MGT Only: Maximizing your Minimized Character

[Condottiere]

Intelligence

For roleplaying, probably the most important characteristic, because this is the nexus all the sensations and perceptions of their surrounding environment gets filtered and analysed by the character, and then a course of action, or inaction, is decided upon.

The norm is, as with almost everything else, between six and eight, which could be eighty-fivish, hundred and one hundred fifteenish IQ points, or thereabouts.

You could probably play a character with two intelligence points, but the chances are you'll be repeating the word Hodor for the rest of gaming session. In most cases, this can't really be that rewarding, even if you decide to play a barbarian half orc. And a minus two dice modifier should be avoided, where possible.

The remaining range would be between three and five, which gives you a minus one dice modifier, which with less intellectually challenging tasks and careers could be acceptable.

Education and an idiot savant option could ameliorate a distinctive lack of intelligence, though if you assume an approximate fourteen/fifteen point jump between each intelligence point, you're looking at seventyish, fifty-fivish, and forty IQ points.

I think that five intelligence points is doable, but anything below that should probably be avoided.

 

[robject]

I don't scale INT like that. INT 2 should not be unplayable.

That said, the perception that 2's are unplayable is still there.

 

[kilemall]

INT2 impacts my char+skill task system intensely, it's the painful outlier.

Let's say you have an INT2 Engineering-1 doing a Routine power-up.

Routine target is 11+. For a regular Engineering Joe, it's +8 for INT 7 + 1 skill, so only a failure on a 2.

For our Rain Man, it's 8 to get it done. May take 2 or 3 tries when everyone else is powering up near automatically, but he's got training.

Just don't ask him to reroute power from the jump capacitors to weapons- say an Effective roll, 15+, that +3 gets only success on a 12.

Much less Not Engineering Trained, that goes to +2 vs. a 17+ Long target roll, would have to roll 12 and then a follow-up bonus roll of 1d6 5, VERY difficult.

However, this is where Education can come in.

IMTU a Routine task or less does not require the problem-solving aspect of INT, I use the character's EDU as the base stat if it's higher.

Let's say 2nd Spaceman Rainman has INT 2, EDU 7- the power up sequence gets the normal success roll because he's had the process drilled into him.

For the Effective reroute power roll, +8 for EDU 7 +1 Engineering gets a knowledge check of 7+ against the 15+ target- very good chance he knows how to do it, which knocks it down to Routine and again very good odds to get it done.

Not suggesting everyone should use this system, just an example of how you do not have to knuckle under the tasking tyranny of INT-based throws.

 

[kilemall]

Now as to role-playing, could be VERY challenging for most people.

I would have anyone playing that through to think in terms of the old computer/robot rules, INT being CPU and EDU being storage.

The character could not correlate or handle more then 2 skill levels at any one time, not very fast in 'changing gears', particularly bad in a combat situation.

I would use the Rain Man character as the template, perhaps not an idiot savant ability per se but surprisingly able moreso then people expect, while anyone around them is constantly dealing with the limits at the same time.

Throw in a few smartazz or inappropriately childlike comments 2nd Spaceman Rainman throws out there, and for hardcore roleplayers could be a real challenge/payoff.

 

[Condottiere]

As long as nothing unexpected happens, or the routine suddenly goes out of sequence.

 

[kilemall]

As long as nothing unexpected happens, or the routine suddenly goes out of sequence.

Same thing for INT2 robots or computers.

 

[Condottiere]

Education

While I don't really think we'll be getting much smarter in the future, nor that our ancestors were any dumber than we are, education evolves, and theoretically, what they'll be teaching in High School in the future should be similar to college courses today, not that those are too hard in most cases.

Except in Lucasian space, since computers have speech recognition and are talkative, and it's rumoured that the literacy rate is abysmal. I think they get away with icons and emojis.

So the norm is six to eight, and eight tends to light up in the advanced education skill table, so let's say that six is senior high, seven is junior college or form six, and eight is college. Then you get to graduate.

Nine would be a bachelors, that plus one dice modifier is added to the success of most of your job applications, unless you happen to be over qualified for that barrista or McJob.

You can't have zero education, because humans always learn something, if only through experience. Even a feral childhood should get you to education one.

Lack of an education isn't tragic, since unlike intelligence, you can always acquire one. Should low intelligence cap education? No. That education just takes a lot longer to assimilate into that soft spongy brainy matter, and the low processing power and minuscule RAM means it might take a while until the relevant information pops up as a memory.

In this age of Siri and Google, we can ask the Cloud to look up any information (that hasn't been corrupted in the databanks). But an education will first allow us to figure out the right question to ask, and when it's delivered, in what relevant context it fits.

