[Rubble and Ruin] help me with a racial talent

[rleduc]

Hello,

I posted this as a separate thread in the hope of getting a larger audience. Rubble and Ruin is based off a world I have been running for over 25 years and under a lot of different mechanics. One race that worked very well under Aftermath, and okay under GURPS seems a little off in my BRP version, so I thought I would ask for your input.

There exists in this world a race of giant (three foot tall) rat-men who were created specifically to work as mechanics and technicians inside massive robotic tanks. To reflect their mechanical aptitude I have given them +25% on all skills fixing or creating mechanical items – can anyone suggest an better way to make these guys “mechanical geniuses”?

Thanks,

[Thalaba]

In a game without feats, talents, ads or disads another way is not so obvious. Every skill has a human base% chance of success, so it seems to me that giving the rat-men a higher base % in these is a good way.

But (just brainstorming here) maybe you could rule that for Rat Men using these skills, any rank of Difficult is equavalent to a human special, and any rank of Special is a human critical. That way the skills wouldn't be higher, but the odds of Rat Men pulling off super efforts would be.

Last thing - you might consider listing the skills this would apply to, so there is no confusion in-game.

Thalaba

[frogspawner]

Relevant skills increase by +d8 (or +d10?) instead of the normal +d6?

[rleduc]

Ohhhh, great!

Special Racial Trait: Given the rat-men’s natural aptitude for mechanics, they learn the following skills exceptionally fast; LIST OF SKILLS. During character creation they receive +2 for every experience point used to increase these skills and they improve +1D10 points during play. (Better language to follow, but the idea is there.)

Thanks,

[Mechashef]

I have a similar suggestion to Thalaba.

Shift the difficulty rating of the skill check one level in their favour.

A skilll attempt that is an Easy Action for a human becomes an Automatic Action.

A skilll attempt that is an Average Action for a human becomes an Easy Action.

A skilll attempt that is a Difficult Action for a human becomes an Average Action.

I suppose the issue id what happens to actions that are Impossible for Humans. I would suggest that at the GM's discretion, a particular task that is impossible for humans may become a Difficult action, but there are some tasks that may still be impossible.

An example that I just made up (I have no idea about your material so this is probably of very little use).

Your little rat man needs to field repair the high tech energy weapon cannon of the tank. He identifies that a timing device that delays part of the firing process (only by a few milliseconds) has burnt out. Without the part, the gun can't be used. If the cables are connected without the delaying device, the gun will explode when fired.

He comes up with the idea of simply inserting a cable that is long enough that it will take the required number of milliseconds for the energy to travel along it. Cutting a cable that is the right length might be an impossible task for a human, but a difficult task for the rat person.

[Charles Green]

How about, instead of doing it as a Racial trait and add a new system to the game, look at the Optional Step Six from the new book. There are one of 4 packages that characters can choose, and each package grants a +20% bonus to tall the skills in that package at character creation.

You might say that the cuddly rat-folk must always take option #2: technique and craft, or come up with a fifth package for them instead.

Such a package would grant the bonus to 13 skills, which would likely be the most technically-oriented skills on the sheet.

That's how I'd do it.

[USAFguy]

You could also modify (shrink/mitigate/ignore) the fumble range or widen/broaden the critical success range for the rat-men. Just a thought

[NickMiddleton]

How about, instead of doing it as a Racial trait and add a new system to the game, look at the Optional Step Six from the new book. There are one of 4 packages that characters can choose, and each package grants a +20% bonus to tall the skills in that package at character creation.

Aces High, the "Occult" Western monograph does this, and it sounds like a very neat idea IMO. You can retain the four original categories from the core book, and add news ones that are setting appropriate, including restrictions based on culture / species etc.

Cheers,

Nick

[cjbowser]

How about, instead of doing it as a Racial trait and add a new system to the game, look at the Optional Step Six from the new book. There are one of 4 packages that characters can choose, and each package grants a +20% bonus to tall the skills in that package at character creation.

That's what I did in my initial draft of the Wright Institute. If you want to see how it worked out, you can always ask for access to the playtest forum.

[Blackwolf79]

Could always think about reducing the time required for repairs or creation, or maybe that their repairs/creations are more effective than anyone else's.

[Al.]

The core of BRP is that competence in a skill is based purely off the % in that skill. Which is why it is very difficult to fit talents/edges/boosts/blah blahs in elegantly.

Simply doubling base score for Technical skills (or is the base 01 - I don't have my book with - in which case that idea is tosh) or insisting that the +20% to X skills be spent on Technical skills fit in most comfortably with the meta-rules.

I like the free level of success idea and have used it to differentiate named characters from grunts in BRP games. It works well but has a BIG impact, may not do what you wish and is not even close to canon.

Al

Edited June 23, 2009 by Al.
Comedy typos