BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat

Catalyst Game Labs => BattleTech Game Rules Questions => BattleTech RPG Systems => Topic started by: babayaga on 26 December 2017, 14:06:48

Title: (Answered) (Errata) Raising advanced skills without a more skilled trainer?
Post by: babayaga on 26 December 2017, 14:06:48

Is it possible (in AToW) for a character to raise an advanced skill - e.g. a Mechwarrior’s Piloting skill - without training from someone with a strictly higher skill score?

Perusing my AToW 1st printing (p.159, and p.333-334), I’ve come to the conclusion that under the current rules the answer is no: over and over we read that training is required to raise advanced skills, and p.333 is very explicit about the fact that the trainer's skill must be higher than the student's. I've checked the errata, too, and found nothing to contradict this.

But taken to the logical extreme, this would mean that advanced skills never developed in the Battletech world, since nobody could have trained the first character to reach e.g. a skill score of 4 in Piloting. According to AToW there should be no Mechwarriors or Technicians! Even ignoring global implications, it means that the "specialist" in a skill (whether Piloting or Computers) in a small PC mercenary force cannot improve his skill without resorting to "lessons" from an outside agency, which is ... poor game design. I am wondering whether this should be posted to the AToW errata subforum!

Title: Re: Raising advanced skills in the absence of a more skilled trainer?
Post by: Paul on 27 December 2017, 15:54:14

Yep, it's an error.