Quick Skill Training to Level 0?

[lastbesthope]

Yes, a life vest is a lot less technically challenging than a Vacc Suit - but a vacc suit is pretty much the equivilent of a space life vest.

Not really, a life vest stops you sinking, it doesn't protect you from extremes f temperature or exposure to the elements. It only does one thing to keep you alive.

A Vac suit stops yo decompressing, and presumably also keeps you warm, it does more than one thing to keep you alive.

The comparison is close but not perfect.

LBH

 

[kristof65]

Yes, a life vest is a lot less technically challenging than a Vacc Suit - but a vacc suit is pretty much the equivilent of a space life vest.

Not really, a life vest stops you sinking, it doesn't protect you from extremes f temperature or exposure to the elements. It only does one thing to keep you alive.

A Vac suit stops yo decompressing, and presumably also keeps you warm, it does more than one thing to keep you alive.

The comparison is close but not perfect.

First off, I should have said "space travel equivilent of sea travel life vests". But the point wasn't to directly compare life vests with vacuum suits - I'm well aware of the extra hazards a vacc suit has to deal with.

The point was that when applied to skills, spacers are going to be drilled in donning their vacc suits, much like sailors are currently drilled in donning life vests and that swimming was not an accurate comparison.

 

[cjs65]

Well, I've read all the replies (thanks everyone, good discussion) and have come to a decision.

My overbearing simulationist nature won its battle against my gamist reservations and I've written three pages of rules on skill development.

I'm an ASL player; detail is my god. I can't help it. :wink:

The rules cover learning by experience, training and also skill degradation. There's more paperwork, but nothing that will slow down the game. Looks OK to me but I'll have to give it a go to see how it stands up to player abuse...

 

[Gaidheal]

Heh, with decision reached then, for the record, I too tend towards simulationist and I would probably alter the skill advancement system, post char-gen because I think it abstracts too far.

Incidentally, my comment about swimming was humour not a serious argument on the topic, that said - being comfortable in the water is probably a bigger lifesaver than the life-vest and skill in Vacc Suit is more than how to put it on, as previously noted. If you want to be able to put on a suit safely, just rule that anyone who's travelled before and paid attention to the safety drill can - that's a long way from giving a zero level skill away.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Let us know how it goes.

I would be interested in details.

 

[cjs65]

Let us know how it goes.

I would be interested in details.

I'm happy to share the MS Word document that contains the rules, if I can work out the best way of doing that...

I'm quite open to criticism of a constructive nature, and it might be useful to get somebody else's views.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

There are other ways to protect yourself from vacuum than using a Vacc Suit.

Use a Rescue Ball. No skill required, maybe a Dex check and an Easy task to get inside and seal it.

Vacc Suit means a lot more than knowing how to put it on. Putting it on is EASY. It is designed that way. Step in, zip up, lock helmet (nice little green lights come on when you do each one successfully). Air automatically starts flowing when you zip it up. Easy-Peasy. It's so easy, even a Caveman can do it! :wink:

But, try to use that Vacc Suit for work in a vacuum, or repair it and you are dealing with a completely different skill set.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Let us know how it goes.

I would be interested in details.

I'm happy to share the MS Word document that contains the rules, if I can work out the best way of doing that...

I'm quite open to criticism of a constructive nature, and it might be useful to get somebody else's views.

Maybe post it at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/MGT-Aids/ ?

 

[lastbesthope]

Yes, a life vest is a lot less technically challenging than a Vacc Suit - but a vacc suit is pretty much the equivilent of a space life vest.

Not really, a life vest stops you sinking, it doesn't protect you from extremes f temperature or exposure to the elements. It only does one thing to keep you alive.

A Vac suit stops yo decompressing, and presumably also keeps you warm, it does more than one thing to keep you alive.

The comparison is close but not perfect.

First off, I should have said "space travel equivilent of sea travel life vests". But the point wasn't to directly compare life vests with vacuum suits - I'm well aware of the extra hazards a vacc suit has to deal with.

The point was that when applied to skills, spacers are going to be drilled in donning their vacc suits, much like sailors are currently drilled in donning life vests and that swimming was not an accurate comparison.

True, I apologise for my nitpicking, I'd been reviewing technical documents in the office all day and you got some of the overspill, sorry

LBH

 

[cjs65]

Maybe post it at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/MGT-Aids/ ?

It has been done...

The file is called "Traveller Skill Development.doc".

 

[CosmicGamer]

Took a quick look at it. Not a close enough examination to comment about any of the specific details, but I like the concepts of:

1) Skill complexity: Some skills may be more difficult/timely to learn than others.
2) Skill Levels: Adding a level -2 and -1 so that there is not such a huge gap between unskilled -3 and level 0.
3) Experience: Using a skill can help improve it (or maintain it).
4) Skill Degradation: Not using a skill could cause it to degrade.

With my quick look, I see an obvious issue: it would need a bit of record keeping, even during normal/non training game play. Probably need special character sheets made up.

 

[cjs65]

I agree about the additional level of complexity and record keeping, but as I've said before I don't mind that. I fully appreciate it's not something many people are going to want to track, though. I always create my own character sheets in Excel, so that aspect won't be a problem.

Another possible problem is that it only goes to skill level 4 and I'm thinking maybe it should go to 6. But that raises another issue with me - Should anybody have a sufficient skill level to make a formidable task nothing more than average..? I may stick with the level 4 cap and I may not. I'm not actually sure it will impact my game anyway.

 

[rust]

In our modified system we capped learning by training at a success
chance of 80 % for a normal action, which is the equivalent of Mon-
goose Traveller skill level 3.

After character generation, skill levels above level 3 can only be gai-
ned through long term experience or research (we use the modified
research rules of the Ringworld RPG) in our system.