I was rolling up a few characters last night using Classic Traveller's Book 6: Scouts. Just an idle bit of fun, but some of the skill weirdness really jumped out at me rolling several characters at once.
Every scout in the Field receives an automatic Pilot-1 skill as their initial training. Every field scout is a pilot. That's a lot of pilots. Given the very few skills the typical Traveller character has, it's also a big drain on character resources.
Contrast that with Vacc Suit skill. Book 6 scout characters average one skill for every two years in service. Survey Office scouts have two entries for Vacc Suit skill on one of the tables they may roll on. Communications, Exploration, and Technical Office scouts have one entry for Vacc Suit skill on one of the tables they may roll on. A great many scouts in these offices will not have any Vacc Suit skill. Scouts in the Operations, Administration, or Detached Duty Offices do not have any chance of rolling Vacc Suit skill. No scouts in these offices will have any Vacc Suit skill.
What skills do you think science fiction scouts should have?
Do not assume any limit on number of skills.
Invent any skills you want: basket weaving, pilot anything, interface pilot—anything you want, broad or narrow.
What skills would all scouts be likely to have?
What skills would some scouts have? Which scouts?
How proficient would they be in these skills?
(For the purposes of proficiency, i have included a short guide to skill levels immediately below.)
QuoteSkill Levels
Not a game mechanic, but a scale to ease discussion. Most people will have most skills they rely on in their day jobs at Trained or Professional level. Each level includes three mundane examples to give an idea of what the level means.
Unskilled: Someone unfamiliar with a skill. They might know about it, but they've never attempted it.
Driving: Might be able to get the engine going, but is likely to try starting it when it's already running. Random gear selection is the norm. Directional control is more by averages and all steering is either excessive or not enough. Braking may or may not happen when required.
Language: Cannot make himself understood and cannot understand others.
Computer Use: Can't find the on switch. If computer is on, can't find the any key.
Novice: Someone with a basic familiarity with a skill. They've read about it. They've done it. They aren't very good at it.
Driving: Can drive a familiar vehicle along a known route in clement conditions without incident.
Language: Can ask for and understand directions. Can state simple needs and desires with visual aids. For some reason is always going on about how his aunt has a lovely pencil box.
Computer Use: Knows that if you push this button, that happens—for a limited set of this and that.
Trained: Someone who is familiar enough with a skill that much of it has become automatic. Competent in common tasks.
Driving: Can drive safely in poor weather or on poor surfaces. Can follow a detour without freaking out. Can avoid sudden obstacles.
Language: A native speaker. Can converse on everyday topics effortlessly.
Computer Use: Can operate relevant software and hardware with competence. Can perform basic troubleshooting and compile useful trouble reports to submit to others.
Professional: Someone who knows the whys and wherefores of a skill and can apply those to novel situations. Common tasks are effortless. Competent in uncommon tasks or in adverse conditions.
Driving: Can perform abrupt manoeuvres safely in poor weather or on poor surfaces. Can avoid multiple sudden obstacles at speed.
Language: An educated native speaker. Can understand and communicate ideas on virtually any subject.
Computer Use: Familiar with the quirks of relevant software and hardware. Can optimize workflows and get exceptional results. Familiar with underlying principles. Can perform basic reconfiguration of tools to work around faults or modify performance.
Expert: Someone who can fit a square peg in a round hole and make it look easy and proper. Common tasks are trivial. Uncommon tasks and adverse conditions are not challenges.
Driving: That dude who can do a handbrake turn into a parallel parking spot 4" longer than his vehicle.
Language: Can make words dance. Can explain difficult concepts clearly to laymen. Can make people laugh and weep by the power of his words.
Computer Use: Can modify tools to optimize effectiveness. Can get components working together even if they aren't designed for it.
I think the only possible general answer to the question is: "It depends on your setting/universe/genre."
Consider these contrasting examples:
A) In a 100% realistic hard sci-fi campaign, there WON'T be scouts, since interplanetary exploration and survey will be done by probes.
B) In a campaign based on hard sci-fi concepts but diluted to the point that allows space explorers and space merchants, the scout would have skills for:
- Controlling/navigating/operating his ship.
- Maintaining and fixing it, and this will probably involve EVA, so he'd know how to handle himself in a space suit outside.
- Programming/controlling various probes that land on planets. There's no point in going planetside in person when a disposable probe can do it much cheaper.
- All sorts of science degrees like astronomy, geology, chemistry and hydrology to interpret the various measurements he takes from orbit. For a setting that's extremely rich in life, add biology to the list.
