A thought regarding MegaTraveller skills.

[gridlore]

Re-reading MegaTraveller character generation, and I've been struck by an idea that has probably appeared elsewhere, but I either never saw it, or saw it and it got buried in my head somewhere. It concerns technology levels and skills.

In MT, technology levels are grouped into eras. Primitive, Industrial, Pre-Stellar, Early Stellar, Average Stellar, and High Stellar. These are broad overviews, with more granularity in the actual tech level of each world. But it does give an idea of the broad average of what you will be dealing with when you visit a world in that range.

My idea concerns using these eras with skills. As an example, I served as an infantryman in the US Army, so I would have earned Combat Rifleman-2 (Ind), as my skills were with gas-operated weapons like the M-16A1 and the M-60. I can clean, maintain, load, and effectively operate pretty much any weapon in the world today with a minimal learning curve as they all use the same base technology.

But hand me a matchlock musket, and I'd be lost. I wouldn't know where to start with loading the thing, let alone being able to use it effectively. Same thing if a 4mm Gauss Rifle fell out of a time warp at my feet. The same thing goes for most things technological. Manual transmissions are almost extinct, so very few younger people learn How to drive stick. You can be an aces driver but stick you in a car with a stick, and you'd be stalling twenty times in twenty feet.

So my idea. Rather than accumulating extra levels in a skill, once you've reached two skill levels, you can turn a third award of that skill into familiarity with the skill from another tech era. I could spend some time learning and drill on how to fire that matchlock, and eventually be able to use my innate rifle skill with it. That would be recorded as "Combat Rifleman-2 Ind Prm" on my character sheet. So instead of having tasks become harder when dealing with items you aren't familiar with, you'd have that training to make it work.

It could also make for a fun part of backstories, like the Unified Army Commando who has Combat Rifleman-3 AvS Ind. "Oh, I spent a year on this backwater organizing local guerillas against the Zhodani backed local government. That's where I picked up this toy."

This wouldn't apply to every skill, but for ones linked to technology, it gives a chance to make the skill set broader while avoiding the problem of hyper-competent characters.

And when adventuring in the Far Future, it always helps when someone can drive stick.

Comments

I can drive stick -

[murphymom]

- but I can't drive 55.

[nodrog]

https://youtu.be/wz56I4n9O4U

There are many others, but this guy's videos are very friendly.

[gridlore]

I wasn't asking for tutorials, just making the point that I, a late 20th-century infantryman, was well-trained on weapons of my era, but would be stymied if handed a matchlock.

I was making a point about my idea for skills in MegaTraveller.

[nodrog]

Whatever era you're in, Animal Handling is always useful!

“Giddy-up!”

[nodrog]

This would work backwards, but I cannot see it working forwards.  i e  a combat infantryman would be familiar with the idea of a firearm, with recoil and report and range safety &c. - and it would take him maybe five minutes to learn how to shoot a matchlock.

But no skill at this:



can help with this:

https://youtu.be/_q-s1yD774w?t=156

[gridlore]

Effectively? With any skill? I took two d-day weeks of intensive training just to get my OSUT company competent with the M-16A1, and weeks more to learn to use it tactically.

Sure you could give me five minutes on how to load, but will that be enough to fire it with skill, which is the point? And, to be quite honest, it takes a lot longer than five minutes to develop the muscle memory to perform a series of actions smoothly, especially under stress.

That's what being skilled means. That you can perform routine tasks without a second thought and use whatever tool is in use with more skill than a neophyte.

Aftermath!

[nodrog]

ht tps:// en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath!

Not that you give a rip, but in its exhaustive rules on everything the old FGU simulation RPG Aftermath! included a complete, step-by-step procedural for swabbing, charging, loading and firing a black-powder musket - with an addendum for percussion caps.  I mean, complete.  I used it for an English paper in high school, illustrating “process.” Got an A on the paper!

Re: Aftermath!

[gridlore]

Gods, that game was an interesting mess.

Re: Aftermath!

[nodrog]

An excellent description, yes.  I misused time and brain cells in learning it!

Speaking of hi tech shootin' iron

[nodrog]

The U.S. Army's military research laboratory announced the creation of the Grenade Launched Unmanned Aerial System (GLUAS), which will allow the launch of portable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) using a 40-mm M320 grenade launcher in service.

https://taskandpurpose.com/military-tech/army-camera-drone-grenade-launcher-gluas

According to Task & Purpose, the new drone is able to rise at an altitude of up to 610 meters and act at a distance of up to 2 km from the launch site, while remaining in the air for up to an hour and a half. During this time, the UAV can take all the necessary information on video and send the file to the commander’s tablet, who will examine the collected data, receive the coordinates of the targets and be able to transfer them to artillery or aircraft to strike at the enemy…

Re: Speaking of hi tech shootin' iron

[nodrog]

… whose specially-trained birds of prey will make short work of the expensive little gadgets, as the Netherlands have demonstrated against unauthorized drones.  Falconry is a thing, even today.