marks (02/16/83)
The MIT TRAVELLER games have revised the GDW skill system to
a) allow characters to improve over time as under the "standard"
system all they can do is get richer.
b) Avoid the high skill levels which MERCENARY and HIGH GUARD generate,
since the system breaks down around skill level 6 or so.
Skill ratings are differentiated into three parts:
"skill levels": equivalent to standard TRAVELLER, affects DMs
"skill points" and "training points".
The basic rule is that one reaches skill level N by having
skill level N-1 and N skill points. The skills picked up in early
experience are normally "skill points" (medical school etc results
must sometimes be fudged.)
Thus, the character who rolls "Pilot" 6 times will be a
"Master Pilot" (PILOT-3), a distinct asset and established at the
alledged base skill level for professionals. He will not be PILOT-6,
which the mechanics do not handle well.
Generally, a GM after an adventure where a character used some
skill heavily (TACTICs after a campaign, PILOT after 3 months
voyage, etc) or spent 6 months "home study" or spent a term at
a college (tuition tends to be expensive and not all colleges really
teach anything):
allows the PC to roll for a skill point.
The roll is 8+. DMs: -Skill level aimed at, +current training points.
A pilot with PILOT-2, 1 skill point and 2 training points must roll:
8 + 3 - 2 = 9+
If the player does NOT succeed, the PC gets a training point instead.
Thus, when Dan Hotjets rolls a 4 (-3 +2)= 3, he now has PILOT-2.1.3
Generally, PCs also get a training point when they roll a natural 12
while using the skill ("flashy sword work") and may have them allocated
at GM whim when they do a really spiffy job on some roleplayed encounter.
The whole system works nicely. One consequence is that most characters
tend to accumulate level 1 skills as being much easier. Others concentrate.
It tends to take game years to really improve significantly. Long lived
characters can work up.
As a side comment, rewriting the MERCENARY/HIGH GUARD tables for
individual worlds is fun and will help a lot to produce a more realistic
feel. Is the average military career on a 5 billion urbanized planet
(lots of riot work, security, with occasional campaigns when the Imperium
gets into a war) really going to be the same as on the 20 million pop
rugged world where the army's mostly acting as well armed "park rangers"?
(If all training occurs in the wilderness it will be dangerous but may
well provide SURVIVAL skills.) Its amazing how much detail and background
one can invent while developing such special tables. (Which are, by the
way, best kept secret from the players: DESCRIBE the world instead, it
adds a lot to "suspension of disbelief.")
Mark Swanson
...decvax!genradbolton!grkermit!marksmarks (02/16/83)
A (perhaps obvious) couple of details on the MIT TRAVELLER skill system (a.k.a. "the Gazis system"): When one goes up a skill point, training points are lost. Hence, when Rod Hotjets, now at 2.1.3 succeeds next time, his skill rating becomes PILOT-2.2. In addition, while rolling a "12" just gets one a training point, normally the players get the chance to roll for a skill point (which usually turns into a training point.) Typically, a PC will have a chance at one (or at most a few) skill point rolls after any long adventure. Bribing the customs officials on a single planet is not enough to improve BRIBERY! Now if you bought the planetary supreme court to escape execution... Mark Swanson