Special Abilities as Character Improvement

[YodaWI]

I am curious if anyone out there has awarded any special abilities as a learned skill rather than a starting skill. I am trying to think of ways to help my current players improve a little faster in the campaign I run because we don't play all that often.

Most of the special abilities I am aware of wouldn't work in this regard, such as growing climbing claws or lekku. Does anyone have a compiled list of special abilities or any insight to offer?

Thanks in advance for your advice and opinions.
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"May the Force Be With You."

[Ankhanu]

Without having to create in-story reasons for why any kind of special ability might develop, probably the best manner for faster character advancement is to simply award more Character Points at the end of each game. That way you don't have odd-ball characters with hard to explain special abilities running around, messing with the concept of the setting.

Awarding more CP allows the characters to advance rapidly... it's unusual, but not unheard of to have people that learn extremely quick.

Or you could go the route of being patient. Let your players advance at a normal pace. If you can't have fun rolling 2D for something, why would you have more fun rolling 6D for it? The fun in roleplaying is character portrayal and the plot. The failing at a task can be just as fun/rewarding as succeeding.
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[cheshire]

I've thought of doing something of the like. I toyed with adding a "two weapon fighting" special ability that can easily be explained in terms of characters training. Spend X number of cps, and then you get the ability to make two attack/parry actions before taking penalties. I've never implemented it thought.

Some may see a down side to training for special abilities, and that it starts to lend towards a d20 feats system. On the contrary, some may see that as a benefit, rather than a liability.

[garhkal]

The closest i have seen to something like this is in ADND with crocks and inate skills. A little list of supernatural (or mudane) abilities and powers each character got a chance for to give them a little boost.

For SW i would just go with what Ankhanu said and award more CP.
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[Sabre]

I have in the past given non-racial special abilities for things like eliminating dexterity penalties from a particular suit of armor to characters that either start with a great backstory detailing a long soldiering career or to characters who distinguish themselves in-game and portray the soldier/bounty hunter type character through more than just die codes.

Special abilities can actually be very normal.

I can't comment on the D20 feat system since I don't play, but D20 isn't the only system that has special abilities. I doubt they're even in the running for the top 10 best ability systems. </biased>

[YodaWI]

Thanks for all the suggestions/opinions. I like the two-handed fighting ability. It would fit really well with one of the characters in my campaign. Overall though, I will probably just give a few extra character points when they finish their current mission and give them a little extra time to use them.
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[Darth Ginzain]

I've given extra cp's before. Make sure you limit them to raising one skill per session though. I made the mistake of letting them do whatever and it didn't take long for the Bounty Hunter to have a 9d blaster. Couldn't do anything else but shoot, but that was all he cared about. Capping at one skill per session forces them to spread it out.

[masque]

[Ankhanu]

[ifurin]

i think he meant only letting the players raise a skill once.

[DarthMortis]

I've actually been thinking of making a table similar to D20 Star Wars/D&D/D20 Modern. I don't know what any of you think about those but I do play them. Or it could be more like the merit system from White Wolf games like World Of Darkness

I know of one many of my characters have, and that would be Ambidextrous. What it usually means to my group is the ability to use two weapons at one time without a penalty for having a weapon in your second hand. Or if something happens to your "Dominate" hand you can learn this ability and use your other hand.

My first ever D6 Game, and my first ever RPG (Besides video games) where my friend Mikey, aka Haywire, a Bounty Hunter, rolled three 1's on his wild dice when making a blaster roll, so the blaster blew up in his hand and he had to spend 10 character points to be able to use his other hand until he got a cybernetic one built.

I think it works really well, but that's just one persons opinion.

I hope it was helpful
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[Rerun941]

I actually picked up a copy of the d6 Space, d6 Fantasy, and d6 Adventure systems... Included in those games are character creation rules for advantages/disadvantages. Including options for buying off disadvantages with CPs. (just reverse it to buy advantages with CPs)

You might want to check them out for a list of advantages/disadvantages that are fully compatible with the d6 ruleset.
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[Rerun941]

[mastereji]

I played in a campaign once where the GM gave my noghri infiltrator the special ability to go crinos like in the werewolf game giving me huge STR, etc. which was absolutely crazy and ridiculous power-gaming ability but in the end it was still fun and all the other characters got to roll on his chart and also got a unique power. I usually don't run my campaigns by giving out special abilities but instead specialized or highly advanced equipment that has limited uses, etc. Though it can be fun for the players to have some special abilities etc in the star wars universe to set them apart from others. As for what type of abilities/powers: your imagination is the limit.
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"Remember the PCs are just putty in your hands"

[Whill]

If you want PC to start off low but advance fast, just give more CPs as already suggested. If you don't want the PCs to advance unsually fast, then simply give them more skill dice to allocate during character creation.

My game's PCs have a base starting skill dice of 8D instead of 7D. And I have selected 24 player species they can choose from (who all have exactly 18 attribute dice), and I attempted to balance out all the special abilities with respect to each other. In doing so, a human PCs special ability is to get 4D more in skill dice to allocate to starting skills (at the time of character creation only) so Human PCs generally start out with 12D (still no more than 2D per skill).

Also like previously mentioned, I was inspired by D6 Space to also allow a few minor special abilites and advantages that can be chosen during character creation, and they cost skill dice (so decrease the dice you can spend on skills). Things like ambidextity (only an advantage to offset handedness penalties if you bother with that), +1D to jury rig things, etc.

I personally feel it is best to grant all the dice for skills and advantages at character creation and then let the characters advance normally, but to each his own.
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