Quote from: RPGPundit;811631It gives me a lot to think about.  I agree with the points here; however, if my players just find the lack of advancement too alien for them to handle, and given that this is not meant to be a long-term campaign, I think I'll probably be coming up with some kind of experience system, however slow-moving, to mollify them.

If you don't mind the suggestion, because I know it is obvious, just try a few different approaches that you think will work. Watch and take notes and get feedback from the Players

This is set to be a short campaign, it's going to be somewhere between 10-30 sessions in all likelihood.  So maybe six months to a year of real time (playing every two weeks).

I don't have a problem doing an experience system in that context, because the characters won't be really long-term, there's less risk of their becoming overpowered, but they also feel like they have some ability to advance through experience.

I think I've settled on something along these lines: players will gain 1, or very occasionally 2, experience points per session.

They can gain skills through the expenditure of XP combined with periods of training.  Right now I'm thinking of something along these lines:

skill level         XP cost              Study Time Required(weeks)
0                    2                       1
1                    3                       2
2                    5                       3
3                    8                       6
4                    12                     10

(costs are always per level, so to get from unskilled to level 4 would take a total of 30 xp)

That means that after 10 sessions, which could be the entire campaign (or at least likely to be halfway through the campaign), a PC could have gained 5 0-level skills, or raised a couple of skills to 1, or a couple of skills from 1 to 2.

Quote from: RPGPundit;810862Hmm, ok. Yeah, I appreciate the complexity of how skill advancement would be difficult to do without the game getting overpowered very quickly.

There's also the question of how the chosen experience system meshes with the career system tradeoffs. This can be not just a game issue but a role-playing issue. If I'll learn more skills from a few weeks bumming around with a free trader crew or whatever than from a few years in the Navy - what's the drawback? If there is nothing big, what kind of schmuck joins the Navy?

This reminds me that when I run Classic again, I should probably delete the Book 4 Instruction skill (to which I formerly applied house rules). Realistically, teaching is a skill in itself, but on balance I think it's clutter. Probably having an instructor of higher level in a given skill should give a DM on the toss to get the benefit of a training program.

By the by, I never imposed the arbitrary once-in-a-lifetime limit on going back to school (and to College, also in Book 4, I added 2 levels in whatever skills might be appropriate to the major).

Quote from: Phillip;812346There's also the question of how the chosen experience system meshes with the career system tradeoffs. This can be not just a game issue but a role-playing issue. If I'll learn more skills from a few weeks bumming around with a free trader crew or whatever than from a few years in the Navy - what's the drawback? If there is nothing big, what kind of schmuck joins the Navy?

Well, with most of these sorts of careers, a person gains a lot of knowledge early on (basic training) and then advances fairly slowly, because (even in academia) the emphasis isn't necessarily on continuing to learn new skills.  

But if you're a freebooter and a wanderer, you're likely to have to pick up some new skills more often.

You join the navy in order to have a steady job, social respectability, and a lot of other reasons, but not necessarily to be able to gain skills on an ongoing basis faster than if you were a freelancer.

Well, after the first session the players seem sufficiently satisfied with the advancement system I laid out for them (as above).

You can look at how I did it in my campaign, basically by page 59 of the core rules: http://dragonersdomain.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=193

Enjoy, YMMV, but that's far too fast a character development for my view of Traveller. The game should not be about personal development into an über individual, I'd play another game for that.

But it's your game, enjoy..

Quote from: RPGPundit;812191That means that after 10 sessions, which could be the entire campaign (or at least likely to be halfway through the campaign), a PC could have gained 5 0-level skills, or raised a couple of skills to 1, or a couple of skills from 1 to 2.

That sounds good.

We did +1 skill for 50 weeks of training (25 if someone trained you) and since one session could include 4 weeks in Jump, it was not uncommon to get a +1 skill bump every 3 months of actual play.

Players forget about the value of Skill-0 options. Skill-0 is a great option for a team who needs to spread out knowledge.

Quote from: tzunder;813782Enjoy, YMMV, but that's far too fast a character development for my view of Traveller. The game should not be about personal development into an über individual, I'd play another game for that.

But it's your game, enjoy..

IF I was planning to run a long campaign (for me, a long campaign goes anywhere from 2 years and up), I'd have made the advancement slower.

Of course the length of the campaign in Traveller is usually quite different. Once the PCs start jumping, months can go by between sessions. So it is possible to rack up a year or so of campaign game time in 10 sessions.

It's cool, and remember to use skill difficulty levels to nuance the game.

Quote from: tzunder;814490Of course the length of the campaign in Traveller is usually quite different. Once the PCs start jumping, months can go by between sessions. So it is possible to rack up a year or so of campaign game time in 10 sessions.

It's cool, and remember to use skill difficulty levels to nuance the game.

Not to worry on that note.

While you do seem to have things well in hand with your house system, you might also look into our Career Companion supplement.  We tackled the idea of having an experience system in that supplement and a lot of folks seem to enjoy it.  It is directly aimed at our Clement Sector setting but can be used in any setting using the Mongoose rules.

You can pick it up here.

Quote from: Gypsy Knights Games;816070While you do seem to have things well in hand with your house system, you might also look into our Career Companion supplement.  We tackled the idea of having an experience system in that supplement and a lot of folks seem to enjoy it.  It is directly aimed at our Clement Sector setting but can be used in any setting using the Mongoose rules.

You can pick it up here.

Hi!

You should consider sending me a review copy; I'm a very well-known reviewer (from my blog, and here in the Reviews forum, where you'll be able to see examples of my work) and while I can in no way guarantee a positive review, you know I'm at least biased in favor of the game you're writing for...

Quote from: RPGPundit;816737Hi!

You should consider sending me a review copy; I'm a very well-known reviewer (from my blog, and here in the Reviews forum, where you'll be able to see examples of my work) and while I can in no way guarantee a positive review, you know I'm at least biased in favor of the game you're writing for...

Indeed.

I'll send you a PM to get your contact information.