 March 26, 2008 - 9:03am | The thread on Sniper Rifles has gotten a little off the topic of Sniper Rifles (or the associated skill involved in shooting such). How would one craft a 'purely Alpha Dawn' style Military PSA skill set. As I stated in the other thread, the skills associated with being an outdoorsman or survivalist (aka scout mentioned there) seem much more militaristic in nature than being associated with the more Scientist style types in the Biosocial PSA. Another way we might look at this in a more global sense is 'how could we reorganize the skills and skill groups of the Alpha Dawn rules (all of them), while still keeping the feel of the game intact?' I know there are other variations out there (namely Zeb's, Corjay's version, and various houserules), but could we not figure out a replacement that does not depart from the original style (as in not changing to a completely piecemeal style)? This kind of endeavor can also update some concepts that were not well understood in the eighties when the rules where first designed. anyhow, fuel for though... anyone have ideas for this? <insert witty comment here> |
 March 26, 2008 - 10:22am | Well, as you inadvertantly implied, the first thing to do is break subskills reliance on any particular PSA. However, that being said, the Military skills are so cheap BECAUSE they have no accompanying subskills (with the exception of Demolitions, which its subskills should have been assumed anyway). I think Scout should still be a Biosocial skill set (Though I prefer the 4 PSA division, separating Explorer from Biosocial). See below for a Scout skill set offering. I think using the skill sets to keep things cheap and used as a jumping board and then having the option to purchase more expensive individual subskills was a great result of the melding of the existing systems. Of course, that needs to be playtested, but I think it would be something that everyone would enjoy. It needs to be tested not only in playability but in cost ratios, as you wouldn't want people to only go with individual subskills because it's too effective to buy them individually, and you wouldn't want people to only go with skill sets because they're too easy to acquire compared to individual subskills. At any rate, I really think that makes for a supurb skills system. The question is what skills to include. That's assuming others like the idea. As for a Scout skill set (I like "Scout", because it implies more and is fairly universal. "Survivalist" is limited), it seems fairly obvious to me: Scout Concealment Find Directions First Aid Make Tools/Weapons Neutralize Toxin Stealth Survival Tracking That would cover the field, I think, and it's a reasonable number of subskills. |
