2300AD:  Spy games. 

 

SKILLS AND CAREERS

 

 

Customizing Characters,   Skills.

 

The skill system of 2300 AD needs a bit of polish.   Two things jump out at me.  First, some of the careers listed provide more skill points than others.   You may agree with this if you think than some careers naturally provide more skills, or that many skills are not modelled in the game, or that not all skills represent equal degrees of learning, that is, a score of 1 in Chemistry is a lot harder to come by than a score of 1 in vehicle driving.  It has been my experience, though , that game players are maximizers.  They will look to those careers with the heavy skill return and ignore the others.     So, to be fair and to get a solid range of backgrounds for characters, boost up the less well endowed careers.  Also, be flexible in allowing different skills to be “primary” or “related” as careers are not always as neatly packaged as they are in book.  Remember, you are trying to build a team of exceptional people- if a character wants to add “trader” as one of his primary skills and his career is “space military” but he can justify this by saying he was a purchasing officer in the logistic division, why not? 

 

I used a few skills of my own making, they are mentioned below.  Also, in many cases, I ruled that possessing certain combinations of skills meant that the character had a specific talent that in some way incorporated both.  For example, someone with an “Interface Military Career” with Aircraft pilot and Imagery might have a specific knowledge of Aerial Reconnaissance.   In the next section, many of the existing 2300 skills have additional “interpretations” in a spy campaign:

 

Demolitions:  For Characters in the Spy business, This skill includes the placement of incendiary devices,  caustic chemical devices,  and other such things even if they are not strictly “explosive” in nature.  This includes the setting of booby traps, or triggers that may be alarms, cameras, sensors, or other devices.  Coupled with either Engineering or Mechanical, this skill can be used to sabotage machinery or create booby traps rigged to the operation of machinery.  If Mechanical is the second skill, the lower of the two prevails, if Engineering, the Higher. 

 

Forward Observer:  Characters with this skill can also use ground based portable directional sensors of various sorts, including low light optical systems, laser rangefinders, parabolic microphones, etc.  Characters with sea or Interface military can also take this skill, in this case it represents skill with advanced ship or airborne targeting systems.

 

Reconnaissance:  A character with this skill can also hide objects, including vehicles and buildings, as well as weapons, sensors, etc, very efficiently in a natural environment.  If that character also has “Streetwise”, he can hide objects well in an urban or indoor environment. 

 

Vehicle Skills:  Character with any vehicle skill over 3, and an information gathering skill over 4, are knowledgeable about the tell tale signs left behind by specific models of that kind of vehicle.  For example, ground vehicles could be identified by tire tread marks (admittedly difficult for hovercraft) while an aircraft might be identifiable by its sound.    Characters with a Ground Vehicle skill and Streetwise can bypass traffic jams and find shortcuts.

 

Bureaucracy:  This skill represents not only general knowledge of procedure but also the ability to make things happen within the agency itself.  It should be tested when the character requests some sort of special favor the agency isn’t ordinarily inclined to give.  Also useful when liaisoning between agencies.

 

Information Gathering:  Also covers the ability to extract information from the agency’s own data bases.

 

Imaging:  A character with this skill can also handle the wide range of spy-specific high tech sensors with a basically visual or graphic output.  Thermal imaging systems, telescopes, what have you.

 

Interviewing:  At levels above 3, the character is a skilled interrogator who can divine the truthfulness of answers (make a task out of it), other emotional cues, and often the Actual Answer to the Question EVEN if the subject is not actually answering from phrasing and body language.   If added to Psychology, the character is skilled in advanced interrogation techniques and can make use of polygraphs and other interrogation devices.

 

Disguise:  This skill allows the concealing and changing of appearance of devices as well as personal appearance.  Other skills will determine the type of devices the character can alter.  For example, with wood, paint, adhesives, and tools, a character with Disguise, Mechanics, and Ground Vehicle could alter one  type of vehicle to look like another.   Such a character could also design a kit that could allow a specific transformation to be done very quickly. 

 

Forgery:  The agency the characters work for will generally have skilled forgers available “back home” who can prepare almost any document the players request in advance.  On the other hand, they may need to whip up something “on the fly”.  Plans change, or perhaps they must copy a document they don’t have in advance.  The Forgery skill can be helped out by advanced forgery kits, which contain materials to chemically treat paper to match the look and feel of the original.  With Electronic skill and Forgery, the character can duplicate electronic imprints, making false credit cards and such, while with Mechanical Skill and Forgery, the character is a talented craftsman who can faithfully copy physical objects- with proper raw materials and took kit. 

 

Security Systems:  What can we say except make sure at least one team member has a good score here.

 

Stealth:  Also vital, so much so that every agent should have this skill.  Remember that a group is, at best, as stealthy as its least likely member.

 

Communications:  This is listed as a “Space Crew Skill” but in my version it is a little more general.  It is not required for operating normal tactical communications devices as may be familiar to police or military characters, however, a character with this skill can operate and possibly understand major communications devices, broadcasting systems, communications satellites, etc.  Communications in 2300 is largely a space related skill as so many systems are in space, but one does not need to be in that career field to need the skill, or gain it.  Other career areas that should have access to this skill are Military, Colonist, Core, and Journalist.  

