Maximum skill level by TL
 

I am looking at some character issues related to skill and came across an odd characteristic of technologically based skills - it is possible to have a high skill level in a low-TL skill, effectively meaning that the character is excellent at producing wrong answers!

For example, take Diagnosis/TL - at TL3, the sheer limitations on available knowledge means that even someone with a skill of 25 is going to draw a blank or else grab the leeches and cow dung. Even at TL8 there are significant limits on what we can diagnose, so it seems that there should be a "maximum effective skill level" for many technological skills.

My idea is for an optional rule, wherein each tech level would have a maximum skill level applied to certain skills like Physician, Chemistry, etc. Learning skills up to that level would follow the normal rules, as teachers and/or materials would be available. Learning skills beyond that level requires SOMEONE to innovate - part of the process of driving the skill towards the next TL's maximum skill level. Once someone has done so, they may become a resource for other students to learn from - although they may or may not actually do so.

In the rare instance that a player wanted to be that innovator, they would either need to spend extra time to do so (800 hours per character point?) or else use points from play along with some reasonable resource or source of inspiration - a TL8 Physicist witnessing a UFO may be able to advance their profession based on simple observations. With the GM's approval, the player could start a point over the maximum level provided they had a suitable backstory.

This is my idea, and one I want to implement as a house rule, but I am trying to figure out a reasonable set of skill levels. How does this look?:

TL / Skill
0 / 10
1 / 11
2 / 12
3 / 13
4 / 15
5 / 17
6 / 19
7 / 21
8 / 24
9 / 27
10 / 30
11 / 33
12 / 36

This is only a rough guide that I want to use - not perfect, but I want to create guidelines especially for desirable skills like Physician. I know the top levels are above the normal recommended limits, but a TL12 Physician is going to have a staggering array of knowledge and learning aids available to them.

Please note that this does not apply to ALL technological skills, just those where the skill attempts to answer absolute right/wrong questions. Engineering (Combat)/TL3 25 means that the character can make fantastic castles even though reinforced concrete is beyond them, and Boating (Unpowered)/TL1 21 produces a master of the dugout canoe.

Re: Maximum skill level by TL
 

While it is true that there are increasingly more conditions for which characters will have no effective remedies as we go down the tech scale, and that there will be more conditions for which dice rolls will be penalized for lack of equipment and familiarity, that doesn't preclude character's ability to recognize that it is looking at a condition for which it can do nothing but use the patient as an experimental subject/source of income.

Re: Maximum skill level by TL
 

That may be so, but what is the point of high skill if all it allows you to do is recognize your paradoxic incompetence? And while tools are related to innovation and practice, a TL8 physician out in the wild can do things that a TL3 physician in a full hospital cannot even conceive.

Re: Maximum skill level by TL
 

Your example is problematical. Diagnosis doesn't tell you how to treat a sickness or injury; it just tells you what the sickness or injury is. So no matter what your TL in the skill, a success lets you identify the sickness or injury as far as the TL understands it. Given a patient experiencing seizures, a Diagnosis/TL3 roll may reveal that these symptoms typically mean the patient has been possessed by a demon; a Diagnosis/TL8 roll may reveal that the seizures are caused by meningitis. Both answers are correct answers in the respective cultures; that doesn't mean either culture's medical knowledge is right. The diagnosis-maker simply applied their training in Diagnosis correctly.

Physician, meanwhile, is the skill for treating the sick and the injured, and it doesn't even exist below TL4 most of the time. If it does—say, in a scientifically minded but technologically primitive culture—it's still the skill of treatment, not the skill of restoring hit points. If the culture's medical knowledge is wrong about the diagnosis or the treatment, the physician can treat the sickness or injury successfully, but not actually heal the patient.

Skills aren't about effects; they're about your ability to apply training. Thus Low TL doesn't affect maximum skill level. If the low TL prevents or limits certain effects, this should be applied to the effect itself, not the skill roll's chances. For instance, the natural healing table in Campaigns depends on TL, but the chances of a healing roll succeeding depend on the healer's skill, not TL.

If the combat engineer can design TL4 castles in a TL3 culture, then he has Engineering (Combat)/TL4. If a TL8 outdoorsman can use a TL1 canoe and its accessories, he has Boating (Unpowered)/TL1. The only adjustment to skill necessary is the one for unfamiliar tech level.

Re: Maximum skill level by TL
 

I don't see the problem you're trying to fix.

The skills you describe are TL-based knowledge skills or something like that. If someone has high scores in that, so be it. They are masters of their science at the current TL. Even if this is useless or wrong science (like Thaumatology in the real word), that person will be recognized and probably be admired for their skill by certain groups. (This can be statted more effectively, but anyway.)

I'm sure someone can spend enough years studying Diagnosis/TL 3 to justify having it at IQ+10, if the character concept calls for it. So why limit it just because it is useless? (That by itself tends to discourage lots of people from studying it excessively, in-game and out-of-game.)

Also, what about Religious Ritual (Catholicism)? Maybe our knowledge will be obsoloted after the second coming, maybe it's all bogus anyway, but I'm sure certain real people have a lot of points in that.

Regards
Ts

Re: Maximum skill level by TL
 

Considerably more point than there is to fortune telling. It tells you when it's just time to break out the analgesic herbs and forget about it.


Oh really? Like what?

Re: Maximum skill level by TL
 

Encourage regular bathing?

Re: Maximum skill level by TL
 

CPR. Correct knowledge of anatomy.

Re: Maximum skill level by TL
 

I specifically want to avoid the situation where two players could both roll equal successes on the same skill in the same circumstances but have one right and the other be wrong. In the case you cite, the TL3 healer has effectively succeeded in Occultism, not Diagnosis.

Yes, but the vast majority of "applying training" in the game results in simple success or failure - these skills don't. If I make an engineer roll, I have succeeded in designing my structure and it will work, but if I make a physician (or chemistry, or physics...) roll I will have succeeded and yet failed.

Re: Maximum skill level by TL
 

Dang, you beat me to it. I was also going to mention control of infections and spread of disease, emergency tracheotomy, control arterial bleeding... the list goes on and on. They aren't going to do open heart surgery with a twig and a torch, but at least they know what NEEDS to be done, even if executing it is more difficult.