Messed up character creation?

[AlanE]

Looking to run a game in a month or two for our local RPG group, so followed some guides and made my first character today to try to understand the system.

I think I messed up....

The character was intended to be at the helm (flight control)

Using the point allocation system, I made this characters INT 12 (10+2 from the pool of 8)

Now for some reason my System Operation (Flight Control) is insanly high


INT Attribute Modifier +3
Personal - Starfleet Brat : System Operations +1
Professional - Flight Control base : System Operations
Professional - Flight Control Hot-Shot Pilot : System Operations (Flight Control) +4
Professional - Flight Control Hot-Shot Pilot : add +1 to any prof. skills so +2

so does this character really have a base skill of 11 ? or have I just misunderstood the System Operations skill. I am sure I read somewhere there was a maximum of +6 for a skill but the example "Ferengi Merchant" character int he player guide has a Business skill of +9

[PGoodman13]

First, have you looked at the errata for the Player's Guide? There were a lot of things to fix.

One of those things was the set of pre-generated characters, all of which were pretty whacked in the book. Even so, however, the Ferengi merchant archetype only had an actual +2 skill levels in Enterprise: Business; all the rest of his +9 was from racial and attribute bonuses. If he'd maxed out his Business to a +6, as originally written he could have had a bonus of +13. (This was fixed in the errata.)

You can only start the game with a +6 in actual skill levels, so you're one over in actual skill levels; I'd use that bonus point in professional development for something else. Other than that, no, you seem to have it right. The way I'm seeing this, your character has a System Operation (Flight Control) +6 (once you do something else with the over-spent bonus point). Your total bonus will be +9 for general System Operation rolls (+6 for skill and +3 for your INT modifier), and +11 with Flight Control systems (the additional +2 for the specialty).

[Doug Burke]

INT Attribute Modifier +3
Personal - Starfleet Brat : System Operations +1
Professional - Flight Control base : System Operations
Professional - Flight Control Hot-Shot Pilot : System Operations (Flight Control) +4
Professional - Flight Control Hot-Shot Pilot : add +1 to any prof. skills so +2

so does this character really have a base skill of 11 ? or have I just misunderstood the System Operations skill. I am sure I read somewhere there was a maximum of +6 for a skill but the example "Ferengi Merchant" character int he player guide has a Business skill of +9

Actually, he would have a total modifier of +10. Having the skill as a Professional skill does not give on ea level in that skill.

And the maximum of +6 is for levels taken in the skill. In which case, you're one too high (which can be remedied by only giving him a +1 from the "any professional skill" pool instead of a +2).

[AlanE]

Thank you both for the help (stuck in a hotel away from my rule books for the next two days) but ill check over this when I get back home.

I think i need to read up and understand more about the split skil thing, where System Operations is +6 but flight control is +11

[Doug Burke]

I think i need to read up and understand more about the split skil thing, where System Operations is +6 but flight control is +11

It's not.
The specialty gives you a +2 bonus to any tests using that specialty. If trying to operate a transporter, the character would use the stated value (+10), but when piloting a ship (or a shuttlecraft), he would add +2 to the value (for an effective +12).

[AlanE]

Ok so... I think i get this (sorry for being a noob, I just havent ran a RPG for ohh.... 10 years or so)

Re-rolling the character, once again a starship officer at Conn who has an INT of 12 so gets a +3 mod

Personal Package (Starfleet Brat) : System Operation +1
Professional Package (Base Skills) : System Operation
Professional Package (Hot Shot Pilot) : System Operations (Flight Control) +4
Professional Package (5 picks) : System Operation + 1

The "Professional Package (Base Skills)" can be ignored, its just an indication this character gets the System Operations skill as a professional skil so we can ignore this and focus on the other areas being

INT Modifier +3
System Operation +1
System Operation (Flight Control) +4
System Operation +1

So written on the character sheet would be :-
System Operation (Flight Control) : AttMod+3 : Levels+6 : Misc+0 : Total+9

When the character makes a System Operation test he gets a bonus of +9, when the character makes a flight control test he gets a bonus of 9+2=+11 (for the speciality) and its pointless using any more of the 5 picks to boost the System Operation skill as it is cap'd at +6 (for a new character)

[PGoodman13]

You got it in one. It's not the best layout job in the world, that book; it takes some getting used to. And visual aids...visual aids help a lot.

[Doug Burke]

Yep, that's it.