Ten Retrospectives ago, in Retrospective IV, I explained why Genre Themes were as setting-agnostic as possible.What I didn't explain was why there's three of them or why I specifically chose those three themes, which is what is on the table for today.
Three Genre Themes is a good number, it gives you enough plot hooks to juggle and pursue without bogging things down with too much baggage. With one you run the risk of being too singleminded. With two you instead stick to a favourite and go after the other one as a bonus or if the one you like more isn't available. With three you have options, but not too many options. Even if you almost always choose the same one for your first Genre Point, you can still choose a different second. Furthermore, three is just enough variety that you might inadvertently end up gaining a Point from a Theme that you didn't originally plan to use that day. With four and beyond there's so many of them that one or more will probably remain unexplored or only ever provide Points by coincidence. In rules terms, three Themes means a maximum of three GPs earned while roleplaying. It mirrors the three GPs you can earn in battle, making for a nice bit of symmetry.
As for the Themes themselves, I decided on them very early on and never looked back. Reasons get you thinking of a cool story and something to work towards. Typecasts get you thinking of how you want to interact with other PCs and fun interactions are the lifeblood of a party. Lastly, Banes give the GM buttons to push and give you an excuse to make mistakes and not accidentally roleplay a Mary Sue.
But before we end today, let's make a new poll! I find the results of the point-buy vs class & level poll bizarrely fascinating. See, I'm aware that class & level systems are generally more popular than point-buy ones, but I expected the people browsing this blog to vastly prefer point-buy. This tells me that one of my base assumptions about what people would like to play was wrong. Perhaps BCG/Z should have been a class & level system as well? It is something interesting to think about.
With that in mind, let's go one step further and ask an even more fundamental question: Do you prefer RPGs with deep combat mechanics or RPGs with streamlined narrative mechanics? Combat-centric rules or narrative-centric rules? Would you rather play BCG and D&D 4E or FATE and Apocalypse World? In an ideal world, a game would have both, but things are hardly ever ideal and all the games mentioned prioritize one over the other. I'm very interested in hearing what you think.
Next: Genre Powers
Gimmick Out.
Jul 31, 2016
Jul 24, 2016
BCG Retrospective XIII: Anomalies.
Anomalies don't have much of a design story, because I knew from day one that I wanted 0-cost Traits with a positive and a negative side to them. They would represent things that alter the character fundamentally as something different from the norm. All Anomalies do something very distinctive in flavor, mechanics or both. Some of them could, arguably, be regular Traits instead of costing 0 and having a downside. Others, though, just wouldn't make sense without their drawback. Mechanically, I think Anomalies offer a cheap way to get some bonuses but also condition your build in interesting ways, which is a pretty good spot to be in. Let's go over them one by one.
Cyborg
Grants a lot of damage immunities permanently at the cost of being worse off socially. If you're not going to make a social butterfly and don't care about the cost, this is a ridiculously good deal to take. Sure, your PC might not ever be poisoned or go weeks without having anything to eat, but it provides a tremendous safety net that just so happens to cover things like most uses of Miniature Chemical Weapon. The Trait is a little too strong, to be honest, and it should grant one or two Advantages to resisting the Damage it currently prevents. Still, the immunities aren't super common and being immune instead of resistant makes a certain degree of sense, so it is not too overpowered.
Nightmare
This one is for the PCs with a monstrous or creepy side to them, giving the user the rare ability to make attacks using Charm instead of Fitness. It can only make one attack per target, however, afterwards the target is immunized to it until the next Episode Arc... Which makes sense for what is essentially an intimidation attack. The problem is that it penalizes all other uses of the Charm stat, so you're likely making an attack with what is probably one of your worse stats without the appropriate skill, or you've made a gimped build which is probably worse. Flavorfully, this makes most sense as an Anomaly, but mechanically it wants to be a Trait that allows an intimidation attack once per Episode or so.
Undying
This might just be the best example of an Anomaly whose benefit and drawback are intrinsically linked to each other. You can't separate them and make this a regular Trait without spoiling the concept entirely. The mechanics are like a Backup Bodies on steroids and, flavorwise, it might just be the single most powerful ability in the game - few things have the impact that immortality does. The flavor text and the name ("Undying" rather than "Immortal") help convey that, while the benefits are pretty cool, the drawbacks are significant as well. Try this with an Unstable Reactor build!
Technobane
This one is less an anime trope and more of a RPG trope. Much like Undying, the combination of benefit and drawback combine in such a way that it can't be made a regular all-upside Trait without missing the point of the flavor. The ability itself is really powerful in a science fiction setting, but the downsides are considerable. Missing out on Electronics, Vehicles and most Equipment makes for a fairly constraining Anomaly that works with Fitness and Intellect builds but prefers using other stats. All things said, this could have been a little stronger, but the effect is already so powerful that it would take considerable tweaking to figure out just how much it can be safely pushed.
Wild
The ability to communicate with animals is generally more of a western thing than something seen in anime, and it is not a very good fit for most science fiction games. That said, wild childs are relatively common and nobody is stopping you from taking the animal speech thing as a form of intuition rather than a supernatural skill. So how did this come to be? Well, we had room for another Anomaly and the game needed more options for non-Intellect and outdoorsy-type builds, and inspiration struck while discussing Aquarion. In that sense, you could say the inspiration for this ability is Apollo, who is a wild child mecha pilot (as in the concept, not this specific ability) through and through.
Other than Nightmare, all the Anomalies get a passing grade. They are the Traits that change and define a character the most, not bad at all for a bunch of abilities that don't cost any CP!
Next: All that's left for pure Intermission PC content are Themes. Then we'll start August with Genre Powers.
Gimmick Out.
