If a character has no level in a skill, then he is untrained and will suffer a –3 Dice Modifier when trying to use that skill.
If a character has zero level in a skill (Skill 0), then he is competent in using that skill, but has little experience. He does not get any bonus from his skill ranks when using that skill but at least he avoids the penalty for being untrained.
If a character has one or more level in a skill (Level 1, Level 2, and so on) then he is trained in that skill. Each rank represents several years of experience using that skill. A character with Level 2–3 in a skill is a skilled professional in that field.
Some skills have specialities – specialised forms of that skill. A character picks a speciality when he gains level 1 in a skill with specialities. For example, a character might have Engineer 0, allowing him to make any Engineer skill checks without an unskilled penalty. He might then gain a level in Engineer, giving him Engineer (Jump drives) 1. He would make all Engineer checks involving Jump drives at a +1 DM, but would make all other Engineer checks at a +0 DM. A character can have multiple specialities in a skill – an engineer might have Engineer (Jump drives) 1 and Engineer (power plant) 2. He would make checks related to Jump drives with a +1 DM, checks related to power plants with a +2 DM and all other Engineer checks with a +0 DM.
[HI][trav]Mongoose Traveller SRD[/trav][/HI]
