06-10-2017, 01:05 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
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Modifiers for High TL advantage
Are there any canonical modifiers for High TL? For example, to limit its scope to one category of skills/equipment? I'm aware of the Cutting-Edge Training perk, but that's at the extreme end, limited to one skill/speciality. What about "only for vehicles" or "only for armor", say?
More generally, since the example on pB27 makes it clear that having both High TL and Wealth does not guarantee continued access to particular gear of your own TL, what is the best way to ensure that? Signature Gear, Patron with the Equipment enhancement, Unusual Background; am I missing a better/more specific way? Thanks. |
06-10-2017, 08:43 AM | #2 | |
Join Date: Jan 2009
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Re: Modifiers for High TL advantage
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For a really extreme approach, something that will work even after you've been thrown into the brig of a starship, light-years from anything, in a different universe, and stripped of all your stuff- there's always Snatcher with the Permanent enhancement. |
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06-10-2017, 09:02 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Feb 2014
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Re: Modifiers for High TL advantage
My concern is that high TL can often be a disadvantage. A 2017 Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court who doesn't come back in time with tools and a working knowledge of historical engineering and metalurgy will be worse off than a native of the time period.
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06-10-2017, 10:58 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
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Re: Modifiers for High TL advantage
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It also would be significantly faster to research an amazing prototype requires 3D6 Months to create, a simple prototype only takes 1d-2 days to crank out. |
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06-10-2017, 12:13 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Feb 2014
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Re: Modifiers for High TL advantage
A TL8 recent mechanical engineering graduate working with the best tools a TL3 society has available works at a -7 to skill (-9 for wrong TL, +2 for best at TL3 [max of {round down TL/2 | 2}]) . Before this person can get access to these best-in-the-world tools, they may have to demonstrate principles with poor quality or even damaged TL2-3 tools, at even further penalty. Taking time might help offset, but you can't discount that it's a serious disadvantage. A cinematic High TL advantage usually allows aliens or future people to only have bonuses when dealing with older tech "A keyboard. How quaint.", but the existing advantage is a serious disadvantage in some campaigns which don't involve regular inter-TL travel.
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06-10-2017, 12:30 PM | #6 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Modifiers for High TL advantage
It's not so much high tech guy is at a disadvantage for coming from a higher tech place. It's that you took a guy adapted to one location and tossed him into one radically different.
That can happen to literally anyone.
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06-10-2017, 12:34 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: Modifiers for High TL advantage
Note that High TL doesn't force you to take all your skills at the higher TL. It merely allows you to buy such skills, and permits buying higher TL gear, at the usual doubled-per-TL price.
As to the original question, it seems clear that "one skill only" is effectively a -80% limitation on High TL (since Cutting-Edge Training is a 1-point perk, 20% of the cost of the 5-point High TL). I'd allow -60% on High TL for a narrow group of technology like "high-performance aircraft" or "scientific electronics" - generally something that would cover the design-build-use triad of skills for that technology. -40% would be for a broader tech field like "aircraft" or "electronic devices", while -20% would be a very broad field like "vehicles" or "electrical systems and devices". |
06-10-2017, 02:31 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Modifiers for High TL advantage
Yeah, the disadvantage isn't having High TL as such, it's having your points sunk in skills you can't effectively use instead of ones you could.
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06-10-2017, 02:45 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: Modifiers for High TL advantage
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06-10-2017, 03:59 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: Modifiers for High TL advantage
A character in a lower-TL setting with High TL who took only skills at the higher TL probably qualifies for Social Stigma (Uneducated), at least.
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