As you will see from the Blank Character Sheet, there are several new skills there that are not mentioned in the basic _2300 AD_ rules set. Many of these were added in various official publications, and several more were added by me, to cover some of the more ancient frontier skills. This document will explain the origins of each of these, and how to integrate them into an existing campaign.
First of all, there were some skills added/dropped between the original _Traveller:2300_ and _2300 AD_. The "Indirect Fire" Combat Skill was removed, and "Reconnaissance" and "Combat Walkers" were added. I also added the "Archery" (including "Blowguns", and "Slings") Combat Skill for the more primitively minded characters (handy during assassination and survival adventures).
_2300 AD_ added the "Hunting" and "Tracking" General Skills, and the _Nyotekundu Sourcebook_ also added "Mining" as an adjunct to the "Prospecting" skill already present in both versions, as well as the "Local Knowledge" skill, and I added "Athletics", to cover all aspects of running, jumping, climbing, skiing, skating, cycling, and other unaided forms of physical endeavor (with the exceptions of Swimming and Riding, both already covered by separate General Skills).
The _Nyotekundu Sourcebook_ also added the Space Crew Skills of "Environmental Engineering", "Scooter Pilot", "Spin Operations", and "Zero-G". I have generalized the "Scooter Pilot" skill into "Thrusters", which gives it more general usefulness in a variety of other situations, and explains some of the devices in the _2300 AD Equipment Guide_.
No new Academic, Mercantile, nor Vehicle Skills have been added. The only new Journalistic Skill added was "Interviewing", added in _2300 AD_, which also added "Security Systems", the only new Underworld Skill.
The _Nyotekundu Sourcebook_ also added the "Robotics" skill as an adjunct to "Computer". While it didn't define it as an Intellectual Skill, it seemed the obvious place. The _2300AD Equipment Guide_ also added the new skill of "Cortescan Operation", which was never given a skill category, either. After some thought, I decided that it was probably an Intellectual Skill, as well, and so have added it to that category.
Missing from this list are most of the new skills from the _Aurore Sourcebook_. There are several reasons for this. Some of them were just parts of two different skills from different categories: "Heavy Equipment Operator" was just "Ground Vehicles" + "Remote Piloting", and "Wilderness Craft" was just "Survival" + "Stealth" and "Tracking". While the "Remote Piloting" and "Stealth" skills may not have been available to most colonists, I fail to see that as an excuse to create a whole new skill... As you will see from the Miner career, I simply added the "Ground Vehicles" and "Remote Piloting" skills to those available to the career, instead of adding "Heavy Equipment Operator". The "Scrounge" skill seems to me to be too generally useless anywhere else but Aurore (which is littered with remnants of the Kafer War invasions and bombings), and not too generally useful, even there. It is also part of either Streetwise or Survival, in my game, depending upon where it is used. "Mountain Climbing" I see as a subset of Athletics. Besides which, none of these skills were ever given a category... Are they General? Is "Heavy Equipment Operator" a Vehicle Skill or a General Skill? These questions were never answered, so I have ignored these skills.
Once new skills have been defined and put into a category, the question then becomes: How do you handle integrating these skills into an existing Campaign, one that existed since before they did? The rest of this article will cover some solutions.
First of all, if you've been playing since back in the _Traveller:2300_ days, and have a PC with the "Indirect Fire" Combat Skill, just add the XP required to get to that skill level to their "Combat Rifleman" skill (which is now used for determining hits with Indirect Fire). For instance: If Jonathan Blacque has Combat Rifleman-3 and Indirect Fire-2 (costing 3 XP), add three XP to Combat Rifleman-3, giving him Combat Rifleman-4, with 1 XP left over (in my campaigns, XP can be allotted to a skill and "saved" until enough are acquired to go up to the next level, so Jonathan needs to earn only four more to gain Combat Rifleman-5, assuming it's a Primary Skill). Since no other skills were eliminated, this should fix all problems of this type.
