Questions about character generation

[LotusBlossom]

Got my Traveller books today. Very pleased with what I have seen so far.

A few questions, if i may, for the veterans out there:

Re-enrolling: When you go back to a career for another 4 years, can you chance your specialism within that career?

Skill subcategories: Am I right in thinking that when you gain Gun Combat(any) then you must immediately choose a specific area such as Energy weapons. So am I right in thinking its possible for a character to have Energy weapons 5 but slug throwers 0?

Similar to the above with Sciences. There are subcategories of subcategories. How does that work when choosing Life Sciences(any), for example?


Thanks for your continued patience and help guys!

 

[Duroon]

Re-enrolling: When you go back to a career for another 4 years, can you chance your specialism within that career?

Yes I believe that's correct. At least that's how my group has been doing it.

Skill subcategories: Am I right in thinking that when you gain Gun Combat(any) then you must immediately choose a specific area such as Energy weapons. So am I right in thinking its possible for a character to have Energy weapons 5 but slug throwers 0?

Again correct, except you have to choose energy pistol or energy rifle. You could have Gun Combat (energy pistol) 5 and have Gun Combat (energy rifle) 0.

Similar to the above with Sciences. There are subcategories of subcategories. How does that work when choosing Life Sciences(any), for example?

You have to pick a sub category again. For life sciences you choose one of Biology, Cybernetics, Genetics, or Psioncology

 

[LotusBlossom]

Following on from this....

If I have Life Sciences(Biology) 1, is it assumed I have at least a zero in all the other Life Sciences?

For some of the skills with specialities I can see this wouldn't necessarily make sense - different branches of Science/Eng are fairly different but....

Gun Combat (slug rifle) 5

Do I assume I have Gun Combat (slug pistol) 0 or am I untrained?

Because if its untrained, I find it odd that the same character could be so skilled in rifles but be a total untrained incompetent in pistols.

 

[GhostWolf69]

I have a related question here:

If I gain 'Skill (any) 1' and I allready have >0 in a specialization on that skill, can I pick up another Specialty at rank 1?

In my opinion this would be logical, but I got the feeling reading the rules that says:

If a rank is listed, then you gain the skill at that level as long as it is better than your current level in that skill.

What do you guys think?

Example:

Marine has Gun Combat (Energy Rifles) 1.

He rolls Gun Combat (any) 1 and

a) goes; "Crap! I don't get anything from that roll cause I allready have rank 1 there." Or

b) he says; "Cool! I'll take Gun Combat (Energy Pistols) 1 as well. Sweet!"

I would say b) is correct here but I found little support for it in the rules. (Maybe I was looking in the wrong place.)

/wolf

 

[GhostWolf69]

Gun Combat (slug rifle) 5

Do I assume I have Gun Combat (slug pistol) 0?

Correct.

/wolf

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

You may specialize as much as you like.

Take your Gun Combat 5 for example.

You could divide it up anyway you like, such as:

Slug Pistol 2; Energy Rifle 2, Energy Pistol 1 (you would also have Slug Rifle 0 )

OR

Energy Pistol 3; Slug Pistol 2 (and both Rifles at Level 0 )

Regarding the sciences, you get Level 0 in all the other related sciences if you have level 1 in any of them, but not in the other types of sciences.

So, if you have Social Science (Psychology) 1, then all the other Social Science specialties are at Level 0, but you are unskilled in the Life Sciences.

Make sense?

 

[DE Traveller]

I have a related question here:

If I gain 'Skill (any) 1' and I allready have >0 in a specialization on that skill, can I pick up another Specialty at rank 1?

In my opinion this would be logical, but I got the feeling reading the rules that says:

If a rank is listed, then you gain the skill at that level as long as it is better than your current level in that skill.

What do you guys think?

Example:

Marine has Gun Combat (Energy Rifles) 1.

He rolls Gun Combat (any) 1 and

a) goes; "Crap! I don't get anything from that roll cause I allready have rank 1 there." Or

b) he says; "Cool! I'll take Gun Combat (Energy Pistols) 1 as well. Sweet!"

I would say b) is correct here but I found little support for it in the rules. (Maybe I was looking in the wrong place.)

/wolf

My answer = b too.

