New Anvil Lifepaths and a new skill

Burning Empires Burning Empires Character Burner
1

EDIT: The stats in this thread are rough drafts; please use the final versions from the Lifepaths section of the Wiki

I’m a reporter. I cover defense. And with Iraq, especially, on my mind, I couldn’t help filling in what I saw as a few gaps in the Anvil setting, which I offer for comments and suggestions prior to wikification:

Field Artillery
Time: 3 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 0
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 4 pts: Artillery (Per), Sensors (Per), Anti-Hammer-operations-wise (Per)Traits: 1 pt: Slaggah
Requirements: Soldier

Military Police
Time: 4 years
Resources: 0
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 5 pts: Intimidation (Wil), Close Combat (Wil/Agi), Security (Per), Interrogation (Wil), Investigative Logic (Wil/Per), Regulations-wise (Per)
Traits: 1 pt: Cog in the Machine, Friendly Face, Hard Hearted, Watchful
Requirements: Soldier or Volunteer Soldier

Staff Officer
Time: 4 yrs
Resources: 0
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 4 pts: Command Post Technology-wise (Per), Bureaucracy (Wil/Per), Administration (Per), Soothing Platitudes (Wil), Regulations-wise (Per)
Traits: 1 pt: Scut Work, Cog in the Machine, Meticulous, REMF
Requirements: Sergeant, Student, Foundation Student, Coeptir, or Court Coeptir

Advisor
Time: 4 yrs
Resources: 0
Circles: 1
Stat Bonus: +1 M,P
Skills: 4 pts: Instruction (Wil), Foreign Languages (Per), Militia-wise (Per); 1 pt General
Traits: 2 pts: Widely Travelled, Linguist, Life Under A Different Code
Requirements: Sergeant or Lieutenant

Bomb Tech
Time: 5 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 0
Stat bonus: +1 M,P
Skills: 6 pts: EOD (Per/Agi), Munitions (Per/Agi), Security Rigging (Per/Agi), Booby-trap-wise (Per)
Traits: 1 pt: Steady Hands, Meticulous, Stoic, Mangled
Requirements: Military Police, Armorer, or Anvil Engineer

New Skill:
EOD (Per/Agi)
The Explosive Ordinance Disposal skill allows a character to safely disarm and dispose of ammunition and explosives. (This does not include power packs, which are covered by Fusion Dynamics). Absolute failure (no successes) indicates the device goes off: The character takes the Mark result. Safely disposing of properly stored and safetied ordnance, Ob 1. Disposing of missiles stuck on the launch rail and jammed explosive shells, Ob 2. Disposing of mines and booby-traps, Ob 3 and up: For every additional Ob 1 the character making the booby trap voluntarily takes on his Munitions roll, the character trying to disarm it takes an additional Ob 1 on his EOD roll.

2

Soldier or Volunteer Soldier

Doesn’t Volunteer Soldier already count for the requirement of soldier? The book states that the Commune military LPs can be supplemented by Anvil LPs, and it seems a bit backwards to go from a commune officer to anvil grunt… After all, it IS “soldier”, just a “volunteer” soldier.

These are good though, I like 'em.

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You’re probably right on “Soldier” and “Volunteer Soldier” being equivalent for requirements.

The other thing I’m wondering is whether “Staff Officer” is too close to the existing “X-O” lifepath. It’s largely a less glorious version of the same job, but I’m not sure the requirements are sufficiently less rigorous. Anyone who could take either would take X-O, and the only people who are eligible for Staff Officer but not X-O are Students and Sergeants.

4

Staff Officer is fine.
You could maybe put Bureaucracy as the first skill, but otherwise, keep it as is. It’s like the shlub version of X-O, which is fine. Probably not a big draw for player characters, but it’s perfect for the ne’er-do-well, slack-off paper-pushing NPC.
Heh, you could add Looking Busy-wise, or Dodging Work-wise, Paperwork-wise…
Passing-the-Buck-wise?

Washington Irving-wise!

5

“Paperwork-wise” – yeah, that might even replace “Command Post Technology-wise.”

And you’ve made me wonder now if these guys need “Inconspicuous” in their skill list!

To make it more than just a weenie NPC lifepath, perhaps it should meet the requirements to become an X-O. Then you’d have a career path for the character who’s a career military paperpusher – no leadership skills, no combat skills, just straight up the ladder, say:

  1. Born to Freeman
  2. Student
  3. Staff Officer
  4. X-O
  5. Constable or League Official
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wises make the man, or the lifepath as it were

a lot of subtle setting flavor can get added there

7

You should remove Close Combat, if they really want it they can pick them up from the Soldier LP’s. Investigative Logic should be the required skill. Five skills is fine. Unless you really want to add a wise, but I do not see the need.

Really like it, but how does it relate to the existing LP? There is alot of overlap with X-O… I think you should remove one or two skills… I would remove Administration, and Regulations-wise and add Inconspicuous and a wise of some type.

Like the monster burner states, LP’s shouldnt give you everything. you should give them nice toys, but still needing.

should LP’s not have more skills then skill points?

What is the intent of this lifepath? I dont see who would use this.

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I think it’s for “military advisors,” that is, troops, usually Special Forces of one stripe or another, dispatched to train and stiffen local forces.

I might also allow Anvil Elite or something as a prereq. And I’d definitely be tempted to rework it with Sayeret in mind.

9

Advisor sounds to me like someone who was attached in an advisorial capacity to a foreign military unit. Like, say, the american troops who worked with the south vietnamese prior to direct american involvement… there are hundreds of other examples.

By the way, sydney, great additions! Perhaps staff officer ought to have Logistics?