Now for adding in the new skills: For "Combat Walkers", I just assume that no PCs were Walker-Pilots. If they want to become one, they can buy a walker and start learning, or spend the minimum three to six weeks time in the HMHHPAT operator's training course mentioned on page 36 of the _2300 AD Equipment Guide_, and pick up Skill Level (SL) 0 for a mere 3 (5/2) XP. After that, they may advance it as any other Combat Skill.
Most of the other skills are a bit tougher, because most PCs would be far more likely to have them. Unless a Journalist was only a camera operator, for instance, they would be very unlikely to have no skill in "Interviewing", military PCs might want "Reconnaissance", etc. In such cases, if you know how the PCs spent their points, let them tweak a few skills (maybe lowering that Combat Rifleman-4 in exchange for Reconnaissance-2). If there's no record of how points were spent, you can still let them "shave" a few points off some overly-developed skill(s), and develop the new ones.
In general, I have never had an older, Canon-careered PC want any of the ancient weapons skills that I added. Only PCs generated as Low-Techs, etc, ever did. If some of your players feel differently, handle it as above.
The newer "Hunting" and "Tracking" skills are more likely to be desired by PCs who would have been eligible to have them. Since one of the tasks in the _Kafer Dawn_ module allowed for tracking using the "Survival" skill (this was published before _2300 AD_ came out), I allow PCs being upgraded to have these skills at a SL equal to their "Survival" skill (in fact, we used the "Survival" skill to cover these tasks, prior to the release of the second edition _2300 AD_ rules). You may also want to allow any Journalists to have "Interviewing" at a SL equal to that of their "Information Gathering", since interviewing is just one of the many ways to gather information.
"Mining" and "Robotics", again, are not usually desired skills, but you can allow PCs to lower a current skill to gain one of these, or (as in the case of the Mining Engineer), just give them a few XP's worth, at the Referee's discretion. Since robotics is a mixture of "Electronics", "Mechanics", and "Computer" science, you might want to award a level equal to the average of these three skills (so that Joey Balboa, with Electronics-1, Computer-1, and Mechanics-1 would also have Robotics-1). Alternately, you can give them a level of skill equal to their "Computer" skill (although I prefer the previous method). Whatever works for the Referee and the players. If you do decide to "give away free skill levels", be sure to remind the players how nice a Referee you are being... maybe they won't carp so much about how little they get.
"Security Systems" is a bit more of a problem, for those in the various Underworld Careers. They really need some level of this skill, in order to do their "jobs"! If nothing else, give them SL 1 in it, or let them shave some points off other skills to go into it. It is almost easier to junk a PC than to play an experienced Thief or Smuggler with no skills in this area!
The newly added Space Crew skills are also a problem. Anyone working on a starship for years (especially those who work on the bridge) should have skill in "Zero-G", and those working on all but the cheapest freighters and most uncomfortable liners should have Spin Operations, as well. Therefore, for any career that gives English as a free language, I also allow the following two benefits: 1) Upon leaving the career, the PC receives a free "Zero-G" skill equal in level to the highest Space Crew skill that they have at that time, and 2) At the same time, they also receive a "Spin Operations" skill level equal to one level higher than the highest of: "Combat Rifleman", "Heavy Weapons", "Sidearms", and "Thrown Weapons" ("Archery" may be added, if the character in question has any). Note that, once a career is left, later advancement in these skills is separate.
Since I have redone "Scooter Pilot" and made it into the more generalized "Thrusters" skill, I also assume that any career that gives away English as a free language also trains anyone acquiring the "Piloting" Space Crew Skill to also use the ship's thrusters at an equal level of skill. Again, note that, once a career is left, later advancement in these skills is separate, too.
"Athletics" I handle a bit differently... I had been using the "Survival" General Skill to handle such things, before I introduced "Athletics", so I look at that, as well as any "Riding" and "Swimming" skill. I then base the PC's skill level on these. In any case, I assume that every PC is at least somewhat athletic, and give them SL 0, if they have no higher level of skill.
