Movies ETC, vs Game Rules

[Mamatried]

I have been thinking about the limits of the game and character cration, the cut above the rest going to be heroes.

I have noticed that the stat blocks are in some cases far out of the reach of what any character can resonably become, and this goes also for the not so heroic ones, but still named NpCs.

I then came to think, How difficult is what we see actually, and how will translate to the D6 Stats?

I thik if we look at some of the stats that are above 6-8D depending on, then I think we have a more realistic look at what we see compared to the rules, basically leveling down even the heroes with quite a lot.

I do not think that a trained soldier or a trained pilot will have very much need to have a stat above 6D in piloting with 4D being considered a qualified pilot. Looking at a fresh out of the academy pilot I can easily see a beginning 4D maybe 5D to the piloting skills, becuse of the limitation on 7D and +2D, so he can not start with more than 6D in piloting, and while this can make for a hero in the 8D or even 10D range, it should not reflect all skills, as we do see people fail, and read about it, so maybe a thing can be to look at difficulty ratings and maybe change the examples, and maybe some easy tasks should be very easy, as we do not see the regular person risk failing at easy daily tasks. yet by the rules rolling a 3 iwhr a 1 on the wild dice in possible and this will fail a difficulty 5 (easy) task.
so maybe some difficulties should be reconsidered, or maybe the heroes over all, as well as many NPSc are written hmore how heroic we see them and want them to be, more than what we actually see them do and be good or bad at.

[Yora]

I think reducing NPC stats would be the easiest solution. It's relatively quick and painless and doesn't mess with any of the game rules, so you don't have to regularly remember that things are meant to work differently than the book says.
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[Mamatried]

One of my reasonings behiund this is what movie characters etc say afre their limitations.

If someone can fly a light friehgter well enough but not a fighter at all, then I have issues with these people having the default use.

Again the senator who doe not know how to shoot, but has 2D base meaning they can actually shoot.

A way around this could be to allow the default of course as it makes ense in many cases as well, but basically have locked and unlocked skills.

meaning I make my character I have 7D in skills, I allocate this to a total of 9 different skills including the 3 specialities.

I do not auromatically now any more skills at all, BUT once I try to use a skill I do not have , using the base attribute default I have to pay a cp, but I now have this skill opened, and at end of adventure I have this cp returned.

the searsoning is that you can use the CP to boost rolls in game, but becuse you "learned a new skill" or a new way of doing things you spend the CP on this, but the difference is that his cp is automatically returned after the mission.

[garhkal]

[Whill]

https://rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8066

Mamatried, I noticed this is similar to a previous thread you posted.

[Mamatried]

in TFA, Poe is asked if he can fly the TIE, he reapons that he can fly anything.

later we see a perfect example of defaulting use of a weapon when Finn takes the TIE canon, taht he was not familiar with and thus had no skill ranks in, and he defualted this of course with his skill synergy from his blasters, vehicle blasters perhaps as some of the weapons systems can familiar.

we hear often that someone say they "cant'" or ask if someone can do things, and no I have not heard anyone say they can not shoot, but we have heard and seen in legends and canon scourses, movies, comics, animated or even tv shows we see people not knowing how to, and the they do not default like we say finn do.

one small example without any direct indication on lack of "training" is when Han gives Rey the balster and speaks to her as if she never had used one, not that that alone would give her a pip in rules, but I would go as far as to say it could "open the skill" and allow her to default it and then train this by herself with cp earned.

I don't see it often, but to me it seems that nobody actually defaults a skill they have "knowldege"\ of existing" in what I mean is you don't see anyone that asks others if they can fly a tie figher and then go do it themselves, but you can see a pilot doing this, and a soldier can easily defualt a skill in a new weapon system, much easier than some civilian that never held a blaster ever.

But then again this can also be a more npc issue with the unnamed "fillers" if you will and by that less need to both explain skills and lack of skills and levels.

since it is not often very important how high Mechanical Attribute a resturant cook has, even if take his swoop to and from work.
I will say this person can never default a starship pilot roll as it simply would not make sense at all. and it would be natural even if he had 4D mechanical skill and 8D in his swoop getting to work skill, he would IMO not be able to use his 4D to piloting, and will have to do even with a hired pilot with 2D+2 in piloting, a basicl galactic bus driver taking you in a line from a to b.