Cyborg
Grants a lot of damage immunities permanently at the cost of being worse off socially. If you're not going to make a social butterfly and don't care about the cost, this is a ridiculously good deal to take. Sure, your PC might not ever be poisoned or go weeks without having anything to eat, but it provides a tremendous safety net that just so happens to cover things like most uses of Miniature Chemical Weapon. The Trait is a little too strong, to be honest, and it should grant one or two Advantages to resisting the Damage it currently prevents. Still, the immunities aren't super common and being immune instead of resistant makes a certain degree of sense, so it is not too overpowered.
Nightmare
This one is for the PCs with a monstrous or creepy side to them, giving the user the rare ability to make attacks using Charm instead of Fitness. It can only make one attack per target, however, afterwards the target is immunized to it until the next Episode Arc... Which makes sense for what is essentially an intimidation attack. The problem is that it penalizes all other uses of the Charm stat, so you're likely making an attack with what is probably one of your worse stats without the appropriate skill, or you've made a gimped build which is probably worse. Flavorfully, this makes most sense as an Anomaly, but mechanically it wants to be a Trait that allows an intimidation attack once per Episode or so.
Undying
This might just be the best example of an Anomaly whose benefit and drawback are intrinsically linked to each other. You can't separate them and make this a regular Trait without spoiling the concept entirely. The mechanics are like a Backup Bodies on steroids and, flavorwise, it might just be the single most powerful ability in the game - few things have the impact that immortality does. The flavor text and the name ("Undying" rather than "Immortal") help convey that, while the benefits are pretty cool, the drawbacks are significant as well. Try this with an Unstable Reactor build!
Technobane
This one is less an anime trope and more of a RPG trope. Much like Undying, the combination of benefit and drawback combine in such a way that it can't be made a regular all-upside Trait without missing the point of the flavor. The ability itself is really powerful in a science fiction setting, but the downsides are considerable. Missing out on Electronics, Vehicles and most Equipment makes for a fairly constraining Anomaly that works with Fitness and Intellect builds but prefers using other stats. All things said, this could have been a little stronger, but the effect is already so powerful that it would take considerable tweaking to figure out just how much it can be safely pushed.
Wild
The ability to communicate with animals is generally more of a western thing than something seen in anime, and it is not a very good fit for most science fiction games. That said, wild childs are relatively common and nobody is stopping you from taking the animal speech thing as a form of intuition rather than a supernatural skill. So how did this come to be? Well, we had room for another Anomaly and the game needed more options for non-Intellect and outdoorsy-type builds, and inspiration struck while discussing Aquarion. In that sense, you could say the inspiration for this ability is Apollo, who is a wild child mecha pilot (as in the concept, not this specific ability) through and through.
Other than Nightmare, all the Anomalies get a passing grade. They are the Traits that change and define a character the most, not bad at all for a bunch of abilities that don't cost any CP!
Next: All that's left for pure Intermission PC content are Themes. Then we'll start August with Genre Powers.
Gimmick Out.
Jul 17, 2016
BCG Retrospective XII: Deathblows
It is telling that Battle Century Z adds more General Traits, more Equipment and more Anomalies to the game, but no Deathblows. This is because I consider them a failed mechanic. It happens, not all of them can be winners, but it is important to understand why it is a failed mechanic.
The concept is fine: They're attack buffs that behave like mini-Techniques in that they're at their best the first time you use them, adding more options to Intermission combat so it is more engaging.
So why'd they fail?
And now for their individual dissection...
Called Shot
This debuff inflicts a Disadvantage to all Tests for a Round. You know what's an even better debuff to give your enemies? The K.O'd status. Get another Advnantage to your attack and don't take this.
Distraction Move
All Allies gain an Advantage to attacking the target for a Round. This can sometimes be better than a single Advantage to all of your attacks, but it is unlikely to happen more than once, if ever. Better than Called Shot, but still not worth it.
Finishing Blow
This one causes Disadvantages to Willpower Tests made to stay in the fight. That's an alright effect for 5 CP. I wish the others were this good.
Forbidden Secret Art
This doubles the Tension bonus for one attack. So, for 10 points you get to double the +1 bonus during the first Round, which is to say, you just paid 10 CP for half an Advantage. Bonus: If you did your job and ambushed the enemy, the Tension bonus is 0. Avoid this like the black plague.
Sweeping Assault
This lets you target multiple Enemies per Test, assuming they're all in the same Zone. Easily the best of the 10-costers and it might just be worth taking if you expect a lot of Intermission combat.
True Strike
Lets you ignore Disadvantages to your attack. The best way to counter Disadvantages is to get Advantages of your own, and even if you somehow don't have any more to buy, you should be spending your CP on more Fitness instead of this.
A round of focused playtesting would have been enough to catch and then fix all the problems with these, but there was always something more important to work on. There was virtually no feedback about them, so Deathblows were generally left alone to work on something else.
If I were to redo them, Deathblows would be General Traits applicable once per Match. Each Deathblow would also grant one or two Advantages to the Test and you'd need to be trained in a Skill in order to use them, like with Gumshoe. Even then, a few are totally unsalvageable and should just be deleted.
So that's Deathblows, they're this game's absolute nadir, and it can only get better from here. But before we get to Powers, the first section directly relevant to mecha combat, we still have one last set of Traits to look at.
Next: We wrap up the Intermission abilities of the book with Anomalies.
Gimmick Out.
The concept is fine: They're attack buffs that behave like mini-Techniques in that they're at their best the first time you use them, adding more options to Intermission combat so it is more engaging.
So why'd they fail?
- Deathblows need frequent Intermission combat scenes. The Deathblow rules assume Matches will be frequent, possibly having more than one per Episode, which couldn't be further from the truth for most games of BCG. What is worse is that, having a whole page of rules to themselves, they imply that's not the case and invite new players to burn their CPs on them.
- Intermission combat is too quick for them to matter. Matches are often decided by Turn two, so the core Deathblow mechanic (gets worse on repeated use) might as well not exist. Worse, many of them buff following attacks, debuff incoming attacks, or get better the longer the battle goes on. None of these effects are worth your CP in a game of rocket tag.
