Mil-scifi. Feedback on char-gen wanted

[weasel fierce]

So the game premise is a squad of the Solomani foreign legion in the Traveller universe, hoping to earn their redemption and/or nominal Solomani status.

In the end, its the foreign legion in space, fighting..well, we'll see.

THe goal is a military science fiction game (ala forever war, aliens, starship troopers etc). Hence the skill list is extremely militaristic in nature. Also, Im not terribly concerned with sticking to a specific BRP incarnation. This is "BRP homebrew" zone

Most of the group like a fair bit of randomness in character creation, so hereis my basic outline. The main worry is whether the characters will be reasonably competent and fitting.

Its in very simple draft form atm

Character creation:

Roll stats: 3D6 for STR, CON, DEX, CHA, POW. 2D6+6 for SIZ, INT and EDU

Vargr roll 3D6 for SIZ, +2 to DEX, 2D6+3 for STR

Aslan roll +2 for STR, +2 CON, 2D6+3 DEX

Humans receive +5 to Streetwise and Liaison skills

Vargr receive +5 to Brawl default

Aslan receive +5 to Close Combat and +3 to Guts.

Upbringing:

Pick 2 Background skills, which are received at a rating of 25+2D6%. These should be education or school based.

In addition, add +5 to 2 skills chosen from Tech, Wilderness, Streetwise, Leadership.

Former career:

Determine what your characters main career was. You may elect 4 background skills (received at 35+3D6%) related to your profession.

You receive 100 points to distribute between any Primary, Background or Specialist skills relevant to your career.

Life-Change:

Something happened to make you join the Legion. What was it ?

Determine your Lifegoal and your Regret. During gameplay, once per session, if you are pushing towards either, you may reroll one failed dice-roll.

The Legion:

You receive basic training, which provides the gains indicated on the skill chart below. In addition, pick a specialty and receive a +15 to the skills indicated.

Section leader

Leadership, Liaison, Tactics, Interrogation

Heavy weapons

Gunner (X2), Grenadier, Antitank

Marksman

Rifleman (X2). Recon. Fieldcraft

Scout

Wilderness. Recon (X2). Communications.

Demolitions

Grenadier. Engineer (X2). Antitank

Medic

Medic (X3). Sidearm

Comm's

Communications (X2). Tech (X2)

Rifleman

Rifleman. Fieldcraft. Close Combat. Wilderness

Primary skills:

Primary skills represent the main skills a character will utilize during the game. These are the things that are likely to be taught, trained, experienced or acquired in the Legion in some form or another.

Primary skills receive high base chances, and improve according to the following rules:

Experience roll: +1D6

Training: Per week (intensely) or 2 weeks (routine). 1D6-2

Skill Start Basic

Rifleman DEX+INT 4D6

Gunner INT 2D6

Sidearm DEX 2D6

Antitank INT+POW 2D6

Grenadier DEX+INT 3D6

Close Combat STR+DEX 4D6

Recon INT+POW 3D6

Crew INT -

Leadership CHA+POW -

Wilderness POW+INT 3D6

Streetwise INT+CHA -

Medic INT+10 1D6

Liaison CHA+INT -

Fieldcraft INT+DEX 3D6

Engineer INT+DEX -

Tactics INT+10 2D6

Communications INT -

Interrogation CHA+STR 1D6

Tech INT+10 -

Defaults:

Default skills are basic capabilities that rarely change much. In many cases they are “fall-back” rolls when nothing else seems to fit, or everything else is exhausted.

In the framework of the campaign, Defaults wont improve through training. If a Default roll scores a critical success, the Default will improve by +1% (once per session max)

Fix DEX+INT

Brawl STRx2+DEX

Endurance CONx3+POW

Athletics DEXx2+STR+CON

Dodge DEXx3

Charm CHAx3

Luck POWx3

Specialist skills:

These are skills that are particularly complex and/or outside the general realm of military characters. Starship navigation or Xenobiology are good examples. These skills, if possessed, will start at a base chance of 5%.

They improve normally.

