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Creating New Skill Groups

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Ed

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« on: <11-14-10/2101:27> »
Does anyone create new skills groups as the need arises for a campaign or certain characters?

I'm considering a skill group that I want to title "Commando" and give the following skills in it:  'Parachuting, Diving, Survival and Demolitions' because the PC's I am dealing with almost all have a background in the intelligence or covert operations field in the PC history.

Two of the skill, Parachuting and Diving probably don't see a lot of use in the average campaign.  Survival fits the commando motif and Demolitions is a useful skill that also fits the commando motif I am going for and does not appear on any other skill groups.

I wanted to avoid poaching skills from existing groups to make an 'uber-group' and I envisioned a commando-type as someone who would be trained in skills commonly taught at entry level specialized courses (Airborne, Combat Diver, etx.) or that a military person would have at least a passing familiarity with (demolitions).

Any thoughts?

FastJack

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« Reply #1 on: <11-14-10/2333:10> »
That's an interesting idea.... Allow them to buy skill groups based on a training mindset for particular backgrounds. I like it!

It'd definitely be a house rule to put in place for a theme character/game. And you'd have to watch to make sure you don't go crazy with it*. But it could definitely work. I might not call them Skill Groups, but maybe "Career Groups" to set them apart.

A Doctor group could contain Cybertechnology, First Aid, Medicine and a choice of an Academic Knowledge (Biology, Pharmacology, Anatomy, etc.). Or a Demolitios/Bomb Squad group containing Chemistry, Computer and Demolitions. Of course, Espionage group containing Forgery, Unarmed, Con and Survival.

*By crazy, I mean somebody would bound to suggest a Shadowrunner group containing Pistols, Dodge, Con and Computer just so they could max those skills for a pittance.

AJBuwalda

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« Reply #2 on: <11-15-10/0122:41> »
With some good back and forth with your GM this could work very well! :)
Greetings from the Netherlands, comrade!

Nomad Zophiel

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« Reply #3 on: <11-15-10/0127:22> »
*By crazy, I mean somebody would bound to suggest a Shadowrunner group containing Pistols, Dodge, Con and Computer just so they could max those skills for a pittance.

Or the Sarariman group with Drive Ground Craft, Computer, Etiquette and Professional Knowledge.  ;)

AJBuwalda

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« Reply #4 on: <11-15-10/0132:06> »
How about this one.

Hunting Skill Group:
Infiltration
Longarms
Survival
Tracking
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Medicineman

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« Reply #5 on: <11-15-10/0312:04> »
a Chummer of Mine (Doc.Byte)
invented the
Sportsgroup
Bicycling
Skiing
Watersports(or was it Surfing ?)
Blading

with a Groupdance
Medicineman
« Last Edit: <11-15-10/0313:46> by Medicineman »
http://english.bouletcorp.com/2013/08/02/the-long-journey/
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AJBuwalda

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« Reply #6 on: <11-15-10/0325:48> »
a Chummer of Mine (Doc.Byte)
invented the
Sportsgroup
Bicycling
Skiing
Watersports(or was it Surfing ?)
Blading

with a Groupdance
Medicineman
Thats a cool one. Don't know how effective it is, but still ;D
Greetings from the Netherlands, comrade!

Ed

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« Reply #7 on: <11-15-10/0902:15> »
I agree that you have to be very very careful with allowing PC's to create customized skill groups where they can miin-max and/or pick their favirote skills and leave other ones by the wayside.

I am glad to see other people have done this and I haven't lost my mind coming up with it.

I'm going to try it out and see how it works.  I appreciate the feedback.

Anyone else tried customizing skills groups other than the ones mentioned before?

My next question is, do you all, as GM's EVER give out free skill groups or skills to reflect either life skills or skills that you want the whole group to have which reflects training as a group but they may not be skills that are used very often and therefore you don't want to take the costs out of character creation?


