 March 29, 2008 - 8:56pm | New Skill System Proposal There are nine professional skill areas (PSAs) describing all potential aspects of a character's knowledge and ability. None of these PSAs are skills unto themselves, but instead a categorical collection of related skills. For example, you won't have a military skill. You'll have a melee weapons skill, or a demolitions skill. More Skills. Although there exists a list of skills under each PSA, this list is not exhaustive. Players are encouraged to develop their own ideas for skills to complete their character conceptions. Referees must approve the skill and the PSA under which it falls. Different players may even have the same skill under different skill areas if the Referee allows, representing different types of skill training. For example, Sarah wants her character to be good at data encryption. She looks throught he skill lists and can't specifically find that ability. She suggests it should fall under the Agent PSA. The Referee likes the idea and approves. Robert's character is a Military specialist and also wants skill with data encryption. He asks if he can have a data encryption skill under his Military PSA and the Referee allows it. In the end, they are both the same skill, but the training was derived from a different source. When decrypting military data, Robert's character is the obvious choice, though really they are both able to perform the skill the same. Character Generation All players must decide which PSA is primary to their character concept, and which two are secondary to it. List one PSA with a "P:" next to it. List two PSAs with an "S:" next to them. All seven other PSAs are tertiary to your character concept, and need not be listed on your sheet. Your character will begin with two level 1 skills. One of which must be from your character's Primary PSA. The second can be from any skill area desired. For example, your character's primary PSA is Military, and your secondary PSAs are Tech and Agent. You begin with two level 1 skills. One of which must come from your Military PSA, the other may come from any PSA (Military, Tech, Agent, or any other). You select Beam Weapons level 1 from Military, and Robotics level 1 from Tech. Character Advancement Instead of keying the costs of individual skills to the skill area itself (as it was done in Alpha Dawn rules), the costs are keyed to your PSA selections, rewarding a solid concept. Some people are good at learning sciences, some are good at learning languages... Some are natural born pilots. Whichever PSA is chosen as your character's primary one will have the easiest experience point progression. Your secondary PSAs will advance slightly slower, and all other skills will advance slowest still. After earning experience points, players may spend them on new skills or to advance skills they already have. The cost of the new skill level depends on whether the PSA which governs that skill was important to the character concept (i.e. was selected as either Primary or Secondary to your concept). The table below summarizes experience point costs. Table: Experience Point costs
Example: Logan is quite good at technical things. He can't change that about himself. Tech PSA is Primary to his concept. He's quite knowledgeable in many obscure areas and therefore Scholar PSA is secondary to his concept. Finally, he's a fair artist and that creativity often gives him insight to troubleshoot where hard facts fail him. Artist PSA is also Secondary to his concept. All other skill areas are tertiary to his concept. Skill Checks Where are the subskills? Where are my character's chances of success listed? The existing Alpha Dawn skill system requires lists and tables to be present at the gaming table, something that has been an antiquated idea since the early 1990s in role-playing evolution. This skill system takes its mechanics from the way Alpha Dawn expressed chance of success in combat. This helps keep your ability scores relevant even when testing one of your character's skills. To make a skill check, use 1/2 your character's ability score relevant to the situation, then add 10% per skill level. This applies to any roll having anything to do with that skill. There is no list of "subskills" defining what you can do with a skill: if you have a Survival skill (from the Scout PSA) for example, you get to make any roll having to do with survival in the same way. Modifiers apply based on any situational condition the Referee decides applies. Example: A robotics expert (someone with skill levels in Robotics, a skill in the Tech PSA) would be using his Intuition coupled with robotics skill when guessing where an access panel might be located on an attacking alien robotic technology, but if he were repairing it, he might be using Logic. There may even exist situations where the robotics skill could be used in conjunction with Dexterity or even Persuasion (haggling over the price of robotics parts with a chop shop owner?). In each of these cases, the player would use half his relavent ability score added to 10 times his skill level. Unskilled Skill Checks If you are asked to make a skill roll for a skill that is from either your primary secondary PSAs, yet you have no skill level in that skill, you may (if the