Level 2 in all Specialities? Haven't seen the need for that in play yet, not really sure if that's really needed or that's just a personal play choice. With a good Edu or Int and you start out with a +2 DM, a Level 1 in each speciality and you are dealing with a +3 DM...
Why not more Robots?
- Thread starter Greylond
- Start date
Level 2 in all Specialities? Haven't seen the need for that in play yet, not really sure if that's really needed or that's just a personal play choice. With a good Edu or Int and you start out with a +2 DM, a Level 1 in each speciality and you are dealing with a +3 DM...
:rofl: Tell that to Chuck Yeager. :rofl::rofl: IF you survive that conversation, (which I HIGHLY doubt) get back to me. I'll wait to view your response AFTER that conversation.
Nope, proper career selection which has good odds of getting the needed skills. Then using the MgT "Connections" and "Skill Package" selections at the end of character creation.
What other version considers a single pilot to be a full crew (other than for a Type S)? I agree about splitting the Eng skills. But, char gen is not good.
An Engineer in the "service" would follow a training regimen that would 1st gain him level 1 in Eng. (Electronics) followed by P.P., M.D. & J.D. That would take ~3 years total with full time school. Much like the U.S. Navy Nuc program. From enlistment to fleet deployment is ~3 years.
You wouldn't jump all over the place, training wise, after basic training was done.
A DM +2 is not good stat, is superior one (12+), not easy to achieve, so I don't count on it, just count on a +1, but even then you'll need 5 Engineering level to have all of them at level 1 and to achieve the +3 you say.
Connections: CB page 8: <snip> You may gain a maximum of two new free skills from this rule <snip>; page 37: <snip> you cannot gain a skill above level 3 using this rule <snip>
So, you can gain maximum of two engineering skill levels for this rule, while the seccond part does not specify if the maximum skill 3 is for the whole skill or for each specialty, so I concede in this point.
About skill pakages, all of the mare at level 1, so useless if you already have it at 1+. As I understand the rules, this is done after the skills for connections, so if you used them to have this same skill you cannot choose it from a pakage. It can bring one specialty to 1, but not more.
So, to have all 5 specialties to 1 by using those rules, you'd need a character with it at level 1 in two specialties (and agree about the limit to 3 is per specialty, not per whole skill), and you cannot reach level 2 in all specilties using the packages rules, and so you'd need 8 engineering levels during your career to achieve them with the connections rules (and ,again, read the maximum as per specialty).
And anyway, this same character would be too specialized for fun play, IMHO, as he will have little in the way of other skills...
CosmicGamer
SOC-14 1K
I agree that Engineering broken down into so many specialties is problematic but at the same time, little ships should be trying to avoid combat and big ships should have enough engineers to do repairs in the middle of combat. For a merchant, even an Engineer 0 can do most of the routine operation and maintenance. Perhaps jump drive skill is the most important since it's used every jump. Now you only need to worry about equipment breakdowns. There are expert programs and repair bots to help out.
Unless you are really in the boonies, help shouldn't be farther away than you can survive without even having to go into the emergency berths.
Other than jump, an engineer is only really needed if something breaks. If you are operating in the middle of nowhere or hostile territory then you should have a backup pilot, sensor operator and astrogator because they are needed no matter the situation. What if something happens to one of them? So perhaps having extra crew with Engineering skills shouldn't be much of an issue if you think you need it, hire them.
Hard to tell. Your JD is quite useless if you cannot maneover to the jump vector (unless you're in an Xboat) with your MD, and both are usless if your PP doesn't work as expected, and none of it is improtant if your life support works erratically (or even worse, fails) and you must abandon the ship or die inside it...
After all, the JD is the least used of the Engineering skill, but the one that gives sense to your starship.
I'm afraid none of the specialities is expendable, if you want your ship to be useful, and I'd like my engineer in any of those vital functions to be better than level 0 (trained but inexperienced).
The groups that I've seen played, we usually have two characters for the "Ship's Engineer" role, that way we have backup Engineers. Typically we end up with two characters, each with one Engineer spec at Level 2 and 2 or 3 others at level 1. That way we have all Engineer specs at Level 1 and usually PP and MD at Level 2. We usually make sure we have multiple characters with Mechanic 1 for Damage Control parties(MgT allows Mechanic skill for emergency repairs). And perhaps we've been lucky but out of a group of characters we usually have one with a 12 and that one we make the Engineer with a Edu of 12. 
Due to playing other RPGs, our group has become very team oriented about character creation so we plan out everything as much as possible ahead of time.
Due to playing other RPGs, our group has become very team oriented about character creation so we plan out everything as much as possible ahead of time.
It's allowed by the rules in MgT to reorder them. With the way the rest of the game is setup, it's kinda needed to get a good team of characters setup. It doesn't bother me that much.
I know. I just re-roll straight down again if I don't like the numbers.
I usually encourage people to try to play what they roll, thus I don't mind the rearrange.
Anyway, back to my original topic, I like the idea of more interactive robots in the game to round out a crew. For me, a 200 ton ship just seems a bit too small, i.e. no room to add ship options later and still have cargo space.
If I were playing a PC(and not GMing) I'd probably want to make up a robot PC. One of the mini-projects I'm going to work on is a couple of different versions of a "CrewBot."
Anyway, back to my original topic, I like the idea of more interactive robots in the game to round out a crew. For me, a 200 ton ship just seems a bit too small, i.e. no room to add ship options later and still have cargo space.
