandeur since he failed to get into flight school. But having said that, I have run the game a few times since then and I always let the players choose to keep a bad roll or re-roll it. I'm not a fan of removing player agency from their back story unless they're the kind of person who *wants* to try and role play something out of their comfort zone and are willing to take the randomness.

Honestly that kind of character generation looks really fun. Though it does seem like something you'd have to warn the players about before even session 0.

This has actually sold me on playing Traveler. I'm going to look for the source books and see if I can get a DM.

These stories always make me want to play some D&D.

LOL. i loved Traveler. The first character i ever made was a mercenary. Well, it was supposed to be.. he died in training. The second character I made was a Navy officer.. who also died in training. The third character i made was another Navy officer, who ended up becoming a merchant captain and ended up retiring at the age of 56.. really old for that game.. lol, he was fun to may though. Ships are really expensive to run.. and once per year you need to pay for an overhaul which like 10% of the ship cost.. that with paying for fuel, dicking fees, the cost to entice people to travel on your ship, ammo, repairing damages, ect. I was thinking of going pirate..

Haven't seen many rage quits in my time. More often I've seen campaigns just stop and never get picked back up due to life issues or ADD DMs.

"It's a GREAT game." ten seconds later. "It can kill your character before you even make them!"

That moment where you have never played D&D or any other roleplay board game but for some reason you subscribed to puffin forest

Ah, Traveller and its quirky character creation. All competent characters are scarred geriatrics, one step away from dying of old age.

It’s like those characters lived my real life.

This sounds like so much fun! It definitely makes interesting stories

The characters whose lives went “wrong” sound infinitely more fun to play an adventure game with. Not to mention having one person whose life went “right” gives them some operating capital to have more flexibility in the adventure. I would’ve been stoked to play after that.

this character creation system sounds very cool but to punishing. i think this is best used like a guide for people who find it hard to create a character.

Samurai Warriors 1 had a character creation where you had to spend a month training at a dojo. All the different things you could train would raise your stats in different ways, and how well you did in the following minigame (related to the stat you wanted to upgrade) would determine by how much that stat went up. At the end of the month there was an entrance exam, where you have to prove your worth to whatever clan's campaign you wanted to shoehorn your dumb character into. And if you failed, I think your character was just deleted.... Maybe not? Been a long time. Wish I still had that game. Anyway, that's what I thought about when you talked about THIS game's character creation. Actually sounds pretty cool to have to play some character who ended up bad at all the things you wanted to be good at. Force players out of their comfort zones.

idk why his endings always hit me like a good book and I'm just like "woah" as I sit back and look at his campfire picture and the end music. Terrific work.

This reminds me soo much of when I ran Twilight 2000. One of the characters got 3 more terms of skills than everyone else and became the party crutch.

I don’t play many rpg but I still watch all your videos

I absolutely love Traveller but character creation is definitely a love it or hate it type thing. Personally I love it and see character creation as a game in itself. If you ever want to try Traveller again, the Spinward marches make a good setting for a more interesting universe. Also, I’ve never had a problem with players selling the ship you give them. They want to do the adventure too after all. Just don’t go crazy and give a huge ship, just a small Far Trader or something. Play Traveller like Firefly or Battlestar Galactica and you’ll have lots of fun. It’s not supposed to be Star Wars ‘high fantasy’ like sci-fi with I stand everything. It’s supposed to almost be like the age of sail but in space. Jumps take 1-2 weeks, communication and news follow the xboat network and it can take weeks for info to move around. Personally, I love Traveller and it has a lot of potential given the right players and gm. Going into Traveller already upset after not getting your preferred character is not a good start.

As someone who is admittedly a biased fan... you kind of botched this up. Like, alot. The Traveller method of character gen is not something I'd just throw players in without prior warning. I mean I like it, it's very in-depth and has a diverse collection of awesome options from Soldier to Merchant. But it's something I'd house-rule to ease new players in, allowing them some measure of agency. Otherwise you'll end up with something stupid like an Imperial Marine with no weapon skills.

That is an intriguing way of building interesting characters. However, for those who want to foist their expectations on the game rather than the reverse it would be a hard sell.

Hi your vids inspired me to start playing d and d. Just wanted to say thanks

I know how this feels. My character once ended up as a slave. With both legs amputated... Without money... while the other player was a famous engineer. WIth loads of stuff. Not exactly my favorite campaign.

Man, I remember how many TONNES of computer space had to be allocated!

I would play this system with you, puffin.

I remember a gamer quote from way back, "You haven't lived until you have died during character creation in Traveler"

I played Traveller and MegaTraveller way back. Easiest character option was to aim for the Scouts, try to get as many Jack-o-Trades levels as you could and pray for a free ship. Play it by ear from then on.

