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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lyle.spade" data-source="post: 7747097" data-attributes="member: 30042">You are correct: no stats. Skills are categorized as being either Personal Combat, Vehicle, Intelligence, Social, or Espionage in focus, and are built up during character generation by selecting Backgrounds, each of which comes with skill bonuses. There are also two different Defense numbers, one for Dodge and one for Parry, and Initiative, Karma, and Endurance. Karma can spent spent to activate special abilities, which are akin to Feats in other systems - things like "I Have You Now..." which provides a bonus to one's Dogfighting (starfighter combat) roll.It's clearly unusual to not have ability scores in the traditional sense, but if the mechanics of the game involve rolling dice + some bonus, does it really matter what goes into that bonus? Take 5e: one's DEX bonus will help with ranged attacks, but what really matters is the total bonus to the die roll...that's what makes the mechanical difference. I've not gotten deep enough into the book to find out how one would roll to kick down a door or lift something heavy, although there is an "Athletics" skill, which is probably the catch-all for such things.Skills, by the way, are ranked from 1-100, with the die roll bonus being that number divided by 10, rounded down. Everyone starts with 10 in every skill, then Backgrounds add a variety, and then there is a pool that the player uses to round out the skills package.The game is built on the assumption of wide-spread knowledge of technology usage, to the extent that every PC is a trained pilot (minimum score of 10, for a roll bonus of +1). It reminds me some of Star Wars - the movies, that is - where it seems that anyone can drive or fly anything with at least a base level of proficiency. Perhaps the conceit is that PCs are not going to be dirt farmers on some distant planet, or slum dogs...they're going to be exceptional, and therefore will know how to do a lot of things.On the topic of character generation and Backgrounds, each PC gets 4 background points. Each Background costs one or two points, with the two-point options offering more skills and higher bonuses. Thus, you could choose "Born on the Streets," then progress to having been an "Anarchist," and then join the Army after your misspent youth. The first two cost 1 point each; the Army costs 2. Each of these provide different skills and bonuses and in some cases special abilities. There are 52 different Backgrounds from which to choose, and those together determine the mechanical expression of the character, with story ideas thrown in.I'll keep reading. Ask questions if you'd like and I'll do my best to answer them.</blockquote>

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