[Any version]Character Gen Question...

[Kilgs]

At work and don't have books (I'm not that much of a nerd)...

If you receive TAS in Term 2, then you muster out in Term 5, do you get the equivalent of a High Passage every month between Term 2 and Term 5? My gut tells me that it kicks in at the time of the character entering the game but have no reference to it.

 

[mbrinkhues]

I'd say it's a GM's choice. I'd say "mustering out benefits" only apply post chargen so I won't give the benefits. Even more true with TAS.

 

[Sturn]

I wouldn't give 1 passage per month during CG (is it once per month?). Realisticly, you would be using some of those passages up as you got them. So, you would have to futher complicate things by having a table where you roll to see how many of those 48 earned passages you earned were already used up.

I think the intention was to start earning them at campaign start. Past ones you either used or cashed in some how.

 

[Kilgs]

That's my feel too. Was hoping there was some black-letter on it so I didn't look arbitrary...

 

[far-trader]

This is what happens when the char gen breaks with the tradition of single career and then muster out without looking at what that means for muster out benefits

It not just the TAS that should be paying dividends but any cash roll too. What? Was I keeping that Cr50,000 from term 1 in a sock through my next 5 terms?

Lots of ways to approach it...

Track when the roll is made and apply reasonable dividends. But then also apply aging to material objects (oh, that ship share you rolled in term 1, now 20 years later that share buys you a much older ship). Or not.

Another way I've handled it is roll the muster out per normal but no dividends. Instead, if later the character gains (CT rules) Gambling they get a +1 to the cash roll as a bonus (example: 1 Term Scout musters roll of 2 = Cr20,000; later in career 2 they gain Gambling and immediately gain Cr10,000 (in addition to the Cr20,000 they rolled initially, as if they had rolled the 2 with the +1, without costing a muster roll). Same thing with the bonus for rank to the Benefits table (example: 1 Term Merchnat musters roll of 6 = Low Passage; later in career 2 they gain Rank 5 and that past roll of 6 becomes 7 and they now have a Free Trader chit).

But imo the simplest, best, and fairest of all is to not allow any, repeat for emphasis NOT ALLOW ANY, muster rolls until the final career and then only those allowed for that final career. After all they only changed careers because for whatever reason the previous one(s) weren't rewarding enough right, so no rewards beyond the already gained experience (i.e. skills, reward enough imo) (example: 1 Term Scout, then 2 Terms Army and rank 3, then 3 Terms Merchant and rank 1 would be 4 muster rolls from 1 per Merchant term plus 1 for rank 1; not 9 muster rolls from 1 per 6 terms plus 2 fpr rank 3 Army plus 1 for rank 1 in Merchants).

The problem in this case though is the ramifications of multiple careers and muster not being thought out at all, or if they were not being explained well or at all.

 

[Bloo]

But imo the simplest, best, and fairest of all is to not allow any, repeat for emphasis NOT ALLOW ANY, muster rolls until the final career and then only those allowed for that final career.

This.

I've just started messing with the pocket book,and...it's got some problems. Some sentences missing key verbs, for instance.

After rolling up a couple of characters with my brother, we've determined that the flow of rolling a term should be:

1) Qualification if First Term in Career
2) Advancement (add rank-based skills if any)
3) Skill determination (1 for term, +1 if career advancement)
4) Events
5) Survival

I'm not sure this is intended by the authors, but it is the only way that makes sense to us. When survival is failed, you are kicked out of the career (although this is explicitly stated in some survival roll results but not others, it seems to be intended from the chargen text preceding individual careers). But it isn't clear if your career ends at the beginning, middle or end of the term. So moving Survival to the end seems to work best.

As I recall, some of the CT advanced chargen in Mercenary, which went year by year, could terminate your career in a specific year of a term.

And we're considering it not "Survival" so much as "Am I Forced (12)/Allowed (Success)/Prohibited (Fail) from another term in this career".

I'm glad that the few events tables are being expanded in other supplements.

But very disappointed that the average number of skills per term is so widely variable, just like CT, which I consider a significantly unbalancing flaw. I recall T4 or perhaps older T5 test chargen materials working on the assumption of 1.25 skills/term.

