Since Secondary Skills are now much more fleshed out than before, consider this: Skill Checks (Skill Checks bonuses do not stack): -Skill Checks are one at beginning of turn -All Skill Checks are performed once at the beginning of the turn -All Skill checks have a +2 penalty. -Leadership skill roll (per week) = +1 MP bonus OR +1 spotting range OR expands range of repair facility by 1 zone for lance OR award +1 XP to all lance members -Scrounge/Recon skill roll (per week) = +2 spotting range OR chance to find "location of interest" (TBA) in nearby sector OR learn general direction of nearest enemy -Admin skill roll (per week) = expands range of repair facilities by 2 zones for lance OR may extend “Priority Repairs” by one day OR may improve repair facility capabilities by one level for lance (must be in repair range). -Negotiation skill roll (per week) = +1 MP bonus OR trade captured enemy for captured allies OR negotiate terms for surrender/withdrawal/assistance (at GM's discretion; may ALSO extend to negotiating "surrender" of enemies on the field of battle) Possible "Locations of Interest" (and skill checks): one per sector: -Smuggler Contact (Negotiation): gain access to the Black Market (all purchases cost x2 of normal Market price). "Out of stock items" take 1 month to deliver. (GM decides inventory) -Informant (Negotiation): Receive all information available on a zone and those around it -Partisan Allies (Leadership): A new ally joins you in the fight -Supply Cache (Scrounge): Military hardware found (check events table) -Interesting Find (Admin/Logistics): Bounty award from 3rd party buyer (check events table) -Abandoned Outpost (Tech): New outpost discovered -Good Ambush Spot: -1 spotting penalty (stacks with terrain) to any trying to spot here -Natural Harbor: can unload Transport Ships here -Dangerous Predators (Small Arms): Attacked by wild animals (check events table) -Roaming Bandits (Small Arms): Attacked by bandits (check events table) ================= Ultimately, what I suggest is each member of a lance grab one of the following: -Leadership (obvious choice for lance leader) -Admin/Logistics (engineer/tech oriented/quartermaster) -Scrounge/Recon (scout/survivalist/salvager) -Negotiation (merchant/smuggler/morale officer) Since each affects the entire lance, you can basically have most of your bases covered by doing this (this is basically what Alpha Lance is doing). Some, such as Scrounge and Admin could benefit from having some redundancy to get more strategic options each turn, but for the most part, if you all have one of each, your lance should operate pretty efficiently. ================= Tactics: You will probably each want to have some points invested in this skill. It will directly affect your initiative rolls. It mostly benefits players that want the option to close to short-ish ranges where positioning, flanking, etc. all play a bigger role. If you want to play strictly sniper/support, you could get away with very little in tactics as ideally, you will be too far away from the enemy to need to worry about flanking issues. For example, (although somewhat risky) a Catapult pilot could potentially do fine with no points into Tactics if they focused on buffing their indirect fire abilities; they could just hide behind things without much worry of positioning. Alternatively, when engaging from extreme ranges in fairly open terrain, positioning (initiative rolls) matters very little. These, however, are very specialized cases. In most cases, Tactics Lvl 3 will be sufficient. Another way to put things in perspective is to consider your competition: -Below average NPC pilots = Tactics Lvl 2-0 -Average NPC pilots = Tactics Lvl 3 -"Skilled" NPC pilots = Tactics Lvl 4 -"VIP" NPC pilots = Tactics Lvl 5 or greater Tech: Tech Skills are, oddly enough, not really required since each lance already has an assigned NPC Elite/Veteran Tech that will handle one week of repairs each turn during the "Repair Phase". However, if (for example)you did your initial attack for that turn and then wanted to attack a second time that same turn BEFORE the next "Repair Phase" was triggered, having lance members with Tech would allow you to make "Priority Repairs"; basically, each Tech for that lance is given 24 hours worth of repairs (480 work minutes) that may be used at ANY time. Priority Repair time, however, does not reset until the beginning of the next turn so it would be up to