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Thread: Skill Affinities???

  1. #1
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    Skill Affinities???

    I have a question about skill affinities. Are affinities only applied during game play or are they added on permanently at character creation?

    For example, the repair skill has several affinities such as "Engineering, Computer Use, System Operations, Armed Combat, or Ranged Combat." Now say a player picks three of those affinities for skills. How would I apply the bonuses to the skill?

    Thanks in advance.
    War is never a good solution but sometimes it is the only solution.

  2. #2
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    I suppose there's no reason you couldn't tack on those affinity bonuses listed in the PG. However, note that the Narrator may allow affinity bonuses other than those mentioned when one skill has an impact on another that perhaps the game's designers hadn't thought of or didn't have space to list, so doing so won't necessarily leave you with a comprehensive record. I wouldn't find it out of line for a Narrator to disallow affinity bonuses from the core books if their logic is a poor match for the in-game situation. My preference would be to write out a list affinity bonuses that I know apply regularly to my character separately from the skill list for quick reference, but not figure it into the skill bonuses as a "permanent" modifier.
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  3. #3
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    Situational, I thought.

    My read of the rules suggests that the affinity bonus is entirely situational: the player is free to remind the narrator, if the narrator doesn't remember, and the narrator then decides whether the affinity contributes its bonus in that situation.

  4. #4
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    I thought it was situatuional at first too, but as I read over the skill affinities it seemed that at least some of them could be permanent modifiers. For example the skill Sport has an affinity of +2 from the Athletics skill. I can't think of any situation where that would not apply.
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  5. #5
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    Athletics/Sports affinity should (IMO) apply only to physical uses of the sports skill, but there can be academic tests for Sports as well, e.g. remembering the rules of a specific sport, famous sportsmen of the past, etc. In those cases an affinity bonus from athletics wouldn't make much sense, so it is situational.

  6. #6
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    So do I, I also make up the affinities depending on the situation.

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  7. #7
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    Arffinity bonuses are situational. You will not always be using aspects of the skill that reflect the affinity. Having Computer Use will not help you repair the warp drive.

    This is laid out pretty explicitely in the PG on p. 102-104 under "Skill Affinity".
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