C) A Star Wars / Space Frontiers sort of swashbuckling pulp space opera setting scout would have:
- Piloting his ship, but it will be really more like "Pilot Airplane", as it's only ever used for dodging asteroids and making quick getaways from pirates. "Real" spaceship piloting like calculating slingshot trajectories will never, ever occur in the game.
- Fixing the ship, but it probably won't include EVA.
- Absolutely no science skills at all. Once you're in orbit, the magical computer will just tell you where the valuable mineral deposits are.
- Loads of planetside skills: climbing, jumping, running from alien tigers, shooting alien tigers, wrestling alien tigers. Skinning alien tigers, because if you're the first human being to ever land on a strange planet and meet its native fauna, you WON'T take carefully preserved samples back to Earth for scientific study; you'll just rip off the skin and sell it to your smuggler friend. That's the professional ethics of a pulp space opera character.
- Since two out of every three planets support not only life but civilisation, the scout will also have various social skills: carousing, gambling to cheat the aborigines out of their sacred and valuable artifacts, and talking alien languages which always happen to be "compatible" with these newly discovered, never-before-heard ones.
Not having a skill in Traveller doesn't mean you can't try it. Some things like Vacc Suit and Zero-G training just allow you to do things more quickly and take fewer precautions, you'll still be able to EVA without those skills, but keep that tether on at all times. :D
There is also the concept of Skill-0 in Traveller (Novice likley in your scheme), not enough for a modifier but you are familiar enough with the skill to avoid any "no skill" penalties.
It all depends on YTU but I'd give Scouts Vacc Suit-0; Zero G-0 and Jack of all Trades-0.
I assume you are using the LBBs and not the Scout supplement, which gives more skills.
IMTU, well I have a custom career path split (Pilot, Navigator, Engineering, Science) out more like the Navy, but to stick more closely to the LBBs, here's my 4 person crew.
Pilot 2+ [Secondary: Computer, Navigator or Engineering]
Navigator 2+ [Secondary: Computer, Gunner or Pilot]
Engineer 2+ [Secondary: Mechanical, Electronics, maybe Computer]
Medical & Science 2+ [Secondary: Computer, Navigator, or Diplomacy (not a LBB skill)]
Across All Branches:
Vacc Suit-0; Zero G-0 (this is a later skill not in LBB2)
Common Other Skills Encouraged
Jack-of-all-Trades-0; Air Raft-0
Given that Skill 1 in CT is "employable," as in, gets you a job paying about 2x what middle class ground pounders make, and said job also pays for your food, housing (assuming you live aboard), and usually also medical expenses....
But one other thing: most CT field scouts are in commo branch, flying couriers and Express Boats to deliver the email... their second skill should be engineering.... since 99% of what they do is pilot and engineer.
Using the scale you gave, most scouts should be trained on sensors, comms, biology, environment suit, piloting, and engineering. Most should be novice in all of those, and trained in one, maybe two of those., by the time they hit the fleet. In traveller terms, that's all below skill level 1.
Quote from: aramis;339050But one other thing: most CT field scouts are in commo branch, flying couriers and Express Boats to deliver the email... their second skill should be engineering.... since 99% of what they do is pilot and engineer.
I'm not restricting the question to CT. It's just that pulling out CT triggered the thought that the skills are a little weird for the 3I setting and weirder for SF in general.
Taking a slight side trip through the commo branch, checked the numbers, 55% of field scouts in commo. Yep, that's most.
Many commo scouts are X-Boat pilots. They automatically get Pilot-1, and as you say they should get some engineering as well. And i would say some navigation. Computers? Not necessarily as the service doesn't want them poking around in the mail in transit. X-Boat pilots (a subset of commo scouts) get to roll on the Scout Life, Commo, and Field Service skill tables in Book 6.
That gives them access to:
+1 Strength
+1 Education
and if Strength 9+
+1 Education
+1 Strength
+1 Endurance
+1 Dexterity
and if terms 3+
+ 1 Education
+1 Intelligence
I can accept these as personal development to keep from going stir crazy, although the strength requirement seems odd.
They also have access to:
Gambling (twice)
Gun Combat (four times)
Carousing (twice)
Brawling
Zero-G Combat
and if terms 3+
Streetwise
Um, these guys are alone in little boxes most of the time. I suppose Zero-G Combat can be another sanity exercise, and shore leave can explain the social skills, but Gun Combat?
The skill options are rounded out by:
Jack-o-Trades
Pilot
Ship's Boat
Vacc Suit
Communications
Space (select from Engineer, Gunnery, Navigator, Pilot, Ship's Boat, Ship's Tactics)
and if terms 3+
Jack-o-Trades (again)
Pilot (again)
Survival
Navigation (twice)
I see a problem with the distribution of Pilot and Navigation skills.