Five would be junior high or middle school, four would be grade or primary six, three would be the three arrs, reading, 'riting, and arithmetic.

With two, you're illiterate, but can communicate vocally. With other civilized humans.

Normally speaking, not everyone that graduates from high school actually gets past a five in education, which seems a pretty good standard for a character to have.

Not to worry, we love the poorly educated, which I suppose would those of education four and below.

 

[flykiller]

nor that our ancestors were any dumber than we are

actually recent thinking is that the ones who survived were geniuses.

education evolves ... what they'll be teaching in High School in the future should be similar to college courses today

and the other way around too. something like .75 of incoming freshmen classes require remedial education before they can begin "college", or what's left of it. evolution is not always "positive" ....

 

[Condottiere]

Social Standing

This tends to be very much based on the polity you grew up in, and/or have based yourself in, and in our case, that would be in the Third Imperium.

Despite appearances, you really have only a limited number of the titled Imperium nobility and their immediate families, seen from the perspective of the overall population, and twelve pretty much puts you in the stratosphere of the decimal point, zeroes, percenter, in any particular solar system. Or subsector.

The middle class would be six, seven and eight, lower middle, middle middle, and upper middle.

The upper class starts from nine, with it's plus one modifier, and that includes the squirearchy, culminating in the Knight title at eleven.

The petite bourgeoisie sort of straddles the line between five to seven, while haute bourgeoisie between eight and nine.

What we're interested in is the working class, basically those people who seem to get a minus one modifier in interactions, though in theory not within their own social interactions; since most of the middle class works as well, I guess what we're dealing with is the proletariat.

If you have no social standing, that means you're dead to society, which would place you at zero. No one wants you, not even a military desperate for cannon fodder.

One would make you untouchable; you're barely tolerated for tasks performed which the rest of society considers spiritually or actually contaminating.

Two would be a step above that, though shares the same modifier; here would fall the outcasts of society, not necessarily the homeless, but certainly those that would be forced to make the streets their home.

The lower class would have a roof over their heads, or have the means to ensure this, at least for the time being. While the modifier remains the same, the number may fluctuate with the job and habitation you are able to maintain.

Since there's no colour coding to indicate automatically what Social Standing you possess, it can come from facial recognition through media notoriety or fame, but mostly through attitude, mannerisms, bearing, speech and wardrobe, that we unconsciously pick up through cultural acclimatization.

That means you can act and dress as to possess a more higher social standing than your actual characteristic, but that requires a high intelligence, education and art/performance to pull it off for any length of time. Deception probably helps as well, as can diplomacy, persuade and carousing.

The modifier can be negated through an active demonstration of your outward appearance, intelligence and education, or known achievements; though that works both ways, if you happen to be of a high social standing and considered a buffoon, and have demonstrated cowardice.

 

[kilemall]

Have you read my IMTU entries on the stats? I didn't go into low range issues specifically, but min/max situations were definitely a big part of it as I want those numbers to mean something beyond piddly +1/+2 bonuses/penalties.

Example, a low SOC standing means having difficulty getting a loan for buying a pencil, but a massive bonus for Streetwise activities knowing who to approach to get resources and personnel from the underworld side of society.

I also have SOC as the very basis of the reaction roll, based largely on those behavioral cues you note (although I allow for a standard 'professional courtesy' default acting SOC, and kindred spirits can cross social boundaries).

 

[Condottiere]

I haven't actually. And the above is strictly socio-economic, without moving into castes, racism, sectarianism or just plain tribalism, which of course, require more specific examples, as well as being specific on a regional level, whether continental, world, system or subsector.

Going to certain institutions or universities can add to your social cachet, not that I think that's mentioned in character creation.

 

[robject]

Education

While I don't really think we'll be getting much smarter in the future, nor that our ancestors were any dumber than we are, education evolves, and theoretically, what they'll be teaching in High School in the future should be similar to college courses today, not that those are too hard in most cases.

I don't disagree with any of this, but it seems that there are many ways of learning, even today, and some styles work for some personalities better than others. One style may be preferred by one culture over another. Some places have more informal or OTJ learning than others. Things learned also depend on what's important at that time. And so on.

So it seems to be safer to say that Education is the effect of intentional learning over time, regardless of how it's administered.

I seem to recall an essay titled "I become a student" that pointed out that learning comes from interest.

 

[robject]

Social Standing

It has only recently struck me how class-conscious Traveller is... and part of Traveller is how the player characters break these class barriers.

 

[Condottiere]

It's an inherent primary characteristic, whereas I'd have shunted it off to a secondary position. You can only have so many planetary rulers or degreed percenters.

Trying to pretend you have a social standing of nine or ten might be possible, eleven would be hard, while twelve should be impossible, or at best, very temporary.

