cheeplives
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Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Wed 21 Apr 2021, 00:04

Reading through the lifepath generation and I was wondering if I'm the only one that has a problem with the Promotion system only mattering for Military careers.

If you run a civilian career path and manage to roll promotions you get the specialty, which is nice, but the Military folks get that as well, but they also get a bump to CUF.

I was wondering if a Promotion for a Civilian career couldn't carry with it some other bonus... maybe just an additional d6 Bullets of Starting Goods per promotion (with the justification that you managed to squirrel away money/items that you were able to bring with you into the Twilight War) or possibly a skill bump (but that might be too powerful)? Civilians CUF disadvantage should be made up for the fact that they had a lot more options in their life that a Military Career doesn't allow for..

Just a thought.
 
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aramis
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Thu 22 Apr 2021, 10:25

tying CUF to Promotion is a totally unrealistic thing. One of the biggest panic-prone guys I've ever known was an E-7 SFC... I'm fairly certain his CUF would have been higher as an E5 than an E7. (He wasn't all together functional due to PTSD. He wasn't

The specialization benefit is for all.
Military also get rank.
Military and intelligence also get +CUF.

I know I'll be houseruling that... CUF will be a second success for intelligence combat arms or specops. Other military & Police, it'll be 2 extra.
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cheeplives
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Thu 22 Apr 2021, 16:03

Personally, I'll probably make CUF a separate rolled stat. To me, it's something that is pretty random and you might find a Civvie who just isn't phased by the stresses of combat while you might have a well-trained soldier who just can't hack it.

Something like roll 2d6 and consult a table (2 - 7: D, 8-9: C, 10-11:B, 12+: A). Gain +1 to your roll for every term spent in the military, or +1 for every 2 terms spent as Police/Intelligence/Criminal (inclusive).

I'll probably also grant d6 Bullets of gear for each promotion earned as a civilian, too... because I feel like all of the Civilian Careers are suboptimal choices and want to reward building varied characters.
 
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aramis
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Mon 26 Apr 2021, 02:17

Personally, I'll probably make CUF a separate rolled stat. To me, it's something that is pretty random and you might find a Civvie who just isn't phased by the stresses of combat while you might have a well-trained soldier who just can't hack it.
USAR-TRADOC has established experimentally (isn't that comfortable to know) that CUF can in fact be trained.

The loss of it is explained mostly by PTSD...

And almost no one is of much use in a fight until they've trained by doing less scary ████ than dodging bullets and blades.
While my own service was negligible (wash out for psych), my experience with multiple armed martial arts is one that reinforces CUF has to be learned. Whether it's kept or not is another matter. A one term soldier probably shouldn't have CUF > C.

I think the lifepath system really is not good as a simulation, and barely serviceable as an inspiration, mostly due to CUF issues. The Cowardly Major (EG: Frank Burns from MASH, or the many real life military majors who are in non-combat arms) are not possible under it as is.

I like the idea of the extra stuff for civies, but will point out: most will have been drafted during the war, or have been run out of their homes, save for farmers and factory workers. Most fo those will be essentially enserffed. Quite possibly by the enemy. Actually having much from prewar is unlikely.
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Birdie_Sparrow
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Mon 26 Apr 2021, 06:51

I would point out that for the military at least the CUF makes sense. By this time in the war the vast bulk of the cowards are most likely dead and gone. Even civilians may be inured a bit to bombs and bullets going off.

What would be interesting is for someone, with GM permission, make a character with a lower CUF. Maybe even a "trade in" where dropping your CUF one step lets you raise a skill one step. Not sure how broken that may become but you could then run a "cowardly" character in a fight but who is a freaking wizard at Skill X. This could even lead to interesting RP interactions as the grizzled vet has to grab the low CUF character all the time by the scruff of the neck and haul him from cover to cover.
 
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Vader
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Mon 26 Apr 2021, 10:55

It always bothered me that the game ignored the fact that civilians (including very nearly 100% of the male population) from countries with mandatory military service — such as Sweden!! — will automatically have some military experience and skills in addition to whatever their civilian careers have taught them.
Depending on what they did during their tenure, some will even have quite advanced ones — you could advance as high as 2nd Lt when "graduating" from your service.

(As a side note — at this time, even "kids" here could have military skills. All the branches of the Armed Forces had youth organisations that you could join from the age of 14. They'd pretty much covered basic training by the time you were 16.)

I really had hoped this would have been rectified in the Alpha, but as far as I can see, they chose to continue to ignore it. Unfortunately.
Makes sense out of a play balance perspective of course — perhaps everyone would be playing Swedes (or Finns, or whatever) otherwise — but I feel it is still incorrect, and it ignores something important from the perspective of us who were around at the time.

Perhaps material for "advanced character generation" rules in a future supplement focusing on the Swedish setting?
Before you use the word "XENOMORPH" again, you should read this article through:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/aliens-throwaway-line-confusion
 
paladin2019
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Mon 26 Apr 2021, 15:07

The game doesn't ignore that, it allows for those who managed to avoid service. This is represented in 1e with no civilian careers, in 2e with the career and reserve systems, and again in FL with the career system. If you're character has done their mandatory service, give them a term in the military.
 
cheeplives
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Mon 26 Apr 2021, 16:27

I would point out that for the military at least the CUF makes sense. By this time in the war the vast bulk of the cowards are most likely dead and gone. Even civilians may be inured a bit to bombs and bullets going off.
It might just be me, but using the word "Coward" when referring to a low Coolness Under Fire just feels really wrong and unnecessarily derogatory.
 
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Vader
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Mon 26 Apr 2021, 16:33

The game doesn't ignore that, it allows for those who managed to avoid service. This is represented in 1e with no civilian careers, in 2e with the career and reserve systems, and again in FL with the career system. If you're character has done their mandatory service, give them a term in the military.

True, you can always house rule it that way. What I guess I'm missing is that it's not systematically acknowledged in the lifepath.
Before you use the word "XENOMORPH" again, you should read this article through:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/aliens-throwaway-line-confusion
 
paladin2019
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Mon 26 Apr 2021, 19:02

That's not a house rule, that's how the rules work. A houserule would be that all male European characters have to take a military career as their first turn on the lifepath. Is there enough room in the text to talk about growing up European (in many flavors, or American or Russian, for that matter) or should the designers assume that players who want to get that in depth will research it themselves and talk to their ref?

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