# Episode 123: Determinedly Cheerful Or Just Obtuse **URL:** \ **Category:** Improvised Radio Theatre with Dice\ **Created:** [1 March 2023 10:20 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-123-determinedly-cheerful-or-just-obtuse/4728 "2023-03-01T10:20:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/rogerbw/32/3_2.png) [@RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/RogerBW)\ **Post date:** [7 March 2023 17:38 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-123-determinedly-cheerful-or-just-obtuse/4728/21 "2023-03-07T17:38:55Z")
Original LBB Traveller had the four year self-improvement plan. I don’t think I ever saw the rules used, which may have been the point. (They were left out of _Starter Traveller_, the first set I saw.) ---
**Author:** ![DangerousDave](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/dangerousdave/32/6363_2.png) [@DangerousDave](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/DangerousDave)\ **Post date:** [8 March 2023 12:12 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-123-determinedly-cheerful-or-just-obtuse/4728/22 "2023-03-08T12:12:59Z")
I “think” I remember that, but I could just be manufacturing the memory again… I do remember looking through the Traveller books looking for how to advance my character in-game, and thoroughly not understanding the rules. ---
**Author:** ![RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/rogerbw/32/3_2.png) [@RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/RogerBW)\ **Post date:** [8 March 2023 12:20 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-123-determinedly-cheerful-or-just-obtuse/4728/23 "2023-03-08T12:20:53Z")
Got it! Book 2, Starships, has two pages on “Experience”. The basic model is that you dedicate the next four years to learning a thing, and make a roll with an Intelligence bonus to see if you stick with it; blow the roll and you learn nothing. Options are: - increase your education (Cr50 a session, 1-2 sessions a week, 50 sessions gets you +1 EDU, max +6 in a four-year period) - once in your life, take four years off adventuring to get a specific non-weapon skill you don’t already have at +2. - temporarily increase a skill by +1; do it a second time to make it permanent. (Weapon skill or not, separate rules sections but the same effect.) - temporarily intrease str, dex and end by 1 each (harder roll to stick with it). Usual GDW not terribly clear rules writing… ---
**Author:** ![DangerousDave](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/dangerousdave/32/6363_2.png) [@DangerousDave](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/DangerousDave)\ **Post date:** [8 March 2023 12:22 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-123-determinedly-cheerful-or-just-obtuse/4728/24 "2023-03-08T12:22:55Z")
Because, of course they put it in book 2:starships, not book 1: Characters. That would be too obvious!😂 ---
**Author:** ![RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/rogerbw/32/3_2.png) [@RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/RogerBW)\ **Post date:** [8 March 2023 12:27 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-123-determinedly-cheerful-or-just-obtuse/4728/25 "2023-03-08T12:27:51Z")
I suspect they had the “big” rules sections (1: characters, combat; 2: ship design, ship combat; 3: world design) and then they put in the other stuff wherever it would fit. ---
**Author:** ![DrBob](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/drbob/32/10_2.png) [@DrBob](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/DrBob)\ **Post date:** [8 March 2023 19:02 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-123-determinedly-cheerful-or-just-obtuse/4728/26 "2023-03-08T19:02:05Z")
> [@RogerBW](#): > > The basic model is that you dedicate the next four years to learning a thing, and make a roll with an Intelligence bonus to see if you stick with it; blow the roll and you learn nothing Wow. Studying for your A Levels is hard in the Traveller Universe. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Guvnor](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/guvnor/32/531_2.png) [@Guvnor](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/Guvnor)\ **Post date:** [10 March 2023 17:08 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-123-determinedly-cheerful-or-just-obtuse/4728/27 "2023-03-10T17:08:51Z")
> [@DrBob](#): > > hate the randomness I love the randomness. It’s always playable… ---
**Author:** ![Guvnor](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/guvnor/32/531_2.png) [@Guvnor](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/Guvnor)\ **Post date:** [10 March 2023 17:10 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-123-determinedly-cheerful-or-just-obtuse/4728/28 "2023-03-10T17:10:42Z")
> [@DrBob](#): > > My PC: Oh woe is me! I am an orphan, raised on a corporate farm! > NPC: Hey, I’m your long lost rich uncle, come to rescue you. > My PC: Where the hell have you been for the last 7 years? My parents died ages ago. > NPC: Um, I was busy… Anyway, now I’ve found you, do you want to shag me? > My PC: No! > NPC: Then I shall be your enemy forever! Bwah hah hah hah. Oh that has such potential. Really, can’t you see it? ---
**Author:** ![Guvnor](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/guvnor/32/531_2.png) [@Guvnor](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/Guvnor)\ **Post date:** [10 March 2023 17:13 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-123-determinedly-cheerful-or-just-obtuse/4728/29 "2023-03-10T17:13:41Z")
Finally… experience has been in Traveller since the beginning. It’s quite workable and quite fast enough in Mongoose 1e and 2e. My group have been in game for just over a year and advanced 2-3 skills each. It’s just a matter of clocking up training in jump time. Yes it’s capped. I don’t see having -1 on Social as a problem for a face, that’s social status, and you can combine your fast talking skills with other stats. Traveller does not have a hard link between skill and stat. Want to Carouse, maybe you use END to show your drinking prowess. Or use EDU to persuade a University lecturer to lend you their login details. So, want to work out something about a gun? Use EDU with Gun Combat. What’s the difference between EDU and INT? Education should be the mod for something you learnt from a manual, Int for something you work out with logic and insight… Point of house ruling, in lower class company I always invert the SOC bonus. So -1 SOC would be +1 in appropriate strata for an appropriate activity. And really finally, having 0 in a skill means you are not bad at all. Easy is 4+ and you avoid the -3 ---
**Author:** ![DrBob](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/drbob/32/10_2.png) [@DrBob](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/DrBob)\ **Post date:** [11 March 2023 21:04 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-123-determinedly-cheerful-or-just-obtuse/4728/30 "2023-03-11T21:04:05Z")
> [@Guvnor](#): > > Oh that has such potential. Really, can’t you see it? I could see the potential fine. It was just weird and we kind of took the piss of it. The conversation I quoted was pretty much the way me and another player described it to the rest of the party. [Previous page](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-123-determinedly-cheerful-or-just-obtuse/4728.md?page=1)