Referee allows, based on the situation) use 1/2 your attribute but add nothing for skill level. This is called an Unskilled Skill Check. If you are asked to make a skill check for a skill you don't possess and is one that is from a PSA tertiary to your character concept, you can only succeed on a 01-05 (which is an automatic success in alpha dawn rules). Unskilled skill checks can be abused by players, and Referees are to be the final arbiter in such situations. For example: Uwan is a yazirian fleeing for his life from natives on a dangerous world he's gotten himself stranded on. As he rounds a corner in the canyon, he sees a place he thinks he can quickly climb up to a higher level. He needs to do this before the natives round the canyon, or they'll see him climbing and he'll be in trouble. His player, Fred, is told to make a climbing check using his Reaction Speed. His character's primary PSA is Scout, but he never thought of devoting any experience points to a climbing skill. He is allowed to use 1/2 his Reaction Speed score and use 0 as his skill level. Since his Reaction Speed is only 45, he has a 23% chance. He fails, and is half-way up the canyon wall when natives round the corner, spears in hand. Fred decides that after the adventure, he'll buy a level of climbing if his character survives! The Skill Areas Rather than provide an exhaustive list of skills, this system provides nine categories of professional skill. Individual skills are to be drawn from these PSAs. After each skill name is an example of the types of situations where that skill might come into play. This is meant to be a short example, not a comprehensive list of all situations.
Standard Rules Many skills from the tech skill area involve repairing equipment. These will use the standard repair rule from Alpha Dawn rulebook. Application of medical science can use the standard rules from Alpha Dawn as well, or a simpler mechanic: a successful Medic skill roll will heal a number of d10 equal to the medic's skill level, but require a like number of hours of recovery (thus a 3rd level medic might roll 3d10 and get 15... meaning he heals 15 STA if the patient rests 15 hours afterwards). If the full period of rest isn't taken, the healing will be halved. Finishing notes: Effort was made to allow this skill system to integrate seamlessly into existing campaigns. For example, all thirteen of the existing Star Frontiers Alpha Dawn skills are mentioned here, so converting a character is seamless. However, since there are more skills (and PSAs) than the original game, Referees might allow starting player characters to have Level 1 in a third skill drawn only from a tertiary PSA, just to round out the character and add more diversity. The defining factors about this skill system are the following:
3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 1, 2008 - 9:48pm | Just as Medic needs rolled into Scientist, I think several things could roll into Scholar. Languages, for example. I also think I need to specify a solid set of skills for each category. For military, that's pretty fixed. For some others, I need to specifically design comprehensive skills for that category. For example: Scout should have only a handful of broader skills, such as:
I think these five skills make a good foundation for a strong Scout professional skill area, and don't break the skill area down into too many specific skills. If someone doesn't have the Scout professional skill area as their primary or secondary skill areas, they can still take up Navigation (or Athletics or whatever) to round out their concept, but it would be at the higher "tertiary" skill cost because these are skills specific to the Scout profession. My goal was to still promote archetypes the way the original Alpha Dawn game did, but provide some broader categories of development for players. What do you think of the Scout PSA as outlined in this edit? My next step is to re-think Scholar/Linguist - it's too specific... 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
 April 1, 2008 - 10:03pm | I think that is much better than it was before. The only thing that comes to mind is that the Survival and Hunting/Gathering skills might be merged as they are related but distinct from the other skills listed. (In the SF world, hunting/gathering would be survival skills .) But they do make sense separate as well.Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
April 1, 2008 - 10:07pm | In classic Alpha Dawn, each PSA had only three skills, though there was a special case made for Weapon Skills in the Military PSA which significantly broadedned that skill area. I think if I try this system, with the added number of skills and the added number of skill areas, it will give the PCs more opportunity for diversity but also make them less rounded-out at character generation. I think it is necessary, therefore, to have three starting level 1 skills with this system to make it statistically more similar to Alpha Dawn. Perhaps 1 skill must come from Primary PSA, one must come from a Secondary PSA, and the third can come from Any PSA (Primary, Secondary, or otherwise). Also, some people are getting bothered by the word "Tertiary" -- is it confusing things, should I just call it "un-selected" or something? Basically, I'm allowing a player to select his own archetype by selecting three skill areas which are pertinent to his character concept. One is primary to his concept, and two are secondary to it. Any un-selected skills he has no professional affinity for and therefore pays a higher cost for the purchase of skills related to those skill areas. 