Saturday, January 21, 2006

Skills

Character Creation - Skills

The skills have been slightly modified, to reflect the skills that would commonly be found in the city. The list below represents the skills used in this game. Note that the lists of specializations is by no means complete.

Mental Skills:
Academics - Functionally the same as in the core NWOD rules.
Specializations: Anthropology, Archaeology, Economics, History, Law, Psychology, Sociology, Strategy, Tactics, Theology.
Computer (Electronic) - A rare skill, this allows the operation of one of the few electronic computers in The City.
Computer (Mechanical) - Allows the operation of the Mechanical Dingin computer.
Specializations: Macroscale, Microscale, Nanoscale.
Crafts - No different than in the NWOD rules.
Dataflow Perception - Allows the character to enter and navigate the dataflow, and find and retrieve data from it.
Folklore - Knowledge of the various myths and folk tales around The City.
Specializations: Various regions of The City. Specific tales.
Investigation - As in the NWOD rules.
Medicine (High Tech) - Allows knowledge of high tech medical practices (MRI's etc).
Medicine (Low Tech) - Allows knowledge of low tech medical practices (street healing, essentially).
Science - As in the NWOD rules.
Specializations: Various scientific disciplines, Shift Studies.

Physical Skills:
Athletics - As in the NWOD rules.
Brawl - As in the NWOD rules.
Drive - As in the NWOD rules.
Firearms (High Tech) - As in the NWOD rules, except that this applies only to high tech weapons (laser rifles, magnetic repeaters, etc).
Firearms (Low Tech) - As in the NWOD rules, except that this applies only to low tech weapons (sparklocks, cartridge rifles, etc).
Larceny - As in the NWOD rules.
Pilot Vehicle - Allows the character to pilot different, non-ground vehicles around The City.
Specializations: Aerostats, Ekranoplans, Drigibles, Mikefighters.
Stealth - As in the NWOD rules.
Survival - As in the NWOD rules.
Weaponry - As in the NWOD rules.

Social Skills:
Animal Ken - There are still animals in The City. This skill functions just like in the NWOD rules.
Command - Somewhat like persuasion, but used for military applications or somewhat more structured corporations.
Empathy - As in the NWOD rules.
Expression - As in the NWOD rules.
Intimidation - As in the NWOD rules.
Persuasion - As in the NWOD rules.
Politesse - As streetwise allows knowledge of where to go (or where to not go) in the sprawling expanse of the slums of The City, politesse is the knowledge of the ins and outs of higher society. A character with politesse knows all about the seedy underbelly of the Macrocorps and the rich Elite of The City, and usually knows who to go to for a favor in areas like Brightlights or Clearwater Break.
Specializations - Black Market, Rumors, Elite Underground Clubs.
Socialize - As in the NWOD rules.
Streetwise - As in the NWOD rules.
Subterfuge - As in the NWOD rules.

In addition, there are two additional steps taken during character creation. First, before skills are chosen, the character chooses the Origin of his or her character, and then receives a free dot in a skill associated with that origin. The list of origins with their associate skills are below.

Disposessed: Brawl, Weaponry, Stealth, Subterfuge, Folklore, Survival

Redundant: Brawl, Crafts (mechanics), Folklore, Survival, Academics

Drudge: Brawl, Folklore, Crafts

Middle Class, Lower: Mechanical Computing, Academics, Drive, Expression

Middle Class, Upper: Persuasion, Academics, Expression

Nomenklatura: Persuasion, Empathy, Academics, Expression

Corporate (Low): Mechanical Computing, Science, Crafts, Drive, Persuasion

Corporate (Median): Science, Persuasion, Mechanical Computing, Politesse, Crafts

Corporate (High): Persuasion, Subterfuge, Science, Academics, Politesse

Secondly, after all other skills are chosen, but before specialites are chosen, the player choses his or her character's Upbringing, and chooses any speciality associated with the list of skills related to that upbringing (the player does not get any additional points in the skill itself, and must have at least one dot in the skill in order to take a speciality). Just as in the core A/State rules, certain upbringings are only available to certain origins.

Academic: Science, Academics, Writing

Apprenticed: Crafts, Mechanical Computing, Drive

Corporate: Academics, Expression, Persuasion

Criminal: Firearms (Low Tech), Brawl, Stealth, Subterfuge, Streetwise

Dangerous: Firearms (Low Tech), Weaponry, Brawl, Survival, Academics

Independently Minded: Brawl, Persuasion, Academics, Crafts

Militaristic: Firearms (Low Tech), Firearms (High Tech), Weaponry, Brawl, Drive, Command

Minority Group: Brawl, Expression, Persuasion, Empathy

Political: Expression, Academics, Empathy, Subterfuge

Poor: Survival, Brawl, Medicine (Low Tech), Persuasion

Religious: Academics, Expression, Empathy

Sheltered Life: Science, Academics, Medicine (High Tech), Expression, Crafts

Transient: Drive, Survival, Crafts, Medicine (Low Tech), Persuasion

Wealthy: Academics, Crafts, Politics, Politesse, Socialize

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Welcome!

This blog will eventually chronicle the adventure that I'm running in the world of A/State. I'm currently working on converting the rules to the New World of Darkness rules system. Although the conversion will take relatively little time (It's almost done), I'm not expecting to run the campaign until the summer of 2006 at the earliest.