First Impressions & Feedback - N.E.W.

[Morrus]

Thanks for the feedback! I love reading these!

2. When choosing a species, I found myself wanting options for genetically modified humans and hybrid races.

There's a genetically modified starter career. I haven't thought about hybrid races yet, but that should arrive at some point!

3. What do Spartans look like? I'm assuming they look like the guys from 300, but there is no clear indication that that is the case.

In my head, they look a bit like J J Abrahm's new Klingons.

4. I would have liked to have seen the height and weight tables broken down by sex.

I'm wary about even mentioning gender. But you could assign a 10% difference if you wish.

5. The pre-requisite for the field scientist career is advanced college. Is that the same as college, 2 passes through the college career, a doctorate?

6. I wish there was an option for advanced degrees other than the doctorate, like a masters degree. I would also like to see professional degrees (like an M.D.) separated out from other doctorates.

Ah, yes. There was an advanced college, which was a Masters degree, which I removed. My intention was to have it be a second grade in College, but that hasn't been added yet.

The type of degree/doctorate is defined by your skill choice when you take the career. I didn't want to list College separately for every subject, when I could just say "College - pick your subject".

7. I would like to see a military enlistment option separated out from military academy. A college/ROTC option would also be very reasonable.

Good idea. There are some sprinklings of that idea in there - some starship careers can be acccomplished via college in lieu of Military Academy. I was thinking about maybe it being a route to Navy Command school or something similar. I don't want it to be *too* similar to contemporary academic/military structures (maybe one day I'll write N.O.W. for those!), though!

8. I would like to see some possibility of failing out of a career. Not everyone who starts off in college finishes a full four years.

Maybe as an optional rule. I'll definitely consider an attribute check for each career.

9. The character creation rules has players choosing their trait right after they choose their species. It is impossible, in most cases, to meet the positive requirement for traits at this stage in character creation. I chose my trait based on my final attributes and assume this is the game's intention.

Good thinking. Yes, you're correct.

10. If you can't take a career that would lower an attribute to 1 and humans start with a 2 in everything, I had to put my human bonus attribute point in intelligence just to become a high school jock. Is this right? Along these same lines, it is so hard to get a 1 in any attribute (maybe impossible as a human) that the detriments just seem like a waste. Am I missing something?

Detriments can come into play later in the game - getting severely injured (unconscious) has a small chance of injuring you and reducing an attribute by 1 point. But I did try to pull back the chances of 1-point attributes after our first playtest where they were a bit of a problem, so there's much less chance of getting a 1 in the iteration you have there.

 

[Morrus]

Oh, [MENTION=20068]exile[/MENTION], if you want to give the revised college career a test run (it'll be in the next playtest document), here it is. Along with it, any career pre-req of Military Academy also has "or College II" attached to it, and Navy Command School can be joined directly with a doctorate (College III).

 

[exile]

That looks great! You appear to have 15 skill ranks though - that looks a lot without me working it through. You get two from your species and one from each of your five careers, which is 7. One for specialization, which is 8. Maybe a couple for your hobby, say 10 total?

(Then again, I'm looking at my current document - has it changed since then? May well have done!)

I actually wanted to ask about that and somehow forgot to do so. On page 28 (writing from memory here), there is a paragraph that is worded a little funny that made me think that I should take two skills per career (and I thought I read to take three for species), but later on that same page (in the numbered steps of character creation), it does say to take one per career. Wanting a highly-skilled character, I went with the higher of the two options.

 

[exile]

Oh, [MENTION=20068]exile[/MENTION], if you want to give the revised college career a test run (it'll be in the next playtest document), here it is. Along with it, any career pre-req of Military Academy also has "or College II" attached to it, and Navy Command School can be joined directly with a doctorate (College III).

View attachment 60185

I like this change.

 

[Morrus]

I actually wanted to ask about that and somehow forgot to do so. On page 28 (writing from memory here), there is a paragraph that is worded a little funny that made me think that I should take two skills per career (and I thought I read to take three for species), but later on that same page (in the numbered steps of character creation), it does say to take one per career. Wanting a highly-skilled character, I went with the higher of the two options.

You're right; it's three for species. It's supposed to be just the one for each career grade, though. You get multiple skills by remaining in the career.

 

[exile]

Thanks for the clarification. I'm dealing with frozen pipes at the moment, but if I can get that resolved and work isn't too busy tonight, I'll remake Ellen, then try to make a more larcenous, less military/academic character.

I'm looking forward to actually trying the system out in play as well.

 

[exile]

Katie Opaczewski is a charming 35 year-old con artist/prisoner who enjoys gardening.

Human (15 yrs)
Wealthy Upbringing (+4 yrs)
College (+4 yrs)
Street Thug (+1 yr)
Con Artist (+4 yrs)
Prison (+7 yrs)

Strength [3]
Agility [3]
Endurance [4]
Intelligence [4]
Willpower [2]
Charisma [7]
Psionics [0]

Cred (+6)
Rep (+2)
+Carly Vandergraft, friend from day school
+Freckles, gun-happy cellmate

Skills
Bluffing x2
Carousing
Gardening x2
Running
Science/Biology
Sport/Soccer
Survival
Trivia/Movies
Unarmed Fighting

 

[exile]

So, the above character is obviously incomplete, but the process raises a couple of questions.

Bluffing is probably the most likely of her skills to be her primary/specialist skill, but her career paths only give her one chance to take it. After I add the bonus rank for it being her primary/specialist skill, it is only equal to the mandatory two ranks in her hobby skill (gardening). I guess my question is this-- can a specialty skill be tied for highest skill at the time of character creation, or must it be the highest (no ties allowed)?

Second, Katie's fourth career (con woman) landed her in prison due to a low roll. Does she go to prison for the fifth career or do we skip prison since she was sent there by what should have been her final career pass?

 

[Morrus]

Bluffing is probably the most likely of her skills to be her primary/specialist skill, but her career paths only give her one chance to take it. After I add the bonus rank for it being her primary/specialist skill, it is only equal to the mandatory two ranks in her hobby skill (gardening). I guess my question is this-- can a specialty skill be tied for highest skill at the time of character creation, or must it be the highest (no ties allowed)?

A tie is allowed. Do you feel there needs to be more careers with Bluff as a skill option?

Second, Katie's fourth career (con woman) landed her in prison due to a low roll. Does she go to prison for the fifth career or do we skip prison since she was sent there by what should have been her final career pass?

She got lucky! Though I would suggest that as a great roleplaying hook - she should be in prison, and is a wanted criminal! (In other words, if her life had continued through that character generation process, she'd have gone to prison, but because she's now an adventurer, what happens is what happens!)

[Edit - hang on. Slightly confused. Her final career can be prison, yep. Just means that at the start of the game she's newly released; I thought you meant that her final prison career would have taken her over her max number of careers]

 

[exile]

I'm fine with ties. I just didn't know for sure if they were allowed. If they had not been allowed, then I think you would have had to rethink either the way extra ranks in the specialty or the hobby skill were awarded. As it is, I think things are fine.

Regarding the prison career, I think you were correct the first time. Being forced to go to prison caused me to have to take a fifth career. Is that legal? On a side note, I think prison (either being wanted, an escapee, or newly released) is a great adventure hook.

Chad