Making Characters For Fun and Practice

[Kruhl Sentru]

Re: Making Characters For Fun and Practice

 

I have a first write up for a Star HERO character, but I'm not very sure of how these types of characters work. I want him to be primarily a scientist/technician, but it seems that the normal range of skills only goes up to 13-, which seems awfully low to me. As a result, I gave my character 2 levels of skill levels with all intellect skills, but that does raise it to 15-, so I'm not sure if that's even allowed. Of course, this could be something that varies from GM to GM.

 

I didn't give him any equipment, since I don't know how to balance that out for a campaign that I'm not familiar with anyways, but my guess is he would have a laser pistol, some various scientific equipment for gathering information, and maybe some other basic supplies.

[Rigel]

Re: Making Characters For Fun and Practice

 

I have a first write up for a Star HERO character' date=' but I'm not very sure of how these types of characters work. I want him to be primarily a scientist/technician, but it seems that the normal range of skills only goes up to 13-, which seems awfully low to me. As a result, I gave my character 2 levels of skill levels with all intellect skills, but that does raise it to 15-, so I'm not sure if that's even allowed. Of course, this could be something that varies from GM to GM.[/quote']

 

Like others have said, reviewing a character without the background universe details is difficult. Is this Star Trek? Enterprise? Dune? Firefly? Star Wars? Avatar? Cyberpunk? On first glance, I'd say the 20 INT for an average or above-average scientist/technician is too high. Perhaps an 18 or even 15 would be more reasonable. I assume Dr. Sentru isn't Einstein.

 

The Computer Programming skill, in particular, is tricky. In near-future games, Computer Programming might be VERY important. In a world like Star Trek, I doubt Picard even had the skill. His computer interaction was talking to AIs. Engineers like Scotty or LaForge may have had Computer Programming and it was well above 15- I'd reckon. The Fifth Edition Star Hero book (one of the best DOJ books IMHO) talks about adding more levels of specificity to the Systems Operation skill. In modern games, a generic Systems Operation 15- might be sufficient but, in a scifi game, there are SO MANY different types of systems to operate. Knowledge of shipboard FTL sensor operation is not the same as Life Support systems, medical sensors, FTL communications equipment, and so on. I am sure next year's Star Hero 6E will cover this as well. If you don't own Star Hero, go buy it. If you still don't own Star Hero, you can get an idea of what I'm talking about by creating a 5E character in Hero Designer, make sure the Star Hero template is enabled (File -> Preferences -> Template) and looking at all the adders under the Systems Operation skill.

 

Personally, I'd say four PS skills for one person is too many. In far-future or high-tech scifi games, technicians and scientists aren't astronauts. They just happen to work in space. They don't have more knowledge of how the spaceship operates than I do about how the HVAC system or plumbing in my office building works. [EDIT: Oh, I meant to add that Astrology is zodiac signs and how celestial bodies affect our personalities and such. I don't know if you meant to have Astronomy instead.]

 

And, lastly, I am not sure the average scientist would have a Tactics skill or Combat Luck. I am enjoying your posts and your example characters. I think this is a great way to learn the system. I applaud your efforts and your willingness to share your ideas with the assembled Herodom. Welcome to HERO!

[Tasha]

Re: Making Characters For Fun and Practice

 

I have a first write up for a Star HERO character, but I'm not very sure of how these types of characters work. I want him to be primarily a scientist/technician, but it seems that the normal range of skills only goes up to 13-, which seems awfully low to me. As a result, I gave my character 2 levels of skill levels with all intellect skills, but that does raise it to 15-, so I'm not sure if that's even allowed. Of course, this could be something that varies from GM to GM.

 

I didn't give him any equipment, since I don't know how to balance that out for a campaign that I'm not familiar with anyways, but my guess is he would have a laser pistol, some various scientific equipment for gathering information, and maybe some other basic supplies.

 

The only real issue that I would have with the character and as a GM I wouldn't really care, is that youi have way too much end. you have a str of 10 and nothing else that uses end. THis guy is Probably OK having base or nearly base END. It's certainly up to you if you waste 6 pts on something that the character will never use.