Ed

Medicineman

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« Reply #8 on: <11-15-10/0939:37> »
Maybe a Contact or a Knowledge Skill like Area Knowledge or a Language on Lvl 1
If the Players actively pursue it Ingame
but not an Active Skill

HougH!
Medicineman
http://english.bouletcorp.com/2013/08/02/the-long-journey/
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1V7fi5IqYw
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RYlAPjyNm8

FastJack

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« Reply #9 on: <11-15-10/1013:43> »
Maybe a Contact or a Knowledge Skill like Area Knowledge or a Language on Lvl 1
If the Players actively pursue it Ingame
but not an Active Skill

HougH!
Medicineman
I agree. I can see a GM adding Japanese to eveyone's skills if the entire campaign is in Japan and the story has the runners being there for a while, but Active Skills are a different beast.

Casazil

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« Reply #10 on: <11-15-10/1502:24> »
Ok so let me ask this question of people here.

You take the Firarms skill group you can now use every pistol, rifle, & automatic weapon in the game.....

You take Close Combat you now can now use every club, & bladed weapon in the game as well as knowing unarmed combat moves.....

2 skill groups that if you take them lets you know how to use say what 80% of all the weapons in the game?

The only things missing are gunnery, heavy weapons, thrown weapons, & archery....

Now no offence to archery but unless you build a strenght beast the bow is only ever going to be an ok weapon and cross bows only do so much.

Thrown weapons ..... yes well there are uses BUT grenades are not one of them in MY opinion as the scatter rules AGAIN in MY opinion SUCK!

So to me that only leaves out heavy weapons and gunnery as useable skills not covered by the 2 skill groups.

NOW why do I bring all this up simple ....

I once mentioned the idea of having 2 new skill groups that I thought would be a good idea however people said it'd be way to much as it would cover too many things....

What I proposed was a skill group of... Pilot Ground Craft, Piolt Aircraft, Pilot Watercraft, & Pilot Anthroform.

I thought this would be usefull to a rigger type character and would work nicely with the skill group of Mechanics thus allowing for the rigger type character to drive and fix all the teams vechiles.

So what are peoples thoughts on this??
"If at first you don't succeed blame someone else"
Joel "Casazil" Rogers
Catalyst Demo Team Shadowrun Special Agent #251
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/CasazilsShadowrun/

etherial

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« Reply #11 on: <11-15-10/1509:10> »
What I proposed was a skill group of... Pilot Ground Craft, Piolt Aircraft, Pilot Watercraft, & Pilot Anthroform.

I'd buy that for a dollar. Not being a pilot myself, I do have to wonder whether Pilot Skills really need to be non-defaultable. I mean, obviously I'm not going to get in the back of a jet fighter and take evasive action without pasting myself all over the Midwest, but I have difficulty imagining I'd never in a million years be able to take off, land, or steer successfully.

FastJack

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« Reply #12 on: <11-15-10/1512:13> »
I like it, but I might just restrict it to three skills (Ground Craft, Air Craft and Watercraft). Much like Close Combat or Firearms, giving the player three really useful skills at a reduced price is worth it, but four might be a bit over-reaching. Like the difference between my Doctor group and the Biotech group is that I tossed in an Academic Knowledge skill to round it out. Most of the skill groups with the skills that get used a lot more stick to three skills, while the lesser-used skills are grouped into four.

Just my thoughts on it, but I do like the idea.

Casazil

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« Reply #13 on: <11-15-10/1527:39> »
I tossed in the Pilot Anthroform because thats is a drone type the air craft and the ground craft i see alot of use for too the water craft is the one i figured would get little use unless your running on the coast someplace.

But yeah I can see the idea of dropping it to only 3 skills but does anyone thing even at 3 skills that it is giveing too much to a player?

This is why I took the time to bring up the point that 2 skill groups cover 80% of all weapons IF my skill group was offical in game so as to allow rigger type hackers a usefull skill group other than the mechanic skill group would you allow mine in your game?

Or do you think this group giveing access to probally 80% of all vechile type things is too much?
"If at first you don't succeed blame someone else"
Joel "Casazil" Rogers
Catalyst Demo Team Shadowrun Special Agent #251
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/CasazilsShadowrun/

FastJack

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« Reply #14 on: <11-15-10/1531:26> »
(Actually, you're only giving them 67% -- Piloting Aerospace and Pilot Exotic Vehicle are still out there.)

I'd drop the anthroform just on flavor alone. Getting right down to basics, Ground Cars, Watercraft and Aircraft all have similar controls (wheel/stick, throttle, etc.). Anthroform, Aerospace and Exotics have very different controls that I'd say are a little hard to master and require detailed study.