Shouldn't most Space Marines start with this skill trained?
I'm asking, as most Marines that are seconded to the Deathwatch are Veterans of some sort or other, so most will have served as an Assault Marine before serving as a Tactical Marine, so should therefore be trained in Pilot (Personal), correct?
I tend to agree with you. But Pilot (any) can be purchased at Rank 3 under General advances, I believe. So they're seeing it as more of an upgrade to buy into, than a free bonus that you should be able to exploit at Rank 1.
Deathwatch is a game about Space Marines, and not just regular ol' Space Marines (because, while awesome, there's so many of the buggers), but max awesome best-from-across-the-universe veterans of superawesomesauce.
Deathwatch, unfortunately, is also an RPG that has to balance the various chapters, classes, skills, talents, equipment, and opponents into a proper vehicle for fun and games around a table rolling some bones.
As a nigh inevitable part of being an RPG that carries across sessions, experience is gained and new skills, talents, equipment, and opponents are gained. Some of those new skills, talents, equipment, and opponents are encountered earlier on that path, some later, generally in the order of relative power from least to greatest.
Pilot (Personal) is a skill that serves as an artificial limit on an otherwise capable Space Marine (who, fluff tells us, has probably taken part in hundreds of battles of epic proportions, at least some of which with a frickin' jet pack attached to their back) being capable of taking a Rank III equipment item for non "specialists" (who somehow maintained the ability to not fly himself into a tree EVERY time he tries to fly a jet pack he's already spent 1000s of training hours and 100s of battle hours flying adroitly) as a weight in the scales of balance RPG development tends to lean towards.
If it helps the flavor of your game, you could start the players at a higher rank and XP. That way they can acquire the skills that you believe they should have just coming in to the deathswatch.
Unusualsuspect said:
Deathwatch, unfortunately, is also an RPG that has to balance the various chapters, classes, skills, talents, equipment, and opponents into a proper vehicle for fun and games around a table rolling some bones.
As a nigh inevitable part of being an RPG that carries across sessions, experience is gained and new skills, talents, equipment, and opponents are gained. Some of those new skills, talents, equipment, and opponents are encountered earlier on that path, some later, generally in the order of relative power from least to greatest.
Can't say this enough- this seems to come up again and again. A lot of the 'wait, why doens't my character start with X or Y' can all be answered by this.
If you have someone that wants to do the assault thing and isn't an assault marine, consider modifying the starting packages or do as Talker suggests.
Also - for all the w40k purists - allow Pilot (Personal) at first rank (for free or for it's full cost, depending on your generosity), but raise the renown requirement for jump pack to the second reknown rank (assault marine is getting his for free so he won't complain).
If my players can justify why they should have a skill like, and I agree that it is sound logic, I give it to them as an Untrained Basic Skill, they know how to use it enough to get around with one and wear it but not do awesome tricks and stuff without taking a penalty. Giving something as an untrained basic skill is the best way to handle things you think they should know but don't want to take one of the few things that sets a different specialty Marine apart.