What do you guys use the tactics skill for?

[TarlSS]

My players are tactically inept, so the skill is for me forwarning them before shooting themselves in the foot, particularly when the character knows better.

[KageRyu]

[garhkal]

What attribute would that common sense skill be under?? 8)
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Chabit Rane]

I would guess that it does not belong under a physical attribute, so STR & DEX are out. The others.....................

[Admiral Andersen]

I sometimes use the Tactics skill to give my players some information when they plan an attack or something similar. The higher the roll, the more information.
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Admiral Andersen. Commander of the Imperial Star Destroyer II, Vigilant.

[garhkal]

Do you ask them to roll, or do you wait till they think of it, first?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Jedi Skyler]

Sometimes I'd go ahead and give them a small piece of information or two- it'd depend on the characters. If there's a military-trained character in the mix, they're going to naturally have a better grasp on tactics than the average joe. There would be situations that lined up with field problems they'd been on, or lessons they'd been taught in training, whatever.

And I wouldn't make these BIG things, either. Just small nuances about the current situation that pop to their trained eye. At that point, they'd either tell me they want to make a Tactics roll, and I'd give them whatever info they'd earned, or they'd not tell me that, and we'd just go from there.

I personally ALWAYS take it as a prompt for a roll of some kind whenever the GM gives me a tidbit of information. It usually means there's a LOT more to be gleaned, if one would simply roll the dice...

[garhkal]

As would many. Though one would have to ask, would they bother with the skill if you did not 'drop the tip' first??
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Jedi Skyler]

Well, the smarter of us (or at least those who can be taught, anyway) will eventually come to realize that they can, at any time, tell the GM that they're going to roll Tactics to see if they can determine the best place to set up an ambush, or roll Search to see if they can detect a trap, etc. Those who can learn, will. Those who can't will forever expect the GM to just pass out tips and hints, thus turning him into a cheat code book rather than storyteller. Of these imbeciles, those with a good GM will see to it that they're constantly having to create new characters because they keep getting vaped. Maybe sometime down the line they'll finally wise up. Maybe they'll just move on to a different gaming group. Either way, I'd say the group as a whole wins.

[TarlSS]

Einh. I'm not going to begrudge them simply because theyre not good with strategy or tactics- some people just don't have that 'general's sense' so to speak. That's no reason to penalize them unduly- It is a role-playing game, and the skill is there to represent that their characters know tactics. I wouldnt expect someone with a high scholar:chemistry to know actual chemistry, nor repair to know how to repair a space transport.

[garhkal]

[TarlSS]

But if they put points into the skill, why begrudge them? They're paying the penalty by not putting those points into other skills that could be more useful.

Frankly I'd prefer it if they put more points into tactics and other such skills and ask for hints instead of trying to make uber 8d6 blaster characters.

[garhkal]

But if they are putting points in that skill it should be on "their shoulders" to activate it, not yours.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Jedi Skyler]

That's why I like to take a bit of a happy medium. Once I've shown them a couple times that this is quite a useful skill, I'd start letting them ask for a roll rather than just dropping the hint. It's a learning process to be sure... and if they steadfastly refused to ask for such a roll, I might talk to them separately and explain that they have that option and that right. Perhaps the player is just a bit more dense than the character is, and needs a little extra prodding.

But if I've gone there, the hints are done. It's up to them.

[garhkal]

Ah. My misunderstanding... i was percieving that you gave it to them regardless.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!