Question on Proffesional Abilities

[Elemek]

Just got a hold of the Player's Guide, and so far it looks to be quite well put together. One thing I've noticed is unclear, however (or maybe it is clear, and I've just missed it). Is it possible to learn the proffesional abilities of other professions? I ask because the character I have in mind, a resistance cell commander turn spy, works best with a mixture of Soldier and Diplomat abilities.


Danny Sutton
-Space Bum

[Don Mappin]

Great question! Yes, you can learn professional skills from another profession. When we say that a skill is a "professional skill" all we're really saying is that it is cheaper for that profession to learn it. There are actually no forbidden skills in the game--your character can pick any skill up. Professional skills (as opposed to non-professional skills) are simply cheaper.

This might make more sense if you look the Advancement chapter starting on page 152 and the table on page 153.

[Elemek]

Originally posted by Don Mappin
Great question! Yes, you can learn professional skills from another profession. When we say that a skill is a "professional skill" all we're really saying is that it is cheaper for that profession to learn it. There are actually no forbidden skills in the game--your character can pick any skill up. Professional skills (as opposed to non-professional skills) are simply cheaper.

This might make more sense if you look the Advancement chapter starting on page 152 and the table on page 153.

What I meant was, can you actually learn the Professional Abibilities, say, a Diplomat learning Reconnaisance. After looking through, more, I decided the answer was no, but that you can spend five picks to take on that class, extrapolating from the section on Elite Professions. So the character I had in mind could start out as a Soldier, spend five picks to take on Diplomat as a second profession as her carreer went more commanding and lest field battle, but still take on some of the more tactical abilities from the Soldier, and eventually dropping Soldier entirely as she took on some of the Elite professions as Spy and Envoy (which strikes me as a great combination for a spy character that is working undercover in enemy territory).

So I guess I answered my own question, assuming that it _is_ legal to spend five picks to acquire a second base Profession. Thanks for the answer, though.

[tonyg]

Yes, you can. Sort of. And it is expensive!

There is an Edge Innovative that allows someone to take a professional ability from a basic profession other than thier own.

The character must fufill any other prerequistes of the ability, and the edge must be taken for each ability that the character selects.

Essentially, this allows someone to take an ability or two that they want without having to pick up a new profession.

[Zortic]

But what about changing professions completely? It would seem obvious that a Starfleet Officer may retire and become an independant merchant, or a Rogue could find religion and become a mystic. How is this handled? Does a change in career mean they have to purchase everything as non-professional skill?

[RIsaacs]

There are no rules for taking on another basic profession. It is not something allowed by the rules, and that was intentional. The way to get a professional ability of another profession is the Innovative edge.

A Starfleet officer who wants to retire and become a merchant would take the Elite Profession free trader. A rogue could take on the elite profession adept.

But this doesn't stop you from allowing multi-professions in your own games. Always keep in mind that there is no such thing as "allowed" or "legal." You can alter the rules as you see fit. Keep in mind that you might end up with some really powerful characters if you allow the mixing and matching of base professions.

[Don Mappin]

Originally posted by Elemek
What I meant was, can you actually learn the Professional Abibilities, say, a Diplomat learning Reconnaisance.

I'm sorry, I misread your question. As pointed out, you can not purchase professional abilities from other professions. Use the Innovative edge as Ross helpfully pointed out.

Purchasing other professions professional abilites is intentionally difficult and expense.

[tonyg]

Basically, it takea an advacement to get a professional abiltity from a different profession (2 points for Innovative, and 3 points for the ability).

A bit costly, but not too bad. Beats having to pick up a new profession for just one ability or two.

[Phantom]

Simple solution. Do whatever you want, it is your world after all. The rules are only a guideline they're not set in stone from the Mount.

[Elemek]

Allright, then, if I can't take both Soldier and Diplomat to make a cell leader type, here's a new Elite Profession, which is sort of a cross between Starship Commander and Special Forces: Squad Leader.

Squad Leader are charged with the responsibility of regularly leading ground forces to victory in any situation. Where the Starship Commander stays on a starship and barks orders over an intercom, the Squad Leader is usually perfectly willing to get down and dirty on covert operations. Unlike the Special Forces Elite Profession, the Squad Leader's abilities deal less with getting the job done than with coordinating the forces appropriately to get the job done.

Missions: Squad Leaders usually go on the same missions as the Special Forces; i. e. black op ground missions. Many are terrorists or guerilla freedom fighters, while others are highly trained command officers working for a military organization.

Background: Many Squad Leaders actually started out with the Special Forces elite profession. Most started out as either a Diplomat, Soldier, or Starship Officer in either Security or Command. A fair number originated as rogues who acted as scouts or spies. Other Professions may have wound up in the role of the Squad Leader by happenstance, such as the amiable but determined merchant who got wound up working with the MaQuis and discovered a talent for battlefield leadership.

Role: Bleh. Mind go blankey here. Role already described above, anyway. I'll come back to this later with an edit.

