Forgery in Mongoose Traveller

Baldo

Banded Mongoose
I am converting this adventure from Freelance Traveller but it includes the Forgery skill, and got a doubt.
What you need to detect and/or create any Forgery in MgT 2nd Edition? Admin? Profession (forger)? Can't find nothing relevant in the Core Rulebook.

Thanks for any input you may have.
 
Probably the needed skill changes with the type of forgery and in some cases it may be an extended check. For documentation Admin would be a good fit. Art would come in to mimic the physical appearance. Electronics (computer) would cover faking electronic records and data or embedded RFID verification codes and the like. Deception could be used to make a fake more credible (“aren’t you a little short to be an aslan?”). Science might be useful to help copy a historical artifact, “salt” an area with traces of rare minerals, etc.

The wild card in this is 3D printing. Once sufficiently advanced 3D printers are available, creating believable fakes becomes much easier. (There’s at least one thread on the forum talking about what this means for currency.) But technology for detection of fakes gets better too. So there may still be room for Art in creating believable micro defects to fool those methods (“the distribution of chromium atoms is much too regular to be natural - it must be manufactured” or “the brush strokes don’t fit the fractal patterns Borinorowitz followed in the latter half of his career.”)
 
Depends on what you forge?

Paper document? Admin to know what it should look like, Profession (or Art?) to forge? Or just Admin if it's just regular paper.

Computer document? Admin + Elec(Comp)?

Computer certificate? Science(Math) + Elec(Comp)?

Art? Art(something)?


Let the players come up with a plan, describe what they do. Nudge them to something you find acceptable, roll some dice...
 
Linwood said:
Probably the needed skill changes with the type of forgery and in some cases it may be an extended check. (...) The wild card in this is 3D printing...

Yeah, that was my idea too, but I had forgotten the '3D printing' gimmick, it could justify the existence of a single, all-inclusive 'Profession (forger)' skill.
I'm going to use both options: different skill tasks for related forgeries, and a generic Profession (forger) skill for high tech professionals.

AnotherDilbert said:
Let the players come up with a plan, describe what they do. Nudge them to something you find acceptable, roll some dice...

You're right but I tend to check the manual first, it must be something in my genes :lol: ...

Thank you for all the replies! :mrgreen:
 
Baldo said:
I am converting this adventure from Freelance Traveller but it includes the Forgery skill, and got a doubt.
What you need to detect and/or create any Forgery in MgT 2nd Edition? Admin? Profession (forger)? Can't find nothing relevant in the Core Rulebook.

Thanks for any input you may have.

The problem with forgery is that it was too pigeon-hole for some, and too broad for others. A skill of 3 or 4 could mean a one-trick-pony character. And forgery of what, exactly? Everything? It was best to use existing skills to role-play any forgery (or detection of) that would be needing done.
 
Creation and detection might be two related but separate skills.

One might require an artistic temperament, and the other pattern recognition.

For identities, outright theft, or the creation of legends that can survive various degrees of scrutiny.
 
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