- What is the difference between a
Skill Level and a Skill Rating?
- The Skill Level is what a player purchases for the character in a
given Skill. For example, a player who spends 4 points on Stealth has
a Stealth Skill Level of 4. The Skill Rating, on the other hand, is the
sum of the Attribute Level and the Skill Level. Thus, if the player
character has a Dexterity of 3, the Stealth Skill Rating is 7. Perhaps
the game should have used the term "Skill Total" for the final value.
- The HEX rules state that one can only
buy one Specialization per Skill during character generation. However, what
happens in the case where it is a Specialized Skill? Can one buy two
Sciences?
- The rules for both these situations are pretty clear. The HEX rules,
under Skill Specializations, page 48, state that a character created in
character generation may only have one Skill Specialization. Thus, a
character could take the Larceny Skill with the Specialization in
Lockpicking, but could not take a second Specialization under Larceny
during character generation.
However, with Specialized Skills, each Specialization is treated as its
own Skill, so yes, one can buy more than one per Skill during character
generation. Thus, a character could have the Science: Biology Skill
as well as the Science: Geology Skill. However, because one can
defaut from one Specialization to another, one might find it a better
deal to buy up one Skill to raise the character's general knowledge,
or take the Skill Mastery Talent which will let the character take a
Specialized Skill as a general Skill.
- How does one handle Skill defaults
in the HEX game system? For example, what if I'm trying to Brawl but don't
have the appropriate Skill, or want to decipher an ancient text, but have
no levels in Linguistics?
- The rules for Unskilled Skill use are covered in the HEX
rulebook, page 48. As a general rule, a character may use a Skill in
an unskilled fashion using the Attribute as the raw value, but suffers
a penalty of -2 (that's dice) to the Skill use. Thus, if a character with an
Intelligence of 4 wanted to use Linguistics Skill unskilled, which is based
on Intelligence, he would be able to roll 2 dice even though he is unskilled.
Note that the Specialized Skills (i.e., Academics, Art, Craft, Pilot, or
Science) cannot be used unskilled at all.
- In the case where a character
has to make an Unskilled roll, what happens when the character has an
Attribute of 3 or 2? In this case, the character has to roll 1 die, given the
-2 penalty for being unskilled, but how does one make the roll in the
latter case, when the character has to roll 0 dice? There is no chance
of success at all, or is there?
- While the basics of this have been mentioned, there is more to it than
that. You can always spend Style points to get bonus dice on a roll
(even if your dice pool starts out in the negative). If you're out of Style
points, you can take some Chance dice, which are bonus dice that
increase the difficulty of the action based on how many you take.
For example, the character has an Intelligence of 3 but no Linguistics Skill.
Therefore, his default with this Skill is 1. That's not going to help him
decipher the controls on the weird Atlantean device before it turns his
fellow explorers into piles of ash.
He only needs 2 successes to find the "off" button and free his friends,
but it's more than he can roll with 1 die. He's out of Style points, so he
takes four Chance dice, which increases the difficulty by 2. He now has
5 dice to roll, but he needs 4 successes. Not the best odds, but at least
now he has a chance.
His character, making his best guess, starts madly punching buttons
trying to turn off the device and save his friends...
- While most of the Attributes
in HEX are pretty useful, the only one I don't really see being useful
at all is Charisma, especially as regards the Intimidation Skill and
rules. After all, big people can intimidate small ones, but the
Attributes and Skills don't really show that. How do you feel about
this?
- Jeff Combos said, "Charisma is more than just likeability, although
that is a big part of it. It also represents your character's force of
personality. It's like his mental Strength, just as Intelligence is his
mental Dexterity, and Willpower is his mental Body. Being able to
intimidate someone is more than just the physical aspect of the person
doing the intimidating. Smaller, or less physically threatening
people can scare us right out of our pants if they have enough force
of personality. Hannibal Lecter and Mina from the League of
Extaordinary Gentlemen (the comic) are good examples.
Mina actually manages to get Hyde to back down.
"Now, I do see your point about big people intimidating small ones.
Some of that I think will be natural intimidation, even without the bigger
and tougher person flexing their muscles. If a big, strong character
tries to use this to their advantage, possibly through a display of their
Strength, I'd give them a bonus on their Intimidation roll. I think that
would be totally appropriate."
- I'm somewhat disappointed
that HEX contains no skills that use Body or Willpower. Why is
this?
- Jeff Combos stated on this one: "While there are no Skills with
Body or Willpower as their Base Attribute, there are Talents that allow
you to swap them in. This is partially because they represent a
character's resistance, but also because they are already very
important Attributes. They are what determine a character's Health,
Stun, and in the case of Willpower, Perception rating. I didn't want to
overdo it."
With that being said, I can't promise that you'll never see a Willpower-based
Skill in the future."
