Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[thwill]

Hi folks,

I'd appreciate any feedback, constructive or not, on the list of Professional Edges I'm tinkering with for my post-apocalypse / Fallout setting (before anyone points me to them I have looked at the 2-3 Savage Fallout's that appear to be in circulation, and they are very nice, but I'm still tinkering on my own).

You need to know the following two understand the list:
1. Healing has been renamed Medicine.
2. Science and Explosives skills added, linked to Smarts.
3. Survival skill now included Tracking.
4. Speech and Barter skills replace Intimidation, Persuasion and Taunt.
5. No Guts or Investigation skills.
6. No Healer edge.
6. No Professional edges other than those listed.

Acrobat (Professional)
As per SW:Ex. I’m not completely convinced this is appropriate to setting, but nor do I see that it will cause any harm.

Demolitions Expert (Professional)
Requirements: Explosives d8+
Demolitions Experts get +2 on Explosives rolls.
Any explosive device used by a Demolitions Expert (including grenades, rocket launchers, …) causes an additional d6 damage.

Doctor (Professional)
Requirements: Medicine d8+,
Doctor’s gain +2 to all Medicine rolls.

Jack-of-all-Trades (Professional)
As per SW:Ex.

Pit Fighter (Professional)
Requirements: Agility d8+, Strength d8+, Fighting d8+
A Pit Fighter does not suffer the usual -1 Fighting penalty for using an improvised weapon and never counts as an Unarmed Defender.

Road Warrior (Professional)
Requirements: Novice, Driving d8+
Road Warriors gain +2 to Driving and Repair rolls when applied to conventional motor vehicles, e.g. cars, motorcycles, trucks, …
In addition, they may also spend Bennies to make Soak rolls for any such vehicle they are driving. This is a Driving roll at -2 (cancelling their usual +2). Each success and raise negates a wound and any critical hit that would have resulted from it.

Outdoorsman (Professional)
Requirement: Novice, Survival d8+
Outdoorsmen gain +2 to Survival (including Tracking) roll and Stealth rolls made in the wasteland (not towns, ruins, or underground).

Thief (Professional)
As per SW:Ex.

Mechanic (Professional)
Requirement: Novice, Repair d8+
Mechanics gain +2 to all Repair rolls. With a raise they halve the time normally required to fix something. This means that if a particular repair job already states that a raise repairs it in half the time, a Mechanic could finish the job in one-quarter the time with a raise.

Scavenger (Professional)
Requirement: Novice, Notice d8+, Survival d8+
Scavengers gain +2 on Notice rolls for Scavenging and +2 on Survival rolls for finding Food and Water in urban areas.

Scientist (Professional)
Requirement: Novice, Science d8+
Scientists get +2 to all Science rolls. With a raise they halve the time normally required to complete a Science task. This means that if a particular task already states that a raise completes it in half the time, a Scientist could finish the job in one-quarter the time with a raise.

Tribal Shaman (Professional)
Requirement: Novice, Medicine d8+, Survival d8+, “Tribal” background
Tribal Shaman gain +2 to all Medicine rolls that do not involve the use of chems or technology. Up to five companions travelling with the Shaman add the bonus to their natural healing rolls as well (does not stack with other medical attention bonuses).
Assuming a Tribal Shaman has a regular opportunity to collect the tools of their trade: roots, berries, sticks, mud … they do not suffer the usual -2 penalty for lack of conventional medical supplies.
Tribal Shaman also gain +2 to Speech rolls when communicating with other Tribals.

Any ideas for an Assassin and/or Bounty Hunter edge would also be gratefully received.

Thanks,

Tom

[OSIAdept]

Interesting, i like the simplicity
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[Rachan]

Professional edges generally have a LOT of requirements, and in turn give you benefits BEYOND a simple +2 to a skill check. They're designed to represent your career or calling, like a "class" in class-based games. They're something you ARE, not something you DO.

So Tribal Shaman seems like a good Professional edge—it meets these conditions, as well as gives you a solid foundation for roleplaying an identifiable concept.

A lot of the others just seem like regular Edges, to me. Particularly, Doctor and Outdoorsman.
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[quote="77IM"]… it's not specifically allowed by the rules, but the GM is specifically allowed to allow it. [/quote]

[Lord Lance]

Scavenger is a little "underpowered" I think. Maybe you shold leave +2 Notice for every task, so it's useful like a "scout" too.
If scavenger can roll on a sort of "treasure table" when searching for "stuff" (see other official settings that use this mechanic), then the edge is not underpowered.

About Demolition Expert, the +1d6 damage is added at granades too? If yes, maybe it's a little overpowered, if you plan to make granades commons.

