Then that leads to the question of why have a SOC score when you can use money instead. One's position in a corporation is a matter of employment, basically what job he holds, such a person could lose his job tomorrow, the corporation could go belly up, there could be a run on its stocks in the sto...

Considering the frequency with which I've seen character balance issues come up on gaming sites like RPOL, the point-buy part is the one i'm most interested in.

I suppose that if the noble in question had sufficient jurisdiction over the army then they could, in that capacity, issue a new regulation regarding forms of address to cover this situation. That's going to bring a lot of unwanted scrutiny and questions regarding their intentions (or competence) th...

Both of these are going to depend heavily on the specifics of the laws in question. If you personally know the individual, and are aware of their age/license status, then an attestation might be enough to deflect legal trouble in some places, especially if it's a low law level area. It's not going t...

Could they do it and feel morally justified? Maybe. Could they do it and be legally justified? Not unless that legal system allows it - and if it's based on most real-world 'western' systems then the answer is no. In the same vein, and assuming a similar legal system, they should probably not be on ...

#5: It's just poorly phrased. Each rank of steward among the crew that deals with passengers allows for two high class or five middle class passengers. This may involve one steward or several, as long as they have enough ranks between them to cover all of the passengers. Each ton of Luxuries on the ...

I figure that there should be some practical experience with this by now, so... How compatible is 1E material with the 2E core rules? Anything ship-related seems likely to require a good deal of thunking given the changes to ship design/mechanics, but what about character material, setting fluff, et...

Actually, the (possibly wrong) impression I got from what I looked up was that the extremely long half-life materials were not the materials that were left after nuclear explosion. That's also what I was referring to, not wind/rain/etc. It might not be safe in a month or so, but years later, and es...

In the case of something like a derelict ship, anyone going aboard is presumably going to be wearing a vacc suit, and those already need to protect the wearer from the ambient radiation they'll be getting if they're outside a planet's magnetic field and even more so if they happen to be outside the ...

Something from 1st: First Aid/Surgery/etc probably ought to restore 1 + Effect rather than Effect. Otherwise you can have successful checks that don't actually do anything.

Sure, it's conceptually interesting, but what benefit does it actually give on a practical level? The only thing I can see it doing is resulting in a lot of wasted time as a player has to start over (and over and over) again.

Natural Weaponry
Unarmed Combat

These are really the same thing when you get down to it - fists are 'natural weapons' for humans, etc.

Cross-compatibility would be less of an issue given that the setting is often dealing with computer tech that has some degree of intelligence and problem-solving built into it or at least available to it as programs, but to the extent that it remains relevant I'd rather it continue to be handled abs...

Depends on what you mean by "doesn't go away". Things can stop being meaningfully radioactive after a certain amount of time because they aren't producing anything more than normal background levels - there are non-threatening levels of radioactivity in everyday materials and events (rocks, rain, et...

I like the idea that you increase your level in the skills you are using. I do not mind this sort of thinking at all. Study, experience, practice, listening and watching others (teachers or mentors) all mix into the learning equation. I agree 100% with you. But right now I don't get the feeling the...

Open to suggestions on this! The system links learning to in-game time, which is reasonable from a thematic standpoint but presents us with the practical gameplay problem that in-game time is going to pass at rates that vary wildly from group to group and even from scenario to scenario. (One that t...

Athletics already lists long-distance swimming under the Endurance specialization, so I'd take it as covering swimming by default, using Str/Dex/End depending on what you're trying to do.

In all honesty, I do prefer a solution that stresses role playing over mechanics. Everything else about the system stresses mechanics, and heavily so at that; roleplaying definitely loses out to mechanics when it comes to everything else about the character, so trying to make this one aspect of the...

Given that we're dealing with the Space Opera genre it's perfectly normal for main/major/player characters - even those with a long life behind them - to gain skills at a remarkable rate compared to ordinary people and compared to their earlier selves. Once you become a protagonist, you operate at t...

I don't know whether it's the intent, but the way it's written implies that it doesn't count as a term or take the place of one - it's an extra that you might or might not manage to get.