Of course this made me get to thinking about army rank... Eddie dean is just a sergeant not a staff sergeant.  Damn airforce inflating ranks!

That was the other thing: all enlisted military were supposed to start out as Staff Sergeants, but with skipping over Sergeant, that was rather silly.

Like I said.  The airforce doesn't have a sergeant.  An e5 is a sergeant in the army and marines, staff sergeant in the airforce, and a petty officer second class in the navy.  Same pay grade, technically the same level of responsibility, but different titles.

If you really want to blow your mind you should look at how the military actually pays people...  Rank, time in service, hazard pay, language pay...

Do these help

http://www.militaryfactory.com/military_pay_scale.asp
http://usmilitary.about.com/od...room/l/blenlrank.htm

No wonder I'm confused! They changed it when I wasn't looking!

When I was in the Air Force, back during the Revolutionary War (we flew balloons), they had Sergeant ranks. I know, 'cause I was one! They also had First Sergeants, but apparently now they don't.


For Eddie, it gets back to what I was saying above, though: did he have to transfer to the Air Force?

Okay, I just looked at the list of teams in the book and they have Sergeants listed (other than in the Marine units), so, no, everyone doesn't have to transfer to the Air Force, but they sure do make it hard to determine.

The rule about starting at Major/Staff Sergeant/Grade 3 only applies to PCs, who are assumed to already be experienced and capable. The SGC can recruit the best. The lower ranks/paygrades are only for NPCs and demoted PCs. That's in the Rank section on page 282.

I assume the ranks are Air Force because the SGC is Air Force, so the book always default to that. I assume it would be possible to lay equivalent ranks from other branches of the US military or militaries of different countries over the seven rank levels. The pay and belongings system should be relatively coarse.

I assumed that us off-worlders and aliens are not exactly paid as normal but granted an allowance equivalent to the stated pay and possessions. So, Hilda just lives here while SGC flunkeys organise stuff she needs: clothes, essentials, entertainment, spending money, transport (car and driver) if she's allowed out, a rented stable for her horse, and so on. Maybe even a trip to Disneyland? (Oh, let's!) Later, they might organise an apartment for her. We've seen Teal'c eventually allowed to live off base with possessions and things, and SGU showed that visitors to Earth (from the Destiny) have a lot of people organising stuff for them wherever they go. If Hilda returns to her homeworld or leaves for some other world, she could cash her US dollars in for raw silver, gold, or gems, or some interstellar currency.

But then, I know more about Starfleet than any Earth military. :)

So, the extra gear picks and resource points you added to our sheets are a house-ruled bonus? I could get more stuff if so, and might not need the custom bundles.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:38, Sun 01 Dec 2013.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 8):
Correct ranks for the military folks are easy enough.  An e-5 is an e-5 on the charts you just have to look up what one is in the militry(some flavor of sergeant).

An interesting thing to consider in the future is that the NCOs may wt some point in the future be commissioned or go the warrant officer route.  Perhaps a feat or just as a prestige class or something...

*blinks* For the record.  I'm as clueless OOC as I am IC about this stuff :-) Please excuse my ignorance :-)

I'm an officer so it was a little easier.

I was thinking more along the lines of languages and skills :-) We'd have been selected so our skills don't overlap 'that much' and to make sure we cover all the bases.  At least, I think we would have?

Yeah, the Gear Picks and Resource Points I added to your character sheet is a 'house rule'. Resource points probably aren't going to come into play that often.

This might be a good thread to have a link to in the character creation thread.

And as a notice.

I know it answered several questions if I had read it earlier.


One of my old GMs have a thread in the Notice area "READ ME FIRST" to try and collect all the information regarding the game in one place to easily find.

I always got a laugh when I saw it.

Good point. If there's enough material that warrants that, we'll consider it.

Meanwhile, I added this to Character Generation Rules thread, but I'm repeating it here.

