Rules Clarification Request: Basic Training; does it take an entire term or is it just in addition to the first term?

[ottarrus]

I guess one of the really tough things in this is that if they have to change careers, they only get one skill at level zero for the whole 4 years or am I wrong and they still get a skill roll that term?

This is because they're getting the quickie job familiarization training and then they're put to work. For the first couple years of that first second-career term they're relying on their previous experience in an earlier career to get them through.

 

[Condottiere]

I would assume Medical/zero is more than just French kissing a dummy.

 

[Arkathan]

I have no idea what that means. If the Roboticist has Medic 0, he should be able to do first aid. If he doesn't, he probably shouldn't be trying.

Now you are just being intentionally obtuse.
Try this. Modern day Term 1 Janitor with absolutely no advanced or technical skills tinkering with a TL 12 Jump drive. Better?

 

[Vormaerin]

Traveller has a very simplified skill system compared to real life. They have one skill for "Medic". lol. How does that distinguish between a Certified Nurse Midwife, an Obstetrician, and a perinatologist? Much less between a perinatologist and a heart surgeon.

You just have to roll with it and figure out what is important to your table.

 

[Vormaerin]

Now you are just being intentionally obtuse.
Try this. Modern day Term 1 Janitor with absolutely no advanced or technical skills tinkering with a TL 12 Jump drive. Better?

Who is talking about that? If you think that is what skill 0 means, then sure. I don't think that is what skill 0 means. But if you want it to, you can make it that way, but you pretty much have to completely rewrite the Character generation system. Because it is designed to primarily produce characters in the skill 0-2 range.

Going by Chargen, there's no likelihood that anyone is even rated as an Engineer until their 2nd term, if that. Everyone in Engineering term 1 is busy as a mechanic on the maintenance crew. Is it even possible to have Engineering 0 outside of the cascade system effect? I'd have to look to see if the scouts or merchants have Engineering as a service skill.

 

[Arkathan]

Who is talking about that? If you think that is what skill 0 means, then sure. I don't think that is what skill 0 means. But if you want it to, you can make it that way, but you pretty much have to completely rewrite the Character generation system. Because it is designed to primarily produce characters in the skill 0-2 range.

Going by Chargen, there's no likelihood that anyone is even rated as an Engineer until their 2nd term, if that. Everyone in Engineering term 1 is busy as a mechanic on the maintenance crew. Is it even possible to have Engineering 0 outside of the cascade system effect? I'd have to look to see if the scouts or merchants have Engineering as a service skill.

Still being obtuse. Intentionally.
Skill zero is better than the examples given.
Seriously, if I stipulate that the janitor has NO technical skills, that would include a lack of any skill in Engineering. Including skill-0. In game -3, but if you want to go realistic, much worse. The only difference between the janitor and a simian with an adjustable crescent hammer is that the janitor might not bang on the delicate looking fiddly bits.

 

[Vormaerin]

Then I'm just obtuse because I don't understand where you are coming from with this question about no skill at all. I don't know where that even came up in the discussion, so I assumed you were talking about skill 0 with your examples. Since that is what we were talking about.

Could Traveller use a rule that says "no skill = no chance"? Sure, I suppose. -3 is pretty close to that, given that most tasks are 8+ or 10+. I suppose that's a matter of taste whether you like hard gritty "oops, no skill, you die" game play or more space operatic "wtf, I'll push some buttons and hope" that probably fails.

 

[Arkathan]

You said it depends on what skill-0 means to you.
I said it means you are not a monkey swinging a wrench. Not the robot expert trying to fix people. Not the lawyer trying to fill a cavity. Not the singer trying to calculate your capital gains taxes.
It really wasn't that difficult, you just tried to make it that way.

 

[Geir]

I'm sorry, but every time I see or hear the word obtuse

 

[Ol'Weedy]

This is because they're getting the quickie job familiarization training and then they're put to work. For the first couple years of that first second-career term they're relying on their previous experience in an earlier career to get them through.