Background skills:

A background skill is anything that helps to flesh out the character, but which isnt terribly likely to become a boon during gameplay. Cooking, interior decoration and photography are good examples. Many such skills will be primarily civilian in nature.

These skills receive large base chances, depending on what stage of character creation they are acquired in.

Other traits:

Guts

Guts is a mixture of grit, determination and sheer stubborness. It determines how inclined your character is to continue despite impossible odds, and how easily he can shrug off setbacks. Its calculated as POW+CHA+CON+2D6.

Legion characters add +5 (Corps spirit).

Seasoned military characters add +1 per year served. (this is rolled as a percentile to avoid morale loss)

Morale

Morale functions as “mental hit points”. Morale deteriorates while at the front, or if faced with particularly gruelling conditions, losses or threats. Initial Morale is POWx5

Hit Points

Total HP is calculated as (SIZ+CON+3)/2. HP per location is calculated as per Runequest 3.

Initiative (to be determined)

[weasel fierce]

Im aware that the EDU stat isnt actually factored into any of the skill basics. Im still on the fence if its gonna be used or not

[SDLeary]

Im aware that the EDU stat isnt actually factored into any of the skill basics. Im still on the fence if its gonna be used or not

In a SciFi, I would think that Edu would be almost required. Despite being a military campaign, isn't there the chance they would have a techie or science type anywhere in the campaign? If so, how do you arrive at their techie points? Not something the listed MOS seem to handle.

SDLeary

[weasel fierce]

Particulaly "techie" skills would be handled as a specialist skill

[soltakss]

In a SciFi, I would think that Edu would be almost required. Despite being a military campaign, isn't there the chance they would have a techie or science type anywhere in the campaign? If so, how do you arrive at their techie points? Not something the listed MOS seem to handle.

I don't really see the point of EDU in such games.

All it seems to do is to give points that can be allocated to other skills. That, and having a base Characteristic for a Knowledge Roll (EDUx5%) to see if your character knows about something.

A Points-based Character Generation System doesn't really need any extra ways of generating points, so you can skip EDU for that.

You don't need a general catch-all skill to see if you know something - you can use various Lores/Knowledge skills to reflect knowledge - RQ had General Knowledge, for instance.

Also, EDU is not necessarily related to skills. Someone who went to University and studied Classics/Archaeology would have a high EDU but wouldn't know the first thing about techie skills, so you can't even use EDU as a catch-all as it is going to be specific to an area or general field.

So, no EDU for me.

[drohem]

It looks cool. I love militaristic games and campaigns. Since your creation point total is static, then there is no real need for the EDU characteristic. I like the combination of skills being derived from characteristics and then have a pool of percentage points to spend (it reminds me of Elfquest).

How are you going to handle the skills Leadership and Tactics? What mechanical benefits will a successful skill test provide for these skills? I am interested to see how you are going to handle these skills. Of course, they are vital skills for a campaign of this nature.

I like the French Foreign Legion feel because it allows you to have widely varying characters of all types and dispositions. :thumb::cool:

[weasel fierce]

How are you going to handle the skills Leadership and Tactics? What mechanical benefits will a successful skill test provide for these skills? I am interested to see how you are going to handle these skills. Of course, they are vital skills for a campaign of this nature.

I like the French Foreign Legion feel because it allows you to have widely varying characters of all types and dispositions. :thumb::cool:

Im propably ditching EDU yeah. It runs fine without it.

Leadership will be used to motivate demoralized grunts. Morale will work similar to Sanity. When it deteriorates below 20, the trooper is demoralized and needs a leadership check from somebody to do anything but sit in a pit and shoot occasionally.

Tactics Im still thinking about.

[drohem]

Sounds cool. I really like that you are making Morale a major factor, and highlighting the importance of a good leader.

[Atgxtg]

How are you going to handle the skills Leadership and Tactics? What mechanical benefits will a successful skill test provide for these skills? I am interested to see how you are going to handle these skills. Of course, they are vital skills for a campaign of this nature.

There is a tactics/strategy skill in the new BRP.

