unusual skill rolls

[steve98052]

Now and then while reading the rules, I come across something that strikes me as an interesting puzzle. I came across this one, which I found amusing:

Core rule book, p. 48
"In general, skills can be matched to any appropriate characteristic depending on the situation at hand. Certainly you will roll Dexterity and Gun Combat more often than Social Standing and Gun Combat but you never know what might come up."

So, just when would a player roll Social Standing with Gun Combat? I came up with a possible situation:

The characters see a man with an unusual, ornate weapon.

Roll Social Standing and Gun Combat.

On success, they recognize the gun as a weapon only issued to Duchess Delphine's huscarles. The man doesn't appear to be on duty. He is too far from Mora to be on vacation (and the duchess hasn't left Mora in years). The man doesn't look old enough to be retired.

Conclusion: Either the gun is a fake or it's stolen.

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Are there any other cases where the rules suggest odd combinations of characteristics and skill rolls?

Can any one think of their own odd combinations with fun interpretations?

- - -

(I came across another "what can I do with this?" idea in the same book, which inspired my "lost pet" adventure seed. I figured if that was worth sharing, this one would be too.)

 

[CosmicGamer]

So, just when would a player roll Social Standing with Gun Combat? I came up with a possible situation:

The characters see a man with an unusual, ornate weapon.

Roll Social Standing and Gun Combat.

On success, they recognize the gun as a weapon only issued to Duchess Delphine's huscarles. The man doesn't appear to be on duty. He is too far from Mora to be on vacation (and the duchess hasn't left Mora in years). The man doesn't look old enough to be retired.

Conclusion: Either the gun is a fake or it's stolen.

A gun skill check with the social DM (or conceptualy a soc check with a gun skill dm?) may let you recognize the weapon and it's significance and such but the other details? Perhaps it's just the wording?

I see "On success, they recognize the gun as a weapon only issued to Duchess Delphine's huscarles."

But is "The man doesn't appear to be on duty." and "The man doesn't look old enough to be retired." just general observations the GM is providing?

Gun combat and edu might also be used for recognizing weapons with historical significance.

I can see gun combat and social used during a dual for following all the proper etiquette and not further offending anyone.

GunCbt and Int to analyze an alien weapon? "What's that red button for?"

 

[AdrianH]

So, just when would a player roll Social Standing with Gun Combat?

Perhaps in a formal duel. The normal rules of gun combat (take cover, duck, and shoot when you get a chance) don't apply. You stand exactly 50m apart, take aim, and upon a given signal you fire. If you fire a fraction of a second too late, you probably get hit first. If you fire a fraction of a second earlier, you lose regardless of where your shot went; even if your opponent is dead, you're in disgrace and have 24 hours to leave the planet minus all your possessions. Also, because he's a baron and you're not, you have to bow to him before you take your shot, and while you're getting back up he shoots you. This is perfectly legal, on this world a lower ranking dueller must bow to a higher ranking opponent, which is how they prevent common oiks from killing nobles in duels.

 

[Condottiere]

To avoid legal assassinations by hired gunslingers, you probably only have to accept challenges from your near peers, and can ignore those from the impetuous youths.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Can any one think of their own odd combinations with fun interpretations?

Advocate and Endurance
to filibuster

Carouse and Endurance
for all night partying

Steward and Endurance
how long one can put up with an annoying passenger

Vacc Suit and Endurance
if your pee tube malfunctions

 

[steve98052]

. . .
I see "On success, they recognize the gun as a weapon only issued to Duchess Delphine's huscarles."

But is "The man doesn't appear to be on duty." and "The man doesn't look old enough to be retired." just general observations the GM is providing?

Right, that was what I meant: recognition of the weapon as something that are only issued to huscarles would be the only thing one would get out of the Social-Gun roll. The other observations are points that I meant to be things that the referee would add that a character would know even if the player didn't know it.

Gun combat and edu might also be used for recognizing weapons with historical significance.

That's certainly a reasonable interpretation.

I can see gun combat and social used during a dual for following all the proper etiquette and not further offending anyone.

I hadn't thought of dueling, but that's definitely something that would be an appropriate, assuming that dueling was an approved custom among people of higher status but not a permissible means of settling disputes for the hoi polloi.

GunCbt and Int to analyze an alien weapon? "What's that red button for?"

That's a common rule in a number of games, and may have been specifically mentioned in some past editions of Traveller.

- - -

Also, when I proposed the topic of "unusual skill rolls", I didn't just mean out-of-the-ordinary ways of rolling Gun Combat. The same could apply to just about any skill.

Another example: in what sort of situation would one roll Gambling with Strength?

 

[locarno24]

Another example: in what sort of situation would one roll Gambling with Strength?

When you're deciding how much to wager in a bout of arm-wrestling.

Social sciences (Philosophy) and Agility?


