Oh, you thought your job on the ship would give you skills?
As if. Only life can give you skills, and that’s something you don’t get much choice in.
When rolling an Intergalactic character, roll d12 and d6 and consult the list of systems (the d12) and worlds (d6 in that system). This will give you three most important worlds to you.
The first is where you were born, and what sort of... being you are.
The second is where you were made. The world where you fully established yourself.
The third is where you were broken. How it all went wrong.
Each of these grants you a Skill and some extra stuff. Roll d6+d12 for each Skill to get its rating, working very must like an Electric Ability Score or a Mythic Virtue.
So let’s do an example, limiting ourselves to the first few worlds because they’re the most fleshed out right now.
Born [1 / 3] - Heap
You grew up in the crannies of the salvage heaps. Sometimes working, sometimes hiding. Skill: Salvage. You can smell and identify most non-organic materials as if they were hot food.
Made [1 / 1] - Ziggurat Works
You roved the neon jungle, managing populations of the most dangerous life. Skill: Creatures. Nano Rifle (2d6 erode, long), machete (d6 pierce)
Broken [1 / 2] - Wolf Pit
You did bookkeeping for a cybersurgeon before stealing their mistreated pet. Skill: Administration. Cyber Critter (Electronics 12, Scuttering 7, 4gd, d6 burn electo-bite)
So our character has their three skills, and we roll d6+d12 for each and of course d6 Guard, giving us:
Although similar to Ability Scores/Virtues in other Bastionland games, there are a few subtle differences.
Because everyone has their own unique skills, sometimes just having a skill is enough to do the job. Got Surgery 5? You can do surgery under normal circumstances, but you’ll need to roll if you’re doing it under some sort of pressure. These are still called Saves, not Skill Rolls, after all.
Skills can give you +d6 to an attack when relevant. Got Explosives 10 and you’re throwing a grenade? Take an extra d6.
Skills generally don’t get reduced and restored. Injuries and other long-term harm are handled slightly differently here.
And what if you don’t have a useful skill at all? Roll using the closest skill at half it’s normal value. If none of them fit at all then use the lowest.
Need to fly a shuttle through an asteroid field and your skills are Dancing 12, Intimidation 14, and Burning 5? I’d be making the argument that my Dancing skill lets me focus on spatial awareness and control... rolling with a score of 6. If that doesn’t feel right, I’d be halving that Burning 5 down to 2 I guess. Look, is there really nobody else who can fly this thing?
Scary, I know, and my alarm bells also start ringing, imagining the game deteriorating into debates about how applicable the Horticulture skill is when fighting a cactus beast, but I’d like to give it a try and see if I can give enough guidance to make it work.
Over on Patreon I talk about music gear and eventually get onto RPGs.
Sometimes it matters which tool we pick up.
1981. The Roland TB-303 is a new bass synthesiser. It was designed to act as a substitute for a bass guitar player, much like a drum machine for a drummer. In 1984, after poor sales, it was taken out of production.
Expect the full post here and on the blog next week.
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Listening to players explain how a non-related skill applies in the current situation is always a delightful moment as a GM. Experience thaugh me that allowing players to try new stuff that is not logical gives incredible RP moments.
Listening to players explain how a non-related skill applies in the current situation is always a delightful moment as a GM. Experience thaugh me that allowing players to try new stuff that is not logical gives incredible RP moments.
In my experience, players always try to use the horticulture skill when fighting a cactus beast