Skills that don't exist but should

[Fritz_Brown]

If the player can spin a good story based on chargen or previous adventures as to why they know about this particular field, give 'em a +DM and let them try.

This. In creating a character for a game in which I am about to play, I added some skills: Swimming and Free Diving because he is from a water world, and a couple of musical instruments. The first two should be "duh"s, but the books are very vehicle-centric - they give you Small Water Craft, but nothing if you fall overboard! The musical instruments are just because it fits the concept of the character (and will be written into the backstory). Neither set of extra skills should turn him into a munchkin, but they help describe him as a character.

 

[Zutroi]

Nothing to stop the OP from amplifying skills:

Player - "Hey, I rolled 'Mechanical' for this term again! Could I make it a specialty in 'Welding'? instead of just general 'Mechanical' skill?"

GM - "Sure, why not. You're 'Mech' skill stays at 1, but I'll give you a +2 DM on any welding skill checks."

 

[DangerousThing]

The job of an intelligence analyst is not too different from that of a librarian (my profession); in short, to sift through the available raw data and recognize & extract the useful information. That is dependent upon the analyst having good enough knowledge of the subject matter in question. So I see that activity as being a function of the EDU stat, with, as Mr. Bankhead so nicely phrased it, background to taste. If the player can spin a good story based on chargen or previous adventures as to why they know about this particular field, give 'em a +DM and let them try. The Referee should set the target number in secret, so that the players won't know if they've correctly analyzed the data or not.

I am running T5 which has more skills and sub-skills (knowledges) than CT. T5 has a skill system in which some skills have specialties called knowledges. And T5 is more generous with skills than CT. To some extent this does help to overcome the characteristics vs skills debate.

As for the Analyst skill, here is my definition:

Analyst: The skill of looking through multiple sets of data. The Analyst can value the data (either for sale or for prioritization purposes). The Analyst can draw conclusions from the multiple sets of data that are not present in any single set.​

I've know intelligence analysts. It is much more than a high Edu stat. In CT I would have made the character with Comp and Admin, but in T5 these skills are defined more narrowly.

I did manage to come up with a definition that used the current skills, but it was too confusing. In RPG gaming I've learned that if it's too confusing to create with the current skills, then roll your own.

As for martial arts, I use a modification of a system that appeared in one of the later GDW JTAS issues. It fits into the skill/specialty model that T5 uses.

 

[Enoki]

Another I thought about today... I spent the day laying block wall for friends... is mason / bricklayer.

Might come in handy on a world where there is a shortage of other building materials or some noble type wants a "castle."

 

[McPerth]

Might come in handy on a world where there is a shortage of other building materials or some noble type wants a "castle."

I'd use combat engineering for that, as it is building fortifications (even if skill desctiptions says field fortifications).

Of course, I assume here you include the skills in advanced Chargen before asking for more skills to be added...

 

[Peter Newman]

The road you seem to be going down Enoki leads to hundreds of skills meaning you better have dozens of players each willing to play multiple PCs just so everyone can always be sure that somebody in the party (applying the term very loosely) has the needed skill

"OK, there's a passage door here. Who took 'Turn Knob' as a specialization of their 'Open Door' skill?"

"Nobody? OK, somebody make that their next skill acquisition and then teach a designated second.

Clearly all skills must further specify their Tech Level. You don't really think that 'Turn Knob/TL 8 is going to work on a TL 11 door do you?

 

[atpollard]

Since this is an IMTU topic, I greatly prefer the CT LBB skill list and 2 skills gained per term system design over the many more skills and sub-skills of later books and incarnations.

My only preferred change would be to lump the combat down into perhaps 3 or 4 big skills …
1. Hand to Hand
2. pistol/rifle
3. crew weapons (non-space)
4. ship gunner

And I view the few CT ‘big’ skills more akin to a D&D Prestige Class: each ‘skill’ represents a package of abilities gained through 2 years of study and experience working in a job position. Thus gaining Driver-1 and Weapon-1 during a four year term in the Army indicates that for two years, your primary education and duty assignment involved Driving a vehicle. Given the ‘Army’ background, that may have been anything from regular convoy duty in a hostile environment to peace-keeper or combat patrols in a war zone. Once the player fleshes out the assignment, that forms the basis for what tasks/experiences that skill represents and helps the player and referee just ‘figure out’ what he can do, might be able to do, and probably can’t do with that skill.