QuotePilot—The individual has training and experience in the operations of starships. (Pilot is independent of the skill Ship's Boat, which refers to interplanetary vessels.)
Interstellar travel between worlds depends on starships and their crews; one important crew position is that of pilot, who is responsible for control of a starships lift-offs, landings, and routine flight.
Pilot expertise qualifies a character for the job of pilot.
Pilot expertise (especially higher levels of expertise) allow referee instituted DMs in response to emergencies or unusual situations.
Referee: specific throws should be generated as necessary.
X-Boats don't have maneuver drives. They cannot engage in any of the bolded actions.
Now the much rarer Navigation skill, only available to commo scouts in their third or later term.
QuoteNavigation—The individual has training and expertise in the art and science of interplanetary and interstellar navigation.
Travel between worlds depends on starships and their crews; the navigator is relied upon to plot the course and insure that correct information is made available to the pilot and crew as needed.
Navigation expertise qualifies a character for the job position of navigator.
Navigation expertise will allow a DM (+1 per level) when a throw is necessary to discover location, as when the party or ship is lost. This applies in space and generally when ever the night sky is visible from a planetary surface.
Referee: specific throws must be generated, based on the situation at hand.
That sounds more critical for the poor solo sap in charge of an interstellar ship with no maneuver drives. Supposedly the navigation programs for each jump are calculated and transmitted by the navigator on the tender, but i'd think you'd at least want the guy in the can to be able to check it was a valid program.
The X-Boat pilots are basically babysitters. I'm not sure why they need to be in the ships at all, but, if we have them, i'd give them a default package of:
Navigation: Trained
Engineering: Trained
Commo: Trained
Vacc Suit: Trained
(In Traveller terms i'd peg Trained as Skill-1, Novice as Skill-0, and Professional as Skill-2.)
These are all rare skills by the tables. I'd also allow a bunch of the gambling, carousing, brawling skills to represent the time they aren't locked up in their cans. These guys are not the cream of the service.
I can answer this with examples from my two SF game series.
In the StarCluster series (StarCluster 2E (http://www.flyingmice.com/starcluster.html), Sweet Chariot 2 (http://www.flyingmice.com/chariot.html), Book of Jalan (http://www.flyingmice.com/jalan.html), and In Harm's Way: StarCluster (in development)) I have Explorers, who have access to:
Planetology, Biology, Astronomy, Pilot, Gun, Beam, Blade, Melee, Unarmed, Gyrojet, Convince, Goad, Entice, Endear, Engrace, React, Adapt, Operate, and Overdo
In the Cold Space series (Cold Space (http://www.flyingmice.com/coldspace.html), FTL Now (http://www.flyingmice.com/ftlnow.html), and Commonwealth Space (http://www.flyingmice.com/commonwealth-space.html)) I have Scout and Survey of the US Rocket Corps, who in Cold Space have access to:
Pilot, Electronics, Mechanics, Planetology, Unarm, Biology, Firearm, Atomic, Gyrojet, Surviva,l Astronomy, Mineralogy, Course, Goad, Engrace, React, Adapt, Operate, and Overdo
In FTL Now, the skill list is a bit different, reflecting the changes taking place since Cold Space:
Goad, Engrace, React, Adapt+2, Operate+2, Overdo, Pilot, Electronics, Mechanics, Planetology, Pilot, Unarm, Biology, Firearm, Biology, Atomic, Gyrojet, Survival, Astronomy, Mineralogy, Course, Computers
Commonwealth Space had no analog to the Scout Service, relying on the US Rocket Corps Scout and Survey.
-clash
Quote from: Gordon Horne;339070Now the much rarer Navigation skill, only available to commo scouts in their third or later term.
That sounds more critical for the poor solo sap in charge of an interstellar ship with no maneuver drives. Supposedly the navigation programs for each jump are calculated and transmitted by the navigator on the tender, but i'd think you'd at least want the guy in the can to be able to check it was a valid program.
The X-Boat pilots are basically babysitters. I'm not sure why they need to be in the ships at all, but, if we have them, i'd give them a default package of:
The answer to this lies in the Traveller canon.
X-Boats are just pony express ships and as such just go from A to B with minimum fuss, the pilot is just there to press the buttons on the Jump drives panel and wait around for the week in transit.
The route would be decided by the service and the tender they dock with and so the pilot really doesnt need to know how to change or edit the course.
IMHO X-Boats are a strange beast in canon, they have a important role for spreading news across the Imperium but were later conflicted with the semi canon (now canon) inclusion of Jump Torpedoes - these are unmanned vehicles under the 100 ton minimum Jump drive design limit.
