Careers as skills

[Brandon C]

(I saw this in print in the 80's, but I don't remember where. This is the option as I best remember it)

A character may treat his previous career as a skill and the number of terms in it as a skill level. There are two limitations:

1) it cannot be used for something covered by another skill

2) it can only be used for things relevant to that career

Anyone know where this "rule" appeared and has anyone used anything like it?

 

[aramis]

(I saw this in print in the 80's, but I don't remember where. This is the option as I best remember it)

A character may treat his previous career as a skill and the number of terms in it as a skill level. There are two limitations:

1) it cannot be used for something covered by another skill

2) it can only be used for things relevant to that career

Anyone know where this "rule" appeared and has anyone used anything like it?

I know it was used occasionally by my first ref, Rick Singleton. So, as a player, I've used it. As a ref, I haven't. It makes sense, but it does things I don't like... it pushes players to go for extra terms, and allows VERY high levels for CT B1-3+S4... 4+.

 

[Leitz]

Not sure I saw it in print, but we use it all the time. There was a small discussion about it here a while back but I don't recall when.

 

[infojunky]

I have used previous career as a enabler for characteristic roll. Though using a career as a general skill isn't a bad idea either...

 

[rhialto]

I never saw it in print, but use a variant (since I don't detail 0-level skills): the prior career acts like a 0-level skill in all reasonable service skills. "Reasonable" is purposely not detailed either, but is left up to my usual "as it comes up in play".

 

[Brandon C]

It makes sense, but it does things I don't like... it pushes players to go for extra terms, and allows VERY high levels for CT B1-3+S4... 4+.

Since it doesn't cover things already covered by existing skills, I don't see this as an issue.

As an example, for CT I assume that knowing how to operate and read sensors is a part of any skill that requires taking sensor readings (Pilot, Navigation, Engineer, etc). It thus would not fall under the "career as skill".

A better example is if the party finds themselves in a first contact situation. There is no skill to cover this, and the only career that really would have any knowledge of the proper procedures is Scouts.

 

[Adam Dray]

How about each term in a career acts as a +1 DM when you don't have an applicable skill to use. This helps offset the -4 penalty for not having training in a skill.

Four terms of Navy? That can offset your total lack of Gunnery by +4 points, even getting you up to the equivalent of a level-0 skill.

Five terms? Now you're at a net +1.

 

[Supplement Four]

(I saw this in print in the 80's, but I don't remember where. This is the option as I best remember it)

A character may treat his previous career as a skill and the number of terms in it as a skill level. There are two limitations:

1) it cannot be used for something covered by another skill

2) it can only be used for things relevant to that career

Anyone know where this "rule" appeared and has anyone used anything like it?

So, every character has a pretty powerful skill. Average is three terms, so most people have a Skill-3 skill to rely upon.

Those who have 5 terms have a Skill-5.

It's an interesting idea, but I fear it will have unintended unfortunate consequences in a campaign.

I can see those career skills being broadly interpreted. Players will rely on that skill more than any other--to the exclusion of some skills. "My character has Army-4. It should cover logistics, because my character did that in the Army. All my weapon skills should be considered at Skill-4, too, because I was in the Army. I'm not a Grav pilot, but I had some exposure in the Army--I'll use that skill. And so on.

 

[Leitz]

So, every character has a pretty powerful skill. Average is three terms, so most people have a Skill-3 skill to rely upon.

Those who have 5 terms have a Skill-5.

It's an interesting idea, but I fear it will have unintended unfortunate consequences in a campaign.

I can see those career skills being broadly interpreted. Players will rely on that skill more than any other--to the exclusion of some skills. "My character has Army-4. It should cover logistics, because my character did that in the Army. All my weapon skills should be considered at Skill-4, too, because I was in the Army. I'm not a Grav pilot, but I had some exposure in the Army--I'll use that skill. And so on.

Not sure I'm seeing that as a big risk with decent gamers. 5 terms in the service and you'll know a lot; how things work in that service and a bit about how things work in other services. If you're armored division then I'd let you try and drive a tank at Vehicle-0 where a civilian wouldn't get that at all.

We tend to use it for observation and interaction rolls. Sometimes with knowledge and again, if there's a corollary skill needed that's not already defined.

 

[casquilho]

Maybe I am not understanding this idea, but if it does not work for anything already covered by an existing skill then my 4 term Marine could not use it as a replacement for gun skills or melee skills or drive a grav vehicle skills or pilot aircraft skills. But he could use it to ID a unit insignia or ???

Seems kind of limited to me, but then maybe I am missing something.

 

[Brandon C]

Maybe I am not understanding this idea, but if it does not work for anything already covered by an existing skill then my 4 term Marine could not use it as a replacement for gun skills or melee skills or drive a grav vehicle skills or pilot aircraft skills. But he could use it to ID a unit insignia or ???