But yes, pretty much any pairing can be used.

Gun Combat plus:
STR - Using a firearm where being able to heft it and cope with the recoil is more important than such pansy concepts as "aiming" - think some sort of rotary automatic shotgun.

END - Maintaining a high rate of fire for a long time - think manning a wall against a zombie apocalypse

DEX - Firing a normal gun

INT - Dealing with unknowns - recognising and figuring out how to use a complex and/or alien weapon

EDU - Weapon maintenance - to modify a weapon to fit a properly rigged gyrostabilizer or other more complex mod

SOC - As noted, recognising a weapon's noble heraldry, or that that weapon is terribly out of fashion with the higher nobility these days.

PSI - There are some specific 'psi-guns' in the Psion book. Equally, aiming and firing a gun by Telekenisis...

 

[steve98052]

Another example: in what sort of situation would one roll Gambling with Strength?

When you're deciding how much to wager in a bout of arm-wrestling.

Good answer! Part of Gambling is assessing one's odds, and in this case it would require having a good idea of one's own strength and current physical and mental condition, it would also require making a good assessment of the opponent's strength and preparation.

Social sciences (Philosophy) and Agility?

That's a tough one. I'll be wrestling with those thoughts for a while.

Seriously, however, it seems like physical characteristics with mental skills make the toughest combination to think up a reason for such a roll. I'm failing my Endurance rolls to stay awake, and it's time anyway.

 

[AdrianH]

Social Sciences (Philosophy) + Agility = archaeology, Indiana Jones style. Or a really heated debate involving cunning arguments and thrown crockery.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Part of Gambling is assessing one's odds, and in this case it would require having a good idea of one's own strength and current physical and mental condition, it would also require making a good assessment of the opponent's strength and preparation.

I always thought some skill checks should use another skill as a DM. Without more tweaking of the rules, I guess you'd drop the characteristic modifier for the second skill DM. For example:

Gambling on sports or athletic competition: Gambling and Athletic skill
Gambling on a horse race or other animal competition: Gambling and Animal skill

One could also argue that the gambling skill is not needed. An expert in horses might be better at betting on races than a Casino gambler. Animal skill and characteristic vs Gambling and characteristic.

 

[Condottiere]

Gambling plus carousing might let you know when the fix is in.

 

[steve98052]

Advocate and Endurance
to filibuster

That's a great answer. I actually thought of it myself too while I was reading some US political news, so I'm pleased to see I'm not the only one who came up with the idea.

Technically, however, one could use a lot of skills with Endurance to satisfy US Senate filibuster rules, because you aren't actually required to make a rational legal argument to continue a filibuster -- you just need to keep talking endlessly. But that technicality might not apply to a legislative body in Traveller. For some legislative bodies -- maybe even the Moot -- there might be a regulation that requires a speaker to speak only to the subject of the legislation in question, and to refrain from excessive repetition, if they want to continue to hold the floor. That would certainly make legislative debates -- even filibusters -- more interesting.

I always thought some skill checks should use another skill as a DM. Without more tweaking of the rules, I guess you'd drop the characteristic modifier for the second skill DM. For example:

Gambling on sports or athletic competition: Gambling and Athletic skill
Gambling on a horse race or other animal competition: Gambling and Animal skill

One could also argue that the gambling skill is not needed. An expert in horses might be better at betting on races than a Casino gambler. Animal skill and characteristic vs Gambling and characteristic.

You have a point there: it is possible to make one kind of skill check to try to get a DM on another skill check. That's optional; if you think you're likely to make the supplemental skill check by a large margin it's a good idea (with a small risk of a failure that results in a negative DM), but if your chances on the supplemental skill check would be poor you probably don't want to try it.

As for the example of horse racing, I think I'd rule that the horse expert would be have a good idea about whether specific horses were likely to do well, but still wouldn't know how to bet at the track, because that requires understanding both which horses are likely to do well and how the odds work.

When I was in school, I knew a guy who paid his tuition and rent with horse track winnings. He didn't really know horses, but he knew how to read a racing form, and how to do statistical analysis. Without ever seeing the horses before the races, he put together lists that said what odds a horse should have before he should bet on them. For example, if he went to the track saying a particular horse should be 4:1 and it was 2:1 right before the betting window closed, he'd walk away, or bet a different horse -- but if the 4:1 horse was at 12:1 he'd bet on it. Once he rated an obscure horse around 3:1 and got to the track and saw it at 99:1 (which may have meant that no one had bet on the horse at all, but the reader board only had room for two digits). He dropped his rent money on that horse, which was such a big bet that it shifted the horse's odds down to something like 8:1. The horse won and he went home with tuition for the next semester plus five months of rent money.

In Traveller skill terms, he might have been Animals-0 (horse) and Gambling-3 (parimutuel racing).