The Culture: Learning To MacGuyver To Win Is Part Of The Hobby

Jeffro Johnson had this to say yesterday:

Classic Traveller RAW including death in character generation does more to immerse a player in a rich game environment than anything a referee really does to elaborate on it. https://t.co/52ErcSR8MW

— Cardinal Jefforieu (@JohnsonJeffro) August 26, 2023

Classic Traveller is one of those games where Tourists and Cultists can and do get filtered out before reaching the real game. Instead of being filtered by some form of tutorial encounter, they take issue with character generation and the lack of control over it. Having no control over their man, not the risk of dying during generation, is what turns them off.

"But I want to play (X)!"

Yeah, that's nice. I want my leg back. That ain't happening either.

Traveller, like AD&D1e, is all about seeing what the dice give you and making the most of it. Sometimes you score big and you have plenty of leverage to work with. Sometimes RNGesus abandons you and you're playing a one-term Army draftee that terfed out on re-enlistment. Enjoy having Rifle-1 and one other skill above 0; try not to die.

Tourists don't do "Deal With It" anymore than they do "Git Gud". Cultists aren't much better, as they fail to comprehend why it is that way so they make changes heedless of consequences two or three degrees removed that end up screwing things right into the dirt.

I won't sugar-coat it. Sometimes your man just gets in over his head and things end badly- and that too can be quite enjoyable, as the BBC figured out generations ago.

But characters are free and the hobby is Rogue-like by its nature. Reroll and go again.

Learning how to play what your man has as best you can is part of developing Player Skill. Learning how to pay attention to what is going on in play is also part of Player Skill. Learning what questions to ask, and when to ask them, is also part of it. Learning to accept that your function in the group is "role-playing" is part of it. (Made explicit in AD&D1e's Dungeon Master's Guide.)

Combined this means learning how to MacGuyver your way to victory. Sometimes you have a lot to work with. Sometimes you don't. You still do your best with what you've got, and if that isn't enough then you learn from your mistake when you play your next man.

And yes, sometimes fantastic adventures end badly. Someone has to be the Doomed Prior Party, and that means you from time to time. It happens; because this is all Rules As-Written, (a) it's likely your fault and (b) when it's not it's a Black Swan so you still have no one else to blame. Rub some dirt on it, walk it off, reroll, and go again.

If you persist, and if you improve yourself as a player, you will iterate your way to winning over time- just like in real life. (There's that Transferable Skill thing again.)

Don't be a Tourist or a Cultist. Persist, Git Gud, adapt to things as they are, and you too can win.