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A thought regarding MegaTraveller skills.
Apr. 14th, 2020 02:14 pmRe-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.
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.
