Some questions and observations as I read through the text

[mitchw]

I use a 'stream of consciousness' approach to playtest documents. I try to read from front to back writing down any questions or observations that come to mind as I read. I may find the answer to a question later in the text but I feel that the fact that I had the question at the time usually means something.

Here are my first few items:

Page 7
As cores for each ability are calculated, not any abilities modifiers on the character sheet.
Note: I can’t figure out what this is trying to say.

Page 7
Do intelligence bonuses use the number inside or outside the parentheses?

Page 8
Should “Requirements”, “Ability Adjustments”, and “Skill Adjustments” be discussed in the “Races” paragraph before they are used in the race descriptions?

Page 8
Can the “Requirements” be met by applying the “Ability Adjustments”? For example, could a character with a CON of 10 pick the Rigel race because they get CON +2 and will have a total CON = 12?

Page 8
The RACES paragraph says “each race list avoided branches and sub-classes” but I don’t see this in any of the Race descriptions.

Mitch

[RAD Colin]

Page 7
As cores for each ability are calculated, not any abilities modifiers on the character sheet.
Note: I can’t figure out what this is trying to say.

My guess is: "As scores for each ability are calculated, note any ability modifiers on the character sheet."
I think this should be changed to:

After any racial modifiers are applied, note any ability modifiers on the character sheet.

Page 7
Do intelligence bonuses use the number inside or outside the parentheses?

Given that several abilities specifically note that they use the figures in parenthesis when those apply, and Intelligence does not, I'm guessing it doesn't.

Page 8
Should “Requirements”, “Ability Adjustments”, and “Skill Adjustments” be discussed in the “Races” paragraph before they are used in the race descriptions?
Can the “Requirements” be met by applying the “Ability Adjustments”? For example, could a character with a CON of 10 pick the Rigel race because they get CON +2 and will have a total CON = 12?

Yeah, I was wondering this too. My take, based on the most logical approach, would be to state something like:

Races and classes have requisites, minimum ability scores that must be met for a character to be a member of that race or class. Ability modifiers from race are not applied until after a character meets the requisites for the race; the results of their initial ability rolls alone must allow them to qualify. As class is selected after race, its requisites can be met using ability scores that have been modified by race. Similarly, race also provides modifiers to class skills that must be applied.

Page 8
The RACES paragraph says “each race list avoided branches and sub-classes” but I don’t see this in any of the Race descriptions.

I'm hoping that's an element that's removed; I feel that if you qualify, you qualify, and while some species may be drawn to/prefer certain branches and sub-classes, they can still play against type if desired. They are intelligent species after all, and that implies choice.

[Goblinoid Games]

Thanks guys, some of the issues here are due to the fact that the manuscript has not yet had a detailed editing sweep. Colin's responses are correct. In terms of races and prefered classes, that has been dropped from 2e, so that was a relict sentence that needed to be deleted.

[Red-24]

I have some observations too, and I'm not sure whether you wanted feedback in different threads, so I'll reply here for now.

One thing that is not immediately clear as I read through the text is how skill checks are made. I'm pretty sure, based on assumptions, that the default is roll lower than your ability or skill. But I was scouring the text looking for where it was stated.

I finally found that under Class Skills, the combat skill tells you what you must roll to hit an opponent. But the Contact, Science and Technical skills don't. I think this should be stated somewhere earlier as a core mechanic. I would put a description of the basic roll to succeed in the Ability's section of Characters, then repeat it briefly when going over skill checks.

When I read about penalties to missile attacks if the target is behind cover, and the penalty is negative, the first thought is to subtract from the die roll (as in most d20ish systems). But actually it's a penalty to the skill level, it just never states that. This should probably all be described when going over the core mechanic of roll less than your stat.
So, again, for people new to gaming it will be unclear. Heck, it was unclear to me and I've been gaming since 1980.

Also, Combat Skill is mentioned as the way to attack, but Combat Skill is not described as a character skill under abilities. It does talk about using column 1 to modify the Combat skill, but there is no Combat skill on the character sheet either. It would seem to me that the ability Strength should describe Combat Skill as one sub-paragraph and Damage modifier as a separate one. Then they could be listed separately on the character sheet.

Psionic Combat on page 21 give an example of having to roll higher than rather than lower than to succeed. Probably also added to my confusion.

[Red-24]

Ok. Sorry. Somehow I didn't see the Skill section on the Character sheet, but my other comments still stand.

[Goblinoid Games]

No problem, the char sheet is not the version that will be in the book. It wad provided generously by a supporter for Playtesting use.

[Red-24]

Picking up little things as I go through the rules. One thing I find is that the order that things are introduced left me a bit confused about some things. It's like it's all there but not where I expect. My best example is Experience.

I figured I would take a quick look at what you get when you go up in levels. So I scanned the TOC for reference to Experience or Levels and only saw Experience Adjustments pg 74. A little more looking and I noticed the Officer and Enlisted Advancement.

So I flipped to Pg 9, read the Description on Officer Advancement and checked out the XP progression table. The very next thing was Enlisted Crew. I started wondering "Where does it say how many hit points you get per level, or how skills increase". So I flipped around a bit more and saw the Skill Progression table on the next page and Finally had the Ah ha moment...

Up to this point, I thought that the Skills were the base stats for the attribute with the Modifiers applied. So, for example, I figured someone with a STR 13 would have a Combat skill of 14 (STR+1) as per the ability modifiers table. Suddenly it all made sense.

So to me what was missing was some sort of brief introduction in the Character section that mentions Abilities are randomly rolled, there are four skills that are determined by level, class and ability modifiers (see page xx for details)... That sort of thing would have increased my comprehension 10 fold.

Saving Throws

I'm wondering why Saving throws break the core mechanic of rolling lower than a target number. To me, this is counter intuitive. I would invert the saving throw numbers so that at levels 1-2 you have to roll less than or equal to 6, 9, 7, 8 respectively.

The reason I think this is important is that players will get used to the thrill of rolling low. Suddenly they are rolling to Save and get a 1 and shout "Yeah!" which immediately turns to "aawww".

[steelmax73]

page 7 seems to have a flaw in the ability modifiers table column 2