[Enpeze]

Well I played some traveller and 2300 games in the past with BRP rules. Generally it was absolutely no problem not to use the original rules and we all had a good time.

So I would like to add some comments to the chargen you posted:

1. character creation - seems very reasonable. For some flair I would also suggest to add some modifiers, depending on the homeworld of the character. (maybe +5 STR and +5 SIZ for Heavy-G worlds etc.) I would at least double or even triple the racial modifiers to enable real differences between the races. (eg. giving Aslan maybe a +10% or more to close combat basic skill chance) I am not sure if Liaison is a typical Solomani skill. (and rather the contrary, if they are members of the solomani party)

2. Upbringing and former career. Hm..sound a little bit complex, but it should work. I would instead use the normal BRP/CoC profession chargen, and the PCs a part of the generation points (say 100 or so) which they have to allocate to typical former career skills. Of course I would supervise if the skills the PCs take are reasonable for the social environment and the planet they come from and their background story.

3. Life change: sounds nice. I am sure this is a good addition and help the player to roleplay his character.

4. The Legion. the differenciation into primary, secondary etc. skill types sound a little bit complex to me. I would just give the rest of the skill generation points (coming from EDU and INT) to the players and allow them to allocate these points by using a profession template for a modified existent template. (like "future soldier - foreign legion")

5. Primary skills - most skills sound reasonable, but whats anti-tank? Do you really think that this should be really a seperate skill of the same importance like sidearms or medic? And IMO Grenadier is more a modified soldier template than a skill. Maybe you can tell what you mean with these skills and how you want to use them in your game.

One important thing is IMO, that you should create soldiers which can operate in a single unit without beeing unlogical. So IMO the question arise if the unit you want to create should be infantry, jump troopers, engineers, lift infantry, grav tankers etc. Different troop types require different skills. Eg. a infantry squad has probably not a single soldier with a high demolition skill, while a engineer team does surely have several such members. Or PCs with "interrogation" skill are not really logical , if you intend to play a game with grav tankers. Of course there could be tankers with such a skill, but IMO it would be more logical if guys with such knowledge are dispatched in a military secret service team.

[weasel fierce]

Antitank would be a catch all for "the knowledge to attack a tank". Its as much recognizing the safe angles to approach from, as it is the ability to use shaped charges or whatever the future might give us.

Grenadier is basically the skill of using grenade launchers. A bit specialized but I wanted there to be the situation where the grenadier is killed and somebody else picks up.

As far as disparate skills, Im imagining most of the players will make characters who were former military personnel, and who have now joined the legion for various reasons. So they are all infantry NOW, but they could have held all sorts of interesting positions before.

I also deliberately want a bit of a dirty dozen feel to it.

As far as the character creation, Im tempted to ditch the racial skills and just make that easy. My players seem to want human characters in any event. I might simply the char-gen in general. Maybe take professions from CoC as inspiration and do itr that way as suggested

[Enpeze]

Antitank would be a catch all for "the knowledge to attack a tank". Its as much recognizing the safe angles to approach from, as it is the ability to use shaped charges or whatever the future might give us.

Are you sure that this justifies a seperate skill? I mean why not having "heavy weapons" for it?

Grenadier is basically the skill of using grenade launchers. A bit specialized but I wanted there to be the situation where the grenadier is killed and somebody else picks up.

Ah...now I understand. I was not sure what you mean with it. In german the word "Grenadier" is a special sort of soldier. (like "Panzergrenadier")

As far as disparate skills, Im imagining most of the players will make characters who were former military personnel, and who have now joined the legion for various reasons. So they are all infantry NOW, but they could have held all sorts of interesting positions before.

I also deliberately want a bit of a dirty dozen feel to it.

Then they are members of a special unit? (AFAIR the dirty dozen have been a behind enemy line force)

[Kloster]

...

Ah...now I understand. I was not sure what you mean with it. In german the word "Grenadier" is a special sort of soldier. (like "Panzergrenadier")

...

Historically, at least for french and german language, the Grenadier was the soldier throwing grenades, so HE was the grenade launcher!!!

Runequestement votre,

Kloster