Background Skills missing?

[rinku]

Jack of all Trades is useless as a background skill, because J-o-T 0 doesn't give you any in-game benefit.

Almost but not quite. There are several careers with events that allow you to increase any existing skill by +1. That would allow JoT 0 to progress to the useful JoT 1. However, I do agree that JoT isn't really appropriate for a background skill. If you want to represent general handiness at a variety of tasks, Trade 0 is a good one to consider.

 

[far-trader]

...we should clarify that characters generated by this system are PLAYER characters, by definition adventurers. Nope, not every person from a Water world can drive a boat, nor will every person raised on an asteroid know how to put on a vacc suit (though I really think the latter is going to be close to 100%). These are PC, not NPC rules, as are all the subsequent career generation rules.

I'm not sure that is true though. Does MGT specifically say so somewhere? It should be in BOLD print if it is

I'm not saying that shouldn't be the case, it makes much more sense if it is, but... the char gen rules always seem to get tasked with providing all the NPCs of the game too. I'm willing to concede much on the basis of the rules only applying to PCs

...certain environments do dictate some of these skills as basic survival or deep cultural proficiencies.

Some, perhaps, but certainly not universally, even if just for the subset of PCs. In fact if PCs are beyond the norm I'd say such would be even less likely. The local cop remarks on the PC who never attended the required safety programs or religious study... "Oh him, he's Gardet the Rules Breaker. What a disappointment to his family. Calls himself an 'Adventurer' flying all over in his Free-Trader."

I'll say again nothing convinces me that any skill is necessarily a required survival or social skill. A vacuum world society is likely safe enough without everyone knowing and having VaccSuits. At the most I see safe-rooms and/or rescue bubbles. Only the few (which may well include PCs) who actually go outside regularly would be getting VaccSuit. And not everyone, least of all the 'special' cases (PCs), is going to go along with the expected social norms. Outcast, strange, and worse terms would fit most PCs I've seen They think gunplay and risk is FUN! :shock: :lol:

 

[far-trader]

Jack of all Trades is useless as a background skill, because J-o-T 0 doesn't give you any in-game benefit.

Yeah, I keep confusing rules systems

J-o-T zero is pretty useless in most of the rules sets in fact, I was probably thinking more like J-o-T 1, but failed the Rules Skill check

I think most rules sets make most zero level skills a cheap gimme or pointless, but I'm probably in a small group thinking so. I think the best use of zero level skills is to move the plot along when someone doesn't have a critical skill in a group. As a temporary measure only.

 

[BP]

Most level 0 skills are equivalent to an automatic +3 DM (as they negate the -3 DM for unskilled)

Since JoT 'works differently to other skills' (pg 55) there really isn't a JoT 0. Providing it (thus at level 1) as a Homeworld skill probably wouldn't make any sense, but as a 'background skill' it might - not to say it wouldn't be a bit unbalancing...