10

And Soldier should have Strategy.

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zipht is right about Close Combat skill for Military Police - it’s redundant. The MP’s main job is arresting drunken soldiers, though, right? Intimidation over Investigative Logic any day.

Like, say, the american troops who worked with the south vietnamese prior to direct american involvement

Yes, they were an integral part of both the Infiltration and Usurpation phases.

I think you should add Inconspicuous to Staff Officer. I might also suggest instead of Scut Work, making Washington Irving into the required trait, and it can be a call-on for Bureaucracy or Inconspicuous when dodging responsibilities, stalling the chain of command, or diverting military police investigations away from other characters.

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Point taken =P

Washington Irving. Brilliant.

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That’s exactly it. Good thought about allowing Anvil Elite as a prerequisite, but while Special Forces have reputation as super-commandoes, their real deal is training foreign forces, so I think I’ll stick with “Sergeant” – which is one of the prereqs for Anvil Elite anyway. I have added a bunch of what I think is appropriate and colorful stuff, to make this a lifepath for “yeah, he’s Anvil, but he spent a lot of time offworld, since he’s kinda, y’know, eccentric…”

As for Military Police, yeah, drunken soldiers is a big part of what they’d deal with, but also base security and, most important, enforcing martial law – remember that on a planet with no Commune presence, i.e. no Law Enforcement lifepath, and no Merchant League, i.e. no Security lifepath, the Anvil MP is probably the ONLY police lifepath around. On a typical world ruled by Imperial Stewardship, Noble Fief, or Military Dictatorship, these are the guys maintaining public order.

Bomb Tech I haven’t revised, but everything else I’ve altered based on people’s great feedback:

Field Artillery
Time: 3 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 0
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 4 pts: Artillery (Per), Sensors (Per), Hammer flying overhead-wise (Per)Traits: 1 pt: Slaggah, Groundhog
Requirements: Soldier

Advisor
Time: 5 yrs
Resources: 0
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 4 pts: Instruction (Wil), Foreign Languages (Per), Persuasion (Wil), Intimidation (Wil), Militia-wise (Per), Amateur hour-wise (Per); 1 pt general
Traits: 2 pts: Widely Travelled, Linguist, Life Under A Different Code, Withering Stare, Pragmatic, Intestinal Parasite
Requirements: Sergeant or Lieutenant

Military Police
Time: 4 yrs
Resources: 0
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 5 pts: Intimidation (Wil), Security (Per), Interrogation (Wil), Investigative Logic (Wil/Per), Regulations-wise (Per), Troublemaker-wise (Per)Traits: 2 pts: Never heard that one before, Nose for Trouble, Hard Hearted, Watchful
Requirements: Soldier

HQ Staff
Time: 4 yrs
Resources: 0
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 4 pts: Headquarters-wise (Per), Inconspicuous (Wil), Superiors’ idiosyncracies-wise (Per), Bureaucracy (Wil/Per), Soothing Platitudes (Wil)
Traits: 1 pt: Washington Irving, Scut Work, Cog in the Machine, Meticulous, Bored, REMF
Requirements: Sergeant, Student, Foundation Student, Coeptir, or Court Coeptir
NOTE: HQ Staff meets the requirements for the “X-O” and “Lieutenant” lifepaths

New trait:
Washington Irving: call-on for Bureaucracy or Inconspicuous when delaying, deferring, or diverting undesired assignments. “I’ve staffed that out, sir. I’ll check up on progress and get right back to you.”

14

Nice.

As for Military Police, yeah, drunken soldiers is a big part of what they’d deal with, but also base security and, most important, enforcing martial law – remember that on a planet with no Commune presence, i.e. no Law Enforcement lifepath, and no Merchant League, i.e. no Security lifepath, the Anvil MP is probably the ONLY police lifepath around. On a typical world ruled by Imperial Stewardship, Noble Fief, or Military Dictatorship, these are the guys maintaining public order.

Good point.

15

On sober reflection, let me amend that:

NOTE: HQ Staff meets the requirements for the “X-O” and “Lieutenant” lifepaths IF AND ONLY IF the character also takes the “REMF” trait.

Also, “Advisor” doesn’t need the “Intimidation” skill, because both the prerequisite lifepaths (Sergeant and Lieutenant) already include it. Thanks to Zipht for reminding me to check these against the prerequisite paths, not just the comparable paths.

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I’ve also had a pleasantly evil thought about different varieties of Military Police, which can be incorporated with a very simple change:

Military Police
Requirements: Soldier, Adjutant Inquisitor, or any Psychologist Foundation lifepath

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Thankyou… for our Burning Empire Game that’s in the works… they PC’s wanted there to be babylon 5 like phicore Police thugs… You just made my job much easier…

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Just make sure they have some flunkies to handle the physical stuff. I’d suggest:

  1. Born to Freeman
  2. Soldier – yes, as a second lifepath. It’s called military school.
  3. Military Police
  4. Scout or Sergeant
  5. Anvil Elite
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If you’re going to allow entry into military police from the inquisiter and psychologist lifepaths, I’d suggest retaining close combat. And is MP a prerequisite for any other Anvil lifepaths? Can you go psychologist>MP>Sergeant?

20

Good point, except that you don’t think of the commissar types (which is what MP + Psychologist or Inquisitor would be) beating up people themselves, or even defending themselves particularly: That’s what their goon squads are for (MP + Soldier).

The Sergeant LP already requires “Soldier” and nothing more, so adding MP to its requirements would be redundant. Looking over the other Anvil lifepaths, though, maybe making Military Police meet the requirements for “Stormtrooper” would be evilly interesting. Thanks for the idea, Mike!