Skill list modification

[sideranautae]

I've been modifying the skill list to make it more adventurer/explorer oriented. I got rid of all the green grocer & merchant stuff. Combined the ship engineering skills.

Eliminated Comms.

Gun combat is more valuable now. It includes training on, combat with guns. If you don't have it, you are plus +2 to get hit in a shoot out/combat as you are untrained and are apt to do stupid stuff that exposes you.

Got rid of legal and Admin skills.

Thinking of a skill called Damage Control. (just have to decide what it does)

Any ideas about other skill changes?

 

[Infojunky]

Gun combat is more valuable now. It includes training on, combat with guns. If you don't have it, you are plus +2 to get hit in a shoot out/combat as you are untrained and are apt to do stupid stuff that exposes you.

Why?

Thinking of a skill called Damage Control. (just have to decide what it does)

You have engineering....... So how do you fix your air/raft?

 

[Matt Wilson]

Couldn't you just tell the players that you want an adventure/exploration game and they should pick scout/mercenary careers instead of merchant?

 

[sideranautae]

Why?

Why what?

You have engineering....... So how do you fix your air/raft?

Depends what is wrong with it. Electronics, mechanical. But, I should have a specific gravities skill.

 

[Anonymous]

Gun combat is more valuable now. It includes training on, combat with guns. If you don't have it, you are plus +2 to get hit in a shoot out/combat as you are untrained and are apt to do stupid stuff that exposes you.

Every PC every has some form of gun combat skill. OK, not every but if people are getting into gun fights without gun combat then they're dumb and I get that you're penalising them for their stupidity and I agree cos most players have the tactical acumen of a dead dog but...

There's a -3 DM already in play for being unskilled. Giving the opposition a +2 makes for dead players real soon. I like the idea of deterrence but in reality, most players think their characters invincible and go ahead with their foolish antics anyway.

Gun combat should include the basic tactics of how not to get shot, I 104% agree, the question is, how do you get players with no sense to play that without completely removing the visual representation (be it 20mm figures or a simple hand drawn map) and abstract it completely?

 

[sideranautae]

Gun combat is more valuable now. It includes training on, combat with guns. If you don't have it, you are plus +2 to get hit in a shoot out/combat as you are untrained and are apt to do stupid stuff that exposes you.

There's a -3 DM already in play for being unskilled. Giving the opposition a +2 makes for dead players real soon.

The -3 is for hitting a target. NOT for being an easier target. So yes, people who aren't trained in combat who go up against people who are, makes for dead people real soon. Much like people who would surf Mavericks without a skill in surfing, free climb El Capitan with no skill, etc., etc. I never save PC's from stupidity. Unless I'm GMing children.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, I stated there's the -3 for what the characters are doing and that you're giving the opposition a bonus for fighting the untrained, I understood your post but you've not answered my question.

You're enforcing a penalty on characters and denying their option to role play. Their decision to take on an unskilled task is a role play one and you're not role playing it, you're roll playing it.

The question again:

How do you get players with no sense to play that without completely removing the visual representation (be it 20mm figures or a simple hand drawn map) and abstract it completely?

The abstraction is that players must visualise the events in their heads, no map on a table with figures. If you're giving the opposition DMs because the players are unskilled it's pointless having the scenario set out on a map, just use words to describe the scene and roll away...

 

[Anonymous]

I've been modifying the skill list to make it more adventurer/explorer oriented. I got rid of all the green grocer & merchant stuff. Combined the ship engineering skills.

Eliminated Comms.

Got rid of legal and Admin skills.

The free trader campaign is a stalwart of Traveller, without the merchant skills how will players make their fortunes? I'm not one of them but there are plenty of players who enjoy this kind of game.

In the absence of admin/legal skills will you have players role play their interactions with the law and bureaucracy? Sounds very dull. If ever there was a place for roll playing, it's trade and admin.

If your games will never have trade, legal or administrative angles perhaps you could take a moment to describe the settings you envisage your re written rules are intended for?

