The classes, I think I get it.

[DrSkull]

Prefacing that I was hoping for the T20 class equals the CT career method, but looking over what you've got, I reckon I see where you're going and I think I can dig it. I can see the basic compatablity with other d20 games, and I think that is to the best (presumably Stamina=the Star Wars Vitality points).

I must admit I like the "Mercenary" title for the the fighting class, a nice nod to good old Book 4.

The rogue has me a little puzzled, I guess it's a mid-point between a Traveller and a Mercenary. Why didn't you give some examples of archetypes, like you did the others.

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Dave "Dr. Skull" Nelson

 

[Phil]

As one who has been accused by his gaming group of being the perennial rogue, mayhaps I can expand on the description. Travellers, in general, make their living in space or travelling through it. Mercenaries, in general, make their living fighting or protecting others. Rogues make their living by their wits. Examples which come to mind would be pick pocket, thief, con man, scoundrel, actor, musician, spy, drug dealer, and media personality. In fact, if you walk into a bar or nightclub, I would imagine there would be more Rogues than any other character class. In general I think of them as social engineers.

 

[GypsyComet]

These broad archetypes are okay from the pagecount POV, but they lose a lot of the flavor of prior service that Traveller has had for so long. I would strongly consider presenting LVL1 of (for example) Mercenary as several sets of fixed skills representing the various services, and only a small number of "free" skill points to customize with. To prevent the class-change abuse this could lead to, you set them out like the packages in the D&D3 Players Handbook, so they are starter options. Someone taking their first level of Merc later in life is not generally doing the "Basic training" thing in a formal military, so he picks skills differently...

 

[hunter]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by GypsyComet:
These broad archetypes are okay from the pagecount POV, but they lose a lot of the flavor of prior service that Traveller has had for so long. I would strongly consider presenting LVL1 of (for example) Mercenary as several sets of fixed skills representing the various services, and only a small number of "free" skill points to customize with. To prevent the class-change abuse this could lead to, you set them out like the packages in the D&D3 Players Handbook, so they are starter options. Someone taking their first level of Merc later in life is not generally doing the "Basic training" thing in a formal military, so he picks skills differently...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

In T20, Prior Service exists. Basically you create a first level character, then you enter into one of the Prior Services just like you did in CT. Through Prior Service you earn experience points, bonus skills points and feats which are applied to your core character class.

The average character will come out of Prior Server after 5 terms anywhere from 5th to 7th level.

Hunter

 

[Magnus Robot Fighter]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hunter:
In T20, Prior Service exists. Basically you create a first level character, then you enter into one of the Prior Services just like you did in CT. Through Prior Service you earn experience points, bonus skills points and feats which are applied to your core character class.

The average character will come out of Prior Server after 5 terms anywhere from 5th to 7th level.

Hunter<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I like it. It preserves the CT feel by allowing us to play veterans, but also lets us play 1st level plebes if we want...I'm assuming we can.

Thanks,
Rich (aka Magnus)

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"It's still alive?" - Rammas Artimer, Arch Mage

 

[hunter]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Magnus Robot Fighter:
I like it. It preserves the CT feel by allowing us to play veterans, but also lets us play 1st level plebes if we want...I'm assuming we can.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yup, if you want to skip prior service you can play as a 1st level dweebie.

Hunter

 

[Dominator]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hunter:
In T20, Prior Service exists. Basically you create a first level character, then you enter into one of the Prior Services just like you did in CT. Through Prior Service you earn experience points, bonus skills points and feats which are applied to your core character class.

The average character will come out of Prior Server after 5 terms anywhere from 5th to 7th level.

Hunter<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Excellent.

One of the things I really miss in GURPS Traveller is the prior service. GURPS character templates may give similar final results, but aren't nearly as much fun to use as "living" your character's history through prior service.

I have done some of my own GURPS prior service tables, but it was surprisingly difficult to create reasonable tables. I think part of the reason was the much finer 'granularity' of GURPS skills versus CT/MT skills. So much more to choose from, and so much more that a character really needed to have to have a decent background.

I'm not familiar (yet) with the D20 skills/feats system, but I hope a reasonably deep amount of thought goes into how the prior service system is constructed. Since it forms the foundation of a character before play, it will have long-ranging impact on how interesting it is to play characters that have had prior service.

 

[Phil]

Having played enough 3E to be reasonably familiar with the skill/feat system, it should be reasonably easy to do prior service. I would guess a number of skill points, with a list of the available skills they can be spent on, similar to the lists of skills in the prior service tables, or to use a d20 reference, the class skills lists. Also, certain feats available based on career, for instance at first level a Marine might have the opportunity to learn the zero-g combat feat, while his girlfriend in the Navy can learn the Pilot Starship feat.

In view of the level based system, it will have to be balanced so that a character ends up with roughly the same number of skill points and feats from prior service as she would if the character were actually played up from first level.

This can actually be very easy, really it would be a more detailed version of creating, say a fifth level fighter, from scratch. It wouldn't matter if the character was played up from first level or created with "prior service" at fifth level. Both would have the same number of skill points and feats. However, the "played up" character is still going to be more detailed just by virtue of the amount of time you have spent developing the character.

 

[Myscha the sled dog]

There are classes in the d20 system?

Where do you see this?
I thought the system had not been released yet.

 

[aramis]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Myscha the sled dog:
There are classes in the d20 system?

Where do you see this?
I thought the system had not been released yet. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

http://www.wizards.com/D20/ is the home of the d20 page. D&D 3e and SW 3E are both D20 games; both have been on the shelf for months now (D&D3E almost a year).

Classes determine what skills you can buy cheaply, and a few may be restricted to one class or another. Classes have other bonuses. No multiclassing restrictions. No racial-class restrcitions. At least not in the D&D and D20 SW.

In short, the classes are about akin to the effects of a given career in CT.

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-aramis
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