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 1, 2008 - 11:07pm | Being a scientist, 'Tertiary' didn't bug me at all, I knew exactly what you meant and didn't think twice about it. But it's not a common word and I can see how it can bother/confuse people. I don't have any good suggestions though. On the number of starting skills, I guess the question really is this, is your intent to take some of the skills that were in the original three PSA's and move them out to others, or just added more skills in the new areas. If it's the former, then you don't have to give a third skill as all you are doing is adding more options for character generation but still allowing the original charater types to be created. If you are moving things out, then giving a third skill is probably a good idea as now you have changed the skill selection dynamic. I think what is happening is the former, namely the new Military PSA still has the same skill options as the original, the new Tech PSA has the skill sets from the old Technological PSA and the new Scientist PSA has all the skills from the old Bio-Social PSA. So the new PSAs which in some cases may have some redundant skills, are simply adding more options to create different types of characters. Thus I could instantly convert any existing AD character to this system without making a change at all (except that I should possibly have more skills because the cost of my skills has gone down). If this is the case, I'd say you don't need a third skill. For example, take my original character which I use for my screen name: Terl Obar. His AD PSA was Bio-social and his original starting skills were Medic and Enviromentalist. He later picked up Beam Weapons, Thrown Weapons and Demolitions and finally the Energy Weapons KH skill. So he translates to Scientist as his primary, Military as his secondary and probably Scout as the other secondary. The point is that only having the original two skills doesn't change the character concept at all. Nor does it make him less rounded out, he is still the same character. He doesn't have, for example, a diplomacy skill, but hey, he's a Yazarian, he just smacks somebody if they don't agree with him (and then patches them up once they've come around to his point of view ).BTW, I know this isn't easy, I've done similar stuff before. In my RuneQuest game we were really writing/playtesting an expansion to the basic system based on the world we developed. There were over 250 skills and just as many professions that we had to rationalize the skill sets for. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
April 1, 2008 - 11:22pm | Being a scientist, 'Tertiary' didn't bug me at all, I knew exactly what you meant and didn't think twice about it. But it's not a common word and I can see how it can bother/confuse people. I don't have any good suggestions though. I agree that we should merge survival and hunting/gathering. Wherever we can streamline the skill list we should, while still providing extra options. I guess the question we should ask ourselves is: "would anyone want to buy this skill alone?" and I can't imagine someone wanting to buy hunting/gathering alone, without the various survival skills one would need if he were hunting and gathering in the wilderness. I can, however, see situations where someone would want to purchase animal handling, athletics, or navigation alone.On the number of starting skills, I guess the question really is this, is your intent to take some of the skills that were in the original three PSA's and move them out to others, or just added more skills in the new areas. If it's the former, then you don't have to give a third skill as all you are doing is adding more options for character generation but still allowing the original charater types to be created. If you are moving things out, then giving a third skill is probably a good idea as now you have changed the skill selection dynamic. I think what is happening is the former, namely the new Military PSA still has the same skill options as the original, the new Tech PSA has the skill sets from the old Technological PSA and the new Scientist PSA has all the skills from the old Bio-Social PSA. So the new PSAs which in some cases may have some redundant skills, are simply adding more options to create different types of characters. Thus I could instantly convert any existing AD character to this system without making a change at all (except that I should possibly have more skills because the cost of my skills has gone down). If this is the case, I'd say you don't need a third skill. For example, take my original character which I use for my screen name: Terl Obar. His AD PSA was Bio-social and his original starting skills were Medic and Enviromentalist. He later picked up Beam Weapons, Thrown Weapons and Demolitions and finally the Energy Weapons KH skill. So he translates to Scientist as his primary, Military as his