Question about "beginning skills"

[MiB1213]

The paragraph on page 38 in the 4th ed second printing of car wars talks about starting with base-level skills, running, climbing and area knowledge. It says you get 30 points to spend and that each base level skill costs 10 pts. Now, the second paragraph says you can't spend the 30 beginning skill points to acquire three baselevel skills or get one skill at baselevel and a second at +1. Would that be only 20 pts spent? The next sentence says you could even sink off 30 points into buying one skill at +2. Should that be +3?
Maybe I'm understanding this wrong so can someone clarify it for me or is the text wrong and should be added to the errata.
Thanks.

[owenmp]

The character rules could be written with a little more clarity.

Ten skill points will allow you to purchase a skill. The skill at this point is base level, not providing any bonuses when you use the skill. If you spend an additional 10 skill points (for a total of 20), you will obtain a +1 in the skill. If you spend yet another 10 skill points (for a total of 30), you will obtain a +2 in the skill.

I am reading my printed copy of Car Wars Classic 1990 Edition. I do not see the restriction on skill purchases you mentioned.

When they were held, there were restrictions on the number of skill points that could be spent on any one skill in AADA tournaments.

Here is an old ADQ&A that may help. Drop me a note if you want to discuss this subject further if you do not get enough feedback from the other users on this forum.


How many points do characters start with? It says 30 in the Deluxe Car Wars Rulebook (1985) but with all the different vehicle types there is no room to get what you want. Plus, we now have all the new skills in ADQ 7/1 (included in Car Wars Classic). 30 points for skills? Sigh. I'd set a number, but I'd like an official ruling.

-- Charlie Bolton
Evergreen, CO


The average amateur starts at 30 points. 50-point characters were used at the AADA World Duelling Championships, and is a useful level for an experienced roadfighter. With the new skills introduced in ADQ 7/1, a 100-point character (with some limit to how many points can be put into a one skill; we recommend a 30- or 40-point ceiling) is perfectly reasonable.

-- ADQ 7/3. Fall 2039 (1989). ADQ&A. David N. Searle and Charles A. Oines.

[wolf90]

As usual, M.Owen has provided an insightful answer. Although the game is yours, and you can start you characters with whatever you want, the ADQ&A offers a wonderful guideline for starting characters.

That being said, the passages you're referring to are correct, if somewhat muddled. The base character starts with Running, Climbing and Area Knowledge at base level (i.e. Running-0, Climbing-0 and Area Knowledge-0). All other skills and advancement must be purchased out of the 30 points granted. So if your character wants Driver at base level, he would spend 10 of the 30 points and acquire Driver-0, with 20 points left to spend. He could then purchase two additional skills at base level (perhaps Gunner-0 and Mechanic-0), or upgrade one he has (spending all 20 points to upgrade Driver to Driver-2) or a combination of the above (spending 10 points on Gunner-0 and the other 10 points to upgrade to Driver-1).

With the explosion of available skills, 30 points is a bit skimpy when it comes to skills…this comes from the original Car Wars where people were really nothing more than a vehicle component. In my group's games, we granted Driver-0 and Gunner-0 to every character prior to the 30 point spend, under the assumption that these skills were pretty basic growing up in this world. However, a restriction of 30 or 40 points (I like 30) in any one skill during character creation is a sound suggestion, as the whole point of the expanded skill lists is to create rounded characters for the RPG element of Car Wars, and not to create some "super-component" for a vehicle.

D.

[Chris Goodwin]

Base level is +0 and costs 10 points.

[MiB1213]

Thank you for the clarification.

[43Supporter]

The groups I played in: Starting characters, in addition to Running +0; Jumping +0; Climbing +0, and Area Knowledge [local] +0, received 3 skill levels in "combat skills", and six levels in "non-combat" skills; no more than half of initial levels could go into one skill, and no "crossover" of levels allowed. Lists were provided for which skills were "combat" and "non-combat"; but as a general guideline, "if it is likely to be used in an arena duel, it's a combat skill", was how the list was assembled (so the various vehicle-use skills, Gunner, Handgunner, Martial Arts, and such were "combat" skills; Mechanic, Paramedic, etc., were "non-combat").