ICON Skills and Specializations

[jscott991]

I recently purchased the Star Trek Roleplaying Game from Last Unicorn Games (the TOS book), mostly as a reference, but I couldn't resist trying to create some characters. Unfortunately, the section on skills and specializations has me totally stumped.

I have a series of questions and the answer to the first one might make the others obsolete.

The first question is how much does it cost to increase a specialization level. I know that it costs 3 development points to increase the general level of a skill after the skill is purchased. But what is the cost to increase the specialization level? For example, if I wanted to make my Energy Weapons (Phasers) skill 1 (3) instead of 1 (2), what is the cost? The rules on what to do if you have duplicate skills from packages seem to imply that the cost is 3. But that can't make sense. If that were true, why would you ever not just increase the general skill level?

Second question. Let's say I have the skill Life Sciences (Botany) 2 (3) and I want to purchase another specialization for 1 point. What is the starting level for that specialization? It seems to me that it should be (2), but that would violate the rule that a specialization skill level starts one higher than the general. Is the starting level for the new specialization (2) or (3)?

In the example on character creation, their example character opts to increase his general level of a skill to match the specialization level. I believe he opts to turn a 2 (3) skill to 3 (3). This makes no sense to me, since it now has completely eliminated the usefulness of the specialization bonus. What if you increased the general level again? Would you have a situation of 4 (3), so that you actually are worse at your specialization? That can't possibly be.

This problem, save for the first question, is solved by not using the packages and eliminating the duplicate skill rules, but you still need to know how much it costs to increase the level of a specialization.

Thank you.

[Evan van Eyk]

First of all, Specializations do cost only 1 Development point - the costs for character advancement ingame are differently however.
As you said, Specializations do start with one level higher than the original skill - meaning when you have Athletics ( Running ) 2 /3, and want to buy the specialization ( Tennis ), you would spend 1 Dev Point and then would have the skill Athletics ( Running ) 2/ 3, ( Tennis ) /3.

When you begin raising the general skill again then yes, the specialization does not change, it has to be trained seperately, because it is a more narrow field of knowledge and not as general as anything that would be covered by the general skill.

[jscott991]

I'm speaking only of character creation, not later advancement just to be clear.

If increasing specializations only costs 1 point then I'm not sure I understand the duplicate skill rules when using the packages.

Let's say I have the skill Vehicle Operation (Shuttle) 1 (2) and one of my packages gives me the same skill. The rules say I can either make the skill 1 (3) or 2 (2). If you take option 1, you've cost your self 2 development points, since to package is assuming a cost of 3 points to get the skill for the first time and increasing a specialization costs only 1 point. If you take option 2, you've essentially created the problem I was confused about earlier that the general skill rank is the same as the specialization, meaning you'd never need to use the specialization rank.

[tonyg]

The specicilization rules were one of the bugs in ICON. I've even seen characters with skill scores higher than the specialty (IMO a speciality should either always remained 1 pont higher than the main skill, or else it should be "reabsorbed" into the main skill when the main skill score reaches the same value.)

A few other problems could arise in situation where a particular specialty was called for or gave certain benefits.

[Owen E Oulton]

Specialisation points should always remain above the Skill level - they're points you've spent and don't disappear. The developers of the game, back when they were active here, admitted that this was the most broken part of chargen as written. Unfortunately, they disagreed on how it could be fixed. See my post in the following post for the way I work it: http://forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread.php?t=13704

[jscott991]

Excellent suggestions. Thanks.

[LUGTrekGM]

We do it this way:
Each skil is 3 DP
Each spec is 1.

If you have Vehicle ops (shuttle) 1 (2) and get another shuttle 1 (2) = Vehicle Ops (Shuttle) 2 (3)

If you have shuttle 2 (3) and get shuttle 0 (1) = Shuttle 2 (4)

Any other questions, feel free. I work with this system all day and night making characters.

I am working on a better version of a software program, than Admiral Reliant did, years ago to generate characters.

[Phoenix]

We do it this way:
Each skil is 3 DP
Each spec is 1.

If you have Vehicle ops (shuttle) 1 (2) and get another shuttle 1 (2) = Vehicle Ops (Shuttle) 2 (3)

If you have shuttle 2 (3) and get shuttle 0 (1) = Shuttle 2 (4)

Any other questions, feel fre. I work with this system all day and night making characters.

I am working on a better version of a software program, than Admiral Reliant did, years ago to generate characters.

Right On!
One request, is going to be easy to up-grade or alter skills?

[LUGTrekGM]

If I wanted to make my Energy Weapons (Phasers) skill 1 (3) instead of 1 (2), what is the cost? .

1 DP

Let's say I have the skill Life Sciences (Botany) 2 (3) and I want to purchase another specialization for 1 point. What is the starting level for that specialization?

Life Sciences (Botany) 2 (3) (Worth 6 DP)
(Other Spec) (3) (Worth 1 DP)
Total = 7 DP

The example character opts to increase his general level of a skill to match the specialization level. I believe he opts to turn a 2 (3) skill to 3 (3). This makes no sense to me, since it now has completely eliminated the usefulness of the specialization bonus. What if you increased the general level again? Would you have a situation of 4 (3), so that you actually are worse at your specialization? That can't possibly be.

Skill (spec) 2 (3)
Add 3 DP for a new skill level Becomes
Skill (spec) 3 (4)

[LUGTrekGM]

The program I am working on (expect it in at least a month, I am shooting for mid January) Will fully handle skills, skill levels, etc. for LUG Trek

I am pretty sure I can rig it to also serve as a campaign / character folder for spending XP, etc. I'll need people to test it thoroughly. I will announce it in a thread all its own, when it is done.

I am pretty sure people will find it more than useful.