Rules clarifications

We are all learning this system. If we have questions about how the rules work, we can chat about them here.

Yes, you would add DEX to that. I may be overthinking it, I can not articulate what worries me, but -3 penalising someone throwing a grenade for not having Athletics training seemed wrong when I read it.

I have some vague thoughts about 'leveling up', or 'Training' as this system calls it.

Leveling has been very slow (non-existent) in our WoDu game, I don't want to repeat that, so have two ideas to ease this (or one idea expressed in two ways).

I like systems that reward one for using Skills, but tracking each use (à la Burning Wheel) is tedious. But I am thinking about saying that if you use a Skill you are actively learning (as per the rules) you should get a benefit.

The most obvious benefit is reduced time to learn (doing is a good way to learn fast).

I might also waive the rule that you lose all progress if you are forced to do anything other than study during that week. If you were forced to use the Skill you were Training, you might be able to incorporate that into your Training and keep the period (possibly instead of reducing the time?).

Leveling is always slow in PbP (they estimate these things based on live play), so I am looking at reducing the time to something like half of what they say.

What say you all?

In terms of gaining XP (cause I guess that's basically what it comes down to) for skills, I don't have a real preference in terms of how it should accumulate. I do agree it would be nice to progress more than in FFA ;)

Personally, I'm a big fan of milestone progression, though. That way nobody has 5 progressions while someone else only has 2 for whatever reason that may be. And the GM can decide the pacing of it, rather than relying on dice rolls or situations that may or may not come up (+ you have to act on them when they do).

Or perhaps something like the 'end of session' thing from Dungeon World. "During our stay on planet X, which skill did you use to accomplish something memorable? Progress that skill."
I like the idea of that, but dislike the way it pushes you to tackle problems using the same skill as much as possible. Of course you can choose to not actively pursue a skill, but then progression will likely become slow(er).

But, as I said, I haven't yet checked how it would work RAW (or modified as you suggest) and definitely never played it that way. Maybe it turns out that it works very well :)

Traveller is sorta milestoney --in that it is based on time-- but with a random element.

The Post Career Education section is short --a single page-- (page 55). I am mainly proposing we adjust the speed at which it happens.

We can also look at providing a modifier (DM) to the EDU roll based on use (maybe +1 if you have used the Skill, +2 if you have used it a lot, and +3 if you have relied on it heavily; those numbers should avoid temptation to spam the skill when it should not be used, but 'use' also implies 'correctly' so 'seducing the gazebo' does not help any more with leveling than it does in the story). I don't know which will be most useful till we see how the timing works, getting +s on a thing that will take months before it happens seems like a secondary benefit, hence I propose speeding it up.

We might find that we have lots of time passing and therefore lots of time to Train, in which case we can revisit this.
The system does reward people with more EDU, which some might object to, but makes a lot of sense. It is a Skill Based Game, so the ability to learn Skills helps.

I am also a fan of letting others help you with Training, so they can make a roll, or spend some time teaching or something and offset the lack for those low on EDU. Do that in the story and you will be rewarded.
For now, I would prefer to keep things as per the rules. We can houserule the progression if we find the official system does not work for us after some play.
Inappropriate 'use' does not count. It is called abuse (abnormal use).

I read the page. At first glance that sounds very harsh (especially for my 3 EDU character :p). RAW would give me about a 30% chance to gain a skill after 8 weeks of dedicated training (8 hours per day)
I'm guessing the game is built around long-distance space travel in which teams have way too much time on their hands. "You're training" is a good filler to skip most of what happens on the ship during those days.
That sounds very reasonable. No objections here :)
As an example. A door is locked. You could try and use a picklock quietly or shoot the lock. If a player is trying to level up their shooting skill, they might value the training above the best interest for the group. That wouldn't be abuse, right?

Er, yeah. That is one of the prices for low education: fewer prospects; also during Character Creation; and a lower cap on total Skills (I assume we have all checked that we don't exceed the max allowed Skills?).

You don't learn as well, means you don't learn as well. Can't argue with that.

