MGT Only: Maximizing your Minimized Character

[aramis]

'Tis worth noting...
many rear area basic maintenance jobs could be done by such mentally impaired folk, freeing up the capable for doing tasks that need brainpower.

You don't need a whole lot of brains to work a mop, broom, lawnmower, or floor buffer. But those things do need doing. As noted by the medical officer, the "moron" was the best orderly at cleaning and stocking he'd ever had. Worthless as a medic, but highly valued as a scutman, and able to be a contributory part of the service by freeing up more capable folk to do the jobs needing that.

 

[Condottiere]

That aspect I've noted, at least in Western militaries, seems outsourced to private military contractors, who get at the lowest possible salary, either locals or import cheap labour into war zones, to perform housekeeping tasks.

I expect in future, they might let loose a swarm of Roombas on their bases and warships.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Which presents other problems.

Essentially, it masks peacetime undermanning relative to wartime manpower requirements. The housekeeping and "weeds and seeds" (paint the grass green and pressure-wash the rocks) details used to be accomplished by junior enlisted troops as additional taskings (and were justifiably detested as make-work by those same troops). On the other hand, if you develop a maintenance backlog, you can't hand the civilian janitors and groundskeepers a toolkit and a tech manual and dispatch them to the flightline...

It also masks the undermanning from the higher level officers as well. Previously, a drive-by "windshield tour" could pick out potential trouble spots (hence the possibly apocryphal "painting the grass green" taskings...). Decoupling houskeeping and groundskeeping from the operations labor pool (and manpower funding) meant that things would look superficially ok regardless of the actual operational metrics (and those can be gamed as well).

To be fair, it's also about reducing the end-strength numbers. Legislators and the public see the number of uniformed personnel as a proxy for the size of the entire military, but pay little heed to local housekeeping and groundskeeping contractors.

Expect those "Space-Roombas" to be more general-purpose maintenance units than dedicated cleaner-bots. But sometimes you really need a pair of hands that can follow orders, even if you have to be more specific in those orders than you would be in an ideal universe.

 

[Timerover51]

Which presents other problems.

Essentially, it masks peacetime undermanning relative to wartime manpower requirements. The housekeeping and "weeds and seeds" (paint the grass green and pressure-wash the rocks) details used to be accomplished by junior enlisted troops as additional taskings (and were justifiably detested as make-work by those same troops). On the other hand, if you develop a maintenance backlog, you can't hand the underpaid civilian janitors and groundskeepers a toolkit and a tech manual and dispatch them to the flightline...

It also masks the undermanning from the higher level officers as well. Previously, a drive-by "windshield tour" could pick out potential trouble spots (hence the possibly apocryphal "painting the grass green" taskings...). Decoupling houskeeping and groundskeeping from the operational labor pool (and manpower funding) meant that things would look superficially ok regardless of the actual operational metrics (and those can be gamed as well).

Expect those "Space-Roombas" to be more general-purpose than dedicated whcleaner-bots.

Having served in the peacetime military, I do not remember an "paint grass green and pressure-wash the rocks" makework jobs for my battalion, while the Wage Board janitors were paid considerably more than any of the junior enlisted. We had a maintenance backlog, but it had little to do with lack of workers, and more to do with old vehicles and a limited spare parts budget for those old vehicles. Just about all of our trucks were older than their drivers. Then we had some female drivers who could not tell the difference between a ratchet wrench and a crescent wrench. At that time the Army was taking anyone who could breathe, as it was right after Vietnam, and wearing the Green Uniform could get you spat on.

As for looking "pretty", the brigade commander went by the name of Schwarzkopf.

If you want to make stereotype comments like that, you better be prepared to back it up with names, dates, and units.

 

[aramis]

Having served in the peacetime military, I do not remember an "paint grass green and pressure-wash the rocks" makework jobs for my battalion, while the Wage Board janitors were paid considerably more than any of the junior enlisted. We had a maintenance backlog, but it had little to do with lack of workers, and more to do with old vehicles and a limited spare parts budget for those old vehicles. Just about all of our trucks were older than their drivers. Then we had some female drivers who could not tell the difference between a ratchet wrench and a crescent wrench. At that time the Army was taking anyone who could breathe, as it was right after Vietnam, and wearing the Green Uniform could get you spat on.

As for looking "pretty", the brigade commander went by the name of Schwarzkopf.

If you want to make stereotype comments like that, you better be prepared to back it up with names, dates, and units.

I myself have seen airmen on Elmendorf pressure-washing the parade routes the day before a pass in review.
As for painting grass green, that's been a common solution on the civilian side in certain areas when water used for lawns was illicit. https://www.houselogic.com/by-room/yard-patio/lawn-paint-keeps-grass-green/

Now, Kulis ANG Station, the grass was sprayed with some plant extract... as was EAFB, Merril Field, Anchorage International, and the Bryant Field... in the 90's. KANG, EAFB, and Bryant by soldiers; ANC and MRL by the FAA. Goose repellant.

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1804&context=icwdm_usdanwrc

 

[Condottiere]

The Roman Legions built roads and bridges, and fortified march camps.

And Hadrian's Wall and somewhat less solid border delineations.

 

[willtron3030]

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.

2 on 2D6 is only a hair more than -2 standard deviations from the mean. That roughly correlates to an IQ of about 70; congnitively impaired or borderline on many scales.

 

[aramis]

2 on 2D6 is only a hair more than -2 standard deviations from the mean. That roughly correlates to an IQ of about 70; congnitively impaired or borderline on many scales.

Only if the distribution of IQ is comparable to the distribution of the Int stat. Which, since a large part of Education is also tested for in real world IQ, means it's not a good linkage.