Skill specialities explanation for rusty Traveller

[kostya]

If this is a stupid question, bear with me

I played Traveller 20 years ago, and I'm not entirely sure I had a good grasp even then. I just recently saw MGP's core rule book at Barnes & Noble, so I bought it and then dusted off all the old boxed set and modules.

I was trying to familiarize myself with the rules again, and I got a little confused about how skills are acquired. The MGP core rulebook seems maddeningly vague at times--I have often had to look up things in both the original and the MGP to get a good idea of what the final MGP rule is (e.g. when is a character unconscious in MGP?). In the case of skills and specialities, I've still not figured out exactly how it works.

Summary of my questions:

1) Do level 0 skills given to the character by home planet or basic training get assigned to the skill + specialty, or just the skill (e.g. Gun Combat - 0 or Gun Combat (Slug Pistols) - 0)?

2) Does a skill level of 1+ imply a skill level 0 in all related skill specialties (e.g. does Gun Combat (Slug Rifle) - 2 imply Gun Combat - 0, and more important Gun Combat (Energy Rifle) - 0)?

And now for my rambling ...

So MGP says "When a character reaches level 1 in a skill, he can take a specialty in that skill. When he gains another level in that skill, he may increase that specialty to level 2, or take a different specialty."

Let's use Gun Combat as a starting example: I take this to mean that when John Doe gets a level of "Gun Combat" on a career skill table, he then chooses what kind of Gun Combat. Say he chooses Gun Combat (Slug Pistols) - 1. Then he gets Gun Combat again; he could choose to increase Gun Combat (Slug Pistols) to 2 or choose to take Gun Combat (Slug Rifle) - 1.

Now for my first wrinkle.

So a character starts out with 0-level skills based on their home planet and then another set of 0-level skills based on "basic training" in the first career. My question is, does this mean that things like Gun Combat must be in a specialty like Gun Combat (Slug Rifle) - 0? Or is it just general "Gun Combat". I would assume based on the above reading (about reaching level 1) that it is not in the specialty, but in the general skill. So gaining Gun Combat in basic training would give you a general familiarity with all Gun Combat and no unskilled DM of -3 for any gun use.

Now my second wrinkle.

If the above reading is correct (that level-0 is in the skill, not a skill's speciality), does a level 1 in a specialty give you a level 0 in all related specialities? While a level 1 in Slug Rifles should not give you a level 1 in Energy Rifles, I would assume someone with level 1+ in Slug Rifles would be able to use a Energy Rifle with no unskilled DM--a rifle is a rifle is a rifle to a certain degree.

I would think the same of engineering or flyer, although this would depend greatly on the type of vehicle and TL involved in the check. I.e. if you have Flyer (Grav) - 2 and then hop in a low-tech helicopter, I would assume you may or may not get an unskilled DM based on the referee's whim--how do skills in operating an Air/Raft apply to using a primitive, 1st-gen helicopter? But assuming the TL is the same or the situation not totally alien, a specialty in Engineering (Power) should at least give you a passing, amateur level skill in the rest of the engineering, shouldn't it? How could you be an expert in Jump drive maintenance and not have a clue about power plants or electronics?

Thanks for helping me out! I'm hoping to get all the rules straight in my head and then cajole some D&D friends into trying out some sci-fi

BTW, on a tangent, based on my reading of MGP combined with reading the original rules, it seems to me that a character is unconscious when both their endurance and another stat reach 0. So the endurance acts as kind of a buffer, a measure of how much beating you can take before your strength or dex is impaired. But when the endurance runs out and another stat hits zero, you are knocked unconscious. Is that right? Clearly all three at zero is dead, but I'm not sure I have the unconscious rule totally figured out

 

[jimg]

You actually seem to understand the specialties pretty well.

1) Do level 0 skills given to the character by home planet or basic training get assigned to the skill + specialty, or just the skill (e.g. Gun Combat - 0 or Gun Combat (Slug Pistols) - 0)?

No specialty is chosen for 0 level skills.

2) Does a skill level of 1+ imply a skill level 0 in all related skill specialties (e.g. does Gun Combat (Slug Rifle) - 2 imply Gun Combat - 0, and more important Gun Combat (Energy Rifle) - 0)?

Yes, Gun Combat (Slug Rifle) - 2 does imply Gun Combat (Energy Rifle) - 0.

Let's use Gun Combat as a starting example: I take this to mean that when John Doe gets a level of "Gun Combat" on a career skill table, he then chooses what kind of Gun Combat. Say he chooses Gun Combat (Slug Pistols) - 1. Then he gets Gun Combat again; he could choose to increase Gun Combat (Slug Pistols) to 2 or choose to take Gun Combat (Slug Rifle) - 1.

Correct.

So a character starts out with 0-level skills based on their home planet and then another set of 0-level skills based on "basic training" in the first career. My question is, does this mean that things like Gun Combat must be in a specialty like Gun Combat (Slug Rifle) - 0? Or is it just general "Gun Combat". I would assume based on the above reading (about reaching level 1) that it is not in the specialty, but in the general skill. So gaining Gun Combat in basic training would give you a general familiarity with all Gun Combat and no unskilled DM of -3 for any gun use.

No specialty is chosen for level 0, but you do gain level 0 for all specialties. Gaining Gun Combat in basic training does indeed give you a familiarity with all Gun Combat and no unskilled DM of -3 for any gun use.

If the above reading is correct (that level-0 is in the skill, not a skill's speciality), does a level 1 in a specialty give you a level 0 in all related specialities?

Yes, precisely.

I would think the same of engineering or flyer, although this would depend greatly on the type of vehicle and TL involved in the check. I.e. if you have Flyer (Grav) - 2 and then hop in a low-tech helicopter, I would assume you may or may not get an unskilled DM based on the referee's whim--how do skills in operating an Air/Raft apply to using a primitive, 1st-gen helicopter? But assuming the TL is the same or the situation not totally alien, a specialty in Engineering (Power) should at least give you a passing, amateur level skill in the rest of the engineering, shouldn't it? How could you be an expert in Jump drive maintenance and not have a clue about power plants or electronics?

According to the basic rules, the character with Flyer (Grav)-2 wouldn't have any penalty for operating the helicopter... but the referee could of course decide otherwise based on the situation...

 

[kostya]

You actually seem to understand the specialties pretty well.

Hehe. I think it might be the phenomenon I see all the time at work (I write software). You have a question. You feel very confused. But as you explain your question to someone else, the process of saying it out loud forces you to think it through very carefully to in order to be clear to the other person ... thereby answering your own question

As a Traveller from the original boxed set in the 80's, I'm very happy to see MGT. But I do still feel that it has some vagueness in places (like unconsciousness, which is talked about in several places, but never explicitly stated--maybe it's buried in a footer somewhere?). Probably more example sidebars would make it clearer.

But then they might be assuming everyone is an experienced Traveller player and the rules are just tweaks to stuff everyone already understands?

Still, nit-picks aside, I'm so happy to be looking at Traveller again. Rolling up a character was a trip down memory lane

BTW, are you unconscious after endurance and another stat are zero? That's my current reading, but I'm still not sure

 

[Echo]

Yep, losing Endurance incurs no penalty (other than the loss of endurance!), dropping another stat to 0 will make you unconscious, and when the final one goes, the character is dead. There are some optional rules too, which include being able to randomise which characteristic gets reduced first instead (which is useful if you have a low Endurance), and a Knockout blow, which KOs you if all your Endurance is reduced to 0 in one blow.

Note that there are also Fatigue rules, which becomes a significant problem if you get injured.