Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 15: Retro Sci-Fi Rules

Today I am revisiting the Classic Traveller family of games.  This time via the Cepheus Engine branch of the family tree.

 

The Retro Sci-Fi Rules are by Paul Elliott, the author of Hostile and Cepheus Universal amongst other Traveller related things.  It is intended to emulate the 1977 edition of Traveller.  But it has been streamlined and modified in several ways.  One of the biggest changes is character creation.

 

Gone is life path character gen with the possibility of death.  Here are the steps with commentary in color.

 

1 Select Career. Note its ‘required characteristic’.  Six careers:  Navy, Marine, Star Trader, Scout, Syndicate, Scout

2 Skills. Divide up 7 skill levels between the career skills. No skill level may start at more than 3. One of your choices must be the Auto Skill.  Each Career has an Auto Skill.  For example the Auto Skill for Marine is Gun Combat.

3 Select Bonus Skill. Select a table and roll 1D6 for a bonus skill at level 1.

4 Characteristics. Choose a ‘String of Scores’ and allocate those scores to your six characteristics: Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education and Social Influence, as you see fit. The career’s ‘required characteristic’ must be at 7 or more.  There are four separate strings of scores to choose from, some balanced, some not.

5 Name. Create a name for the character.

6 Rank. Use Social Influence to determine the character’s rank.  Social Influence replaces Social Standing.  No nobility in the implied setting.  And there is a sample setting involved.

7 Age. Decide on an age.  Are you retired from your service or not?

8 Appearance. Decide on the character’s appearance.

9 Movement. Note your Move score.

10 UPP. Note your character in the Universal Personality Profile arrangement.

11 Equipment. Allocate cash and starting equipment as needed.  Starting cash determined randomly based on your Social Influence.

12 Backstory. Roll for a past career event.

 

Character creation is a very quick process. 

 

Let me present:

 

Ret. Capt. Gael Jones-Smith 

Star Navy    46697A, Age 50, Move 10

Computer-2, Engineering-2, Gun Combat-1, Gunnery-1, Medical-2

Cr 30000 

 

Retro Sci-Fi Rules are an interesting variation on Traveller.  I might do more of a review later.  If you're interested in these type of RPGs, I think it's worth a look.