Hi,

I am very new to Traveller and I am rolling up some characters before I
start into being a GM for a campaign starting soon-ish.

We will use Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition and when I started to roll a
character in the Navy-Career, the following happened:
Pilot 0
I rolled in a term on the Flight table and got Pilot (small craft).
And in yet another term I got "Pilot"
Then I got confused.
Should I have now

Pilot (some choosable specialisation) 1
Pilot (small craft) 0

or

Pilot (small craft) 2

How does that work?
What would happen if I get as an officer Melee (blade) 1 and later roll
Melee somewhere?

2nd question: Do you usually roll the characteristics or do you
give your players 36 or 42 points for the characteristics (I tend to 42)
and they can freely distribute them? Or do you give them the choise:
fix points to distribute or try your luck and you might get a worse or
better outcome?

3rd question: How powerful are Travellers compared to the average
person/alien in the galaxy? Are they equal? Are they a bit better than
average or a lot better?

Thanks a lot :)

Niels