My final batch of six characters (31-36) for Traveller. Each has been rolled randomly (2d6, six times in order) to see what sort of distribution and usefulness of character tends to arise. Most of them were pretty okay, though it’s possible to get some very not-useful characters.

Ageing is also a problem – getting a character beyond 50 without them being physically crippled is difficult. Given that Traveller is meant to be set in a high-tech future, I think the ageing rules are too severe. I’m not entirely certain how to fix it though, since the experience level PCs end up with feels about right, and postponing the ageing will make them more powerful.

Anyway, the full list of characters can be found here:

https://www.notasnark.net/traveller/goldenage/characters/index

Daslija Niaghuvi

Vilani, female, 50.

Daslija Niaghuvi is an ex-infantrywoman in her 50s, who has seen her fair share of combat. She isn’t as nimble as she used to be, and walks with a limp. She is still tough though, confident and looking forward to retirement. She can be quiet and reserved, and doesn’t make friends easily. But she tries to be dependable and honest.

Daslija Niaghuvi is a 50 year old woman from Dimorus (Trojan Reach, 3011). Though she had academic interests, she knew she wasn’t quite bright enough to get into university so was expecting to get a standard job as a labourer, either in the mines or preferably at one of the factories. However, by the time she left school the economy was in a down turn and there were no jobs available. So she surprised herself and her family when she enrolled into the draft, joining the Imperium infantry. And there she stayed for the next 30 years.

Straight out of training she was involved in a land war in the Outrim Void, where her unit was surrounded and had to hold out waiting for reinforcements for 5 weeks. She received a medal of bravery for her actions in that war, getting a promotion and training as a smart gun operator.

She didn’t make many friends in the army, she tended to be quiet and reserved, though her squad trusted her. She was considering applying for a commission, relying on one of her few friends, Liir Rakhikiir, to help her with the application. Unfortunately Liir ‘lost’ Daslija’s application and submitted her own, getting the commission herself. The two have been rivals ever since.

Daslija tried to apply for a commission the next time the opportunity arose, but by this point she was considered to be too old and was rejected.

She continued to serve her terms in the infantry, fighting several brutal engagements, including getting experience fighting in hostile environments on a number of worlds. She was shot several times, though was successfully patched up each time. She was promoted again, with her superiors recognising her flexibility and competence, but by now she really was getting old, and managed to injure herself badly during a regular training exercise.

After that she started to move off the front lines, and was unfortunate enough to discover that her CO was involved in illegal arms smuggling. She reported him, but was discharged from service as part of the cover up.

She is now retired, and looks back on her unexpected career with some degree of fondness. She’s not sure that settling down is quite for her yet, but realises that her body is not what it used to be and that she’s no longer fit for military duty. She’s hoping that retirement can bring her excitement of a completely different nature.

Oudri Kugudila

Vilani, male, 58.

Oudri Kugudila is a 58 year old man who has served almost three decades in the merchant marines as a pilot and officer. He’s generally calm, honest and polite.

Oudri Kugudila grew up on Tobia, and decided early on that he wanted to be a rocket scientist. However, he flunked university due to spending too much time involved in student political movements, Unable to get a job at an engineering company, he took a job as a project manager in a civil engineering company.

He found the found boring, and though slowly began to get promotions, his only claim to fame was his cooking ability at the yearly company summer BBQs and chilly bake offs. Unfortunately, he tried to be too clever one year and his attempts to deep fry steaks frozen in liquid hydrogen when badly wrong. He was almost killed, several others were injured and he found himself out of a job.

The only option was the draft, and he joined up with reluctance, finding himself in the merchant navy. His knowledge of how some of the local businesses worked helped him here, and he got promoted above a couple of others who took it as a personal insult.

He’d expected that he’d stay in the marines until he found a ‘real’ job, but whenever he got the option to leave he declined. His education allowed him to take on roles which didn’t require actual front line duty, and he found himself flying huge super freighters as well as smaller craft.