Seems kind of limited to me, but then maybe I am missing something.

It is limited. But there are things that someone in a career will learn that other careers would know little or nothing about. In general, careers-as-skills give a character information, not the ability to do things. For example, a Scout would know first contact and survey procedures, but he would need Computer, Electronic or Mechanical to actually operate the equipment. OTOH, a Merchant with Electronic-5 could certainly know how to operate a survey array, but he wouldn't know the right order to perform various scans or what scans he actually needed to perform.

 

[Supplement Four]

Maybe I am not understanding this idea, but if it does not work for anything already covered by an existing skill then my 4 term Marine could not use it as a replacement for gun skills or melee skills or drive a grav vehicle skills or pilot aircraft skills. But he could use it to ID a unit insignia or ???

Seems kind of limited to me, but then maybe I am missing something.

Maybe I'm not getting it, either. I thought he said that a 4 term Marine would have a Skill-4 to cover "Marine type things".

 

[Blue Ghost]

(I saw this in print in the 80's, but I don't remember where. This is the option as I best remember it)

A character may treat his previous career as a skill and the number of terms in it as a skill level. There are two limitations:

1) it cannot be used for something covered by another skill

2) it can only be used for things relevant to that career

Anyone know where this "rule" appeared and has anyone used anything like it?

Snapshot comes to mind, but so does the Starter Edition. We never used it because it did seem like an invitation to gaming skill system, and actually skills were more precise. But yeah, I did have a couple of players bring it up in the mid 80s.

 

[PVernon]

I think what was meant by "Marine Stuff" is how does one sharpen a cutlass properly, what is the marine slag for PGMP14, where does one find the cleaning equipment in a standard squad bay, what is the usual rotation for sentry duty in a squad or any of the other things a marine would know short of combat skills. More like a T5 knowledge than a skill.

 

[infojunky]

Maybe I am not understanding this idea, but if it does not work for anything already covered by an existing skill then my 4 term Marine could not use it as a replacement for gun skills or melee skills or drive a grav vehicle skills or pilot aircraft skills. But he could use it to ID a unit insignia or ???

Seems kind of limited to me, but then maybe I am missing something.

Nope you have it correctly, it covers all those little tasks that aren't covered by a skill.

 

[aramis]

Maybe I am not understanding this idea, but if it does not work for anything already covered by an existing skill then my 4 term Marine could not use it as a replacement for gun skills or melee skills or drive a grav vehicle skills or pilot aircraft skills. But he could use it to ID a unit insignia or ???

Seems kind of limited to me, but then maybe I am missing something.

The CT skill list is particularly short, except for weapons. With each weapon being its own skill... but there being no skill for military protocols, basic alertness, history, basic athletics, climbing, swimming, writing, oration...

Most officers are able to bluster a semi-rousing speech. Most Colonels can actually do a rather rousing speech. But 4+ levels worth? 1 per 2 terms makes more sense to me in most cases. Most SGMs, as well, but it will be aa very different one from the Colonel's...

 

[Fovean]

I like the mention upthread of making career as skill a straight term-based DM but I’d probably do DM+1 per 2 terms, round down. I mean, if it’s a blanket “anything I encountered in the service” sort of DM. Could be as strong as JoT and automatic for everyone so that’s a bit much for me.

I don’t recall this rule at all but it seems like a suggestion for a fair way of adjudicating a role-play situation where no one really knows the ‘right’ answer - I’ve never been in the military so it could help me make a decision about an ex-Marine character interacting with an active duty Marine sentry for instance.

I’ve never played/reffed with Career-as-Skill but I did play in a MgT 1e game where after Connections were made and char gen was finalized, the Ref gave us Subsector-X skill or World-Y skill to reflect the PCs knowledge of the campaign area. ISTR T5 using a similar mechanic but could be wrong.

It was great as it helped with character building and role-playing while also avoiding big expository info dumps about the ATU. Also helped create terrain across the subsector(s) as some PCs knew a little bit about a lot of areas while others knew a lot about specific locations.

I can see this idea being a great mechanic for PC background and verisimilitude but +1 per Term feels too big to me.

 

[Brandon C]

I could go with +1 per two terms, but a character 1 term would have skill-0.

And how Book 1 (mis)handles weapon skills is a subject for another thread.

 

[casquilho]

The CT skill list is particularly short, except for weapons. With each weapon being its own skill... but there being no skill for military protocols, basic alertness, history, basic athletics, climbing, swimming, writing, oration.....

Great point. I play both CT and Mongoose 1st ed and sometimes have brain freeze and forget important differences like this. Thanks for the reminder.