Learning new skills: level 0 or 1?

[paltrysum]

When you learn a new skill through the skill learning and improvement rules, do you receive level 0 or 1? Seems to be a little ambiguity there.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Success indicates the Traveller has learned something and if they were attempting to learn a brand new skill at level 0, they can now add that to his character sheet.

If you learn a new skill you seem to start at level 0.

 

[dragoner]

When you learn a new skill through the skill learning and improvement rules, do you receive level 0 or 1? Seems to be a little ambiguity there.

0 levels wouldn't count against the total then?

 

[steve98052]

Most people have a default −3 skill in everything that they don't have specific training in (though there may some skills with an even worse default, such as Astrogation for a caveman).

People with Jack of All Trades-1 have a default of −2 in everything for which a default is possible; Jack of All Trades-2 grants a −1 default and Jack of All Trades-3 grants a −0 (or just plain 0) default. There is no Jack of All Trades-4.

So, I would rule that rudimentary training (or practice) elevates the standard −3 default to −2, but for people with Jack of All Trades-1 it's just a credit toward training up to −1. More extensive training further elevates the −2 of rudimentary training to −1, and thorough training elevates that −1 to skill-0 (with analogous effects for Jack of All Trades-2 and -3).

It's only after a lot of intensive training that one advances from skill-0 to skill-1, and getting to skill-2 or higher requires even more. Most player characters are too busy adventuring to have time for training above skill-0, but in troupe style play a player could designate that one of his or her characters is on sabbatical from adventuring to seek advanced training (skill-1 or higher).

I'm not sure how to annotate a skill between the −3 default and skill-0. "Skill-−2" and "Skill-−1" just don't read very well on a character sheet, even with the distinction between the hyphen ("-") and minus ("−") characters I've used here. Maybe "Skill-(2)" and "Skill-(1)"? Parenthesized numbers are accounting notation for negatives, and they're visually distinct. Following the accounting notation, the numbers could be red too, to emphasize the distinction between skills worse than 0 but better than the standard −3 default. Another option would be to place them in a "Skills in training" block on a character sheet, maybe with the associated hours or uses toward improvement tracked there too.

I'd be inclined to say that skills short of skill-0 fade with time unless training continues, just to avoid accounting overload.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Mongoose doesn't use hyphens. It uses spaces.

 

[paltrysum]

Upon further review (looked at the rules), it appears pretty clear you start with a level 0 if you did not have the skill. I see no ambiguity. I was misinformed.

 

[Reynard]

A level 0 skill means you have familiarity in it but haven't received more extensive training. That's what Basic training does. You know more than the average citizen in that skill so no -3. Gaining level 1 and beyond shows more focus and effort. For gun combat, at level 0, you know the workings and how to hold it steady while beyond you learn to aim accurately.

 

[Hopeless]

I thought basic training and bonus skills were received at +0 with skills gained during careers unless otherwise noted were gained at +1?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

This is about how you learn skills after char gen, see "POST CAREER EDUCATION" on p52.

 

[Hopeless]

Ah sorry misread the opening message.

 

[steve98052]

Mongoose doesn't use hyphens. It uses spaces.

So it does. I hadn't noticed that. So the standard default for skills is Skill −3, or Skill −2 with Jack of All Trades 1, or Skill −1 with Jack of All Trades 2, and Skill 0 for a Basic Training level of training, and Skill 1 or above for more advanced training. That makes character sheets easier to read.

It's still a good idea to use the "minus" character ("−") in print, where it's available, because minus sticks to the characters after it in word-wrap. A hyphen sticks to the preceding character.