- They can't be used against Mecha. Even after inserting a bolded line of text in the Deathblows section saying they don't work against Mecha, I still get asked if they work against Mecha. The confusion is understandable though, because if someone spends a bijillion CP creating a combat PC, how come some of their abilities arbitrarily don't work on robots? It creates frustration and that's not a good thing.
- Deathblows are too weak. Every previous point could be forgiven if Deathblows were worth their cost in CP. The individual review entries will go more in detail, but this point here is the final nail in the coffin.
And now for their individual dissection...
Called Shot
This debuff inflicts a Disadvantage to all Tests for a Round. You know what's an even better debuff to give your enemies? The K.O'd status. Get another Advnantage to your attack and don't take this.
Distraction Move
All Allies gain an Advantage to attacking the target for a Round. This can sometimes be better than a single Advantage to all of your attacks, but it is unlikely to happen more than once, if ever. Better than Called Shot, but still not worth it.
Finishing Blow
This one causes Disadvantages to Willpower Tests made to stay in the fight. That's an alright effect for 5 CP. I wish the others were this good.
Forbidden Secret Art
This doubles the Tension bonus for one attack. So, for 10 points you get to double the +1 bonus during the first Round, which is to say, you just paid 10 CP for half an Advantage. Bonus: If you did your job and ambushed the enemy, the Tension bonus is 0. Avoid this like the black plague.
Sweeping Assault
This lets you target multiple Enemies per Test, assuming they're all in the same Zone. Easily the best of the 10-costers and it might just be worth taking if you expect a lot of Intermission combat.
True Strike
Lets you ignore Disadvantages to your attack. The best way to counter Disadvantages is to get Advantages of your own, and even if you somehow don't have any more to buy, you should be spending your CP on more Fitness instead of this.
A round of focused playtesting would have been enough to catch and then fix all the problems with these, but there was always something more important to work on. There was virtually no feedback about them, so Deathblows were generally left alone to work on something else.
If I were to redo them, Deathblows would be General Traits applicable once per Match. Each Deathblow would also grant one or two Advantages to the Test and you'd need to be trained in a Skill in order to use them, like with Gumshoe. Even then, a few are totally unsalvageable and should just be deleted.
So that's Deathblows, they're this game's absolute nadir, and it can only get better from here. But before we get to Powers, the first section directly relevant to mecha combat, we still have one last set of Traits to look at.
Next: We wrap up the Intermission abilities of the book with Anomalies.
Gimmick Out.
Jul 10, 2016
BCG Retrospective XI: Equipment
I've never been fond of long equipment lists and inventory/treasure management minigames in RPGs. It just feels too much like a chore and kills off any momentum during character creation. If I had to design, say, a D&D clone, I would most likely end up making equipment just another way to flavor your special abilities.
Maybe you know how to cast fireballs, or maybe you have a legendary sword or magic familiar that casts the spell for you. Point is, I'm not fond of detailed equipment systems, so the streamlined Equipment system in BCG is strictly an improvement as far as I am concerned. But that's just the system. What about the items themselves? Are they well designed and balanced? Let's take a look:
Body Suit
We start off with probably the most narrow and least useful item of the whole bunch. Body Suit primarily exists to enable adventuring in space outside of your robot, which is a thing that happens in the BCG's base setting (as the flavor text implies), but even then it only occurs in one of the three scenarios. The most interesting thing about it is that you can combine it with a Superior Proxy (Combat) to make yourself near invincible at character-scale combat. It does what it needs to do but, honestly, this is going to be borrowed temporarily whenever absolutely necessary and be ignored the rest of the time. I guess it is okay as that, but the Equipment section really should start with something cooler.
Ether Drive
Clarke's Third Law of science fiction states "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." and that is what this item is about. Ether Drives allow superpowers in high-tech games that don't quite want to cross the line of having magic or psychic talents. This was a very tricky design, because the thing keeping Miracles balanced is that they damage the user, which Ether Drives couldn't do. After going through a bunch of versions, the one that seemed to work best was to limit their versatility but keep them cheap to compensate for making them very narrow. In case you're wondering, the name "Ether Drive" comes from from the Xenosaga series, where nanomachines are essentially magic and several characters yell "Ether Drive!" when shooting beams or healing others.
Masterwork Tool
This is the most basic Equipment Trait and the one that all others are balanced around. It gives the primary benefit of a Skill for half the cost, but doesn't qualify as actual training in Skills for the Traits that care about that. Also, Equipment Advantages to the same skill do not stack, so you will often want a Superior Proxy or Personal Facility instead of this. Still, this is really powerful for its cost and another reason I should have included more Traits that need Skill Training in the core book.
Backup Bodies
There was one point during the game's design phase that it had plenty of Equipment Traits that granted Advantages, but it needed some Equipment that felt like cool science fiction material. This Trait is the direct result of tackling that issue, and possibly the coolest item in the game. I really like how the mechanics tell you the important part is that it wipes all Damage from your PC, while the flavor text entry is the one that handles all the minutiae. It is directly inspired by the clone vats seen in Evangelion.
Flight Pack
Jetpacks are a science fiction staple and this Trait lets you have one. From a designer standpoint, it provides rules for flight that can be used as a base for other homebrew material. Arguably better than buying a Specialization in Force for the same CP cost, and much better than that if you have a build heavy on Resources. Decent enough.
Miniature Chemical Weapon
This thing does from 1 to 20 damage, which is a lot when it comes out of nowhere, allowing Resources builds to put up a fight once per Episode. It also provides a baseline for custom content like anti-personnel mines and other surprise weapons. I got the idea from an episode of Zeta Gundam, in which Haman Karn breaks an earring filled with poison gas in the middle of an audience with one of her enemies and flees the scene. They don't make backstabbers of her caliber anymore.
