Studying Athletics at university

[lord_bosco]

Is there a reason why Traveller characters can't study Athletics skill at university? Has the NCAA finally been abolished in the Third Imperium?

[Moppy]

Mongoos are British. Maybe it's a British thing? School sports in UK basically means school sports day, that is 12 year olds once per year. They don't really have the big collegiate sports scene that USA has. They obviously play leaguse at all ages, but it's a tiny scene.

[Condottiere]

[Moppy]

Knew that would come up, but it's one of those once per year things.

[Linwood]

I believe you can pick Athletics as a background skill. Or you could home-rule that Athletics is available at University.

If Profession can be studied at University you could invent Profession (Athlete).

[Saladman]

I just recently learned that University in Classic gave you a boost to your Education stat... and that's all. Clarified what I didn't like about making University and Prison full separate careers in 2e - I'm okay with abstract, and 2e in general seems to be about making the game literal.

If I did add a university career to my 1e game though, it would probably be something like:
1. Athletics
2. Leadership
3. Melee (Blade)
4. Carouse
5. Diplomat
6. Art (Any)
Then stack the Other Benefits table with +1s to Education. Maybe + to Soc at 7, contacts at 1 and 2.

[Linwood]

I suggest adding an automatic Admin 0 for dealing with the bureaucracy....

[AnotherDilbert]

Mongoos are British. Maybe it's a British thing?

I would guess it's an everyone-but-the-US thing.

Universities are devoted to academic study. E.g. plumbing, dancing, and acting are studied in specialised schools. Sports are played in sports clubs.

[GamingGlen]

I believe you can pick Athletics as a background skill. Or you could home-rule that Athletics is available at University.

If Profession can be studied at University you could invent Profession (Athlete).

I'd keep the Profession specific skill limited to one sport per Profession choice. Not many athletes transcends one sport well enough to be professionally good at two. Bo Jackson is the last one I recall having successful careers in two sports (professional American football and baseball).

[Condottiere]

Scholarships.

Survival and promotion reflect athletic results, and increased physical attributes, plus more esoteric stuff such as leadership.

Depending on which university you attend, your education characteristic may improve, it may not, and a low one might not even matter.

[Moppy]

For EU/US readers note that what's missing is not just a university to do sport at, but the whole "professional" league for college sport that the US has that doesn't really exist in the most of the EU.

[Condottiere]

As I recall, there are football academies for gifted youngsters, who'll skip university and not getting paid at Collegiate Sports to directly join a club side.

[GamingGlen]

For EU/US readers note that what's missing is not just a university to do sport at, but the whole "professional" league for college sport that the US has that doesn't really exist in the most of the EU.

We're not talking about attending university on current Terra, but in the far future where millions of universities exist. Since the rules do not specify the type of university, the player could choose whichever type he wants, one that may have athletic programs or one that does not. I'd expand the given skill list further.

What's missing is a 2-year school option: trade schools; schools for tech(example: Electronics 0 & Electronics (any) 1), flying, law enforcement, diplomatic corps (example: Admin 0, Diplomat 1), trading (Carouse 0, Broker 1), and many others.
I think I just came up with a new house rule for my campaigns.

[Moppy]

I need them to define how education and careers work in a society that has access to skill wafers you can plug into your head.

I still don't get why you hire an engineer when you can get a random janitor and give them a skill wafer. Sure, they won't be the best engineer in the world, but they're going to be competent for civilian maintenance work and they're going to be cheap and easy to find. I would not trust them with emergency repair of battle damage.

Maintenance is probably all flowchat stuff anyway. Plug in the diagnostic box, change the part it tells you, and they have a video showing you how to do it that plays in your AR/VR eye goggles. We have that today, or something basically the same, maybe not the goggles, depending on where you work.

[Condottiere]

James White's Sector General had a similar premise, but with doctors.

It only worked if the recipient had some prior knowledge, presumably to put everything in context.

You can arbitrarily make it expensive.

[NOLATrav]

You can also arbitrarily create tables for different educational institutions/disciplines if you don’t care for the wafer jack route.

Several 1e 3rd party publishers provided alternate pre-career education/academy options that can be mined for inspiration. I suspect that’s out there for the current edition as well. The Spica Career books for 1e offer Athlete as a career (including an Agent/Manager specialty) allowing for Athletics to be a major aspect of a character’s development.

I think we’ve touched upon why the (meta)OTU repeatedly destroys itself with and limits its own technology. From the Shudusham Accords (still respected in the 1248 milieu) to Virus to the Empress Wave (admittedly a bit of a reach with that last one). But Tech/Magic eventually reduces Humans to Useless Meatbags. Nothing for them to do. But the charm of Traveller seems to be scrappy little meatbags doing stuff and (probably) making good anyway.

I say expand the University skill list to include anything the player wants, if the world/TL/milieu can support it. It’s still on them to graduate after all.

[Ursus Maior]

For EU/US readers note that what's missing is not just a university to do sport at, but the whole "professional" league for college sport that the US has that doesn't really exist in the most of the EU.

I'd absolutely give my players the choice to take Athletics at university level. University sports aren't that big a thing in Europe as they are in the US, but they do exist, as do degrees in certain sports, especially football (i. e. "soccer" for US readers). I could see professional athletes see falling under "Entertainer/Performer" in MgT 2E.

Here in Germany, you study "sports sciences" if you want to become a professional trainer or - especially - a teacher at secondary school level. Which brings me to my own question:

Which career to take for a school teacher? Scholar is only a half good solution, there is way to much "Science" and not enough "Profession (Teacher)" available. But "Citizen/Corporate" isn't working either. The Traveller Companion falls short either.

[Condottiere]

For a formal educational institution, you have compulsory and elective courses, and presumably you figure out how to conduct research on your own, cooperate with your peers, and maybe freeload on their homework.

Honours should get you a couple bonus dice modifiers regarding employment and promotion, survival only in the sense catastrophic results are modified upwards favourably by one factor, because of networking.

[arcador]

This will confirm what some of you said - the equivalent of sports academy.

Here (in Bulgaria) we have Sports Academy. It is equivalent to University - same titles i.e. you can become PhD in Sport.

Depending on the branch, you can focus on different things: sports, pedagogy, public health.

I know a few people from there. Some trained national champions, others participated in national competitions, others - nothing.