You can get lost in the middle class.

 

[flykiller]

It has only recently struck me how class-conscious Traveller is... and part of Traveller is how the player characters break these class barriers.

or more likely haven't a clue what they could be or how such things could possibly exist or how to play them if they do exist. 'specially 'mericans.

"introducing baron whoever."

"hey dude, whassup?"

 

[Condottiere]

Prodigies: Traveller Begins!

Depending on your education, you'll typically have a range of one to five background skills.

If I recall correctly, you used to be able to get a head start on your compatriots by enlisting in a barbarian horde or going belting, but now it seems limited to being precocious.

As you make your first journey down the birth canal, you will find yourself confronting a strange new universe, that you hadn't asked to be born into, and find yourself a helpless parasite totally dependent on a pair of caregiver units, and competing for attention with other rival siblings.

Since physical activity is limited, this first term is halved, and mishaps and events primarily revolve around intake and outtake of organic substances. You are atomically enlisted in the infancy.

Your second term allows you some limited locomotion, and the exploration of your immediate environment, though you are still dependent on strategic movement on what you now can identify as your parental units,

The third term are the halcyon years, as you can experience the world, have no responsibilities and all your needs are taken care off.

Congratulations on reaching your fourth term! You're about to hit puberty, that will mutate your body and cause strange growths. You now now that not everyone is the same.

Your parental units may find you a more interesting companion, and may decide to inculcate within you their believes and hobbies, which could include the handling and maintenance of all sorts of weapons.

In your fifth term, having survived puberty, you now must try to successfully navigate adolescence and high school, being in a twilight zone of requiring some form of adult supervision, but desperately wanting to break away from it and creating a separate identity.

You could possibly enlist in the nearest barbarian horde, sometimes referred to as the neighbourhood gang (melee possible). You could enhance your income by getting part time employment such s a McJob or compensated child caretaking, or your parental units may just exploit your labour by equating nourishment and access to telecommunications with the fulfillment of a list of tasks. You try to balance electronic networking with actual networking.

Completing each term automatically increases your intelligence, strength, dexterity and endurance characteristics by one; education and social standing has to be rolled for, social standing is temporary and environmental.

In theory, in your fifth term your characteristics should be six across the board, and you pick up a background skill in each of your third, fourth an fifth terms.

Selection of background skills should be reverse engineered not to be repeated in the service skill list for basic training of the likely career you are going to role for, since you're not going to benefit with a higher skill level.

For this, you may really not want to let your Education drop below three. which at least will get you two background skills.

 

[kilemall]

I haven't actually. And the above is strictly socio-economic, without moving into castes, racism, sectarianism or just plain tribalism, which of course, require more specific examples, as well as being specific on a regional level, whether continental, world, system or subsector.

Going to certain institutions or universities can add to your social cachet, not that I think that's mentioned in character creation.

I won't repost it here unless you like, it's all in my IMTU thread where I go characteristic by characteristic expanding and expounding on them. SOC got the most important makeover.

Since I don't have an Imperium or any other such titled polity, I do nothing BUT socioeconomic class behavioralism and access/control of societal resources both ways- criminal economic behavior simply being the low SOC flipside of resource access.

I'll just throw out there that EDU to me means EDU stat x2 equivalent of schooling. That means different things to different countries, in the US 7 would mean high school graduation and two year associate's degree or equivalent thereof.

Some people commented on my valuation about how an 18 year old could start with a C EDU stat.

Obviously a prodigy who earned graduate degrees or self-taught while his/her peers were figuring out how to illegally buy beer.

 

[kilemall]

or more likely haven't a clue what they could be or how such things could possibly exist or how to play them if they do exist. 'specially 'mericans.

"introducing baron whoever."

"hey dude, whassup?"

Which is why the unwashed hoi polloi never see the inside of a high society club, country or otherwise.

 

[flykiller]

Which is why the unwashed hoi polloi never see the inside of a high society club

well now there's a clue.

does social standing restrict/permit priviledges? such as travel, commission, tax rates (!), command? is there a minimum social standing to be legally qualified as a pilot in civilized areas? is weapons possession status dependent on social standing? may a merchant captain arm his merchant ship if he is social standing, say, 4? or 10? is high passage limited to social standing 10+? is any traveller with social standing 7- required to take lowberth? etc.

 

[Condottiere]

You have my permission to reprint your INT, EDU and SOC description/commentary here, if only out of sheer curiousity.

Social Standing includes both access/networking/six degrees and acculturation to the upper crust, which could be both conscious and unconscious, and that a character with a much lower Social Standing would consciously have to study and imitate, basically at least one skill slot.