Yay or Nay?: Switching from 4 year terms to 1 year assignments?

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

What do you say about this, Lords? Is there a difference, really? One year terms seem to make it more plastic and real. RE-enlistment and promotion rules would have to change a bit...

Let the Forum Commence!

 

[Spiderfish]

Well re-enlistment every year would be a hassle and kind of strange. You could keep four year terms for re-enlistment purposes and use the year system for almost everything else or you could do away with re-enlistment all together.For certain careers re-enlistment every four years may not make much sense anyway.


I'm working on a seriously indepth character generation system at the moment. I'm still going to keep four year terms for purposes of reenlistment for armed forces characters. But the events for each year will be worked out individually for assignments, injury rolls, decorations, promotions etc.

I've been inspired by Alex Ingram's very indepth Law Enforcement and Criminal Career PDFs and also some T5 stuff.

It's just for the Imperial Marines so far and it's only covered the first year where you receive your basic training, I really need to get all my stuff together for research purposes before I can go any further but i've got ideas coming out of my final point of exit.

But I aim to cover more than the Marines, i'd like to finish very indepth system for at least the Navy, Army, Scout and Merchant services.

Edit: Oh dear I said indepth a lot... Look I did it again!

 

[LordVince]

while I really like the idea of year long assignments, I would tend to agree with Spiderfish. Some Careers, like the Military, traditionally have 4-6 year long commitments. Something which would reflect this would be desirable. Perhaps those Careers that DO demand longer commitments could bypass any need for annual re-enlistment; only needing to re-enlist at the end of the 4 or 6 year term?

 

[aramis]

I'd say Nay... switching is just too many more rolls.

On the other hand, civilians having variable lengths terms (say 3-5 years, 1d3+2) is more than an acceptable compromise for me...

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

Thats what i mean. I doubt any government would turn down any well trained or at least trained soldier that wanted to reenlist. Some residual 4-year term stuff could remain, like you only need to check reenlistment every four years, and could only get commissioned/promoted once per 4 years.

I am toying with a system that summates every year as a background builder. So far there are four basic categories:

School
Work
Military
Prison
Slavery?

(waht else?)

in t20 terms, each year, no matter what, would get you 1000xp. then bonuses would be applied for this or that in the term.

I know its a military tradition to mark it in 4s, but that may or may not hold up considering many races different sleep periods and cultural time notes. "Tradition" shouldn't mean earth tradition all the time. What's it like for Aslan? Julians?

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

This also raises the question of work contracts for specific periods of time. Like "Ok. you have two years to build this suspension bridge..."

 

[Spiderfish]

Thats what i mean. I doubt any government would turn down any well trained or at least trained soldier that wanted to reenlist.

Well in CT I always took the re-enlistment roll to be more than just your chances of being re-enlisted for a new term.

It could represent the chance of you being put outside due to internal politics or any multitude of events. It's an easy way of cutting a career short.

 

[Jame]

My version, which I've been trying to get someone to, well, even respond to, is to have one-year assignments for skills, but four-year enlistments for re-enlist and benefits.

 

[mike wightman]

Originally posted by Baron SvG:
Some residual 4-year term stuff could remain, like you only need to check reenlistment every four years, and could only get commissioned/promoted once per 4 years.

Originally posted by Jame:
My version, which I've been trying to get someone to, well, even respond to, is to have one-year assignments for skills, but four-year enlistments for re-enlist and benefits.

Aren't both of these ideas already standard in expanded character generation like in Mercenary, High Guard etc.

Or do you mean an automatic skill every year Jame?

What I do now is to use basic character generation plus special duty and the rule of four, and then use the yearly assignment charts in the expanded character generation books if I, or the player, want to flesh out the character's background.
This usually involves a subsector or sector map as well.

 

[Jame]

One automatic skill a year, yes, but also roll for promotion/commission/special duty (if using MTCG) and the extra skills that gets.

No, this isn't the expanded Books 4,5,6,7 CG, but basic CG. Those four books merely provide the expansion, and a bit of detail, for the characters covered in those books.

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by Baron Saarthuran von Gushiddan:

I know its a military tradition to mark it in 4s, but that may or may not hold up considering many races different sleep periods and cultural time notes. "Tradition" shouldn't mean earth tradition all the time. What's it like for Aslan?

Aslans serve in 8-year terms according to Alien Module 1. The Aslan mathematics is a Base-8 system, so the number 8 is convenient to them.

An Aslan year is shorter than a Terran year. So "eight Aslan years" is more like the length of 6 Earth (or Imperial) years.

As a result, Alien Module 1 gives Aslan CT characters the ability to roll an average of 3-4 skill points per term served (not counting promotions and commissions). They do this by using some mini-sabbatical system where a successful Education roll allows them to gain an extra skillpoint, etc. It's a kooky system, but it works.