[RPG] In Traveller, what’s the starting equipment

character-creationequipmentmongoose-traveller

I'm just starting a game in Traveller and we spent our first session rolling up characters, it's the first time playing this game for all of us, Referee included. It all went pretty well, slow cause we kept having to look things up and we had fun talking about our story as it was rolled up. Then we got to the end and…we got confused.

So my character got an injury in his first career, no benefits for leaving, and his second career he's been doing amazing in and has no plans on leaving just yet. So does this mean I start with nothing? No credits, no gear, just the clothes on my back?

We can't find anything in the rule book that tells us what we start with. One idea that we had was that maybe we're expected to end our current career before the campaign, which means changing up my story a little at the end but it also doesn't feel right.

We're pretty sure we're using using Mongoose Traveller 1st edition.

Best Answer

The general presumption in most editions of Traveller (including the Mongoose version) is that characters have retired from their careers at the end of character generation and set off to start a new life of freelance adventuring. So the normal thing to do at this point would be to make your mustering out rolls for all careers (including your final career), which should give you some money to purchase equipment, plus perhaps a little free equipment, depending on the benefits rolled.

This doesn't seem to be directly stated anywhere that I could easily find in the Mongoose Traveller 1st edition rulebook, but step 11 of the character creation process in the sidebar on page 5 is the only place which mentions finishing your character, and it presumes that you have left your (final) career before doing so:

  1. If you have left your current career, then go to Step 3 to choose a new career, or to Step 12 if you wish to finish your character. Otherwise, go to Step 5.

If you want to instead run an "in service" campaign, then the GM should assign equipment based on the service you are in and your specialty within that service, but this equipment is owned by your employer, not your personal gear. Note, though, that this approach could prove difficult if your group's characters are not all in the same service (why is a civilian Merchant on the bridge of a Navy ship?), so I wouldn't recommend it for your first Traveller campaign.