Judge Creation - Academy Skills Question

[vonshavingcream]

In term one under basic training it says the following:

All characters gain the following skills: Athletics (any) 1,
Melee (unarmed combat) 1, Survival 1.

In term two under basic training is says the following:

All characters gain a level in the following skills: Drive
(Lawmaster), Gun Combat (Lawgiver), Law, Mega-City One
Geography, Street Perception.

My question is does "gain a level" mean 0 or 1 for the items in term two?

My initial assumption was that it was worded different in case the cadet was able to level one of the items in question during term one.

however, in term three it says (for street judges)

Gain a level of Gun Combat (Lawgiver), gain a
level of Drive (Lawmaster), gain a level of Law, Melee (bludgeon) 1.

Telling me that gaining a level was intended to be completely different than a static number like 'Melee (bludgeon) 1'

So .. Let's take the Law skill for example

in term two the judge 'gains a level' in Law...

does Law become 0 or 1?

in term three then they also gain a level of law
making it a 1 or a 2..

in the Judge Walker Senario it says for term two

The training becomes far more serious but Walker is up to
the challenge. For basic training he gains Drive (Lawmaster)
1, Gun Combat (Lawgiver) 1, Law 1, Mega-City One
Geography 1 and Street Perception 1. These skills reflect
the essentials all Judges need to know for life in the tumult
of the megacity.

so it looks like 'gain a level' means start at 1 and not a 0.

I have a few PCs arguing over this and trying to say that since everything appears to start a 1 and not 0. So all skills are considered 0 and thus have no negative DM when trying to use them.

I disagree. I am also citing the 'Events and Untrained Skills' section on pg 14 of the book as my argument for skills needing to start at 0.

any advice would be great.

Thanks,
C

 

[darkgritty]

I know its necroposting, but the post above describes exactly my concern about this "gain a level" issue I'm having.

Here's another example from Term Three:

Tek Judges: Gain a level of Computers, gain a level of Engineer (any), gain a level of Mechanic.

Judge Carver received Computers 0 from an event of Term One. So "Gain a level of Computers" means her skill is now Computers 1? Or it means Gain Computers 1 without having any previous training in Computers at all? What to do with Computers 0 she gained before in this case?

Now for Engineer (any), as I understand it, "any" means possible specialization, which means the Engineer skill is given at level 1, because at level one of the skill you choose your first specialization. Does it matter if you don't have the basic Engineer 0 before going to Engineer 1 and choosing "any" specialization?

Now lets see Term Four: Tek Judges: Combat Engineering1, Jack of All Trades 1, Science (any Physical or Space Science) 1

Science (any Physical or Space Science) 1 means Judge Carver chooses one specialization from the Physical or Space Science skills. According to this logic, Combat engineering1 should be written as "Combat Engineering (any) 1", as this skill has a list of specializations, and once Judge Carver receives this skill at level 1 (again, without any previous Combat Engineering 0 as base course?) the she should choose her specialization.

I have a feeling that all skills should start at 0, as it is the basic training course. Or maybe not?

 

[darkgritty]

Now I get it, after carefully reading on Traveller Careers starting at page 8 of the Traveller Core book.