I'm not sure the point-buy values are very good, but I still have maxskill level of 6 ingrained, not the MgT 4, so I'll have to play with it more. Do the High Guard and Mercenary chargen stuff include point-buy provisions for college and flight school and all that?

 

[far-trader]

This.

I've just started messing with the pocket book,and...it's got some problems. Some sentences missing key verbs, for instance.

After rolling up a couple of characters with my brother, we've determined that the flow of rolling a term should be:

1) Qualification if First Term in Career
2) Advancement (add rank-based skills if any)
3) Skill determination (1 for term, +1 if career advancement)
4) Events
5) Survival

I'm not sure this is intended by the authors, but it is the only way that makes sense to us. When survival is failed, you are kicked out of the career (although this is explicitly stated in some survival roll results but not others, it seems to be intended from the chargen text preceding individual careers). But it isn't clear if your career ends at the beginning, middle or end of the term. So moving Survival to the end seems to work best.

Looking at the outline on page 5 of the core book (supposedly the updated one) it looks like it should be:

1) Qualification if First Term in Career
2) Basic training and specialization skills
3) Survival - if fail skip to step 6
4) Events/Connections
5) Advancement (add rank-based skills if any)
6) Add 4 years to age, end term.

So, while CT made the failed survival a short term it looks like Mongoose intends it to be 4 years no matter what. But it's clear if you fail survival you don't get to roll an Event/Connection or Advancement (not skills for it) for that term. Presumably you're recovering from whatever cut the term short and/or spending the time finding new work.

 

[rust]

After rolling up a couple of characters with my brother, we've determined that the flow of rolling a term should be:

1) Qualification if First Term in Career
2) Advancement (add rank-based skills if any)
3) Skill determination (1 for term, +1 if career advancement)
4) Events
5) Survival

The official sequence looks more like this:

1) Roll for Survival
Success: Continue
Failure: Roll for Mishap, then start with new term in new career or end cha-
racter generation

2) Roll for Event
and establish a connection with another player character

3) Roll for Advancement
Success: Choose a table and roll for a skill, improve rank
Failure: If roll is lower than number of terms in the career, leave the career
Both: Add four years of age

Do the High Guard and Mercenary chargen stuff include point-buy provisions for college and flight school and all that?

I did not see any, but I might have overlooked them.

 

[Bloo]

Looking at the outline on page 5 of the core book (supposedly the updated one) it looks like it should be:

If only the Pocket edition had a readable font. Thanks.

I'm probably going to go ahead and house rule that 4 years + benefit roll lost + advancement roll lost + plus (2/6 injury, 1/6 contact injury, 1/6 skill, or etc. - depending on career) = not worth it.

Overall, I think there's some good new things in MgT, but too much of the poor stuff of the old.

 

[Bloo]

Missing verb, Page 9

Page 9, Drifters & The Draft, Sentence 2:

"If you fail [qualify] to for a new career...."

(Verb added)

 

[Jason]

The sequence is:
Gain skill for the term.
Roll for survival.
Roll for events.
Roll for commission.
Roll for advancement.

You will get a skill roll for a term where you failed your survival roll, but no events roll, no commision or advancement, and no benefits roll.

Events have to come before commission or advancement because many events can give you a die modifier that you can use immediately on your advancement or commission roll. Note that some events can also cause you to exit your current career without acting like a failed survival roll - you might still get a benefits roll for that term depending on the event.

When someone switches careers I let them roll for benefits from their last career immediately, primarily because cash can be spent during character generation (such as to treat injuries).
What they rolled on the cash table as benefits for early terms represents what they ended up with at the end of character generation, not the actual amount they earned. What they actually earned may have increased or decreased during their further careers, but what they end up with once chargen is over is what they rolled, minus any expenses incurred during character generation.
If someone later gets Gambling skill it doesn't retroactively apply to earlier cash rolls - it only applies to rolls they make after they acquired Gambling.

If someone rolled TAS membership after their first term in a career and then went into other careers I would rule that they used their TAS benefits during their further career, and didn't save anything beyond the results of their other benefit rolls.