Skills

[IanBruntlett]

Hi,

If I'm taking a skill like "Drive" at level 0, do I declare a specialisation like "Drive Wheeled (0)" or do I get the equivalent of "Drive Mole(0), Tracked(0), Wheeled(0)" instead?

TIA

Ian

 

[MrUkpyr]

You have all the specialties at 0.

 

[IanBruntlett]

Thank you! 8)

 

[GypsyComet]

Assuming those specialties exist in the campaign, of course. If no one has ever seen a mole vehicle before, I doubt their Drive will default to zero the first time they find one.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Also, don't forget that at Level 1 you get Level 1 in that single specialty and you still have Level 0 in all the other specialties.

 

[Gee4orce]

Assuming those specialties exist in the campaign, of course. If no one has ever seen a mole vehicle before, I doubt their Drive will default to zero the first time they find one.

But they will probably realise that that thing is the steering, that's the throttle, and - ah - yeah, there's the brakes. Hmm - kinda similar to my car.

...that's what Skill-0 means to me

 

[alex_greene]

You wouldn't need more than Drive-0 to do something like drive the Air/Raft to and from the ship to Downport to meet a Patron.

On the other hand, trying to fly a ballistic arc upside down over the enemy fortification while the crew, strapped to their seats, rain down ACR fire on the enemy's heads would require a bit more than Drive-0 to do well. That, or a really good Dexterity DM.

 

[Gee4orce]

You wouldn't need more than Drive-0 to do something like drive the Air/Raft to and from the ship to Downport to meet a Patron.

Isn't Air/Raft a flyer specialisation now though ?! Kind of blows my conceptualisation of high tech worlds, as Flyer remains quite a rare skill.

I think I'll houserule that characters from High Tech worlds can choose Flyer(Grav)-0 instead of Drive-0 as a background skill :-/

 

[Alexander Cecil]

It might be an errata, or it might be in Mercenary, but I know that Drive(Grav) also gets added to the skill list. In my campaign, Drive(Grav) will let you use normal Air/Rafts, but using any other grav vehicle, especially G-tanks and personal grav. belts, requires Flyer(Grav).

Combine this with the main book's statement that Air/Rafts can be piloted on routine tasks (driving to the corner store), with absolutely no skill at all, and grav. vehicles are still highly useful.

 

[alex_greene]

You wouldn't need more than Drive-0 to do something like drive the Air/Raft to and from the ship to Downport to meet a Patron.

Isn't Air/Raft a flyer specialisation now though ?! Kind of blows my conceptualisation of high tech worlds, as Flyer remains quite a rare skill.

I think I'll houserule that characters from High Tech worlds can choose Flyer(Grav)-0 instead of Drive-0 as a background skill :-/

High-rise buildings with streams of flying cars, commuting to and from work, have been a staple of sf imagery since the days of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, where those "flying cars" were propeller-driven or dirigible.

At a certain technological level, Air/Rafts become the default vehicle; old - fashioned road transport seems clunky and dangerous (witness the horrified description Beowulf Schaeffer gave in one of Larry Niven's Known Space anthologies upon describing the antics of a group of petrolhead enthusiasts and their antique vehicles, somewhat like imagining driving horse-driven chariots around a racetrack like something out of Ben Hur).

 

[Gee4orce]

Yeah, I kind of assumed that beyond TL10 or so most vehicles are probably auto-piloted anyway most of the time, especially on those small, high-pop worlds. It's only when you want to do something out of the ordinary that you need to 'switch to manual'

 

[alex_greene]

If the local law level is high enough, characters may be prosecuted under the traffic laws for driving on manual.

 

[kristof65]

If the local law level is high enough, characters may be prosecuted under the traffic laws for driving on manual.

Police Officer: License and registration, please Ma'am.
PC: Certainly sir. But may I ask why you pulled me over to this rooftop?
Officer: That lane change you made back there.
PC (confused): Really? What was wrong with it? I thought it was safe enough.
Officer: No, it wasn't. It indicated to me that you were driving on manual, and when I checked your tag numbers against the local traffic control computer, it indicated you switched over to manual 5km ago.
PC: Oh. Let me guess, this is one of those world's were it's frowned upon to drive in manual mode?
Officer: Not just frowned upon, it's illegal. Now, if you'll just step out of the air/raft, please....