secondary and probably Scout as the other secondary. The point is that only having the original two skills doesn't change the character concept at all. Nor does it make him less rounded out, he is still the same character. He doesn't have, for example, a diplomacy skill, but hey, he's a Yazarian, he just smacks somebody if they don't agree with him (and then patches them up once they've come around to his point of view ).BTW, I know this isn't easy, I've done similar stuff before. In my RuneQuest game we were really writing/playtesting an expansion to the basic system based on the world we developed. There were over 250 skills and just as many professions that we had to rationalize the skill sets for. Yes, the additional skill areas are meant to be extra options, not to water down the existing Alpha Dawn skills. Some exceptions exist, though. For example, I'm not convinced Technician should provide someone an ability to drive vehicles, thus the Pilot skills. The reduced cost is there to promote strong archetypes (the military guy is good with weapons, the scientist guy is good with science, etc.) and does result in cheaper skills for keeping within your selected archetype. So conversions aren't as straightforward as I would like, though I'm not going to address that fact in the article probably. I really like the way I'm separating skills into categories based on character concept, not based on someone's interpretation on what's "Hard" or "Easy" to learn for your character. For example, some would argue that Demolitions is just as difficult to study and master as being a mechanic - yet in AD they decided it was as easy as shooting a gun. And anyone who's been to basic training would tell you (which I haven't, but I was told this by someone who was) - not everyone is able to be a very effective marksman! Some people barely get qualified on their weapons. For now, I'm going to use "Primary," "Secondary," and "Tertiary" and will refer to a skill area as a Professional Skill Area (PSA, but the P stands for Professional instead of Primary). 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 2, 2008 - 4:34am | Okay - I think I have Military, Pilot, Scout, and Tech all fully hammered-out, though there is some temptation to put Starship Engineering under Tech (though unlike KH, none of my skills require prerequisites... so I'm not sure how I want to handle that). I plan to fold Language into Scholar somehow, but first I have to read up on how Languages work in SF AD (I can't 'member). Next I need to categorize Scholar into a handful of skills. Any suggestions on a simple list? I need to come up with a finite list of Sciences by category (since listing every single field of science would be quite rediculous). I'm tempted to simply go with Medic, Psycho-Social, Environmental Science, then add Astrogation/Space Science in there as a fourth. That should be enough, right? Agent will require some special consideration. I don't want to spread the list of skills too thin. Perhaps just Stealth (which includes shadowing, prowling, and concealment), Theivery (which includes all forms of pickpocketing, lockpicking, palming, etc), Persuasion (includes all forms of getting people to do what you want through seduction, deception, intimidation, etc?), and Detective (includes finding clues, searching, reading body language, and anything else having to do with senses and hunches). Those four might do the trick, and I can imagine situations where someone would want to buy them individually. Sound sufficiently comprehensive? 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
 April 2, 2008 - 4:36am | I think the Scout set needs a Mariner Skill to cover use of terrestrial watercraft and related tasks involved in that area... or at the very absolute least, a Diving skill. <insert witty comment here> |
April 2, 2008 - 5:03am | I think the Scout set needs a Mariner Skill to cover use of terrestrial watercraft and related tasks involved in that area... or at the very absolute least, a Diving skill. Diving is pretty specific - I would classify that a use of their Athletic skill (which already includes swimming). The terrestrial watercraft idea is a good one... if quite specific... but I can't think of any broader category to go along with such watercraft. I know Pilot shouldn't cover rafts, canoes, and the like... that certainly belongs under Scout. Some argument could also be made to give Scouts the ability to manufacture simple weapons, defenses, and tools from the bounty of their environment. Any way these things can be grouped together under some catchy skill name? I'd hate to inflate Scout any further if possible?3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 2, 2008 - 5:42am | I think Military skill might include an Improvised Weapon skill (rather than in the Scout set directly), or otherwise the ability to use innumerable objects as worthy weapons.... Brandon Frazer throwing the chair to hit Bennie in "the Mummy", torches, various clubs, shovels, etc. which would typically have severe penalties for their improvised use. With a Dive skill, I can see your take on it (and that would work for me), but I meant that it might be rolled into the 'Mariner' set or a major function of such a set (given the limited use of true mariner skills in a futuristic setting). The Mariner skill would really only come into play when the setting or situation dictates that your technology has failed - limiting one to more low-tech options. <insert witty comment here> |
