Professional skill (Spy)

[Kromm]

I'm skeptical that you need a Professional Skill for this. Once you take away all the various uses of Area Knowledge, Cryptography, Electronics Operation, Fast-Talk, Filch, Forgery, Intelligence Analysis, Interrogation, Observation, Propaganda, Research, Shadowing, Stealth, etc., what's left? I think that the stakes are sufficiently high here that a catchall skill would be over-generous -- or at least equivalent to a wildcard skill, like Science! or Sword! -- and also unrealistically downplay the fact that there's no such thing as a "generic field officer" with uniform training. Rather, there are specialists, and even among specialists in a particular area, there are people widely regarded as being better at some things than at others. A single skill obscures all of this; better to define a full template with 20-30 skills on it and set it up such that specializing in a subset of related skills is the most efficient option.

[jason taylor]

One template the Espionage book has missing is "specialist". This would be an agent who specializes in pickpocketing, lockpicking, etc as opposed to "special agent" which the book defines as a jack of all trades, fire-brigade type. Ideally each specialty should have it's own template, but of course their isn't room.

[LemmingLord]

To me, professional skills include getting along with other's in your profession (or at least playing a constructive part in that profession). So a computer hacker may have high skills in hacking that keep her employed, but unless she has profession (computer technician) she probably isn't a great team player, probably does things her own way and may miss some of the nuances needed for good "job performance" DESPITE being very good at outwitting hackers and knowing how to deal with viruses.

A person with a high professional skill, to me, should be the one most likely to get promoted in that field knowing the "ins and outs" of the field. Sometimes it is not enough to know the best way, you need to know the COMPANY way.

In game terms, professional skill should also frequently be worth a bonus to other skills where things are "routine."

A character with acting with the appropriate language and cultural familiarities should be able to be undercover in a foreign land by making an acting roll. A character with +2 in professional skill (spy) should get at least a +2 bonus to their acting roll in situations that apply. "Yes, you've done this before, same ol same ol, you'll use your Dmitri cover you've grown accustomed too."

Just as the aforementioned hacker would get a roll against computer ops-4, computer programming or computer hacking to uncover a virus on their computer, but if they had profession (geek squad computer technician) at any level any viruses they've dealt with on the job should give a bonus or simply be a given. "Yep, he's got the hello world virus 2.0 - you've seen it a dozen times."

[Infornific]

Originally Posted by LemmingLord

To me, professional skills include getting along with other's in your profession (or at least playing a constructive part in that profession). So a computer hacker may have high skills in hacking that keep her employed, but unless she has profession (computer technician) she probably isn't a great team player, probably does things her own way and may miss some of the nuances needed for good "job performance" DESPITE being very good at outwitting hackers and knowing how to deal with viruses.

A person with a high professional skill, to me, should be the one most likely to get promoted in that field knowing the "ins and outs" of the field. Sometimes it is not enough to know the best way, you need to know the COMPANY way.

It seems to me that what you're talking about is already covered by Influence skills, Politics, etc. I'm not sure how you could have a social skill that only works in a given profession, unless you're suggesting multiple Savoir Faire skills.

Originally Posted by LemmingLord

In game terms, professional skill should also frequently be worth a bonus to other skills where things are "routine."

A character with acting with the appropriate language and cultural familiarities should be able to be undercover in a foreign land by making an acting roll. A character with +2 in professional skill (spy) should get at least a +2 bonus to their acting roll in situations that apply. "Yes, you've done this before, same ol same ol, you'll use your Dmitri cover you've grown accustomed too."

Just as the aforementioned hacker would get a roll against computer ops-4, computer programming or computer hacking to uncover a virus on their computer, but if they had profession (geek squad computer technician) at any level any viruses they've dealt with on the job should give a bonus or simply be a given. "Yep, he's got the hello world virus 2.0 - you've seen it a dozen times."

That strikes me as overly generous and best covered by situational modifiers and familiarity.

As far as I'm concerned, the primary use of Professional Skill is to reduce skill bloat - if you can't think of ways the skill will be useful in game terms off the job, maybe you don't need it. For example, Professional Skill (Law Enforcement) covers:

1. Knowledge of police procedure and how cops will respond to a situation. This among other things lets you know what you can be arrested for and how seriously cops will take a given situation.

2. What level of force is legally allowed in response to a given threat. Useful for staying out of jail in a lot of campaigns.

3. How to take finger prints and secure a crime scene, and by extension what clues police are most likely to look for. You don't have full fledged Forensics, you couldn't professionally fake a crime scene, but you could do a better job of it than an untrained civilian.

Likewise professional skill (Firefighter) could be used to recognize how safe an abandoned building is, how toxic certain chemicals are, how to improvise protection against fire, etc. A Firefighter would also have Lifting, First Aid, Forced Entry, etc but the Professional skill gives him distinct abilities.

I'd also allow Professional skills to justify defaults for related skills.

On the other hand, I don't really see a game use for Professional Skill (Receptionist) or even what the skill would do. And I realize it's canonical, but I also don't think much of Professional Skill Bartender. The basic job description would involve familiarity with mixing drinks, a certain minimum of responsibility and over time points in Body Language, Carousing and Diplomacy.

