Handling Skill Advancement

[ShawnDriscoll]

I also imposed a 3 term maximum limit on their character creation. I did not want a bunch of 50 year olds “retiring” from their regular jobs to go gallivanting across the galaxy… 8) So everyone was 30 or so years old when they started the game.

I've told my app to stop at age 38, unless a character keeps getting promoted or rolls natural 12s in a career. My characters are age 42 most of the time. And 50 at the most (no more promotions after that age most of the time).

 

[F33D]

I also imposed a 3 term maximum limit on their character creation. I did not want a bunch of 50 year olds “retiring” from their regular jobs to go gallivanting across the galaxy… 8)

But, what about all the Captain Quirk types. :mrgreen:

 

[Jak Nazryth]

I also imposed a 3 term maximum limit on their character creation. I did not want a bunch of 50 year olds “retiring” from their regular jobs to go gallivanting across the galaxy… 8)

But, what about all the Captain Quirk types. :mrgreen:

That all depends of the roll of the dice during character creation! 8)
And some script immunity wouldn't hurt either.

 

[2330ADUSA1]

Guys first off this is a RPG game and as a GM my focus has always been having fun and making the game both exciting and allowing the players to show some growth. Now in my game the players do alot of InCharacter Roleplaying, and staying in Character. Having a point system and etc, doesn't change the game play at all. Also I don't view my players character as a Hero, they are a normal person in that THEME and are just living out a life there as part of a team. In most cases they are a group of 5-7 PC characters, with 1-3 NPCs as a group on a ship in space. I try to shoot for a realistic feel, but I don't over do that either. As a GM I am not a number crucher, my focus and as well as my players focus is the fun of the plot and all the elements that support that.

I guess it all depends on your GM and his skills and thos of his players. Now I have played RPG now for 36+ years....starting with D&D, Gamma World, Traveller, Champions, Basic Roleplaying D100, and so on and on. My own D&D campaign is based on version 2.5 rules with alot of the same House rules that I also use in Traveller. The Skill system being a D100, and Combat System of Attack vs Defence rolls D100, and using HPs with a body Structure Point system for damage and etc. Being a 48 yr old IT guy, I have played RPGing for a long time and either tied or seen it all. It took alot tweeking and cobbling to get my own House system that has alot of basics taken from Basic Roleplaying D100 system, with the skiil system and Combat system rules as well. Taking to D10's and rolling them together and calling one dice the 10's place or high, is real easy for a player to grasp and work with. Sorry no Min-Maxers in my group of players, this does work well. I should also say the ages of my gamers that have all been with me now for 11-15 years, is between 41 and 56 years old. Thus they have all played as long as I have, and all seem to done most of the same games systems I have as well too. I count myself as extremely lucky that I am able to play every Wednesday night at my house from 6pm till 11pm weekly. I have kept this same schedual since before the birth of my oldest son whom is 17. He is a gamer himself and loves both Hero Systems ver 5R and Basic Roleplaying D100, and uses many of my House rules for his own group of friends that he GMs them on Saturdays 5pm to 11pm weekly.

I guess it is mostly the ability and sytle of the GM at the head of the table and their command of the situation that makes a better and more fun and playable game experience. It also helps to know ones players and in my situation they are all my age group and all IT Guys, except for one whom is a Chatholic Priest. It is a fun group and roleplaying in the key for my gamers, not numbers cruching. We just try to have fun and enjoy the gaming time together. It also helps that each one of my players, are also a GM/DM themselves and have and play in their own seperate gaming group as well too. Many of them also use much of my own House rules in their own games too.

So just have fun and let things flow in your games. Do what feels right and works.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

2330ADUSA1,

It doesn't matter that you've played for 36+ years or that you are an IT guy or that you're using a different dice mechanic. No two GMs are the same. You may want to tell your story to the RPG Brigade on YouTube. GMs there are always looking for new ideas.

 

[mattman]

"Skill advancement" in Traveller is such a pain in the ass for me as a ref, because virtually any answer I can come up for the person only seemingly takes away from the impression of the game.

I basically wind up explaining that its a different sort of game in that regard: It's about collecting riches, status, reputation, ships, moons, beautiful green women, thrilling deadly action, and contacts and allies. Savage Worlds and D&D are about leveling up and I recommend those favorably to them if they haven't heard of them.

