Alternate Rules for Specialization

[Naaman]

I feel like +4D is too much for 10 CP, even if it is a "unique" specialization. For example, every Jedi uses a unique lightsaber... need I say more?

On the other hand, I wholly agree that specializations should be like bonuses to the base skill, rather than separate skills, with a few exceptions, such as scholar. For skills like scholar, I feel like the skill itself should be divided into more narrow focuses (even if "general ed" is one of the focuses) and then specializations could be taken within that focus. For example, a base skill might be scholar--mathematics. While the specialization might be mathematics: trigonometry.

Any skill roll the relying on the general ed discipline must be rolled against a higher difficulty.

Medicine presents a similar scenario: the advanced skill should perhaps be taken as a specialty, or else be rolled against higher difficulties.

In any case, with regard to skills that players actually want to use, I think that an initial few CPs should buy a bonus to a particular skill under particular circumstances.

I also feel that a narrower focus might be worth one, maybe two pips, rather than dice. For example, if specializing in blaster, then you could take Blaster: Blaster Pistols at +1D, or Blaster: Heavy Blaster Pistols at +1D+1, or Blaster: DL-44 at 1D+2.

In any case, if I were to use something like this (and I like the idea), I'd reign it in to something close to that.

[garhkal]

On the scholar side, i feel like the Profession skill, each 'subset' should be its own skill after you take it.
So i have Je-hov'a, the code breaker, who has scholar mathmatics at 5d, then scholar advanced math at 5d+2, scholar numerology at 6d, scholar encryptions at 4d+2, and so on.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[Naaman]

[Whill]

[garhkal]

[Naaman]

I see what you are saying... but I feel like it would require a math-focused campaign in order to make all those skills worthwhile.

[Zarn]

I disagree with that. I can see several ways all of those skills can be applicable - with the possible exception of Scholar: Numerology, unless you introduce occult mathematics. A real-world example might be Hermetic Qabalah.

I've always held that in Star Wars, it is particularly important that the player is proactive in suggesting rolls against skills in order to solve problems. Similarly to Ars Magica, it is essentially a control over the general narrative of the session.

Let's say that my dude's the code breaker. I have a lost treasure ship that met with a mishap while on a known trajectory at a known time in a system. Using some form of numerical model based on an n-body problem, I might then narrow down the volume to search in (any solar system is a mind-bogglingly big place) - provided I roll well on my Scholar: Mathematics, possibly combined with a Computer Programming roll.

Or, if I were to construct a possible narrative that used all of the named Scholar skills suggested:

* I'm currently looking for a Jedi Master that had a bit of a mental breakdown about 30 years ago that led to him throw away one of his lightsabers, and skedaddle off to some water planet after he had carefully constructed a trail of crumbs to follow.

* He started out by encoding something into a holocron he made. As he was a follower of the Probabilistically Infinite Force tradition (a sort of Star Wars I-Ching with an affinity for Hilbert spaces or something), I first roll S: Numerology to start looking for clues. I soon find them.

* My GM says that certain integer sequences are important for the Probabilistically Infinite Force tradition, and that they believe all random events in the universe are really pseudorandom, and that they all degenerate into one of the integer sequences if modeled correctly.

* Running some analysis against the contents of the holocron (rolling Scholar: Mathematics), I find something that looks interesting. Using Scholar: Encryptions, I manage to find a part of a star map encoded in an integer sequence called The Origin is the Destination. Because I'm dead clever, I deduce that it means I should go look at the place where the Jedi Master was born.

* This brings up nothing. I decide that I probably missed something. Rolling Scholar: Numerology, I then find that there's an integer sequence that is called Following the Path, which when applied to the star map fragment I found (rolling Scholar: Mathematics) is very interesting. I soon narrow down that I need to find a rogue planet that was in a particular spot about 3 000 years ago.

* Entering a star map library through illicit means, I manage to get enough data on the rogue planet that I can then build a multibody analysis (Scholar: Advanced mathematics) to get a particular volume of space.

* Jumping there, I manage to scan my way through the volume, finding the planet. Orbiting the planet, there's a large space transport bristling with weapons. They're automated, taking potshots at me as I approach closer than a particular range.

* Deciding that I might find a suitable integer sequence again (Scholar: Numerology), I choose one that is called (or so the GM tells me) The Supplicant Approaches the Master. I transmit the sequence. Nothing happens.

* As I'm dead clever (I did mention that before), I encode it using the name of the Jedi Master (Scholar: Encryptions), and try again. The weapons recognize my ship as a friendly, and allows me to land in the hangar of the cavernous space transport. There, I find that the Jedi Master has decided to make like frozen vegetables, and have embraced the Way of the Carbonite Sleep.

* I decide to thaw him up, and prepare a particularly bracing set of Sudoku for him to play with while we're traveling to whomever my contact is, who will probably promptly betray me, try to kill me and the Jedi Master in a complicated death trap which we'll escape after a tangle with a Dianoga, and I'll end up becoming an apprentice to the slightly unhinged Math Jedi Master, using a non-integer Lightsaber Combat Form to show the superiority of Polar coordinates.

* I'll then fall to the dark side, get redeemed again, kill my Jedi Master which has fallen in the mean time, and get into all sorts of clone and superweapon shenanigans ending up with me taking a particularly fetching AI with a knack for mathematics as my own apprentice.

* In session two, I'll probably prove that all of the games on The Wheel are actually completely random, and not rigged like everyone expects them to be - but that The Wheel is a manifestation of a non-Euclidean horror eating entropy.

[garhkal]

So what 'phrase' should i be using instead of "scholar- numerology'??
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

I'd rather have Cryptography as an Advanced Skill, with Scholar: Mathematics as a prerequisite.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Naaman]

@ Zarn!

I think numerology is correct, if what you mean has anything to do with cultural or "mystical" significance of numbers. For example, a very easy numerology roll would tell you that 13 is bad luck. A moderate numerology roll might tell you that 12 is the number pertaining to governmment (in the Bible)... etc...

[garhkal]

[CRMcNeill]

[Zarn]

Without delving into esoterica, I might do something like:

Scholar: Mathematics
(A) Advanced Mathematics: Cryptography
Scholar: Slicing

and leave it at that.

Obviously, there needs to be

Computer Programming / Repair
(A) Computer Programming: Slicing

as well, and possibly Security.

Basically, I think that the Scholar: Math and Scholar: Advanced Math are a bit redundant, but I think Scholar: Numerology might be useful for a sort of math-based Thrawn-like approach to puzzles (so I might include it for flavor).

Pulling Cryptography out to its own (A) skill makes sense, because when you approach that kind of math to that level (basic crypto is like the "secret script" encoder/decoder rings that you could get with your cereal), it tends to get fairly specific. Though if you're a genius level cryptographer, you might also want (A) Mathematics: Number Theory or something.

Most of what you tend to do as a slicer isn't quite what you tend to do as a code breaker, and what you tend to do as a code breaker isn't quite what you tend to do if you're a researcher - but there's obviously some overlap.

(Full disclosure: I'm not quite pulling this out of my rectal cavity - I actually do have a degree in Computer Science, where my Bachelor had an emphasis on cryptography.)

[garhkal]

Thanks. The character i was looking at for this, is a communications code breaker, more than a computer slicer.. Hence the numbers and cryptology /cryptography.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!