Possible New Skill- Opinions Please

Hey All,

The skill listing for the FASA is fairly extensive and covers a wide range of information. However, I'm encountering problems with players who don't have the background in a particular field or topic, say "Andorian Literature" for obscurity's sake, and I'm stuck from time to time with players who don't have the background to move the adventure along. It doesn't happen often, but, sometimes a player gets stuck in a situation and has little to no hope of rationalizing their way out because of lack of information or skill. I was thinking of a skill to replace or in addition to Trivia, calling it "General Knowledge" or such thing. I suppose a sort of "I read that in an article once..."," I saw it on the news...", " I heard someone talking the other day...", type thing.

Opinions and comments, please!

Joe

Stuff like "Andorian Literature" was exactly what the Trivia skill was intended to deal with.

Current events and rumours should not be a skill, just a role-playing hook. You can assume that everyone has a general idea of what is going on in the Galaxy. If someone is specifically up to date on current events, watches the news religiously and can hold forth on the subject, then they could represent this as a Trivia: Current Events skill, but as a general rule just let it flow naturally. Not everything needs to be represented by game mechanics.

How would I look at the need of "Andorian Literature" skill?

First, for a native, it could fall under the Social Science: Andorian Culture/History skill. Here's how. For the overwhelming majority of native English speakers in the world, we are familiar with the broader aspect of English literature (not to leave out you Canadians and Australians as well as us Americans). We at least have a general knowledge of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and Hamlet. We also know enough of English bard tales and legends to get by with King Arthur and the Round Table and Robin Hood. The culture/history skill would indeed cover the basics, or more popular, of literature, music, history, and philosophical approaches.

Second, it could fall under Trivia as mentioned previously. However, it would require a more detailed or specific study of the skill, or even non-native study. A human studying Andorian Literature should not have a rating higher than +10 to his/her Andorian Culture/History or Andorian Language score due to the nuances in literature related to prerequisite knowledge regardless of his/her extra study in the trivia skill. OTOH, an Andorian would suffer no such penalty, and would be able to give an accurate accounting of Andorian Literature's various movements similar to American Literature's Transcendental, Regionalism, Naturalism, Harlem Renaissance, etc.

I was thinking of a broad based general knowledge that's not tied to any specific category. Like a pile of mostly useless facts that can trickle thier way into a game. For example:

The captain holds out his hand and says, "What do you make of this?"
"Oh, quadrotriticale!"
"Does everyone know about this wheat but me?"

or..

The captain moves closer to his captives who are playing cards and says, "On Beta Antares IV they play a real game. A man's game. But, of course it's beyond you; It requires intelligence."
The leader looks up, indignant and replies, "I can play any game you can figure out! Here are the cards, big man! Show us how it's played!" As the angered ganster stacks the cards, the trusty first officer whispers, "I'm familiar with the culture on Beta Antares IV..."

or...

"Let's sing a song!"
"How 'bout 'Camptown Races'?"
"'Moon Over Rigel VII'?"
"'Row.Row, Row, Your Boat'!"
"Do you know 'Row, Row, Row, Your Boat' ?"

That kind of stuff. Just something to fill the gaps.

I'd say that if you don't mind, and if your players don't mind, then add whatever skills you feel are needed. Personally, I'd stay away from something as generic as "General Knowledge", as your players may end up relying on that skill way too much ("The alien warp core is going critical and will blow up! I'm going to use my General Knowledge to figure out a way to shut down the core.")

In your above examples, I'd put them under specific skills rather than a General Knowledge. First one would be something like Agriculture. Second would be Gaming or something of that type. Third would be Culture or Literature, with emphasis on Song Lyrics.

I gamed with some fellows that had added a whole slew of skills that would help further define and add depth to a character's knowledge. It made it quite interesting. Of course, I wasn't upset about the inclusion, or the added time in creating a character. I felt it helped a lot in knowing your character better before you start playing.

So if you and your players think it's good to include more skills, and then -of course- making a new character generation to accomodate the new skills, then go for it!

I think that an INT roll would be better than a General Knowledge skill. Modifiers could be applied based on how widespread the knowledge is, and also to reflect when the characters have been out of touch (it is hard to keep up with current events when your on a deep space exploration mission).

1/2 INT might work best. Then you could average it with a skill. That would help to reflect how a character is morelikely to keep up with new developments in his field of expertise.

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Personally, I'd stay away from something as generic as "General Knowledge", as your players may end up relying on that skill way too much ("The alien warp core is going critical and will blow up! I'm going to use my General Knowledge to figure out a way to shut down the core.")

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That is a definite problem. However, it could explain why Mr. Spock knew how to work Fabrini computers just by looking at them ('For the World is Hollow.."). I'd have to impose a limitation of somekind.

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I gamed with some fellows that had added a whole slew of skills that would help further define and add depth to a character's knowledge. It made it quite interesting. Of course, I wasn't upset about the inclusion, or the added time in creating a character. I felt it helped a lot in knowing your character better before you start playing.

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I wouldn't mind that at all. I encourage that! But, I don't want the player's wondering if it's worth putting points in an new skill for to know a rare factoid rather than being a better shot.

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I think that an INT roll would be better than a General Knowledge skill. Modifiers could be applied based on how widespread the knowledge is, and also to reflect when the characters have been out of touch (it is hard to keep up with current events when your on a deep space exploration mission).

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I've tossed that around. I've toyed with a INT/LUC average with modifiers, too. SOmebody in the Ferengi Blue Room suggested A base score (INT+LUC/10 or something...) and then roll D100 at the end of the adventure (only if you used the skill). If the D100 roll is greater than than the skill, you increase it 1D10/2. It's interesting....

I've run on to this situation before, and usually use INT/LUC or 1/2 INT...

In FASA's TNG First Year Sourcebook Data was given the "Trivia: General" skill, since, as an android he had a fair chance to know something about anything (to quote the book)...

And you've seen Data doing that on the show - "Ahhh.. Andorian Literature... accessing... " and then he rattles off a string of trivial knowledge worded like an encyclopedia listing.

I use a "General Knowledge" skill for a few characters as a Trivia skill.Its just a triava for those people who seem to have read an article in some magizine at some point in their daily lives.(I do this my self in RL.it annoys people watching Jeporady with me.). They can't quote page or verse but they get a "Well I remember reading in Time magizine a couple years ago about them finding a fossel of the real missing link."type of information.Kind of like when I go during Jeporday"What is " & people ask me how I knew something so obscure I say "I read it some where."

CSI's Gil Grissom would be a good example of someone with a Trivia: General Knowledge skill. He's always quoting something he read, or even dialogue from movies to make his points.

I've been thinking in these last few days to call it "Galactic Lore". It would be a catch-all that covers ancient legends, from the Vegan Tyrany to the Preservers to recent subspace-chatter such as Fleet Captain Pike catching a bad dose of rads. It would allow for noted people of various planets across history and planets, Sytar of Vulcan, for example.

This could also be an example of cross-over into Federation History as famous scientists and poets across the Fed would be known. Everyone knows Daystrom and Duotronics in the 23rd century as peeps knew Gates and Microsoft or Steve and Apple in the 20th century.