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Shavian Empire Careers

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2017 issue.

These are Citizens of the Imperium-style non-military prior experience backgrounds for Traveller character generation, transcribed and edited from surviving campaign notes of my old gamemaster, Wayne Shaw.

Though Wayne has been mentioned several times in my articles (primarily the Shavian Empire campaign in Other Roads – genesis.html), he actually was not much of a Traveller fan, preferring the genres of straight Fantasy (with SF crossover elements) and Superheroes. His preference in SF games was more heroic adventure and deep exploration “where no man has gone before”, and Traveller tends to a more settled and civilized space than the high-tech space opera on the far frontier that he liked.

Despite this, Wayne did create and referee three Traveller campaigns (the aforementioned Shavian Empire campaign in 1977, a one-shot Classic Traveller mini-campaign sometime around 1982-83, and a short-lived MegaTraveller campaign in 1987). A compulsive rules tinkerer, he worked out original campaign backgrounds and house rules for even the “one shot” campaigns, including modifications to character generation, such as the six original career types profiled here.

Two of these surviving career types date from his second (Classic Traveller) one-shot campaign (circa early 1980s); these were hand-written on TAS Form 41s:

Colonist: Not-quite-Barbarian Individuals who hail from newly-settled frontier worlds.

Psionicist: Individuals whose career path is mostly or completely psionics training. Originated in a heroic character from ”The Scattered Worlds”, a space-opera universe Wayne created and wrote during his high school days (before he discovered FRP gaming). For campaigns where psionics are less restricted than the Third Imperium.

Two other character types from the notes – Police and Mentor – are not listed. “Police” was superseded by MegaTraveller’s later “Law Enforcer” and “Mentor” (a scholarly order) was too “Scattered Worlds”-specific.

The other four date from his third (MegaTraveller) campaign (circa 1987). These were transcribed directly from his campaign handout, a dot-matrix fanfold printout:

Civilian: Generic unspecialized civilian character; sort of a “none of the above” that isn’t specifically “Other”. (At the time, “Other” was said to represent “either CIA or the Mafia”.)

Engineer: Primarily Civil Engineering(1), working with large-scale fixed construction. Other kinds of specialized Engineering could be substituted.

Journalist: Reporters working for various news media or freelance “stringers” to same. Industrial Age (TL7-) journalists are normally reporters for hardcopy “newspapers” and “magazines”; Information Age (TL8+) journalists normally work as freelance stringers for or proprietors of various online newsfeeds, whether public, advertiser-supported, or membership-subscription.

Technician: Individuals trained in technical professions, usually found as assistants to Scientists.

 

Career Progression(2)

Civilian

Colonist

Engineer

Journalist

Psionicist

Technician

Enlistment

Auto

6+

7+

5+

10+

5+

DM+1 if

-----

Soc 8+

Int 9+

End 7+

Int 9+

Int 8+

DM+2 if

-----

End 7+

Edu 9+

Edu 9+

Psi 9+

Edu 9+

Survival

4+

8+

5+

6+

5+

4+

DM+2 if

Soc 8+

Int 8+

Int 8+

Edu 9+

Edu 8+

Int 9+

Special Duty(3)

6+

5+

6+

4+

6+

5+

Reenlist

3+

3+

4+

5+

5+

4+

 

Automatic Skills

Colonist:

Survival-1

Engineer:

Civil Engineer-1

Journalist:

Streetwise-1, Computer-1 if TL9+(7)

Psionicist:

Psionic Evaluation/Basic Training

Technician:

Computer-1

 

Mustering Out Benefits

Material Benefits

Civilian

Colonist

Engineer

Journalist

Psionicist

Technician

1

Low Psg

Low Psg

High Psg

Low Psg

Low Psg

Mid Psg

2

Mid Psg

Low Psg

High Psg

Mid Psg

Weapon

High Psg

3

High Psg

+1 Int

Blade

Mid Psg

+1 Psi

+1 Int

4

+1 Edu

Blade

Travellers’

Gun

+2 Edu

+1 Edu

5

+1 Int

Gun

+1 Edu

+1 Edu

Mid Psg

Gun

6

+1 Soc

Mid Psg

+1 Soc

+1 Int

Psi Equip’t(4)