Never heard of Traveller, but it sounds amazing to me, I hope some day I'll get to play that :'D

This character creation method… hits depressingly to close to home. Realism achieved I guess? Thank you for the additional fuel for my ongoing existential crisis. 🙃

Your animation has gotten much better!

Thank you SOOOOOO much for posting this episode on my birthday, I loved playing Traveller back in the early to mid '80s. I went to high school in Normal, Illinois the home of GDW, the creators of the game. Traveller is the only game I remember where your character can actually die during character creation. And if you think the basic character creation tables are deadly, try the advanced version. These characters are military (including merchant marine) only. Imperial (or sector, subsector or planetary) Space Navy, Imperial Scout Service, Imperial Marines (or other planetary defense force, including "wet" navy) or Merchant Marines. The character start is as described but then you enlist or are drafted and you have to roll to survive EVERY SINGLE YEAR of each 4 year hitch. Then your character writes up a goddess-be-danged resume for his military career. Whether it's 4 years or 60 (yes, you CAN be forced to reenlist or not allowed to retire, before most of us knew that could even be a thing...) The one thing about "ship shares": in the mustering out process, the first roll of whichever kind of ship gives possession of the ship with a 40 year MORTGAGE that you have to pay 1% per MONTH on. Each subsequent role pays off 10 years of that mortgage. I loved the complexity of the Traveller system and the GM could be very wily about how to organize things.

I started running a Traveler game when our D&D GM decided that he wanted to take a break. Pretty much everyone got through character creation with a very interesting character and backstory .... except for one player. She started out as an entertainer, got injured in the first term and had to leave the career. Then she had this batshit insane idea to become a pirate, and wound up getting arrested and thrown into jail, starting the prisoner career. She kept getting into fights in prison and dropping physical stats until it was obvious that A) she was never going to get parolled, a B) even if she did, one shot would kill drop her in combat. It was hilarious, but at the same time completely unplayable. I bought her a t-shirt which was done up in the original Traveler font and read, "You haven't lived until you've died ... In character creation." I held a special session just for her and she started with a new character. This one had pretty much all good luck. She maxed out rank in the noble carrier as a diplomat and wound up inheriting a space yacht. Boy where the players ever pissed when I started them out on a campaign where all their stuff had been stolen and they'd been shanghaied by a skill jacking ring and left for dead in a sinking ship. So far we are really having a blast with it.

Traveller: The 1 Game where you can Die in the Character Creator! XD

*Sigh* life path is a great system if you implement it properly but also you need to know the players that are playing it are not going to to have a hissy fit if things go pear shaped also dm delivery is more important here for example the stealing of someone's work as a scientist instead say they where framed or the players work was stolen and handed in first making the player seem like he stole it ( add a grudge npc of the ass that stole it for later it keep player interested )

Yes, I remember that one time trying to play traveler. After an hour or two I finally ended up with Space Marine and as I looked over the stats I was thinking OK, I can make this work. Then I was told to roll one more set of dice. After that roll, my character was determined to be 60 years old and with half the stats. He wasn't strong enough to lift his weapon. I was out.

Two words: GURPS Traveller

My character is a Vargr Army Support fella. He served 16 years of his life in one career before retiring from being drafted. He was in cryo sleep when the frieghter taking him was destroyed and he floated through space for 200 years before being picked up by the current group. After being revived he had slightly more brain damage from being frozen for so long when the crew finished the trip a 4 week voyage they dropped out of jump and instantly crashed into a comet where my character was injured again (yet another head injury) we then limped to a station where we got some medical care after which my character wanted to go to the nearest bar and deal with everthing you know after being frozen for 200 years. Yeah that did not happen they wanted to go to the downport on Marduk... So yeah my poor character is a 232 year old soldier who is now scared of flying.

That sounds like an awesome way to start a game! I really like the chance involved with tabletops, and you get an auto-complete backstory =P I'd love to try something like that.

O think this game looks amazing! The problem was diferent expectations. This sistem looks really cool

Ok so I now officially am interested in Traveler. I have heard about it and seen people discuss it before but this video has single handedly given me an interest in it.

My ENTIRE group that I play Traveller with at the moment, got into it because of THIS very video and it is the best group i've ever played with. Thanks you. :)

Yes another episode of puffin forest

Those characters sound pretty cool tbh, just maybe your players were expecting something more like D&D chosen hero type stuff.

Love your channel, and I LOVE Traveler so glad you did an episode on it!!!!