If I were playing a PC(and not GMing) I'd probably want to make up a robot PC. One of the mini-projects I'm going to work on is a couple of different versions of a "CrewBot."
The only difference that makes is more chance of an NPC engineer. The party will just have to hire an NPC engineer with the requisite education and skills if none of the PCs has an adequate skill set.
Hans
Fritz_Brown
Super Moderator
I have a mad scientist character who has a "batman" robot (no, not a robot that wears a cape and fights crime!) . It's equipped for various duties from dressing the scientist to security issues. It was not easy to create (LBB8).
Oh, and HOLEY AUTOMATONS! This thing went 14 freakin' pages in 3 days!
I had a recurring NPC called "Doc" Wrencher I used in several campaigns and adventures. He was an ex-IISS medical doctor with a modified detached duty Suleiman and an all robot crew.
Doc flew around District 268 mostly, visiting backwater systems and the backwater part of other systems, and providing free medical care. He had a robot pilot, two medic 'bots, and a single overworked engineering 'bot. Doc's scout/courier only had one real stateroom, his, with the rest given over to a combined preop-surgical-recovery suite. Instead of a standard air/raft, he had a pressure-tight gee carrier with a medical low berth.
Much like JTAS' Finger, Doc Wrencher had lots of friends across all social strata. Mess with Doc and you've just made a sector's worth or more of enemies.
I never detailed Doc's 'bots because I didn't have LBB:8 when I came up with Doc. I just winged it instead. Doc's 'bots did what I needed them to do and that's all that counted.
Doc flew around District 268 mostly, visiting backwater systems and the backwater part of other systems, and providing free medical care. He had a robot pilot, two medic 'bots, and a single overworked engineering 'bot. Doc's scout/courier only had one real stateroom, his, with the rest given over to a combined preop-surgical-recovery suite. Instead of a standard air/raft, he had a pressure-tight gee carrier with a medical low berth.
Much like JTAS' Finger, Doc Wrencher had lots of friends across all social strata. Mess with Doc and you've just made a sector's worth or more of enemies.
I never detailed Doc's 'bots because I didn't have LBB:8 when I came up with Doc. I just winged it instead. Doc's 'bots did what I needed them to do and that's all that counted.
For some reason I got to thinking about this topic, and a thought occurred to me how it was related to the slavery topic in the General Discussion board.
This may have been mentioned, but I'm a firm believer that a slave, in the short run, is less expensive than a robot/android, hence the allure of one, but, unlike a robot, will get more expensive as time goes on.
That verse a basic robot which will probably be less expensive, but with less capability than a life form that you can give orders to. As you demand more of your robot, the cost will go up. Such that for the "lonely captain" who wants female companionship, or the science team that needs a Data-like android to do a lot of physical and mental heavy lifting out on the research field, or say some CEO who wants guards whose loyalties are hardwired, then you're talking major bucks.
An R2-D2 like robot/droid (sidebar; several roboticists have told me that "Android" is a polite term for "Robot", which is a Romanian word meaning forced labor), or something like it that's more mobile and practical, are probably common place on average Imperial worlds. You probably see them on farm planets, as well as automated machinery that can talk and what not. But, say a "Friendly" version of a NEXUS-6 from "Bladerunner" is probably a government only kind of android, and rare unless you're at a naval depot or on board a capital ship with a marine contingent (or even hanging with the Emperor at Core).
Shades of gray in between your basic broom bot that vacuums your starship's carpets and the NEXUS-6 thing are probably more ubiquitous on academic, industrialized and in general high tech worlds with cash.
Slaves, in my opinion, are essentially the robots for poor worlds. Ones that need labor, can afford food, but little else. And so I think there's a crossover here, which is why I connected to two disparate threads in this post.
Just more mindless ramblings. Never-mind me
This may have been mentioned, but I'm a firm believer that a slave, in the short run, is less expensive than a robot/android, hence the allure of one, but, unlike a robot, will get more expensive as time goes on.
That verse a basic robot which will probably be less expensive, but with less capability than a life form that you can give orders to. As you demand more of your robot, the cost will go up. Such that for the "lonely captain" who wants female companionship, or the science team that needs a Data-like android to do a lot of physical and mental heavy lifting out on the research field, or say some CEO who wants guards whose loyalties are hardwired, then you're talking major bucks.
An R2-D2 like robot/droid (sidebar; several roboticists have told me that "Android" is a polite term for "Robot", which is a Romanian word meaning forced labor), or something like it that's more mobile and practical, are probably common place on average Imperial worlds. You probably see them on farm planets, as well as automated machinery that can talk and what not. But, say a "Friendly" version of a NEXUS-6 from "Bladerunner" is probably a government only kind of android, and rare unless you're at a naval depot or on board a capital ship with a marine contingent (or even hanging with the Emperor at Core).
Shades of gray in between your basic broom bot that vacuums your starship's carpets and the NEXUS-6 thing are probably more ubiquitous on academic, industrialized and in general high tech worlds with cash.
Slaves, in my opinion, are essentially the robots for poor worlds. Ones that need labor, can afford food, but little else. And so I think there's a crossover here, which is why I connected to two disparate threads in this post.
Just more mindless ramblings. Never-mind me
Frankymole
SOC-12
The expanded TL rules in Grand Census/WBH enabled robotics and computer tech to be different from weapons, space travel etc, so whilst modern Earth may well be ahead in cybernetics (reflecting where the money on R&D has gone) we're behind on space travel - about TL7 or 8 whereas our med-tech and computers/robotics are nearer 9 or A.