-----

Cash Benefits

1

1000

-----

10000

500

1000

5000

2

5000

-----

20000

1000

2000

10000

3

10000

1000

30000

5000

5000

10000

4

20000

10000

40000

10000

10000

20000

5

40000

20000

50000

15000

20000

30000

6

50000

50000

60000

20000

30000

40000

7

60000

100000

70000

20000

40000

50000

 

Skill Table

Personal Development

Civilian

Colonist

Engineer

Journalist

Psionicist(5)

Technician

1

Physical

+1 Str

+1 Str

Physical

+1 Dex

+1 Str

2

+1 Dex

+1 Dex

+1 Dex

+1 Dex

+1 End

+1 Dex

3

Mental

+1 End

+1 End

+1 End

+1 Int

+1 End

4

+1 Soc

Brawling

Mental

Vice

+1 Edu

Mental

5

Brawling

Gambling

Hand Cbt

Hand Cbt

+1 Psi

Vice

6

Inborn

Carousing

Mechanical

Streetwise

Carousing

Blade Cbt

Service Skills

1

Vice

+1 Int

Mechanical

Carousing

[Special]

Mechanical

2

Mechanical

Gun Cbt

Electronics

Hand Cbt

Electronics

3

Electronic

Blade Cbt

Vice

Streetwise

Technical

4

Vehicle

Vehicle

Technical

Vehicle

Vehicle

5

Carousing

Survival

Engineering

Gun Cbt

Gun Cbt

6

Survival

Jack-o-T

Vehicle

Academic

Academic

Advanced Education

1

Gun Cbt

Mechanical

Civil Eng

Interpersonal

Vehicle

Technical

2

Brawling

Electronic

Technical

Vehicle

Blade Cbt

Vehicle

3

Vehicle

Gravitics

Interpersonal

Gun Cbt

Gun Cbt

Technical

4

Interpersonal

Vehicle

Demolition

Carousing

Electronics

Academic

5

Carousing

Hunting

Mechanical

Interrogation

Mechanical

Technical

6

Mechanical

Survival

Electronic

Vice

Streetwise

Jack-o-T

Advanced Education (Only open to characters with EDU 8+)

1

Technical

Medic

Nav Arch(6)

Interpersonal

Medic

Technical

2

Medic

Leader

Engineering

Interpersonal

Computer

Interpersonal

3

Blade Cbt

Admin

Civil Eng

Technical

Admin

Science

4

Instruction

Survival

Technical

Academic

Liason

Interpersonal

5

Interpersonal

Jack-o-T

Interpersonal

Interrogation

Jack-o-T

Engineering

6

Jack-o-T

Computer

Vacc Suit

Interpersonal

Gravitics

Ship’s Boat

Benefit and Skill Notes

Bold skills represent cascades; choose one of the subskills as listed in the Classic Traveller or MegaTraveller rules. Characters with Gambling, DM +1 on Cash Benefits

Psi Equip’t Benefit: Psi-related equipment and artifacts such as psi-drugs, psi-inhibitors, or others such as those described in Psionically Active Equipment and Drugs (https://freelancetraveller.com/features/rules/tech/psiequip.html). Roll 1D+1 on the Civilian Cash Benefits table for the total cash value of the Psi equipment; the player may take any combination or number of items up to this total amount.

[Special] Psionicist Skill: These are the character’s actual Psi talents, listed in the order rolled at initial Psi evaluation. If less than six talents, repeat in order as needed until all six slots are filled. Service Skill rolls are +1 to the listed Psi talent’s level

End Notes

  1. Civil Engineering = the skill used to design and build bridges, dams, and other large fixed structures. Also used for structural analysis in architecture.
  2. Note that none of these career paths have Position/Commission or Promotion rolls or ranks.
  3. Special Duty is as per Megatraveller; determines whether character gets a second skill roll for the term.
  4. Wayne’s original table says “Psi Gem”, a “Scattered Worlds”-specific type of psionic amplifier/focus device implanted in the “Mind Master”’s forehead. Stats for this item have been lost; presumably it increased range, increased level, reduced Psionic strength cost, or some combination of the three.
  5. Psionicists may double or switch careers and retain the Psionicist Personal Development/Service Skills tables.
  6. Naval Architecture = the skill used to design spacecraft and starships.
  7. Above Tech Level 8, Reporters normally work and publish through various social media news-feeds. As this overlaps with hackers, Computer may be substituted for physical-media Reporter skills judged obsolete.