The Traveller Adventure is approaching the end of a year of game time and the players have naturally enquired about improving skills.
While the Life Pursuit rules are clear, I think they are too harsh as written; I am open to players arguing that their character has spent time in, say, starport bars and so should improve Streetwise than their Life Pursuit of Starship Astrogation because really they've just been supervising a computer calculating Jump-1's even though that's practically been what they do all day. So I'm applying the Pirate Code here.
I have two slightly off-beat requests from players.
One wants to improve success at Carousing, Query and Persuade in the Personals as his experience. There are no skills directly involved in the Personals. But in the context of our game, Streetwise would appear to be the most applicable skill, and I am prepared to give a level of Streetwise.
But I would need to tie it into the Personals. This is what I'm thinking:
To obtain a +1 Mod on Personals with someone of low Social Standing (<5):
Average (2D) < Int + Streetwise (1 - 6 minutes)
This is treated as applying an applicable Law except that it is in addition to any other applicable Law.
To obtain a +1 Mod on Personals with someone of higher Social Standing (>9):
Average (2D) < Soc + Streetwise (1 - 6 minutes)
This is treated as applying the Law of Familiarity except that it is in addition to any other applicable Law.
The second tasks varies Streetwise to deal with subcultures of various classes in general; but for middle to upper classes this is supplemented by Social Standing rather than Intelligence which represents the class knowledge and perspective of the character themselves. Thus, a high Intelligence and high Social Standing character with Streetwise is likely to be able to influence other people of a variety of other classes.
This gives the skill of Streetwise a reasonably specific mechanic and worth advancing in our game context.
The second area is physical fitness. The Skills chapter already contains an example task:
To improve C1 Strength (1 year):
Difficult (3D) < Athlete
One of the PCs a UPP of 3336C7. She enrolled in Unversity and sailed through on her Edu score, then enrolled in Medical School and succeeded there. Then she did not want to enlist in a career, but start playing! I tried to talk her out of it - no go. She has Broker-4 and Medical-4 and so has the role of healer / merchant. There is opportunity for her to shine in play both ways.
But when the characters end up - inevitably - in bar-room brawls, one good punch can be enough to take two characteristics down to zero.
I want to be a bit more generous in allowing her to train. This is what I'm thinking: allow Jump time and other time on-world to be used for physical fitness training. She has no Athlete skill herself (just default). But surely books, videos, advice on training would be easily available in a high-technology environment.
We can assume that TL increases include knowledge of physical anatomy, athleticism, and new insights into what works instructionally. While lower TLs would use books, higher TLs would use videos or even VR tools. I propose the following scale:
We use TL+2 as the effective Athletics skill. But the character needs to establish a training regime first using the advice of the medium.
To successfully implement a fitness video course:
Average (2D) < TL+2 + Athletics (optional)
This may be tried once per week; the character must devote 2 hours of time initially. Their own Athletics skill supplements the course.
The first success means the character has developed the habit of implementing the program and is now training three hours per week per characteristic (maximum 2 - see below). The level of Athlete skill is now TL+2 of the video in addition to the character's own Athletics skill.
To improve one or two physical characteristics (1 year):
Difficult (3D) < Athlete
If improving any two characteristics, must choose two different ones and the character may not receive a skill for that year nor improve C4, C5 or Social Standing. This task may also be attempted weekly. The first success means the character has started training in earnest. After six weeks of training, the character receives a +1 to each characteristic being trained. This is lost if the character is out of training for two weeks or more (e.g. injured in medical care), but is regained when training recommences. If the character is out of training for 6 weeks or more, the process must be started again.
After one year the improvement becomes permanent - and the character can continue training for an additional +1.
This last task draws on Classic Traveller.
I'm hoping that for Charlotte's character this allows her to reasonably add more to her characteristics over time and become less vulnerable.
Should I be more generous here? For example, drawing on the Edu=5 as part of the rules, should we just make the task bringing up C1, C2 and C3 to a value of 5 at this stage?
While the Life Pursuit rules are clear, I think they are too harsh as written; I am open to players arguing that their character has spent time in, say, starport bars and so should improve Streetwise than their Life Pursuit of Starship Astrogation because really they've just been supervising a computer calculating Jump-1's even though that's practically been what they do all day. So I'm applying the Pirate Code here.
I have two slightly off-beat requests from players.
