Drafting a PC Doctor during the 5FW.. mean, or Realistic...

[rancke]

I would call it an insignificant rounding error compared to ignoring the modifications to UPP that occur due to planet quality.

Don't Very High Tech Level planets have something like a +1 Int and +2 Edu modifier?

Not in the original CT rules IIRC.

Depends on the TU obviously.

That would be the OTU. The one all canonical evidence is about. Not my TU, which is different from OTU in different ways than Wil's TU is different from the OTU and your TU is different from the OTU, not Wil's TU, and not your TU. The OTU. Our common frame of reference. That TU.

How does the IN (per your example) compete against a Megacorp on a Very High Tech Level world for the best and the brightest. The Megacorp can pay in the order of 10 times as much (due to TL productivity gains) then the IN can - and it doesn't involve being vaporised by enemy fire or disappearing forever in a misjump.

Since we're arguing about the plausibility of a universal Imperial draft, I should think the answer is obvious. If there was such a draft, the IN competes by drafting. And the megacorporations obviously don't care about getting the best and the brightest, since they get draftees with every concievable stats too.

Maybe the Imperial forces have a policy of taking anyone who asks (or nearly anyone that asks) because universal employment (while impossible) is at least a good goal?

Obviously not the case, since you don't always manage to enlist in your chosen career, and draftees didn't ask to enter the service they end up in (Well, five times out of six they didn't).

Maybe an all Int A+ Edu A+ IN would not work from a social cohesiveness point of view (ala "Brave New World"). From my own experience it can cause certain social issues - the jump from being significantly more intelligent then everyone you know to just being in a group where you are "average" (accelerated Computer systems Electrical Engineering Degree in my case) has certain implications for motivation and output.

Maybe. ISTR Heinlein made some such point in Space Cadet. But that doesn't mean that drafts would be practically random. In fact, any service that was aware of the effect you describe would link certain jobs to certain stats. That obviously doesn't happen in any of the Imperial services, at least if you go by the evidence of the CG system.


Hans

 

[aramis]

@hans: MT PM Page 75: 12 years as archduke. 1104; I miscounted, thinking 1115.

In any case, there is a draft in canon, both in rules and in fluff; they might not be the same draft.

@all:
Being in the non-hereditary military is a "sub-par choice" in almost all societies without mandatory enlistment for all non-conscientious objectors. Even then, it's a rite of passage, not a desired career. As the move is made from hereditary military caste to a volunteer army, it's consistently been seen less and less as a "suitable" occupation, and instead as a dumping ground for society's dregs.

In a few countries, the military seems to be recovering from this, but in general, there have always been ways around involuntary service, and a social stigma for voluntary service when there is involuntary service.

 

[Icosahedron]

I'll be running a scenario for my players shortly that focues on the 5th Frontier War. One of the characters is a doctor.

I'm giving serious thought to having him drafted in the military as soon as he identifies himself as a doctor to any senior military officer. The player would then be forced to roll a new character immediately.

Is this simply being mean :devil:, or realistic , given the circumstances....

Mean.

There are several realistic alternatives to drafting. The only reason you could have for drafting is meanness. Are your players there to have fun or to puppet your storytelling?

Besides, you seem to be equating 'doctor' with 'combat surgeon'.

Maybe the 'doctor' has the skills but not the aptitude. Maybe the guy can dole out pills and take someone's temperature but freaks out at the thought of using a scalpel. Maybe he's been struck off for incompetence. Maybe he's a forensics expert or a mortuary clinician.
You can figure any number of reasons why the military wouldn't want him - even flat feet!

 

[rancke]

In any case, there is a draft in canon, both in rules and in fluff; they might not be the same draft.

Rather, they are definitely not the same, and the one in the rules has no other canonical support and hugely problematic ramifications (drafting citizens of member worlds), while the one in the background material ("fluff" is such a derogatory word ) is hardly described at all and have the same hugely problematic ramifications.

All in all, the rules draft is much easier to explain as a game mechanic and the BM draft as something that is called a draft, but isn't (I think you are right about the meaning of 'universal', BTW).



Hans

 

[BruceEdwinMorrow]

Mean.

There are several realistic alternatives to drafting. The only reason you could have for drafting is meanness. Are your players there to have fun or to puppet your storytelling?

Well most of the time it seems like they are there to argue rules on their behalf and engage in pissing contests over nit-noid details. It's not like I'm gaming with a group of cool, laid back Jazz musicans. :rofl:

 

[Captain Midnight]

Well most of the time it seems like they are there to argue rules on their behalf and engage in pissing contests over nit-noid details. It's not like I'm gaming with a group of cool, laid back Jazz musicans. :rofl:

Then why are you playing? Becuase it feels so good when you stop?

In all seriousness, I've never been a fan of games where people come up with their characters and then SOMETHING WEIRD happens, so they wind up in an entirely different situation than what they thought they would get. One corollary of this is that I stopped playing systems that used randomly-generated characters years ago, although I know some people enjoy using them. Once I've come up with a character concept, I'm interested in seeing how that concept develops; I'm not interested in "Hey, wouldn't it be awesome to combine Traveller and Seventh Sea? What happens if you shoot someone wearing a dracheneisen breastplate with a laser rifle?"

If you bring it up to the player beforehand and he says, "OK, that sounds like it might have potential", then go for it. However, if you're trying to just mess with their heads because they wanted to play merchant adventurers while YOU wanted to play "Hammer's Slammers", then you've done a bad thing, in my opinion.

 

[Icosahedron]

Well most of the time it seems like they are there to argue rules on their behalf and engage in pissing contests over nit-noid details. It's not like I'm gaming with a group of cool, laid back Jazz musicans. :rofl:

Ok, draft 'em. :smirk:

 

[Easterner9504]

Doc

Uh, who says he's a Dr. Characters need background. I bet that Noble he malpracticed to death and got his Doctor license pulled could be an issue. Medic on merchant isn't out of place but he has no license.

As Doc said in OUTLAND, 1 ship ahead of a malpractice suit.

 

[Madarin Dude]

Well most of the time it seems like they are there to argue rules on their behalf and engage in pissing contests over nit-noid details. It's not like I'm gaming with a group of cool, laid back Jazz musicans. :rofl:

It is quite obvious that you are not gaming with me. Then you would have one laid back Jazz musician sipping single malt scotch saying "Hey the draft ain't cool."

 

[aramis]

Bruce: if you pulled that draft on anyone in a group I was in, I'd walk. Unless, of course, it was HeroTrav, and the doc had taken "Duty: subject to activation, 8-"

 

[Dagrill]

TL differences

Hi,

I was reading this discussion and I was wondering how long it would take to train 'people' of different TL's to use the equipment of different TL's,

For example, medicine at TL7 is rather different to medicine at TL4 and if we assume there are similar on going changes in TL's you need to know what TL the doctor was trained at. An individual trained at say TL9, would need to be significantly retrained to use TL15 equipment.

On another note indicates why commerece raiders like the Axhanti High Lightning are an essential part of a high TL fleet. Take away the flow of spare parts and soon half the Tigress batron has been cannibalised to provide spares for the other half.

Regards

David

 

[aramis]

ISTR 1 month per TL category difference if instructed under MT.
Categories tended to be 2-3 TL's wide.