I've been thinking about a simple skills system for FMA. Each figure can have
one speciality skill, such as Demolitions, Sniping, Communications, Leadership
and so on. What the skill allows the figure to do, is to reroll either their
quality dice or the opposing difficulty dice, but not both, on a skill action.
This means that the skill can be used to attempt to avoid a failure and
possible check for fumble when rolling a "1" on the figure's quality die.
Using the skill to force a reroll of the target difficulty dice, means the
figure is more likely to succeed.
Some skills and figures, using an impressionistic MOS: Green Sniper, Regular
CommsTech, Veteran Leader, Elite Demo.
For example, the Elite Demo figure is setting a charge to blow a door open.
Setting the charge is assumed to be of below average difficulty, so a D6 is
chosen and rolled as the difficulty. The Elite Demo figure rolls their quality
die, a D12. Say, the D12 result is a "1", while the difficulty D6 is a "3".
Normally this would be a check for a fumble. A fumble result might mean the
charge blows up the demo expert rather than the door. Not wanting this, the
player rerolls the D12, using the Demo skill, and lets the second result be
the success or failure result. So a figure having a skill means that the
figure is more likely to succeed in the chosen task that relates to that
skill.
I welcome comments, additions, suggestions and enhancements.
Sounds solid and workable. Simpler than a RPG solution but can be further
modified to enable adoption for RPG with characters having multiple skills
even.
> -----Original Message-----
> Owen wrote:
For up to, say, two or three significant skills, the reroll could, optionally,
consume an extra action or two, so it's not too powerful or
significant. The skill/s should be those that are significant, not a
basic skill that most figures would have. "Sniper" not rifleman, "Demo" not
"throw grenade".
I don't know about the ability to dice the test over in the result of a
failure for characters with a skill. That means I'd have to fumble twice in a
row to fumble at all. Let's face it even the experts botch things from time to
time. Also I think that the way you've named the skill leads to confusion,
Elite Demolitions. Is read better as Demolitions Master. This avoids confusion
as to the moral Quality of the particular character.
Sergeant Rork Elite2
Equipment - Partial Body Armor, Comm Link, Assult Rifle, 2 Shaped
Charges
Skills - Demolitions Master
Quote - "Let's blow this pop stand"
Background - ect
"Andrew Martin" <Al.Bri@xtra.co.nz> on 08/18/99 09:52:23 PM
Please respond to gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
To: "GZG List" <gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU>
cc: (bcc: Aron Clark/AM/Avid)
Subject: FMA Simple Skills
I've been thinking about a simple skills system for FMA. Each figure can have
one speciality skill, such as Demolitions, Sniping, Communications, Leadership
and so on. What the skill allows the figure to do, is to reroll either their
quality dice or the opposing difficulty dice, but not both, on a skill action.
This means that the skill can be used to attempt to avoid a failure and
possible check for fumble when rolling a "1" on the figure's quality die.
Using the skill to force a reroll of the target difficulty dice, means the
figure is more likely to succeed.
Some skills and figures, using an impressionistic MOS: Green Sniper, Regular
CommsTech, Veteran Leader, Elite Demo.
For example, the Elite Demo figure is setting a charge to blow a door open.
Setting the charge is assumed to be of below average difficulty, so a D6 is
chosen and rolled as the difficulty. The Elite Demo figure rolls their quality
die, a D12. Say, the D12 result is a "1", while the difficulty D6 is a "3".
Normally this would be a check for a fumble. A fumble result might mean the
charge blows up the demo expert rather than the door. Not wanting this, the
player rerolls the D12, using the Demo skill, and lets the second result be
the success or failure result. So a figure having a skill means that the
figure is more likely to succeed in the chosen task that relates to that
skill.
I welcome comments, additions, suggestions and enhancements.
> Aron Clark wrote:
The skill is intended to be rolled at the figure's quality level. Sergeant
Rork rolls his quality D12 for his Demolitions skill. The skill part comes in
allowing the reroll of the quality die, or the difficulty die, reflecting the
better skill of Sergeant Rouk over other Elite figures.
I see where you are coming from now... I think. Basicly you've rated the
character's skill the same as there overall quality, ie a veteran character
would have veteran skills, or check with a vetran d8. I still don't agree with
the re-roll however. My previous posts regarding this subject have
attempted to clarify what has been briefly outlined in the FMA draft, and not
to create something new. What I love about all the games published by GZG is
their inherent simplicity. It seems to me the more we muck about with the
rules striving for more detail, or covering all potential situations, the more
things seem complicated and confused.
"Andrew Martin" <Al.Bri@xtra.co.nz> on 08/19/99 09:10:39 PM
Please respond to gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
cc: (bcc: Aron Clark/AM/Avid)
Subject: Re: FMA Simple Skills
The skill is intended to be rolled at the figure's quality level. Sergeant
Rork rolls his quality D12 for his Demolitions skill. The skill part comes in
allowing the reroll of the quality die, or the difficulty die, reflecting the
better skill of Sergeant Rouk over other Elite figures.
> Aron wrote:
That's usually correct. Simplistic changes tend to do that. Complex changes
make things more complicated. Simple changes make things become more simpler.
Another alternative, is that a skill allows one reroll of both the quality die
and the difficulty die. If you don't like the result of the first roll, reroll
both dice. The second result has the usual effect.
> Andrew Martin wrote:
> That's usually correct. Simplistic changes tend to do that.
Complex
> changes make things more complicated. Simple changes make things
It's a simple matter of making all these rules optional. There's a fine line
between simple stupid and just stupid. AFter all if it's too simple might as
well play checkers. (NOT THAT FMA is). The beauty of FMA, and DS2 and SG2, and
FT, is that core system can incorporate additions modifications, changes much
easier than many other systems. And then use them or not. Heck with My wife or
little cousin, it's a plain vanilla simple game, but if say Tom and I were
playing a game, we might add in all kinds of wazoo stuff because we're into
the kind of detail that allows "action" the figures in ways which would mimic
what our squads would be doing on the ground. Especially when in, for instance
SG2 or FMA, you do most of the work upfront calculating all these factors and
laying them out on your data /squad cards. This way there's no rocket
science required before the game begins.