Good night, at first... and this will be my first post here. Nice meeting you.
Well, it will be a bit long. Allow me warn you I can be very picky.
I didn't like this adaptation of the d20 system for the
Babylon 5 universe. I put on these terms to make clear that I am not some kind of d20-basher. I enjoy playing d20 games as the
Call of Cthulhu version and
Star Wars -- from which I know this d20 here would be a different version, perhaps pace, from
Babylon 5 d20; since SW is planned to be way more, hum,
hyperbolic than B5.
My dislikes, so far, concern more to the first part of the book, concerning Classes, skills and feats. I am a bit dull with rules, most of time I am a player before being the GM, until I get used to the system. But since I have, for B5 d20, a guy even greener than me at the d20 system wanting also to GM it; I'd prefer not coment on the combat system, mostly.
From the begining.
There is an obrigatory aspect in the text of the game that I dislike, and I know it is frankly ignorable, when it is said that B5 characters start at 1st level.
I dislike it, especially because the previous B5 rpg, "the late and unlamented"
The Babylon Project, had the pcs starting at an advanced level in their lives. They were not young whiny moisture farmers; but already able professionals with skills reflecting this condition. In my game, I'll have them starting at up to 6th level, in the greener guy game, 4th level. It's a matter of choice, of course, but I think this is a redeemable aspect from the dead TBP that I really missed there. Check our heroes profiles; all from, at least, 5th level, with only Lennier and Vir as initial guys from 1st-2nd levels.
And as I said, my matter is: an adaptation able to represent the universe, at least in my view.
But it is a minor scrap, of course. And I am picky, I warned you, heh?
The
Agent class is a bit shadowy, in my opinion. I had this player making a future xenoarcheologist, with levels of Agent and Scientist. A really good-alignment guy, what would he do with sneak attacks and
Criplling Wound? From all I understand, classes are most likely to be abrangent archetypes, not locking themselves into moral preferences, let's say.
I have big conceptual problems with
Officer. How come
Knowledge not be a class skill, here? Who makes the military strategies? Especially considering that one of the Knowledges, in the example, is named Military? And so, experienced commanders of starships don't get a clue about star systems they had visited (or will be assigned), as well their inhabitants; safe for cross-class efforts or spending the opportunity of the Feat Hobby at all these cases? You can't expect that
Data Access may cover it, all the time.
And I missed a word about
Zero-G Movement/Handling, here. It is a highly unnatural condition for any kind borne in planetside, and will be some problem in low-tech ships with no gravity to move fast enough to reach escape pods before the ship blows, take the wounded to sickbay without bashing them in corners and walls, and to reach your battle station when the red alert starts screaming in the middle of the night. Remember, for all action there is a reaction, with the same power and opposite direction, if I am translating correctly to english. And we are talking about a series where lack of gravity is a concern, or that station wouldn't be spinning around itself...
I'd suggest it as initial Feat given for Pilot and Fleet Officers, and an option to anyone else interested. The normal would be, hum, -4 in perhaps all physical- based actions when in Zero-G -- you can't lift, climb or shoot anything, if you lack of a stable base.
One last thing about Officer: I know that the struggle for survival, even in a technological/urban enviroment, may produce individuals of great and unexpected resourcefulness. But wouldn't be a bit too much make a Lurker receive more skill points than a academy-trained Officer? I mean, the guy is meant to run a starship, the closest thing of 'rocket science' -- after any due knowledge -- I know.
Soldier: wouldn't they receive specialized training in Unarmed Combat? I mean, nothing highly specialized as the Mutari folks, but even so, something to differ from the average Joe. Modern israeli troopers got krav-magá, american soldiers have jiu-jitsu, and so on... I imagine that, in XXIIIrd Century, this aspect of training would remain for GROPOS.
Worker: well, this has a lot of problems, I guess. Yes, I know that are alternative rules in this site for this class.
But I have a problem with this class, period. Its very idea. I remember an old GM of mine, 1st edition AD&D die-hard, showing me an old
Dragon Magazine, with a huge questionary from TSR about the likes and dislikes of the costumer, in a research for the upcoming 2nd Edition. One of those were about if you think that any and every occupation (sailor, taylor, farmer, shop-owner, etc.) should get a class of its own.
Then we talked that Classes were the 'paths of the adventurers', let's say. A docks worker most likely will remain one, concerned with his duties and worries, ditto for the CEOs -- if one of them wishes to 'go out there' some way, he automatically puts himself on the line. Takes a different risk. He becomes, somehow, an adventurer, and this is what Classes talk about. Someone who doesn't the regular clerk job, doesn't get the train twice a day 5 days a week -- well, mostly.
