Coda Character Creation.

[Scotty]

I'm a little foggy on how to go about creating a character. I am pretty sure I understand most steps except step 5: Skills.

The profession thing with the tiers are just a little hard to understand.

Let's say I want a human starfleet security.

How would I go about getting skills for this??

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Scotty

[Calcoran]

Have you tried chapter 5 (p84)? You get species kills (as a human), personal development skills (depends on package), and professional development skills (starfleet security, depending on specific package).

Is that any help?

[PGoodman13]

It would have been better, though, for a real-live, honest-to-God summary of character generation to have been included in the book (and, as I've said elsewhere, the guide on pp21-2 doesn't count, as it's not particularly useful). This is the one place where I really feel like the writers let us down in putting the book together, and is my only real complaint.

[Ramage]

As a veteran of many game systems (and many editions of several games) I have to say that while I like the simplicity fo the CODA system, as well as the wide array of character types potentially available, this has to be one of the most poorly laid out and edited books I have ever run across.

What does this book need?

#1: "Here are the rules". Instead you have to read through several chapters piecemeal to find them. Yes, the rules are simple, but they are NEVER just laid out for you.

#2: A clear, beginning to end example of character generation. The way it is laid out currently I would feel ashamed giving to to players to try and figure out. I mean, you might as well hand them Aria and tell them to make a character according to those "rules" (okay, okay, not THAT bad, but still pretty foggy).

These rules read like a very polished set of notes to be handed to people who have already been playing the game for quite some time. Decipher should have edited these rules at least one more time to make sure that someone picking up the rules without reference to any earlier version of the game and without benefit of having been on the playtest team could create a character first time off the block.

I would expect that of any game. Yes, I think the game has a lot of potential, but I think it is going to have to get beyond some major stumbling blocks here. Hero Wars didn't get over those stumbling blocks (similar editing disaster). I can only hope that Decipher does a better job. The game looks pretty, not it has to read simply as well.

[Scotty]

Some one just please hold my hand thought this.

So I could choose . . ..

Species: Human
Adaptable (+2 Stamina)
The Human Spirit (+1 courage)
Skilled (+2 personal skill)

Personal Development: Starfleet Brat
Computer Use +2
Athletics +1
Sport +1
System Operation +1
Edge: Fit

Professional Development: Basic Security Officer
Energy Weapon +3
First Aid +1
Repair +1
System Operations (Security Systems) +2
Tactics +1

.... and this would give me an ensign. Correct? Did I choose the above correctly?

[Calcoran]

I think you forgot the species skills (sidebar p85) there, and I'd say you got the Professional Development wrong .

See, for the Professional Development, you get <I>all</I> the skills listed in the package, and <I>in addition to that</I> you get to improve 5 skills from your professional skills (listed just above the basic security officer package) by +1. Actually, it's more 5 times +1 since you can chose to improve the same skill more than once, provided your skill doesn't go over +6. You can also chose a specialty instead of a +1 AFAIR.

Apart from that, you got the species abilities, Personal Development, and traits right .

[Don Mappin]

Calcoran is correct: you're missing your species skills (sidebar, page 85), and you've done your professional development incorrectly (you're way short). Just follow the yellow brick road under your professional development package.

[PGoodman13]

Don, part of what some of us are saying is that there isn't a yellow brick road to follow. I never played a Trek game from Last Unicorn, so I had no clue as to how chargen was done there, and I wasn't a playtester. There isn't, in the Player's Guide, a simple and concise guide to character generation. Since you were obviously in on this from the beginning...could you please tell me why? This isn't a troll, either; it's genuine curiosity on my part.

[Acroyear]

I agree, I've been gaming for 20 years (admittedly, most of it HERO system) and character creation is a little fuzzy for me, too.

Question 1:

So if I pick Professional package for, say, soldier... I get all the solider skills.

And then on top of that I pick a type of soldier (like law enforcement) and get all those skills, too?


Question 2:

I go into an elite profession. I spend 5 picks to change profession and get one Tier 1 ability (but no skills).

