Skill level in teens?

[Blue Ghost]

How unusual is it in T5 to have a skill reach 14?

I've got a scholar who keeps getting published, ergo a +2 to his major every term. I feel like I'm doing something wrong here.

 

[willtron3030]

Maybe the character is "a mile deep and an inch wide", professionally. We're talking Bobby Fisher genius here, the kind that lends itself to certain flavors of crazy: buying into ridiculous conspiracy theories (bonus round: one or more aren't just theories), stubbornly possessed of contradictory and/or demonstrably incorrect opinions on a range of scientific and social topics far outside his domain of expertise...

 

[Blue Ghost]

Yeah, that could add something to the game. But what you're telling me is that this is "normal", though not per se.

 

[agorski]

If it's a skill with knowledges, the skill level goes up much more slowly, and the knowledges are capped at 6.

 

[Blue Ghost]

If it's a skill with knowledges, the skill level goes up much more slowly, and the knowledges are capped at 6.

Then I did screw up this guy. Fortunately it was just with his science skill.

 

[willtron3030]

Agorski has the right of it (I'm a CT/CE guy, myself). [Hey, AG!]

Are there other related knowledge topics (interdisciplinary studies)?

 

[agorski]

Then I did screw up this guy. Fortunately it was just with his science skill.

You can go back and fix this. Every 3rd receipt of a knowledge yields a skill level increase instead.

 

[agorski]

Agorski has the right of it (I'm a CT/CE guy, myself). [Hey, AG!]

Are there other related knowledge topics (interdisciplinary studies)?

Hey yourself, lurker.

Unlike the list of skills in T5, which are set in concrete, you can define ANY knowledge you want under any of the existing skills. Unlimited. So for Fighter skill with an Aslan character, instead of using Unarmed knowledge, you can assign Dewclaw knowledge instead.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Embarrassingly enough I actually knew about the skill cap, but had forgotten about it. And, I had actually read the knowledge rules when the newer version of T5 came out, but, again embarrassingly enough, I forgot about them.

I don't want to bash chargen, because there is a logic to it, and it makes sense once you do it, like Book 4 or any of the other extended chargens for CT. However, there was (is) a kind of intuitiveness to those systems that I remember as a pre-teen picking up on right away. T5 Chargen reminds me of how my friend and I had to figure out impulse movement for Car Wars, or have it explained for SFB a few years earlier.

I won't say it's needlessly complex because it isn't as such, but I do think it could be streamlined and presented in an easier format.

Fortunately I had you all, Magnus and this guy (http://sol.trisen.com/downloads/T5_09_Merchant.pdf) to help me out.

Personally I feel like a real idiot that I had to solicit as much help as I did for some simple chargen. Thanks everyone.

 

[agorski]

When I was writing my iPad app for T5 chargen I found Hemdian's flowcharts very useful. They're on these forums somewhere.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I was using the link I posted and Magnus's sage advice as my guides. They very much helped.

 

[Tim Soholt]

You can go back and fix this. Every 3rd receipt of a knowledge yields a skill level increase instead.

I believe it's actually more complicated than that. If you get a Knowledge directly through schooling, it straight up adds to the Knowledge without affecting the skill. If you get a skill that has Knowledges, you get a Knowledge the first two times you get the skill, then the skill proper after that - unless you want a Knowledge instead of the skill for some reason. All of this is on page 114 of the 5.09 rulebook.

Sciences are a special case, as discussed on page 115. The base science skill (Planetology or History or whatever) is capped at 6. After the 6th rank is obtained, specialized Knowledges within that science are gained instead. So your Scholar could be a historian with History-6 (Solomani-6, Pre-Spaceflight-2) or a physicist with Physics-6 (Astrophysics-4, Jumpspace Physics-4).

Language is another special case, discussed on page 133.

Scholars seem very much geared toward generating high values in their Majors if they make it more than a few terms.

 

[agorski]

What Tim said. I was simplifying it for the discussion.

 

[Timerover51]

I have qualms anytime skill levels are equal or exceed the number of terms of service. That is one reason why I use Classic rather the T5, but I do use T5 for ideas and added concepts. I have a pretty good idea from my own background on how hard it is to push skill levels to very high levels, such as would be the case of the "Teens".

 

[Ulsyus]

So Knowledges are limited to a maximum rating of 6, what about Skills: I couldn't see anything about a maximum rating for them?

In T5 is anyone aware of a reference to a maximum number of skill & knowledge ratings for characters as had existed in MT?

MT Players Manual p15
Skill Limitations: No character can (at any time) have more skills (or combined total levels of skills) than the sum of Intelligence and Education.
If the character has reached this limit, he may voluntarily reduce any current skill as needed to make room for a new skill or an increased skill level in an existing skill.

 

[Tim Soholt]

So Knowledges are limited to a maximum rating of 6, what about Skills: I couldn't see anything about a maximum rating for them?

Per the table at the bottom left of page 114 (in the 5.09 rules):

Skill-15
Career Knowledge- 6
World Knowledge- 6
Talent-15

The Career Knowledge and World Knowledge entries are rather pointless, as the description of Knowledges almost immediately to the right of the table says that *all* Knowledges are capped at 6.

In T5 is anyone aware of a reference to a maximum number of skill & knowledge ratings for characters as had existed in MT?

Per the (currently) adjacent thread started by the same OP, no.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Gonna swell my ego, homie!

I was using the link I posted and Magnus's sage advice as my guides. They very much helped.

Aw shucks. Well, Rob keeps telling people I'm some sort of T5 CharGen and ACS guru, I got to keep up the good work.

And yeah Hemidian's flow charts are awseome.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Now advice.

There is no Skill cap, hell one of my first players character Al Rashid had a Design-D (13).

All Sciences are listed as Knowledges, there is no base Science Skill, there are only specific Science Knowledges.

 

[The Pakkrat]

A Dame and an Author

High skill levels in Traveller5 are not uncommon. My Dame Qithka Cannagrrh has a 10 in Author. Since it is also a Life Pursuit, her overall base Target Number is 23 with a +1 whenever she is Searching for the Truth as a Field Correspondent.

Some characters who devote themselves to being one-trick ponies are going to muster out like the Dame above. How can a Referee compete? One way I can think of is to have a character like the Dame write her stories on-the-fly by being Hasty (+1D in Difficulty) as she flits from news site to the next and has to compose on the go. This is partly why she had a robot from Kfan Uzangou magazine follow her around everywhere she went, so her editor could spice up her reporting for use in entertainment or for socio-political propaganda.

The Referee is free to come up with other Mods or even positive DMs (a bad thing for the character), by stacking on all kinds of plausible reasons, e.g. story deadlines, rushed flight schedules, wasted time “in the hole”, censorship laws, etc. The end result of the Dame’s work might not be what the viewer sees or wants to see.

Just a couple of pennies.