MJD and Hunter Gordon! I Beseech Your Priceless Pearls of Wisdom!

[helbent4]

Gentlemen,

Sorry for the melodramatic topic name! I was still wondering about university. To make this short, as you get XP while in University, and thus can level (sometimes several times if done at 18) times.

What classes are the levels you gain taken in? If it's in your Core or Service Class, what if it's difficult to justify taking levels in them? For example, a Rogue or Barbarian? How does Multiclassing effect the levels you take while in University?

For example, a character who first serves a term in the Navy, then has a 2-term career in the Merchants, fails his Survival rolls and goes to prison, then spends a term as a Rogue, then a term as a Traveller (the intended character class post career).

But first, he goes to University at age 18 and makes all his rolls and getting 5000XP, thus making him 3rd level before he actually starts his career! Are these levels (and thus Feats and Skills) taken as Navy, his career immediately post University? Traveller, his intended campaign class? Or even Merchant or Rogue? Even academic?

Or, some time mid-career he goes to university, in between his 2 terms as a merchant. He goes to "merchant academy?

Help! I beseech you! Not to put it too bluntly, this is a crucial part of character creation that begs for clarification and has been a major pain in trying to figure out "what the heck did the designers mean?" I don't get too excited over minor errata and errors, but if the basic _character_creation_ gives people a headache, then it's a considerable roadbloack in starting a campaign...

Ok, waiting for the blue bolts to strike me down from heaven!

 

[Ross Heenan]

I believe I've seen this discussed before on one of the forums but I'm not particularly sure which one. Anyway , I gathered from the guist of it that the experience gained whilst in University goes to the first term of whatever class the character moves into ;i,e. Marines . I also believe that at this time ( if you can logically justify it with your character's background) , one can multiclass and using your example of a 3rd level character - one level at say Marine and two levels at Rogue or even three level one classes . Hope this helps-

 

[justindurkan]

I sympathise with your dilemma, and can only suggest what I do for my players. I hope this helps you.

At 18 you choose an initial class. Then the choice is whether to go to university. The experience gained in University can be used for any purpose but must be consumed before beginning your first career term. Thus, in you example, you first level Navy recruit doing a Bachelor's could do any of the following:-
* Apply the XP's to his Navy class. In this case he has attended university as part of his navy career, just like Naval cadets do at present.
* multiclass into another class. In this case he has essentially gone through university before he started his naval duty. His xp's are then lumped into academic levels, rogue levels, anything.
* any combination of the above.

When his university is over he begins his naval duty. Even if he only serves terms in the navy, he is not obliged to spent his gained experience on navy class levels. He can spend his XP's on any class he likes. As an example, the naval character could have a long career in the subsector navy because he hjas managed to criminally bribe, extort, kill his way up the carrer ladder. He would have gained many levels of mercenary or rogue in so doing.

This disconnect between class levels and career terms is an important abstraction. How you gain your expereince and how you spend your experience are two different things.

As I said this is how I run things. YMMV.

/JD

 

[sandman]

Don`t forget that you can go BACK to University, even after 5 terms.

IIRC, it says clearly that you can enter university at any times during prior history, provided that you pass the required exam.

 

[MJD]

If you go to univerity you can put the XP into any justifiable class. Most commonly, you'd put the points into Academic, Professional or Traveller, reeflecting the nature of your studies.

But if you say did NOTC, you could take a level in Navy. A highly vocational course could give you levels in professional and, say, Belter.

About the only definmite no is Barbarian.

The rest depends upon who you are and what you did at univerity. Me, (i real life) I probably gained some XP in Professional (teaching and engineering) but most of what I got out of univerisyt was my fencing and kickboxing experience in the sports clubs....

T20 reflects this. You get the XP, where you put them is determined by the sort of person you are.

 

[helbent4]

Martin, gentlemen,

Thanks for the replies! The dilemma is regarding the 18-year old schlep: they basically have no "justifiable class" except their Core class (or Service Class, if in an OTC program). Basically the only class that will allow them to multiclass into is Traveller, due to the usual multiclass restrictions. The less-strict Initial Requirements do not really apply, as Universtiy is not actually serving a term in that Class.

As a whole Multiclassing in Prior History (University or not) is somewhat problematic and obviously require really good justification if it's not in whatever class you happen to be currently serving a term in. This is because the Class in the Term of Prior History determines Survival, Promotion, etc., and Multiclassing out of Class during a Term seems problematic in this sense (ie: is there a modifier to Survival? Mustering out?)

Standard Multiclassing after Prior History (ie: after play starts) does seemes perfectly fine to me. And hey, if a campaign requires that serveral-year chunks pass between adventures, additional "prior history" terms seems like a good way to pass the time...

 

[helbent4]

Oops, what I forgot to add was that I appreciate people chipping in various "rules of thumb" suggestions, and that perhaps an example of character generation would be in order? Of the two "official" set-by-step characters published so far, Kanne Haamasir the Rogue in the THB, and Karse Vallen the Merchant in THB Lite, neither character is multiclassed or has gone to University.

More than a few questions about how (and why) these two elements of character generation have been asked, so perhpas in future products examples can be included to help out those who are new to the game (as we all are, at this stage). Thanks!