One wants to improve success at Carousing, Query and Persuade in the Personals as his experience. There are no skills directly involved in the Personals. But in the context of our game, Streetwise would appear to be the most applicable skill, and I am prepared to give a level of Streetwise.
But I would need to tie it into the Personals. This is what I'm thinking:
To obtain a +1 Mod on Personals with someone of low Social Standing (<5):
Average (2D) < Int + Streetwise (1 - 6 minutes)
This is treated as applying an applicable Law except that it is in addition to any other applicable Law.
To obtain a +1 Mod on Personals with someone of higher Social Standing (>9):
Average (2D) < Soc + Streetwise (1 - 6 minutes)
This is treated as applying the Law of Familiarity except that it is in addition to any other applicable Law.
The second tasks varies Streetwise to deal with subcultures of various classes in general; but for middle to upper classes this is supplemented by Social Standing rather than Intelligence which represents the class knowledge and perspective of the character themselves. Thus, a high Intelligence and high Social Standing character with Streetwise is likely to be able to influence other people of a variety of other classes.
This gives the skill of Streetwise a reasonably specific mechanic and worth advancing in our game context.
The second area is physical fitness. The Skills chapter already contains an example task:
To improve C1 Strength (1 year):
Difficult (3D) < Athlete
One of the PCs a UPP of 3336C7. She enrolled in Unversity and sailed through on her Edu score, then enrolled in Medical School and succeeded there. Then she did not want to enlist in a career, but start playing! I tried to talk her out of it - no go. She has Broker-4 and Medical-4 and so has the role of healer / merchant. There is opportunity for her to shine in play both ways.
But when the characters end up - inevitably - in bar-room brawls, one good punch can be enough to take two characteristics down to zero.
I want to be a bit more generous in allowing her to train. This is what I'm thinking: allow Jump time and other time on-world to be used for physical fitness training. She has no Athlete skill herself (just default). But surely books, videos, advice on training would be easily available in a high-technology environment.
We can assume that TL increases include knowledge of physical anatomy, athleticism, and new insights into what works instructionally. While lower TLs would use books, higher TLs would use videos or even VR tools. I propose the following scale:
| Stage | TL | QREBS | Cost | Mass | Medium |
| Experimental | 2 | 5 -2 -3 +3 -3 | Cr90 | 3.2kg | Illuminated Codex |
| Prototype | 3 | 5 -2 -2 +2 -2 | Cr45 | 2.2kg | Ponderous Tome |
| Early | 4 | 5 0 -1 +1 -1 | Cr20 | 1.2kg | Large Book |
| Standard | 5 | 5 0 0 0 0 | Cr9 | 0.2kg | Paperback Book |
| Improved | 6 | 5 +1 +1 -1 +1 | Cr9 | 0.1kg | Tape Recording |
| Modified | 7 | 5 +2 +2 -2 +2 | Cr5 | 50g | VCR cassette |
| Advanced | 8 | 5 +3 +3 -3 +3 | Cr20 | 10g | DVD |
| Ultimate | 9 | 5 +4 +4 -4 +4 | Cr30 | Negligble | software file |
We use TL+2 as the effective Athletics skill. But the character needs to establish a training regime first using the advice of the medium.
To successfully implement a fitness video course:
Average (2D) < TL+2 + Athletics (optional)
This may be tried once per week; the character must devote 2 hours of time initially. Their own Athletics skill supplements the course.
The first success means the character has developed the habit of implementing the program and is now training three hours per week per characteristic (maximum 2 - see below). The level of Athlete skill is now TL+2 of the video in addition to the character's own Athletics skill.
To improve one or two physical characteristics (1 year):
Difficult (3D) < Athlete
If improving any two characteristics, must choose two different ones and the character may not receive a skill for that year nor improve C4, C5 or Social Standing. This task may also be attempted weekly. The first success means the character has started training in earnest. After six weeks of training, the character receives a +1 to each characteristic being trained. This is lost if the character is out of training for two weeks or more (e.g. injured in medical care), but is regained when training recommences. If the character is out of training for 6 weeks or more, the process must be started again.
After one year the improvement becomes permanent - and the character can continue training for an additional +1.
This last task draws on Classic Traveller.
I'm hoping that for Charlotte's character this allows her to reasonably add more to her characteristics over time and become less vulnerable.
Should I be more generous here? For example, drawing on the Edu=5 as part of the rules, should we just make the task bringing up C1, C2 and C3 to a value of 5 at this stage?
