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COMMENTS: CH 04 - Skills
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:21 pm
by Sgt Major Al Beddow
once I get the skills chapter to y'all use this thread for comment, but right now I have a few thoughts to run by all of you.
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First, some skills just need a small 'redefining', like the specializations replacing "j-drive" with "warp drive" and "m-drive" with "Impulse drive"
okay.. There is no skill for conducting an interrogation, intelligence analysis, etc.
I want to create the skill 'Espionage', but under deception add using social engineering to gather human intelligence. Engineering (Comms) covers signals intelligence. okay.. There is no skill for conducting an interrogation, intelligence analysis, etc.
new skill ESPIONAGE wrote:Espionage
Espionage is the skill of spycraft and intelligence analysis.
Intelligence Analysis: Difficult (10+) Deception check (1D hours, EDU).
Interrogate a suspect/prisoner: Opposed Covert check (1D hours, INT or EDU).
Perform a stakeout to monitor a suspect: Difficult (10+) Covert check (1D x 10 Hours, EDU).
example added to Deception wrote:
Gather intelligence through social engineering of someone: Difficult (10+) Deception check 1D minutes, INT).
specialties added to Advocate wrote:Advocate
Advocate gives a knowledge of common legal codes and practices, especially interstellar law. It also gives the character experience in oratory, debate and public speaking, making it an excellent skill for lawyers and politicians. During character creation this defaults to the character's home empire, but the character may choose to also learn the laws of another empire.
Arguing in Court: Opposed Advocate check (1D days,
EDU or SOC).
Debating an Argument: Opposed Advocate check (1D x 10 minutes, INT).
Specialities
- Civil (Empire): The character is a trained in the civil laws and legal system.
- Military (Empire): The character is a trained in military law and procedure.
- Trade (Empire): The character is a trained in trade law and maritime law.
changes to GUNNER wrote:Gunner
The various specialties of this skill deal with the operation of ship-mounted weapons in space combat. Most characters have smaller ships equipped solely with turret weapons.
Specialities
- Beams: Operating a ship's energy based weapons like phasers, disruptors, etc weapons on board a ship.
Firing a Turret at an Enemy Ship: Average (8+) Gunner (turret) check (1D seconds, DEX).
- Ortillery: A contraction of Orbital Artillery, using a ship's weapons for planetary bombardment or attacks on stationary targets.
Firing Ortillery: Average (8+) Gunner (ortillery) check (1D minutes, INT).
- Screen: Activating and using a ship's energy screens like Black Globe generators or meson screens.
Activating a Screen to Intercept Enemy Fire: Difficult (10+) Gunner (screen) check (1D seconds, DEX).
- Torpedo: Operating a ships torpedo and physical projectile weapon.,
Firing a Ship Torpedo Weapon: Average (8+) Gunner (capital) check (1D minutes, INT).
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:41 pm
by Stan Shinn
I suspect you'll want a different name for the 'Flyer' specialty 'Grav' ('antigrav'?), and remove the 'Flyer' specialty called 'Ornithopter'.
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:45 pm
by Stan Shinn
What skill would one use to fire photon torpedoes I wonder?
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:03 pm
by Sgt Major Al Beddow
Stan Shinn wrote:What skill would one use to fire photon torpedoes I wonder?
I'm guessing you forgot the 'smiley' behind the question.. 
The answer is simply the hassle of cutting & pasting from Word to the forum. The forum software doesn't like characters such as the dash and the smart quotes/apostrophes and just cuts the text off at the first one it finds.
ARRGGHHH!!!! 
Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2021 2:10 am
by Albiegamer
Darren wrote: This is covered under Persuade and Investigate.
Okay, Here are those two skills from the new CRB:
INVESTIGATE wrote:Investigate
The Investigate skill incorporates keen observation, forensics and detailed analysis.
Searching a Crime Scene For Clues: Average (8+) Investigate check (1D x 10 minutes, INT).
Watching a Bank of Security Monitors in a Starport, Waiting for a Specific Criminal: Difficult (10+) Investigate check (1D hours, INT).
PERSUADE wrote:Persuade
Persuade is a more casual, informal version of Diplomat. It covers fast talking, bargaining, wheedling and bluffing. It also covers bribery or intimidation.
Bluffing Your Way Past a Guard: Opposed Persuade check (1D minutes, INT or SOC).
Haggling in a Bazaar: Opposed Persuade check (1D minutes, INT or SOC).
Intimidating a Thug: Opposed Persuade check (1D minutes, STR or SOC).
Asking the Alien Space Princess to Marry You: Formidable (14+) Persuade check (1D x 10 minutes, SOC).
Reading the skill descriptions, neither quite covers what goes on with acts of espionage or spycraft. Investigate literally says it is crime focused. Yes information is analyzed but intelligence analysis is a different animal (see below). For persuasion it is more in the realm of 'soft sell', like convincing a friend to lend you their car (against their better judgement). There's little pieces across many skills that would be used at some level when engaged in espionage - but I see their focuses having a different focus.
