Is "Fix-It" broken?

Is it just me, or is the Engineer Professional Ability "Fix-It" (from the Ops Manual) broken?

As it stands, it reads: "When acquiring Repair, the engineer learns all skill specialties". Really? All skill specialties? I find it a stretch to imagine that a Starfleet engineer, on travelling back in time to 1943 would not only be able to fix the carburettor of a Sherman tank but would also get a +2 bonus for doing so!! :)

I'm thinking of changing "Fix-It" to allow a re-roll of the Repair test once per session or somesuch instead. Thoughts?

Repair (Stone Knives and Bearskins)

Could this mean that you can repair anything for which you already have a specialisation in using? That would seem to make more sense. 'Course, I don't know CODA very well, so I might be barking up the wrong ODN conduit...

CODA is designed to create highly, cinematically competent characters. So, yes, it is within the intent of the game for someone with Fix-It to fix a damaged Sherman tank... or to repair a tricorder with stone knives and bearskins.

I see what you're saying, TDK, but my issue isn't with the ability to do the repair, it's with having a specialisation in it.

So yeah - by all means, my time-travelling Starfleet engineer can fix the gearbox on the '67 Corvette in time to get to the beam-out point. He can do that by virtue of having the Repair skill. But to have Repair (Automobile Transmissions) as a specialisation when he was born and raised in the 24th century??

That's just a little too cinematic!

Mechanically, giving a +2 bonus to Repair across the board would actually be more beneficial for the character (as he would then get an additional +2 to any specialisations), but would "feel" better to me, in that the character isn't getting specialisations in everything.

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Originally Posted by Aldaron

I see what you're saying, TDK, but my issue isn't with the ability to do the repair, it's with having a specialisation in it.

So yeah - by all means, my time-travelling Starfleet engineer can fix the gearbox on the '67 Corvette in time to get to the beam-out point. He can do that by virtue of having the Repair skill. But to have Repair (Automobile Transmissions) as a specialisation when he was born and raised in the 24th century??

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Would the ability sound less weird to you if it just said "The character gets a +2 bonus to all Repair tests"?

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Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King

Would the ability sound less weird to you if it just said "The character gets a +2 bonus to all Repair tests"?

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Well, yeah. Like I said earlier, it would actually be mechanically better for the character to have an across-the-board +2 bonus, but it wouldn't feel as odd.

Still...I think on balance I might go with my original idea, that it would grant a re-roll to a Repair test once per session. As a Tier 1 ability, that seems about right in terms of ability. It gives a bonus, without being outrageous.

Don't know, yet. I'll need to think about it some more...

Well, remember that the skill is already saying that fixing a model T and a fusion engine is 'the same' in some nebulous way that you can put points into.

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Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King

Well, remember that the skill is already saying that fixing a model T and a fusion engine is 'the same' in some nebulous way that you can put points into.

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I know, I know *sad face*.
I can't remember how it worked in ICON...what was the equivalent? Maybe I should break it up into several sub-areas...

Well, is Engineering already a skill category? If so, just fold Repair into the appropriate Engineering skill.

The thing is—what I was trying to get to with the City on the Edge of Forever references—is that Star Trek presents its characters as hypercompetent in a wide array of areas, especially when relying upon the pretence of hypercompentence to drive plot points. CODA was build to create and run hypercompetent characters (in Trek or LotR), and if you want to create a vast array of delineated skills to 'accurately' model some alternate, more quotidian Trek, the FASA version might be a better starting point. Just remember that it took all of five minutes of guesswork for Scotty to figure out how to fly a Bird of Prey...