I am GMing this game now solely because one of the players showed me this video. We had WAY too much fun with character generation :D

Feels like it should be a Firefly parody, the engineer that ended up well off has some reason for hiring or rescuing the other players; the less fortunate chericters have better back stories that could come with usefull contacts and or skills or adaptations; look at Simon and rivers knowledge of high society and greater destiny, or Mal's moved nerve cluster from his war wound. Anyhoo you can then go off and have that incredible Bounty Hunter, smuggler, Fringe of the verse experience... Remember not only crime pays well but it might pay enough to get ahead and it's still a struggle to just to pay for fuel to keep flying without it, out here on the Fringe where it's even possible.

Lifepath systems can either be really fun, or a collection of fail. I've had some really interesting ones and some where (like the players in the video) just left me broken.

The two characters with the worst luck setup the BEST background stories!

I desperately need more traveler storys.

Ahh Traveller. My first RPG. I'm surprised I ever played one again.

Who else gets the impression that Puffin didn't like Traveler, either?

Hey I want you to know your videos make me genuinely happy. Thanks for being around. As a dm myself someone who knows the pain feels nice. Love you man.

My group loves traveler. the character path system is a game in and of itself and is hugely entertaining when you all roll together :D i've never had a player hate it yet and i've seen some shocking outcomes. Just be sure to hammer home that you chose your starting point and things go wildly chaotic from there and your players will love it.

Buying a share in a ship is actually how overseas long distance trade got started between Europe and India...

0____o I am in love with that character creation system already. One of my D&D groups went through something similar and it led to one of our most rewarding campaigns, roleplay wise, until personal drama, over a game of MTG and work stress, broke our group apart.

TRAVELLER! It's been so long! My father bought one of the original copies and like 12 years ago I found it and started my rpg stories with it. 6 years ago with my first paycheck I bought the disk containing all the books and travellers society card from the creator. This makes me very happy

We had a GM who limited our characters to RAW dice rolls. However, if your character died. You could reroll. Incidently, there are several career tracks that are more risky than others. Navy in particular. Thus began a stream of over 40 military recruits, who all died because they kept coming back for more military service, with progressively worse physical dice to survive.. Up until I got the character that was basically I wanted to play. He wasn't perfect, but Each and every one of these characters was basically a practice in probability, and I ended up with my Pilot with his own scout ship, and a bunch of money and skills, at a reasonably young age. The thing about Original traveler, Id you don't play characters who "accidentally" die, and its pretty easy to figure out a way to arrange a new character. It only takes the stubbornness of a mule, and the heart of a munchkin, who isn't cool with being some random piss poor dirt farmer.

Okay I feel I should come to Travalers defense, the system and scifi troopes it`s using are very old school. You can not get killed in character generation unless you are doing a very specific way of generating your character.(It`s called "iron man" generation) The Life path way of making your character can be very unforgiving but it can also hand you life on a silver plate like in bens Groups case he happend to get on with very good luck and two who`s luck was very rotten. I think that going into Travaler without knowing anything about it can lead to some culture shock if you are uset to D&D and expect travaler to treat you the same way. The merchant Campaign is one way of playing but just one of many. You could do a military campaign in the vain of Honor Harrington or starship troopers. Or you could do a exploration campaign where the players are a crew of Explorer setting of to unexplored planets in the style of say Star trek or lost in space.(The system has a nice system that lets you roll up random planets and what kind of Cultures live on them) You could make a pirate campaign where you have to balance the risks vs rewards of various trade routs to hunt in. All in all I hope I made atleast abit of an impression that traveler is a game worth atleast to have a look at.

Beats my first attempt at a Ravenloft setting game. I'm fairly new as a DM, I play using Roll20 and Discord. I also don't have a mic. Now when I started, I had a general structure of what I wanted to happen planned out, but I had NOTHING ELSE prepared! I was way out of my depth, I was way out of my league, and I was running arguably one of the most in-depth lore heavy settings with very basic notes. I was doomed to fail from the start. I did learn something though. NEVER ROLL FOR RANDOM ENCOUNTERS WHEN YOU WANT THE STORY TO MOVE ALONG! We barely got to the gates to the town where the actual story was supposed to pick up before it was time to call it quits for the night. Nothing of any significance happened at all. I felt like a total failure and it was nearly a year before I even attempted to DM again. This time I'm using a premade module altered to fit my own needs, and honestly it's working out much better. Maybe later, once I gain more confidence, I'll sprinkle in some self-made story, and I'm even laying the foundation for that here, but that's not until way later in the distant future.

Your videos make my day tbfh. They get me through my homework without offing myself from the bugs in my code ^^

In my friend's Traveller campaign I was supremely lucky in my rolls and created the exact character I wanted. A Han Soloesqe ace pilot/gun slinger/martial artist and ex-smuggler. He was badass and a riot to play. He also had a great pre-mortem one liner or two which I just can't remember what it was for the life of me. My friend's scenario was really fun and intense. I ran a brief Traveller campaign for a while was fun but frustrating as it wound up all the Npcs were doing all the interesting things, so yeah.