- Still finishing up The Traveller Book. The experience system is interesting. Basically, if you spend 4 years and make an 8+ roll on 2d, you can get a +1 to a skill. But then it goes away, unless you roll another 8+ and spend another 4 years to cement it in. So getting from basic familiarity with, say, a Vacc Suit or a Revolver to enough skill for a +1 to rolls takes 8 years and solid dedication. Yowza. More amusing is that a low Intelligence gives a bonus, and a very low Intelligence a big bonus, to that roll . . . to improve Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity. The less intelligent you are, the more dedicate you are to the gym . . . geez, I forgot how deep the jocks vs. geeks rift was. It's codified with rules in Traveller.
- I can vouch for a lot of these - 100 true murder hobo stories.
"There is nothing a murder hobo hates more than imprisonment. They will fight to the death rather than be captured and pronounce it like its a personality trait. "
- A look at Talisman. I play the computer version sometimes, still.
- Big Summer Sale at Warehouse23, with freebies in the physical orders. Most of what I wrote is on sale.
- Summer is a rough time for gaming. We're mid-delve and don't have time to play again thanks to everyone's schedule for a couple weeks and then due to mine for a few more.
Re: Traveller skill improvement: if you make the first dedication roll, you gain +1 to each of two skills that you already have immediately. At the end of four years, make another dedication roll or lose the two skill levels. If you do make the second dedication roll, the skill levels become permanent after four more years (eight years total for two skill levels). To get an entirely new skill, you can, once in your character's life, take a Sabbatical for four years, after which you get a single non-weapon skill at level 2. It's an open question whether you have to take the character out of the game for those four years of Sabbatical, but most people (including me) interpret it such that you do. In any case, you can always do that right after mustering out if you have the money, making your character four years older but with a skill of your choice at level 2. In the end, I prefer the MegaTraveller skill improvement rules, but then I prefer those rules for a lot of things.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that jocks/geeks rule was funny back in the day.
You're correct that you get those skills immediately, but unless I'm misreading the rules, you don't get to keep them at the end of the 4 years unless you do another 4 years to cement them in - temporarily gaining another level, which itself will be lost at the end. It would lead to admirably slow pace of power development, but I just don't find much realism in that, or consistency with the chargen rules. It doesn't seem like you need to maintain practice to keep your chargen levels up, and while I could come up with a justification it would be pretty convoluted, just trying to reach a predetermined end.
DeleteYou're right about the sabbatical, but I wasn't attempting a full discussion of the entire rules, just two bits that stood out.
Yeah, you're reading it right. You get to keep the skills if you make another dedication roll and spend four more years. I didn't mention that you get another pair of temp skill levels during that second four years, but that's correct too. Eight years total to raise the two skills, which is, I think, where it was supposed to be relatively consistent with character generation. Like I said, I prefer MT for skill improvement. Adventure Tallies through experience or training make more sense than dedication rolls, as well as being able to raise skills you don't already have.
DeleteI mentioned the Sabbatical to emphasize that the other skill improvement only works on skills you already have at level 1 or higher.