Finally, search in the savagepedia and in the forum (I can't remember the name of the topic, maybe "Unofficial Edges") for other GREAT professional edges, to make your assassin, or "parkour" wastelander runner, etc.
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[thwill]

Thanks for the feedback, for those who are interested I've reversed my decision to merge Tracking and Survival and returned to calling Healing "Healing" so my working list of Professional Edges is now:

Professional Edges

This list replaces that in SW:Ex. Note that bonuses to the same skill from two Professional Edges do not stack.

Acrobat (Professional)
As per SW:Ex.

Assassin (Professional) - from Savagepedia
Requirements: Novice, Agility d8+, Stealth d8+
Assassins gain a +6 to the attack and resulting damage roll when they gain the drop on a target that has vital areas (i.e. not Constructs).
Assassins may ignore 1 point of called shot penalties.

Bounty Hunter (Professional)
Requirements: Spirit d6+, Streetwise d8+, Tracking d8+
Bounty Hunter’s gain +2 to Streetwise rolls, +2 to Tracking rolls and +2 to Barter rolls when negotiating fees (not just bounty hunting fees).

Demolitions Expert (Professional)
Requirements: Smarts d8+, Kn:Explosives d8+
Demolitions Experts get +2 to Kn:Explosives rolls.
A Demolitions Expert can spend a bennie to reroll the damage of any explosive device they set or use ((including grenades, rocket launchers, etc.)

Doctor (Professional)
Requirements: Smarts d8+, Healing d8+, Kn:Science d6+
Doctor’s gain +2 to Healing rolls. Up to five companions travelling with the Doctor add the bonus to their natural healing rolls as well (does not stack with other medical attention bonuses).

Jack-of-all-Trades (Professional)
As per SW:Ex.

Natural Athlete (Professional) - from Savagepedia
Requirements: Novice, Agility d10+, Strength d6+, Vigor d6+
Your character has always been a talented sportsman, natural athlete and physically gifted. Performing feats of dexterity, agility, balance, mobility, coordination come easy to your hero and there are few moves, jumps and similar feats, that he can't figure out given a little time and some practice.
Any time he makes an unskilled roll for an Agility-based skill, he may do so at d4 instead of the usual d4-2.
Note: This is the physical equivalent of the Jack-of-all-Trades edge.

Thief (Professional)
As per SW:Ex.

McGyver (Professional)
As per SW:Ex.

Mr. Fix It (Professional)
Requirements: Novice, Repair d10+, Kn:Science d6+
Other than the different requirements this is as per SW:Ex.

Outdoorsman (Professional)
As per SW:Ex “Woodsman” professional edge.

Pit Fighter (Combat/Professional)
Requirements: Agility d8+, Strength d8+, Fighting d8+
A Pit Fighter does not suffer the usual -1 Fighting penalty for using an improvised weapon, never counts as an Unarmed Defender and inflicts Str+d4 damage even when unarmed.

Road Warrior (Professional)
Requirements: Novice, Agility d8+, Driving d8+
Road Warriors gain +2 to Driving rolls when applied to conventional motor vehicles, e.g. cars, motorcycles, trucks, etc.
Road Warriors ignore the “Unstable Platform” penalty when firing from a conventional motor vehicle that they are driving.
Road Warriors may spend bennies to make Soak rolls for any conventional motor vehicle that they are driving. This is a Driving roll at -2 (cancelling their usual +2). Each success and raise negates a wound and any critical hit that would have resulted from it.

Scavenger (Professional)
Requirements: Novice, Notice d8+, Survival d8+
Scavengers gain +2 to Notice rolls made for “Scavenging”, +2 to Survival rolls for finding Food and Water in urban areas and +2 to Barter rolls when selling “Junk” items.

Science Geek (Professional)
Requirements: Novice, Kn:Science d10+, Repair d6+
Scientists get +2 to Kn:Science rolls. With a raise they halve the time normally required to complete a Science task. This means that if a particular task already states that a raise completes it in half the time, a Scientist could finish the job in one-quarter the time with a raise.

Surgeon (Professional)
Requirements: Healing d10+, Science d8+, Doctor
A Surgeon may attempt to heal a “permanent” injury, see setting rules.

Trader (Professional)
Requirements: Spirit d6+, Barter d8+, Streetwise d6+
Traders gain +2 to all Barter rolls and +2 to Streetwise rolls regarding the obtaining of goods and services. When buying they never pay more than 125% of the nominal value of goods. When selling they never earn less than 75% of the nominal value of goods.

Tribal Shaman (Professional)
Requirements: Novice, Healing d8+, Survival d8+, “Tribal” background
Tribal Shaman gain +2 to all Healing rolls that do not involve the use of chems or technology. Up to five companions travelling with the Shaman add the bonus to their natural healing rolls as well (does not stack with other medical attention bonuses).
Assuming a Tribal Shaman has a regular opportunity to collect the tools of their trade: roots, berries, sticks, mud … they do not suffer the usual -2 penalty for lack of conventional medical supplies.
Tribal Shaman gain +2 Charisma when interacting with other Tribals.