Personal Facility
To call this 'strong' would be an understatement. This gives two Advantages to two Skills, and for each Skill that wouldn't benefit much from this (Stealth, Survival) there's another that hardly minds the condition (Craftsmanship, Electronics). If you're using the Expanded Miracles and Rituals from the Expansion, all of a sudden it is not too hard to reach DN 20+ by yourself and usurp the BBEG as the most dangerous person around. I think it is cool that this makes for a viable alternative to Masterwork Tool (with a location-based penalty), but at two Advantage to two Skills for 5 CP it would be a bit more balanced.
Range Booster
This didn't exist in version 0.1 of the rules, because Characters didn't get a free move with each of their Actions during Intermissions. Once Matches got updated to be more like Operations, this seemed like a logical piece of equipment to add to the game. There are no rules to stop kiting in Intermissions, by the way, so if you can ambush a lone unprepared target they're pretty much guaranteed to lose. Which, you know, makes sense what with the whole surprise attack thing.
Superior Proxy
Proxies are something that PCs can get access to for free in many scenarios, so this grants not one but two bonuses for PCs who want a custom ride better than most. Still, 10 points might be a bit much for just a proxy, perhaps this could have given an Advantage to two Skills like Personal Facility does. That way your armor boosts Athletics and Combat, or your car boosts Stealth and Vehicles or your drone boosts Investigation and Electronics. That would have been cool.
And that's all of them. I think the worst thing you can say about Equipment is that there's not enough of it, because most of it is fairly good. That's a direct result of removing shopping minigames, but I'll take it if it means I don't need ten pages of items nearly identical to each other. The expansion doubles the number of Equipment Traits available anyway.
Next: Deathblows. Oh boy do I have things to say about Deathblows.
Gimmick Out.
Maybe you know how to cast fireballs, or maybe you have a legendary sword or magic familiar that casts the spell for you. Point is, I'm not fond of detailed equipment systems, so the streamlined Equipment system in BCG is strictly an improvement as far as I am concerned. But that's just the system. What about the items themselves? Are they well designed and balanced? Let's take a look:
Body Suit
We start off with probably the most narrow and least useful item of the whole bunch. Body Suit primarily exists to enable adventuring in space outside of your robot, which is a thing that happens in the BCG's base setting (as the flavor text implies), but even then it only occurs in one of the three scenarios. The most interesting thing about it is that you can combine it with a Superior Proxy (Combat) to make yourself near invincible at character-scale combat. It does what it needs to do but, honestly, this is going to be borrowed temporarily whenever absolutely necessary and be ignored the rest of the time. I guess it is okay as that, but the Equipment section really should start with something cooler.
Ether Drive
Clarke's Third Law of science fiction states "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." and that is what this item is about. Ether Drives allow superpowers in high-tech games that don't quite want to cross the line of having magic or psychic talents. This was a very tricky design, because the thing keeping Miracles balanced is that they damage the user, which Ether Drives couldn't do. After going through a bunch of versions, the one that seemed to work best was to limit their versatility but keep them cheap to compensate for making them very narrow. In case you're wondering, the name "Ether Drive" comes from from the Xenosaga series, where nanomachines are essentially magic and several characters yell "Ether Drive!" when shooting beams or healing others.
Masterwork Tool
This is the most basic Equipment Trait and the one that all others are balanced around. It gives the primary benefit of a Skill for half the cost, but doesn't qualify as actual training in Skills for the Traits that care about that. Also, Equipment Advantages to the same skill do not stack, so you will often want a Superior Proxy or Personal Facility instead of this. Still, this is really powerful for its cost and another reason I should have included more Traits that need Skill Training in the core book.
Backup Bodies
There was one point during the game's design phase that it had plenty of Equipment Traits that granted Advantages, but it needed some Equipment that felt like cool science fiction material. This Trait is the direct result of tackling that issue, and possibly the coolest item in the game. I really like how the mechanics tell you the important part is that it wipes all Damage from your PC, while the flavor text entry is the one that handles all the minutiae. It is directly inspired by the clone vats seen in Evangelion.
Flight Pack
Jetpacks are a science fiction staple and this Trait lets you have one. From a designer standpoint, it provides rules for flight that can be used as a base for other homebrew material. Arguably better than buying a Specialization in Force for the same CP cost, and much better than that if you have a build heavy on Resources. Decent enough.
Miniature Chemical Weapon
This thing does from 1 to 20 damage, which is a lot when it comes out of nowhere, allowing Resources builds to put up a fight once per Episode. It also provides a baseline for custom content like anti-personnel mines and other surprise weapons. I got the idea from an episode of Zeta Gundam, in which Haman Karn breaks an earring filled with poison gas in the middle of an audience with one of her enemies and flees the scene. They don't make backstabbers of her caliber anymore.
Personal Facility
To call this 'strong' would be an understatement. This gives two Advantages to two Skills, and for each Skill that wouldn't benefit much from this (Stealth, Survival) there's another that hardly minds the condition (Craftsmanship, Electronics). If you're using the Expanded Miracles and Rituals from the Expansion, all of a sudden it is not too hard to reach DN 20+ by yourself and usurp the BBEG as the most dangerous person around. I think it is cool that this makes for a viable alternative to Masterwork Tool (with a location-based penalty), but at two Advantage to two Skills for 5 CP it would be a bit more balanced.
Range Booster
This didn't exist in version 0.1 of the rules, because Characters didn't get a free move with each of their Actions during Intermissions. Once Matches got updated to be more like Operations, this seemed like a logical piece of equipment to add to the game. There are no rules to stop kiting in Intermissions, by the way, so if you can ambush a lone unprepared target they're pretty much guaranteed to lose. Which, you know, makes sense what with the whole surprise attack thing.
Superior Proxy
Proxies are something that PCs can get access to for free in many scenarios, so this grants not one but two bonuses for PCs who want a custom ride better than most. Still, 10 points might be a bit much for just a proxy, perhaps this could have given an Advantage to two Skills like Personal Facility does. That way your armor boosts Athletics and Combat, or your car boosts Stealth and Vehicles or your drone boosts Investigation and Electronics. That would have been cool.
