Testing
| “ | There are two purposes for implementing a series of proficiency ratings in addition to professions. First, it gives everyone a goal to work towards and a measure of how they and their character have improved. Second, in stories we all assume we all have the same skills and can do almost everything. Now, people will have a better chance to customize their skills and put them into perspective relative to others. In other words, this will be a very valuable source for more accurate and detailed writing. It also allows people to truly make their characters unique by building on areas of interest. | ” |
Written and Created by Riqimo based upon the Original Pilot Proficiency Ratings of Arturus and Shazam
Contents
Introduction
When we refer to 'Character Proficiencies' we're actually saying what a character is good at. Let’s call them CPs. There are two main Traits that make up CPs: Characteristics and Skills. Each Trait is further specialized into Metiers.
Starting Out
As a member of the Vast Empire, we don't care who you are, you always start out as a Trainee. That's just who you are- your background story has no effect on the skill-set you start out with. What you can do is choose skills that compliment your background story as you progress. You’ll progress by earning points to spend on the skills you want to develop. You do this by participating in missions, getting promoted, etc. The purpose of these points is to give an accurate representation of your strengths in comparison to those skills you would prefer to avoid.
Obviously, as a Trainee, you're not going to be all that good at anything, so you can't exactly specialize, per se. However, as time goes on and your character becomes more experienced, he'll be able to allocate these points to specific skills that he or she chooses via experience points. Say that your character is better at using a hand gun than an explosive- obviously, any points you gain you'll put toward that proficiency. If you're character is crass and oblivious to the efforts of others, you shouldn’t put the points you're given into something like 'Charm' Perhaps you would put them into decisiveness or strategic skills. It’s important to keep continuity between your background and your character development.
Before we go on, it’s important to know that you should think about what you’re good at writing about, not just what you want your character to do. Say you're a pilot and like writing about the Navy but you can't write about dog-fighting to save your life: perhaps reconnaissance is the way to go. Not really any dog-fighting there but you still get to talk about flying a pretty cool piece of equipment.
Character Ranks
As you progress, specialize, and increase your skills there will come times when you've earned recognition in the form of character ranks. These are a general measure of how good your character is at what he does compared to the average pilot or trooper out there. Detailed descriptions and requirements can be found on the Character Rank page.
Explanation of the System
Before you actually assign points to your Characteristics, Skills, and metiers, it would help if you understood the system. The basic structure looks like this:
Skills Trait -Natural Skills --Metiers -Learned Skills --Metiers -Languages
Characteristics Trait -Body --Metiers -Mind --Metiers -Spirit --Metiers
Metiers
Before we go into the Tiers, it’s important to know what métiers are.
What makes a person exceptional? How can one person be calm enough to exploit a flaw in a battle station, while another person passionately spends a decade searching for his father's killer? In CPs, that extra finesse is known as a metier.
Both characteristics and skills have their own metiers. One person may have the Body characteristic metier Strength, while another may have Endurance. For skills, metiers are specialties that fascinate your character or allow access to specialized knowledge. For example, there is a difference between a person who studies the Science skill and one who delves into cybernetics sciences.
Metiers are ranked in levels from 1 to 5. Unlike the more generalized characteristics and skills, however, metiers can only be used under specific circumstances. For example, you would not use a Surgery metier of Medical without the requisite tools. Nor would you flex your Strong metier to impress the Supreme Moff in court.
A metier is added to its parent trait (either a characteristic or skill) when used. It cannot be used with any other trait. For instance you would never add the Body metier Strong to the Charm skill.
Characteristics
The Characteristics Body, Mind, and Spirit represent the innate abilities of a character. Body deals with strength, physical dexterity, and endurance. Mind measures intelligence, perception, and familiarity with technology. Spirit governs emotional qualities such as passion, faith, and how well a character interacts with others.
Each characteristic is rated by a level ranging from 1 to 5. A level of 1 indicates that the character is barely functional in that characteristic, while 5 levels means he can handle difficult tasks with relative ease.
Remember that métiers work the same way, except that they’re stacked on top of the characteristic. So if your Body is 3 and your Strength is 3, your value for Strength is actually 6. Like characteristics, métiers max out at 5.
You can read the Characteristics section for examples of how you might design your character to be, as well as to view more information on the characteristics and their métiers.
In character, characteristics serve you in a number of ways:
Basic Actions
Actions requiring natural ability rather than a trained skill - breaking down a door or solving a brainteaser - are resolved with characteristics. In the case of breaking down a door, the Body characteristic would be consulted. For the brainteaser, use Mind. Suggestions for various actions involving characteristics are given at the Characteristics page.
Natural Skill Defaults
In situations calling for a natural skill that your character has not learned (you have no skill levels), you can use half your relevant characteristic's rating (rounded up) as a substitute. This does not allow you to use any special maneuvers (like Combat Actions) with that skill. Also if you use this default on a specific skill over several stories, your commander may force you to spend experience points to learn that skill. For more information on natural skills, see the Skills section below.
Skills
Skills are the core around which the CPs run. Like characteristics, skills are ranked in levels from 1 to 5, with a skill of 1 being fairly ineffective and 5 representing extreme accomplishment with a craft.
Each skill has several métiers to choose from, to increase the possibilities for specialization. If you use them well, it’s quite possible to have an entirely unique character with a skill-set no one else has.
Starting Out
As a Trainee you’ve only been through basic training. Because of that, you don’t have access to all 42 Skills yet. Any points earned through actions taken during your training must go to the following skills:
General: Console Systems, Remedy, Warfare, Speak (Language), & Read (Language).
Navy Specific: Pilot (Craft), Tech Repair.
Army Specific: Demolitions, Drive (Craft).
Once you’ve got a mission or two under your belt you may upgrade any Skill you wish. Do not spread yourself too thin, however. He who is decent at many things is good at nothing. It’s not a good idea to choose over 5 skills unless you have already advanced those 5 to the final level you plan to.
