Okay, now we get to the skill tables. And I misunderstood
earlier; there are more than 24 skills. Each service has its own set of skill
tables. Personal Development mostly affect characteristics, and skills like
gambling, brawling, and gun/blade combat. Oh, and Merchants can learn the fine
art of bribery, too. Once again, the Navy demonstrates its aristocratic nature
by being the only service that gives a chance to increase Social Standing,
while Other can actually DECREASE that stat. The Navy and Scouts are the only
ones that can increase Intelligence, while they and the Army are the only ones
that provide a chance to increase Education. That’s interesting, because the
Marines like a higher education for commissioning, but they don’t give you a
chance to increase it. All six services can increase Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance
(the Merchants have 2 Strength increases available). The Marines, Merchants,
and Other have Blade Combat, the Scouts have Gun combat, while the Army,
Marines and Other careers have Brawling as options. I guess the Personal
Development tables are more ‘self-improvement’ or ‘self-taught’ skills,
especially since the Army has no combat skills other than Brawling on this
table (but they, along with the Marines, can learn to gamble).
The next table is Service Skills, the basic stuff required
to serve in the career. These have a wide variety; the Scouts are the only ones
with no combat skills on this table. The Navy has Ship’s Boat, Vacc Suit,
Forward Observer, Blade and Gun Combat, and Gunnery. The Marines have ATV, Vacc
Suit, Blade and Gun Combat (twice each). The Army also has ATV, but not Vacc
Suit; they get Air/Raft, Forward Observer, Blade Combat, and two shots at Gun
Combat (no pun intended). The Scouts have Air/Raft, Vacc Suit, Navigation,
Mechanical, Electronic, and Jack-of-all-Trades, and I’m not sure what that
means yet. But it’s interesting that Navigation is a basic service skill for
the Scouts, while it’s Advanced Education for the Merchants and the Navy (and
no one else gets them). Merchants have ‘Steward,’ so…butler? Vacc Suit, another
Strength bonus (they must really like lifting stuff), Gun Combat, Electronic,
and JOT. Other gets an interesting suite of skills: Forgery, Gambling,
Brawling, Blade and Gun Combat, and Bribery. So ‘Other’ now looks like the
seedier side of things, something Han Solo would have been interested in.
There are two Advanced Education tables, one for common
schlubs, and those with 8+ scores. The Navy gets more Vacc Suit and Gunnery
options, as well as Mechanical, Engineering, Electronics, and JOT.
Interestingly, all six careers have Mechanical and Electronic as 2 and 3 on
these tables. The Marines and Army get Tactics and more fighting stuff; the
Scouts get our first view of Medical, as do the Merchants, on the regular AE
table, so I guess that would be the rough-and-ready first aid training, rather
than the specialized ‘Doctor McCoy’ type medicine. Merchants and Other get
‘Streetwise,’ so again the Other category is looking more and more like the
career criminals (Forgery appears again, as do Gambling and Brawling). The
Merchants get Navigation and Gunnery as Advanced Education options here.
The ‘university-level’ AE table for 8+ Has Medical and
Computer for everyone. The Navy also gets Navigation for the first time,
Engineering, Administration, and Piloting. The Marines get Tactics twice,
Leadership, and Administration, as do the Army (same table for both services).
Scouts get more Navigation, Engineering, Piloting, and Jack-of-all-Trades for
the third straight table. Merchants get the same table, except they get Administration
instead of JOT. The Other category gets Forgery for the third time, as well as
Streetwise, Electronics, and JOT. So, the Other career really doesn’t offer
much in terms of space stuff except for computers and electronics.
So, what do these tables tell us? The Navy is the best
service for those looking to advance in society, and they can learn all the
important stuff for running a starship. No surprise there. The Marines and Army
are good at killing people and breaking things, but they can also put them back
together if necessary. The Scouts are more of a seat-of-the-pants organization,
being able to do a lot of different things, but lacking in the focus of other
services. Merchants are good with starship control, but also at dealing with
bureaucracy. And the ‘Others’ are very much in tune with the streets…I get the sense that many of
them are probably criminals.
Characters who get blade and gun combat skills have to
specify what weapon they are using, too, so no general ‘all guns’ or ‘all
blades’ skills. Too bad; I like the idea of someone who can pick up any weapon
and be deadly with it. But, that’s a bit too ‘Rambo’ for some people.
In tomorrow's installment, I'll finish creating my character, Jamie Rollinson. Here's hoping the Army life agrees with him.
No comments:
Post a Comment