The other two years were spent primarily operating some sort of weapon. Foot patrols? Artillery crew? Moved from Tank Driver to Tank Gunner?

The player decides who his character is and that decides what he can do.

 

[robject]

Another I thought about today... I spent the day laying block wall for friends... is mason / bricklayer.

Might come in handy on a world where there is a shortage of other building materials or some noble type wants a "castle."

Yes, it could -- but I tend to see Mason as a career, rather than a skill.

 

[Enoki]

I think I was over specializing myself here. Maybe the skills of "construction" and "manufacturing / fabrication" might be better terms.

Construction would be a skill in building and repairing structures in general. One could specialize these if they wanted. It is distinct from Combat Engineer which is more in line with destroying structures, EOD, producing field fortifications, and making or removing obstacles on a battlefield.

Manufacturing / fabrication would be a skill that allows someone to make equipment and parts. This is distinct from skills like mechanical or electronics in that it combines some of both along with other distinct skills like welding, basic design work and such.
A skilled fabricator could make equipment or devices from raw materials unlike the mechanic or electronics skill which is limited to just fixing and operating such things for the most part.

A way to allow its use might be to let someone with a level of mechanical and electronics substitute that for a level of manufacturing / fabrication. That would allow more skills over a career.

 

[77topaz]

Clearly all skills must further specify their Tech Level. You don't really think that 'Turn Knob/TL 8 is going to work on a TL 11 door do you?

I think that would be included in the TL of the homeworld or other worlds where the character has spent a lot of time.
Also, some high-tech doors might not even have knobs...

 

[far-trader]

Some high-tech doors might not even have knobs...

"No knobs!? Explosives time again... "

...There's no problem that can't be solved with an appropriate amount of high explosives :devil:

(automatic door slides open with a "shusssh" of compressed air as the tech approaches with the explosives)



I am (mostly) kidding in my replies along this line Good to see it being taken with a grin. There are some points though, like TL differences that may be an impediment to certain tasks.

As well given Traveller's diverse speciation and societies there may even be other difficulties associated with those.

Mostly though, yes, over specialization should be avoided. I've also long lumped weapons into just a few groups for that reason. I think I like the idea of the Trades skills, I'm just not sure how it might be best implemented... or how many Travellers will be likely to have such. They seem more the adventuring types with weapon and space skills.

 

[PFVA63]

Hi

At the risk of getting kind of absurd here, thinking backover all the Sci-Fi movies and shows I've seen there seem to be a fair number of occurrences where someone either has to open, over-ride the locks on, or disable a door.

Often time for high-tech doors this may include over-riding an electrical lock (like in the movie Wargames where Matthew Broderick's character is locked in an infirmary), to many scenes in shows like Star Trek or Stargate SG-1 where the characters remove a nearby panel and fiddle with various crystals or other sci-fi like gizmos) to scenes where someone just shoots at a panel with either a slug throwing weapon or some sort of high tech weapon that somehow disables it.

I'm not sure how fully to handle that, except to maybe apply ELEC or MECH skills, or maybe come up with some sort of new "Sci-Fi Gizmatics" skill that gives the player the ability to accomplish random small scale sci-fi-ish techno-babble type actions (like swapping out the unobtanium crystals and rerouting through auxiliary power through a non-critical system to override the master locking protocols, or some random technobabble along those lines).

Regards

PF

 

[far-trader]

At the risk of getting kind of absurd here, thinking backover all the Sci-Fi movies and shows I've seen there seem to be a fair number of occurrences where someone either has to open, over-ride the locks on, or disable a door.

