Sample Traveller Backgrounds

 

Some players are new to the game, here’s some idea seeds for backgrounds.

 

Ex-Rancher

 

You grew up on Tarsus, a planet whose main industry is based on harvesting nobbles, a 3000kg herd animal.  They are raised on huge plains using grav vehicles.  Ranches are a series of buildings with extended families and ranch hands at the edges of the plains where the Nobbles migrate.

 

Tarsus is a medium tech level planet outside the borders of the Imperium in District 268.  Membership in the Imperium may be extended in the future, but such decisions take many years.  The last war did not directly affect District 268, but espionage and intrigue between the major nations happened here.  The District also tends to have a high amount pirate activity relative to the more civilized Imperium.

 

You mother died at a young age of disease, your father owns the ranch and is still there, as far as you know.  You grew tired of Tarsus and decided to “see the universe” by joinging the Imperial (service of choice or Merchant service).  You have not returned to Tarsus in many years, although occasionally you write or receive messages.

 

Ex-Religious Colony member

 

You started life on Pavabid, a planet in District 268 that is ruled by an oppressive theocracy that practices a fundamental version of the Church of Stellar Divinity.  Life on Pavabid included devotional services five times a day and half the day on Saturday.  Many tasks done with technology on other worlds were done by manual labor on Pavabid, and literacy and technological aptitude is kept low except for the ruling elite class.  Pavabid is very isolationist to this day, and outsiders are viewed with suspicion and dislike.  Outsiders are only allowed in the starport compound.  

 

Your parents tried to raise you in the traditions of the Church, but the indoctrination just would not take, and eventually you took yourself to the starport and worked passage offworld with one of the few merchant ships to visit.  Your actions likely led to your parents being punished, but life in the oppressive environment of the Pavabid theocracy was unimaginable.

 

Pavabid is a medium tech level planet outside the borders of the Imperium in District 268.  Membership in the Imperium may be extended in the future, but such decisions take many years.  The last war did not directly affect District 268, but espionage and intrigue between the major nations happened (and continues) here.  The District also tends to have a high amount pirate activity relative to the more civilized Imperium.

 

Glisten Citizen

 

Born in the Glisten Habitat, you are used to small living spaces.  Life in the huge orbital station in the highest technology system in nearby Imperial space prepared you well for any of several careers in space.  Glisten started as a mining station (and mining is still a huge industry).  The resources from the belt also made Glisten a logical location for manufacturing, shipbuilding, and metal refining.  The population of the system now reaches into the billions, and exports go to all the surrounding systems.  Of course, imports of foodstuffs and other organics are critical to the survival of the population. 

 

There is a huge naval presence in Glisten, and a massive amount of merchant traffic.  The high technology and sophistication means you received an excellent education at a high technology level (GTL12 standard).  Your mother works in the Shipyard as a zero-g construction worker for Bilstein Yards, the major shipbuilder.  Your Father is a senior accountant for one of the brokerage firms at Glisten; Hargher and Blythe.

 

Anyone who grows up in Glisten Hab is pretty much guaranteed to have a high education level and a touch (or more) of agoraphobia.  They are also likely to have “spacer” skill, since a familiarity with emergency pressure loss equipment and a healthy respect for “The Big V” (vacuum) is indoctrinated early.

 

Refugee of the FFW

 

You were born on Efate, a high tech world in the Spinward Marches near the Zhodani Border.  In 1107, after a series of internal uprising of Ine Givar rebels funded in part by the ‘Zhos’, the Fifth Frontier war began with the Zhodani blockade and invasion of Efate (among other worlds).  Imperial forces took many weeks to respond as news and forces could only move at the speed of jump travel.  Fighting on Efate was heavy and destructive, and your family was killed in the fighting. 

 

Efate suffered massive destruction.  Cities were destroyed, orbital facilities sent crashing to the surface.  Eventually an Imperial Fleet and landing force arrived, resulting in a new round of destruction.  The reconstruction is still going on, six years after the war has ended, but the memories linger on.

 

This character would be justified in having a racial bias against the Zhodani and Sword Worlds human, or the Vargr, who also participated in the war.  Post-traumatic stress or flashbacks would be likely.  If this person were involved in fighting, and Enemy might have been made of the Zhodani or Ine Givar rebel movement.  Efate was high technology, and anyone who grew up there prior to 1107 would have a high technology education (GTL 12, TTL 14).

 

Other possibilities;

 

  • A Moisture farmer on a desert world, who leaves to become a rebellion leader? (too hackneyed?)

 

  • A poverty stricken world where scholarship was the only way out, and a degree in Journalism led you to a job as a roving reporter? 

 

  • From the planet Aki (Glisten subsector) that until 100 years ago was isolated and kept unaware fo the Imperium surrounding it so it could develop an independent culture.  Only when they discovered the secret of interstellar travel themselves, were they brought into the Imperium.
  • A native of Mithras, a prison world with a harsh environment, where living is tough, but where education is guaranteed, and children of the original criminals are free to enter the services or otherwise find off-world employment.

 

You get the idea.  Mix and match, find your niche.