And that's all of them. I think the worst thing you can say about Equipment is that there's not enough of it, because most of it is fairly good. That's a direct result of removing shopping minigames, but I'll take it if it means I don't need ten pages of items nearly identical to each other. The expansion doubles the number of Equipment Traits available anyway.
Next: Deathblows. Oh boy do I have things to say about Deathblows.
Gimmick Out.
Jul 3, 2016
BCG Retrospective X: General Traits
If Attributes are the skeleton of a character build and Skills the flesh and muscle, then Traits represent the finishing touches like clothes, hair colors and the specific kind of impractical anime sword they wield. To put it another way, Traits are what people remember PCs by most. For example: One PC is an inspiring leader type, another is a combat cyborg, and the third is hard-boiled detective. All those descriptors stem from Traits, because they distinguish characters from each other the most.
There's four categories of traits (General, Equipment, Deathblows and Anomalies), but even within General Traits we can separate them into three categories:
Many of them are a combination of two types, most often a combination of the first and second.
General Traits Review
Individual Traits aren't as ubiquitous as Skills and some of them can't be compared directly against each other. With Skills, I judged them all based on the same criteria, but Traits are ill-suited to that, so I'll just do a round of individual commentary for each Trait.
Animal Person
One of the most powerful Traits for its cost, granting two Advantages for just 5 CP. The caveat is, of course, that it is extremely narrow. Most people will take this for flavor reasons to solidify a PC concept, so the two Advantages help to make up for how rarely this will come into play. I think this is okay for what it does, which is provide a cheap and powerful way to represent a very niche character trait.
Common Sense
A lot of games feature abilities for new (or just forgetful) Players that outright tell them (and the GM) to ask for advice. Generally speaking, this isn't worth 5 CP, because experienced Players and GMs will do this anyway. But having this in a character sheet reminds everybody that this is a thing they can do and encourages it to happen more often. It serves its function.
Danger Instinct
There are many ways to get Advantages to Stealth and Deception, this Trait exists to keep up with the specialist rogues who might stay unnoticed otherwise. The only reason this doesn't cost 10 CP is that it is hard to justify paying that much when you can easily buy 1-2 points of Awareness for that cost. It is worth more than 5 CP, but not quite 10, so this sits at an odd spot in terms of power level. Perhaps this should have been more like Jaded and less like a Specialization.
Entertainer
Another one that is mostly flavor. If it didn't boost Presence Tests, it'd give two Advantages instead of one, because it is about as narrow as Animal Person. Why was I so worried about Presence? Presence is tied to Leadership, which is is a very strong Trait. In hindsight, I should have made this give two Advantages to make going through the trouble of assembling the build more rewarding.
Gamer
This is an oddball quirky Trait. Depending on the specialization and the kind of story you're roleplaying, it could do anything between everything and nothing. It will probably be too narrow to apply often though, hence it costs only five Character Points.
Gumshoe
The Trait for people who don't want to miss plot clues EVER. Considering how useful that is, perhaps this should cost 10. This is one of those Traits that require Skill Training to function, to encourage picking up Skills (especially Intellect Skills, of which there are a lot) instead of always boosting Attributes.
Ingenious
This is the only mechanical support in the rules for doing things not actually mechanically supported by them. Meaning, this is a Trait that encourages breaking the rules. Because it is probably going to be something that you will suffer Disadvantages and/or low Attribute bonuses to doing, it grants two Advantages instead of one. The rules exist for a reason though, so Ingenious isn't something we want to happen too often, thus it is restricted to one use per Episode.
Intimidating
This is too narrow and underpowered compared to Diplomacy and Deception to be worth making a Skill. But it is a relatively common roleplaying niche (the 'if I cannot inspire love then I will cause fear' kind of social character) that it deserves having at least a Trait. One Advantage that stacks with other dialogue skills encourages making use of it whenever possible, despite the risks of acting like a big bully.
Jaded
Willpower lacks Skills, making it difficult to stay competitive with Intimidate users in terms of Advantages. So instead of granting one or two Advantages, this lets the user autosucceed a failed Test once per Episode, which is considerably better. The flavor of being able to shrug off anything once per Episode is also very cool, as only sustained attacks will break through it, making the character seem that much more badass.
Make Do
This is a very narrow Trait for builds going all-in on Attributes, who won't have appropriate equipment on hand a lot of the time. Not all that good for most other builds, other than to remind them that they need training in Skills to avoid Disadvantages in many situations.
Polyglot
In most RPGs the ability to speak more than one language requires a considerable investment for something that may or may not be actually useful. With this Trait you're not guaranteed to know any one language, but you have very good chances of being fluent in it - along with many others. This implies that speaking only one additional language isn't worth making PCs spend CP on, which is most likely the case when you consider translation software has to be everywhere in most sci fi settings.
Sphere of Influence
Sphere of Influence works pretty much like you would expect a Resources Skill to work. Which, thinking about it, is because it should have been a Resources Skill.
Superior Immune System
See above, except with Willpower. I think this and Jaded are better off working this way rather than giving Advantages, because their reactive nature makes the autosuccess aspect harder to exploit.
Weapon Expertise
This might just be the platonic example of a Trait that exists to give specialists an extra edge and let them differentiate themselves from generalists. Much like with Intimidate, you could forego the Combat skill entirely and just use this, but your'e better off combining it with its proper Skill.
Attractive
This might just be the strongest of all the Traits that give specialists an extra Advantage, therefore it costs ten Character Points instead of five.
Comrade
"You have an NPC friend". That is pretty much the whole of the rules text for this Trait. This is one of those abilities for which I just can't think of a better way to execute them in rules terms, otherwise I would. The question is, how else to do them while keeping them simple? Maybe they should be assigned CP, like the optional rules for allied Grunts, or perhaps they should be a singular boost to Resources once per Episode. The rules for NPC Themes in the expansion are, I think, the best execution of this concept - but that's not a Trait.
