Interesting.

I suppose maybe it was simply a local tradition but, as an example, one time (not the first time either) that really sticks in my mind was when I decided w/o knowing the other ages in advance, at age 30, to join a newly formed group of high school guys. I thought I'd wind up as the GM but it turned out that the 16 year old 'organizer' hadn't decided that yet.

Anyway, the dozen of us got together at a pizza joint (no beer, BUMMER!) & started rolling up our chars. Right away I noticed that they all began picking skills & no one said anything. There were some other times I DID intervene, such as when one guy, who had made officer, was trying to get more than one promo/term.

Also, all the online chargen I recall using also let you pick skills.
Can anyone direct me to one that doesn't?
I'd like to try it out.

TIA,

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On Thursday, July 2, 2020, 03:55:57 PM MST, xxxxxx@gmail.com <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:


That's interesting. I've never seen anyone I know do that, from all the groups I've played in. It is just a signpost to the fact that with a small sample of the total population, our own experiences are but a microcosm of the larger body of players/GMs and the diversity of their viewpoints.

On Thu, Jul 2, 2020 at 6:02 PM Phil Pugliese - philpugliese at yahoo.com (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:
On Monday, June 29, 2020, 02:05:09 PM MST, Frank Filz <xxxxxx@mindspring.com> wrote:

> Hello Frank,
>
> > On 06/28/2020 11:01 AM Frank Filz <xxxxxx@mindspring.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Here's my answer to the Pilot/Ship's Boat dilemma:
> >
> > Pilot and Ship’s Boat
> >
> > Ship’s Boat is a subset of Pilot that only applies while piloting a ship in M-Drive.
> Pilot is required to pilot a ship through a jump and also applies when piloting a
> ship in M-Drive. If a character earns ranks in both skills, the levels should be
> added together and listed as Pilot skill.
> >
> > So Ship's Boat skill lets you pilot any space craft in system and for landing and
> takeoff, but Pilot skill is necessary to pilot a ship into and through jump.
> >
> > Frank
>
> CT LBB 1 1977/1981 p. 21 Pilot Skill minus 1 allows a character to operate small
> interplanetary craft (under 100 tons). Under the Referee example a ship's boat
> pilot is not able to pilot hulls 100 tons and over.

That's actually added in 1981... So since I run 1977, I have to house rule...

One I don't like though is that if you earned Pilot-2 and then rolled Ships Boat, you have a wasted skill roll unless you roll Ships Boat again. And I struggle with how there is something sort of in common but not really. So I made my house rule.

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Rolling to determine skills is probably, in my experience anyway, one of the most ignored rules.
Just about everyone I know/knew much, much preferred to pick their skills.
Even the few Trav computer games (the MicroProse ones were my favs), let you pick skills.

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