Fleshing out the following Traveller skills. Need to define exactly what they cover, and various specialisations within them.
This is a short list of skills.
Sophontology - the study of intelligent life forms.
Archaeology - digging up ruins.
Astronomy - knowledge about stars and planets.
Science - general science, including physics, chemistry and biology.
Cryptography - codes and cyphers.
Ecology - botany and zoology and other things.
Economics - business law.
Law - law.
Mathematics - pure mathematics.
Occult - the occult.
Politics - how to work with politicians.
Research - finding information.
Psychohistory - predicting people
Medicine - fixing people
Surgery - sticking people back together.
Administration - dealing with bureaucracy and running a business, including accounts.
Current affairs - what is going on in the imperium.
Trade - bargaining and such.
Spaceship systems - piloting big ships and running them.
Spaceship piloting - piloting fighters etc.
Spaceship gunnery - shooting spaceship guns.
Jump navigation - plotting courses through Jump space.
Computer operation
Computer hacking
Communication systems - radios and things. Electronic warfare.
Sensor systems - radar and things. Electronic warfare.
Security systems - security and surveillance systems.
Spaceship repair
Robot repair
Grav vehicle repair
Wheeled vehicle repair
Engineering is all about designing things. Fixing things is covered by Mechanics. Both are useful to an Engineer/Mechanic type of character. You tend to find specialists in the former behind a drawing board, and specialists in the latter in a garage. Both default to each other. For most player characters, Mechanics is probably the more useful skill since it is the one used in the field.
Probably not what I want to use.
Artillery - projectile based heavy weapons
Civil - roads, buildings
Clockwork - wind up stuff
Electrical - power cells and transmission lines
Electronics - computers, sensors, transister type stuff
Materials - making new materials
Microtechnology - small things
Mining - underground structures
Nanotechnology - very small things
Psychotronics - psionic technology
Robots - robots
Small arms - personal firearms
Jump drives - Starship Jump drives
Thrusters - Reactionless thrusters
Starships - general design/repair of starships
Jets - jet aircraft and engines
Steam - steam engines
Mechanics is all about fixing and repairing things. If you want to be able to actually design something, then you need Engineering. Both default to each other however, so it's possible to design things with Mechanics - your roll is just halved.
The following techniques are available for the mechanics skill. Without a specialised technique a character can try to diagnose faults and fix them if they have some off-the-shelf spare parts available. If no spare parts are available, fixing difficulty is doubled.
Having the correct technique halves difficulty modifiers for obscure faults and enables the character to fix things themselves. Primary techniques cost 4, second level techniques cost 6 (they're hard!).
Starships Repair - includes general repair.
Wheeled Repair - all ground based wheeled vehicles.
Aircraft Repair - jet and prop driven aircraft.
Boat Repair - general boat repair and maintenance.
Power Systems Repair - all modern power systems (fusion/fuel cell).
Steam Engine Repair - repairing steam engines.
Robotics Repair - repairing robots
Routine checkup - 10
Diagnosing light damage - 15
Diagnosing moderate damage - 20
Diagnosing heavy damage - 25
Diagnosis involves figuring out what needs to be fixed and replaced, and looking for a quick work around. If a replacement part is available, then fixing things is the same difficulty. If no part is available, then the difficulty is +10 to fix.
Damaged part is tricky to fix - +10
Damaged part is very tricky to fix - +20
Partial or wrong set of tools - +10
Improvised set of tools - +20
Quick fix (75% normal time) - +10
Very quick fix (50% normal time) - +20
Miracle fix (25% normal time) - +40
Laser System Repair
Electronics Repair
