New lifepaths - smelling of fish

EDIT: The stats in this thread are rough drafts only. Please use the final versions on the wiki.

I was looking at the World Burner and thinking, “Gosh, what if my players want Caladan or something?”

So, briefly:

Yachtsman
Setting: Nobility
Time: 4 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 0
Stat bonus: +1 M/P
Skills: 5 pts: Archaic Sailboat-wise (Per), Coast-wise (Per), Race-wise (Per), Heraldry (Per), Watercraft (Per/Agi)
Traits: 1 pt: A little water never hurt anybody, Racing Fanatic, Public Figure
Requirements: Born to Rule, Companion, or Courtier

Sailor
Setting: Freeman
Time: 4 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 4 pts: Watercraft (Per/Agi), Big ship-wise (Per), Whaling-wise (Per), Floating platform-wise (Per)
Traits: 1 pt: Colorful Expletives, Filthy, Exhausted
Requirements: Kid, Student, or Laborer

Water Rat
Setting: Outcast & Criminal
Time: 5 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 0
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 5 pts: Small Boat-wise (Per), Coast-wise (Per), Watercraft (Per/Agi), Hunting (Per/Spd), Survival (Wil/For)
Traits: 1 pt: Laconic, Suspicious, Clannish, Drunk
Requirements: If chosen, this must be the second lifepath. It may be chosen more than once on later lifepaths as well.

Note: Water Rat allows Poacher or Smuggler.

Watercraft being basically Pilot or Driving for boats & ships. I’ll come up with obstacles – uh – soon. Really. Until then, critiques?

Darn it, there really is an archetype I’m missing:

Fisherman
Setting: Servitude & Serfdom
Time: 6 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 0
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 5 pts: Flimsy small craft-wise (Per), Fishing-wise (Per), Mending (Per/Agi), Watercraft (Per/Agi)
Traits: 1 pt: Weatherbeaten, Fatalist, Old Man and the Sea, Mangled
Requirements: none

And that skill description:

Watercraft (Per/Agi)
On worlds with any significant bodies of water, even worlds with grav/pressor technology, boats and ships of all sizes remain a low-cost option for bulk transport when getting there in a hurry is not an issue. Vessels and floating platforms are also used to extract natural resources from under the water, be they fish, minerals, or fossil fuels.
The Watercraft skill covers the operation of any vehicle that travels on the surface of, or under, a body of water. (Use the Ground Car, Light Hauler, and Anvil Ground Car stats on pg. 552 as-is to represent boats; to represent ships, use the Air Bus on pg. 553, with speed reduced to Surface 8 and Tech Resources obstacle reduced to 6 pts). It may be tested like Driving or Pilot during chases and Firefight – although watercraft are militarily obsolete in any Low Index or higher society – and in addition for specific tests listed below:
To navigate safely through open water or well-marked channels in calm weather, Ob 1.
To find and exploit good fishing grounds, Ob 2; to find and exploit minerals or other resources on the seafloor or beneath it, Ob 3 or more, but may use Sensors or an appropriate Science skill for helping dice.
Bad weather: Choppy, +1 Ob; storms, +2 Ob; typhoons, +3 Ob. Reduce bad weather Ob by one for large craft (Integrity 6 or higher).
Difficult waters: Poorly marked channels, +1 Ob; uncharted islets, sandbars, or rocks, +2 Ob; rapids, +3 Ob. Reduce difficult waters Ob by one for small craft (Integrity 5 or less).
Practice Cycle: 3 ms. Hrs/day: 1r/3d/6c
Technology: Yes, an appropriate vessel.

Actually, I think I need to make the noble Yachtsman more parallel to my existing Noble Hunter etc. lifepaths, thus:

Yachtsman
Setting: Nobility
Time: 3 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 0
Stat bonus: +1 M/P
Skills: 5 pts: Archaic Sailboat-wise (Per), Coast-wise (Per), Race-wise (Per), Heraldry (Per), Watercraft (Per/Agi)
Traits: 1 pt: A little water never hurt anybody, Nautical, Racing Life, Affected
Requirements: Born to Rule, Companion, or Courtier

New traits:

Nautical (Dt) 3 pts
The character loves the sea, sailing, and having freezing cold salt water blown in his face, and can talk about them for hours. Grants a free 1D affiliation with other characters who have the Nautical trait and a 1D infamous reputation with characters who tend to get severely seasick.
(equivalent of Sporting)

Racing Life (Dt) 5 pts
The character is prominent on his world’s high society racing circuit, where the nobility and wannabes gather to show off their most stunning clothes and cheer on the competitors. While not necessarily a participant in the races himself, the character at least sponsors others to race and owns a stable, a racing yacht, or similar.
This trait grants the character a 1D affiliation with other characters possessing the “Racing Society” trait and a 1D reputation of the character’s choosing with the local nobility.
Restrictions: The character must spend at least one resource point on some totally impractical means of transportation – typically a horse or a sailboat --without any weapons or military value. The character must also have either the Mark of Privilege trait or the Parvenu trait.
(I think I’ll add this one to Noble Hunter and Courtly Hunter, too).

Well, my first reaction to players who want to be skilled at useless abilities like driving boats around, on a world where you take the skill Pilot and your boat can FLY too, would be “fuck you, waste your General skill points if you want stupid crap!”

All that aside, Fisherman needs Back-Breaking Labor - or maybe you think Fishing is EASY? Huh? Sure, when you’re operating your grav-drive ship with Indexed-technology automated marine life-collecting machinery! Using watercraft, though does not = easy.