I once told someone that in Traveller, gaining Contacts and Allies are how you collect "experience". While okay in my mind, I no longer say that.

"So... how do we 'advance' our character?"... sigh. And yet they keep coming back to play it for some reason.

I'm starting our yearly campaign this sunday and we've got some new players. I am fully anticipating having to use my "how-does-skill-advancement-work-in-Traveller" pitch.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I just tell players the game will not be long enough for any XP.

 

[rust]

I just tell players the game will not be long enough for any XP.

This is where the hare is in the pepper, as they say over here.

Skill advancement is not at all important in single adventures
or in campaigns which span only a couple of game time years
at most, but it tends to become rather important in any long
term campaign which spans dozens of game time years, be-
cause it would be implausible for the characters not to impro-
ve their skills or not to learn new skills over such a long time
- "lifelong learning" is even true for Travellers.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I doubt I would play the same campaign with the same characters for years. There's other aspects of Traveller to try out.

 

[rust]

I doubt I would play the same campaign with the same characters for years.

It depends on the structure of the campaign. For example, in our
water world colony campaign the characters have only one or two
adventures per game time year, the rest of the year is "downtime",
used by the characters to work in their jobs, found families, engage
in the colony's politics, start a business, or whatever. After a couple
of "one-adventure-years" the characters retire, often as semi-active
secondary characters in leadership positions of the community, and
the characters of the next generation take over to have their own
adventures. The result is a kind of "colony saga + family saga", a
history of the colony and its community that is shaped by the cha-
racters and their descendants.

But yes, of course, there are many different ways to enjoy Traveller.

 

[2330ADUSA1]

Traveller can be Anything and it all depends on the Hosting GM and the character of the players playing within the gaming group.

I once had a gaming group of guys that discovered a Ancients ship that they called StarScream. They were mostly from a TL14 background themselves and the ship was TL16 with a few lower TL fixes and patches to hold it together. The ship itself had Man-6 insystem drives and used Fold Engines (not Jump drives) and used Proto Matter Energy to power the ship. Now the players had to learn to allocate power levels to different systems simular to the old Starfleet Battles style games, and then I had many other things. There was a bridge crew where everyone had a important job to make things work.

Now the ship also used Plasma weapons and had both Armor and Shielding(that absorbed alot of power). It made doing anything not just a standard set of roles, but some thought had to be considered. Alot of what I do in my Traveller campaign is non-standard Traveller to say the least. Anyway the goal for my players were the Plots within Plots within Plots that they can either choose to get involved in or avoid. I always let the players set the mode for what they wanted to get involved with, but I always had bigger plots that enwrapped so many other plots as well too. So as a GM I would set the end goal and the players would choose the path to that goal by them making the choices. So I am the master of Plots within Plots within Plots that all mesh together in the end.

Now the players seem to want to develope power, contacts, relationships, amass wealth and stuff, and have different NPC talents join their team/crew. Every NPC was has a complete defined stats and style, and I could easily expand any NPC at a moments time to breath further life into the NPC for more color. To me as the GM style, the players were always my focus. I like to keep them guessing and challenge them, plus roleplaying thier character is always key.

So for me the game mechanics are only as important as to provide a framework inwhich to play the game and tell the story and have fun. My reference in previous post about being IT (Inframation Technology Guys) was only to set the mode for the general style of folks playing meaning college educated, techno Geeks, SciFi fans, and mostly willing to talk about gaming at all times even at and durring work hours.Plus I only listed the ages as well to let folks understand that we are a older (middle aged) group where mostly everyone is married and has kids, and their kids even game too. Understanding the GM and the members of any gaming group is extremely important for its success.

 

[tanksoldier]

There was a version of Traveller which allowed work on 4 different areas: Physical skill, intellectual skill, physical attribute and mental attribute. It allowed a temporary boost to the skill or attribute, but required success rolls to maintain it. After enough success rolls you gained the increase permanently.

There was also an option for a one-time 4 year "sabbatical" to learn any skill to Level 2 the char wanted. I allowed chars to do this before play to pick up any skill they needed in return for 4 more years of age and any aging rolls required.

The advancement system seems realistic to me since really, in jump space, what else are you going to do? Cross train on ship skills, learn a combat skill from another character, work out in the ship's gym, take correspondence courses...