Of course in the later Traveller edition TNE, Virus ships only needed life forms onboard to do the repairing and other stuff that a sentient computer couldnt (then again I did find it strange that in more advanced Virus strains that didnt go ape-shit 100% of the time that robots didnt replace organics as crew).
Rambling mode off.............
Rog.
Quote from: Roger Calver;339160The answer to this lies in the Traveller canon.
X-Boats are just pony express ships and as such just go from A to B with minimum fuss, the pilot is just there to press the buttons on the Jump drives panel and wait around for the week in transit.
The route would be decided by the service and the tender they dock with and so the pilot really doesnt need to know how to change or edit the course.
That explains why they don't have Navigation skill. It doesn't explain why every single one of them has Pilot skill.
Of course, in game terms, the purpose of the scout was to make sure the party had a pilot and a good chance of a ship.
Quote from: Gordon Horne;339172That explains why they don't have Navigation skill. It doesn't explain why every single one of them has Pilot skill.
Of course, in game terms, the purpose of the scout was to make sure the party had a pilot and a good chance of a ship.
Actually it does, an X-Boat just Jumps to the next system and then communicates with the tender/scout base.
After that the tender meetsup with the X-Boat on an intercept course.
Pilot is only needed when landing on planets/docking or any non standard manoeuvre s - also remember the good old computer programs like autopilot ;)
Rog.
Scouts in Derelict Delvers are going to this model:
Primary Skill: Stealth
Secondary Skill: Small Arms, Light Armor
Tertiary: Heavy Weapons, Medicine, Pilot
The aim is to make them perform exploration on a small scale, since the large scale is meant for the group. They scout ahead, drop in to make sure things are safe. They have to be somewhat self sufficient, hence the combat skills. They aren't the Thief analog, instead they get some of the roquish skills but the others fall in part to the engineer as well.
I went with this change because I wanted each class to have a VERY specific, I'm REALLY Good at X, then good at Y, and functional at Z.
Quote from: Roger Calver;339175Pilot is only needed when landing on planets/docking or any non standard manoeuvres - also remember the good old computer programs like autopilot.
Then why does every single commo branch scout have Pilot-1? It's the automatic skill for the branch.
Quote from: Gordon Horne;339200Then why does every single commo branch scout have Pilot-1? It's the automatic skill for the branch.
That would be the very basic flight training for docking and orbital maneuvers type things.
Autopilot would get you from the Jump point to the intercept point but you still would need to dock/land with the tender.
Rog.
Quote from: Roger Calver;339201That would be the very basic flight training for docking and orbital maneuvers type things.
Autopilot would get you from the Jump point to the intercept point but you still would need to dock/land with the tender.
Sorry, not so. If you refer back to this post (http://www.therpgsite.com/showpost.php?p=339070&postcount=5), i quote the skill description for Pilot. Pilot-1 qualifies a character for the job of pilot. The pilot is responsible for control of starship lift-offs, landings, and routine flight. What you are talking about is Pilot-0, which i would be willing to give them.
I'll be back in a bit with some thoughts about real scouts, not overpaid mailmen. ;)
I think that your getting crossed thoughts with the X-Boat doesnt have a M-Drive.
As they dont have one doesnt mean that they cant manuever in space but not accelerate or slow down that well, what they do have is thrusters to do that part (the sort of things on modern day spacecraft - very small directions units).
So a X-Boat pilot does need the Pilot-1 skill to do the fine manuevers that docking would require, its like would you trust a 747 pilot with a multi-million $ aircraft to land it with no training ?
Quote from: Roger Calver;339206So a X-Boat pilot does need the Pilot-1 skill to do the fine manuevers that docking would require, its like would you trust a 747 pilot with a multi-million $ aircraft to land it with no training ?
I wouldn't trust a 747 to a hot air balloonist, or a champion hang glider, or an expert parachutist.
X-Boat pilots are the scum of the service. They smell bad and most of them are more than half-crazy. The reason Brawling skill is so common among their ranks is the real scouts beat them up whenever they're on shore leave. :D
Quote from: Gordon Horne;339172That explains why they don't have Navigation skill. It doesn't explain why every single one of them has Pilot skill.
Of course, in game terms, the purpose of the scout was to make sure the party had a pilot and a good chance of a ship.
No, it doesn't... but the fact that X-Boats are only part of the X-mail system does. Again, the tenders Navigators cut the tapes, both ways. The Pilot skill can be used to engage a course tape. But Type S couriers on Mail Duty DO have maneuver drives, and do need to land and refuel (since they jump from an X-Boat route tender to a system without a tender). And there are probably 4x as many Type S's as X Boats on the mail duty.