Oudri gained a reputation for being honest, turning down several attempts to persuade him to help in smuggling illegal cargo to pirate factions beyond the border, even though it got him an enemy of a crime boss in the Broken Arrows.

By the time he was into his forties, he was organising conveys and escorts for major corporations, and was awarded with a TAS Membership by a small corp whose ships he’d saved from a pirate attack through careful planning.

Age was taking its toll though, and his last job was working with Aslan merchants in the Outrim Void, organising combined Human-Aslan convoy operations between the two empires. After one particularly hard week, he had a heart attack and almost died. He decided that now was a good time to take a pension and retire.

He owns a large stake in the Free Trader Dreaming of Blue which he captains along the border, keeping just within Imperium space to stay safe. He’s just about turning a profit, and is doing it to keep busy now rather than get rich. Though he never got to do what he originally wanted and he wouldn’t call his life highly eventful, it’s been an interesting run.

Thutrisha Oastrifreok

Vilani, female, 58.

Thutrisha Oastrifreok is a woman in her fifties who has had a colourful life. Now a socialite who uses her wide network of contacts to live a life of leisure and comfort.

Thutrisha Oastrifreok came from a middle class family on Darchna (Tobia 2912), and went straight into starting her own business running penetration tests against local companies looking to beef up their security. Over a period of several years she built up a reputation and a network of contacts, and she was viewed as a competent and reliable security consultant.

Unfortunately she found that a quicker way to make money was to sell the weaknesses she found in corporations to criminal elements looking to make use of them. With that, she bought up her position in society, which allowed her to gain more trust and began actively steeling from clients.

Whilst she wasn’t discovered, suspicions were beginning to fall on her, so she quickly stole a ship and left. She managed to use the ship to get herself a job as an Imperium courier, but before too long she ran into trouble in the Outrim Void when her ship was attacked and destroyed by pirates. She escaped, but had to hitch-hike her way back home, making a number of friends and enemies along the way.

On getting back home, Thutrisha decided to get back into a life of crime, but again fell afoul of the law. Whilst trying to escape from a high security technology lab she was shot and almost killed, Her companions managed to get her to safety and get her patched up at a back street clinic, but it left her with a hefty bill.

It was then though that she realised that her public reputation was enough to trade on itself, and through her contacts managed to fund a nice lifestyle for herself. Always on the edge of bankruptcy, but managing to live a good life through a brazen attitude and relying on friends as much as possible.

One of her old friends, Albert Sikuumkhibbi Suudukhuuri turns against her when he finds out that she’s been taking advantage of him, but is unable to convince her other friends of that.

She found that her contacts gave her access to political influence that she didn’t realise she had, and begins to appear on celebrity talk shows as a ‘famous person’, though nobody is quite sure what she’s famous for other than appearing on talk shows and giving her views on how things should work. She’s never too worried about which side of an argument she comes down on, other than trying to ensuring that it’s going to be the winning one so that she looks successful.

As she entered her fifties, she found herself in higher demand on the party circuit as an influencer, her web of contacts allowing her to put people in touch with each other, especially in Tobia and Sindal sub-sectors.

She now has a ship of her own, a small fast yacht called the Pryme Comet, which she uses to make sure she doesn’t outstay her welcome on any worlds around Tobia.

Dulaku Makukuu

Vilani, male, 54.

Dulaku Makukuu is a scientific researcher and engineer looking for research topics that interest both him and his wife. He’s looking for honest people to work with, and doesn’t take kindly to being misled.

Dulaku Makukuu grew up on Hex (Trojan Reach, 2715), where early on he took and interest in mechanics and electronics, taking every opportunity to go into orbit and play around with machines. He got accepted into university, studying science and engineering, and then war broke out.

Several nations on Hex went to war, and Dulaku was drafted into the local marines half way through his degree. Due to his technical knowledge he was able to go into a supporting role in the artillery regiment, but was himself the recipient of an artillery strike, and sat out the rest of the war in hospital.

After the war he got a job working in a science lab, where he made a breakthrough in the understanding of Jump physics. He was quickly promoted, and hired to work on a secret military project working on computer simulations.