With some professions, I'm torn. For example, a journalist should know how to set up a page, what's considered libel, etc. I'm not sure that's worth a full fledged skill. One possible compromise is to create a Professional Familiarity Perk - for areas of knowledge that don't justify a full skill, but that you don't want to leave to background.

- DW

[Kromm]

Being extra-good in a rote situation is a perfect perk. It's just about nothing like a skill.

Being good at job politics is why there are skills like Diplomacy and Fast-Talk in the game. These are fully portable between professions, with any differences being at most -2 unfamiliarity penalties that go away after a few months on the job.

I honestly think that the best treatment for complex professions is to give them Martial Arts-like write-ups with mandatory skills and a perk to reflect familiarity with the profession (analogous to Style Familiarity), plus a set of techniques and other perks that you can buy if you wish. I don't think that Professional Skills are the way to go, as a rule.

[Mehmet]

Hm, but don't you think - at least for highly specialized expertises such as this one - a Professional Skill (within the MA write up for the profession maybe) is the missing ingredient? Intelligence Officers here - as far as I know from one low ranking official working at a desk whole year round - receive a rudimentary training in Law, Psychology, Intelligence Analysis and maybe some savoir-faire, specialized streetwise (depending on the bureau I guess) and I don't think any of these would qualify as a full training in the related skill.

I know I may be nitpicking here but I think it is possible to use Intelligence Officer Professional Skill in place of these skills in order to analyze intelligence specifically to make on the spot decisions during an operation (I know there is an Intelligence Analysis skill but I think I mean a different thing here :) A follow up roll for observation or some other perception based roll maybe?) and maybe pre-plan an operation (the better you roll the better the odds for a successful mission maybe). Since "agents" usually are experts (or have the training to become one) in some area or another (psychology, law, mathematics maybe, etc.) a write up would look like;

- (some skill or advantages)
-
-
- Professional Skill (Intelligence Officer)
- One of Mathematics, Psychology, Cryptography, Law...
Optional; Guns (Pistol)...

The reason I'm insisting on this is I can't think of proper skills for some of the things suggested by Icelander and others in this thread - and of course it does not mean there isn't any :) If someone could point me in the right direction, I am a fan of simpler write-ups already :)

Cheerio!

[Phoenix_Dragon]

An Expert skill might also be appropriate, to know "tricks of the trade." Knowing what to do is often at least as important as how to do it. Might be a better choice than Professional skill to compliment all the others required.

[nyu2]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Being extra-good in a rote situation is a perfect perk. It's just about nothing like a skill.

Being good at job politics is why there are skills like Diplomacy and Fast-Talk in the game. These are fully portable between professions, with any differences being at most -2 unfamiliarity penalties that go away after a few months on the job.

I honestly think that the best treatment for complex professions is to give them Martial Arts-like write-ups with mandatory skills and a perk to reflect familiarity with the profession (analogous to Style Familiarity), plus a set of techniques and other perks that you can buy if you wish. I don't think that Professional Skills are the way to go, as a rule.

What about going the other way? In a game that doesn't focus on martial arts, having Professional Skill: Karate is quite a bit easier than listing out the whole package. Sure, that Karate might end up being only Karate Art, but if it's going to come up only rarely, who cares?

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by nyu2

What about going the other way? In a game that doesn't focus on martial arts, having Professional Skill: Karate is quite a bit easier than listing out the whole package. Sure, that Karate might end up being only Karate Art, but if it's going to come up only rarely, who cares?

Professional Skill:Karate plus (in some cases) Teaching skill, plus some Karate Art or Sport is all that's needed for many non-impressive instructors in any art. Certain styles and methods will have higher requirements. I believe that achieving teaching rank in BJJ, for example, means you've passed tests in which you have to beat lots of people (all of them?) in sequence of lower rank...so a certain amount of skill is required.

I'd say the PS:Karate or even the Perk:Karate Instructor (or MA instructor in general) would be great for the official history of your art, for the internal politics, for the basics of etiquette and protocol as required to instruct and do business in your art. It would cover obtaining martial arts supplies, the basics of running classes and running a school.

Being GOOD at any of this stuff would indicate a point or two in relevant skills, from Merchant (running a successful business) to History(broader history of your art or martial arts in general) to Teaching (actually being a good instructor) to the obvious...being really frickin' good at your art.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by nyu2

What about going the other way? In a game that doesn't focus on martial arts, having Professional Skill: Karate is quite a bit easier than listing out the whole package. Sure, that Karate might end up being only Karate Art, but if it's going to come up only rarely, who cares?

Respectfully, it strains my willing suspension of disbelief to accept that the typical player in an RPG would be able to roleplay a PC with an action-and-adventure background like "karate master" or "spy" without regularly trying to capitalize on the training. RPGs being adventure games at heart, most gamers who take such character histories are seeking to exploit them. As such, I'd only ever relegate them to inexpensive background skills in a game where in my role as GM, I had taken steps to ensure that they would never become especially relevant. Otherwise, I'd leave them in their general, expensive form to balance their utility.