House Rule: Charcteristic Improvement

[dreamingbadger]

A proposed house true to allow characteristic improvement.

Traveller allows for advancement of skills through diligent training, similarly statistics could also be improved. Take the total for physical or mental characteristics and subtract 21 from each group, minimum 0, this gives you a “total skill level” equivalent for each group.

Select the specific characteristic and subtract 7 from it (min 0), this will give you the equivalent current skill level.

Use the regular skills improvement rules to work out how much time you need to spend, exercising, improving your balance, reading doing mental exercises or socialising to improve the characteristic.

Not all characteristics can be improved in all environments; it is unusual to be able to improve your Social Standing whilst in jump space for example.

No characteristic can be improved by more than 50% (round down) of its value at the end of character generation. e.g. STR 7, could be increased by up to 3 points.

No characteristic can be improved past the point at which aging impacted it. e.g. a character with END 8 enters an aging crisis, and their statistic is reduced to 7, it can never be raised above 8 using Characteristic improvement, further aging crisis do not effect the maximum characteristic further the maximum remains 8 for that characteristic.

No characteristic can be increased beyond its racial maximum.

Instructors can improve learning times, but, only by 1d2. Their equivalent skill level is their statistic minus 6 (minimum 0).

 

[djd]

That's an interesting rule.

I would personally allow characteristic improvement even after aging though. As a 43 year old who does a lot of weight training I know that I can certainly increase my strength and endurance over their norms with training- They're not going to be as high as they might have been at 21 but they're certainly higher than they would otherwise be....

 

[dreamingbadger]

That's an interesting rule.

I would personally allow characteristic improvement even after aging though. As a 43 year old who does a lot of weight training I know that I can certainly increase my strength and endurance over their norms with training- They're not going to be as high as they might have been at 21 but they're certainly higher than they would otherwise be....

Maybe you haven't had your aging crisis yet?

I had my middle aged crisis, though that was different My observation is that fitness is very hard to improve as people increase their age and people become set in their ways from a learning point of view and i was trying to reflect that.

 

[djd]

My mid life crisis began at about 27! No my body's getting older- my joints are certainly suffering! With a good diet (lots of protein) and hard training anyone of any age can improve their strength. If you throw drugs into the equation then even more is possible. Infact it's one of the things that I think Traveller gets wrong. In any future world the effects of aging are going to be radically diminised - drops in strength with age can be easily 'cured' with testosterone and growth hormone even now...

 

[FreeTrav]

DreamingBadger:

Flesh this out a bit, include some info on how and why one might want to use it, and I'll give it a home at Freelance Traveller.

 

[dreamingbadger]

Did you mean something like this? I changed the mechanic to be divded by 2 rather than minus 7 to ensure there was always a "positive number".

Characteristic Improvement
Traveller allows for advancement of skills through diligent training, similarly statistics could also be improved. Just as in the real world, some Travellers invest time in the gym or in course of self study to improve themselves. A player who wants to improve their physical fitness or their intelligence should be able to increase a statistic through diligent self improvement, be it exercise or memory/mental agility games or just a course of advanced and remote study to improve their education. Similarly characters who want to improve their social standing can spend time getting invited to the "right parties" or being seen at the right "social event".

The normal rules for skills advancement are used, but a "Skills Total" is generated for Physical and Mental statistics:

- Strength +Endurance + Dexterity / 2= the Physical Skills Total

- Intelligence + Education + Social Standing / 2 = the Mental Skills Total

Rounding up in all cases.

Next the character needs to demine the "skill level" of the characteristic to be trained by dividing the exiting characteristic by 2 and then adding 1, this will give you the equivalent target skill level.

It will take the current Skills Total (either Physical or Mental) + the Target Skill Level in weeks to improve that statistic by one point.

Not all characteristics can be improved in all environments; it is unusual to be able to improve your Social Standing whilst in jump space for example.

In any case no characteristic can be improved by more than 50% (round down) of its value at the end of character generation. e.g. STR 7, could be increased by up to 3 points. Nor can a characteristic be increased beyond its racial maximum.

No characteristic can be improved past the point at which aging impacted it. e.g. a character with END 8 reduces their statistic to 7 due to aging, it can never be raised above 8 using Characteristic improvement, further aging effects do not affect the maximum characteristic further the maximum remains 8 for that characteristic.

Instructors can improve learning times, but, only by 1d2. Their equivalent skill level is their statistic divided by 2 (rounded down).

As with regular skills improvement a character can only train in one "skill" per week (e.g. a skill or a physical characteristic or a mental characteristic).

Example:
Alexander Jamison , STR 6 DEX 8 END 8, wants to improve his STR, his Physical Skills total is 11 (22 for the stats over 2 is 11), with a target skill level of 4 (6/2 +1) means that Alexander will have to spend 15 weeks in the Gym to improve his Strength.