Genius
The talent of applying judicious amounts of technobabble to any problem until it is solved is one of the coolest and most powerful Traits in the book. Intellect is already very strong as an Attribute and, frankly, doesn't really need the boost from this Trait. But it is so fun that it just had to be in the game.
Hard Work and Guts
Probably the weakest of the Traits with a cost of 10. It lets you push through super difficult DNs that would usually be impossible, but that's probably too conditional for the cost. This would have been more useful if Disadvantages were more common, and is one of the factors that make me think I could have applied them more liberal as drawbacks in the rules.
Living Database
It is a Trait for beginners just like Common Sense, but slightly stronger because it is a passive 'always on' effect. Take both Traits for maximum handholding power and never miss anything you should have noticed!
I was Here all Along
This might just be most hilarious (and awesome) Trait in the entire game. It is awesome and I wish all Traits costing 10 could be this cool. 11/10 would design again.
Jack of all Trades
A very elegant execution to allow a neat character concept. Unfortunately, it also makes builds that spend most of their points on Attributes being a little too good in the base game. As you may have already noticed, I care a lot about game balance, so I'd be a lot more negative about this Trait if the expansion hadn't taken the necessary steps to rebalance things.
Leadership
This is the mechanical reward for training yourself in Presence. Granting one or two Advantages to ALL TESTS for multiple allies is stronger than it seems at first glance. I recommend using it during downtime to buff Extended Tests (such as those from, say, Craftsmanship... Or the Rituals from BCZ), and suddenly DNs over 20 aren't very difficult for your teammates anymore. You have to jump some hoops and take some choices that seem suboptimal but the payoff is exceedingly powerful when you can start taking advantage of it.
Psychic Power
Psychic Power is necessary for some builds that can't spare points on Willpower but want to use Miracles anyway. It is also what allows builds that do have Willpower to spam Miracles every Scene. Originally this simply reduced all Damage to just one point, but that was a little too powerful for just 10 points. Even post nerf, this is one of the best Traits in the game.
Spirit of Steel
Take what I said about Genius except with a stat that needs some help instead of having already too much going on. Honestly, this could have been slightly stronger and given some sort of secondary benefit, if only to encourage more Willpower-centric builds.
A handful of General Traits could be tweaked to be slightly more or less powerful, but for the most part they're where they need to be. There's also a lot of flavor in there and they can enable some really cool scenes. They're not quite Genre Powers, but they are pretty good and I'm quite happy with how they turned out.
Next: Equipment
Gimmick Out.
There's four categories of traits (General, Equipment, Deathblows and Anomalies), but even within General Traits we can separate them into three categories:
- Traits that are like Skills, but too narrow to merit making them cost 10 Character Points. Example: Intimidating is a Trait that complements Diplomacy and Deception, because if it was its own skill then it would be inferior to the other two.
- Traits that grant bonus Advantages (or another similar mechanic) for PCs who want to roleplay a master specialist in a Skill or, in rare cases, an Attribute specialist. Example: Weapon Expertise and Attractive grant Advantages to a Test for which you already have Skill training.
- Traits that exist to represent unique abilities that can't be represented in terms of pure Attributes or Skills. Example: Psychic Power does something no other ability in the game does.
Many of them are a combination of two types, most often a combination of the first and second.
General Traits Review
Individual Traits aren't as ubiquitous as Skills and some of them can't be compared directly against each other. With Skills, I judged them all based on the same criteria, but Traits are ill-suited to that, so I'll just do a round of individual commentary for each Trait.
Animal Person
One of the most powerful Traits for its cost, granting two Advantages for just 5 CP. The caveat is, of course, that it is extremely narrow. Most people will take this for flavor reasons to solidify a PC concept, so the two Advantages help to make up for how rarely this will come into play. I think this is okay for what it does, which is provide a cheap and powerful way to represent a very niche character trait.
Common Sense
A lot of games feature abilities for new (or just forgetful) Players that outright tell them (and the GM) to ask for advice. Generally speaking, this isn't worth 5 CP, because experienced Players and GMs will do this anyway. But having this in a character sheet reminds everybody that this is a thing they can do and encourages it to happen more often. It serves its function.
Danger Instinct
There are many ways to get Advantages to Stealth and Deception, this Trait exists to keep up with the specialist rogues who might stay unnoticed otherwise. The only reason this doesn't cost 10 CP is that it is hard to justify paying that much when you can easily buy 1-2 points of Awareness for that cost. It is worth more than 5 CP, but not quite 10, so this sits at an odd spot in terms of power level. Perhaps this should have been more like Jaded and less like a Specialization.
Entertainer
Another one that is mostly flavor. If it didn't boost Presence Tests, it'd give two Advantages instead of one, because it is about as narrow as Animal Person. Why was I so worried about Presence? Presence is tied to Leadership, which is is a very strong Trait. In hindsight, I should have made this give two Advantages to make going through the trouble of assembling the build more rewarding.
Gamer
This is an oddball quirky Trait. Depending on the specialization and the kind of story you're roleplaying, it could do anything between everything and nothing. It will probably be too narrow to apply often though, hence it costs only five Character Points.
Gumshoe
The Trait for people who don't want to miss plot clues EVER. Considering how useful that is, perhaps this should cost 10. This is one of those Traits that require Skill Training to function, to encourage picking up Skills (especially Intellect Skills, of which there are a lot) instead of always boosting Attributes.
Ingenious
This is the only mechanical support in the rules for doing things not actually mechanically supported by them. Meaning, this is a Trait that encourages breaking the rules. Because it is probably going to be something that you will suffer Disadvantages and/or low Attribute bonuses to doing, it grants two Advantages instead of one. The rules exist for a reason though, so Ingenious isn't something we want to happen too often, thus it is restricted to one use per Episode.
