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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8178968" data-attributes="member: 42582">I've played a fair bit of Classic Traveller over the past few years.Book 2 has a section called &quot;Experience&quot;. It establishes a framework within which a character has a modest (typically less than 50/50) chance of a temporary skill improvement but only a slim (typically less than 25%) chance of permanent improvement. Book 4 has the Instruction skill, but that also is pretty limited in the improvement that it permits.The pursuit of better equipment etc is one aspect of the game, but it's not essential and - unlike classic D&amp;D - is not the criterion of playing the game well. Discovery (eg of alien civilisations) or success in a mission can be just as much the goal of play as wealth or equipment upgrades or personal improvement.The psionics subsystem is another pathway to self-improvement, but it is very expensive (and so can downgrade other dimensions of improvement - in our game it took a significant toll on the wealth of a number of PCs) and also can have adverse effects on a character's social position, due to the widespread distrust of psionics in the default setting.When explaining Traveller to players familiar with character improvement subsystems like those found in D&amp;D (XP and levelling) or RQ (skill-based improvement), I think it's more straightforward to say that it mostly lacks an improvement subsystem than to try and present the possibility of upgrading personal money and gear as its version of improvement. After all, that is equally present in D&amp;D.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8178968, member: 42582"] I've played a fair bit of Classic Traveller over the past few years. Book 2 has a section called "Experience". It establishes a framework within which a character has a modest (typically less than 50/50) chance of a temporary skill improvement but only a slim (typically less than 25%) chance of permanent improvement. Book 4 has the Instruction skill, but that also is pretty limited in the improvement that it permits. The pursuit of better equipment etc is one aspect of the game, but it's not essential and - unlike classic D&D - is not the criterion of [I]playing the game well[/I]. [I]Discovery[/I] (eg of alien civilisations) or [I]success in a mission[/I] can be just as much the goal of play as [I]wealth[/I] or [I]equipment upgrades[/I] or [I]personal improvement[/I]. The psionics subsystem is another pathway to self-improvement, but it is very expensive (and so can downgrade other dimensions of improvement - in our game it took a significant toll on the wealth of a number of PCs) and also can have adverse effects on a character's social position, due to the widespread distrust of psionics in the default setting. When explaining Traveller to players familiar with character improvement subsystems like those found in D&D (XP and levelling) or RQ (skill-based improvement), I think it's more straightforward to say that it mostly lacks an improvement subsystem than to try and present the possibility of upgrading personal money and gear as its version of improvement. After all, that is equally present in D&D. [/QUOTE]

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