Welcome folks,

Toby Moore, Jacob Carne and James Carter are our first three characters to join the game.  This being a Home Brewed rules system there will be questions so please ask away here and I will try to build a decent FAQ to make life simpler for those who follow.

Each of you will be assigned a solo thread to build the background for your character and then a shared story thread will be generated for each Chapter of the game where you can interact (IC).

You can begin with basic character generation and choosing a career path then familiarize yourself with the Primary Skill Sets as well as the Miscellaneous Skills for Vocations & Hobbies & Languages.  The extra skills acquired through training will be added in your solo thread.

Have fun!

We have two new players joining, feel free to talk among yourselves folks.  Perhaps share Career Paths, skills etc

It seems the Career Paths page has created some confusion so I have edited that page and added a Check List that I hope will clear a few things up.  Choosing your PSS (Prinary Skill Set) is more important than your Career Path, in fact it really should determine your Career path.

Been debating a few things, but wanted to see what others are considering or decided on going with for the skills and vocation.

I do know I am not going Cadet, but one idea could have me leaning Volunteer while the other as Press Ganged.

Hey there Duncan,

Jacob is a Press Ganged Cornish tin miner, and his Vocation runs along those lines, if that helps at all.

(Name will be changing to Aaron Fauconberg.)

I am the fourth son of John Fauconberg, the younger brother of Baron Walter Fauconberg III.  Having finished cadet training, I am now forced to serve on an actual ship with you commoners.  Hopefully I'll be able continue my research in herbology, if I can get the captain to stop making all these foolish demands of me.

In reply to Aaron Manby (msg # 6):

I say fellow who are you calling a commoner.

Hi peeps, Toby will be a marine officer but with an artisan, rather than noble background.
.

Questions:

In "Character Generation" it says "MW: Melee Weapons is equal to half your character’s Strength or Dexterity scores, whichever is better, rounded up." but in Primary Skill Sets it says "Weapon Skills  Success rate: 1/2 DEX + skill level."

1.  Can it be either?
2.  What is the skill level?  If this is percentage dice that we're rolling, a skill level in single digits is not interesting.

Questions copied here from my PM, since others may want to know.  (Or -- others may want to laugh at me for poor reading comprehension.)

3. I see that PSS is Primary Skill Set, but I haven't found what PSA stands for.

4. What's the difference between Artillery and Naval Gunnery?  In 1798, we're talking about cannons in both cases, right?  Naval ones are just bigger.  I suppose that Artillery also worries about moving them, placement on the battlefield, etc.  (Now I see it, "ARTILLERY skill applies to all cannons, gatling guns, mortars, rockets and howitzers."  But I don't think those after cannons existed in 1798.)

5.  I think it said that all Military Skills are based on DEX (or STR), but that doesn't really make sense for gunnery, artillery, and demolitions, eh?

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I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the skills and sub-skills, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to put in my character sheet.  If I take a skill, say, Natural Sciences, does that mean I know all the sub-skills, or do I only take one of those, or what?

There are no stupid questions, especially with a Home Brewed system, I expect lots of questions to find out where my screw ups have occurred :)

Melee Weapons or Martial Arts is half DEX or STR whichever is higher, Ranged weapons use Half DEX.

The '+ skill level' should read 'plus 10% per skill level'.  You will all be starting with level 1 skills.

This game system heavily 'borrowed' from Star Frontiers which calls Character Classes, Primary Skill Areas, which I changed to PSS (Primary Skill Sets).  It you let me know where the typos are I will update them, thanks :)

This Game system was originally designed for a Civil War Era campaign and has now been used for several other games in similar time periods however this Game is set a little earlier so some "Skills" do not yet exist i.e. Telegraph, Steam Engines etc

There are some major differences between Naval Guns and land based artillery so there are different skills.  Naval Guns are usually much bigger caliber and fire different ammunition (Heated Shot and Chain shot are not fired by land based artillery, though Solid Shot and Grape Shot are the same.  Also Naval Guns are fired in battery at the same target as they sail by the target and both sides are usually both moving and they have to allow for the swell of waves etc

Ship to Ship combat will be handled a little bit differently to player vs player or player vs NPC, I am still working on those rules but I would definitely like to get some people to help play test those rules.  I will post more info on that very soon.

With the skills that have multiple sub-skills I can go into a bit more detail individually in your private threads but yes, if you have the Skill, then you get all the Sub Skills.

I have tweaked the Career Paths thread (I apolopgise again for creating confusion here) to try and make things a bit clearer, so you all have your starting skills and then I will add some more skills as you go through training in your solo threads.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:03, Wed 23 Aug 2023.