He took a job opportunity at a larger university at Tobia, working with Dr Tloeiftiyrh, an Aslan scientist with a reputation for having a rather eccentric way of approaching problems. This got him noticed by his peers, but the stress of the long hours and intensive work ended with him suffering a heart attack. He took a step back for a bit, and met a biologist by the name of Professor Irmir Najashju Sakiluur, whom he married.

He moved out of pure research and into engineering, and was several times offered the chance to falsify his results by the company he was being funded by. He kept on resisting, but eventually they sabotaged his work completely, presumably because his results weren’t what they were wanting. Given the choice between giving up or starting from scratch, he decided to quit. By now he had a pension and a part share in a ship. so he’s now independent and looking to do his own research according to his own rules.

Umne Shiipuna

Vilani, female, 54.

Umne Shiipuna is a somewhat frail woman who always seems to have a cough. She has a tendency to jump into things without thinking, and often overestimates her ability to do things.

Umne Shiipuna was born on Hradus (Trojan Reach, 2714), and always had a strong desire to leave the strict laws of her homeworld behind her and become a merchant captain, sailing the spaceways with her own ship. However, she never had the patience to sit down and study, and failed the entrance exam to the merchant academy.

She managed to get herself a job at the local starport, though found that she was mostly regulated to helping load and unload ships rather than actually helping in the buying and selling. At least that meant it wasn’t her fault when the company she worked for when brankrupt.

Unable to get off-world, she found a job in law enforcement, helping to track down dissidents. Her paths crossed with Sajikimshem Kaliim, a woman working in the bureaucracy who was able to provide her with information.

When given the opportunity to go undercover, she leapt at the chance, but she was found out and almost killed. She took two more opportunities to perform undercover work, and neither worked out. In the final one she was betrayed by one of her colleagues, Erkuurshiku Muruju, who leaked her name to the faction she was meant to be infiltrating, just so another team could improve their own infiltration efforts.

She survived, and spent the next few years trying to uncover who had been ultimately responsible for the decision. She tracked it back to a high bureaucrat named Nazur Jijarsi Majiija. She had been playing the various law enforcement teams against each other for her own benefit. Umne had no proof however, and was forced to flee the world with the help of some of the insurgents she had been trying to infiltrate. In exchange for intelligence, they set her up with enough resources to get off world and to safety.

Ika Kalim

Valani, male, 54.

Ika Kalim is a pirate with a reputation for being hot headed and speaking his mind, even when doing so isn’t the most diplomatic option.

Born on Ayldem, Ika Kalim tried to get into the Military academy but was rejected, so instead enlisted directly with the army. Within the first year of finishing his training, he found himself abandoned with a small team on a barbarian world defending the downport against a rebel insurrection for two months. When they were finally rescued, he was given a medal for bravery and promoted. He seemed to be on the path to further quick promotions, but then had a run-in with his CO who’s incompetence led to the death of most of his unit. Unable to keep his mouth shut about the incident and who was to blame, Ika was discharged

Unable to find any jobs, he worked as a scavenger for a bit, though was badly injured in an accident leaving him with a large medical debt. So he signed up to join a crew that turned out to be pirates. They worked mostly along the Dust Belt in their ship the Smooth Merchant. Soon after joining, he realised that there was the possibility of him being kicked off the ship due to not getting along with a couple of the crew members. Fortunately he had the opportunity to ensure that they met with an unfortunate accident whilst on a raid. Not only did he get rid of a couple of potential enemies, he also got a promotion.

He got a reputation for violence when he came up with a plan to rob a rich merchant ship. It ended with the death of most of the merchant’s crew, but also resulted in a large payoff.

He spent the rest of his career enjoying a life of piracy. He got into a couple of feuds with other members of the crew, sometimes winning, sometimes loosing. His last feud resulted in him being left for dead on Paal, though not before he was able to funnel off his share of the ship’s funds.

He is now looking to see what to do next, hoping to find another crew to join on with.