Improving characteristics during play

[Spartan159]

How can characteristics be improved during play? 8 weeks intensive exercise/study per level of characteristic as if it were a skill?

What about social standing, if you maintain expenses above your standing can you raise your social standing to A?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

How can characteristics be improved during play? 8 weeks intensive exercise/study per level of characteristic as if it were a skill?

What about social standing, if you maintain expenses above your standing can you raise your social standing to A?

However your Referee decides to hand it out to players.

 

[Spartan159]

Thanks for your fast response. By any chance did you have any thoughts on the subject? What if, by some chance, I happen to be the referee, looking for rough guidelines?

 

[h1ro]

I've not got details any more, I must have deleted them as a quick search of my laptop turned up nothing, but here's an overview of something I used in a 1e game set in the Outer Veil.

At the time of chargen, players rolled stats as normal but also rolled a "potential" for their physical stats. I had a small chart that allowed the potential to be between 0 and 3 higher than the rolled stat. It was weighted so most had the same potential as the rolled stat, looked something like this:

7- 0
8,9 +1
10, 11 +2
12 +3

+3 is a bit high, but it's easy to rework the table.

In game I used a version of skill improvement to allow a player to improve the stat towards it's potential. Put the time in and make a roll...

I used a potential in order to set a limit on how high a stat could go. Strength and endurance seem good candidates for improvement, I'm not so sure about dexterity. I prefer the idea of external mods - things like nanochines and chemicals to affect intelligence and education (I interpret education as a person's memory and ability to store and recall information, not necessarily a measure of their academic achievement) . I am pretty sure that there are rules in one of the 1e extra rule books for improving SOC, the gist if I recall correctly, is you need to hang out with people above your SOC and spend more money on your cost of living. Yeah, just checked Book 8, Dilettante, it has rules for upping your social.

Sorry I don't have more details for you, hopefully you get the idea and it'll help.

 

[Spartan159]

Thanks, Hiro, that's pretty much how I was leaning, although I had not thought of any potential maximums beyond the standard racial maximums, which would take years to reach.

 

[h1ro]

My logic was we have a genetic limit on the stats strength and endurance and that these are things we can work on improving. There's an assumption in Traveller that all travellers are fit and healthy individuals (aside from aging induced reductions) and so I thought to add this in order to allow characters to achieve a measurable growth. It's extra detail that I don't know if I'd do again but if I did, I would work to limits I was happy with, upping all stats to 15 isn't my kind of game.

 

[DickTurpin]

I like the stat training idea, but the RAW limits stat increases beyond chargen to whatever cybernetic enhancements you can afford. Why your stats can easily improve during careers but such improvements become impossible afterwards is something that I have never figured out.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Thanks for your fast response. By any chance did you have any thoughts on the subject? What if, by some chance, I happen to be the referee, looking for rough guidelines?

As a Referee, I don't hand out improvements to player's characters. If you want to hand that stuff out, then you must have an idea for why you would want or need to do that.

 

[Spartan159]

Thanks for your fast response. By any chance did you have any thoughts on the subject? What if, by some chance, I happen to be the referee, looking for rough guidelines?

As a Referee, I don't hand out improvements to player's characters. If you want to hand that stuff out, then you must have an idea for why you would want or need to do that.

Not looking to hand out anything. Characters should earn improvements. Physical and Mental Fitness is as much a goal as is a skill.

 

[Saladman]

Only direct route I see is finding a high-TL medical facility and spending 500,000/1 million/5 million credits on a characteristic augmentation. Which is spendy, but entirely in line with Traveller's tradition of gear as character improvement.

I like the stat training idea, but the RAW limits stat increases beyond chargen to whatever cybernetic enhancements you can afford. Why your stats can easily improve during careers but such improvements become impossible afterwards is something that I have never figured out.

My current thinking on skill training is to disregard the core rules on training entirely (though I like it as a meta-game balancer between low and high skilled characters, I don't like how it doesn't scale against careers in character creation). Instead I put a blank career sheet on the table and fill it out in play based on what skills the PCs use during adventures, and what they do during downtime. Rolls are gained infrequently as game time goes by and sections are filled out entirely. So if a player says their character is lifting weights or reading books during downtime then that would put Str or Edu +1 on the party's career Personal Development chart.

