Repeated Basic Training

[TheLonelySandPerson]

I have a couple of questions about basic training.

First, if you are ejected from a career and later come back to it, do you have to do BT again or can you roll on a table in your first term back?

Second, if you attend a military academy, you get the service's BT as your skills. If you enter that service, are you stuck with a completely useless BT for your first term? (My inclination would be to let the player roll, obviously.)

 

[AnotherDilbert]

If you re-enter a career it would not be the first term in that career, so you would not have to take Basic Training again, I believe.


The Academy is not a Career, nor does it give Basic Training, just the same benefit as Basic Training. Hence you should take Basic Training in the first term, unfortunately.


Remember Rule Zero (Core, p2)...

 

[lord_bosco]

Agreed, if you've already had basic training in a career and return to it after a break, just choose a skill table and roll.

The military academy issue raises a good point. Rules as written, yes, you'd go through basic training in your first term, which would provide you no benefit (boo!). I would just let my players choose a skill table and roll.

I'll own my bias: I think the character generation process is already frustrating enough, so I try to remove as many punitive results as possible. For example, I allow players to adjust their background skills retroactively.

I also have a house rule for skills acquired with an assigned skill rank. Say you get Drive 1, this provides no benefit if you already have Drive at level one or better. My house rule suggestion is that if the skill has specializations, then allow the Traveller to improve one of the specializations to level one. For example, if your character already has Drive (wheel)-1 and you gain Drive 1, I allow the player to choose a different specialty of Drive, say Drive (tracked), and boost it to level one. If you have all the specializations at level one already, then the skill award has no benefit for you.

 

[Garran]

I was under the impression that the last one you listed was already the case per the usual process of gaining skills with specialties.

 

[Condottiere]

Basic training seems more of a vehicle for a basic skills package.

If you want to manipulate the results, points system or life modules.