On the next advancement I have to spend all 5 picks on skills within that elite profession, right?

[Calcoran]

Question 1:
No no no no no! You don't get all the professional skills listed for the soldier profession! I think they're only listed here to facilitate step 2 of the professional development package. You only get the skills listed in step 1 of said package, plus step 2 (i.e. 5 times +1).

Question 2:
Seems correct to me.

[Calcoran]

About the alleged fuzziness of the CODA character creation procedure.
I think this is just because we're all a bit too impatient. I too, at first, rushed to get a lead stencil, a rubber (ah, the rubber!) and a sheet of paper and flipped through the book looking for the character creation section. Wich I didn't find, of course .
Then I flipped again, and remembered that this was not the way I usually proceeded. With most RPG I had, I at least made sure I had understood a good part of the rules correctly before undertaking a character creation. And since this can be considered to be half of the final product, I thought maybe I had to read through a good part of this book before creating a character.
Which is what was intended I guess. When you read the chapters one after another, it all makes sense. You read the species and begin to wonder about professions, then the professions which get you to ask yourself where you get all those skills they are talking about, and then only, once you have understood what professions are for, you get to know how to flesh ou your character with skills and traits. Skills and traits that are extensively described in the next chapters, which go deaper and deaper into the game mechanics.
All in all, it's a very intuitive order, and even though I've only created 2 characters (well, one and a half actually), I end up doing very little flipping around: it's as if the book automatically opened at the right page when I'm looking for something.
The only thing is: if you begin flipping through the book as soon as you buy it, hoping to create a character within the next 20 minutes, you're doomed . They should have put a disclaimer on the cover: "Read Slowly and Methodically! May cause confusion if instructions are not followed!"

[Darth Sarcastic]

There is a two page spread (pg. 20-21) that walks you through the process. Go slowly and from top to bottom. The Professions chapter is just so you know what skills/edges are required for certain jobs. Don (well actually all who mentioned it) is correct about the Professional Skills. Take ALL the skills listed after Skills: + your 5 Professional picks (listed above...I think they can also be chosen from your "eventual" profession) and 1 Edge. Also, a few people on this board have put out a "cheat sheet" and a decent character sheet...I think its under the thread of "Character sheet and cheat sheet" or something to that effect.

-Darth Sarcastic

[PGoodman13]

Originally posted by Darth Sarcastic
There is a two page spread (pg. 20-21) that walks you through the process. Go slowly and from top to bottom.

Is there a part of "That's not adequate" that you don't understand?

[Acroyear]

Ok, maybe I just don't understand the nature of the "background" set up.

Select the non-professional background (what kind of environment you grew up in) and pick skills (just follow the pick 1, pick 3)

Select the professional background (training & experience which lead up to your career) and pick skills (like from the soldier example above) - this is where I take the whole list +5 picks

I select an edge from either my personal or professional background.

Then I select an actual profession (what you do now), let's say "soldier" and get... the tier ability and? Do I take the skills listed there?

Is the professional background supposed to be my profession? I think the confusion here might be stemming from the fact that the professions are listed twice and with differing information in each place (one has tiers, the other has edges...). In this case, professional "background" is really the profession, itself?

Somewhere in here I should select my species skills.

(it seems to me the background stuff should come before the career/profession....)

[C5]

Okay. I hope I understood enough of the system to offer a clear (or even correct) explanation.

The skills listed with the job's description and the Tier abilities represent the, let's say, perks of your job. They are skills you'll progress more easily into, because it's assumed you use them more often in your job. The Tier abilities are also perks you can gain along advancement in you job. So this section is actually devoted to the evolution of the character.

OTOH, the developpement packages contain skills that are assumed to be automatically known to you when you're in this profession and that you gain automatically when taking it.
In a sense, the developpement packages are the required skills on your resumé to get the job, while the skills listed with the Tier are what you'll be able to progress into quickly once you have it.

Plus the species skills, wich IIRC are something like INT*2 picks to be spent on specifics species skill.

Did I make sense ?