Skills Based on Powers or Background

[Cassandra]

Do you chose skills based on the Background and Occupation of the Character, or to enhance their powers?

 

For example

 

The Invisible Woman

 

Cost Skills

3 Acting

2 CSL: Ranged Combat +1

3 Conversation

2 Navigation [Air]

3 Paramedic

3 Rep: Superhero 14-

3 Stealth

3 Teamwork

Total Skills Cost: 25 Points

 

The Acting and Conversation come from her background as an actress.  The Paramedic is skills she learned from her Physician Father.  Stealth is useful when she's invisible.  Teamwork is based on her close relationship with the rest of the Fantastic Four, and her Reputation is being a World Famous Superhero.
 

 

[Chris Goodwin]

I usually choose based on background and occupation, though I'm sure not always.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I prefer to build around background and concept, even if its an apparent waste of points.  A good GM will find a way to make the skills matter if possible.

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

4 hours ago, Cassandra said:

Do you chose skills based on the Background and Occupation of the Character, or to enhance their powers?

Yes. 

 

Levity aside, deciding "I want this mechanical trait" should generally cause a (small) change in a character's backstory and vice versa.  Neither crunch nor fluff live in a vacuum. 

[Greywind]

Technically, the FF are adventurers and not heroes.

[Ninja-Bear]

23 hours ago, Greywind said:

Technically, the FF are adventurers and not heroes.

Hmmm.....didn’t know there was a difference.

[assault]

Both.

The "enhancing their powers" part is basically part of their powers. Everything else is background driven.

 

Mind you, I build very skills light in Champions. It's perfectly normal for me to build a character with Everyman Skills and nothing else.

[Greywind]

2 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Hmmm.....didn’t know there was a difference.

 

They explore and investigate new phenomena. They don't really battle villains or fight crime.

[assault]

16 minutes ago, Greywind said:

 

They explore and investigate new phenomena. They don't really battle villains or fight crime.

 

The latter is secondary to the former.

[Ninja-Bear]

Cassandra I try to spend points on background skills. Though depending on game criteria I’ll still spend some on improving combat.

[Cassandra]

I've been building skill sets based on both occupation and the type of powers they have.

 

 

For example a Speedster would have

 

Absolute Time Sense

Navigation [Ground/Sea]

Speed Reading

 

10 Points

 

For the Flash he would have Investigator occupation skill set

 

Criminology

Deduction

Interrogation

Shadowing

Streetwise

 

15 Points

 

 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Sure, occupations, hobbies, training, background.  Best place to come up with a few skills and it only takes a couple to round out a character.  PS schoolteacher, KS spelunking, survival

[Greywind]

Why would speedsters inherently have Absolute Time Sense?

[Christopher R Taylor]

I dunno innate, but it makes sense that they can easily check the time instantly at any point they desire.

[BoloOfEarth]

On 6/22/2019 at 2:31 PM, Cassandra said:

Do you chose skills based on the Background and Occupation of the Character, or to enhance their powers?

 

Some skills are chosen because of the characters' powers, but mainly I choose skills based on the Background and Occupation.  I find it makes the character feel a bit less two-dimensional.  If all of DarkNight's skills are Stealth / Streetwise / Interrogation, etc., he seems a little bland to me.  But add Charm, High Society, and Wealth, and now there's a face behind that mask. 

 

So for instance, BigBadBrick might have Mechanics + Combat Driving + KS:  Classic Cars, with the thought that he restores older sports cars in his free time.  Or FireGuy may have Climbing (even though he hardly needs that given his Flight power) since he likes to go free-climbing and hopes to one day scale the tallest mountain on every continent.

 

Such non-combat skills have even had a major impact in combat.  A PC hero and NPC villain once spent the entire combat sharing their mutual KS: Fashion to critique their teammates' outfit choices - rather than, y'know, shooting at each other or anybody else.  And when the villain revealed he was an actor before getting his powers, the hero used that as a springboard to talk him into setting aside his villainous ways and becoming a hero. 

[Cassandra]

23 hours ago, Greywind said:

Why would speedsters inherently have Absolute Time Sense?

 

Because time is moving more slowly for them.

[ghost-angel]

That's also making the assumption all "speedsters" work the same.

It could just as easily be assumed that they live in a different time frame and have trouble keeping track of "how much time has passed" as well.

[Greywind]

And then there are those that rage because all the lines are slow.

[greysword]

All of my group's characters had skills that were both related to the power set and for background use.  However, generally all of them are useful at some point in the campaign. 

 

Also, characters choose to spend CP on new skills that may prove useful in the coming encounters, which also inform their backgrounds.  In our current game, my character started as a PhD teaching student, so she had Oratory and Persuasion to start the game.  Recently, we discovered the team needs a public relations person, so I spent all 8 points from our last couple adventures to add the KS and PS Public Relations and Charm.  These will be for non-combat encounters, obviously, but it also informes the character's background and possibly her future career.

 

I hope this helps.

[Lucius]

On 6/22/2019 at 2:31 PM, Cassandra said:

Do you chose skills based on the Background and Occupation of the Character, or to enhance their powers?

 

For example

 

The Invisible Woman

 

Cost Skills

3 Acting

2 CSL: Ranged Combat +1

3 Conversation

2 Navigation [Air]

3 Paramedic

3 Rep: Superhero 14-

3 Stealth

3 Teamwork

Total Skills Cost: 25 Points

 

The Acting and Conversation come from her background as an actress.  The Paramedic is skills she learned from her Physician Father.  Stealth is useful when she's invisible.  Teamwork is based on her close relationship with the rest of the Fantastic Four, and her Reputation is being a World Famous Superhero.
 

 

 

Captain Winter was cryogenicist who designed a suit of armor that allows him to control temperatures and project beams of freezing cold. He has Science Skill: Cryogenics. Is that Skill related to his background in cryogenics, or his superpowers?

 

Both obviously. It's a false dichotomy.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

KS: Palindromedaries

[ghost-angel]

I choose skills based on background, powers, and what will be interesting to play.

[Lucius]

 

I do have certain Skills I default to so to speak.

 

Stealth. If you are a player character, there WILL be times you need to be sneaky.

 

Concealment. If you are a player character, there WILL be times you either have to find something hidden, or hide something, probably yourself.

 

Paramedics. If you are a player character you will very likely either at some point get hurt or at some point be there when someone gets hurt.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

I always default to using a palindromedary tagline but I'm not sure that's a Skill....

[Vanguard]

At character creation, i spend points on background skills and occupational skills.

 

After character creation I wind up spending points on acquiring skills I should have had at character creation but didn't have the points for as well as buying skills that could be used to assist any powers/abilities I have acquired over the course of game play.

[dsatow]

If the character has had their powers for a while, it would be in their background to develop skills for it.

 

I generally give skills based on the background history of the character and how much time they have had to work with their powers.

[Greywind]

On 6/25/2019 at 2:58 PM, Cassandra said:

 

Because time is moving more slowly for them.

 

Also keep in mind that Barry Allen had a tendency to always be late when he was supposed to be somewhere. Dinner date with Iris? Late.