Skill list and other things.

[Marc]

With the help of some of my players, we've been designing a new Character Sheet and we've been revising the skill list in the process. Probably some of you have added some skills to the "official" skill list, thinking that their presence are needed for your games. Communications, Equipment Identification...etc.
Could you suggest some new skills that you have considered indispensable in your games?

And another related question... Recently we've been taking a look to "Fading Suns" rulebook. In this system, the skills are not permanently attached to an Attribute. You have the skill list, and you add your level to the most suitable Attribute depending on the task. You could use, for example, EDU + Combat Engineer (instead of CON + Combat Enginner) to determine if the character knows how to improvise an explosive with the available products or AGI + Combat Engineer to build the device. Seems a good and easy to use system without any problem to adapt to Twilight 2000 v2.2. I would like to read any opinion about that.

GrÃÂ*cies!

[General Pain]

Originally Posted by Marc

With the help of some of my players, we've been designing a new Character Sheet and we've been revising the skill list in the process. Probably some of you have added some skills to the "official" skill list, thinking that their presence are needed for your games. Communications, Equipment Identification...etc.
Could you suggest some new skills that you have considered indispensable in your games?

And another related question... Recently we've been taking a look to "Fading Suns" rulebook. In this system, the skills are not permanently attached to an Attribute. You have the skill list, and you add your level to the most suitable Attribute depending on the task. You could use, for example, EDU + Combat Engineer (instead of CON + Combat Enginner) to determine if the character knows how to improvise an explosive with the available products or AGI + Combat Engineer to build the device. Seems a good and easy to use system without any problem to adapt to Twilight 2000 v2.2. I would like to read any opinion about that.

GrÃÂ*cies!

As a side note I usually allways give character 1 or 2 specialty skills... This can be everything from ancient Ming antics ,poker, insectology, an instrument etc ...anything....origami...hehe after skill is chosen by PC player then roll 1d10..this usually ends in amusing results...FMDeCorba's character for instance rolled a natural 10 on his violin skill...beeing a SAS operative for over 35 years and a world class violinist could prove to be quite a mix hehe

[Slappy]

I find that Art and Sport are useful additions for fleshing out characters. Both require that you list a specialty so the skill actually becomes Art(Drawing), Art(Singing), Sport(Football), Sport(Poker) etc.

I think the civilian skills are a little thin. Additions like Carpentry and Masonry can help make rebuilding skills more specialized than the generic CVE.

Any college major can be a realistic skill like History, Literature, Psychology, Economics, Law, etc.

I also like splitting Medicine into a couple of subskills. I've always thought med was cheap and that it is strange that a combat medic has skills to diagnose the plague. My splits are: General Practice, Epidemiology, Surgery, Combat Medic and Vetrinarian.

[Targan]

Attached is the Gunmaster:2000 skill list we use in my campaign. To demonstrate the enormous variety of skills we use.

[Marc]

Wel, I suppose that all of us have reached similar solutions to fill the same gaps. I make a selection of the skills from Traveller:TNE and that include some of the skills you have said like Carpenter, Masonry, Psychology, Admin/Legal (instead of Economics), Pickpocket, Act/Bluff, Dance, Disguise, Music (specialization), Painting, Sculpture, Song, History, Communications, Sensors or Streetwise. I find that, as Slappy suggests, including Veterinary as a new skill seems a very good idea. I would suggest Animal Handling (from GURPS), too. Both of them could be a good resource for a T2K character. A general skill called Craftship (specialization) could be useful, too. Sparing Communications and Sensors from the old Electronics skill, keeping skill seems fair to me

Ok, I know that some of the skills listed here would not be critical in the T2K background but, thinking about what General posted, everybody will remember a SAS virtuously playing a violin. If the character wins a little more depth and appears a little more clearly-defined for the player and the group, everything is right.

Ei Targan. Your list is amazingly complete! I will take it a closer look this weekend with my group.

In the list, I've seen that each skill depends on more that one attribute. Interesting. What is the way to do a task roll in Gunmaster?

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Marc

Ei Targan. Your list is amazingly complete! I will take it a closer look this weekend with my group.

In the list, I've seen that each skill depends on more that one attribute. Interesting. What is the way to do a task roll in Gunmaster?

Okay, this is how it works. The three stats listed beside each skill are are averaged. That averaged number becomes that skill's Skill Base (SB). That SB can then be further modified by a Sunsign Bonus (this is basically your Zodiacal sign but in Harnmaster terms because Gunmaster is derived from Harnmaster (we also have a list of what each sunsign relates to in terms of a zodiacal sign)). You could ignore sunsign bonuses if you wanted.

Generally a character can add 1 point to a skill's SB if it is a "family skill" or a skill that they have been exposed to since childhood. The last column for each skill is the SB multiple for that skill when you first open it. So SB x 1, SB x2 etc. That number is ignored if the skill is being opened as an occupational skill. For instance (going from memory here) Rifle skill opens at SB3 if you open it in a non-professional setting but if you are opening it as a result of military training it opens at SB4.

The final number that you get by multiplying Skill Base with opening multiple is called your Mastery Level (ML). That is just a % number. So if your SB in Rifle is 15 and you've opened it to SB4 your % chance of hitting a target (without other modifiers) would be 60%. There are lots of things that can boost your chance of success in a skill (taking aim, taking longer on a task so you are taking more care, range, weapon sights, etc).