Let's Build: a Military Journalist

[Raellus]

I've converted to 4e rules (v1 history forever!) so I'm going to continue this exercise using that particular ruleset. Please feel free to share builds for any of the other editions here as well.

None of the 4e PC Archetypes seem a like a good fit, so I'm going to have to give that some more thought. On the other hand, a couple of the Skills and several of the associate Specialties stand out as being very suitable/applicable.

Under the Recon skill:

HISTORIAN: Roll RECON when you arrive at a new location. If you
succeed, the Referee can tell you something significant that has
happened here in the past (if anything ever did).

INVESTIGATOR: Roll RECON when you spend a stretch or more
investigating the scene of a crime or a battle. If you succeed, the
Referee should give you some useful information about what
has happened and when.

And under the Persuasion skill:

INTERROGATOR: Gives a +1 bonus to PERSUASION
rolls for extracting information from a prisoner.

PSY OPS: Gives a +1 bonus to PERSUASION rolls for
changing someone’s mind about a particular
issue.

As for party role, given some local language skill specialization, I can see a Mil-Journo being a very helpful "face" character- someone who can elicit information from just about anyone. A Mil-Journo could also act as party "scribe", keeping IC (and OOC) records for the party. Overall, a Mil-Journo would be a good character for a player who enjoys the RP'ing / character-interaction aspects of RPG'ing more than the combat-related stuff.

-

Originally Posted by Raellus

INTERROGATOR: Gives a +1 bonus to PERSUASION
rolls for extracting information from a prisoner.
-

I like this for a journalist, because I think Interrogation is a skill that doesn't require ripping anyone's fingernails out or applying electrodes to the testicles. It needs to be normalized for attorneys [along with Bottom Feeding... ], detectives, consular officers, Barbara wawa, HUMINT collectors, and my 'looks like he's 16 years old' doctor asking about my nutrition and exercise habits during my last physical, etc.

[Tegyrius]

Originally Posted by Spartan-117

I like this for a journalist, because I think Interrogation is a skill that doesn't require ripping anyone's fingernails out or applying electrodes to the testicles. It needs to be normalized for attorneys [along with Bottom Feeding... ], detectives, consular officers, Barbara wawa, HUMINT collectors, and my 'looks like he's 16 years old' doctor asking about my nutrition and exercise habits during my last physical, etc.

Also chaplains.

- C.