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Message no. 1
From: Alfredo B Alves <dghost@****.COM>
Subject: [SR3] Firearms BG knowledge skill Question
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 21:11:39 -0500
I'm making a Special Ops char and was wondering what background knowledge
skill would best reflect her familiarity with guns. I don't want to give
knowledge pistols, knowledge DMGs, knowledge Rifles, etc... Too many damn
points and I won't have room for "flavor" background skills. (Partly
because the character is a Physical Mage and so has a few extra skills
she needs.)

Currently I have one flavor skill (Seattle Club Scene). If I can get
something like a general Firearms knowledge skill I'll be able to pick up
one or maybe two extra. (I -LOVE- SR3 for this ... I never had enough
points "flavor" skills in SR2.) I'll probably ditch Sorcery Knowledge
for another 3 points...

Btw, what is fluency in a language? My char above currently has Spanish
(Aztlanner) [Native Language] at 3 (5), English at 4, and Japanese at 1.
Extrapolating from the Skill Ratings Table (BABY pg 98-99), a rating 4 or
5 seems to be a good number for a native speaker but looking at the Using
Language Skills section (BABY pg 97), a rating of 6+ seems more
appropriate (especially for anyone in a technical field ... it may
actually be appropriate for a decker or mage to have rating 6-9
language.)

D. Ghost
(aka Pixel, Tantrum, RuPixel)
o/` Trideo killed the Video Star ... o/`

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Message no. 2
From: Patrick Goodman <remo@***.NET>
Subject: Re: [SR3] Firearms BG knowledge skill Question
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 08:13:14 -0500
>I'm making a Special Ops char and was wondering what background knowledge
>skill would best reflect her familiarity with guns. I don't want to give
>knowledge pistols, knowledge DMGs, knowledge Rifles, etc... Too many damn
>points and I won't have room for "flavor" background skills. (Partly
>because the character is a Physical Mage and so has a few extra skills
>she needs.)

Alfredo, if I'm reading the SR3 skills section right, any
Knowledge/Background skill that's at 3 points behind the base skill is a
freebie. If you've got Pistols-5 and Rifles-4 to start, the way I'm reading
it is that you've got Background/Pistols-2 and Background/Rifles-1 for the
price of writing them down. I could be misreading that, but....

In other words, you should have plenty of room for the flavor skills and
still get the background knowledge. I could have read this wrong, though,
so don't quote me on it without checking that section of SR3 BBB first.

Not gonna touch the languages because I'm kinda curious, too.

---
(>) Texas 2-Step
El Paso: Never surrender. Never forget. Never forgive.
Message no. 3
From: David Foster <fixer@*******.TLH.FL.US>
Subject: Re: [SR3] Firearms BG knowledge skill Question
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 09:45:29 -0400
On Thu, 27 Aug 1998, Alfredo B Alves wrote:

->I'm making a Special Ops char and was wondering what background knowledge
->skill would best reflect her familiarity with guns. I don't want to give
->knowledge pistols, knowledge DMGs, knowledge Rifles, etc... Too many damn
->points and I won't have room for "flavor" background skills. (Partly
->because the character is a Physical Mage and so has a few extra skills
->she needs.)
->
->Currently I have one flavor skill (Seattle Club Scene). If I can get
->something like a general Firearms knowledge skill I'll be able to pick up
->one or maybe two extra. (I -LOVE- SR3 for this ... I never had enough
->points "flavor" skills in SR2.) I'll probably ditch Sorcery Knowledge
->for another 3 points...

Ok, new one on me. SR3 character generation has "Flavor skills"?
Where do THOSE points come from?
Also, on a side note, did they ever add skills like Singing,
Dancing, Musical Instrument, Cybercam/Videocam, etc. that were used in
Shadowbeat? I make heavy use of Shadowbeat (all my PCs have real jobs and
run Shadows for fun/thrills/extra Nuyen/dark secret/etc.) and was curious.

Fixer --------------} The easy I do before breakfast,
the difficult I do all day long,
the impossible only during the week,
and miracles performed on an as-needed basis....

