Browse this Traveller skills list with short explanations, crew-role categories, video links, and beginner-friendly guidance for using Traveller RPG skills in play.
Traveller Skills List
Skills are one of the most important parts of Traveller RPG. They decide what your character can do, what role they fill in the crew, and how they solve problems when the mission gets dangerous.
This page is the canonical CyborgPrime hub for Traveller RPG skills, with short explanations, role-based categories, and links to the Traveller RPG Skills in 60 Seconds video series where available.
Use this page as a quick reference while building a Traveller character, learning what a skill does, choosing a crew role, or looking for ways to make a skill matter during play.
What Are Skills in Traveller?
Traveller skills describe what your character has learned to do through background, education, careers, training, experience, and survival.
Unlike class-based games, Traveller does not usually define characters by a fixed class path. A character is shaped by characteristics, careers, skills, events, contacts, enemies, benefits, debts, injuries, and choices made during play.
That makes skills one of the most important parts of a Traveller character. Skills tell the table what problems your character can help solve.
How to Use This Skill Index
If you are new to Traveller, do not try to memorize every skill at once. Start with the skills that matter to your character, your career, or your shipboard role.
- Players: Use this index to understand what your character can contribute during a session.
- Referees: Use it to remind players when their skills can solve problems, create options, or complicate the mission.
- New groups: Use the skill categories below to make sure the crew has enough coverage for travel, combat, negotiation, repair, exploration, and survival.
- Returning veterans: Use the A-Z index to jump straight to the skill you need.
Want the full video sequence? Watch the complete Traveller RPG Skills in 60 Seconds playlist.
Start With These Core Traveller Skills
Some skills show up constantly in Traveller campaigns. These are good starting points if you are learning how skills shape play.
- Astrogation - Plotting jumps and making interstellar travel possible.
- Admin - Permits, bureaucracy, official paperwork, and institutional friction.
- Advocate - Law, contracts, legal trouble, and official disputes.
- Broker - Trade deals, cargo prices, and commercial negotiations.
- Carouse - Socializing, networking, and getting information in informal settings.
- Athletics - Physical challenges, endurance, strength, coordination, and survival under pressure.
Traveller Skills Are Not Classes
Traveller characters are not locked into a single class identity. A Navy veteran, failed merchant, retired scout, drifter, scholar, ex-agent, or former noble might all share some of the same skills, but use them in very different ways.
For example, Electronics might be used by a sensor operator, a hacker, a comms specialist, a drone controller, or an engineer repairing a damaged ship system.
When reading this skill list, think less about “what class uses this?” and more about “what kind of problems does this skill let my character solve?”
Skill Index by Crew Role
The same Traveller skill can matter in different ways depending on the campaign. Use these categories to find the skills most relevant to your crew.
Starship and Technical Skills
- Astrogation - Jump plotting and safe interstellar navigation.
- Engineer - J-drive, M-drive, power, and life support operation.
- Mechanic - Maintenance, repairs, jury-rigging, and keeping equipment working.
- Pilot - Flying small craft, spacecraft, and capital ships.
- Electronics - Computers, sensors, communications, and remote operations.
- Navigation - Finding your way outside of jump plotting.
- Seafarer - Ships, submarines, and personal watercraft.
- Vacc Suit - EVA, vacuum survival, and zero-gravity operations.
Social and Professional Skills
- Admin - Bureaucracy, permits, forms, and official systems.
- Advocate - Law, legal arguments, contracts, and formal disputes.
- Broker - Trade deals, market knowledge, and commercial negotiation.
- Carouse - Drinking, socializing, parties, and informal networking.
- Deception - Lies, false identities, cover stories, and forged credentials.
- Diplomat - Negotiation, peacekeeping, and formal social situations.
- Gambler - Betting, games of chance, probability, and reading opponents.
- Investigate - Searching, interviewing, analyzing evidence, and connecting clues.
- Jack-of-All-Trades - Reducing penalties when using untrained skills.
- Language - Communication in specific languages such as Vilani or Zhodani.
- Leadership - Command, morale, coordination, and keeping a team together.
- Persuade - Convincing NPCs, negotiating favors, and social pressure.
- Profession - Civilian jobs such as cook, miner, belter, journalist, or other jobs.
- Science - Academic and technical fields such as physics, biology, history, psionics, and philosophy.
- Steward - Passenger service, hospitality, etiquette, and comfort aboard ship.
- Streetwise - Criminal contacts, underworld knowledge, and urban survival.
Combat Skills
- Athletics - Coordination, endurance, strength, movement, and physical pressure.
- Explosives - Demolition, breaching charges, bombs, and disarming devices.
- Gun Combat - Slug weapons, energy weapons, and archaic firearms.
- Gunner - Turrets, bays, ortillery, and screens.
- Heavy Weapons - Vehicle weapons, launchers, mortars, and battlefield firepower.
- Melee - Unarmed combat, blades, bludgeons, and natural weapons.
- Tactics - Military and naval coordination in group combat.
Exploration and Survival Skills
- Animals - Handling, riding, training, and veterinary care.
- Art - Writing, visual media, holography, performance, and creative work.
- Drive - Wheeled, tracked, walker, hover, and mole vehicles.
- Flyer - Grav vehicles, rotor aircraft, winged craft, and ornithopters.
- Recon - Spotting danger, scouting, observation, and avoiding ambush.
- Stealth - Hiding, sneaking, infiltration, and quiet movement.
- Survival - Foraging, tracking, shelter, and surviving hostile environments.
- Medic - First aid, surgery, trauma care, and emergency treatment.