 

[sideranautae]

You're enforcing a penalty on characters and denying their option to role play.

Umm, nope. There is no restriction on role playing. If a PC has no skill in brain surgery, he'll get tons of penalties when attempting it. So much so that you would expect a 100% fail rate. That in game FACT, in no way denies the player the option of role playing. Another example in a different genre. A player with a Fighter want to cast a fireball spell. The GM says that he fails. EVERY TIME he tries it. That's not denying "their option to role play" either.

You don't understand the definition of RP'ing if you think that is the case.

 

[sideranautae]

The free trader campaign is a stalwart of Traveller, without the merchant skills how will players make their fortunes?

By adventuring. Like our Traveller group did for over a decade. Without playing merchants.

When you have experienced more traveller campaigns you'll get more ideas. Also, sci-fi books are a good source for the beginning GM to mine from.

 

[Roguewind]

I got rid of all the green grocer & merchant stuff.

This surprises me. As Matt said, if you want to focus on having an 'adventurous' story, why not just agree with your players that they design characters appropriate to the story you want to run.

The only reason I can think of that requires you to drop them is if your players keep taking those skills and you want them to focus more on combat. Which is why I'm surprised, as over the years I've found most players focus on them anyway unless you state you're playing a game which isn't so combat heavy.

So I'd be interested in your reasoning for dropping them.

 

[sideranautae]

This surprises me.

Why? If it isn't going to be part of my game, why would I leave the in? It would make no sense to include them in available the skill list if they didn't exist.


I guess I don't understand why would you would offer skills to your players that don't exist in your game for PCs...

 

[Anonymous]

Because the rules are there to facilitate whatever scenarios the gamers want to come up with, not just what the referee wants.

I ask the question again, what setting do you envisage your games to take place in?

 

[sideranautae]

I decided to give, Pilot, Astrogation & Gunner skills an "include" of Sensors 0. All 3 of those positions would have to have at least a 0 level understanding of that skill in order to function.

Any other "included" type skills that would make sense?

 

[Roguewind]

It just strikes me as surprising to actively look for skills to remove rather than just have the players select the skills they want and think will be appropriate based on the how you've explained your story requirements.

But obviously, as long as your players are happy, then it's fine to drop whatever skills you want.

 

[sideranautae]

It just strikes me as surprising to actively look for skills to remove rather than just have the players select the skills they want and think will be appropriate based on the how you've explained your story requirements.

You still haven't explained why would one leave skills in a skill list that don't exist for PC's in a game...

BTW, I have no "story" requirements. A story is an account of past events in someone's life. Or, an account of imaginary or real people and past events told for entertainment.

We are RPing. We aren't sitting around reading a story of stuff that happened in the past. So, not sure how that is relevant...

 

[Roguewind]

I'm not on about the fact that it's not in the skill list. Obviously, if you've dropped the skill it wouldn't be in the list. It's more that you felt you had to drop the skill in the first place.

I call it a story, you might call it an adventure, someone else might call it a game. After running lots of different role-playing games I've come across lots of different ways of describing what the person running the is actually doing and what they are called. I've always liked the angle White-Wolf took, with a Storyteller running the game. If it makes you feel better...

I'm surprised you do not let the players select what skills they feel appropriate for the game you are referring. :wink:

 

[sideranautae]

I'm not on about the fact that it's not in the skill list. Obviously, if you've dropped the skill it wouldn't be in the list. It's more that you felt you had to drop the skill in the first place.

It is dropped because we don't want to play Green grocers & accountants. That was made clear at the beginning of the thread. I also don't have Mktg/Advertising as a skill. Do you have that as a specific skill in your game? How 'bout Engineering, Textiles?

 

[Anonymous]

You never had a character who tried to fabricate his own body armour?

You just haven't lived...

 

[dragoner]

You never had a character who tried to fabricate his own body armour?

You just haven't lived...

Maybe when he has "experienced more traveller campaigns" he'll get more ideas.