It is a bit incongruous with high INT, but INT is not about 'learning' (I often say that 6 is too many 'stats' and their division gets blurry after 4). We may be able to make Linked Tests for the EDU roll, basing that on the fiction of what the character is doing to learn, but this should not be a get-out-of-jail-free for choosing low EDU, though I do understand that this rule may have been missed at the time of making that decision.

I will take arguments for using a Characteristic other than EDU. Athletics already uses a STR, DEX, or END.
Yes, every Jump takes a week, no matter how far it is, then you usually have to spend another week travelling back and forth to between the Jump Point and where you want to be, or refuelling and unloading. Much/most of that can be spent Training, I would be generous when it comes to interpreting what counts to 'break' the Training cycle, so long as you can also spend enough time Training, you can load and unload cargo and do minor repairs and such as well.

A normal 'trading trip' 'there and back' takes a month. So there can be lots of time to Train if we aim for it.
Of course you don't. :)

Those +1s are much more valuable to someone with low EDU. Let's see how it balances out. Reducing the time it takes does not futz with the mechanics --it just help with PbP pacing-- which is why I suggest that as our first change.
Case by case. I trust you all to not try to cheat the system. I do wonder if shooting a lock really counts as 'shooting training'? It is also not much in terms of use, one bullet is not much training.

We would probably --especially at first-- assess it when it comes time to complete the Training, and if that lock-shot still stands out in our minds, it would be significant enough to count. This is PbP, so a lot of time could have passed.

It would be something like:
Player: "Four weeks have passed, can I try a half-time training roll?"
Everyone Else: "How much shooting have you done? Oh, yes remember that cool use on the lock?! That was cool!"

The rules also don't say you can only have one Training happening, they explicitly say it can (is always?) broken up over time, and I would completely allow players to track and work on multiple Skills at the same time (I thought about saying something about your sheet with its one slot, but didn't since copy/paste is easy enough when it is needed). Of course, you can only do one 'this week'. I would normally caution players that this could mean any progression takes a long time. But we could do something like: "I have used a lot of guns recently. If I Train guns this Jump can I get two weeks for one?"
If it is 'fun' then it is good for the game. If the other players go "urgh" when you do it, then it is abuse. It is usually pretty clear with enough examples if someone is abusing the system.

I don't think we need to worry about that with this group.
'Fraid so. To the point of clique.
You will get over that. :)

All fine by me :) Let's see how it goes when we get there.
Well darn. I probably heard it somewhere before and forgot about it.
Already done :P

I did some asking around on the GP discord about the 'leveling'. Turns out I've been looking at it the wrong way. Apparently skill leveling is only a small part of progression. Characters also progress by getting contacts, money, items, access to locations, upgrades, ...
So there's no need to rely on skill training.

Yes, a +1 to a Skill is a big deal, it should not be too easy. Hence the random chance attached to getting it.
Yes. The main 'progression' is probably money and contacts. Upgrading your gear (via money and high TL contacts) acts much the same as increasing Skills and is more versatile.

This is a debt-runner type system, so making money is a primary goal and story-driving-force. It feeds into everything.
Yes, I was just worried that PbP may make that happen too slow, therefore thought about a flexible speedup. We can see once play starts.

I'm having a hard time envisioning how to turn ship shares into an RP asset.
So, it's something that connects your character to a ship. Let's say it's a ship I've spent a few months on. Would that be a ship share?

Or can it be that I built the ship's left rear landing leg and I want to see how it performs?

I can't really come up with any strong connection that gives me 'claim' to part of a ship.

Per the rules it is just a way of saying --during Character Creation-- that you have something to contribute to a ship and, makes your ship cheaper.

Using it as a connection to the ship is just my attempt to make that investment 'matter'. If it is just money, then it is just money. Same as with the other Benefits (guns and swords and cyberware) they are just things, unless we choose to make them mean something as the reason we mention them by name rather than just adding money; they are sometimes not worth as much as the money we could have rolled, which could be spent on anything, so they are 'story items'... if we want them to be.