Attribute/skill help for a Paranoia XP noob

[ugavine]

Hi guys, gals & COMPUTER,

I'm new to the boards and to Paranoia XP but not to role-playing or to the Paranoia universe.

I really want to run a Paranoia XP game in a couple of weeks time but just seem to struggle getting my head around Attributes/Skills checks. Looking at the pre-made PCs in the XP rulebook some skills are lower than the Attribute. I know you have to roll equal or lower than your skill, but is the target number the Attribute, Skill or combination of both? I just cannot make sense of the rule book. I'm a vetran of D20 & WEGs D6 systems but XP is confusing me.

I have seen a couple of threads pointing at RPG.net but I'm on a works computer and that site is blocked.

Any help would be much appreciated. All hail the COMPUTER.

 

[Mytholder]

It's always roll lower.

You've got your Skills (no attributes any more) - Management, Violence, Stealth, Hardware and so on.

You've got Specialties (Energy Weapons, Bootlicking, etc) which are the Skill +4.

However, you may also have Weaknesess, which draw from the same list as Specialties but are always at 01.

So, take Troubleshooter Example-R. He's got a Violence skill of 8. To do anything generically Violent, he needs to roll an 8 or less. Example-R has a Specialty in Energy Weapons, meaning he needs to roll a 12 or less to shoot someone with a laser.

Unfortunately, he's got a weakness in Thrown Weapons - if he chucks a grenade, he's only got a 5% chance of hitting with it.

Make sense?

 

[ugavine]

Cheers. Think I have it now.

Many thanks for your prompt help.