Prerequisites: Command Edge, Presense 8+, Influence 4+, Tactics (unit) 3+, Investigate 3+, Survival 1+

Professional Skills: Influence, Tactics, Investigate, Survival, Persuade



Tier 1 Professional Abilities

Versatility: A good commander should be able to do anything he orders his men to do. Choose a nonprofessional Skill. That skill is now a Professional skill for the Squad Leader. This may be taken up to three times, and the Narrator must okay any particular choice. Generally, skills such as demolitions, computer use, or Forgery, which are likely to be used on the job, are more acceptable than interesting but irrelevant backround skill such as Sport, Entertain, or Craft (Zen rock gardening). But with a good explanation, any skill potentially can be chosen.

Tactical Deployment: The Squad Leader knows how to utilize his men to the greatest effect. When making a Tactics (unit) check, roll 3d6, and keep the two highest.

Tier 2 Professional Abilities

Synchronization: A Squad Leader who has studied the various tasks that his soldiers will be called on to do can better direct them into situations where they would be useful. If a subordinate is using a Skill that the Squad Leader has acquired with the Versatility Ability while under orders and on a mission, it is treated as a Combined Test, with the Squad Leader assisting the officer. So if the Squad Leader has studied Demolitions, and he has ordered a soldier to bomb an Embassy on Talos IV, then the Squad Leader makes a skill check along with the subordinate, giving him a bonus to his action as normal. If the Squad Leader possesses the Coordinator edge, then the bonus is doubled, even though the subordinate is technicaly leading the action. Prerequisites: Versatility

Honed to Perfection: When operating under a deadline, each squadmember can perform their highest Physical skill in half the base action time. If multiple valid skills are equal, then the Player (if the squadmember is a PC), or the Narrator if an NPC chooses which skill recieves the bonus. All actions must be relevant to the mission at hand. Using Forgery to make a fake ID for the purpose of getting into a snazzy night club that has no bearing on the objective would not gain any benefit from this Ability, but using it to forge documents to allow the Squad into the secret Romulan warcamp would.
Special: Even though Computer Use is an academic skill, it can benefit from this Ability.
Prerequisite: Tactical Deployment

Tier 3 Professional Ability

Commanding the Enemy: By spending a courage point and making a Tactics check against an opponents Savvy, the Squad Leader may attempt to control the opponents next action in combat. The Squad Leader must explain both what he wants the enemy to do, and how he expects to get the opponent to do this. Say, he wants a small military force to retreat. He does this by employing his troops in rapid guerilla strikes, making the force seem to be much greater than they actually are. If the roll is succesful, then the opponent(s) perform the desired action to the best of their ability. Even if the roll is succesfull, the actual result might not be quite what the Squad Leader had in mind. In the above example, the easily startled military force retreats, but is soon back, and in greater numbers. The desired action must be something that the NPC would concievably do. This won't allow the Squad Leader to convince an errant guard to betray their employers and join the squad. Not only is that rather ridiculous, it's a matter of Persuasion, not Tactics. Causing an enemy to perform a battlefield maneuvers, to call for reinforcments, to use a particular weapon, or to attack a particular target are all appropriate. But the opponent or opponents will never drop their trousers and start singing Auld Lang Syne, no matter how high the Squad Leader rolls on his Tactics check. Also, obviously suicidal or self destructions are out.




Very rough draft. I'll probably revise it at some point, but preferably after feedback. Tell me what ya think.

[Phantom]

Interesting take. I have yet to see the book, so I'm not up on char. Gen., but it looks good.

I may have missed it, but what about some sort of Strategy skill? At the very least the Trooper should have some idea of the big picture, even if it is just to get the next pip on his collar.

[Dan Gurden]

Originally posted by Phantom
I may have missed it, but what about some sort of Strategy skill? At the very least the Trooper should have some idea of the big picture, even if it is just to get the next pip on his collar.

They are there, look at;

'Tactical Deployment' and 'Commanding the Enemy'... Both seem to be strategy skills...

From initial reading, this template looks quite interesting... Cant see where I would use it myself at the moment... But it seems fairly interesting...

[Elemek]

And I've thought of some restrictions to make multiproffing to another Base Profession less unbalancing. Any and all could be used.

First, if you take a second Base Profession, you can only take of the Professional Skills, your choice. Which keeps you from winding up with the entire Skill Table as professional Skills.

Second, you can not have more than two base professions, even in storage. If you pick up both Mystic and Soldier, you cannot pick up Rogue at a later date. You can still use Innovative to acquire the abilities of the Rogue, however. Furthermore, you can use Innovative to learn Starship Duty, allowing you to acquire any of the Sarship Officer Elite Professions, which, I suspect, was part of the intentional design, allowing you to make Soldiers that join starfleet later in their careers and become security officers.

There was a third, but I can't remember it now. The inovative trait does look useful, though. Back when I was trying to figure out if you could buy outside your profession or take up other base profs, I had figured that if you could by other abilities, they'd be more expensive. Five picks seems to work very well for that, unless you're actualy allowed to take a second profession. For the time being, I think I'll stick with the rules on this, at least until I can talk to the Narrator, if we ever actualy get started. Narrator is freakin' busy filiming A Question of Faith 2 [1]






[1] Okay, completely irrelevant to the discussion at hand, but I failed my will save to avoid mentioning that.