ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
In Alien book 4 on page 3, it is said that education is capped by the social standing level during CharGen. Does this apply to proles or non-proles?
Capped Zhodani education level
- Thread starter ShawnDriscoll
- Start date
Prime_Evil
Emperor Mongoose
ShawnDriscoll said:
The book states that children of Nobles and Intendants receive better educations than Proles do. However, I got the feeling that this restriction applies to all Zhodani characters irrespective of caste and reflects the stratification of Zhodani society.
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Prime_Evil said:
The part about an EDU of 7- being raised to 8 sounds like an Intendant or Noble perk. But it's unclear to me if the EDU capping is a high-soc perk (all kids are garranteed education up to their soc level) or a prole perk (all kids can't learn more than their soc level).
A prole with EDU 10 and SOC 5 is either allowed, or it is not. Hmmm.....
Or maybe the statement to the effect that high-soc kids are better educated means the capping does not apply to them. And the raising EDU to 8 is a high-soc thing.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
I'm not that familiar with the Zhodani, but aren't the Psionically-gifted gifted with a scholarship and punted kicking and screaming into the bourgeoisie?
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Condottiere said:
Yes. That rule is written clearly.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
So it's possible that an Open University online course cd would be illegal? Or home schooling?
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
Home-schooling would be completely against the Zhodani mind-set.
If you don't send your sweetlings off to government school, how will they learn everything they need to be a proper, productive citizen? After all, we all need the Nobles to help keep us on the right path and search out those deviants that could be lurking anywhere - they need help!
Besides, it is my duty as a good member of Zhodani society to keep the teachers employed.
If you don't send your sweetlings off to government school, how will they learn everything they need to be a proper, productive citizen? After all, we all need the Nobles to help keep us on the right path and search out those deviants that could be lurking anywhere - they need help!
Besides, it is my duty as a good member of Zhodani society to keep the teachers employed.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
I'm getting an antebellum Southern Dixie vibe.
GypsyComet
Emperor Mongoose
There are several ways to interpret the Zhodani social structures, and the Consulate is large enough that they could all be correct despite efforts toward social homogenization. You will get Nobles and Intendants who run the spectrum of social responsibility, perception of highest priority societal issues (and where those rank compared to external issues), and level of "evil overlord" syndrome.
Egil Skallagrimsson
Mongoose
I think the answer is not allowed, the book says " the effect is that initial Education cannot be higher than initial social standing", so in your example the prole will be limited to Edu 5. There is clearly provision for intendants and nobles to receive at least education 8, to ensure that the Zhodani elite have a reasonable education.ShawnDriscoll said:
Of course, education achievement in most societies on Terra is closely linked to social class as well, more so than to intelligence in many instances! Perhaps it is the Imperials who are out of line.
Egil
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Egil Skallagrimsson said:
But the book doesn't say who it applies to.
Egil Skallagrimsson
Mongoose
ShawnDriscoll said:
It is written in a vague way, but I think the meaning is as I suggested, also the same would apply to intendants and nobles, so someone of Soc 11 could not have an edu of 12. I tend to think that the "in this case" would have been better rendered as "as a consequence of this".
However, the real answer should come from the author, Don McKinney.
Could someone point him in the direction of this thread, and ask for the definitive answer?
Egil
In looking the paragraph over, I'd probably write it like this today:
"For all classes of Zhodani society, initial Education cannot be higher than initial Social Standing. If Education is higher than Social Standing initially, reduce Education to be equal to Social Standing. On the other hand, children of Nobles and Intendants receive better educations than Proles do. In this case, if Soc 10+ and Edu 7−, increase Education to 8."
"For all classes of Zhodani society, initial Education cannot be higher than initial Social Standing. If Education is higher than Social Standing initially, reduce Education to be equal to Social Standing. On the other hand, children of Nobles and Intendants receive better educations than Proles do. In this case, if Soc 10+ and Edu 7−, increase Education to 8."
Egil Skallagrimsson
Mongoose
donm61873 said:
Thanks, Don
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
Also, remember that this only applies to Initial Education and Social Status, it is quite possible for any Zhodani to increase their education above their Social Standing during their terms of service or during game play.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Can the proletariat legally increase their educational level?
Condottiere said:
RTT answered this above correctly. The third paragraph of the "Characteristic Adjustment" section should be fairly clear: "These adjustments apply only at the start of character generation".
I'd change the following sentence to read, "They do not apply if a character’s Education, Social
Standing or Psionic Strength change due to the results of career service, aging or game play."
I hope that covers most of the questions that arise in this section... Note that not only is it possible for a Prole to receive additional Education in career service, but it's possible for a Prole to increase Psionic Strength above 9, in which case they gain Social Standing 10 and get sent off to Psionic Training as an Intendant (page 4).
