Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Rules and such => Topic started by: Ed on <11-14-10/2101:27>
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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?
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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.
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With some good back and forth with your GM this could work very well! :)
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*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. ;)
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How about this one.
Hunting Skill Group:
Infiltration
Longarms
Survival
Tracking
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a Chummer of Mine (Doc.Byte)
invented the
Sportsgroup
Bicycling
Skiing
Watersports(or was it Surfing ?)
Blading
with a Groupdance
Medicineman
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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??
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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.
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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.
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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?
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(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.
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What about Heavy Weapons as a Group
with MGs / Rocket Weapons / Grenade Launcher as Single Skills
JahtaHow
Medicineman
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Heavy weapons as a single skill covers all those now it costs 4 bp per level why make it a skill group that cost 10 bp per level?
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How about Heavy Weapons, Gunnery and Armorer or some other teritary skill?
One can articulate that heavy weapons and gunnery come with a more in depth study of the maintenance and upkeep of weapon systems and that armory as applies to those weapon systems have basic principles that are applicable to other weapon systems like pistols, subs and rifles.
You get two useful firearms skills and one useful all around weapon related skill.
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How about Heavy Weapons, Gunnery and Armorer or some other tertiary skill?
I support this message.
What I proposed was a skill group of... Pilot Ground Craft, Piolt Aircraft, Pilot Watercraft, & Pilot Anthroform.
I really dig this grouping, but I too would nix the anthroform from the group and make it only Pilot Ground Craft, Pilot Aircraft & Pilot Watercraft.
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Heavy weapons as a single skill covers all those now it costs 4 bp per level why make it a skill group that cost 10 bp per level?
Moa Specialisations for "The Win" ?! ;) ;D
Thats for the Tricky Folk
And Also that the Skill contains so many different Weapons seem a little Strange (at Least to me). the Weapons in it are more different than in the whole Firearms Group
@
How about Heavy Weapons, Gunnery and Armorer or some other teritary skill?
I Like that Idea :)
HeyaHeyaHeya
Medicineman
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How about an Exotic Ranged Weapons as a skill group containing:
Lasers,Flamers,Dart guns and Cyber-implant guns.
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How about an Exotic Ranged Weapons as a skill group containing:
Lasers,Flamers,Dart guns and Cyber-implant guns.
better would be two different ones
Exotic Ranged Weapons(Gyrocs,Flamer,Laser & DartGuns, Knifeguns, Swordguns,Guncane,etc)
and Cyberweapons(Cyberguns,Cybermeleeweapons and any other Cyberweapons like Grapple Hand)
Hough!
Medicineman
Edit :D
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How about an Exotic Ranged Weapons as a skill group containing:
Lasers,Flamers,Dart guns and Cyber-implant guns.
better would be two different ones
Exotic Ranged Weapons(Gyrocs,Flamer,Laser)
and Cyberweapons(Cyberguns,Cybermeleeweapons and other Cyberweapons)
Hough!
Medicineman
The first one really should include dart guns too, if any skill group deserves to have 4 skill its that one ;)
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How about an Exotic Ranged Weapons as a skill group containing:
Lasers,Flamers,Dart guns and Cyber-implant guns.
Are laser worth it, though? As a weapon I mean.
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How about an Exotic Ranged Weapons as a skill group containing:
Lasers,Flamers,Dart guns and Cyber-implant guns.
Are laser worth it, though? As a weapon I mean.
Definedly, laser skill gives you:
A pistol sized weapon with 5P AP -half damage code with SMG range
An assault rifle sized weapon with 7P AP -half damage code with sport rifle ranges
and a machinegun(or something) sized weapon with 9P AP -half damage code with sniper rifle ranges
:o :o
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You know, the more I look at it, the more this is a great way to subtly emphasize skills. Want lots of high power combat, make more weapon groupings. Want everyone to be a spec-ops soldier, come up with an appropriate skill group. The lower cost will encourage people to take any group that has two skills they would have taken anyway. So the support skills are more or less free. That was actually the idea behind the Sarariman joke group. Its four skills that just about everyone should have a level or two in. Just be careful to avoid overlapping skills that already exist in other groups.
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What about Heavy Weapons as a Group
with MGs / Rocket Weapons / Grenade Launcher as Single Skills
JahtaHow
Medicineman
This group would be available to ex Military. Heavy weapons only got FamFire in marine Boot along with pistols.
It was in Infantry Training School we got some hands on time with the big toys and nothing bigger than a LAW rocket at the time. Also add assault rifles to that mix and you have a good Marine weapons mix duirn ITS!