If you were in the Navy and already had Melee(blade) 1 skill and got promoted to Ensign, the automatic rank benefit of Melee(blade) 1 would be useless and could not be taken. Pg 8 "If a rank is listed, then you gain the skill at that level as long as it is better than your current level in that skill."

Melee or Melee(any) would have specialties. Melee(blade) IS already a specialty skill.

Pg 52 "When a character gains level 1 in a skill, he can take a specialty in that skill". In your example, you are gaining a level 1 in Gun Combat(any) - go ahead and select a specialty that is at level 0 or currently has no skill at all and make it level 1.

Thats my take on it.

 

[Paladin]

Anyone care to make the argument for why there are Slug and Energy skills for Pistol and Rifle as opposed to just Pistol and Rifle? The skill to shoot/aim either slug/energy is pretty much identical, the only difference is cleaning/maintenance.

 

[iainjcoleman]

Anyone care to make the argument for why there are Slug and Energy skills for Pistol and Rifle as opposed to just Pistol and Rifle? The skill to shoot/aim either slug/energy is pretty much identical, the only difference is cleaning/maintenance.

In fact, I would think they would be quite different. Laser weaons have zero recoil, and so the techniques for aiming and firing them are probably somewhat different from slug weapons. Also, if we get into longer range shot, the ballistic trajectory of the bullet deviates from the straight-line trajectory of the laser beam. Finally, again at longer ranges, the travel time of the bullets can become important when firing at moving targets, while the laser beam reaches its target effectively instantaneously at personal combat ranges.

 

[Alexander Cecil]

The skill to shoot/aim either slug/energy is pretty much identical, the only difference is cleaning/maintenance.

There are more differences than just cleaning and maintenance. A slug, when fired, must contend with lift, wind, gravity, and other forces acting upon it as it moves through the air. A laser, on the other hand, is free from these forces, but it is subject to disruptive effects which the slug is not, such as rain, fog, glass, and others. These are all things an expert marksman must take into account.

Also, a marksman taking careful aim may need to look for different weaknesses in armor between slugs and energy.

 

[Mongoose Pete]

Anyone care to make the argument for why there are Slug and Energy skills for Pistol and Rifle as opposed to just Pistol and Rifle? The skill to shoot/aim either slug/energy is pretty much identical, the only difference is cleaning/maintenance.

Recoil and no-recoil, make a big difference to how the weapon handles. The environments in which such weapons can be used is also different, zero-g or foggy situations can cripple one or the other for example...

 

[Mongoose Pete]

Wow, two previous answers before I could type my reply...

 

[Paladin]

-Recoil is a separate attribute on the weapon stats not dealt with by a skill but an attribute.
-rain, fog - going to affect the ability to shoot both. Neith of which are going to matter in a close combat fire fight in terms of skill. The effects at long range would affect both weapons in the ability to aim of fairly similarly.
-lift, wind, gravity - maybe, but only in extreme sniper shots.
-Glass - penalty of the weapon type not a skill difficulty for shooting through. Weakens the effect, it doesn't make me less of a crackshot.
-Zero-G - again a recoil attribute of the weapon not a skill issue. Also would be covered by a Zero-G skill check not a Gun Combat on multiple shots. Again the side effects are not the specific skill to use them.
-Different weaknesses in armor/kill points - I'll buy that.

But the arguments so far are still hard to justify a variation of skill betweeen unskilled Slug Rifle vs Laser Rifle 5.

 

[GhostWolf69]

But the arguments so far are still hard to justify a variation of skill betweeen unskilled Slug Rifle vs Laser Rifle 5.

My argument (probably not that good but here it goes) is that Energy weapons and Slug weapons are completely different things tech-wise.

When I did the military service we got to dismantle our rifles and learn everything about every little piece. We had to be able to put it together again in the dark, we had to know what happened to trajectories at different ranges, how the balistics worked around the bullet etc etc.

IMTU all of this knowledge goes into the Gun Combat skill, along with the simple "point-and-click" part.

So even though it could seem the same to point and click a Laser vs a Slug weapon. The Knowledge around the weapon are HUGELY different.

I would even allow a Gun Combat (energy rifles) skill to be rolled to try to fix a broken Laser Rifle for example. Now a regular gun-powder-tech grunt wouldn't have a chance to fix it. But a trained Marine with the appropriate skill would.

/wolf