Of course that's very indirect, it's possible and even likely for someone else to get a +1 Str because of you lifting weights. So you need a group that's okay deciding "oh, I guess my guy got dragged in by your enthusiasm" instead of getting hung up on simulationism.

What about social standing, if you maintain expenses above your standing can you raise your social standing to A?

I actually had a vague idea that might be a rule somewhere, but as far as I can find it's only the reverse - if you don't live up to your level you risk sliding down the ladder.

In principle I can see allowing it, provided you're living somewhere settled and not shipboard, and with a check at the end. Downside I can see is everybody making a beeline for Soc 12 as soon as they get any money. Maybe you can only go up one step at a time, and it takes a year of living to make a check to improve.

 

[Spartan159]

I would limit social standing increases to 10 maximum, Nobility requires notice and elevation. At least, that's how I see it.

 

[h1ro]

It's worth having a look at Book 8 from the 1e, there are social standing descriptions for positions outside of the nobility: corporate, entertainment and others. It being 1e I can't tell you how appropriate it is if you're running a 2e game but as it's more of a setting thing than a rules thing, it's worth a read.

 

[Condottiere]

Unless it's deus ex machina, reward players for spending considerable amounts of their characters' spare time in the gym and library, or brown nosing for that knighthood.

Which they'll do at the expense of thrilling adventures and making money.

In fact, there should be some financial sacrifice involved, and strain most marital relationships.

You could also establish a sort of one hundred twenty percent effort, that allows a higher characteristic due to the time and effort spent, but drops back to norm once it's not exercised.

 

[Reynard]

One thing Travellers have while jumping is Time. When not tinkering with ship operations, characters could use dedicated time to improve themselves. Last game I was in, the characters could purchase learning materials and supplies at ports of call then spend their free time in jump pouring over the material to bump up a skill. Higher the skill the longer and more expensive the training. Physical training should be possible and involve dedicated equipment to the particular type. Weight machines, tracks or treadmills or devices to hone quickness and accuracy. After that, time is essence. You must maintain a rigorous regime to maintain and improve.

Mongoose, bless them, actually gives ship facilities for aiding in physical and educational development, the Library, Gaming space and Training facilities

 

[Condottiere]

Should have a bonus if you have a coach, rather than being left to your own devices.

 

[Reynard]

Oh that will put a dent in the ship's budget! I hope they can run gunnery.

 

[Condottiere]

Not if the entire crew has the same fitness regime.

 

[Reynard]

The couple games I played in just about everyone was improving something different and you had to focus one only one at a time or lose time in that improvement. Made sense in most cases you were gaining the benefit in often unrealistic short periods.

 

[steve98052]

Some editions of Traveller have included Training or Teaching skills. Profession with teaching specialties seems to cover it in Mongoose.

Want to boost your Strength? Buy weights and hire someone with Profession: Strength Training. Want to bump up your Endurance? Buy aerobics gear and hire Profession: Endurance Training. Dexterity? Get a simulation room and a suitable trainer. Intelligence? Get brain-training software, some aerobics gear to promote mind-body fitness, and hire a coach to keep you on-task. Education? Hire a professor.

Social Status? That's a special case. You might hire a lawyer to clear up any unfavorable records blemishing your reputation, spend money to move your living dirtside relatives into decent neighborhoods, hire public relations person to spread good words about you, donate money to popular charities, maintain an office on your homeworld and the equivalent of web sites on other technological worlds where people might look you up, and so forth. Show up at the right parties. And if you max out non-noble ranks, do something amazing for powerful nobles.

Skills? Professional trainers are likely to cover most of them.

Jack of All Trades? That's equivalent to skill minus two for every skill (at 1), skill minus one (at 2), and skill zero (at 3). So I would say that one could add up the time required to earn skill zero in every published skill, and define that as the time to earn Jack-3. Jack-2 takes half as long, and Jack-1 is half of Jack-2. But it's not just a matter of the time; you also have to spend enough time with a trainer for each published skill. Some are easy. "Can you show me where the jump drive maintenance console is, and how to run the self-test?" Some are not so easy. "Where can I find someone who can teach me how to cast bullets and blend gunpowder for a black powder flintlock?" You might find some things in Library Data or starship operations manuals, but something like getting a feeling for the lag between the trigger and the shot of a flintlock rifle (or even a slow digital camera) takes actual practice.

 

[Condottiere]

There used to be Instruction.

Though I think it was mostly used to train recruits in basic military skills.