April 2, 2008 - 5:55am | Another tweak to the organization of the PSAs and skills (spurred by the Medic vs Scientist issues) would be to break Medical Fields from the other Science Skills, making Medical a PSA to itself. Psyco-social (Sociology/Psychiatry) would be moved to that PSA, and although it does fracture the previous Medical model in AD, I would in fact be more inclined to make each race have its own Skill medically speaking (in terms of Healing effects). This would provide the model for Alien doctors who have little knowledge on how to treat Frontier races, and vice versus. That leaves Scientist PSA lacking. Some suggestions here: Enviro Science (life sciences, ecology, etc), Nav/Astrogation science, Name? but sciences related to power (nuclear, petro-chemical, geothermal, solar, etc. tied to generating energy), ... I will try to clarify some more sciences. <insert witty comment here> |
April 2, 2008 - 7:16am | Another tweak to the organization of the PSAs and skills (spurred by the Medic vs Scientist issues) would be to break Medical Fields from the other Science Skills, making Medical a PSA to itself. Psyco-social (Sociology/Psychiatry) would be moved to that PSA, and although it does fracture the previous Medical model in AD, I would in fact be more inclined to make each race have its own Skill medically speaking (in terms of Healing effects). haha - this is how I originally had it. There was a Medic PSA and you had to purchase a racially-specific medic skill. This made sense to me, but I changed it for one specific reason: I'm trying to make this compatible with existing AD characters. Currently, a character built with AD rules can directly be converted to this skill system. Previously, with Medic being its own PSA, they couldn't. I actually think medical science is a science career - even it it's applied science more than theoretical (though try to convince researchers seeking cures for truly complex diseases that). I think I'm going to keep them together under science - especially because an existing AD character with a Biosocial PSA logically converts to a Scientist PSA, ya know?This would provide the model for Alien doctors who have little knowledge on how to treat Frontier races, and vice versus. That leaves Scientist PSA lacking. Some suggestions here: Enviro Science (life sciences, ecology, etc), Nav/Astrogation science, Name? but sciences related to power (nuclear, petro-chemical, geothermal, solar, etc. tied to generating energy), ... I will try to clarify some more sciences. I like the Mariner skill for Scout, and am adding it. 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 2, 2008 - 7:35am | SmootRK - one important thing to note about this skill system proposal, is that the skill lists in each PSA are not designed to be exhaustive. I'll give better examples of it, but the idea is to give a pretty comprehensive list of skills organized into logical categories. Players who want to have a special skill not listed can create it, negotiate its scope with the Referee, and purchase it. For example, if a player thought it vital to his character concept that his character had palaeontology as a skill and I obviously didn't specificy that particular skill, it's up to the Referee and player to decide in which PSA it falls. If I did my job right, any new skill discussion will be obvious which PSA it falls under. Palaeontology, for instance, would most notably fall under Scientist. If the player just wanted to have a strong background knowledge in Palaeontology the Referee and player might decide to make it a Scholar skill. 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 2, 2008 - 9:15am | I can see things this way. FYI, usually when I am posting, I am simply adding fuel for thought or otherwise trying to provoke discussion on the various ideas, and not as 'demands that things be set the way that I envision them'... I am much too flexible and open minded to think that my ideas are the only way (although I often see others posting in that manner). I do see that in a game that is essentially classless, provisions in the skills or special abilities areas must be made so that characters of virtually any concept can be developed. For me, it is the counter-side of heavily classed-based gaming structures. In this sense, I like the open-ended mentality you are building into this mechanic... specifically wording that new skills could and should be developed when they present themselves. <insert witty comment here> |
 April 2, 2008 - 2:04pm | Wow. You all have really been conversing today. Being a scientist, 'Tertiary' didn't bug me at all, I
knew exactly what you meant and didn't think twice about it. But it's
not a common word and I can see how it can bother/confuse people. I
don't have any good suggestions though. I don't recall anyone
here being confused by the word "tertiary".I really like the way I'm separating skills into
categories based on character concept, not based on someone's
interpretation on what's "Hard" or "Easy" to learn for your character.
