An interesting subject came up briefly in the PBEM game currently forming
up; The question of acknowledging characters with doctorates. As I recall
from my AT (Ancient Traveller :-) ), a skill of Medic-3 was the equivalent
of an MD degree, with(I think - I don't have it here) skill 4 and a good
Dex to be rated as a surgeon.
Now, assuming the same goes for other skills, some sort of comparison
can be made: Level 1 ~ Some experience/undergrad work/maybe a Bachelor's
Level 2 ~ Good experience/maybe a Master's or eqv.
Level 3-4 ~ Phd or eqv.
Level 4+ ~ Further professional work
and of course, Level 0 ~ "Insert tab A into slot B..." :-)
Naturally, a person doesn't _have_ to have a degree or title for these
levels of skill. After all, Edison(I believe) never even graduated high
school. The reason this gets to be important, is that someone with an
_exceedingly_ high level in something is _bound_ to be well-known by
other people in the field. I see nothing wrong in having characters(PC
or NPC) make a 2d or 3d check against a person's skill level to see
if they recognize the person in question, with appropriate modifiers
for how 'glamorous' the person's background might be. For example, a
popular grav cycle racer with Grav Veh-5 would be easier to recognize
than, say, a great bureaucrat with Admin-5.
Sudden cries of "Oh look, it's Motormutt! Let's go get his autograph!" can
make for some interesting random encounters(Hi Mike!).
*****************************************************************************
|"And all this science, I don't understand.
[email removed](Legion) | It's just my job, five days a week."
| -Elton John
*****************************************************************************
All opinions and material above is the responsibility of the originator.
Submissions: [email removed], or [email removed]
Administrator: [email removed] (James Perkins)
The TML is made possible by facilities provided by Tektronix, Inc.