Extinction Event Alpha test

[Ardem]

At some stage I will write a description of each of the skills, in the manual.

But to answer you questions Technology and biology are learnt skills but in many ways they are common skills. My daughter who is 5 can wiz around an Ipad or my iPhone, in my youth I learnt how to use the telephone and later before 14 a computer (c64) and gaming console (amstrad with ping on it), and we all learnt biology at 2-3 years of age. E.G. Cat starts with C what sound does a Cat make, this gives everyone a skill of 1 in these common skills, biology example may be a bit basic but you see where I am going with this. In many ways innate skills are skills that everyone would have at the age of 14.

I know some of the trained skills could apply before 14, however you still get an opportunity to a single skill in trained skills, You can modify your backstory to suit, the rules are split so a person does not pump all there points into trained skills more then the base skills. This does not make them realistic characters.

#1 Foraging covers food prep now as in "kitchen cooking" or as in "preparing wild game such as rabbits and deer"? Or both? And if not both, which skill (if any) covers the other food prep type?

Foraging cover preparation of wild game, plants and herbs, also the finding of these things.

#2 Camping includes food prep over an open camp fire? Or just shelter and fire building?

Camping includes cooking of prepared foods over an open fire, however cooking to survive is rudimentary, cooking for pleasure is a roll, kitchen cooking is rudimentary, cooking for pleasure is a added trained skill.

#3 What is the difference between Moving and Moving Quickly for purposes of adding to difficulty against ranged attackers? You have 3 move speeds to choose from.

Moving is around Walking speed - Moving Quickly is Jogging or running or fast speed.

#4 For Fire Mode on ranged weapons, I can understand that a Burst requires a single roll since it is one pull of the trigger followed by a hail of bullets. Is a Semi-Automatic attack of 2 bullets treated like a burst (i.e. a single attack roll) or are they resolved as separate attacks since they are separate pulls of the trigger?

Exactly the same as burst including only the 1st shot in a called shot action will be on designated target, other wound rolls will be random. The only difference is 2 bullets instead of 3.

#5 Were you going to add in a "fighting defensively" element such as voluntarily increasing your TN by 1 or 2 which increases your opponent's TN as well? I know there was discussion earlier on about this, but I don't recall if you decided to go with this or not.

Yes, may not be in the manual yet but they are in the modifiers I have added to the FG modifiers section.

#6 The Melee Combat section does not include modifiers for movement. Does walking/dancing around your target increase the TN? I seem to recall you suggesting this idea, but since it is not in the rules, I wasn't sure if you decided to discard this idea or just something you haven't updated yet.

As above, will add it to the manual tonight.

[cmdisc]

I built an Average Joe on the server and am coming up short on Skill points (2 Intelligence, 2 Determination). Can someone try building an Average Jane and see if you're running into the same issue? Maybe I'm not spending my points right. I'm assuming 3 in a skill is average, so most Innate skills are 3's with some 1's sprinkled in and most Trained skills are blank except for a 3 in Automobiles and a few 1's here and there (i.e. at least a 1 in Outdoor Navigation because Average Joe would know how to follow a map and which way the sun rises and sets).

Everything else is looking great! =) Thanks for the answers and the updates, Ardem.

[Ardem]

2 and 2 your skills would be slightly below skill average, based on attributes it would be common to see at leave one a 3, if all points are 15 (include sex bonus) you would see 3 2's and 3 threes. you would normally see one of the points in determination or intelligence a 3. Else it would look like str 3, coo 3, intel 2, det 2, br 2, per 3. I would see this as the high school jock but did not do great at school but just passed now works in the a storeman.

Perfect average man would be str 3, coo3, intel 2, det 3, br 2, per 2. A woman would be str 2, coo3, intel 3, det 2, br3, per 3. Make that what you will, I am sure someone will see some sexism there or sterotypical behaviour from me, however my wife thinks all men should get a -1 for perception.

I know where you coming from, but you have to look at the system as a whole.

[cmdisc]

My wife would agree with your wife. :P

I see where you're coming from with the Attribute point spread. My concern was just if we're treating 2 as stat average and if most people are going to go average in each stat to start (taking a 1 reduces Life and Death rolls to a coin toss), this leaves 3 points left to spend. The skill point system really requires people to put at least 1 of these points into Intel or Det. If you don't, then the points fall a little short. So this limits build options. I could make Big Dumb Jock with a spread of Str4, Coor3, Int1, Det3, BR3, Per1 (I'm thinking of Biff Tannon in 'Back to the Future' or Gaston from Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast'). This means he's mostly average in Innate skills, has several 1's spread around in them, can drive a car, and might know which way to hold a map if he finds one, but that's about it. He doesn't actually have the points to be great at Throwing, Jumping, Swimming, or anything sporty. And if I reduce his Str to up his Int or Det for the points, then he's not big anymore...just average for a man. I suppose I could drop his BR to 2 (he's big, but no more healthy than anyone else) to up his Det to 4. Big dumb jock who is clueless, but doesn't stop at anything.

