At the risk of straying back on the d20 traveller topic :-)
Someone mentioned that even changing the traveller prior career system to an
after character generation option would still violate d20 license because
levels and experience would be involved. I think that isn't true, based on
the spirit of traveller's system.
Traveller's character background system was not designed to make high level
starting characters, it is made to make _better_ first level characters. If
such a optional 'pre-campaign prior career experiences' system was added to
the d20 system, it would not have to include levels or XP. You could simply
award skills, feats, material goods, money, and ability score improvements,
like traveller did. This would unbalance the d20 traveller characters in
comparison to the 'core' d20 characters, but if all your players opted to
take part, the game wouldn't suffer. You would create better 1st level
characters, with some tangible results of their life prior to adventuring
evident in their character, instead of, as traveller put it 'raw,
inexperienced youths'. Experience and levels should be left to what the are
intended for, a measure of advancement and improvement _during_ the
campaign.
Still, as a whole, given that each career type in traveller deserves to be
its own class, and the fact that the various editions of traveller have
literally dozens and dozens of career choices, I think that a traveller d20
game _needs_ character generation and XP/level rules, and thus may be better
suited as a ogl game, using d20 concepts and mechanics, but avoiding the d20
logo and wotc nomeclature.
