Teaching
This is the skill to impart your knowledge to others. It can be used in the following manner to give bonus CP to a skill being raised by a pupil:
Teaching rules
Base Difficulty:
5 + (Student's Skill in pips - Student's Attribute in pips)
To learn the skill for the first time, the difficulty is a static 10 for normal skills, 15 for advanced skills.
Note that Force Powers have no Attribute to offset the difficulty.
Modifiers:
Skill Offset penalties:
If the teacher's skill is significantly higher than that of the student that they are teaching, then they may have trouble communicating the appropriate concepts at the level of the student (The difference in pips between the student's skill and the teachers'). A high enough teaching skill offsets this penalty. The maximum penalty is the difference between the teacher's skill and their Teaching skill in pips.
= +(Teacher's Skill - Student's Skill) < (Teacher's Skill - Teacher's Teaching)
Note: if a Teacher's Teaching skill is equal to or greater than the skill they are teaching, they are never penalized for disparity in skill levels.
Example: Bill is learning "Lightsaber Form 1" from Ted. Ted is very good at Lightsaber Form 1 (6D) but only a good teacher (4D). If Bill and Ted were closely matched in Lightsaber Skill (5D+2), the penalty would only be +1 diff. Unfortunately, Bill has only 3D lightsaber, a difference of 3D. This would normally incur a +9 diff penalty but because Ted is a good teacher, the penalty is only +6 diff (2D difference in teacher's Lightsaber skill and Teaching skill)
Class Size:
When teaching multiple students, the base difficulty is calculated as the average of all students being taught. Students differing from the class average by more than one die can actually be penalized. A student with a higher skill than the average of the class will not learn as much new material and gets one less CP per full die of difference from the class average. A student with lower skill than average may be lost in unfamiliar material and gets one less CP per full die of difference from the class average.
Note: As long at the instructor meets the base difficulty, students can always spend their OWN CP for time spent practicing.
Example: J'maal is teaching an intermediate class in "Huttese" to a group of students. Class average skill is 4D, Knowledge attribute is 3D. Base difficulty is 13. J'maal has 6D Huttese and 4D teaching. The difference between the teacher's Huttese skill and his teaching skill is 2D, which is also the difference between his Huttese skill and his Teaching skill, so he suffers a +6 difficulty penalty to his roll (Diff 19). J'maal rolls well, and gets a 25, enough to gve everyone in class two free CP toward Huttese. K'lel is already fluent (5D) in "Huttese". His skill is a full die higher than the rest of the class and so only gains one free CP. Bill does not even know "Huttese", effectively placing him well behind the class. Luckily, though he does not gain any bonus CP for the time spent in class, he can still spend his own CP for the time spent practicing.
Each additional student beyond the first (up to 5) adds +1 diff. Teaching classes larger than 6 becomes slightly more difficult as the teacher becomes less able to spend instructional time on each student, but does not continue to increase in difficulty much beyond that die to the difference in technique.
2-6 students: +1/student (max = +5)
7-30 students: +10 diff
31-100 students: +15 diff
101+ students: +20 diff
Time:
Each teaching roll represents 12 hours of instruction. This time can be spent all at once (intensive training) or spread out over multiple days, weeks, or even months.
Example: A 6 week course, meeting 2 times per week, for one hour.
Taking more time can lower the difficulty of teaching, rushing can raise the difficulty and even risk Dark Side points when learning Force Powers.
Shave off an hour or two: +2 diff/hour (max = 6 hours/+12)
Take your time: -1 diff/hour (min = Base Difficulty)
Extra time is most often used to offset penalties for class size or large disparities in skill between teacher and student
Example: J'maal is teaching an introductory class in "Huttese". His base difficulty is only 9, but 30 students raise the difficulty to 19. Luckily, this is a 6 week course and it meets 3 times per week. The extra 6 hours lowers his difficulty to 13. J'maal posts his office hours and has a teaching assistant cover most of the classes.
