Expeditionary Force Marines' Universal Skills

[thorr-kan]

P25 of my printing says this about the universal skills: "The following skills are taught to every Marine, regardless of O.C.C." So they apply to the Marine O.C.C.s listed here. Do they also apply to other O.C.C. who enlist in the Marines without taking a specific Marine O.C.C.?

I can see a Tirolian Partisan or Praxian Warrior enlisting, but what about the Science Master who returned to Tirol with the 15th ATAC and enlists, hoping to get a piece of revenge on the Invid?

As a GM, I'd be tempted to just say *any* O.C.C. enlisted with the Marines gets it. But I'd like to hear your opinion.

[drewkitty ~..~]

"The following skills are taught to every Marine, regardless of O.C.C."

It doesn't matter if the char is a OCC from another RT2 sourcebook....if they are a marine they get those skills.

"*any* O.C.C. enlisted with the Marines gets it."
This is correctly reading what was written.

Unlike ancient types of wars, with modern wars you really need for your fighters to know how to communicate with each other and have a few basic skills alike. And as the saying goes..."Every Marine is a Rifleman."

But you allow a char to have a former class before joining up, you are going to have to make some choices on how to handle the old class. This is because there are not any changing class rules within the RT2 text.

I am currently playing a Tirolian Partisan that joined up with the marines, but the GM decided that He lost most of his TP skills. Because the Marine training was so intensive.

[thorr-kan]

"The following skills are taught to every Marine, regardless of O.C.C."

It doesn't matter if the char is a OCC from another RT2 sourcebook....if they are a marine they get those skills.

"*any* O.C.C. enlisted with the Marines gets it."
This is correctly reading what was written.

Unlike ancient types of wars, with modern wars you really need for your fighters to know how to communicate with each other and have a few basic skills alike. And as the saying goes..."Every Marine is a Rifleman."

But you allow a char to have a former class before joining up, you are going to have to make some choices on how to handle the old class. This is because there are not any changing class rules within the RT2 text.

I am currently playing a Tirolian Partisan that joined up with the marines, but the GM decided that He lost most of his TP skills. Because the Marine training was so intensive.

Honestly, if I DM'd a Marines game, I'd just have them keep the old O.C.C. and tack the universal skills on at whatever level they enlist. It's not like a handful of skills are going to make a character OMG WTH OP! in a Palladium game.

Which leads to the following exchange in my head:
"So, Science Master Wanna Tri, you're determined to become a Marine?"
"Yes, Colonel."
"You realize you finished last in your class in Basic?"
"Yes, Colonel, but I *did* finish."
"Shoulda been a naval corpsman..."
"Not a Navy Man, sir!"
"Well, let's see where we can minimize the harm you'll do..."

So Tri joins the 10th Mars Division, crash lands on Earth, and since I rolled "Jack of Many Trades" picks up another MOS. Freedom Fighter looks interesting, and any one of those MOS would *finally* give me a HtH skill...

[glitterboy2098]

IMO if you have an existing character who joins the marines, the GM should just give them those skills if they don't have them in their skill list already. though i'd only have them appear after a timeskip of at minimum a couple months to reflect the time spent giving them a bootcamp catch up.

[thorr-kan]

IMO if you have an existing character who joins the marines, the GM should just give them those skills if they don't have them in their skill list already. though i'd only have them appear after a timeskip of at minimum a couple months to reflect the time spent giving them a bootcamp catch up.

Of course! There's gotta be a training montage.

[RockJock]

The tact on of the "essential" skills has always made sense to me. I don't buy the idea of most of the old skills being obliterated based on real world logic. I mean there is a tear them down, build them up factor, but you are a US Army Ranger and go into the French FL you don't throw away your experience.

[tobefrnk]

But you allow a char to have a former class before joining up, you are going to have to make some choices on how to handle the old class. This is because there are not any changing class rules within the RT2 text.

Didn’t first edition have rules that the 1st OCC skills and levels freeze at their current level if characters switch OCCs or am I confusing that with something else?

[thorr-kan]

But you allow a char to have a former class before joining up, you are going to have to make some choices on how to handle the old class. This is because there are not any changing class rules within the RT2 text.

Didn’t first edition have rules that the 1st OCC skills and levels freeze at their current level if characters switch OCCs or am I confusing that with something else?

This isn't a character changing OCCs. It's a character enlisting in the Marines. Job change in character, not a mechanical OCC change.

[thorr-kan]

The tact on of the "essential" skills has always made sense to me. I don't buy the idea of most of the old skills being obliterated based on real world logic. I mean there is a tear them down, build them up factor, but you are a US Army Ranger and go into the French FL you don't throw away your experience.

Truth. Forex, Wil Willis, the Military Channel's host of the shows Special Ops Missions and Triggers and the History Channel's Forged in Fire is an Air Force Pararecueman and former Army Ranger. You don't see his CBQ skills destroyed by gaining the ability to jump out of airplanes and patch people up.

[glitterboy2098]

the only skills i can see being actually replaced would be the MECT skills and the mecha piloting specialty sub-skill... and that is because piloting a mecha is said on screen to be much like flying a plane, and real world pilots have to go through a fair bit of retraining to fully certify on a new aircraft, and rarely maintain the old aircraft's flight certification in the process. so a unit currently flying F-16's, when their unit transitions to the F-35, has to go through lenghty training to teach them how to fully use the F-35.. and while they could probably still fly an F-16 afterwards, it would be at a lower skill and capability level than on the F-35, because both their instincts and thinking have been retrained for the new aircraft's flight performance, control layout, and combat options.

a mecha pilot moving from say, a Logan (or Ajax) to an Alpha, would have much the same process and result.

[drewkitty ~..~]

But you allow a char to have a former class before joining up, you are going to have to make some choices on how to handle the old class. This is because there are not any changing class rules within the RT2 text.

Didn’t first edition have rules that the 1st OCC skills and levels freeze at their current level if characters switch OCCs or am I confusing that with something else?

This isn't a character changing OCCs. It's a character enlisting in the Marines. Job change in character, not a mechanical OCC change.

Even though the RT1 had the 1st changing class rules, those rules are not a part of the 2nd ed of RT because that text was not published in the RT2 game text. Which is why I said what I said the way I did.


This situation (an older char becoming a marine) is something individual GMs have to decide for themselves how to handle. I just gave an example of how my GM handled it.