Spacer as Soldier

[Terranaunt]

Hello.
Can Spacer skill be used like a Soldier skill? For example, to operate Electronic Communications? BS only says about 'working with airlocks, pressure doors, hull patches, etc'.

[Mr_Sandman]

Originally Posted by Terranaunt

Hello.
Can Spacer skill be used like a Soldier skill? For example, to operate Electronic Communications? BS only says about 'working with airlocks, pressure doors, hull patches, etc'.

I would say that certainly for any intra-ship and probably for ship-to-ship comm systems that a crewman might be expected to use on a regular basis, this falls under 'shipboard life'. If you can steer the spaceship with spacer skill, I don't see a problem with tuning a radio and pressing the button to speak using it.

[doulos05]

Originally Posted by Terranaunt

Hello.
Can Spacer skill be used like a Soldier skill? For example, to operate Electronic Communications? BS only says about 'working with airlocks, pressure doors, hull patches, etc'.

Spacer is the same idea as Soldier, only on a spaceship. So Soldier covers all the "soldiering" stuff they teach in Basic including, but not limited to drill, basic weapons maintenance, and basic use of equipment.

Now, if you wanted to tear down your weapon, that's IQ-based Guns. But if you need to do basic oiling and cleaning, that could use Soldier (or Guns if that was higher).

Spacer would work the same way for anything an Able Spacehand should be able to do. That's basic fire suppression, airlocks, pressure doors, hull patching, but that could extend to basic operation of equipment (including the radio).

Basic operation, in my book, means the things you can do without using custom settings. So you can pick up a radio and speak into it using proper codewords etc. using Soldier, but you can't dial in the days frequency hopping pattern. For Spacer, you can use the preset frequencies, but you couldn't dial up a private channel.

[Anaraxes]

- Adjusting internal gravity / environment of various rooms in the ship
- Emergency life support
- Using equipment in evacuation drills (activating distress signals, survival bubbles, escape pods, or whatever the setting has)

These are supposed to be catch-all skills covering things that aren't the focus of other skills, so I'd avoid letting it cover actions like operating the comms system (as opposed to just talking into a mike). Otherwise why have Electronics Ops (Comms)?

That's not to say there's no overlap. All the major skills let you do minor things, like the cleaning guns example, that you might file under Soldier/Spacer as well. But the main thrust of these skills is an attempt to fill what some people felt was a gap in just the major skills, but there were too many little things to be worth creating a lot of skills (even by the standards of the long and fine-grained GURPS skill list). Spacer's for the little things.

If you feel obliged to call for a roll and there's not some other obvious candidate to use (even at default), then Spacer it is.

[jSarek]

Don't have my books, and it could be a 3E rule I'm thinking of, but I seem to recall Soldier allowing a character to make an unmodified roll to do a soldiering-related task that someone with the "correct" skill would get a +4 bonus for routine use to accomplish. I'd say that's a good approach for Spacer.

[Gedrin]

A space ship cannot dock or land safely in civilization without some form of comms. "May I have permission to dock," seems like requisite training.

[doulos05]

Originally Posted by Gedrin

A space ship cannot dock or land safely in civilization without some form of comms. "May I have permission to dock," seems like requisite training.

Exactly what we're talking about. Now, dialing in the frequency for the local port, configuring the computer to match whatever the local communications protocols are, setting up any translation needed, etc. Those require Electronic Ops (Comms). You could do all of this with a +4 or +6 for it being a routine action. Or you could do it all using Spacer at a base roll. More complicated stuff (Like contacting the secret frequency used by the smuggling ring running out of the spaceport using their encryption package) would be beyond the scope of Spacer. Electronic Ops (Comms) or bust.

[SCAR]

GURPS Spaceships is your friend here:

For Example:

Originally Posted by Spaceships.p51

Leadership Tasks/Shiphandling TaskEnable a subordinate to perform Piloting tasks with Spacer instead of Piloting skill by directing him. Use the lower of their Spacer or your Shiphandling skill in lieu of Piloting skill. You’ll tell them what to do – it’s up to the GM which of you makes the skill roll.

There are other examples where Spacer can substitute for specialised Skills (generally under supervision), but it demonstrates the principle that Space does at least generally cover the basics of those other skills.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by doulos05

Exactly what we're talking about. Now, dialing in the frequency for the local port, configuring the computer to match whatever the local communications protocols are, setting up any translation needed, etc. Those require Electronic Ops (Comms). You could do all of this with a +4 or +6 for it being a routine action. Or you could do it all using Spacer at a base roll. More complicated stuff (Like contacting the secret frequency used by the smuggling ring running out of the spaceport using their encryption package) would be beyond the scope of Spacer. Electronic Ops (Comms) or bust.

In any campaign with digital technology comparable to modern day TL8, it is very likely that all of these routine tasks can be accomplished by anyone who has even a default level of Computer Operation at the appropriate tech level and who doesn't mind having to go through a digital menu*.

It's extremely user-unfriendly to require a specialised skill usually taught only to communications technicians just to dial a given frequency with the communicator. Electronic Operations (Communications) is for using communications equipment under field conditions, even in the middle of combat, and covers all sort of field-expedient methods of getting the most out of the communications equipment and even using it for tasks it is not explicitly inteded to perform, such as patching into the comms of an orbiting spaceship with a ground-to-air radio.

You don't need it just to talk to people over a communicator in a non-combat, non-stressful situation, where range and conditions are comfortably within the design specs for the equipment, even if you need to find a number or frequency and call someone before you talk to them.

Under most circumstances, it doesn't take any skill roll to look up a frequency in the computer banks and enter it. Hell, under most circumstances at late TL8 and TL9+, the computer probably does it for you as soon as you ask it, either with voice command** or by choosing a simple icon on the computer.

*Probably Taking Extra Time for +1 or +2 so that he's at skill 14+ even with default.
**Reliable and versatile systems with it will be here Really Soon Now, which probably means they count as TL9 tecnology.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Icelander

In any campaign with digital technology compared to modern day TL8, it is very likely that all of these routine tasks can be accomplished by anyone who has even a default level of Computer Operation at the appropriate tech level and doesn't mind having to go through a digital menu*.

Pretty much. If all you want to do with an electronic communication system is make an ordinary call, you don't need a skill roll, any more than you need a Telephone Operation skill roll every time you place a call. Any points at all in Spacer certainly covers everything you need to make calls from shipboard equipment that doesn't need a skill rolls.

If you want to act as a relay a relay between two other stations on opposite edges of your reception envelope, one of whom is using a non-standard protocol, while somebody is jamming, then yeah, you need a skill roll, and Spacer isn't it.