I think there should be skills that unless trained somewhat you simply can not use the attribute default.

I know how to drive a car, but not a motorcycle, I could of course learn this on my own since it is similar in elements to riding a bicycle, 2 wheels, balance, a powerscourse. But I can not see how I would be able to in any way at all fare if I was to be palced in the cockpit of an airliner, I know how to use the stick, but that actually helps me nothing, I do know know and the cost of failure to try it on the fly and pushh random buttong and flip random switches I would call too high to be something I can do by instinct.

Unless Finn is very uneducated and not capable of common sense, he would know of course that Poe is indeed a pilot, after all that is why Finn bust him out, and if all pilots automatically can fly anything, then finn would know that any polit on the base could fly a tie becuse they are pilots and all pilots can fly anything, then why ask spesifically if Poe could fly a TIE?

if the controls of a fighter and a freighter are that different, then I see issues in defaulting. if an X wing and a TIE are so radically different then maybe any and all starships other some super general use "busses" should be specialiced, maybe even advanced skills.

[KageRyu]

I think you are over thinking these issues and trying to inject too much realism and reality into a game system that, in it's own books describes itself as intended to emulate pulp science fiction, action, and space opera. Things in film and even television are often taken much more for granted, take broad assumptions, and even stretch credibility - and this is even more true in Space Opera and pulp action.

As to skills and defaulting, and I may be mixing up editions and do not have access to my books for reference right now, but I do recall there being mention of Skills listed on the Character sheet are skills you are trained in. Players may ask the Game Master at the time of character creation to add skills and it is at the Game Masters discretion. Any skills not on the character sheet the character is not skilled in. I would say it would not be unreasonable to apply a difficulty modifier for the character being at a disadvantage when using a skill not on the character sheet. Later editions of D6 had a mention of a -1D penalty for unskilled use. Though in a Space Opera setting where the players characters are meant to be action heroes that are larger than life this feels wrong to me.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[Whill]

KageRyu, I think that you are referring to character creation, where the skills listed on the character templates are the ones you can apply your 7D in starting skill dice too.

But after character creation, per RAW you can train and improve any non-advanced skill, whether it was listed on the character template or not, without or without a teacher (there are rules for both). You can also improve any skill you use successfully in the adventure, whether it was listed on the template or not, without training (you only need to spend the CPs).

The skills listed on the template don't mean anything special after character creation. If you have not improved a non-advanced skill, it defaults to the attribute, whether it was listed on the template or not.

I agree about the realism factor. Star Wars is a cinematic reality. The game system doesn't have to strictly reflect the real world. Attribute default of non-advanced skills may not always really jive with our reality, but I am pretty happy with it for the world of Star Wars, only seeing a need for the slight tweak of the temporary unfamiliarity penalty.

Mamatried, I kinda see your point about attribute default of starship piloting. WEG fluff attempted to help explain Luke Skywalker in the Battle of Yavin by stating that the cockpit and controls of his X-wing are very similar to his T-16 back home (made by the same manufacturer). Then WEG stat writing gave Luke a starfighter piloting skill of 7D as of the Battle of Yavin, which doesn't really make sense. (This is the same company that statted Greedo as an 18D attribute bad@ss instead of the mook he really was.) Don't hold the failure in stat writing against the game system. In my game, Luke may have a Mechanical of 5D, the fluff helps to mitigate the unfamiliarity factor, then a lot of CPs take care of the rest.

Here's one more thing to consider: simulators. When I played 1e as a kid, my first two campaigns (ran concurrently after the second started) each had a Brash Pilot PC (with Mechanical 4D), and the characters were best friends from the same hick planet (the tech level had been about 1980s Earth until the Empire came). The one in the first campaign had been the son of the owners of the largest repulsorlift dealership in his city, and his uncle from Alderaan had sponsored him to go to the Imperial Academy. His background explained his starting skills, including starship piloting 6D. The second one lived on a horse farm (like the player in real life) and he was left behind by his best friend. He later got his chance to leave his planet as a copilot on a small freighter captained by a desperate smuggler. I think that brash pilot started out with +1D in starship piloting, but I didn't feel that his short time in space would justify that skill so we decided that his planet had very realistic space flight simulator "video games". We reasoned that Tatooine may have had them too.
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