Conversion Question (Skills & Specializations)

[Lancer]

Seems this question has escaped the attention of the experts on the Conversion Guidelines thread, so I decided to start a new thread for it. Here we go:

From Don's Conversion Guidelines:
To determine the actual level of the Coda skill, take the Icon base skill and add one for every Icon specialization possessed.

Now how does that work when skills and specializations in Icon have the same level?

Example: I get Shipboard Systems (Sensors) 1(2) from my Overlay during character creation and the raise it to 2(2) during my 1st Tour of Duty. Does that Specialization still count for a +1 to the Coda skill, ie. I end up with a Coda skill of 3, or do I get a skill of 2 from the conversion?

Compare this to the same character who didn't raise the Icon skill to 2, but bought a new specialization for an Icon skill of 1(2)(2).
Converted to Coda he ends up with a skill of 3 and a specialization, while according to (my) logic he shouldn't be better of then the character from the example above who gets a skill of 2 or maybe 3 (w/o a specialization), as under the old Icon rules he wouldn't perform as well as someone with 2(2) - and in many situations would fare worse, because of his lower base skill.


As a related question:
While reading some of the older posts about CODA I read that skills have a maximum of 12 (6 during character creation). Now if I ever convert my LUG character with Space Sciences(Astrophysics) 5(6) to CODA I will end up at Space Sciences 6 and no specialization.
Does it only look like I am going from being one of the top professionals in my field back to an average level of skill or do I have to get all sorts of nifty little edges to stay on top???


(And yes of course I am aware that no conversion between game systems is perfect. This post isn't a major complaint or somesuch, just a little question arising from my insatiable curiosity )

[Dan Gurden]

Originally posted by Lancer

Example: I get Shipboard Systems (Sensors) 1(2) from my Overlay during character creation and the raise it to 2(2) during my 1st Tour of Duty. Does that Specialization still count for a +1 to the Coda skill, ie. I end up with a Coda skill of 3, or do I get a skill of 2 from the conversion?

From Dons conversion document. I would take your example to mean that the CODA character had a skill of 3,

2 for the base ICON skill, +1 because there is a single specialisation.

Violá. A CODA skill of 3.

At least thats what I understood Don to have meant!

[Lancer]

Thanks Dan.

Now if we compare that with the 2nd example I gave it seems I should start putting more Experience Points into Specializations for my LUG character and not in the Base Skill, on the off chance we ever convert to CODA. Seems the "return on investment" is definitly better that way.

[Dan Gurden]

Thats one way to look at it... Although I am reminded of the man times that the LUG team told us that the ICON focus was on Specialisations...

It seems that they have finally given the right incentive to buy specialisations over skills...

[Lancer]

We increased the cost for buying up base skills a long time ago in our group and introduced learning times (x weeks for Specialization increase, x months for skill raises) to provide some incentive to put more points into Specializations and less in base skills.

So far it worked out nicely and feels more realistic.

OTOH what's realistic for a Star Trek game can be very different from 'real' realism.