Military academy

[bluekieran]

Graduation Benefits: Increase EDU by an additional +1

Additional to what? I'm guessing this was an editing error as I don't see a previous increase. Also:

Graduation: INT 8+. DM+1 if END 8+, DM+1 if SOC 8+.
If 11+ is rolled, graduate with honours.

Are these END and SOC rolls to get the DM, or just minimum attribute scores?

 

[Jeraa]

Graduation Benefits: Increase EDU by an additional +1

Additional to what? I'm guessing this was an editing error as I don't see a previous increase.

Possibly. It is also possible that military academies are supposed to work like regular universities, and grant +1 Education as part of their skills benefit.

Graduation: INT 8+. DM+1 if END 8+, DM+1 if SOC 8+. If 11+ is rolled, graduate with honours.

Are these END and SOC rolls to get the DM, or just minimum attribute scores?

Those are not rolls. Those are the attribute scores needed to get those benefits. It is a little confusing as it is written the same as the actual rolls you do need to make.

 

[Hopeless]

Graduation Benefits: Increase EDU by an additional +1

Additional to what? I'm guessing this was an editing error as I don't see a previous increase. Also:

Graduation: INT 8+. DM+1 if END 8+, DM+1 if SOC 8+.
If 11+ is rolled, graduate with honours.

Are these END and SOC rolls to get the DM, or just minimum attribute scores?

1) Increase current Education score by +1
2) If either your Endurance or Social Standing score is 8 or greater you gain another +1 to the roll, if both are 8 or greater then you get a +2 to that roll.

 

[steve98052]

Here's what I find in my copy of the book:

Entry: Army END 8+, Marines END 9+, Navy INT 9+
DM-2 if in Term Two, DM-4 if in Term Three
Skills: Gain all Service Skills of the military career the academy is tied to at level 0, as with basic training.
Graduation: INT 8+. DM+1 if END 8+, DM+1 if SOC 8+. If 11+ is rolled, graduate with honours.

Graduation Benefits

• If entering the same military career the academy is tied to, select any three Service Skills and increase them to level 1.
• Increase EDU by +1.
• If the Traveller graduated with honours, increase SOC by +1 as well.
• Graduation allows automatic entry into the military career the academy is tied to, so long as it is the first career attempted by the Traveller after graduation.
• Graduation allows a Commission roll to be taken before the first term of a military career, so long as it is the first career chosen after university, with DM+2. Success will mean the Traveller enters the career at officer rank (O1). If graduation was with honours, the Traveller will automatically pass this roll.

Here's my interpretation:

To get admitted to Army Academy, roll 8 or better, with an adjustment for Endurance.
To get admitted to Marine Academy, roll 9 or better, with an adjustment for Endurance.
To get admitted to Navy Academy, roll 9 or better, with an adjustment for Intelligence.

Skills: (No additional interpretation is needed.)

To graduate, roll 8 or better with these adjustments:
• the standard characteristic adjustment for Intelligence
• a +1 for Endurance of 8 or more
• a +1 for Social Standing of 8 or more
If the total roll is 11 or better, the character graduates with honors

Graduation Benefits: (No additional interpretation is needed.)

 

[bluekieran]

Here's what I find in my copy of the book:

[...]
Graduation Benefits

• If entering the same military career the academy is tied to, select any three Service Skills and increase them to level 1.
• Increase EDU by +1.

• 
  
  That's interesting. Is that in a PDF or a physical copy? I have the "errata June 2016" PDF from DriveThru as well as a physical copy, and both have the line "Increase EDU by an additional +1".

 

[steve98052]

Here's what I find in my copy of the book:

[...]
Graduation Benefits

• If entering the same military career the academy is tied to, select any three Service Skills and increase them to level 1.
• Increase EDU by +1.

That's interesting. Is that in a PDF or a physical copy? I have the "errata June 2016" PDF from DriveThru as well as a physical copy, and both have the line "Increase EDU by an additional +1".

I have one of the playtest editions. (I can look up the date if there were several. I missed the deadline for the playtest discount on the final.) I see that in my edition shows +1 Education for attending university and +2 more education for graduating university, but for military academy there's just a +1 Education for graduation, not for attending without graduating.

Maybe the intention was:
• University, +1 attend, +2 more graduate but
• Military Academy, +1 attend, +1 more graduate.
In that case, the "Increase EDU by an additional +1" you see would make more sense. The "additional" doesn't seem to fit unless there's an initial plus to Education just for attending.

 

[bluekieran]

Maybe the intention was:
• University, +1 attend, +2 more graduate but
• Military Academy, +1 attend, +1 more graduate.
In that case, the "Increase EDU by an additional +1" you see would make more sense. The "additional" doesn't seem to fit unless there's an initial plus to Education just for attending.

Yeah. My thought was that it was one way, and they changed it to either add or remove the initial +1 EDU, but missed part of the edit. Most likely they removed it, as the skills you get from academy balance out the lack.

 

[steve98052]

Yeah. My thought was that it was one way, and they changed it to either add or remove the initial +1 EDU, but missed part of the edit. Most likely they removed it, as the skills you get from academy balance out the lack.

Hard to say without a ruling from the publisher. Here's how it works out by the rules in my version:

Attend university: +1 Education, [Skill]-1, [Skill]-0 (choose any two skills)
Attend and graduate university: +3 Education (+1 to attend, +2 to graduate), [Skill]-2, [Skill]-1, career bonuses for many careers

Attend military academy: [Skill×6]-0 (Service Skills only)
Attend and graduate military academy: +1 Education, [Skill×3]-1 (chosen from Service Skills), [Skill×3]-0 (Service Skills), better career bonuses for associated military career only

So, which attendance skills are better?
• Any skill at 1 and any skill at 0, or
• Six Service Skills at 0?

And which attendance and graduation skills are better?
• Any skill at 2 and any skill at 1, or
• Three chosen Service Skills at 1 and the other three Service Skills at 0?

In either case, I think it's kind of a wash; you get higher level skills and more choices with university, but more total skills with military academy. Graduation career bonuses are similarly a wash, with more choices from university but better bonuses with military academy. But if you already want to go to a military service, military academy wins. Failing to graduate is worse for military academy than for university.

Based on that, I'd say it's reasonable for the Education gain to be equal for attending, and larger for graduating university.

So my interpretation based on what we have is that the rules should be:
• University, +1 Education for attending, +2 more Education for graduating, and
• Military Academy, +1 Education for attending, +1 more for graduating.

As a house rule, I might split university attendance without graduation into washing out after two years (+1 Education, two skills at 0) and sticking it out for four years but not graduating (+2 Education, skills at 1 and 0), so that there's middle ground between the four years for +1 Education and skills at 1 and 0 for attending and the +3 (total) Education and skills at 2 and 1. That seems to represent actual university more closely, and I don't see a problem with characters having terms other than four years.

As an additional house rule, I might add graduate school, which can raise a skill from 2 to a higher level (and maybe raise another incidentally) and grant another point of Education. It can be done in a two year term, or a longer time during another career for subjects related to the other career. I could also add medical and law school, but medicine seems like a life-long career rather than pre-adventuring careers (and law more an NPC career) so I'm not sure I'd want to bother writing them out.