Okay, let's continue with the Experience section, which isn't really 'experience' in the traditional RPG sense. We get an example of how the weapons training works. I'm reminded now that you get to work on two different weapons, one gun and one blade, at the same time. So, you can work on pistol and sword at the same time. Hey, I'm up for that. And to clarify how the skill improvement works, the example shows that a ½-point skill becomes a 1-point skill after the four years (a permanent improvement), while a full-point skill is only improved for the four-year studying cycle. If a second cycle is done, the newly-minted 1-point skill goes to 2 points, while the other one (revolver-3 in the example) continues to be improved to Revolver-4. After a second four-year cycle is completed, the Revolver skill improvement is permanent, but the other skill reverts to 1 point, since only four years was spent on getting it up to level 2.
Frankly, this seems like an awful lot of effort for what will be not a lot of reward. Sure, I know that skill levels on a 2D system are more significant than they are on a 3D or a d20 system, but still, that's a heck of a lot of time sunk to getting that small improvement.
Skill Improvement is the third method, and it works basically the same as Weapon Skill Improvement, except that you have to already have at least one skill level in the skill(s) you want to improve. You can do up to two of these improvements in a four-year training cycle, and just as with weapons, the increase is a temporary one unless you do a second four-year cycle to make them permanent.
Physical Fitness is the last option; dumb people will have a much harder time to complete this, with hefty DMs for low intelligence (making it a 12+ roll to continue if your intelligence is less than 6. If you do manage the roll, then you get a +1 in strength, endurance, and dexterity for the duration of the program. You can't make these improvements permanent, though. So, it looks like JR is going to have to get some jogging pants and a sweatband if he wants to be able to use his signature weapon. Well, so be it. Oh, and all the physical training in the universe isn't going to help you bump up any of those attributes over 15. Which is fine, because I can't imagine anyone actually needing to be that strong, agile, or hardy.
If you don't have the required materials handy (the appropriate weapons, for example, or a tutor for skill improvement), you can suspend your program temporarily, for up to three months before you lose the benefits altogether. That shouldn't be too hard with the weapons, since most people can lug them around as needed. Skill improvement, on the other hand, will basically require you to stay home and study, or bring the tutor along on the adventures with you, and good luck convincing a university professor to follow you around the galaxy and risk getting shot at just so you can improve your Navigation skill.
So, that's it for ordinary means of self-improvement. The rules do note that there might be more exotic methods of improving things, such as RNA implants, surgical alteration, military or mercenary training, etc. But anything along those lines is in the Referee's hands, and isn't in the scope of the rules. Well, fine, then.
Next up...the page with the Answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. That's right, it's page 42!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment