Saturday, October 13, 2018

In Defense of Older Adventurers


On occasion, some gamers like to remark on the fact that Traveller characters are mostly middle-aged by the time they begin play (assuming they survive character creation). Is it really necessary for me to point out that the off-screen prior service is simply glossing over the “low level play” of level based systems, or the “few character points” stage of point-buy systems?

Don't harass us middle-aged guys who go off in search of adventure. We're not old, we're experienced. It's at this time of life when you finally know what you want, and go after it. And you're not taking any guff from punks.

Like this guy – he took no guff, and took names.

Samuel Whittemore
57A879 Age 80   
Army (militia) 3 terms, Captain
Brawling-1 Percussion Rifle-1 Survival-2 Badassery-3 Percussion Pistol-2
Leader-2


As another old soldier said "I could do this all day."


With thanks to Jed McClure on G+

2 comments:

  1. Good points.
    I've often likened Traveller to modern business. The 'consultants' in most fields tend to be middle aged, and have 'seen it, done it' etc. The same applies in Private Military Contracting as it does in lean manufacturing.
    So, if you're a patron, you'd trust the rescue of your daughter, being held in a rebel Ine Givar camp, to a bunch of aged specialists, with marine and starship experience, before you'd trust a group of gung ho kids. Perhaps that's the sweet spot that Traveller hits.

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    1. Your Grace, I like your comparison, it makes a lot of sense to the setting. Meeting a Patron is like a job interview. You have to convince the patron that your PCs have the skill set that the job requires.
      Thanks for sharing!

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