2000AD [2000AD] Citizen Manipulation and Academy Advanced Programs

Tordelback · Oct 30, 2018

I'm probably being dim, but in the Citizen Manipulation career under the Academy of Law Advanced Programs (p. 55 of Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD), the exploit Crowd Control requires either Voice of the Law or Intimidate as a pre-requisite, both also exploits under Citizen Manipulation. But as I understand it you can only choose one exploit from each career, so is the only way to get it to take Citizen Manipulation twice?

Supplementary questions:

Do the Academy Advanced Programs (and the Rookie career) count as careers for the purpose of increasing Grade, or are they just a specific feature within the Cadet career? (I assume the latter).

The rules say "starting Judges" must take the Rookie career, which makes sense. But I see that the 2099 version of Dredd's character sheet lists none of the exploits from that career. So either old Minty was slacking as Dredd's mentor, or Dredd took Distinction to boost his REP, and as a straight attribute increase it isnt' necessary to note it on the sheet. Would that make sense?

And finally (I promise), the blurb says "most" cadets take 2 Advanced Programs. Is it possible to take more?

Morrus · Oct 30, 2018

Yes, you can revisit the advanced programs after the Rookie career.

And yes, they are full careers. Otherwise you’d start at grade 3, not 5.

Dredd uses the NPC rules not the PC rules.

And finally, yes, see above!

Tordelback · Oct 30, 2018

Excellent, thanks for the instant response!

I had been assuming a Grade 5 Judge had a few Tours of Duty (in the Traveller sense) under the belt, now I understand how starting characters can be more-or-less fresh out of the Academy and still appropriately powerful (the dice pool limits are a great idea). So the best min-maxy way to advance in Grade without ageing rapidly would be to take a few extra Advanced courses? Not that I'd advocate such behaviour, of course!

BTW, it was of course Judge Morphy not Minty who was Dredd's Assessing Judge and mentor. I'm always getting them confused...

Morrus · Oct 30, 2018

Tordelback said:
Excellent, thanks for the instant response!

I had been assuming a Grade 5 Judge had a few Tours of Duty (in the Traveller sense) under the belt

The careers you’ve taken show exactly what your Judge has done every year of their life. No secret tours! If you want a Judge with a few years working under their belt, you’d have to make a higher grade character and give them one or two grades in some of the Judge careers.

You can totally start a campaign at grade 6 or 7 if you want to start with experienced judges.