Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
I've been re-reading David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series lately, and that inspired me to open the old CT box and pull out Book 4.
I haven't look at this thing closely in years.
I haven't played it in longer than that. (And, I'm sure that anything I say here that is "wrong" will be corrected promptly. :rofl: )
Flipping through the book, there are a few things that jump out at me...
USE BOOK 1 ENLISTMENT
A player can't just decide to be a Merc any more than he can decided to be a Marine under Book 1, if playing strictly by the rules.
The process is: Use Book 1 enlistment. IF successful in gaining enlistment into the Army or Marines, the Merc option from Book 4 is open as a choice for those characters.
A player only gets one attempt at enlistment. He must pick to try for the Army or the Marines. If he fails that enlistment roll, he must submit himself to the Draft, per Book 1.
If enlistment for the Army or the Marines (or either of these forces is rolled via the Draft), then the player may select to use Book 1 for character generation or use the Mercenary option of Book 4.
MORE SKILLS = MORE RISK
Book 4 doesn't have an optional Survival rule. If a Mercenary character fails a Survival check, then the character dies. Start over by going back to Book 1 and attempting enlistment with a new character.
Many argue that Advanced Character Generation provides more skills than a character generated under Basic Character Generation. I wonder about that.
Under Book 1, a character rolls once per term--once per four years. The base roll is 6+ for the Marines and 5+ for the Army.
But, under Book 4, the character is subjected to up to four Survival rolls each term, one per year: 4+, 5+, 6+, depending on the character's assignment that year. (Garrison Duty and Training have 100% survival.) The odds are much higher than a Merc character will die in character generation rather than a Book 1 Marine or Army soldier.
So, yeah, a Book 4 Merc might get a few more skills, but there's a higher probability that the character will die (and the player will have to start over, risking that Mercenary might not even be possible).
There's more pressure on a player to quit the career and not attempt re-enlistment, if the player gets a character he likes. With up to 4 Survival Checks a term, some players may even choose to quit the career after one term, like many of our modern day military men.
USING ADVANCED AND BASIC CHARGEN TOGETHER
Given the harder Survival, and the fact that a player can't just pick to be a Book 4 Merc--the player has to roll his way into the option--I don't see any reason at all why Advanced Chargen and Basic Chargen shouldn't be used in the same Classic Traveller game.
I haven't look at this thing closely in years.
I haven't played it in longer than that. (And, I'm sure that anything I say here that is "wrong" will be corrected promptly. :rofl: )
Flipping through the book, there are a few things that jump out at me...
USE BOOK 1 ENLISTMENT
A player can't just decide to be a Merc any more than he can decided to be a Marine under Book 1, if playing strictly by the rules.
The process is: Use Book 1 enlistment. IF successful in gaining enlistment into the Army or Marines, the Merc option from Book 4 is open as a choice for those characters.
A player only gets one attempt at enlistment. He must pick to try for the Army or the Marines. If he fails that enlistment roll, he must submit himself to the Draft, per Book 1.
If enlistment for the Army or the Marines (or either of these forces is rolled via the Draft), then the player may select to use Book 1 for character generation or use the Mercenary option of Book 4.
MORE SKILLS = MORE RISK
Book 4 doesn't have an optional Survival rule. If a Mercenary character fails a Survival check, then the character dies. Start over by going back to Book 1 and attempting enlistment with a new character.
Many argue that Advanced Character Generation provides more skills than a character generated under Basic Character Generation. I wonder about that.
Under Book 1, a character rolls once per term--once per four years. The base roll is 6+ for the Marines and 5+ for the Army.
But, under Book 4, the character is subjected to up to four Survival rolls each term, one per year: 4+, 5+, 6+, depending on the character's assignment that year. (Garrison Duty and Training have 100% survival.) The odds are much higher than a Merc character will die in character generation rather than a Book 1 Marine or Army soldier.
So, yeah, a Book 4 Merc might get a few more skills, but there's a higher probability that the character will die (and the player will have to start over, risking that Mercenary might not even be possible).
There's more pressure on a player to quit the career and not attempt re-enlistment, if the player gets a character he likes. With up to 4 Survival Checks a term, some players may even choose to quit the career after one term, like many of our modern day military men.
USING ADVANCED AND BASIC CHARGEN TOGETHER
Given the harder Survival, and the fact that a player can't just pick to be a Book 4 Merc--the player has to roll his way into the option--I don't see any reason at all why Advanced Chargen and Basic Chargen shouldn't be used in the same Classic Traveller game.