Combat errupts during a Star Trek: the Next Generation away
mission, and Chief Engineer LaForge successfully dodges a phaser blast.
During another crisis for the Enterprise crew, Dr. Crusher skillfully
fires a phaser at advancing Borg drones. On Star Trek: Deep Space
9 even the non-human changeling Odo and the young Dr. Bashir can ably
pilot a shuttlecraft. Star Trek is only the best example of
a problem in the standard Alternity character creation rules, although
it can also be seen when trying to create Star Wars or Babylon
5 or X-Files characters for Alternity. Your typical
sci-fi heroes are capable of doing much more much better than beginning
Alternity
characters. Even young Ensign Kim from Star Trek: Voyager
would have to be fairly high level using standard Alternity levels
to match his talents, and there might not be enough character levels to
create Captain Picard (whose skills range from Command to Diplomacy to
Archaeology to Horse riding). Simply put, Alternity skills
cost so much to buy and advance (especially if not using the official
optional rules) that standard low-level Alternity characters
pale in comparision to even mere cadets from Starfleet Academy in the Star
Trek series.
One possible solution is just to dole out extra starting skill points to characters, but that often only results in characters buying a couple extra ranks in a few skills and does not encourage characters to diversify their skills. So this is where Character Skill Training Kits come in. This optional system for character creation can be used in any Alternity campaign where the characters would receive special long-term training in their background history--for example, by spending several years in a military academy. It is assumed that during this "background training" period, they were instructed in a number of basic skills by competent teachers who could give them the benefit of the Teach skill, greatly lowering skill cost. Rather than simply getting extra points to spend, they have access to a specified pool of skills at a significantly reduced cost.
When using this system, the GM should stress the following restrictions and recommendations to the players...
Source specifies the nature of the institution from which the starting character has received his or her special training. Typical examples are military or government academies, military service training, law enforcement academies, or universities. Each Source has its own unique Focus choices, providing access to a different pool of broad and specialty skills.
Quality specifies the ability of the instructors who gave the starting character his or her special training. Elite quality corresponds with an Amazing success using the Teach skill, allowing starting characters to purchase the broad and specialty skills associated with their Source and Focus at -3 cost (to a minimum of 1). Superior quality corresponds to a Good success (-2 cost). Basic quality corresponds to an Ordinary success (-1 cost). The GM decides which Quality applies.
Focus specifies the exact area of training, such as "technical"
or "medical", etc. Focus largely determines the broad and specialty
skills which the starting character will be permitted to buy at the reduced
cost specified by Quality. It is up to the GM to decide just how
many of the available broad and specialty skills the starting character
will be able to purchase at the reduced cost. The GM may limit the
character to buying only four at reduced cost ("one course of study for
every year spent in the academy"), or the GM may require or allow the character
to buy a long list of skills at reduced cost ("basic training for all officers").
A training kit may allow a character to purchase higher than Rank 1 in
a specialty skill at reduced cost, but then that specialty skill should
count double toward the limit set by the GM (so if the limit is 4, then
one such skill would use up 2 slots).
The following skills should be required to be purchased, or at least made available to be purchased, at the reduced cost (most academies are Elite quality) by all characters regardless of their specific focus (equivalent to 15 free points):
Movement broad skill; Race; Swim
Resolve broad skill
Acrobatics broad skill; Defensive martial arts; Dodge;
Zero-g
training
Each character must select one Focus from the list below. Focus skills may be purchased at the reduced cost. The GM must decide how many of the listed skills can be bought in this manner, as well as how many associated specialty skills can be purchased at the reduced cost. A good balance is to allow the player to select a combination of six broad skills and/or specialty skills than can be purchased at reduced cost (equivalent in most cases to 18 free points).
Command Focus:
Ranged Weapons, Modern
Vehicle Operation specialty skills
Law
System Operation
Tactics
Administration
Culture
Leadership
Combat/Security Focus:
Armor Operation
Heavy Weapons
Unarmed Attack
Ranged Weapons, Modern
Vehicle Operation specialty skills
Security
System Operation
Investigate
Technical Focus:
Ranged Weapons, Modern
Vehicle Operation
Computer Science
Navigation
Physical Science
System Operation
Tactics
Technical Science
Medical Focus:
Computer Science broad skill; Computer Science specialty
skills (above Rank 1)
Life Science broad skill; Life Science specialty skills
(above Rank 1)
Medical Science broad skill; Medical Science specialty
skills (above Rank 1)
Physical Science broad skill; Physical Science specialty
skills (above Rank 1)
Military Service Training (e.g., the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars; Concord Marines from Star Drive)
The following skills should be required to be purchased, or at least made available to be purchased, at the reduced cost (most military training is Superior quality) by all characters regardless of their specific focus (equivalent to 9 free points):
Movement broad skill; Race; Swim
Survival broad skill
Ranged Weapons, Modern broad skill
Unarmed Attack broad skill
Each character must select one Focus from the list below. Focus skills may be purchased at the reduced cost. The GM must decide how many of the listed skills can be bought in this manner, as well as how many associated specialty skills can be purchased at the reduced cost. A good balance is to allow the player to select a combination of six broad skills and/or specialty skills than can be purchased at reduced cost (equivalent in most cases to 12 free points).