For example, some would argue that Demolitions is just as difficult to
study and master as being a mechanic - yet in AD they decided it was as
easy as shooting a gun. And anyone who's been to basic training would
tell you (which I haven't, but I was told this by someone who was) -
not everyone is able to be a very effective marksman! Some people
barely get qualified on their weapons. Actually, I think
military was the least expensive because you get the least return on
your investment. When you compare skill for skill, then you get the
idea that military skills (which are really just subskills) are in fact
MORE expensive than others.
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April 2, 2008 - 3:08pm | Actually, I think
military was the least expensive because you get the least return on
your investment. When you compare skill for skill, then you get the
idea that military skills (which are really just subskills) are in fact
MORE expensive than others. I guess that depends on whether or not you think it really is the same thing to shoot an Uzi (Auto Pistol), M16/AK47 (Auto Rifle) and M-50 (Machine Gun). I have no clue, not into guns (I guess I could ask my dad who was in the Army and has his sharpshooter qualification) but many consider the fact that one weapon skill, in this example Projectile weapons, allows you skills with a bunch of different weapons. i.e. each weapon in the class is effectively a subskill. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
April 2, 2008 - 5:59pm | Actually, I think
military was the least expensive because you get the least return on
your investment. When you compare skill for skill, then you get the
idea that military skills (which are really just subskills) are in fact
MORE expensive than others. I guess that depends on whether or not you think it really is the same thing to shoot an Uzi (Auto Pistol), M16/AK47 (Auto Rifle) and M-50 (Machine Gun). I have no clue, not into guns (I guess I could ask my dad who was in the Army and has his sharpshooter qualification) but many consider the fact that one weapon skill, in this example Projectile weapons, allows you skills with a bunch of different weapons. i.e. each weapon in the class is effectively a subskill. I once ran a game where I determined that all pistols were one skill, all rifles another, all heavy weapons a third. That worked okay... but it made the military character able to pick up any weapon he found and fire it with equal skill. I rejected this because it seemed unbalanced. 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 2, 2008 - 6:07pm | Since Scholar is new here... I'm having trouble coming up with a seemingly comprehensive list of skills. Anyone have any ideas? I don't want to have them too narrow in scope. What I have so far: History, Politics, Economics, Pop Culture, Law. 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 2, 2008 - 6:15pm | Theology, Information. I think in skills like this and with Military, a character should choose which one of the skills is their prime skill. The one that they're focused in. |
April 2, 2008 - 6:22pm | Theology, Information. I don't understand your meaning. Scholar isn't a single skill, it's a PSA. Military isn't a skill, it's a PSA. What do you mean a character should choose which one of the skills is their prime skill? You either select a skill or you don't... it's your prime skill if that's the one you focus spending experience points on (which if it's in your Primary PSA, it fits your concept and is cheap to buy).I think in skills like this and with Military, a character should choose which one of the skills is their prime skill. The one that they're focused in. Theology is a good solid addition, though it should be more broad... philosophy/theology... otherwise you'd have to say what religion/faith. What is "Information" supposed to govern? 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 2, 2008 - 6:33pm | Information acquisition, research, and recording. Philosphy/Theology is fine. |
April 2, 2008 - 7:33pm | Unless someone has an opposition to it, I have a basic spread for the Artist PSA...
3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 2, 2008 - 7:34pm | You could perhaps say "information gathering" or "gather information" instead of just "information". Star Wars lists it, including "learn News and Rumors", "learn secret information", "locate individual". It also includes clerical duties. It's a great part of being a news reporter. |
April 2, 2008 - 7:42pm | Unless someone has an opposition to it, I have a basic spread for the Artist PSA... Performing arts and visual arts are two different things. Performance art is no more groupable with visual arts than someone who is "a real artist with the sword" or "turns flying into an art form". Performance art is a form of entertainment. In fact, I find little relation between any of those forms. Just because someone is good in one doesn't mean they're going to be good in any of the others. To go further, there's few people who can master more than one of those and almost never more than two.
