Non-combat skills

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jack1974
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Non-combat skills

Post by jack1974 »

While Anima is in charge of doing the battle rules, I am in charge of the non-combat skills :mrgreen:
Anima suggested a good way to handle them, instead of "skill check with a percentage of success" like was the first game, it will be different. There is still the skill check, but is a value you must match otherwise fail. However, you have a finite resource to temporarily increase the skills of any characters (have to work out in the plot exactly what it is, some sort of super energy) during missions.
So it's up to you to choose in which skill check you'll use that "boost". Obviously, it will not be enough to "skip" all the checks, and it will depend on the difference between the required skill value.

Example:
Mission A, there's a Medicine skill check of value 10. Your best character has Medicine 10 = you pass it.
Mission B, there's a Medicine skill check of value 10. Your best character has Medicine 5 = you'll always fail that option, unless you "buy" the difference, subtracting it from the finite resource pool. That value will change based on difficulty level.

Of course like in the first game, for each situation there'll be at least two choices, if not more.

Now about the real question, I want to narrow the skills into 8 non-combat skills. Doing more would be too much, since even in this list there are already some skills that could be similar for certain situation (like lockpicking, could be either sabotage or science even if this last one would involve more hacking than lockpicking). I have this list:
1.Physical (jumping high, resisting impact, etc)
2.Survival (like finding food in a inhospitable environment, scouting, etc)
3. ??? (was Psionics, but I'm looking for another skill)
4.Charisma (leadership abilities, convince others of your ideas)
5.Science (hacking a terminal, fixing a device, etc)
6.Medicine (healing someone, human/alien anatomy knowledge, etc)
7.Sabotage (both using explosives, or stealth to infiltrate)
8.ESP (empathy, sixth sense)

the one I am not sure/I don't like is Psionics since is too vague (they could be used for anything, like healing or hurting enemies). Was wondering if you have any suggestions :) Lockpicking would fail under either Sabotage or Science.
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Miakoda
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Re: Non-combat skills

Post by Miakoda »

What are you looking for with Psionics? After all, ESP can be considered a subset of Psionics (Extra-Sensory Perception after all, which includes Clairovoyance, is considered Psionic). If you are looking at it for physical manipulation, then there are the 'kinetic' powers like Telekinesis, etc.

For what it seems like you are looking for, Sabotage almost sounds like a 'Rogue' classification. Rogue could include lock-picking, stealth, etc.

However, if you are going in context of a modern setting, hacking a computer controlled door would fall under science, while physically bashing a door seems more like Physical.

And if you are going to use explosives, I think the term Demolitions may sound better (and could theoretically fit under Science)
Last edited by Miakoda on Sat Dec 14, 2013 5:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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jack1974
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Re: Non-combat skills

Post by jack1974 »

No I'm looking for another skill that could be useful in various situation, not necessarily related to Psionics. Sorry wrote it badly :lol:
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Miakoda
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Re: Non-combat skills

Post by Miakoda »

jack1974 wrote:No I'm looking for another skill that could be useful in various situation, not necessarily related to Psionics. Sorry wrote it badly :lol:
Is there anything in particular you are looking at? This could help narrow it down.

Also, if you use the term scouting, you may occasionally wish to drop 'reconnaissance' in there as well. Good military sounding synonym.
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jack1974
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Re: Non-combat skills

Post by jack1974 »

Well in practice a skill that could be useful in some situation/missions, but that can't be included in the other existing ones.
I guess survival is different enough from scouting/reconnaissance though... I'll see if there are other suggestions :)
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jack1974
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Re: Non-combat skills

Post by jack1974 »

Ah maybe I had a good idea, could be Lore / Alien Lore. Having a good knowledge of the alien culture could be useful in many non-combat situation, and is a skill different from others (Science is more about how things works than culture).
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Miakoda
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Re: Non-combat skills

Post by Miakoda »

jack1974 wrote:Well in practice a skill that could be useful in some situation/missions, but that can't be included in the other existing ones.
I guess survival is different enough from scouting/reconnaissance though... I'll see if there are other suggestions :)
Survival is a fair enough cover skill. I only meant if you search want other terms to include for later writing, recon is a good choice.

(And there is a group called Force Recon, and they are taught much of the same knowledge. This isn't a suggestion of a name change, just a confirmation ;) ).

Lore/Alien Lore can be a good skill. It could include alien biology, as well as history, language, etc. If you use alien in it, one could use Xenology...study of alien things ;)
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jack1974
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Re: Non-combat skills

Post by jack1974 »

Yes I'm going to use that, just generic Culture (or Lore) since also relates to things the character knows about the human colony. This is cool because for example you could remember that a particular model of robot had a specific weakness, and this is not related to science but to something you learned or studied. So yes I'm going with this ! false alarm, missing skill found! :lol:
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Jaeger
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Re: Non-combat skills

Post by Jaeger »

For Psionics, possibly erect protective barriers, disrupt the minds of enemies, create illusions, etc.

Lockpicking is something that involves fine motor skills than athletics or brute force, so falling under Sabotage or Science is fine with me. Forcibly breaking a lock or door can fall under Physical.
Last edited by Jaeger on Sat Dec 21, 2013 12:46 am, edited 2 times in total.
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jack1974
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Re: Non-combat skills

Post by jack1974 »

Ah no no sorry, I have removed Psionics from the list, since is too generic and could be considered a sort of "deus ex machina" :) Will be replaced by Lore / Culture (possibly the equivalent of Wisdom in a fantasy RPG!).
I agree on your division of Lockpicking and breaking a lock/door under Physical, that was my plan too.
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