 

Remote Pilot:  Another skill that can be liberated from the confines of Space Crew, if you assume it extends to remotely operated semi-robotic devices in general.   Ground, Interface, and Sea militaries make use of drones of various types,  as do some Field Agents, Academics, and Scouts.

 

 

Tracking:  If a character has this skill, plus Stealth and Streetwise, he is considered to have a skill in Following, with the Skill in Tracking determining the level of Following.  Although anybody can follow another person, a character with this skill is exceptionally skilled in doing so in an urban environment in a such a way as not to draw attention to himself.

 

 

New Skills:

 

Arts:  Knowledge of Esthetics and art forms.  Also covers actual skill in various art forms.  A Character is allowed one Specialty per level of Art Skill, such as music, landscaping design, etc, and may gain additional levels in specialties.  If a character possesses both Arts and Appraisal,  he has knowledge of the value of objects of art- he knows the relative worth of a painting or a piece of antique furniture on sight, for example. 

 

Culture:  (Intellectual) Knowledge of the formalities, esthetics, customs and social mores of various human cultures.  More theoretical and less specific than “streetwise” which implies specific knowledge of an area.  This skill allows, for example, a character to know what topics of conversation might be of interest to a national of a certain nation, and what may be offensive to him.  While Streetwise can guide you to a  low priced dealer in dinnerware, Culture allows you to appropriately set the table.  Coupled with Bureaucracy, Culture can be used as a knowledge of Protocol.  This is knowledge of the heirarchies of foreign governments and organizations, and how people of various positions are to be treated and addressed.. 

 

Electronic Warfare:  (Military)  This character knows how to employ the various barrage and spot jammers, deception devices, direction finders, and sensors used in electronic warfare.  The character will also know how to analyze sensor and communications systems and determine their weaknesses, as well as infer tactical information.    The character will know how to secure systems against hostile electronic warfare.  Electronic warfare knowledge is considered highly sensitive, and evolves quickly.  Reduce the characters level by one for each turning point passed in a career that does not allow him to keep current, although never below half his original score.  "Field Agent" and "Military" are relevant careers, "Journalist" is not.

 

Heavy Equipment Operator:  (Vehicle)  Allows the use of big noisy machines like cranes, bulldozers, loaders, backhoes, forestry, agricultural, and mining machines, generally without causing unintended injury or malfunction.   A character with this skill AND sea vehicle can operate specialized heavy equipment at sea, such as work submersibles.

 

Sleight of Hand:  (General or Underworld skill)  The character can manipulate small objects in his hands, making them seem to appear and disappear.   The skill can be used to pick pockets, and to place, take, handle, and or exchange objects without notice.   For example, the skill could be used to casually place a listening device in someone’s coat pocket while talking.   The skill can also be used to cheat at cards, and other games.  (and of course, card tricks).  Or, a character could press a button on a console, even while being watched, in such a way as not to be noticed.  The maximum level obtainable in this skill is always limited to Dexterity-10.

 

Knowledges:  These are similar to skills, but are much more focussed and represent specific knowledge of a certain thing.  The game master should invent them and hand them out as he sees fits.  Alternatively, a Knowledge could be a bonus to a skill when it is applied in one area very familiar to a character.  For example, a character could have Sea Vehicle 3 but Knowledge of New York Harbor +3.  When pilot a boat across the treacherous Hell’s Gate at high tide, (In New York  Harbor) the skill would be tested at +6.

 

Knowledges can be such tightly defined things as:

 

“Occupational Safety”

“Mexican Army Order of Battle”

“Crane Operation”

“Brain Surgery”

“The Moscow Subway System”

“Chickens”

Etc.   They are especially useful for defining special NPC’s and  bumping up the rather pathetic “Academic” and “Core World” careers.

 

Do not use Knowledges in lieu of skills, it is extremely unfair to  the characters who get them.  Why would I want my character to take a level in "Brain Surgery" when I could take a level in "Medicine"?  Use Knowledges as bonuses to characters, and to give added weight to non player characters. 

 

 

New Careers:

 

Technical Whiz:   This person lives to make stuff, and unmake stuff.  They are employed by security and intelligence agencies, special engineering firms, organizations, and others with a need to hire mechanically inclined people.    

Initial Training:  Computer  2  Information Gathering: 1 Engineering: 2  Electronic: 2 Mechanical: 2 Any Vehicle 1:

 

Primary Skills:  All of the above, All Space Crew Skills, Any 2 Vehicle skills, Demolitions, Imaging, Security Systems, Forgery

 

Related Skills:  Other vehicle skills, P-suit, (If government) Sidearm, Disguise, Stealth, Melee. 

 

Very Recommended New Career:  The “Information Warrior” at the Pentapod site.  (Hey, he's obnoxious as they get but you have to admit he has some useful stuff)