Finally, the "Environmental Engineering" life support skill is another one of those added skills that I have had few players complain about not having. In the one case where I did, the player was a known paranoid who pointed out that his PC would have acquired such a skill as life support! Knowing his style of play, I had to agree with him, and awarded the poor paranoid PC a skill level equal to his highest Space Crew skill (which was only SL 3). I could have made him shave points, but his PC had no SLs above three, so I didn't. In the games since, I can never recall this skill coming into play, and its level has never changed (it was used a few times, off-stage, for engineering design tasks). The _Nyotekundu Sourcebook_ also recommends that "Environmental Engineering" be added as a Related Skill for Colonists.
Note that all of the above apply to integrating old PCs from Pre-_2300 AD_ campaigns. If you are just adding the _Aurore_ and _Nyotekundu Sourcebook_ skills to an existing _2300 AD_ campaign, you should have less trouble. Yet another useful hint is to use the "teaching" rule in the _2300 AD Director's Guide_, and have a skilled NPC handy on the next long space journey. She or he can raise the PCs to SL 0 in whatever skill(s), and they can go from there. Newly-generated (N)PCs should use the regular rules for acquiring skills, unless you want to continue to allow Exploratory, Independent Trader, Ship Crew, Space Military, and other such careers to receive the "Spin Operations", "Thrusters", and "Zero-G" skills for free (I do).
When adding other new skills of your own to the game, you can do it in any of several different ways. You can create a new skill and assign it a category (such as those above). You can create a new, category-less skill, and simply define it as Primary, Related, or Unrelated for any career which uses it (which seems to be what the _Aurore Sourcebook_ did), or you can create a whole new category of skills (such as the plethora of Psychic Skills that I created for that new skill category).
When adding new skills, be careful about how you assign its category, availability, and "go-up cost". If a player just has to have a PC with skill in Singing, Dancing, Harping, Scrounging, or Wilderness Craft, you can always let them develop it as a Primary, category-less skill... "Singing" and "Harping" will generally have no affect on play (unless you allow PCs to make money at it!), and can be allowed to advance quickly. Any skill of this "useless" or "flavoring" variety shouldn't cost much to advance. "Dancing" could be done the same way, although I would make it a subset of "Athletics", instead. Thus, it is categorized as a General Skill, and would be advanced as one. While "Scrounge" can be a separate skill, I allow "Survival" to be used in most areas, and "Streetwise" is more Urban areas. "Wilderness Craft" is "Survival" + "Stealth", with a bit of "Tracking" thrown in. I allow Tracking tasks to be done using "Survival", at one level's increase in difficulty (the ancient "Related skill" rule). Thus, I steer characters away from "Scrounge" and "Wilderness Craft", and towards the more generally useful skills.
When creating new useful skills, I generally assume that none of the PCs have ever been exposed to them, in their careers. Thus, any PC who wants to learn psionics will have to learn about them during the game, find someone to train them, and then advance them as Unrelated skills - very slowly, and at truly draconian costs! This makes it really hard for PCs to gain these skills, and the amounts of XP required to develop them help to slow down a campaign that has been moving too fast. Indeed, judicious use of just a few such new skills (say, Darksight and Infravision, for instance) can slow down advancement in other, more generally useful, skills, without even adding any new capabilities to the campaign (a good light-intensifying rifle scope or pair of biocontacts would do the same thing, although these can be taken away, or broken).
When creating new skills, you may want to create new careers that make use of them, such as those added in the _Aurore_ and _Nyotekundu Sourcebook_s, or the new Psionic Careers that I developed to make use of those skills. For the new skills that have no categories (or those that have a new one), these will be the only careers that have them as Primary or Related skills. Characters in other careers will be forced to advance them as Unrelated.
So there they are; suggestions for integrating the new skills into the game. If you have other new skills that you have introduced to your campaign, you can use similar concepts to help incorporate them. Other skills (such as, say, Psionics, for instance) you may wish to introduce without the possibility of PCs having any chances to know them. In such a case, you could handle them as "Combat Walkers", above. You might also want to use the NPC trainer idea, as well, or simply let the PCs figure out how to do things on their own, spending the 3 XP to gain the skills through experimentation (add some mishaps for failures, and you have an adventure)!