#117
Post
by SavageBob » Wed Sep 04, 2019 1:11 pm
I agree that any game mechanic that asks you to do division will likely be critiqued. I personally dislike it, as I play games to have fun and not to do math (and I'm over 25). ;P But it's less of an issue if it only comes up during play and not during character generation.
To be clearer, it seems like you're designing something like a "life path" system for character creation, and those can be great fun. Traveller is generally the king of such life path character generation. But I'm not sure I would want to roleplay character generation as extensively as the way we're doing it now. I think players these days are eager to get into the thick of the adventure. It might be more streamlined to do something like you had us do with the background skills for all skills until play actually begins (with a mission, presumably). Or if you want to preserve the randomness, you could have the players do a simple roll and add it to their skill rather than having them play out the shooting range, the hand-to-hand matches, the medical checks, etc. Maybe it could be tied to parts of their life path: For background skills, rather than 4d10 + 40, you get 4d10 + [random roll, maybe 8d10]. For basic training skills, you get 3d10 + [random roll, maybe 6d10]. For specialist training, you get another thing, maybe 2d10 + [4d10 rolled at chargen].
Just some thoughts. I think your skill progression mechanic will be fine once play begins. But I tend to prefer character generation be fast and streamlined in games I play regularly.