Officer Focus:
Melee Weapons
Vehicle Operation specialty skills
Law
System Operation
Tactics
Leadership
Enlisted Focus:
Armor Operation
Heavy Weapons
Melee Weapons
Vehicle Operation specialty skills
System Operation
Technical Science
Law Enforcement/Espionage Service Training (e.g., Elite FBI or CIA training; Superior police academies)
Each character must select one Focus from the list below. Focus skills may be purchased at the reduced cost. The GM must decide how many of the listed skills can be bought in this manner, as well as how many associated specialty skills can be purchased at the reduced cost. A good balance is to allow the player to select a combination of eight broad skills and/or specialty skills than can be purchased at reduced cost (equivalent in most cases to 24 free points for Elite/16 for Superior).
Investigative Focus: (e.g., police detectives; FBI agents;
Interpol investigators)
Ranged Weapons, Modern
Stealth
Vehicle Operation specialty skills
Computer Science
Law
Investigate
Resolve
Street Smart
Protective Focus: (e.g., local cops; state police forces;
security guards)
Armor Operation
Unarmed Attack
Movement
Ranged Weapons, Modern
Vehicle Operation specialty skills
Law
Security
Street Smart
Intelligence Focus: (e.g., intelligence agents; spies;
secret police)
Acrobatics
Manipulation
Ranged Weapons, Modern
Stealth
Computer Science
Demolitions
Resolve
Deception
Higher Education (e.g., university graduate or doctoral programs)
Some sci-fi heroes just have more education than the typical person.
Consider expert psychologist Fox Mulder and medical doctor Dana Scully
from The X-Files. If you wish to give characters a small break
on purchasing professional skills (perfect for campaigns like Dark Matter),
then you might want to allow them to use a Higher Education skill training
kit. Most higher-education programs are only Basic quality (-1 cost),
although a generous GM might treat some prestigious colleges as Superior
quality (-2 cost). Especially in campaigns that feature a significant
number of "lore" skills or new Intelligence and Will skills (like Dark
Matter), allow players to construct their own flexible but reasonable
Focus consisting of perhaps eight related broad and specialty skills.
A forensics expert might construct a "Medical Focus" consisting of the
Life Science broad skill, Life Science-Biology, Medical Science broad skill,
Medical Science-Forensics, Medical Science-Medical knowledge, Awareness-Perception,
Investigate broad skill, and Investigate-Search. However, Vehicle
Operation-Air vehicle would not be acceptable (although he could buy it
normally using his remaining skill points...perhaps flying prop planes
is his hobby.).
Example Character Creation: Steve is designing an Alternity campaign based on Star Trek. He decides the characters are young ensigns who have recently graduated from Starfleet Academy and are now beginning their first starship assignment. As such, they need to be much better than the typical starting character, so Steve tells his players that they will create their characters using an Elite Military Academy skill training kit (-3 cost for specified skills). Chad is playing Ensign Horin, a Free Agent with INT 10; he decides that he wants his character to wear the gold tactical/security Starfleet uniform, so he selects the Combat/Security Focus. As a human, Chad's character begins with the Athletics, Stamina, Vehicle Operation, Knowledge, Awareness, and Interaction broad skills for free (and these do not count against his maximum number of starting broad skills). Steve tells Chad that all Starfleet officers are required to receive the basic training package, so Chad buys the Movement broad skill (reduced to cost 1, the minimum), Movement-race (cost 1), Movement-swim (cost 1), Resolve broad skill (reduced to cost 2), Acrobatics broad skill (reduced to cost 3 because he is a Free Agent), Acrobatics-Defensive martial arts (cost 1), Acrobatics-Dodge (cost 1), and Acrobatics-Zero-g training (cost 1), all for a total of only 11 skill points. Steve then tells Chad that he may select a combination of six broad skills or specialty skills (at Rank 1) to purchase at reduced cost from the Combat/Security Focus list. Chad selects for Ensign Horin the Ranged Weapons, Modern broad skill (reduced to cost 3), Ranged Weapons, Modern-pistol (cost 1), Ranged Weapons, Modern-rifle (cost 1), Security broad skill (reduced to cost 1 because he is a Free Agent), System Operation broad skill (cost 1), and System Operation-weapons (cost 1), all for a total of only 8 skill points. At this point, Chad has spent only 19 of Horin's skill points and has used six of Horin's starting maximum broad skills. Using Official Revisions 2A and 2B, the human Horin has 46 skill points left to spend on increasing ranks in specialty skills (and up to one more broad skill, since as a human his maximum is one higher than other species).