A few more tidbits...

The rule is part of the Starter Traveller rule set. I did not see it listed in Book 1, though.

I checked the MT Player's Guide, since the rule is used in that edition of the rules, too, and it seems that the Player of the character is tasked with reducing his character's skills to comply with the rule before chargen is complete.

In a CT game, though, I'd still go with what I said above. If a character comes out of chargen with more total skill levels than his Experince score allows, the character's only option to improve is to increase his EDU score first, then follow the normal Experience rules.

Which would be fine if there was a way to increase Edu - but it is limited to no higher than Int by the Experience rules.

It can also be increased as a mustering out benefit, so there is a little scope for improvement after character generation and mustering out.

Perhaps a house rule fix would be that once a character has maxed out their skills further skill points have to be spent raising Int or Edu in lieu of the rolled skill. Increase them both by 1 so that more skills can be received in a subsequent term.

Note that Merc and HG characters could have way more skills than their Int and Edu cap - there is even an example in LBB4 (resume 2) of a character with Int + Edu of 12 and 16 skill levels.

Yep, some people aren't as smart as others.

I love the elegance of CT, this rule included.



I covered that in one of my replies above. As long as EDU is lower than INT by 5 points or more, then this character's only option is to increase EDU.

Then, otoh, 16 skill levels is quite a lot of skills for a CT character. The limit to not add anymore seems quite necessary to me.




Looked at with a different point of view, one could say that a character like this gets to benefit from his maximum skills for the entire time the character is in play. A character with room to grow slowly adds more skills through the Experience system.

That seems rather too long. I think I'd use either the MGT rule or the one my GM seems to have - roll vs difficulty for skill if you have down-time.

I could say some things about THAT - perfect for meatheads!

What I'm not sure was clear to you is that the skill increase is immediate. You get it right then. It's not permanent for 8 years, though.

The CT Experience system mirrors CT character generation. Skills come at about the same speed.

And, you can benefit from a skill increase, then drop it, and increase another skill, if your throws roll what you need them too. This simulates how, in real life, we are good at something and then that skill lags a bit.

For example, when I was in Jr. High, I rode my bike everywhere. Today, I haven't been on a bike in decades. So, my skill was higher at one time, then I dropped "training" it. But, I could pick it up again.

You do realize that a +DM was a BAD thing in early CT, right?