Griffins big book of questions!

[Captain_Griffin]

Well its pretty much on all of the character sheets. Its where it lists the skills, its one of the columns where you basically total everything up, right next to misc, levels.

[Tomcat]

Yea, Levels is the number of skill points ONLY. No mods are included.

Your Total column would be the combination of:

Attribute Mods + Levels/Ranks + Misc Mods (i.e. Specialty, Untrained Penalty) = TOTAL

[Captain_Griffin]

Now when you say rank, do you mean like actual Starfleet ranks (or whatever your in), like Lt, Commander, Captain, Admiral, etc?

[Tomcat]

No, I use the word rank as the term for number of skill points a PC has in a particular skill.

[Captain_Griffin]

Lol wait wha??
I thought thats total? I don't get it. How do you know what your level is in a particular skill?? What do you mean skill points? Bare with me here-.-

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Okay, there's... a lot of different terminology being thrown around here.

'Skill Level,' on the character sheet, means the raw, basic number you add to a die roll with that particular skill. That'd be equivalent to your Skill Rank in D&D 3e. Most other games just call them 'skill points' or 'skill rating.' Everything else, from attributes, equipment, situations, species abilities, whatever, modifies this number either up or down, hence they are called 'modifiers.'

When you generate your character, the numbers each package lists after the name of the skills are added to your skill level for that skill. So, if you pick a package in Childhood Development that says, say, 'Athletics +2' you write '2' in the Athletics skill level box. If you get a package in Professional Development that says 'Athletics +3' you add 3 to the 2, for a total of 5 in the Athletics skill level box.

When you spend experience points to increase your skill, you're buying more skill levels.

Does that help?

[Captain_Griffin]

Ahh, I get it. Ok so I had it right the first time. Well that clears things up.

Thanks!

[Captain_Griffin]

Another question. If you want to be a Starship officer, basically you have to pick the Tier 1 professional ability Starship Duty, if you want to start out with an Elite Profession, if a player DOES NOT pick that, and picks the tier 1 ability Rounded instead, what do they start out as if they want to be in Starfleet? Whats there job?

Thanks again!

[Tomcat]

New Starfleet officers have to pick Starship Duty first so that they receive their Elite profession/position.

The Starship Duty profession ability awards them another profession ability which they may then choose from Starship Officer (i.e. the Rounded ability), or from their new Elite position.

[Captain_Griffin]

Ahh I see, alright thanks.
Another question. Lets say someone picks the command elite profession. What rank would they usually start out as? I mean I don't think they can be the Captains first officer or anything of that sort if there an Ensign right? Lol.

[PGoodman13]

They start out as ensigns. After initial chargen, you can give X number of advancements to take them to their desired rank and station.

Doug Burke worked out a version of FASA's lifepath feature (it can be found in Beyond the Final Frontier #2, I believe), and in my copious unstructured free time, I'm working on something similar that's a little more comprehensive and covers all the basic professions. Don't hold your breath, however; I've got a lot of irons in the fire.

[Captain_Griffin]

I see, thanks!

Another question. I was reading through a pre made adventure a little while ago, and through out it, it says things like 'if the players takes a successful [insert skill here] roll with a TN of [insert number here], he [does something]' What I'm wondering as a narrator is do you tell them to take that certain roll? Or do the players have to declare that they want to take that roll themselves?

[Tomcat]

As Narrator, you may ask them to perform a skill, reaction, or attribute test when you need them to. You may also make those particular rolls for them in private if it is something that you do not want to announce, if that is your game style.

An example where a Narrator makes the rolls might be if there is a trap, maybe gas being filtered into a room, and you do not want to give it away. If the PC is successful, things go as normal, if not they may start taking penalties but not know why. This kind of mystery can really add to the game.

Players may also ask to make a roll if the situation they are in demands it.

For example, the PC's walk into an old dusty warehouse and one of the players announces they wish to make a Search test to see if there are any crates with a specific name.

As Narrator, make your players be specific as to what they are doing. Don't just let them say they want to make a Search, and if successful, you give them anything and everything.

[Captain_Griffin]

Ooh, I get it. Thanks again!

One of my players is wondering if there are any other psionic abilities that you can get? (Perhaps any unofficial one's that have been added by fans, or anything of that sort?)

Also I'm still a bit confused about the Command elite profession. It says command can also be "section heads".
I assume Chief Engineer, Chief Medical Officer, etc. Does that mean if they pick the command profession they can be a Chief Engineer or whatever without even having any of there skills?? Or maybe if a medical officer becomes Chief medical officer (or whatever profession) becomes Chief they can take on the command profession? Also when a player starts out how do you know if there a Chief of whatever elite profession they are in or not? Is that up to you and the player?

Sorry for all of the questions guys! I'm finally starting to come to an understanding of it all! Thanks for being so considerate!