As I've read it, we get +1 gadget and +5 personal budget.

Gatac

I read it like we have a personal budget of 5 gp, but that might be me.

*stretch* Back.

What's this nonsense about "Heron" not being a bird-related nickname? The heron is a bird. On top of that, it's the symbol of the Blademaster order in the Wheel of Time books, so it seemed like a cool nick for some reason.

Okay, so tell me which feats would be practical to take for an akimbo fighter. I'm guessing Ambidexterity and Two-Weapon Fighting would be the two to take as my department and class feats at level 1.

But do you get a class feat at level 1?

Soldiers get a bonus combat feat.

I'm wondering...what's the practical difference between ambidexterity and two-weapon fighting? If you're ambidexterous, aren't you already able to fight with a gun in each hand?

In d20 combat, fighting with two weapons incurs massive penalties to both attacks, with off-hand attacks getting a harder penalty than primary hand attacks. The Ambidexterity reduces the penalty on the off hand, while Two-Weapon Fighting reduces both penalties.

Ok, before everyone starts pulling out the knives...

This past weekend I had a good chance to digest almost all of the Spycraft rulebook.

Good news:

1) I think I have most of the bugs worked out
2) You'll like most of the new stuff.

Bad news:

1) While SC is in the spirit of the d20 game, taking most of the major rules from D&D, this is not your grandfather's spygame.
2) Spycraft-Lite had (IMO) the bare-minimum amount of rules and exposition about character building.
3) There are more feats/skills/rules than you can shake a stick at. Most of them are very cool and will just need some time to sink in.

This game is a work in progress, so please bear with your GM. I'm going to try and post the necessary rules so that we can get this running ASAP.



(Edited by Dieter at 8:24 am on April 8, 2002)

I'm taking everyone's characters home with me this evening and with any luck, I should have this whole gadget/budget point shit straightened out.

I ordered the book this morning too, but chances are I won't have it till Monday or the next day.

I'm trying to work something out with getting a used copy (promo edition, somethign like that.)

Ok, some set-backs on getting stuff online...

1) There are over 100 (more like 150) feats.
2) There are almost as many skills
3) The game mechanics, while in the spirit of D&D, are no where as complex...but there are significant changes.

Also, you guys have the option of taking "backgrounds" for your characters. Basically it's little things that will come up from time to time and the frequency is determined by how many skill points you initially invest in it.

Basically, the more points you spend the more XP you get down the road. It's based up a generic number gauged to how many SP you spend multiplied by your current level.

Just for example...

In the HEROES? game, Dieter has an Enemy 6: The Agency. For SC purposes, Dieter would have invested 5 skill points (I think that's the max) buying an reoccuring enemy. The amount of XP gained per mission is determined by how involved your particular background was in the mission. For a 5SP villain (again, I think) you get something like 350XP for the villain have a minor role, 700XP for a major role.

When you factor in that Dieter is something like a 15th level character, that's alot of XP...minor role or not.

Hmm, I could probably get the backgrounds up by this weekend. I'm planning on doing a bunch of stuff Friday night...hopefully.

So they're kind of like disadvantages, but they cost skill points in return for quicker advancement in the long run... right?

I understand the feats are going to be a bitch to get online, but how many are immediately usable by 1st level characters? We should hit those first, and only the ones not included in the Lite rules. That should help a little bit I'd think, then we can get playing and have time to post the rest of them.

Ah ha....good idea about the feats. That should narrow the list down alot. I'll take a look at that tonight.

Eevil Feat:

Master Assassin (alot of prerequisites)
Your critical threat range goes up by 3, meaning that your average sniper rifle (critical on 19/20) would now be on a natural roll of 16 or higher (pending you still beat the target's overall defense score and score another successful hit for the crit. check)

Oh, did I mention you can blow an action point to get an automatic critical success w/o having to re-roll a second time?! Action points may also be used ever after you roll is made to beef up your score.

Heh heh

Heh, I remember backrounds from 7th Sea, too. Do they have advantages in this? If so, there was one from 7th Sea called "Foul Weather Jack", meaning you got one backround higher than the maximum, that would often get in your face. If you resolve it, another one comes along. The character basically becomes a person of high chance.

I went out and bought the book at my local WotC store.

Hot di-yamn!

I like it a lot, enough to shelve my d20 post-apoc conversions and run a late-1930's CIA campaign with my table-top group.

Are they fighting against commies, or nazis?

Mainly Nazis. I plan to pit them against Nazi super-science, occultists, and stuff like this. Equal parts James Bond and Wolfenstein.

Paladin, you'll find a copy of my discrimination lawsuit in the mail tomorrow. See you before court, american swine.

Gatac

PS: Just joking

You know, it'd be interesting what the players' reactions would be if control tried to use them against innocent german or russian scientists, or against Mao's communists (thereby propping up Chaig Kai-shek's organization), or in "shades of gray" domestic situations.