Some skills would require materials or an instructor, others could be learned online or thru self-study, but an instructor might make it easier. Gun Combat 2 probably requires a computerized range and training weapon, Gun Combat 0 can probably be learned with a few hours familiarization and dry-firing. Likewise, Brawling 0 might be learned thru an interactive computer program, but Brawling 2 would require an instructor and serious commitment.

Computer skill could probably be learned to any level entirely thru interactive teaching programs. Gambling 0 or 1 might be learned via computer, but higher levels would require human interaction.

Learning Carousing would either have to be hands on dirtside, or require a really rollicking crew.

Edu and Int might be advanced thru general correspondence courses, Str and End would likely require a gym aboard. Either would be assisted by a teacher or trainer.

I do agree that progression has to be slow, but you can work out how much time a character has to work on self improvement and just keep track of the hours and success rolls as the campaign advances. The average character spends 26 weeks in jump, with an average of 8 hours of free time and 8 hours of on-duty time per day, and 4 weeks dirtside while the ship undergoes maintenance. That's a lot of free time.

 

[JohnWFox]

Hello Everyone:
After reading the post about this I devised my own system for advancment.
Nothing -> 0 level is 1 week for each skill level you have
0 -> 1 level is 2 weeks
1 -> 2 level is 3 weeks
2 -> 3 level is 4 weeks
3 -> 4 level is 5 weeks
etc

Level 0 being able to do the work as long as there are nothing that is not covered by standard operating procedures or direct supervision.
Level 1 is can improvise a little still needs some supervision
Level 2 is more improvising and needs little supervision
etcc

So a character with 10 skill levels total would spend on the same skill
10 weeks to get to level 0
20 weeks to get to level 1
33 weeks to get to level 2
48 weeks to get to level 3
65 weeks to get to level 4
etc

This also makes so it gets harder as a person goes up.
In addition, the players will be told that as they go up the opponenets (main ones not hired lackeys) will also go up.

Comments please.

John W. Fox

 

[Golan2072]

Simply give them about 1 skill point per year of adventuring to spend as they wish (old-school Referees might ask their players to roll on career tables). Similar rate to how they gain skills in chargen...

 

[mr31337]

Looking at CRB p59 'Learning New Skills', do most of you assume if you learn a new skill in this way that you get it at level-1 or level-0?

 

[CosmicGamer]

Looking at CRB p59 'Learning New Skills', do most of you assume if you learn a new skill in this way that you get it at level-1 or level-0?

Level 1.

Off the top of my head, I believe the only time level 0 is obtained is from background skills and basic training.

 

[tanksoldier]

Looking at CRB p59 'Learning New Skills', do most of you assume if you learn a new skill in this way that you get it at level-1 or level-0?

Level 1.

Off the top of my head, I believe the only time level 0 is obtained is from background skills and basic training.

By rule I agree, but I allow a Level 0.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Looking at CRB p59 'Learning New Skills', do most of you assume if you learn a new skill in this way that you get it at level-1 or level-0?

Level 1.

Off the top of my head, I believe the only time level 0 is obtained is from background skills and basic training.

By rule I agree, but I allow a Level 0.

Allow? Not sure why anyone would take that option if it only takes one more week to get a level 1 skill.

 

[GamerDude]

Looking at CRB p59 'Learning New Skills', do most of you assume if you learn a new skill in this way that you get it at level-1 or level-0?

Level 1.

Off the top of my head, I believe the only time level 0 is obtained is from background skills and basic training.

By rule I agree, but I allow a Level 0.

Actually, the rules do not state at all if Level-0 or Level-1

If you give a very strict interpretation, using the example on p59.
LEVEL-0:
Mech 1, GC (slug) 2, learning Drive (grav) 0 would need 1+2+0 = 3 weeks to make zero
LEVEL-0 to LEVEL-1:
Mech 1, GC (slug) 2, learning Drive (grav) 1 would need 1+2+1 = 4 weeks to make level 1.

Now that's a total of seven weeks to get to Drive (grav) 1. If the GM allowed that you didn't need training to level 0 then it would be 4 weeks to level 1. Really the GM's call.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Skill level 0 is the sound barrier of Traveller.