individuals to decide when and how they wanted to use this option. The really nice thing about having Tech Skills for your lancemates is if you are a particularly active group that wants to be very aggressive in each Turn, this is your best option for getting your unit back in the fight. Tech skills also (currently) still count for the +1 XP for every 15 successful skill rolls so they are a nice way to passively earn a little extra XP. However, there are a few drawbacks to investing in Tech Skills: -It will spread your XP pool out more. Lower level skills have a higher chance of failing. -If you invest in Tech, it is recommended to get it to at least Veteran Lvl (4) ASAP! Lower levels have difficulty with all but the most basic repairs. Finally, keep in mind, your enemy might do the same thing to counter your aggressive deployment; just don't expect /EASYMODE with 4 Techs in your lance. However, if nothing else, this will provide your lance with ample combat experience. Small Arms/Self Defense: I also strongly recommend that people NOT get rid of their Small Arms/Self Defense skill. I will be fully fleshing out "failed roll" consequences for all the Secondary Skills soon. While you won't necessarily need to master it, you will want to at least know which is the business end of a gun or how to not get stabbed by your own knife when you sit down. Not Recommended: Currently, the following don't really do much in our campaign so I can't recommend them: -Doctor -Medtech -Anti-Mech It is unfortunate these are not better utilized, but for simplicity's sake I think it is best to just ignore them for now. We only have one NPC doctor and a half dozen NPC Medtechs for the unit and they seem to be working out just fine for our needs.
Need to remind everyone that the costs of Secondary Skills have also changed slightly to reflect the above. Make sure you are looking at the Skills Spreadsheet version 2.7. You can download the latest version here under "Character Creation" (second link in first post): http://www.uobgaming.com/showthread.php?1150-GENERAL-CAMPAIGN-INFO
Proposed OPTIONAL Character Classes (to help you guys organize your lances): Leadership Roles -BASIC- Aspiring Commander = Leadership, Small Arms, Tactics Quartermaster = Leadership, Small Arms, Admin/Logistics -ADVANCED- Inspiring CO/XO = Leadership, Small Arms, Tactics, Negotiation Strategic CO/XO = Leadership, Small Arms, Tactics, Admin/Logistics Engineering Roles -BASIC- Engineer = Admin/Logistics, Tech, Small Arms Combat Engineer = Tech, Small Arms, Tactics -ADVANCED- Engineering Genius = Admin/Logistics, Tech, Small Arms, Scrounge Veteran Engineer = Admin/Logistics, Tech, Small Arms, Tactics Recon Roles -BASIC- Scout = Scrounge, Small Arms, Tactics -ADVANCED- Commando = Scrounge, Small Arms, Tactics, Tech Raider = Scrounge, Small Arms, Tactics, Admin/Logistics Negotiation Roles -BASIC- Faceman = Negotiation, Small Arms, Tactics -ADVANCED- Negotiator = Negotiation, Small Arms, Tactics, Admin/Logistics Agent = Negotiation, Small Arms, Tactics, Scrounge There are of course many more combinations, but these are all some solid choices. Theoretically, advanced characters could easily specialize in two Secondary Skills. You could also overlap Secondary Skills; your lance would have far more flexibility and redundancy (important for when a character is incapacitated or MIA).
Saw Xander's character, and knowing the trouble we had, I figured I'd throw in some advice. The more reliant your character is on close engagements, the more important and valuable Tactics becomes. If you're an in tight brawler, having a low tactics score is highly likely to get you killed. When the circle of death starts, going last is life. If you're sniping, if you're raining in LRMs, you probably won't ever need more than 2-3 in tactics. If you're a hatchet-having, AC20 wielding maniac, it is imperative that you bump that Tactics asap, I'd say a 5 is a good minimum to shoot for. This affects all the rest of your secondary skills and what you can prioritize, so make sure when you're working on your skills, you take your playstyle and mech goals in mind.
It is also safe to assume that the deadline for redoing Secondary Skills will conclude with the release of MagnusPack 3.6 (coming soon). I will also allow the refunding of old abilities for XP but NOT adding new ones (you still need to wait the 6 month cooldown for that). Speak up now if you want anything changed.