Intimidating
This is too narrow and underpowered compared to Diplomacy and Deception to be worth making a Skill. But it is a relatively common roleplaying niche (the 'if I cannot inspire love then I will cause fear' kind of social character) that it deserves having at least a Trait. One Advantage that stacks with other dialogue skills encourages making use of it whenever possible, despite the risks of acting like a big bully.
Jaded
Willpower lacks Skills, making it difficult to stay competitive with Intimidate users in terms of Advantages. So instead of granting one or two Advantages, this lets the user autosucceed a failed Test once per Episode, which is considerably better. The flavor of being able to shrug off anything once per Episode is also very cool, as only sustained attacks will break through it, making the character seem that much more badass.
Make Do
This is a very narrow Trait for builds going all-in on Attributes, who won't have appropriate equipment on hand a lot of the time. Not all that good for most other builds, other than to remind them that they need training in Skills to avoid Disadvantages in many situations.
Polyglot
In most RPGs the ability to speak more than one language requires a considerable investment for something that may or may not be actually useful. With this Trait you're not guaranteed to know any one language, but you have very good chances of being fluent in it - along with many others. This implies that speaking only one additional language isn't worth making PCs spend CP on, which is most likely the case when you consider translation software has to be everywhere in most sci fi settings.
Sphere of Influence
Sphere of Influence works pretty much like you would expect a Resources Skill to work. Which, thinking about it, is because it should have been a Resources Skill.
Superior Immune System
See above, except with Willpower. I think this and Jaded are better off working this way rather than giving Advantages, because their reactive nature makes the autosuccess aspect harder to exploit.
Weapon Expertise
This might just be the platonic example of a Trait that exists to give specialists an extra edge and let them differentiate themselves from generalists. Much like with Intimidate, you could forego the Combat skill entirely and just use this, but your'e better off combining it with its proper Skill.
Attractive
This might just be the strongest of all the Traits that give specialists an extra Advantage, therefore it costs ten Character Points instead of five.
Comrade
"You have an NPC friend". That is pretty much the whole of the rules text for this Trait. This is one of those abilities for which I just can't think of a better way to execute them in rules terms, otherwise I would. The question is, how else to do them while keeping them simple? Maybe they should be assigned CP, like the optional rules for allied Grunts, or perhaps they should be a singular boost to Resources once per Episode. The rules for NPC Themes in the expansion are, I think, the best execution of this concept - but that's not a Trait.
Genius
The talent of applying judicious amounts of technobabble to any problem until it is solved is one of the coolest and most powerful Traits in the book. Intellect is already very strong as an Attribute and, frankly, doesn't really need the boost from this Trait. But it is so fun that it just had to be in the game.
Hard Work and Guts
Probably the weakest of the Traits with a cost of 10. It lets you push through super difficult DNs that would usually be impossible, but that's probably too conditional for the cost. This would have been more useful if Disadvantages were more common, and is one of the factors that make me think I could have applied them more liberal as drawbacks in the rules.
Living Database
It is a Trait for beginners just like Common Sense, but slightly stronger because it is a passive 'always on' effect. Take both Traits for maximum handholding power and never miss anything you should have noticed!
I was Here all Along
This might just be most hilarious (and awesome) Trait in the entire game. It is awesome and I wish all Traits costing 10 could be this cool. 11/10 would design again.
Jack of all Trades
A very elegant execution to allow a neat character concept. Unfortunately, it also makes builds that spend most of their points on Attributes being a little too good in the base game. As you may have already noticed, I care a lot about game balance, so I'd be a lot more negative about this Trait if the expansion hadn't taken the necessary steps to rebalance things.
Leadership
This is the mechanical reward for training yourself in Presence. Granting one or two Advantages to ALL TESTS for multiple allies is stronger than it seems at first glance. I recommend using it during downtime to buff Extended Tests (such as those from, say, Craftsmanship... Or the Rituals from BCZ), and suddenly DNs over 20 aren't very difficult for your teammates anymore. You have to jump some hoops and take some choices that seem suboptimal but the payoff is exceedingly powerful when you can start taking advantage of it.
Psychic Power
Psychic Power is necessary for some builds that can't spare points on Willpower but want to use Miracles anyway. It is also what allows builds that do have Willpower to spam Miracles every Scene. Originally this simply reduced all Damage to just one point, but that was a little too powerful for just 10 points. Even post nerf, this is one of the best Traits in the game.
Spirit of Steel
Take what I said about Genius except with a stat that needs some help instead of having already too much going on. Honestly, this could have been slightly stronger and given some sort of secondary benefit, if only to encourage more Willpower-centric builds.
A handful of General Traits could be tweaked to be slightly more or less powerful, but for the most part they're where they need to be. There's also a lot of flavor in there and they can enable some really cool scenes. They're not quite Genre Powers, but they are pretty good and I'm quite happy with how they turned out.
Next: Equipment
Gimmick Out.
Jun 26, 2016
BCG Retrospective IX: Miracles
We're now at the Miracle Skills section, and I have a confession to make: I don't like the name "Miracles", but it was the least bad option I could think of. They couldn't be called Superpowers (because Powers are already a different in-game term and the similarity in name would be misleading) and they couldn't be called Spells (because BCG is a setting-agnostic system). While in theory the term "Miracles" is relatively good for a catch-all agnostic word, it does carry a fairly strong religious connotation. In hindsight, maybe they should have just been called Super Skills, which would have been cheesy as hell, but wouldn't be the cheesiest thing in the game.
Anyhow, on to the rules. Superpowers are, by definition, better than mundane skills in most circumstances. This was a problem for me when I set out to design Miracles because I needed them to be relatively balanced against each other. Most games do this by giving them complex subsystems like mana pools, random tables of secondary effects, or having to buy lots of useless powers before you can learn the good stuff. Those are too complex for a system like Battle Century G, so I decided to balance Miracles by making them hurt the user.
