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--- starrangers:suggested_characters [2015/08/12 01:15] – weby
+++ starrangers:suggested_characters [2018/07/31 23:23] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
@@ Line 436: / Line 436: @@
 equipment commonly found aboard ships, particularly Sensors
 and Sonar.
-===== Outdoors =====
+===== Outdoors + =====
 The challenges of the great outdoors are legion. Unless the
 adventurers won’t leave the city, ever, the campaign should
 define at least one niche that has the job of dealing with these.
-In games where Exploration (p. 37) is the dominant outdoor
-activity, the GM might merge that category with this one.
+As many of the things happen in the outback, the ability to survive in non civilized places is important.
 Secondary Characteristics: Per.
 Advantages: Absolute Direction; Acute Senses; Outdoors-
 man; and Temperature Tolerance.
 Disadvantages: Loner, plus almost any self-imposed mental
 disadvantage (p. B121) tied to keeping nature pristine.
 Skills: Area Knowledge, for any expansive outdoor area;
 Camouflage; Climbing; Fishing; Hiking; Meteorology/Weather
@@ Line 456: / Line 461: @@
 fighting. High-tech niches might include Biology (Ecology), an
 IQ/H optional specialty; Geography; and Geology.
-===== Performing =====
+===== Performing -- =====
 Many plots call for the PCs to entertain NPCs, whether that
@@ Line 464: / Line 470: @@
 thing, and the campaign is about putting on successful shows!
 Advantages and Perks: Appearance is universally handy.
 Then there’s Flexibility for contortionists; Musical Ability and
 Voice for musicians; Penetrating Voice and Rapier Wit (unless
@@ Line 469: / Line 476: @@
 for acrobats; and so on. Be sure to suggest these in customiza-
 tion notes.
 Disadvantages: Compulsive Carousing and Overconfidence.
 Performers sometimes actively exploit Dwarfism, Hunchback,
 Skinny, etc.
 Skills: Acrobatics; Carousing; Dancing; Fire Eating; For-
 tune-Telling; Games; Mimicry (Speech); Musical Instrument;
@@ Line 482: / Line 491: @@
 seur (Dance or Music) and/or Current Affairs (High Culture
 or Popular Culture).
 ===== Plants -- =====
@@ Line 490: / Line 500: @@
 a living in a low-key historical campaign. With rare exceptions,
 there’s just enough here for one niche.
 Advantages: Green Thumb and Plant Empathy.
 Disadvantages: Phobia (Fire), in settings where intelligent
 plants don’t appreciate flame.
 Skills: Farming; Gardening; Naturalist; and Pharmacy
 (Herbal). Most fantasy and cinematic settings add Herb Lore;
 high-tech ones might tack on Biology (Botany), an IQ/H
 optional specialty, and Paleontology (Paleobotany).
-===== Research =====
+===== Research + =====
 Heroes occasionally have to look for answers in whatever
@@ Line 504: / Line 517: @@
 whole niche, they can be essential to moving the story forward
 – particularly in mystery, occult, and technothriller plots.
 Attributes: IQ is archetypal.
 Advantages: Eidetic Memory; Intuition; Less Sleep, for
 all-nighters; Single-Minded; and Tenure, for access to the
 best libraries.
 Disadvantages: Curious; Obsession with some academic
 goal; and Workaholic.
@@ Line 518: / Line 534: @@
 Teaching; Typing; Writing; and IQ/H or IQ/VH skills, particu-
 larly Expert Skills, concerning abstruse subject matter.
-===== Sabotage =====
+===== Sabotage - =====
 Many an adventure plot revolves around blowing up, burn-
@@ Line 525: / Line 542: @@
 around in more subtle ways, then one or more niches should
 specialize in such destruction.
 Advantages: Artificer; Fearlessness, for walking around with
 explosives; High Manual Dexterity; and Luck, for avoiding
 unintended accidents.
 Disadvantages: Pyromania.
 Skills: Architecture, for knowing the weak spots in structures;
 Engineer (Combat); Explosives (Demolition or Fireworks);
@@ Line 536: / Line 556: @@
 Repair can short-circuit gizmos; and Mechanic can sever brake
 lines and facilitate car bombs.
-===== Science =====
-Outside of fantasy and TL0-3 adventures, and especially in
+===== Science + =====
-sci-fi and TL6+ stories (unless the campaign is pure action),
-many problems call for scientific solutions – most often testing
+Eespecially in sci-fi many problems call for scientific solutions – most often testing
 and field-expedient applications. If this stuff is relevant, then at
 least one niche should excel at it. In a cerebral game, several
 niches might specialize in different areas.
 Attributes: IQ is the cheapest way to shine at more than a
 few of the relevant skills.
 Advantages: Lightning Calculator and Mathematical Ability.
 Disadvantages: Curious.
 Skills: Astronomy; Biology; Chemistry; Geography (Physical);
 Geology; Mathematics; Metallurgy; Meteorology; Naturalist;
@@ Line 557: / Line 579: @@
 Affairs (Science & Technology), Electronics Operation (Sci-
 entific), and Hazardous Materials.
