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omnipus
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Mon 26 Apr 2021, 19:27

Apparently that's an unfair assumption. I've dipped in occasionally to the "other" Twilight:2000 forum and the level of bitching there about how "you can't even play a character from another country like England or Germany!" is off the charts. (As if that's a hard thing to figure out and just make happen, if you have the slightest bit of curiosity or actual desire to do so.)

I still think the lifepath system deserves at least a few more pages of detail, though. It's a great way to make a character; it just currently feels a little flat.

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.
For alpha characters, I allowed players to elect to reduce CUF rather than an attribute if they rolled a reduction during chargen. In the alpha, this was more common; not sure I'll continue the process. And I think most people would agree/think that an attribute point is worth more than a CUF point, many of the characters created this way took the CUF reduction. On the other hand, most of those characters are now dead...
Author, Central Poland Sourcebook -- now available on DriveThruRPG
 
Stormfury
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[BETA] Character generation

Mon 26 Apr 2021, 22:21

I'm really surprised that the life paths was finalized as simple as it is. Gone is the fun of doing a career path and getting several skills, something that made it rewarding to pick a path. This new system seems way to simplified and unrewarding (as compared to Twilight 2000 v2).

As an example, I rolled a street kid who had 3 careers before war broke out. Failing specialty rolls in Crime and Education paths, Both of which also rolled 4s for aging. So in 8 years of education I learned a grand total of Rank C in Persuasion and Recon??? Meanwhile my buddy rolled several 1s and 2s and had a Tanker character who was badass with 6 terms in almost the same amount of time. Sure there should be some amount of variation on our life paths but a broken character (or worthless) really isn't fun.

Why isn't there more skills in the game? why don't you get said skills for career paths? and if we're stuck with this system, why isn't the Age rolled to start with and each character gets skill boosts equal to 1 for every 2 years of education within the term?

Moderator Message: Moved this post (that was posted in the alpha character generation thread) to this thread since it was all about the beta rules, not alpha.
 
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Vader
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Tue 27 Apr 2021, 00:04

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?

Hmm...? [checking dictionary] ... no ... no, my book disagrees. In my book, a "house rule" is any rule that you take into play — whether it be one created, assumed, inferred, or interpreted — that is not explicitly stated in the official rules.

And since the rule book doesn't say that's how it works, making it so is a house rule. As is that other example.

Obviously your book differs from mine (which, again, in my book, is okay) ... but putting it down in writing as an official rule would be becoming, is all I'm sayin'.
Before you use the word "XENOMORPH" again, you should read this article through:

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

Tue 27 Apr 2021, 01:11

I am not totally sure what this "houserule" thing is all about to be honest, but this thread is about Lifepath Character Generation and if you want to play a Swedish male person that did some conscription time, you spend the first term in the military, the next term in education (for example) and then (unless the war starts), you go and and spend x number of terms in the profession that you have an education for - voila.

... and if have misunderstood what the issue was, sorry.
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paladin2019
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Tue 27 Apr 2021, 02:03

*This

There is literally no context to the lifepath that defines things one way or another, so either that is left to the player or any narrative background is houseruled.
 
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omnipus
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Tue 27 Apr 2021, 04:14

This strikes me as absolutely a narrative/background issue and not a rules issue. A sentence or two simply describing that "All adult males from [Sweden, Poland, etc] are expected to serve a term of conscription by the time they are [X] years of age. Exceptions to this are made for [blah blah blah]."

There you go. It's a roleplaying game. Put your roleplaying hat on.
Author, Central Poland Sourcebook -- now available on DriveThruRPG
 
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Vader
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Tue 27 Apr 2021, 09:50

All adult males from Sweden [or Poland, etc] are expected to have served a term of conscription by the time they are 20 years of age. Exceptions to this are made for [...].

Rightly so of course — I misapplied the term "rules". So, not ruled so in the rules, but mentioned in the background in the rule books.

We who were there know it like the back of our own hand of course, but someone outside of Sweden (or even a younger Swede) who wants to play in the Swedish background probably won't. So, a short background description like omnipus's would not be amiss.
Before you use the word "XENOMORPH" again, you should read this article through:

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

Tue 27 Apr 2021, 10:05

There you go. It's a roleplaying game. Put your roleplaying hat on.
Pretty much this. Yes the rules are a bit vague at times and some things may be a bit off, but the "Why can't you play as X?" "No conscription?" etc. talk doesn't make much sense to me. The lifepath generation gives you all the tools you need. As a referee you can say "Oh by the way you can play whoever, just talk me through your lifepath choices" well the referee should probably say that in any case, to get a feel of the characters. The referee can say "Okay so you picked Sweden (or whatever), males are expected to serve a term in conscription (you can even have a set term on 1 year or however long for this)" then the player knows or can go "Oh my character is a draft dodger" okay, that's that. This seems to be entering the territory of "Why don't the rules say how I'm supposed to describe x or y in the game?" (and oddly enough there are actually sections in the manual to help out with this). It's a role playing game, it gives you the tools to run the game, the background, choices and story are supposed to come from the interaction between the GM and players. I don't see why the lifepath section is any different.
So in 8 years of education I learned a grand total of Rank C in Persuasion and Recon??? Meanwhile my buddy rolled several 1s and 2s and had a Tanker character who was badass with 6 terms in almost the same amount of time. Sure there should be some amount of variation on our life paths but a broken character (or worthless) really isn't fun.
I know a guy that has 2 or 3 college degrees, runs their own business and lectures in a university. One of his former classmates dropped out of college and has been driving a cab for 6 or more years.
The lifepath system in my opinion very well reflects the reality of different people having different abilities, willpower, motivation etc. If you don't like your deadbeat character, roll up a new one. But it's a role playing game, not all characters (if any, really) are supposed to be super heroes.
 
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Fenhorn
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Tue 27 Apr 2021, 10:19

The skills in the game are the skills that will be used in the game. There are no flavour skills in this game (other games have that). Instead of forcing a player to spend skill points on flavour skills that they most likely never will use, you are your profession. If you play a professor, you might have gotten a couple of skill points in some skills that are useful in this game, but instead of forcing you to spend skill points in a flavour skill, like for example geology, you (and the ref.) can assume that you know a thing or two about geology (if that ever happen). The ref. could give you a bonus when you do make a skill roll and you manage to get your master geology knowledge into your skill use description.

An example of this is FbL. In that game I give my players a bonus to the lore skill (and even other skills) if the players can get their background, profession and kin into the skill use description. Makes every character unique, since even though they might have the same skills they don't have the same background.
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Vader
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Re: Character Generation (Beta) -- Lifepath

Tue 27 Apr 2021, 10:29

The referee can say "Okay so you picked Sweden (or whatever), males are expected to serve a term in conscription...

You underscore my point perfectly: the referee can indeed say this, quite right — but only if he knows about it.

Contrary to what we who were around might be inclined to presume, this is not common knowledge.
As I noted above, people in Sweden (or wherever) above a certain age will know it intimately, but pretty much nobody else will.

So, adding in that little tidbit in a short little sentence in the background info for the referee to use as he will can only be a good thing, right? After all, filling in the essential gaps in people's knowledge is what the background is for, isn't it?
Before you use the word "XENOMORPH" again, you should read this article through:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/aliens-throwaway-line-confusion

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