Do you really need both Fisherman and Sailor? I’d put them together, and leave them in Freeman - a slave fisherman is probably where you spend your General skill points after taking Slave Labor or Tenant Labor (farming the sea), or you take Bondsman w/Sailor/Fisherman master. (remember that bondsman LP!)

Oh, and uh… to find and exploit good fishing grounds in a typhoon with a big-ass boat is only Ob 4? Uh… that’s some boat, Sydney.

Uh… yeah. I think I need to expand that scale of obstacles a bit.

You’re right about how to fold “Fisherman” into “Sailor” – thanks, because I really didn’t want to spend two lifepaths on such close concepts. I’ll wiggle some more wises and character traits into “Sailor” to make it work. (Note also that Sailor’s prerequisites include both “Laborer,” which includes Back Breaking Labor, and “Student,” which includes Repair, which allows defining sub-types of Sailor without adding multiple Sailor LPs).

As for the uselessness of these LPs: Well, the Watercraft skill is likely to be useless except in very special circumstances, but you can use the -wises while piloting your grav sled. Especially Coast-wise: “Yeah, down there, that little cove is surrounded on three sides by enough land to shield us from radar – I learned that back when I was, uh, fishing a lot.”

But I’m still persuaded to add a few more useful skills, eg. Fire Control and Jury-Rigging, to make up for probably never, ever using Watercraft.

So, that revised Sailor:

Sailor
Setting: Freeman
Time: 5 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 5 pts: Watercraft (Per/Agi), Watercraft-wise (Per), Port-wise (Per), Whaling and fishing-wise (Per), Offshore drilling-wise (Per), Fire Control (Per), Jury-Rigging (Wil/Agi)
Traits: 1 pt: Weatherbeaten, Filthy, Exhausted, Nautical
Requirements: Kid, Student, or Laborer

I’ll also expand the “Watercraft” skill to act as the equivalent of the Hammer “Crew” skill as well.

Revised skill:

Watercraft (Per/Agi)
On worlds with any significant bodies of water, even worlds with grav/pressor technology, boats and ships of all sizes remain a low-cost option for bulk transport when getting there in a hurry is not an issue. Vessels and floating platforms are also used to extract natural resources from under the water, be they fish, minerals, or fossil fuels.
The Watercraft skill covers the operation of any vehicle that travels on the surface of, or under, a body of water. (Use the Ground Car, Light Hauler, and Anvil Ground Car stats on pg. 552 as-is to represent boats; to represent ships, use the Air Bus on pg. 553, with speed reduced to Surface 8 and Tech Resources obstacle reduced to 6 pts). It may be tested like Crew to find one’s way around a watercraft or as a job to replenish Resources. It may also be tested like Driving or Pilot during chases and Firefight – although watercraft are militarily obsolete in any Low Index or higher society. Specific watercraft-related obstacles are listed below:
To navigate safely and swiftly to a destination through open water in calm weather, Ob 1.
To find and exploit good fishing grounds, Ob 2.
To find and exploit minerals or other resources on the seafloor or beneath it, Ob 3 or more, but may use Sensors or an appropriate Science skill for helping dice.
Sub Index vessels: +1 Ob; High Index, reduce above obstacles by one.
Bad weather: Choppy, +1 Ob; light rain and wind, +2 Ob; an actual storm, +3 Ob; a severe storm, +4 Ob; a typhoon, +5 Ob and up. Reduce bad weather Ob by one for large craft (Integrity 6 or higher).
Navigating narrow waterways (straits, canals, rivers, etc.): With clearly marked shipping channels, +1 Ob; with poorly marked channels, +2 Ob; with no channel markings at all, +3 Ob; with no channel markings, no charts, and no one aboard has ever been there before, +4 Ob. Reduce narrows Ob by one for small craft (Integrity 5 or less).
Navigating near rocks, islets, sandbars, etc.: able to give rocks and other obstructions a wide berth, +1 Ob; navigating right between the bloody rocks, +2 Ob; trying to land someone on or rescue someone from the rocks, +3 Ob. Reduce rocks Ob by one for small craft (Integrity 5 or less).
Practice Cycle: 3 ms. Hrs/day: 1r/3d/6c
Technology: Yes, an appropriate vessel, plus fishing/whaling/offshore drilling equipment if exploiting resources.

Sydney, please stop, seriously. I’m speaking as a guy who used to be notorious for spending hours cranking out game material that would go unused. I appreciate your desire for verisimilitude, but wait for your players to ask to be a fisherman before you try to go burn up the LP for it, ok?

I want you to enjoy the game, not view it as a herculean effort that you can never finish. :slight_smile:

Don’t worry. It’s not Herculean, it’s fun.

Anyway: Wikified.

As someone who generated several boxes full of hand-written notes, histories, sketches, weapons, planets, aliens, etc… etc… back in the day, I totally get it, Sydney. Enjoy your obsession. Revel in it! I tell all my friends when they start to get squeamish about being game geeks:

“No! Gaming is a Pure Good!”

Enjoy.

-Chris

Heh. Of course, the boxes of notes you generate by yourself, even if you then share them with others, are a very different kind of good from the play experience you generate with other people. I’m having the great pleasure right now of taking our group brainstorming session from last night and starting to build a world around it.

P.S.: Nobody actually chose any sailing or hunting lifepaths (surprise! We have got a Courtesan and an Anvil Brat, though). We do have a Viking-themed world with vast icy oceans and scary predatory lifeforms, though, so I’m gonna throw in bunch of these lifepaths for supporting cast.