Character Creation

I think I've got Zeke squared away, except for whatever we get from the Post-creation skill package....

Let me know if I'm missing anything...

Avi would welcome the offer of work and a bunk on the ship, and meeting up with Cas again would put his own financial worries into perspective. If she needed a few thousand credits for some basic equipment then Avi could cover it.

@Knighthawke I think you still have skills to choose from up to two connection events? You also have a choice to make on speciality for your Gun Combat 1 and Electronics 2 skills. For Electronics you could choose one speciality at level 2, or two specialities at level 1 each.

I think the connection skills can be anything you want, but if you want to work it into the story then it should be possible to change the details of the events enough to fit pretty much any skill.

@RogertheShrubber if Admin or Broker is the skill you want for Cas then that is fine. Don't feel that your choice is constrained too much by needing to fit in with the existing story of the event though. If the skills I chose for Avi appeared to fit easily into the event, that is only because I suggested the story with an idea of the skills I wanted already in mind.

Does anyone have the Central Supply Catalog? I don't, but the free preview on DriveThruRPG showed most of the armor section which was quite useful.

Do the connection skills at 0 or 1?

I do have it, and it has a bunch of options for about everything. :)

For the Connection skills, If you don't have it, you gain it at 0. You can choose to use the free skill to increase one you already have by +1 with a max of level 3.

The scout ship is perfectly acceptable. It's part of the expected setup for players to end up with a ship or to get one pretty early on.

Thanks for all info about the connection skills. I thought I had a pretty good grasp of character creation but this has been a learning experience.
Before I lock in my final choices I have some questions:

When your character has a 1 in a specific skill (i.e. Electronics - sensors 1) does that mean you have a 0 in the rest of Electronics as well?

I rolled Jack of all Trades giving Cassia 0 in that skill but, JoaT doesn’t have any mechanical effects until you have 1 rank in it. You also can’t train it, so does that mean that skill has no use at this point?

Lastly, I would really like Pilot (spacecraft 1) which I can pick up from a few of the skill packages. But, if our group wants to choose one without that skill then I will use a connection skill for that.

@RogertheShrubber - can you point out where you rolled the Jack-of-all Trades? (rather than me trying to read your creation posts :) ) I have a suspicion your were supposed to get it at 1, not 0. But the rules seem to go back and forth on that.

I took new skills gained by rolling on one of the career tables to start at level 1, based on page 18 of the 2022 core book. Only the ones that specified level 0 such as background skills, basic training,skills.did I take as starting at level 0. If they all start at level 0 then I will need to downgrade some of Avi's career skills.

@geoffenzed and @esidrix you are right. I guess the next paragraph on page 18 about Vacc suit confused me b/c the example included Vacc suit 0.

I’ll go ahead and take Admin 0 from the Avi connection and Carouse 0 from the therapy sessions (I envision Sy working with Cassia to reintegrate back into society by helping her improve her interpersonal skills)

Actually, the connection skills should be gained at 1 or +1 if you already have it:

Skills can be listed with or without an associated level.
If no specific level is listed, then you gain that skill at
level 1 if you do not have it already, or increase its level
by +1 if you are already trained in that field. If a level is
listed, then you gain the skill at that level so long as it is
higher than your current level in the skill.

@geoffenzed and @RogertheShrubber - The only skills you should have at 0 are the background skills. Most of the skills listed on the Career pages are "Skill Name" which equals learn it at level 1 or gain +1 level.

The exception are the skills on the Ranks and Bonus or some of the event Tables, "Skill 1" which means if you don't have it, you get it at 1. If you already have it, it does nothing for you.

@Esidrix the basic training skills should also be level zero I think, going by the section on page 18:
As a group we have quite a wide range of skills really, the Mongoose system seems to be a lot more generous in that regard than the classic rules were. Although Cas did miss out a bit due to her hard time in the Scouts.

I don't have any strong preference for choice of skill package, I am happy with the skills Avi has already. I agree it would be good if Cas could get Pilot 1 though.

Your right about Basic training, but once your past that, when you roll on any table if it just says "skill" then if it's new its Level 1 or it's +1 to an existing.

So the question now is what skill package do we want? Now firefly seems pretty well represented by the Traveller package, which is the theme I think Esidrix was going for.

But there are other things we could do.

Absolutely pick what you want to. I think "get a ship, get a job, keep flying" can be embodied in many different story types. As it is, you have the scout ship, so I'd pick a skill package that leans towards the type jobs you like to find. But expect all sorts of opportunities to arise. :)

"Get a ship, get a job, keep flying"

Another skill package which seems interesting is the Explorer.You get Astrogation, Survival, and Recon with the explorer package instead of Deception, Gunner, and Persuade with the traveller package (the rest of the skills are all the same.) Of those six skills the only one no characters have is Recon which might be useful depending on our plans. On the other hand, it might be more useful to have one character with a Persuade above 0. Here's a list of all the skills we have as a group so far:

Trader or explorer packages are both fine with me. We don't have every skill in the book, but we have the basics needed to crew the ship, and I don't think we have any major gaps otherwise. For some of the skills we are will depend on just one character, but that is normal and all good I think.

Since we have a Scout ship, and not a merchant, it seems going Explorer or Traveller might be best. :) Although, we could take Trader and specialize in small shipments. :)
Ok, I need to go back through and double-check my build then. I think I started a few at 0, not at 1. And the COnnection skill at +1 will definitely help then too.

Also, @Esidrix - If we have access to the Central Supply Catalog, can we use it?

I was going to say whatever skill package gives our group social skills because we are all woefully weak at that.

We don't have any Language skills either. Hopefully translator software will be enough for most situations.

Here’s the break down of the Traveller and Explorer skill packages and how they relate to skills our group already has. In both cases Zeke already has 4 of the 8 so I’m not sure if there is one that has 2 skills Zeke could use? I’m fine with either package.

Traveller Skill Package
Deception: Sy 1, Zeke 1
Electronics: Zeke 2, Avi 0, Cas(sensors 1)
Gun Combat: Sy 2, Zeke 1, Cas 0
Gunner: Avi 0
Medic: Sy 3
Persuade: Avi 0
Pilot: Cas 0
Stealth: Zeke 0

Explorer Skill Package
Astrogation: Avi 2, Cas 0
Electronics: Zeke 2, Avi 0, Cas(sensors 1)
Gun Combat: Sy 2, Zeke 1, Cas 0
Medic: Sy 3
Pilot: Cas 0
Recon: Zeke 1, Sy 0
Stealth: Zeke 0
Survival: Zeke 1