There is also the matter of 'legal' and 'not quite so legal'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrogation
Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful information, particularly information related to suspected crime. Interrogation may involve a diverse array of techniques, ranging from developing a rapport with the subject to torture.
But, I'm still all open ears on the subject.
Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2021 5:03 pm
by Sgt Major Al Beddow
Ch 03 has been emailed out.
I am looking forward to your feedback, as well as suggested example tasks to make them more "SFU"
Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2021 6:10 pm
by Stan Shinn
Need to keep an eye on Leadership skill and consider if you're following the older MgT rule of it granting books, or the 2022 version of getting a +1.
History skill on page 11 only has 1 specialization; I presume you'll be adding more?
Jump drive in Traveller here is renamed to "Warp Drive (Empire)"
Warp Drive (Empire): Maintaining and operating a spacecraft's jump drive.
but most other places it talks about 'jumps', 'making a jump', 'jump distance', etc.. Is that the right way to refer to FTL travel in the SFU?
Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2021 6:35 pm
by Albiegamer
Stan Shinn wrote:Need to keep an eye on Leadership skill and consider if you're following the older MgT rule of it granting books, or the 2022 version of getting a +1.
I don't see where you are getting it 'granting books' do you mean BOONS?.
History skill on page 11 only has 1 specialization; I presume you'll be adding more?
How many empires are there? You're saying list them all out? can do easy.
Jump drive in Traveller here is renamed to "Warp Drive (Empire)"
Warp Drive (Empire): Maintaining and operating a spacecraft's jump drive.
but most other places it talks about 'jumps', 'making a jump', 'jump distance', etc.. Is that the right way to refer to FTL travel in the SFU?
Prime Directive/SFU is derived from the original ST, and thus uses Warp Drive. All references to 'jump drive' have to be updated to 'warp drive', and the descriptions have to be more for warp drive than jump.
Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2021 6:51 pm
by Stan Shinn
Albiegamer wrote:Stan Shinn wrote:Need to keep an eye on Leadership skill and consider if you're following the older MgT rule of it granting books, or the 2022 version of getting a +1.
I don't see where you are getting it 'granting books' do you mean BOONS?.
Oops, yes, boons. Just pointing out that I think you'll want to use the 2022 rule on page 73 where Leadership Effect gives you DM+1 instead of a boon, which is a difference between the older and newer edition.
Albiegamer wrote:History skill on page 11 only has 1 specialization; I presume you'll be adding more?
How many empires are there? You're saying list them all out? can do easy.
I'm just pointing out that it is exceedingly odd to me that you'd have a skill with a single specialization (nowhere else in Traveller do you have this). If there is just a single specialization, then just have the skill with no specialization. Just call it 'History' or 'Imperial History'.
Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2021 7:17 pm
by Albiegamer
Albiegamer wrote:History skill on page 11 only has 1 specialization; I presume you'll be adding more?
How many empires are there? You're saying list them all out? can do easy.
I'm just pointing out that it is exceedingly odd to me that you'd have a skill with a single specialization (nowhere else in Traveller do you have this). If there is just a single specialization, then just have the skill with no specialization. Just call it 'History' or 'Imperial History'.[/quote]the description says "for each empire .." I thought for this point that would cover things, but aperson reading it has to be familiar with the SFU. there are about 9 or 10 empires and as discussed on Messenger we'll be taking care of that this weekend.
One thing I keep trying to say: There is a fine line between this project being enough "SFU" to keep the existing Prime Directive players, abd yet "Traveler enough" to bring over fans of Traveller.
All of Mongoose's RPGs based on (whichever) version of the coreTraeller mechanic have had changes to how things are done - equipment, character gen, etc. That hs to be remembered jhere - this isn't just a "shoe horning the SFU to fit the Traveller "of the Third Imperion"
Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2021 7:39 pm
by Stan Shinn
Ah, I finally see what you're saying! There's a section on page 6 of Chapter 3 that I had overlooked that explains that 'Empire' is supposed to be replaced with the specific star empire (e.g. 'Klingon Empire').
In the earlier discussions we were having that wasn't clear to me.
I do think it would be helpful to have a list of the specific star empires available so that within the Skills chapter you can have that handy for reference.
Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 4:09 pm
by Sgt Major Al Beddow
I'm not sending out a new PDF for this small change, but I've added a text box with the following:
EMPIRES:
Unless otherwise stated, the list of applicable Empires is:
Federation
Klingon
Romulan
Kzinti
Gorn
Tholian
Hydran
Andromedan
Lyran
WYN Cluster
Inter-Stellar Concordium (ISC)
Seltorian
Jindarian
Vudar
Carnivon
Paravian
Note: Orians are added to this list for technological skills such as Gunner, Engineer.
Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 8:26 pm
by Stan Shinn
Awesome, that will be very helpful
Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 5:15 pm
by Albiegamer
The number of species is so great, they are being split out into a separate chapter, This will be Chapter 3, and skills will now be chapter 4.