Re: _Armourer_ skill.

>From: [email removed]
>Armorer Skill
>Well, I would say that an NCO with Battle Dress-2 should be able to fit
>and adjust armor to a person.  After all, normal military training would
>require that a person be able to strip, clean, maintain, etc etc their
>suit at Battle Dress-1.  Battle Dress-2 should allow you to follow cookbook
>instructions on how to adjust the suit.  Battle Dress-3 should allow you
>to be an expert at customization.

We've got different ideas about what a particular skill level means (mind
you, yours may be nearer GDWs intentions than mine). I use this rule of thumb:

0: You can use it, albeit badly.
1: You can use it adequately in routine situations.
2: You can use it well; you know what makes it tick.
3: You can make it tick.
4: You can make it tick real well.
5: You can make it tick "The Star Spangled Banner". ;-)


>Thus I would oppose introducing an
>Armorer skill.  (For heaven's sake it's tough enough to get battle dress
>skill in the first place!  Why make maintainance even HARDER on the players?)

I don't want my players to use battle dress more than absolutely necessary.
A battle dress is WAY too powerful for many situations. And you can't just
beef up the opposition. There is no middle ground against a battle dress.
Anything that can take out a BD will also take out the player character
inside. I don't want to be in a situation where I either has to let the
players walk all over my senario or kill them...

I suppose I could invent an ECM beamer or something...

And Robert S. Dean writes:
>I wrote:
>>
>>Unneeded? Don't you think it could be reasonable to distinguish between
>>the skills of an air/raft mechanic and a battle dress repairman?
>
>Seriously, no.  Not for a game with the average detail level of the skills
>is what we already have.  Ask a pilot (like Scott Kellogg) if he thinks that
>we should split aircraft pilot up by plane type...

Eh? Isn't that just what MegaTraveller does? And don't you think there's
greater difference between repairing air/rafts and battle dresses than
between flying one plane and another?

>I don't think that it is
>worth splitting Engineer up into Jump Drive Engineer, Maneuver Engineer and
>Power Plant Engineer either.

No, because any starship engineer needs to know about all three systems. But
I don't think a brigde builder should be allowed inside a starship engine
room. For that matter, I don't think a Wet Navy Navigator has any business
inside a starship control room, for all he knows a skill called navigation
(actually, I've renamed starship navigation 'astrogation' and use 'navigation'
only for the Wet Navy skill).

      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     [email removed]
- ------------
        "Come all brother spacemen that travel along.
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