Now tell me, what was your problem?
Message no. 4
From: Alfredo B Alves <dghost@****.COM>
Subject: Re: [SR3] Firearms BG knowledge skill Question
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 14:42:46 -0500
On Fri, 28 Aug 1998 09:45:29 -0400 David Foster <fixer@*******.TLH.FL.US>
writes:
<SNIP>
> Ok, new one on me. SR3 character generation has "Flavor
skills"?
>Where do THOSE points come from?

By "Flavor" skills I mean just little things to add depth to the
character rather than adding death to the character's opponents ... Like
the Opera knowledge skill, or the 20th century comic books knowledge
skill.

> Also, on a side note, did they ever add skills like Singing,
>Dancing, Musical Instrument, Cybercam/Videocam, etc. that were used in
>Shadowbeat? I make heavy use of Shadowbeat (all my PCs have real jobs
and
>run Shadows for fun/thrills/extra Nuyen/dark secret/etc.) and was
>curious.
>
>Fixer --------------} The easy I do before breakfast,
<SNIP Sig>

Nope, the Shadowbeat stuff wasn't including (Though, the way the skills
were organized, it makes more sense in SR3 then it did in SR2, IMO)

Lesse ...

Portacam (Intelligence)
Default: Intelligence Attribute
Specializations: Specific Model (ie, Fuchi VX2200 Portacam)
Dancing (Quickness)
Must specify General style (Modern, Club, Ballet, etc)
Default: Quickness Attribute
Specializations: Specific Style/Dance (ie, The Dance in 'Swan Lake',
the Twist, etc ...)
Electronic Music (Intelligence)
Default: Musical Composition
Specializations: Per Instrument
Interview (Charisma)
Default: Interrogation, Intimidation
Specializations: per media format (ie, Trideo, Radio, etc ...)
Musical Composition (Intelligence)
Default: Electronic Music
Specializations: Per style (Rock, Opera, Pop, etc...) or per
instrument.
Musical Instrument (Intelligence)
Must Specify General Instrument Type (ie, Guitar, piano, etc..)
Default: Intelligence Attribute
Specializations: specific subset of instrument (ie, Acoustic Guitar,
Grand Piano)
Musical Production (Charisma)
Default: Ettiquette, Negotiation
Specializations: Per Music "Scene" (ie, Classic Rock, Classical, Rap,
R&B, etc ...)
Reporting (Charisma)
Default: Leadership
Specializations: per media format (ie, Trideo, Radio, etc ...)
Singing (Charisma)
Default: Charisma Attribute
Specializations: Specific Style (Rock, Opera, etc...)
Sports (Covered in Athletics descript)

Okay, does this make sense?

D. Ghost
(aka Pixel, Tantrum, RuPixel)
o/` Trideo killed the Video Star ... o/`

_____________________________________________________________________
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Message no. 5
From: Alfredo B Alves <dghost@****.COM>
Subject: Re: [SR3] Firearms BG knowledge skill Question
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 13:20:53 -0500
On Fri, 28 Aug 1998 08:13:14 -0500 Patrick Goodman <remo@***.NET> writes:
>>I'm making a Special Ops char and was wondering what background
knowledge
>>skill would best reflect her familiarity with guns. I don't want to
give
>>knowledge pistols, knowledge DMGs, knowledge Rifles, etc... Too many
damn
>>points and I won't have room for "flavor" background skills. (Partly
>>because the character is a Physical Mage and so has a few extra skills
>>she needs.)

>Alfredo, if I'm reading the SR3 skills section right, any
>Knowledge/Background skill that's at 3 points behind the base skill is a
>freebie. If you've got Pistols-5 and Rifles-4 to start, the way I'm
reading
>it is that you've got Background/Pistols-2 and Background/Rifles-1 for
the
>price of writing them down. I could be misreading that, but....

That's correct. The problem is that the char, despite having military
background, has pistols & rifles at 4, therefore she has the BG skill at
1 and I think a 3 would be more appropriate.

>In other words, you should have plenty of room for the flavor skills and
>still get the background knowledge. I could have read this wrong,
though,
>so don't quote me on it without checking that section of SR3 BBB first.
>
>Not gonna touch the languages because I'm kinda curious, too.
>
>---
>(>) Texas 2-Step
<SNIP Sig>

Nope, you got it right. :)
I guess I just want to know if the difference between the pistol & rifle
bg knowledge skills should be the same as the difference between the
pistol & rifle skills.

