On Sat, May 14, 2016 at 10:31 PM, Kurt Feltenberger <xxxxxx@thepaw.org> wrote:

On 5/14/2016 1:29 AM, Kelly St. Clair wrote:

the survival roll . . . turns the [chargen] process into gambling, essentially: do you cash out now to keep what you've won, or keep rolling and hope you don't get snake eyes?

If the players aren't supposed to be able to attain something such as high rank or social standing, then the rules should reflect that from the get-go . . .

I'll be even more contrary . . .

I think it's both.

The dice will - on the average and assuming a group without the patience to keep on rolling and rolling and rolling - generate a party that more-or-less resembles those sets of eight pre-generated PCs listed in the introductions to all the classic adventures. While many of those adventures assume the party will start play with a starship (probably the rarest mustering out result), others assume that the PCs won't have a ship or else provide some way for control of one to be acquired as part of either the set-up or the conclusion.

But the system is also flexible enough to accommodate an exceptional series of rolls that result in a party like Kurt's group of flag officers.

In my case, I had a Baron in one of my PC parties. While it was a little challenging to run adventures that incorporated a PC who could borrow a squad of Imperial Marines when he felt the need, it was still doable.

Richard Aiken

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