EDUCATION and INSPIRATION
     Education: This is a general knowledge check. If you want to know something that's out of your skill set, this is the way to do it. You make an Education check, which is a d20 roll plus your Education modifier.
          Education modifier = Int Mod + Level.
     Inspiration: Whenever you are on a mission, and run into a situation where you don't know what to do next, you can spend an Action Die to make an Inspiration check. There is no set DC as this always succeeds, but the higher you roll, the more detailed your inpiration will be. An Inspiration check is a d20 roll plus your Inspiration modifier.
          Inspiration modifier = Wis Mod + Level.

I think I've adjusted everyone's character sheet accordingly, but there were some amusing entries.

I have made use of things like education/inspiration checks in the past so I thought I would offer a suggestion.

With the current setup, even without a DC benchmark, the target numbers will be substantially higher than those you would expect to need for regular skill use or the system would quickly make even having skills meaningless.

In order to be able to use the same range of results as skills as things progress I would suggest changing the algorithm to use half level rounded down rather than full level.  So Mod + 1/2 level on both of them.

In theory as this is a house rule and clearly intended for a 'best guess' kind of thing it will have no effect on the game play but it will keep the numbers from looking odd later on.

First of all, Inspiration has no DC per se, but works something like this: if the check is less than 10, you get a hint. 10-15 = more of a hint, 16-20 = clue, 21+ major clue or even something happens to change the situation.


Education checks do have DCs, and might have a higher DC than a regular skill, but they are intended for use in areas where you don't have any ranks in a skill. We've dealt with this in SF games for years. You can say you are a stamp collector without having any ranks in Hobby (stamp-collecting), so the Education check is used for bits of knowledge you might have about stamps.

Another use would be identifying a particular weapon or its design flaws, etc. There is no weapon skill, so Education check would apply to that.


By the time a character is 10th level, his Education could still only be +14 (with a high Intelligence), but his knowledge of weapons will have increased, so I don't think that's unreasonable.

Just a general request: the system is dense and confusing enough, so I'd rather not see too many house-rules put on it at this stage.

Please, use the following layout when posting.

• OOC message should be in Orange and start with "OOC :"
• When your character is thinking, use italics.

I'm guessing that most of us don't have a problem understanding what's written, especially in context, but there are always a few times when one of us is sleep-deprived such that what we think we are saying isn't what we actually type. Plus, fingers sometimes have a mind of their own!

All this does is keep things consistent. It's not like we're going to throw you out of the game if you don't comply, but we may take away your Fluffy! It just makes the posts easier to read.

Thanks.

I usually do put thoughts in italics-- for some reason I didn't on that post.  Sorry.

Ok.  I'm a diplomat... and a Point-woman.  How many feats do I get at level 1? *confused*

Another question - if I have the diplomat bonus (threat range increased to 19-20) and the Persuasive feat, I assume they don't stack?

*cries* Ok.  I officially give up.  I think my 'personal' gear is going to consist of a compact, some lip closs, eye liner, a hair brush, some perfume... and maybe a few other bits and pieces.   For some reason the gear list just didn't have what I wanted!  I figure you guys can pack the stuff for me, right?

FOR SARAH

Beyond your Specialty abilities and your Class abilities, you get two feats at 1st level: 1 for your Human bonus and 1 for your standard 1st level feat. You chose Trustworthy and Linguistics. (?)


Yes, your Diplomat bonus to threat range stacks with the Persuasive feat.


As for the gear, the list in the book was never intended to be comprehensive... they'd have had to list the entire inventory for at least 50 big box stores! You can pull gear from Spycraft, d20 Modern or any similar game to add to your character sheet as part of your Personal bundle. If you want a bicycle, add it. Heck, if you want a unicycle, add it!

You can be as generic or specific as you want. (Looks like you figured that out, based on what's on your character sheet now!)

I spent ages on it!  I don't think I put as much effort into my degrees! :-)

Thanks for the other clarifications though!  Also, do we not get a pistol as part of the basic gear set? (I may have missed it, I just don't see me waving around a rifle all that often!)   In fact... giving me a zat might be 'safer' ;-)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:51, Mon 09 Dec 2013.

I will have to seriously consider that Unicycle option for the next mission, although I doubt I will ever find a road again, perhaps one build to be used like a mountain bike.  Or perhaps I will pull one out of the pile of gear on FRED at some inopportune moment.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:58, Mon 09 Dec 2013.