Character advancement

[Frankymole]

Never had (neither as player nor referee) a character with more than one skill at 5+ (and very few characters with even one skill over 3, in fact), but I guess it would ruin the game, as any character becoming too powerful in any RPG.

I generated a character for a MT game that was a Medic-7. I think he specialised in a few areas of major surgery; given the amount of bullets and fusion bolts flying around, he got some chances to help out the less reckless PCs rather than the ones who used him as an excuse to get suicidally gung-ho and ended up with their heads blown off in short order.

I think he died from a rather nasty plague or bioweapon, there not being a scientist of sufficient calibre around to cure it. As a surgeon my character was too specialised for xenopathology.

 

[madmike]

My wife wanted to generated a character who is an accompished doctor, with a career background in the merchant service.

Her character, Josaphynah "Doc" has a medical skill level of 4.

I used a great article regarding traveller medical skills to determine what sort of surgeon Doc Josaphynah is. In the end, she is a specialist trauma surgeon and accomplished pharmacist. She is also exceptionally gifted with an auto pistol and has saved the necks of the party twice.

However, because she specialised, she does not have all those "adventure" type skills the other crew members have.

I am trying to run a less combat orientated campaign, but some sessions have been rather violent and somewhat chaotic

I also am trialing "experience by practice" house rule which seems to be working rather well. "Wetware" implants also provide characters with one level of a non combat skill. That skill must not be a skill that the user already has. Again, very interesting, as players took rather unique skills they would not have chosen when generating their characters.

When I ran a Geeksmas Snapshot scenario with pre-generated characters with lower combat skills, the group found it a far more challenging prospect.

 

[McPerth]

But if you gain those two AT's, the PM page 41 limit of 2 AT per year should apply, so that's the only gain for the year.

But this limit of 2 AT per year applies to a single skill, and as you say.

MT thus allows for 2-4 levels per term in a single skill... but fails to limit the number of skills collecting AT's at once.

So, theoretically, a very active MT (or one intesivelly training in various skills) player might gain several skills each year (most so if he has int 10+).

And remember that if he succeeds in the training tasks he will gain a full skill level (as would in CT in 6 weeks) and no ATs, so he might as well make another course (assuing the instructor having high enough skill) and, even if failing, gaining the 2 AT allowed per year in that skill.

Assuming he intensively trains a full year, a player could theoretically gain as much as 10 skills a year (assuming 40 hours a week training, and an average of 200 hours, and do 5 weeks, per training course, that is the average too). See that in advanced CharGen, a player could acheve up to 8 skills in a year in the Comando School (by rolling 5+ 8 times in a row with one die..).

As per CT, the numbers would be a maximum of 7 skills a year by training (as the training courses are defined as 6 weeks, not by hours), and the maximum in advancer Chargen (again the comando school) is 6 skills (again rolling 5+ 6 times in a row with one die).

One change I house ruled in MTU is that the tasks to improve a skill don't use related skill, but use int modifier instead, and the skill level he has is used as negative modifier (as in a confrotation task), making it harder to learn higher skill levels.