 March 6, 2011 - 8:50pm | Kicking around ideas for PSA Projectile weapons PSA- all gunpowder weapons- pistols skill, rifles skills, Heavy guns skills- cannon/ gatling guns Native PSA (indian): Animals kinship (allows them to ride a horse without buying that skill), Native weapons, Stealth, Folk medicine, Folk Lore skill Note: natives suffer -20 reaction penalties in town. Focus of the game should be on cowboys and gun slingers but undoubtably Entertaining PSA: Dance, play instrument, sing, Need a PSA to cover bluffing (gamblers), and huckstering (snake oil sales man), diplomacy Science PSA: Medicine, scratching my head for another science skill in the west. maybe Geology. not satisfied with the above- thinking to dump the PSA system in favor of a straight skill system and a background. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 31, 2011 - 8:47am | Would be warry about cannons and gatlings in the same catagory. However I guess SF dosn't really distinguish them either. Maybe a Vrusk and Sathar gain a +10 personality bonus with the Hopi? Sathar Oil Salesman. Use Hypnosis. There needs to be a whole catagory just for the gambler and snake oil salesmen archetype, such skills are not included in the concepts of starfrontiers heroic morality. Though it would possibly cover the free merchant trader archetype in the SF setting as well. No idea what to call it tho'. Free Merchant Trader isn't very wild west, but it should be in the PSA system. Maybe call it the Rambler PSA, thats an old west word that covers a generic but definable archetype. Geology is good, Demolitions is a Science not a Military for the old west, lots of injuries proved that. The typical Pan Handeler either was a Geologist or learned quickly the required science skills, including dynomite. The military didn't use dynomite unless they had such a trained person to handle it, the specalized traning for explosives were taught to the young soldiers by those people when neccesary but such training was informal at best... hence lots of accidents and soldiers( and officers) reluctant to trust the stuff. Plus the sticks could leak and explode when stored and handled improperly, more basic science knowlege the average soldier lacked. All of the above should be taken with the understanding that there are more citeable exceptions to that rule, survivors tend to be more famous, and no press shows up for the darwin awards. Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
July 31, 2011 - 2:25pm | The problem with no PSAs is that every character sort of looks like every other character. But then in the wild west all the primary characters were gun hands so the all looked pretty similar from a skill perspective. I like the idea of a native PSAs, though. Perhaps no PSAs and a system of feats like in D&D 3.5 would serve to differentiate characters; I can't see using classes. With the feat system you could make some feats only available to natives. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 12, 2011 - 12:48pm | just a brain storm Skills by their modifying Ability score. (note some of these skills are intended for the character to make a little side money while in town between adventures, ie labor or dentistry) DEX: pistols, Rifles, knife fighting, mounted combat RS: slight of hand (cheating at cards among other things), Quick draw, balance STR: Fist-E-Cuffs, Labor, Clubs(weapons- black jack, club, improvised weapons ie a bottle) STA: Swiming, running, Toughness (shrug off wound effects and increases punch score) INT: Animal handling/husbandry, Ride, tracking, Vetrinary science/care, trapping LOG: Medicine, Dentistry, Geology, artillery, Latin, PER: Oratory, Deception, showmanship, fortune telling LDR: Motivate, Commad Note: Medicine counts as latin but at 1/2 level rounded up Dentistry counts as medicine at 1/2 level rounded up and latin at 1/3 level rounded up. and a dentist can pull a few teeth between adventures for a little money (everyone had terrible teeth and the work is there) Native skills are Bow, Native Weapons, Folk lore, Folk medicine, ride, mounted combat, story telling, stealth, tracking. EDIT: I've been wracking my brains for a good way to allow for good character concepts and creativity for the player but I just don't see a way to do it in the traditional SF style. Seems that maybe the best thing is to have character concept/classes with class skills and non class skills. ie: Gambler, Gunfighter, Cowboy, Miner, showman/woman, doctor, Dentist, etc. Class skill are the cheapest to purchase and non class skills cost X2 and native skills (for a white man) cost X3 Natives have native skills-cheapest; certain white skills X2 and other white skills (like dentistry) cost X3 half breeds get the X2 white skills of the native as the cheapest, and choose either the native skills or the X3 white skills as the their secondary skill set or X2 and the last becomes their X3. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
