The Service Jacket

The Traveller service jacket, as I call it, is an important part of a game. Most people call it a character sheet, but in Traveller I think it's a little bit more. As a funny aside, when I was 11 or 12 and I played Traveller then, I saw a character sheet designed and it said service jacket. And I thought it was an actual jacket that a Traveller would wear in a hiring hall that sort of told the story of who they were, which I still think is kind of a funny idea. The Traveller Service Jacket encompasses everything that's in a character sheet--and is also a record of your character generation plus other aspects of your character. So what should be included on it?

The character name, race, and age are the first things that come to mind. Then of course the characteristics. Traveler has six basic characteristics. However, there are additional characteristics that can be used as well. PSI (Psionics) is of course the first but there is also CHA (Charisma) for Vagr and others. There are six primary characteristics, so I'm gonna allow for three secondary or additional characteristics on the sheet.

The next most important part is of course the skills. This includes the skill name, the level that you're trained in the skill, and any focus for a cascade skill. This is where I think most character sheets really fall off. They feel the need to list every single skill on the sheet, and I think that's a mistake. Most players don't have more than 15 or 16 skills choosing to specialize more rather than trying to have a skill level one in everything. I'm sure those characters exist, but I rarely see them.

Making a note of the homeworld, the subsector, and UWP can help tell a little bit about the character or where they're from. 

Although Augments are available in Traveller they aren’t  as varied for most characters. So I definitely want to have space for a waferjack or something simple, but the rest of any items can always be placed in the notes.

Equipment is also necessary for quick reference and maybe a little space for specific features that might be used. I like to have the primary weapon, secondary weapon, and an armor or vacc suit on the front of the character sheet because those are things that are referred to quite often for combat. There should definitely also be a place for notes somewhere at the bottom of the first page.

I think the days of the one-page character sheet are long gone and I've designed mine as two pages, or if you prefer one page front and back. 

On the back I'm going to focus on background and career. The first part is going to be the lifepath of the character. I think it's important to note all of these things on the character sheet so that both the referee and the players can regularly refer there. We'll start with the background, that is how the player grew up, any pre-career options they may use, and then the terms that they serve. I think ten terms is probably the most anyone would need. I could cut that down to eight. It's rare that a player serves more than six, but it's not unknown.

There's definitely a place for mustering out benefits and just an overview of what the character has gained in the process of their life and service. Allies, contacts, enemies, and friends should also be noted, as well as the game master's name and the name of the series that the player is currently in.

A note on language. I usually refer to the players as Travellers. A group of Travellers is generally called a Crew. A scenario is commonly called an Episode. A group of scenarios are known as a Series. There can be mini-series or even films if we want to stretch the metaphor. But I usually use anime storytelling organization a lot in how I describe my Traveller games.

So here is a sheet I designed for my game. I hope you enjoy it and if you have any suggestions to make it better, I'd love to hear them.