So in short, I'm of the mind there needs to be a few more Skill points added. But that's just imho. Unless you're adamant on this, I'd suggest bouncing it off everyone else to see what they think. If no one else agrees, then no biggie. It's possible I'm just in the minority with it.

[Ardem]

My wife would agree with your wife. :P

I see where you're coming from with the Attribute point spread. My concern was just if we're treating 2 as stat average and if most people are going to go average in each stat to start (taking a 1 reduces Life and Death rolls to a coin toss), this leaves 3 points left to spend. The skill point system really requires people to put at least 1 of these points into Intel or Det. If you don't, then the points fall a little short. So this limits build options. I could make Big Dumb Jock with a spread of Str4, Coor3, Int1, Det3, BR3, Per1 (I'm thinking of Biff Tannon in 'Back to the Future' or Gaston from Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast'). This means he's mostly average in Innate skills, has several 1's spread around in them, can drive a car, and might know which way to hold a map if he finds one, but that's about it. He doesn't actually have the points to be great at Throwing, Jumping, Swimming, or anything sporty. And if I reduce his Str to up his Int or Det for the points, then he's not big anymore...just average for a man. I suppose I could drop his BR to 2 (he's big, but no more healthy than anyone else) to up his Det to 4. Big dumb jock who is clueless, but doesn't stop at anything.

So in short, I'm of the mind there needs to be a few more Skill points added. But that's just imho. Unless you're adamant on this, I'd suggest bouncing it off everyone else to see what they think. If no one else agrees, then no biggie. It's possible I'm just in the minority with it.

Are you including the +1 bonus for str attributes?

But I see where you coming from and I think your right, The mid range of 75 and 90 is where I aimed things at, but after this you either get OP or Underpowered in your case. Current numbers are
30,45,60,75,90,105,120,135,150

Would it look better on ((Int + Det)x10)+30 giving numbers of
50,60,70,80,90,100,110,120,130

Thoughts?

On BR, BR is for infections and internal related stuff, not external physical. But even so you thinka athlete can fight off injection fast so a 3 is probably where it should be at.

[cmdisc]

Correct, I was including the +1 STR in those figures to get a total of 15 pts.

I definitely agree that 75-90 is the sweet spot. Gage gets 90, but for some reason in our first session I built him out with 80. Not sure why that was. I think my brain was just stuck. He's fixed now, but I'm sure not in the way the ladies would rather him be. :P

I think the formula is good. It boosts up the low end some while keeping the high end reined in.

My thoughts anyway.

[cmdisc]

As for attributes...If a Attribute is 4 for 5 they get an extra skill point to throw in each innate skill that applies to that ability.
Aka Strength will be Unarmed Melee, Jumping, Coordination Climbing, Intelligence, Maths, The Sciences, etc etc. This increase skill points for higher attributes in that section.

However it does not impact trained skills

This is an older quote, but I wasn't clear on it, so just for clarification:

Is the extra point added to the Knowledge check? (i.e. a COOR of 4 bumps up Throwing 3 to a 4 but it's still 2d10 on the Action)

or added to the Action check? (i.e. a COOR of 4 bumps Throwing 3 from 2d10 to 3d10 on the Action)

or acts as a bonus to the TN of the Action? (i.e. Your Throwing 3 gives you 2d10 dice, but your COOR 4 drops the TN from 5 to 4 for the check)

[Ardem]

Yes an extra point in knowledge points, sure you not got an armenian background. My wife is armenian and she as well as her whole family engage in constant mission creep, next thing I be giving 200 points for you haha.

[cmdisc]

HA! Yeah, I wish. I just wanted to make sure I understood the change correctly. This is your show, after all.

Good to go for Sat/Sun.

[cmdisc]

Thanks for the game. I enjoyed it very much, thanks for hosting, Adam. We had some great rolling and some really sucky rolling. So that seemed to be working well. I just have to make sure to do a better job watching the chat box. In looking back I see poor Eliza was saying a bunch that I missed. Also I commented to Dave that without Hitpoints to track, a fight really seems deadly and can spin on a dime. It keeps me on the edge of my seat because I don't know what's coming. Nice effect there.

Anyone have any idea how to handle Dog repellent/Pepper Spray for the rules? The only part I could think of is that it'd probably require a called shot to the head. No use spraying the guy's foot. And would that be a Small arms check or Armed Combat or what?