I tweak that imtu, and give them any lvl 0 service skill they would need as well. For instance, a scout is going to be a liability if he doesn't pick up Vacc Suit/0 after 4 years in the service.
If this results in having to give them ALL the service skills of the second career, so be it. After all, a second term accountant is going to have to go through the same basic army training as a fresh from university grad,

 

[Condottiere]

The game mechanics changed under the current edition, so that factor/zero is more than zero, but less than one.

 

[Yenaldlooshi]

First term of a new Career they get a 0 in a service skill, If they advance they get a skill. They may get a skill based on Rank, and another from an event, so you could potentially get three and a 0 on your first term. +1 more if you use one of your connections. just be ready for the dice gods give you the 0 and screw you on the rest.

Have you ever played a game, thinking you know all the common rules down pat and it's just a few of the fringe rules you might have missed?

I was this day old when I realized that you get an extra skill roll if you advance... thanks a lot hopsbaer! Way to make me look dumb when I go back to my players and give them all their advancement rolls all at once...

 

[Bense]

Skill-0 and a little natural talent (+1 attribute) gives you 83.33% success rate for Routine tasks. If you can take your time it goes up to 97.22%. Pretty good for just a few years' training.

 

[Condottiere]

And not having an appropriate task orientated skill penalizes you at minus three.

First Aid: Average (8+) Medic check (1D rounds, EDU). The patient regains lost characteristic points equal to the Effect.

Eight minus three equals eleven; one to six rounds, cardiopulmonary resuscitation would be modified by Endurance.

Education, because you took a course.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

When I was in, you had to pay for it like an IRA. But most bases had education assistance liaison offices that administered CLEP examines for free, and discounted subject GRE's through SUNY, Albany when those were a thing.

Sounds like a maintenance guy at one of my jobs. The first time he did a job for me it was OBVIOUSLY not usable when he was done as he hadn't tightened it nearly enough. He didn't even know what tool to use or how to use it when I showed it to him. I had to teach him how as I had at least seen others use it even though I was never in that job. He never got much better, people would ask NOT to get him assigned to fixing their problems. It may have been his strategy to get out of work.

 

[Arkathan]

... It may have been his strategy to get out of work.

They gave him mop-&-wax-the-floors duty, since he was useless when not standing watch. That took more time and work than his maintenance schedule would have entailed, so THAT strategy was a fail as well.

 

[ottarrus]

I would assume Medical/zero is more than just French kissing a dummy.

I'll ask my wife and tell you what she says...

 

[swordtart]

I suppose I should also add that under the connections rule you gain a few more skills and of course you may opt to dish out the skills in the skill packages.

You could start adventuring right after your first term, and in that case the skills above would have also been acquired in the same 4 year cycle as the basic 6 plus whatever skills you might have acquired in that first term. You could have a whole slew of level 1+ skills.

In my new campaign my players are actually starting with 18 year olds before their first term. We'll be playing a short low level adventure before they split up to begin their first career terms (which we'll conduct in downtime). They will then meet up on extended leave after the first 4 years and conduct another mini adventure... <REPEAT until done>.

We will be rolling benefits after each term as gaining a ships boat would be a game changer.

I am hoping this will ease them into the game, ensure characters are more than a set of 1+ skills and show that you can achieve more with a Level 0 skill and a positive attitude than you might imagine.

 

[swordtart]

Now I am actually pushing some players through the system, I am reading pre-career education a little differently. I think that as long as you enter the service that your academy is tied to you do not do basic training (as you have already done it). That means your "first" term in that specific career is actually a normal term. You might already be an officer and you will likely have three of those skills at 1 rather than 0.

Since you can undertake pre-career education in your second or third term I don't think we need to put too much weight in the term "pre-career".

If you went conventional career and then academy you would have got the full suite of six level zero skills before you undertook your study and that could be in a wildly different field e.g. Noble to Naval Academy. This would give a very broad set of skills and some at a decent level, especially if you had managed advancement as a Noble.

 

[Condottiere]

The game mechanism seems to be that whatever your first term is, it sets the tone of your general skill development.