I'm still not entirely convinced by some of the requirements ...

Thanks,

Tom

[ValhallaGH]

[thwill]

[ValhallaGH]

Given the RP requirements of all Professional edges, they are inherently Novice ranked. And Professional Edges never, ever, stack with each other.

Requirements are generally proportional to a) how common you want them to be, b) how powerful the effects are, and c) which skills and game mechanics are actually affected.


Assassin is extremely strong. When using a ranged weapon you can stay outside of the 5" auto-detect zone and most GMs will let you get the Drop at range. Which means an Assassin willing to sneak will almost always get the Drop, and will do so with his amazing bonuses (to the head, it's a net +3 attack, for +10 damage, which means you'll hit and probably hit with a raise; it's almost as bad as allowing finishing moves from 5+ inches away).
And the requirements are linked to each other, making it a "well, duh" choice for anyone playing a stealthy and combative character; heck, regular gunmen or warriors will like this one. If I was playing anything that was going to have a decent agility (like the Pit Fighter) then I'd try hard to work this one in too. It's that good.

Bounty Hunter is pretty cool.

Demolitions Experts are worthless. There's almost nothing they can do that the No Mercy edge can't do more generally and with fewer requirements.
Me, I'd give them a +2 for explosives (including Lockpicking rolls to disarm) and any set explosives have AP +10 (and do an extra d6 damage if you get a raise on placing it).

Doctors are like the Healer Weird Edge, but have steeper requirements. I'd drop the Smarts requirement, and go with Healing d8+ and Kn: Science and Kn: Medicine d6+. (Unless Medicine would be useless, in which case I'd just have the Science requirement.)

Natural Athlete is pretty solid. Awesome bonus but requires all 5 of your attribute points. Probably a bit too steep, up front, but I'd have to playtest it to be sure.

Pit Fighter bugs me because I have never seen Agility as a requirement to survive in an arena fight. But that's me. Still, it requires 4 out of 5 attribute points, which is steep, especially for "you have a knife".

Road Warrior is a situational version of Ace, with steeper requirements and a limited version of Steady Hands thrown in for some reason. I don't know why you ditched Ace for this, but it's your game.
My only reason for complaint is that it invalidates the "natural driver, who just never learned to drive, yet" concept, which is a staple of apocalypse gaming.

Scavenger seems okay. That Notice requirement is steep, but it's your game.

Science Geek is as useful and useless as the Science skill.

Surgeon is really cool, but really unlikely to be taken by anyone. That Smarts d8, Healing d10, Kn:Science d8, and two edge price is ... not worthwhile.

Trader is amazing. Low requirements, good bonuses, and the 75-125% value range is awesome. Still, it seems pretty solid overall (but likely to be popular with munchkins that think wealth = power).

Tribal Shaman seems a bit strong. They get to negate the penalty for healing without modern supplies, provide Healer / Doctor benefits, and a situational +2 Charisma for their folk. All with decent requirements.
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[thwill]

Thanks for the in-depth review.

[Clint]

[thwill]

Hi Clint,

[Clint]

[thwill]

[thwill]

Well mime (artist) appears when I lookup acrobat in a thesaurus ... so everyone get's +10 to hit them and they aren't allowed to make a noise when they die?

Perhaps the solution is that Acrobat (Professional) --> Acrobatic Fighter (Combat).

[Rachan]

I think going from your first post to your second, it's a LOT better. Mechanically, you're getting the idea … now my only concern is, like Clint mentioned, setting flavor.

A post-apocalypse setting isn't ALL barren wasteland, is it? (it's your wasteland, it might be.) I mean, there are stilled ruined cities somewhere, so that Girder Monkey edge might be applicable for SOMEONE'S character.

Professional edges are a way of making your character's background and concept distinct, after all. These edges don't have to be available to all the different concepts, they just have to fit the setting.

Second to that, I think it would help to make things a little more generalized and abstract. This will let your players come up with some of these distinctions on their own—maybe one guy DID find a ruined hull of a "flying machine," fixed it up, and now he has the Road Warrior edge for aircraft.

So what I would do is shorten the list, and combine some of the similar ones into single edges. Trader and Scavenger could be combined, as could Doctor and Surgeon, as could Bounty Hunter and Assassin.

Yes, there are some distinctions between what these terms imply, but to me that's more a matter of roleplaying and description than actual game mechanics. The simpler you make the rules, the richer the roleplaying will become. Bounty Hunters and Assassins are BOTH guys who get paid to track people and take them down—their methods may be different (roleplaying), but their skill sets are likely the same (mechanics).
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[quote="77IM"]… it's not specifically allowed by the rules, but the GM is specifically allowed to allow it. [/quote]

[thwill]

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[Rachan]

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