Forums of the Megaverse®

First of all I would like to say YAAAY, 2nd edition is finally here. My friends and I have been waiting for years for this.

Just got my new book and trying to update characters from 1st to 2nd edition. I noticed one thing strange in the occupations area of the 2nd edition book: for some occupations more secondary skills are gained at higher levels eg. Computer Programmer gains more secondary skills at levels 5 and 10. For many other occupations eg.Criminal:Hit Man/Criminal:Thief/Medicine:Veterinarian et al, there is no stated gain of secondary skills at higher levels.

Now, was this an accidental overlooking on by writer's part or are certain occupations not subject to this type of progression?

Any thoughts or ideas please let me know.

Geronimo 2.0 wrote:

Jasper wrote:First of all I would like to say YAAAY, 2nd edition is finally here. My friends and I have been waiting for years for this.

Just got my new book and trying to update characters from 1st to 2nd edition. I noticed one thing strange in the occupations area of the 2nd edition book: for some occupations more secondary skills are gained at higher levels eg. Computer Programmer gains more secondary skills at levels 5 and 10. For many other occupations eg.Criminal:Hit Man/Criminal:Thief/Medicine:Veterinarian et al, there is no stated gain of secondary skills at higher levels.

Now, was this an accidental overlooking on by writer's part or are certain occupations not subject to this type of progression?

Any thoughts or ideas please let me know.

Perhaps it is becaus a Vet or a Thief are more comited fields of work, requiring more time focused directly on their craft and they have lesss energy to spend learning as many new skills as they advance.

Just a shoot from the hip answer; that's what I would tell a player in a quick fix.

Ya, I already thought of that. It just would be strange as most Palladium products don't freeze your characters skills. It is always more fun to look forward to getting a couple new skills every few levels, even if they are just secondary skills at a low percentage. Anyway, thanks for your response.

it definitely seems like certain occupations reflect how much time they spend doing their job...

also notice, the more skills you start off with, generally the less skills you get later on...and the non-combat classes really tend to load up..

Has anyone gotten an answer from Palladium Books on this subject because my Psi-mechanic just made 2nd level and I don't get any more skills, that sucks. I was looking forward to getting a more paranormal skills for my character.

I thought I saw an OCC or two in Rifts that get no secondary skills beyond the initial allotment.

I say it's an oversight.

My rule of thumb is, in absence of evidence to the contrary, every character recives 2 secondary skills at level 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15.

Jefffar wrote:I say it's an oversight.

My rule of thumb is, in absence of evidence to the contrary, every character recives 2 secondary skills at level 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15.

It's not.

BTS2, page 173: "As the character advances in experience, he may also learn additional skills along the way." (The italics are that way in the book.)

I'm resurrecting my own dead post as this subject came up again as I was making NPCs for my hopefully eventually restarted BTS campaign. I did a search and found my own post from ages ago that I had totally forgotten about!!

So anyway since there's been no official fix or errata regarding gaining of secondary skills for most occupations I'm just curious what regular players of BTS 2nd edition are doing. One poster suggested 2 new skills at 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15. That's old school BTS and I like it but has anyone come up with any alternatives?

No alternatives here. I guess software engineers have the free time to pursue secondary interests more than hitmen. That kind of makes sense and it kind of doesn't. So all BtS games I've played is just by the book. Never actually converted from first to second edition come to think of it.