First reply by Patrick Goodman:
> I had a look at your chargen example and before I go into any
> details I would like to say that I found it well written and a
> joy to read. A job well done IMO.
Many thanks. The couple of people who've looked it over have all been fairly positive about it, which is very heartening to me.
> (1) I would suggest adding the same "step numbers" to the example
> as they are give on p. 20-21 in the Player's Guide, to make it
> easier cross-referencing the example and the PG.
Few people have been as critical of the character generation process as shown on pp. 20-21 in the PG as I have, Andreas. This is where I think the Player's Guide falls down the most; I don't think it's friendly to players or to narrators as they prepare their characters. That was one of the reasons I put together the cheat-sheet I put up on the forums a few weeks ago.
All that being said, however, you do have a very valid point, and I'll be going over the text tonight and numbering the steps and improving my page references.
> (2) You should follow these steps during the example, especially
> when it comes to choosing a profession and recording professional
> abilities.
I'm fairly loathe to do this, considering how I feel about the system and its flaws as printed, but as I said, you have a point.
There isn't anything in the process on pp. 20-21, by the way, that says anything about Professional Abilities, nor is there space for Professional Abilities on the character sheet.
> Doing the later only after the professional development (as you did)
> can have a major impact on the chargen. If you had choosen Engineering
> Certificate right at the start you would have gained a Specialty in
> each of your engineering skills for free!
I don't completely agree with this. For instance, there's nothing in the wording of the Engineering Certificate ability that says that you get a specialty in all your Engineering skills for free; giving those (many) specialties away during character generation violates the spirit of the rules, in my opinion as a Narrator.
Even if I didn't feel that way, there's nothing that says one way or the other about when Professional Abilities should be selected, and there's nothing to keep the Narrator in the example from saying, "Oh, by the way, that professional ability of yours gives you specialties in all your engineering skills, so you should go back and add those in." Before the game actually starts, there's all sorts of room for tweaking and retrofitting things.
> In addition Athletics would never have been listed as a non-
> professional skill for this character - a minor complaint, sure,
> but again something that runs contrary to the process as written
> in the PG.
Looking back, I tend to agree, and will be rewording those portions of the example related to this.
> (3) As one of the Species Skill picks you included History
> (Federation, Human), spending 1 point for the 2nd specialty.
> The sidebar on p.85 only mentions that you gain one specialty
> for free and doesn't mention spending skill picks for additional
> specialties.
This is another case, IMHO, of the letter of the rule versus the spirit of the rule. By the letter of the rule, you're correct, but I think the spirit of the game, and of Star Trek in general, would make it a more than proper choice.
However, I will look at possibly rewording that part of the example. No promises, though.
> (4) During personal development Joel gains Entertain: Play Instrument
> with a Specialty in playing the guitar. As I understand the rules he
> shouldn't gain a Specialty for free and I don't see where he would
> gain another point to buy a Specialty at this stage.
This is a grey and fuzzy area for me, too, and I'll be the first one to tell you that I am not 100% fluent with the rules. However, it's my belief that if you're going to learn to play an instrument, you have to specify what that instrument is. Unless you're Prince or Stevie Wonder, the odds of you being able to play any instrument that comes along are somewhere south of slim. I took a tiny bit of liberty with that one, since in my game no one is going to be taking a skill like that one and not tell me specifically what they can play.
If they chose another instrument, by the way, they'd have two different skills listed, not two specialties of the same skill. In this way, I believe Entertain: Play Instrument is much more akin to Knowledge: Specific World than it is to Engineering: Propulsion.
> (5) In the paragraph on choosing Professional Abilities I would
> somewhat change the sentence "This makes him a Starship Engineer,
> without having to necessarily meet the Prerequisites for that
> position." The way it is now makes it sound as if Starship Duty
> simply waives the prerequisites for this elite profession, while
> in fact it is one of two possible ways to enter the EP, i.e. it's
> not simply a 'shortcut'.
During character creation, Andreas, it is *absolutely* a shortcut, and quite explicitly waives the prerequisites to enter the Starship Engineer EP. This isn't an example of someone swapping from profession to profession, a la Janeway; it's just an example of putting together a character. The description for the Starship Duty professional ability is pretty plain in that it says it waives the prerequisites.
> Okay, I think that covers it for now. If I can think of something
> else I'll let you know.
I thank you for your time and your comments, and I look forward to your reactions to the revision, which I hope to have up in a couple of days.
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