Mongoose Traveller vs. Megatraveller - chargen

Mongoose Traveller is very similar to older versions of the game including the one I am most familiar with, Megatraveller. There are a few differences, though, and I will demonstrate those by generating a character. My character is a Scout named Travis. Let's start with rolling characteristics.

I roll 6 x 2d6 and get 11,5,3,6,9,8. In the old days, you took your rolls in order. So Travis has:

Str:11 Dex:5 End:3 Int:6 Edu:9 Soc:8

So, MegaTravis is strong enough to lift a small car and he attended a very good school, but he's a bit clumsy and quite sickly. Bad news for someone interested in the Scout Service.

Mongoose lets you distribute your rolls as you see fit. So, I will make Travis a much hardier individual.

Str:11 Dex:5 End:9 Int:6 Edu:8 Soc:3

I could make more wholesale changes, but this is a comparative exercise, so I will try to minimize the number of changes I make during the chargen process.

Time to revisit MegaTravis. First he must enlist. He needs a 7+ on the roll and he has a +3 DM thanks to his high Str and decent Int. He rolls an 8 (+3), total 11, no problem, he's in. Next he has to survive his first term. He needs another 7+ with no DM due to his lousy End. Luckily, he rolls a 9. Good news, he didn't suffer a career-ending injury (no death in Megatraveller chargen). He also rolls a 7 on his Special Duty check, easily making the 4+ he needed. More good news for MegaTravis. Time to start racking up the skills. MegaTravis is a Scout, so he has as default skills, Gun Combat-0, Vacc Suit-0 and Computer-0. MegaTravis gets three skills, 2 for his term of service and one for his special duty. He decides to roll twice on the Personal Development table and once on the Service Skills table. He gets a Physical and a Gun Combat result on the former and an Electronics result on the latter. He uses the Physical result to increase his End by one and he takes Laser Weapons-1 in Gun Combat. So, MegaTravis looks like this after one term:

Str:11 Dex:5 End:4 Int:6 Edu:9 Soc:8
Vacc Suit-0
Computers-0
Gun Combat-0
Laser Weapons-1
Electronics-1

MegaTravis decides to try and reenlist. He needs a 3+ and rolls a 7. So far, so good.

Next term, the good news keeps coming for MegaTravis. He rolls an 8 for survival and 5 for special duty. He gets 3 more skill rolls, so he decides to take one from the Personal Development table, one from the Service Skills table and one from the Advanced Education table. He gets a Dex +1, an Inborn and a Medical result. He decides to take Leader as his Inborn skill. After two terms, MegaTravis looks like this:

Str:11 Dex:6 End:4 Int:6 Edu:9 Soc:8
Vacc Suit-0
Computers-0
Gun Combat-0
Laser Weapons-1
Electronics-1
Leader-1
Medical-1

MegaTravis is now 26 years old and he has decided he wants to strike out on his own. He still has to make a reenlistment roll to avoid mandatory reenlistment and gets a 10. He's free. Now it's time to roll for mustering out benefits. He rolls twice on the benefits table and twice on the cash table. He ends up with Int +2, a laser rifle-9 and a total of 80,000 Cr. MegaTravis is ready to start his life as a PC. He looks like this:

Str:11 Dex:6 End:4 Int:8 Edu:9 Soc:8
Vacc Suit-0
Computers-0
Gun Combat-0
Laser Weapons-1
Electronics-1
Leader-1
Medical-1

laser rifle-9
80,000 Cr

Back to MongooseTravis. Careers in Mongoose Traveller have specializations. In the case of Scout, they are Courier, Survey and Exploration. MongooseTravis decides he wants to be an Explorer. To enlist in the Scout Service, he needs an Int 5+ roll. He has no Int bonus, so it's a straight roll. No problem, he gets an 8. Life as an explorer is no walk in the park, MongooseTravis has to make an End 7+ to survive his term. He has a +1 DM due to his high End and rolls 9 (+1), for a total of 10. He also has to make an Edu 7+ roll to earn an advancement. MongooseTravis is as lucky as MegaTravis so far. He rolls an 8. Now it's time for skills. Default skills are handled a bit differently in Mongoose Traveller. You start with 3 + Edu DM skills at level-0. These can be derived from your homeworld characteristics or from formal education. I will choose to give MongooseTravis Vacc Suit-0, Computers-0 and Space Science-0. He came from a high-tech, ice planet and was very good in his astronomy classes. In his first term in the Scout Service, he also receives all the service skills at level-0. This gives him Pilot-0, Survival-0, Mechanic-0, Astrogation-0, Comms-0 and Gun Combat-0. MongooseTravis gets two rolls this term because he succeeded on his advancement roll, so he selects the Personal Development table and the Service Skill table. He gets a Dex +1 and a Mechanic result. Also, because he made a successful advancement roll, he is promoted to Scout-1 and gets Vacc Suit-1 as a rank benefit. Next, MongooseTravis makes a roll on the Events table to determine the highlight of his term. He rolls a 5, indicating an exemplary service was performed. He gets a +1 DM on a future benefits roll. MongooseTravis now looks like this:

Str:11 Dex:6 End:9 Int:6 Edu:8 Soc:3
Vacc Suit-1
Computers-0
Gun Combat-0
Pilot-0
Survival-0
Astrogation-0
Space Science-0
Comms-0
Mechanic-1

MongooseTravis sticks around for another term. His reenlistment roll is combined with his advancement roll, so he is already accepted for another term. He makes his survival and advancement rolls again, earning 2 more skill rolls and decides to go with the Service Skills and Specialist: Exploration tables. He gets Comms and Recon results. He also gets promoted to Scout-2, although there are no rank benefits at that level. On his Events table roll, he surveyed an alien world. He has several skills to choose from and selects Survival-1. MongooseTravis now looks like this:

Str:11 Dex:6 End:9 Int:6 Edu:8 Soc:3
Vacc Suit-1
Computers-0
Gun Combat-0
Pilot-0
Survival-1
Astrogation-0
Space Science-0
Comms-1
Mechanic-1
Recon-1

MongooseTravis managed to avoid mandatory reenlistment last time and decides to muster out. He gets one benefits roll for each term of service and an extra one for reaching rank 2. He decides to roll twice on the benefits table and once on the cash table. He will use his +1 DM (from his first term event) on the first of his benefits table rolls. He gets three straight rolls of 2 (+1 on the first), giving him +1 Int, +1 Edu and 20,000 Cr. MongooseTravis now looks like this:

Str:11 Dex:6 End:9 Int:7 Edu:9 Soc:3
Vacc Suit-1
Computers-0
Gun Combat-0
Pilot-0
Survival-1
Astrogation-0
Space Science-0
Comms-1
Mechanic-1
Recon-1

20,000 Cr

In the end, MongooseTravis has more skills and more optimal characteristics, while MegaTravis has better mustering out benefits.

-Rognar-