Gee, Mike that is one of the things that I wanted to work on in TDR.
When I played Traveller regularly, the GM that I played with used an
old White Dwarf article that allowed a character to change careers.
As you got older and depending on your last career choice your
choices got less and less.
This has lead me to have characters that spent times as a Bounty
Hunter and a Rogue, some folks may say that is the same thing.
The system used your age and then gave you choices to make and
the rolls required for entry. There were die modifiers depending on
your previous experience. Some things were automatic. If you had a
social standing of >10 you could always join the Nobles. Rogues was
also always a possiblity, you can always turn to a life of crime. :-)
My GM used Other as skills that you learned in prison life, when
being a Rogue was not entirely successful. The number of terms
determined by your sentence. Isn't that what reabilitation is about?
:unless you're a Vargr. You're a Navy man when you're 18, and the only way
:you can try something different when you're 26 is to muster out and
:become an adventurer, with a big set of gaps in your skill lists as compared
:to the 42-year-olds out there. My personal bias would be to state that a
:person can only serve in one MILITARY establishment in their career, and
I disagree slightly. It is possible today to leave say the Air Force
and then enlist in the Army. It is unusual, but not unheard of.
:would then need to move to paramilitary or civilian organizations. This
:would lead to careers like the following:
:
:"Well, I was a bomber pilot in the War-- got a bunch of decorations. Then
:I decided to give civilian life a try, so I used my piloting experience
:to hire on as a commercial pilot hauling passengers and cargo. After some
:years of that, it got kind of old, so I decided to give writing a try.
:And now I make a living doing writing and mass media production, with my
:skill base as a means of qualifying me as a technical consultant."
:
:Sound like the typical sort of random hashing around that you'd expect
:from an easily-bored Vargr? Well, surprise surprise: as anyone who
:wears plastic ears to conventions could tell you, that was Gene Roddenberry's
:resume at any point in the last two decades of his life. Think about it.
:
Well let's see, I went to college for Music Education. Dropped out
after realizing that I didn't want to teach. Then attended and
graduated Piano Tuning and Repair School. Was self-employed for 5
years. Got married and found out that Piano Tuning would not pay the
bills alone. Got a part-time job as a School Bus Driver, and tuned
pianos. Then landed a job as a Housekeeper, (read Janitor) at the
local VA. Then quit that job to enter Customer Support at a computer
company. After two years in Customer Support, I got a job in the
Product Assurance Dept. So here I am. Seems reasonable to me. I am
teaching myself how to program in C. So maybe my next step will be as
a programmer somewhere.
:metlay
:
Greg