General Help converting GURPS skill levels to MT

Commander Truestar · Mar 24, 2025

Hi
First, I apologize for re-asking this, because I searched and could not find it.
I want to import a GURPS device into MTU, where my skills are largely based on MT Skill rules.

What I was looking for is how to convert "First Aid-14, and 13 in Diagnosis and Physician" (from GURPS) to equivalents in the MegaTraveller "1 to 6" skill levels?

Thanks for anyone who can explain the process, so I can do it on my own in the future

mike wightman · Mar 24, 2025

Subtract the GURPS governing characteristic from the skill to get the skill level.

Rupert · Mar 25, 2025

As there's no governing stat on a device, I'd subtract 10 and then halve it. GURPS skill-12 is basic professional competence, so it seems reasonable that this is skill-1 in MT, and GURPS' skill levels have a wider range, so halving them seems fair. Which way to round is interesting. I'd round down, but be generous about skill-0 - having any points/levels in a GURPS skill should get you skill-0. For a more general case, where you know the base stat (like for a character) replace '10' with the stat.

Thus MT skill = [GURPS skill -10] / 2

Commander Truestar · Mar 25, 2025

Rupert said:
As there's no governing stat on a device, I'd subtract 10 and then halve it. GURPS skill-12 is basic professional competence, so it seems reasonable that this is skill-1 in MT, and GURPS' skill levels have a wider range, so halving them seems fair. Which way to round is interesting. I'd round down, but be generous about skill-0 - having any points/levels in a GURPS skill should get you skill-0. For a more general case, where you know the base stat (like for a character) replace '10' with the stat.

Thus MT skill = [GURPS skill -10] / 2

Thank you very much!

MThompson016 · Apr 7, 2025

GT provides a method of converting prior Traveller editions to GURPS. 1 character point for level 0 Traveller skills, 2, for level 1, 4 for level 2, and 8 character points for a Traveller Level 3 skill, and provides an extensive list of skills to convert to and from.

Commander Truestar · Sunday at 11:06 PM

MThompson016 said:
GT provides a method of converting prior Traveller editions to GURPS. 1 character point for level 0 Traveller skills, 2, for level 1, 4 for level 2, and 8 character points for a Traveller Level 3 skill, and provides an extensive list of skills to convert to and from.

So, as I understand it,
a "Medical" 14 in Gurps would
...First, be Medical - 0 for one point - Leaving 13 points
...Next, Medical - 1 for two more points - Leaving 9 points
...Next, Medical - 2 for four more points - Leaving 5 points

and that leaves 5 points, which can't reach Medical 3, because I'd need 3 more points for the +8

That strikes me as a loss.
Where I want to convert an android with, essentially, GURPS Medical -14 to MT, the loss of 5 GURPS points is bothersome.

Still, thank you very much for reaching out on this!
The more I read, the more I learn

Rupert · Monday at 5:44 AM

Commander Truestar said:
So, as I understand it,
a "Medical" 14 in Gurps would
...First, be Medical - 0 for one point - Leaving 13 points
...Next, Medical - 1 for two more points - Leaving 9 points
...Next, Medical - 2 for four more points - Leaving 5 points

and that leaves 5 points, which can't reach Medical 3, because I'd need 3 more points for the +8

That strikes me as a loss.
Where I want to convert an android with, essentially, GURPS Medical -14 to MT, the loss of 5 GURPS points is bothersome.

Still, thank you very much for reaching out on this!
The more I read, the more I learn

The thing is, the guidelines there are intended for going to GURPS from Traveller. Going back the other way would work, but you really need the underlying attribute, which I don't think you have for the medical autodocs and robots.

If you assume an attribute of 10 (human average), the android has Medical at IQ+4 (well Physician, etc.), and as that's a Mental/Hard skill that means it cost 12 points. That would give Medical-5 in Traveller, according to the guidelines in GT. IF the android had IQ12, they'd only have IQ+2, and 8 points in the skill, for Medical-3.

As Skill-14 is good but not amazing in GURPS, I don't think it should end up better than about Skill-3 in Traveller (Classic, MT, or MgT), and that only if the various other related skills in GURPS are also at about that level - remember that most skills in GURPS are narrower than in Traveller.

Commander Truestar · Monday at 9:21 AM

Rupert said:
The thing is, the guidelines there are intended for going to GURPS from Traveller. Going back the other way would work, but you really need the underlying attribute, which I don't think you have for the medical autodocs and robots.

If you assume an attribute of 10 (human average), the android has Medical at IQ+4 (well Physician, etc.), and as that's a Mental/Hard skill that means it cost 12 points. That would give Medical-5 in Traveller, according to the guidelines in GT. IF the android had IQ12, they'd only have IQ+2, and 8 points in the skill, for Medical-3.

As Skill-14 is good but not amazing in GURPS, I don't think it should end up better than about Skill-3 in Traveller (Classic, MT, or MgT), and that only if the various other related skills in GURPS are also at about that level - remember that most skills in GURPS are narrower than in Traveller.

Thank you for adding to my understanding.
I own quite a bit of the GURPS Traveller material, but comb through it for background and "Spinward Marches" data to add to my database

General Help converting GURPS skill levels to MT

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