O.K., in some kind of order:
While it is true that I do posses a class A CDL driver's license, I have not been behind the wheel of a truck since shortly after I graduated truck driving school. I would have at best 1@2 drive semis.
Ah, but there is the rub already: "Driving semis" is a specialization. I would assume that anyone who has a 1@5 "Drive Standard Transmission Vehicle"
can drive a semi--he just can't do it well enough to be paid. We give licenses to people whose driving skill reaches the ability to drive a semi.
Looked at from the other end, anyone who has a CDL can certainly drive a car at at least a top amateur level of ability.
Now, whether there ought to be penalties on driving a semi because the vehicle is more difficult is an entirely different question. But whether or not you ought to be penalized when behind the wheel of a semi is a case by case call (try to make a skid turn, and you'll feel the penalty of the rig). That you have this specialization at all says that you are a professional level driver, because if you weren't it wouldn't matter what you were driving. A 1@10 driving skill covers all vehicles within its description.
I'm happy with 2@5 driving, but I'd really feel more comfortable with 2@7-2@8 driving. I think that pizza delivery job merits it. The boss even commented that I was one of their better drivers, right before she fired me.
Either you've lied about being happy with it or there's no reason to change it. I would be more comfortable with a 2@2-2@3 driving for pizza delivery experience. After all, this isn't race cars or stunt cars; it's delivering pizza. It's not even taxi driving. Now, if you'd been delivering pizza constantly for ten to twenty years, I'd think you were a high-intensity professional. We're compromising. We'll keep the 2@5.
It would be like saying you had 1@5 level driving the day you got your driver's license.
I had a 1@5 driving skill, I think, when I got my license. Mind you, I did have a crapload of practice driving....Kurt makes a significant point: the very first time you got behind the wheel of a car, you were probably a 1@1, maybe as high as a 1@3, driver. Maybe you were better--maybe you trained on driving simulators, and maybe you already had the skill without ever having used it in the real situation. I would wager that our military has snipers who walk into combat with at least high level skill in fatal targeted shots who have never killed anyone in the process of learning that skill. Although I doubt most drivers start with 1@5 SAL in driving, there is some sense to the suggestion that we don't actually give licenses to drivers until they've had enough practice to be better than 1@1.
Also, and maybe I'm beating a dead horse now, but you did not learn to drive semis at 1@1. You learned to drive standard transmission internal combustion engine motor vehicles at 1@1, and when you reached (or possibly exceeded) 1@10 you specialized in one particular type of vehicle. That is, when you had a 1@10 driving SAL you could drive anything at a 1@10 SAL--but the government would not let you drive a semi unless you first reached a 2@1 professional level of ability in that specific concentrated area.
I actually think that driving skill can drop with more driving experience. At the beginning, new drivers are more nervous on the road, and much more careful. With experience comes a point where the drivers are comfortable behind the wheel (and still suceptible to raging hormones) and could potentially be more dangerous on the road.
I don't think that's a matter of
skill declining. The more experienced driver
is better, and at the same level of concentration is safer.
Your challenge is that he does not give that same level of concentration. Well, I could account for that, but then every player character would always say when he got behind the wheel of the car that he was applying full concentration. What I can do is note whenever the player is doing anything else simultaneously--talking on the cell phone, conversing with a passenger, tuning the radio, reading the road signs, whatever else he might be doing--that this means he is splitting his attention, and so must make extra checks or take penalties on both skills to maintain both at once. But then, I would only do that if it mattered.
Besides, I can use a GE roll to determine how a trip goes, and require extra checks if I think there's a potential accident situation.
--M. J. Young
