Character Creation questions from a newb

[alkibiades]

Sorry for the wall f text in advance.

I went through character generation (Starter Set) seperately with two friends abd some questions about certain details surfaced. I hope for some enlightement:

1) pre-career education takes place in place of a career. So after university/academy the char would be 22 years old?

2) if you qualify for the military academy, you get all service skills of the military career the academy is tied to at level 0, as with basic training. What happens if you enter the first term in this very military career when you are supposed to get the service skills as basic training again? this seems redundant, as he already had the basic training in the academy. Or happens something else in place?

3) If you enter the first term in your first career you get all service skills at level 0. Do you also get a skill roll in the same step for one skill? The chart suggests "If this is first term of Career, go through Basic Training, Otherwise, choose a skill table and roll". In the following pages it is nowhere mentioned, that you either just get the basic training or just a skill roll. So I am a little confused if basic training and skill roll are mutually exclusive or not.

4) One player was immedialtely forced out of a career after an mishap roll due to a failed survival roll. The chart says "Roll for mishap and leave career unless otherwise stated, in which case Start New Term*"
Usually when you start a new term you add +4 years. But do any years add up if a term is interrupted by a failed survival roll?

5) as the pre-career education takes place in place of a carrer, does it count towards such things as pensions and ageing (and the like)? So if I graduated from university and then served 4 terms in a career after that, would it count as 5 terms, meaning I get a pension of Cr10000? Similar for ageing. Does the pre-career education counts towards the total number of terms as a negative DM? In given example -5 for pre-education and 4 terms in a career or just -4 for the career terms sans the pre-education?

Thank you very much in advance

 

[AnotherDilbert]

1) pre-career education takes place in place of a career. So after university/academy the char would be 22 years old?

Yes.

2) if you qualify for the military academy, you get all service skills of the military career the academy is tied to at level 0, as with basic training. What happens if you enter the first term in this very military career when you are supposed to get the service skills as basic training again? this seems redundant, as he already had the basic training in the academy. Or happens something else in place?

You are correct, you get basic training twice. I do not consider that a problem, see next question.

3) If you enter the first term in your first career you get all service skills at level 0. Do you also get a skill roll in the same step for one skill? The chart suggests "If this is first term of Career, go through Basic Training, Otherwise, choose a skill table and roll". In the following pages it is nowhere mentioned, that you either just get the basic training or just a skill roll. So I am a little confused if basic training and skill roll are mutually exclusive or not.

P16 says you get both, the flowchart on p10 say you get only Basic Training, so take your pick.
I allow both, so the Military Academy thing isn't a problem, you get a skill as usual first term.

4) One player was immedialtely forced out of a career after an mishap roll due to a failed survival roll. The chart says "Roll for mishap and leave career unless otherwise stated, in which case Start New Term*"
Usually when you start a new term you add +4 years. But do any years add up if a term is interrupted by a failed survival roll?

Yes, that would normally take 4 years. The Referee can override as he sees fit.

5) as the pre-career education takes place in place of a carrer, does it count towards such things as pensions and ageing (and the like)? So if I graduated from university and then served 4 terms in a career after that, would it count as 5 terms, meaning I get a pension of Cr10000? Similar for ageing. Does the pre-career education counts towards the total number of terms as a negative DM? In given example -5 for pre-education and 4 terms in a career or just -4 for the career terms sans the pre-education?

Pre-career edu is not a career, hence do not count when careers are called for.
It does take time so does count against ageing.

I do not count edu against qualification rolls nor pensions. Note that the qualification roll is modified by the number of previous careers (Agent, Army, ...), not terms.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Note that the qualification roll is modified by the number of previous careers (Agent, Army, ...), not terms.

I should probably check my chargen app, to see how it handles those rolls.

 

[steve98052]

. . .
4) One player was immedialtely forced out of a career after an mishap roll due to a failed survival roll. The chart says "Roll for mishap and leave career unless otherwise stated, in which case Start New Term*"
Usually when you start a new term you add +4 years. But do any years add up if a term is interrupted by a failed survival roll?
. . .

Officially, all terms, including those with career ending mishaps, are four years. Military mishap in year two of your term? Hospital time then desk duty. Political mishap for a noble in year one of a term? Three years of lying low while your lawyers and public relations people sort things out enough that you can get a new noble occupation. Mishap as a drifter in year three of a term? The final year is standing on the side of the street with a cardboard sign until you scrape up enough to go somewhere else. Etc. (Those aren't in any way official examples, just ways one might translate dice and tables into a character's narrative background.)

House rule idea

Personally, however, I am inclined to house rule mishaps to break the four year pattern up a bit. Mishap in college or a service academy? Roll for when it happened: 1 first day on campus, 2 after a year, 3 after two years, 4 after three years, 5 all four years and you're still not done, 6 all four years and you're not done, but you have the option to try one more year, with a disadvantage to the roll. Most other mishaps? Roll: 1 early in the first year, 2 after a year, 3 after two, 4 after three, 5 after all four, 6 after all four, but option to try one extra year to salvage your career with a disadvantage to the roll. Other? I'd just improvise.

Whether it's a shortened term or the extended five-year term, you lose benefits as stated in the regular rules, unless you beat the optional fifth-year roll.

In all cases, you roll aging on the standard four year intervals.

Another house rule that could break the four year pattern is low berth time. There's an obvious place for that with Navy characters: the Frozen Watch. A character taking Frozen Watch service would get no skills and no aging, but would get a survival roll (because you're in a low berth on a ship in duty deemed dangerous enough to warrant keeping extra crew in low berths, and because low berths themselves aren't 100% safe) and credit toward mustering out and pension (because you're drawing a salary and obviously not spending it, and time is passing while you're serving as a spare). Outside the Navy, the main reason for extended low passage time would be a really long travel, such as a Core academic going to a frontier for research, a corporate manager or merchant getting reassigned to a distant sector, a colonist traveling to a new world very far away, or a drifter mistakenly left off the inventory of a low passage module in a bulk carrier.