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 April 2, 2008 - 7:57pm | Unless someone has an opposition to it, I have a basic spread for the Artist PSA... By all means keep it! Its refreshing. Especialy because you did a good job with the breakdown. I would gladly play renowned jazz player (secondary-artist) who is actualy a spy (primary-agent) with driving skils (tertiary-pilot). «Language is a virus from outer space» William S. Burroughs |
April 2, 2008 - 7:56pm | Linguist? Wouldn't that go in the Scholar list instead? «Language is a virus from outer space» William S. Burroughs |
April 2, 2008 - 8:11pm | Unless someone has an opposition to it, I have a basic spread for the Artist PSA... Performing arts and visual arts are two different things. Performance art is no more groupable with visual arts than someone who is "a real artist with the sword" or "turns flying into an art form". Performance art is a form of entertainment. In fact, I find little relation between any of those forms. Just because someone is good in one doesn't mean they're going to be good in any of the others. To go further, there's few people who can master more than one of those and almost never more than two.
The same can be said for the grouping of most skill areas... for example, being an effective Computer expert doesn't give you a hoot of a chance to be a technician or a robotics engineer. They're all completely different fields of technology, completely unrelated. The only thing that groups them logically is their relationship to Technology. And explain to me how being a Martial Artists makes you have any better chance at being a Demolitions expert? That's why I grouped all these forms of creativity and expression into a category. Realistic? No. But it's organized for game mechanic sake. I agree with you in principal - but for a game I think it works quite well. I agree that all the implementation of these forms of creativity are very different. But I also think that being a creative, artistic character should help your character learn any of these forms of expression, art, or entertainment better than an uncreative character. I'm rewarding the character concept, nothing more. Thus I think they're grouped fairly logically. If you want your character to be an effective professional painter, you select Artist for a primary or secondary PSA and select Visual Art as a skill. Just because it's inexpensive for you to learn sculpting, doesn't mean you have to spend a single xp on it, and you'll be no better at it than someone with Artist as a Tertiary skill area. However, if you wanted to also be able to sculpt, you'd take on structural art as a skill as well, spending XP on it. Because you chose a creative path, it's easier for you to pick up despite being different skills. If later you wanted to take up singing - you could. Even though it's totally different, it's a form of expression and so the cost is cheap for your character. That doesn't mean all artists are singers - I'm rewarding your concept, not stating that all artists of every form of expression are identical. I'm not going to make every form of art a separate skill area. 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 2, 2008 - 8:13pm | A Skill Area you could ad is «Governer». (think Lando, Cloud City) Possible skills : Administration, Politics, Socialite, Contact making, Finances, Fund raising, Charity work, Campaign organising. «Language is a virus from outer space» William S. Burroughs |
April 2, 2008 - 8:13pm | Unless someone has an opposition to it, I have a basic spread for the Artist PSA... By all means keep it! Its refreshing. Especialy because you did a good job with the breakdown. I would gladly play renowned jazz player (secondary-artist) who is actualy a spy (primary-agent) with driving skils (tertiary-pilot). 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 2, 2008 - 8:15pm | A Skill Area you could ad is «Governer». (think Lando, Cloud City) I'd handle that with my current breakdown by taking skill levels in Politics, and Economics (Scholar PSA) and perhaps Persuasion (Agent PSA). I'd hire folks with Composition skill (Artist PSA, speech writers!) See? The skill system is working so far pretty well.Possible skills : Administration, Politics, Socialite, Contact making, Finances, Fund raising, Charity work, Campaign organising. 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
April 2, 2008 - 8:18pm | Linguist? Wouldn't that go in the Scholar list instead? I considered that - but you'd have to purchase it multiple times with different languages specified... which would be the only exception to the way skills work. Since I don't want exceptions, I'm considering leaving it its own PSA. Few folks will take Linguist as a Primary or Secondary PSA for their characters, so languages purchased by most PCs will be at the Tertiary level of xp costs. True "linguists" that do it professionally would probably be NPCs who take Linguist PSA as either Primary or Secondary to their concept. But of course, there's nothing stopping a PC from taking the PSA as primary or secondary.3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