Personally, I think NPC classes (like in D&D and
Star Wars d20) would do the trick. Or, you could get by the opposite angle, if you really feel that the character must be a reporter: get a Class and put on Profession: Jornalist (or any job you wish).
A third thought would be make it quite open (probably keeping same skill and hit points), allowing any skill being a classe skill, as well feats. Wanna make a commercial astronaut? Get Pilot, Knowledge: Star Systems (and Accounting, I guess), Technical: Space Travel. Feats: Spaceship Proficency, Space Veteran, etc. An ISN reporter? Get Bluff, Sense Motive; Feats like Contacts, etc...
This, basically, is about the Classes, at least so far. Now, feats and skills.
See, back in the old
Star Wars RPG, by West End Games, there were plenty of skills as open as you could, to represent the fact that Star Wars wasn't any serious, and I am not mocking of it. The best example was the skill Alien Languages, which was rolled to understand or communicate with an alien speaking something other of your own language.
Babylon 5 is supposed to be a more down-to-earth example of space-opera. So, with languages, we spend 4 skill points to each one you wish. I am ok with that. I can see, even if I really get picky, allowing make it cost cheaper: 1 point, and you speak badly, and can't write/read. 2 points, and you speak and r/w badly. 3 points, you speak well, but have to improve the read/writing (or the reverse, I read/write English better than I can hear). 4 points, and you are fluent. I am ok with that.
Specifications, in this case, help to give the correct 'serious' tune, let's say.
If I want to communicate better than average with an alien, I have to get Feat:
Alien Empathy, to each species. Ok, so. But not perfectly ok, since I would, theoretically, get along better with aliens even than my own species. I'd like to suggest a bit of opposite: whoever doesn't have this feat, would be a -4 to deal with an alien. Cumulative with racial negative Charisma modifier, if any (if you think it's too much, think how isolated are the Minbari). But I wouldn't apply any positive Charisma modifier; in Nature the first reaction is 'I will be attacked by this whatever-it-is'. Suggestions, suggestions. Maybe, if I really want to make the alone-in-the-crowd guy, get a second
Alien Empathy, to really get along with a determined species better than with my own.
Then you get
Alien Anatomy, and things get really bad, for me. Without it, you get a -10 modifier to any medical treatment given to another race. With it, you are as good treating your species as is with
any other race in the galaxy.
So, to comunicate and get diplomatic with aliens I have to be very selective, but to cure their physiology, pak'ma'ras and Minbari are roughly the same thing? I know this would be a matter of 'common sense' and GM discretion, but this isn't even suggested, in the text.
And other generalization I really disliked is
Spacecraft Proficiency: have it and you fly as perfectly well a Minbari capital ship, a drazi freighter, a Starfury, and so on? Hummmm...
Star Wars d20 came with distinctions for different spaceships: shuttle, fighter, freighter and capital ship, IIRC. I'd like to suggest, for a 2nd Edition, an alteration of the rule towards this direction, and stressing possible negative modifiers due technological differences.
Hum, one thing: the Damage Threshold being at just like D&D, 40 hits taken once, if I make no mistake. Well, it's hard to get 40 hitpoints, in B5, for a character, or so it looks like. Not to mention, there isn't much sources that may give 40 hps damage, below artillery and ships weapon systems, to a character, no? Well,
Call of Cthulhu d20 lowered this threshold to 10 hits... I'd suggest making it 15 or 20, for Babylon 5.
And the last thing: I know there are almost two hundred countries in our planet, and it is hard to keep track of all of them. So, allow me to point to an error made at the Earth Alliance sourcebook, page 76, on a note about Brazil, my country. It's said in the book that brazilians are mostly a mix between native population and spanish and portuguese origin. Well, this is not entirely truth, since the Spanish were concerned primarily with their own colonies, which turned in 95% of the current countries between Rio Grande and Patagonia. Our primarly caucasian source was mostly Portuguese, in the begining, at our Colony stage (ok, so the 'Iberian' source is the same; but that's the reason why we speak Portuguese, and not Spanish). But a worse error in the text is the grave omission of Brazil's African heiritage. Brazil has the largest negroid population out of the african continent, due slavery. It influenced the ethnicals and folklore in an inseparable and eternal way. As I said, it's hard to keep track all the time. More than a political correction statement, it is just more of my genuine intention to help this game become better and better.
Thanks for reading until there.