The Assistant
As per normal collaboration rules, help adds a number of pips equal to their dice. Of course, too many cooks spoil the soup, so the lead Teacher can not add more pips than he has teaching dice. Also, there can never be more teachers than students.
Example: J'maal (4D teaching) has 3 T.A.s with 3D each in teaching. J'maal gets +4 to his teaching rolls as long as 2 of them help out with the class.
Exceptional successes:
For every 3 pips that the Teacher exceeds the difficulty, the student gets a free CP toward the skill up to half those required for the next level of skill (round down).
Example: Ted needs to spend 4 CP to raise "Nerf Herding" from 4D to 4D+1. A teacher can save him 2 CP by exceeding his teaching difficulty by 6. Ted can not save more than 2 CP at this level, even if his teacher beats the required difficulty by 30.
Failure:
If the teaching check fails by 5 or less, the student still gains some benefit of practicing the skill on his own, and can spend CP normally. If the teaching check fails by 5 or more, the student (and teacher) have just wasted their time. If a "one" is rolled on the wild dies AND the teaching skill fails by ANY margin, the student has learned a bad habit and must spend an extra CP to offset this before raising the skill, or may (with GM approval) develop some minor (1CP) flaw associated with the skill.
Example: Bill tries to teach his Ewok friend, Feadhg, how to fire a blaster. Bill botches the roll and Feadgh's player decides that instead of spending the extra CP to offset the botch, Feadgh now has the flaw "Half Cocked". Bill never taught him proper gun safety! Feadgh's blasters have a tendency to go off at inconvenient (though largely humorous and plot appropriate) times.
Teaching Force Powers
Ordinarily, a student learns Force Abilities and Force Powers at the same time. CP spent to raise an Ability gives a free slot which can immediately be used on the Force Power under that Ability that was being used instructionally. If a Power has multiple Abiliy requirements, the student must raise each while studying the same power to gain that power.
If a student already has free slots in the appropriate Force Ability, the cost is only 5 CP.
If the student intends to learn a new Force Power without also raising the requisite Ability, the cost is 15CP.
Force Powers and Learning Mixing instruction and Force Powers is unusual and usually not worth the effort. Occassionally it may be necessary to rush teaching under dire circumstances by using the Force. This is not recommended however, since any botch on the part of either student or teacher runs the risk of opening a path for the Dark Side to enter.
Group Mind
Group mind can lower the difficulties of instructing multiple students.
Cognitive Trance
A student using Cognitive Trance can learn faster when learning from a text or electronic media. Cognitive Trance does not benefit a student under active instruction unless the teacher also uses Cognitive Trance and a rapid form of communication such as Telepathy.
Doppleganger
Yes, you can help yourself teach.
The Dark Side and Teaching Teaching Force Abilities and Force Powers is normally quite safe, provided that both student and teacher are careful and free of Dark Side influence. Unfortunately, haste and mis-instruction can inadvertantly open the student or teacher to the Dark Side. Instruction that does not involve the Force in any way can not taint a student directly, regardless of how many Dark Side points the student or teacher may have. Only through teaching the Force or teaching with the Force can Dark Side points be gained in this manner.
- A teacher who voluntarily teaches a student who is known to be tainted by the Dark Side risks gaining a Dark Side point. The student runs the risk of falling farther toward the Dark Side unless the teacher takes extreme precaution.
- A student who voluntarily learns from one who is known to be tainted by the Dark Side risks gaining a Dark Side point. This may not always be the case (i.e. a Dark Jedi teaching a character basic Force powers without actively attempting to corrupt the student), but seeking to be taught Dark Side powers, if successful, will usually end in a Dark Side Point.
- A student who unknowingly learns from one who is tainted by the Dark Side may recieve flawed instruction and gain Dark Side points or abilities. Of course, there is always the possiblity of a teacher DELIBERATELY trying to corrupt a student, but that is a different matter.
- Rushed teaching may accidentally encourage a student to act rashly, leading to a Dark Side point. This is extremely rare, but accelerated instruction is discouraged by the Jedi Order.
- Using Force Powers to hurry or ease instruction.