Yep, it seems a pretty standard trope now that you mention it. I'd agree with the Mech or Elec.

Or application of lockpick tools (which imtu come with a free skill-0, you just have to convince me you could purchase, or make them, in the first place ).

Maybe Computer if it's a chipped lock.

Or on the theme of more skills... Musical(Instrument) if it's a sound coded lock?

Or as noted, application of Gun Combat (or Blade Combat, maybe even Brawling), if I'm feeling generous (equally useful for opening or locking doors depending on the plot need it seems )

...hmm, in mtu I've long had Multispanners, which among other things open stubborn locks and automatic doors that have no power. Think sonic screwdriver on steroids (a sonic spanner if you will)

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Shooting the electronic mechanism in order to OPEN a door will get you negative experience points in my 'verse. *eyeroll*

In the homebrew chargen I was working on, I placed a cascade skill called Mundane. It included anything that was a regular, everyday skill that wasn't otherwise covered. Some careers had more occurrences of Mundane in their lists than others.

 

[PFVA63]

hi

Ewww, I forgot about the sonic screwdriver. I wonder if we can turn it into a Psionic Screwdriver and just treat it as if its something that magnifies and/or focuses someones psionic thoughts to do simple/sometimes mundane tasks at a distance.

 

[Enoki]

As far as those usual sliding sci-fi doors go a large pry bar comes to mind...

Modifying far-trader's statement: There is little that cannot be opened with the use of explosives or other excessive, gratutious force...

 

[77topaz]

Ewww, I forgot about the sonic screwdriver. I wonder if we can turn it into a Psionic Screwdriver and just treat it as if its something that magnifies and/or focuses someones psionic thoughts to do simple/sometimes mundane tasks at a distance.

Em... Psionics is largely illegal in the Imperium.

Also, Enoki, that seems like asking for an alarm to go off, or even getting electrocuted by wires inside the door. And in other cases it would do anything at all.

 

[Icosahedron]

Ewww, I forgot about the sonic screwdriver. I wonder if we can turn it into a Psionic Screwdriver and just treat it as if its something that magnifies and/or focuses someones psionic thoughts to do simple/sometimes mundane tasks at a distance.

Gotta steal that one.
IMO, 'psionic' makes more sense than 'sonic' with today's incarnation of the device. After all, The Doctor has 'psychic paper', so it wouldn't stretch canon too far.
I remember Jon Pertwee first introducing the device, when it literally vibrated screws to turn. Now it serves as a combination lockpick, padlock and Tricorder, and makes lunch while you're waiting...

 

[aramis]

Gotta steal that one.
IMO, 'psionic' makes more sense than 'sonic' with today's incarnation of the device. After all, The Doctor has 'psychic paper', so it wouldn't stretch canon too far.
I remember Jon Pertwee first introducing the device, when it literally vibrated screws to turn. Now it serves as a combination lockpick, padlock and Tricorder, and makes lunch while you're waiting...

It's obviously his psionic focus... his lens...

 

[McPerth]

At the risk of getting kind of absurd here, thinking backover all the Sci-Fi movies and shows I've seen there seem to be a fair number of occurrences where someone either has to open, over-ride the locks on, or disable a door.

Often time for high-tech doors this may include over-riding an electrical lock (like in the movie Wargames where Matthew Broderick's character is locked in an infirmary), to many scenes in shows like Star Trek or Stargate SG-1 where the characters remove a nearby panel and fiddle with various crystals or other sci-fi like gizmos) to scenes where someone just shoots at a panel with either a slug throwing weapon or some sort of high tech weapon that somehow disables it.

I'm not sure how fully to handle that, except to maybe apply ELEC or MECH skills, or maybe come up with some sort of new "Sci-Fi Gizmatics" skill that gives the player the ability to accomplish random small scale sci-fi-ish techno-babble type actions (like swapping out the unobtanium crystals and rerouting through auxiliary power through a non-critical system to override the master locking protocols, or some random technobabble along those lines).

Regards

PF

I guess in MT it will come inte Intrusion skill...