Why Skills Matter in Traveller RPG
Traveller characters are not defined by classes. They are defined by careers, experiences, skills, contacts, rivals, benefits, injuries, debts, and the choices they make in play.
That means a skill is more than a number on a character sheet. A skill can become a role in the crew, a solution to a crisis, a reason an NPC trusts you, or the one thing that keeps the ship moving when everything goes wrong.
- Starship skills like Astrogation, Engineer, Pilot, and Vacc Suit keep the crew alive in space.
- Social skills like Persuade, Streetwise, Advocate, and Carouse help the crew survive negotiations, legal trouble, and underworld pressure.
- Combat skills decide what happens when talking fails.
- Exploration skills help the crew survive strange worlds, bad terrain, dangerous wildlife, and unknown environments.
- Technical skills turn broken equipment, sensor data, and strange phenomena into solvable problems.
For New Traveller Players
If you are building your first character, start with the skills your career gives you. Then ask three questions:
- What can my character do that helps the crew?
- What problems will my skills let me solve?
- What kind of scenes do I want my character to shine in?
For more help with the full character creation process, read the Traveller Character Creation Guide.
You may also find these character creation guides useful:
- Traveller RPG Careers Explained
- Mongoose Traveller Character Creation: Background Skills
- Traveller Character Creation: Best Background Skills
For Traveller Referees
Referees can use skills to create better choices. Instead of asking, “Does the crew have the right answer?” ask, “Which skills could create a useful answer?”
A locked door might involve Mechanic, Electronics, Deception, Admin, Advocate, Streetwise, Explosives, or even Broker depending on the situation. The best Traveller skill checks open new options, create consequences, and reveal more of the campaign world.
Skills are also useful for adventure design. A cargo problem might involve Broker, Admin, Streetwise, Advocate, Electronics, Pilot, or Mechanic. A patron mystery might involve Investigate, Carouse, Persuade, Deception, Recon, or Science. A damaged ship might involve Engineer, Mechanic, Electronics, Vacc Suit, or Leadership.
Complete Alphabetical Traveller Skill Index
Looking for something specific? Use this A-Z list of Traveller RPG skills as a quick reference. Skills with available Shorts are linked directly.
- Admin - Bureaucracy, permits, forms, official systems, and red tape.
- Advocate - Law, contracts, legal maneuvering, and formal disputes.
- Animals - Handling, riding, training, and veterinary care.
- Art - Writing, visual media, holography, performance, and creative work.
- Astrogation - Jump plotting and navigation through jumpspace.
- Athletics - Coordination, endurance, strength, movement, and physical pressure.
- Broker - Trade deals, cargo haggling, market knowledge, and negotiation.
- Carouse - Parties, informal socializing, networking, and tavern diplomacy.
- Deception - Lies, impersonation, cover stories, and forged credentials.
- Diplomat - Negotiation, peacekeeping, and formal social encounters.
- Drive - Wheeled, tracked, walker, hover, and mole vehicles.
- Electronics - Computers, sensors, communications, and remote operations.
- Engineer - J-drive, M-drive, power, and life support systems.
- Explosives - Building, placing, disabling, and surviving explosives.
- Flyer - Grav vehicles, rotor aircraft, winged craft, and ornithopters.
- Gambler - Games of chance, betting, probability, and reading opponents.
- Gun Combat - Slug weapons, energy weapons, and archaic firearms.
- Gunner - Turrets, bays, ortillery, and screens.
- Heavy Weapons - Vehicle weapons, launchers, mortars, and heavy battlefield weapons.
- Investigate - Searching, analyzing clues, interviews, and making connections.
- Jack-of-All-Trades - Using untrained skills with fewer penalties.
- Language - Communication in specific languages such as Vilani, Zhodani, or other campaign languages.
- Leadership - Commands, morale, team cohesion, and coordinated action.
- Mechanic - Maintenance, repair, jury-rigging, and general technical fixes.
- Medic - First aid, surgery, trauma care, and emergency treatment.
- Melee - Unarmed combat, blades, bludgeons, and natural weapons.
- Navigation - Overland, planetary, or space navigation outside of jump plotting.
- Persuade - Convincing NPCs, social pressure, appeals, and negotiated outcomes.
- Pilot - Small craft, spacecraft, and capital ships.
- Profession - Civilian work such as cook, miner, belter, journalist, or other jobs.
- Recon - Spotting hidden dangers, scouting, observation, and avoiding ambush.
- Science - Physics, biology, psionics, history, philosophy, and other academic fields.
- Seafarer - Ships, submarines, and personal watercraft.
- Stealth - Moving silently, hiding, sneaking, and infiltration.
- Steward - Passenger care, service, hospitality, etiquette, and comfort aboard ship.
- Streetwise - Criminal contacts, urban intelligence, black markets, and local trouble.
- Survival - Foraging, shelter, tracking, and surviving harsh environments.
- Tactics - Military or naval group combat coordination.
- Vacc Suit - EVA, vacuum survival, and zero-gravity work.
Watch the Traveller Skills Shorts Playlist
Each short video gives you a quick explanation, a table-use example, and a roleplay hook for making that skill matter in a Traveller session.
The Shorts are useful when you want a quick explanation. The written index is useful when you want to compare skills, build a character, plan a crew, or remind players what their skills can do during a session.
Watch the Traveller RPG Skills in 60 Seconds Playlist
Keep Learning Traveller Skills
Want more Traveller RPG character creation help, skill guides, career advice, cheat sheets, and beginner-friendly play tips?
Join the Traveller Character Creation list and I’ll send you practical tools and articles to help you build better Traveller characters and get more from your next session.
You can also join me and other Traveller fans on the CyborgPrime Discord server.