-===== Security =====
+===== Security - =====
 Except in the most sedate of campaigns, keeping watch for
@@ Line 564: / Line 587: @@
 bodyguards, antiterrorist forces, etc. – then every niche ought
 to have some of these traits.
 Secondary Characteristics: Per in itself is crucial for meeting
 security challenges.
 Advantages: Acute Senses; Combat Reflexes; Danger Sense;
 Less Sleep; Night Vision; and Peripheral Vision. True security
 officers often have Legal Enforcement Powers and/or Rank.
 Disadvantages: Light Sleeper and Paranoia. Security offi-
 cers often have Duty and/or Sense of Duty.
 Skills: Animal Handling (Dogs), for working alongside guard
 and sniffer dogs; Body Language; Electronics Operation (Secu-
@@ Line 582: / Line 609: @@
 tor (Sprayer) and Guns. Police officers know Law (Police) and
 Savoir-Faire (Police).
-===== Sneaking =====
+===== Sneaking + =====
 In adventure plots, not being detected by enemies comes sec-
@@ Line 590: / Line 618: @@
 Attributes: IQ (DX, not so much, despite the common asso-
 ciation between grace and sneakiness).
 Advantages and Perks: Honest Face and Night Vision.
 Disadvantages: Loner.
 Skills: Acting, for not behaving suspiciously; Camouflage;
 Holdout, for one’s gear; Housekeeping, for making evidence
 disappear; Observation, for spotting guards and hidden cam-
 eras; Shadowing; Smuggling; and Stealth.
-===== Social Engineering =====
+===== Social Engineering + =====
 People can be the most puzzling challenge. Manipulating
@@ Line 604: / Line 636: @@
 (p. 36) and Sneaking (p. 40), it’s best to scatter these abilities
 across several – perhaps all – templates.
 Attributes: IQ defines “social intelligence,” doing what the
 “Charisma” or “Charm” attribute does in other RPGs.
 Advantages and Perks: Appearance; Charisma; Cultural
 Adaptability*; Cultural Familiarity; Empathy; Fashion Sense;
@@ Line 611: / Line 645: @@
 Chameleon*; and Voice. Traits with an asterisk (*) may be too
 cinematic for some campaigns.
 Disadvantages: Chummy; Compulsive Carousing; Overcon-
 fidence, for the reaction bonus from the impressionable; and
@@ Line 622: / Line 657: @@
 Public Speaking; Savoir-Faire; Sex Appeal; and Streetwise.
-===== Social Sciences =====
+===== Social Sciences -=====
@@ Line 633: / Line 668: @@
 tales, there’s room for at least two niches –
 arts and humanities – and maybe more.
 Attributes: IQ is the most affordable
 way to be good at lots of suitable skills.
 Advantages: Cultural Familiarity; Lan-
 guage Talent; and Languages. Cultural
 Adaptability also fits, though it’s cinematic.
 Disadvantages: Curious and Xenophilia.
 Skills: Anthropology; Archae ology; Car-
 tography; Connoisseur (Literature, Visual
@@ Line 652: / Line 690: @@
 ===== Space =====
+As space travel features in the cam-
-If space travel features in the cam-
+paign skills for dealing with the curves it throws at the PCs are vital.
-paign, as it often does at TL9+, then skills
-for dealing with the curves it throws at the PCs are vital.
 Every space voyager should know the basics, but the sea-
 soned space-hand is a strong niche of its own.
 Advantages: 3D Spatial Sense; G-Experience; Improved G-
 Tolerance; Perfect Balance; and Xeno-Adaptability, in cinematic
 campaigns with alien cultures.
 Disadvantages: Chummy, because spaceships are close
 quarters, and Xenophilia.
 Skills: Area Knowledge, for an interplanetary state or even a
 galaxy; Astronomy; Expert Skill (Xenology); Free Fall; Freight
@@ Line 673: / Line 712: @@
 in space opera.
-===== Stealing =====
+===== Stealing + =====
-Fantasy heroes out to loot dungeons, career criminals after
-the big score, super-spies assigned to snatch top-secret plans . . .
 PCs often face the challenge of taking what isn’t theirs. This is a
 niche unto itself in genres where it matters. In stealth-heavy
@@ Line 683: / Line 719: @@
 gered pickpocket, the agile cat burglar, the security-systems
 cracker, etc.
 Attributes: DX and IQ.
 Advantages and Perks: Flexibility and Perfect Balance, for
 cat burglars; High Manual Dexterity, for pickpockets; and
 Night Vision.
-Disadvantages: Greed, as
-motivation, and Loner, to
+Disadvantages: Greed, as motivation, and Loner, to avoid betrayals.
-avoid betrayals.
 Skills: Architecture, for find-
 ing secret doors; Climbing;
@@ Line 704: / Line 742: @@
 Hand; and Traps.
-===== Streets =====
+===== Streets - =====
@@ Line 716: / Line 754: @@
 substantial if all the other tem-
 plates are polite and proper.
 Advantages and Perks: Alco-
 hol Tolerance; Contacts (Crimi-
 nal); Danger Sense; Fearlessness; and Indomitable.
 Disadvantages: Bad Appearance, Callous, and a mean-
 and-nasty Reputation all aid Intimidation. Often, Social