D. Ghost
(aka Pixel, Tantrum, RuPixel)
o/` Trideo killed the Video Star ... o/`

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
Message no. 6
From: Mongoose <evamarie@**********.NET>
Subject: Re: [SR3] Firearms BG knowledge skill Question
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 18:34:21 -0700
>I'm making a Special Ops char and was wondering what background knowledge
>skill would best reflect her familiarity with guns.

The "physics / ballistics" skill the weapon specialist archetype has would
fit, I suppose...
Or "Weapon trivia / ballistics" if you want to be able rattle off obscure
minutia of gunlore, like muzzle velocity, grip style options, years
produced.... like certain listmembers.

Mongoose
Message no. 7
From: Alfredo B Alves <dghost@****.COM>
Subject: Re: [SR3] Firearms BG knowledge skill Question
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 18:50:45 -0500
On Fri, 28 Aug 1998 18:34:21 -0700 Mongoose <evamarie@**********.net>
writes:
>>I'm making a Special Ops char and was wondering what background
knowledge
>>skill would best reflect her familiarity with guns.

> The "physics / ballistics" skill the weapon specialist archetype has
would
>fit, I suppose...
> Or "Weapon trivia / ballistics" if you want to be able rattle off
obscure
>minutia of gunlore, like muzzle velocity, grip style options, years
>produced.... like certain listmembers.
>
>Mongoose

YES!! Perfect! Thanks. :)

D. Ghost
(aka Pixel, Tantrum, RuPixel)
o/` Trideo killed the Video Star ... o/`

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
Message no. 8
From: Mike Bobroff <Airwasp@***.COM>
Subject: Re: [SR3] Firearms BG knowledge skill Question
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 08:15:19 EDT
In a message dated 8/28/98 8:37:52 AM US Eastern Standard Time,
fixer@*******.TLH.FL.US writes:

> Ok, new one on me. SR3 character generation has "Flavor skills"?
> Where do THOSE points come from?

Flavor skills are just that, they are the truely weird skills that represent
the interests of your pc's. For instance, I've got four for Herc so far :

Twentieth Century Science Fiction
Aerospace Engineering Journals
Aircraft Recognition
Wife's Mercurial Collention

The last one is there so if I come across anything that is a Mercurial
collectable he can have a chance at seeing if his wife already has it or not.

> Also, on a side note, did they ever add skills like Singing,
> Dancing, Musical Instrument, Cybercam/Videocam, etc. that were used in
> Shadowbeat? I make heavy use of Shadowbeat (all my PCs have real jobs and
> run Shadows for fun/thrills/extra Nuyen/dark secret/etc.) and was curious.

Singing and Dancing and the like would be examples of Active Skills.

Cybercam and Tridcam (not videocam) would be specializations underneath the
Camera Skill.

Hey, we also use Shadowbeat a lot too, though mostly for the sports
department, not much in the news and other departments.

-Herc
------ The Best Mechanic you can ever have.
Message no. 9
From: Nexx <nexx@********.NET>
Subject: Re: [SR3] Firearms BG knowledge skill Question
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 09:56:12 -0500
----------
> From: Mike Bobroff <Airwasp@***.COM>

> > Also, on a side note, did they ever add skills like Singing,
> > Dancing, Musical Instrument, Cybercam/Videocam, etc. that were used
in
> > Shadowbeat? I make heavy use of Shadowbeat (all my PCs have real
jobs and
> > run Shadows for fun/thrills/extra Nuyen/dark secret/etc.) and was
curious.
>
> Singing and Dancing and the like would be examples of Active Skills.

I actually would allow someone to spend their knowledge skill points on
these, simply because they're not going to have much of an effect (except
for magicians, who can use them to center), and they do represent the
hobbies and interests of the character. Sure, its not canon, but I like
it.

***************
Rev. Mark Hall, Bard to the Lady Mari
aka Pope Nexx Many-Scars
*
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yeilding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend.
If you pardon, we will mend.
-
So good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.
-Puck "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

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