Generally speaking, PCs can use a Miracle once per Scene safely, frequent use requires an investment in Willpower, the Psychic Power Trait and then equipment like an Ether Drive or Nanomedical Vest. This does a good enough job of making them usable right away without making them spammable. I like that it adds a minigame with an element of tension to their use, because you're never really sure just how safe it is to use one.
The Miracles in BCG are better spread out over the six Attributes than General Skills. Of the three primary stats Fitness has 4 Miracle Skills, Intellect has 3 and Charm has 2. Fitness and Intellect share most of theirs with each other, while Charm gets exclusive use or shares with Awareness. Awareness is the only secondary stat with multiples (3), Resources has only one and Willpower has none at all, both for balance reasons.
Miracle Skill Review
I'll review the Miracles themselves using similar criteria than the one used for General Skills. Miracle Skills will be measured by their Proactive and Adaptable power, but the third criteria will be Synergy - how well it complements General Skills and Traits using the same stats. Miracles cost between 10 and 20 CP, they need to provide the builds that can use them with better value than mundane abilities.
Electricity
Proactive - An excellent skill. It is like Electronics, except you don't even have to use your hands, which would make it worth taking if it was the only thing the skill did. On top of that it also turns you into a super battery and provides a way to K.O NPCs if you're not trained in combat skills.
Adaptable - Assuming a sci-fi setting, the ability to hack things at range is insanely powerful, arguably making the offensive uses of this skill redundant because you can simply overload or disable an NPC's equipment. And just in case that isn't enough, you can still surprise them with a lightning bolt or two.
Synergy - Effectively a way to buff to the best Intellect Skill in the game with extra utility value for the kicks. The only problem with Electricity is that using it with Fitness is a waste of HP, because the Combat skill costs less CP and doesn't damage the user.
Force
Proactive - Force grants 3D movement for yourself and others, which is guaranteed to come in handy when you don't have your robot around to help you fly or the such. It also lets you throw people around like ragdolls, which is cool.
Adaptable - Remote manipulation of objects is an excellent reactive skill because you can perform telekinesis in combination with Finesse to steal at range or Vehicles to drive without using your hands. The ability to fly in or out of places effectively makes this a better Athletics in terms of adaptability.
Synergy - Force is similar to Electricity, in that the Intellect-based uses more than justify taking it while the Fitness uses are mechanically underpowered. Chucking things at enemies or tossing them into environmental hazards is, at least, more fun than electrocuting them.
Fortune
Proactive - One Advantage to any and all Resources Tests isn't exactly world-shattering, but the ability to let you use them multiple times per Episode turns Resources into a viable replacement for all three primary stats. It also grants reliable access to things like Flight Packs and Backup Bodies without having to spend CP on them ever, which is just plain ridiculous.
Adaptable - Equipment Tests need setup time, so if you want to be Batman and have whatever equipment you'll need for a mission, you still have to plan that out. Fortune turns Resources from a thing you use once or twice per Episode into something easily repeatable, opening up many new ways to solve problems by throwing money and friends at them.
Synergy - This Miracle is obviously for the builds that go all-in on Resources and it is everything they ever wanted. Fortune goes a long way towards making Resources builds versatile enough to be more than a gimmick.
Matter
Proactive - Craftsmanship is already one of the strongest proactive skills and this makes it stronger. As if that wasn't enough, it can improve items and also also destroys objects with a touch, which adds up to a "pretty darn good" rating overall.
Adaptable - Craftsmanship's weakness is that crafting things takes time, and Matter reduces (but doesn't take away) crafting times, so Matter does a lot to help craftsmen and craftswomen be more adaptable. Also, the power to destroy walls and floors can get you out of trouble quick.
Synergy: Everything Matter does, it does with Intellect. This slots very easily into any Intellect primary or secondary build that has an use for Craftsmanship, which would be most of them. A+ Rating.
Phantasm
Proactive - Illusionism is a versatile proactive skill, combining the best of Stealth and Deception into a single skill. It does have a considerable downside in that sustained efforts will deal sizable damage to the user, though.
Adaptable - Like Stealth and Deception, but also grants a huge bonus to Defense when you Maneuver with it. The wording for the Maneuver ability is pretty bad though, it should use the wording on the Phasing skill.
Synergy - So, we've established Phantasm is a great proactive and adaptable skill, but the cherry on top is that it is an Awareness skill. Phantasm alone makes Awareness a viable primary stat that is effective both at getting shit done and reacting to sudden complications.
Phasing
Proactive - This is one of the few Fitness skills that isn't made redundant by having your giant robot with you. The power to go anywhere is a very strong one and, unlike with Matter, the DN is always fairly low, which translates to easy successes for low damage each activation.
Adaptable - A strong contender for the best reactive Miracle in the game, because it lets you escape anything. The Defense bonus when Maneuvering is better worded (but still has a couple typos, ouch) than Phantasm's, also.
Synergy - Phasing fits builds with Athletics & Stealth like a glove, since it even uses the same stat. The Defense boost would work even better in a high Awareness build which, coincidentally, is fitting for a scout or ninja type. Great stuff, overall.
Probing
Proactive - Mind control is a creepy power to have, and not in a good way, so Probing is instead more like hypnotic suggestion. Unsurprisingly, a skill that is essentially Diplomacy or Deception with added mind reading is pretty good to have.
Adaptable - Like a dialogue skill, but you can read thoughts to make it even better. If it is possible to get out of trouble with NPCs using just words, this skill can do it.
Synergy - In theory, a diplomancer who already has dialogue skill(s) doesn't want a redundant one that hurts the user. In practice, Probing adds a third venue of attack, so to speak, where you can make people think that your idea was theirs all along.
Sight
Proactive - The least proactive Miracle of the whole bunch. It does help with Investigation Tests, though, so it is still decent at that.
Adaptable - Phasing's rival in the race for the Best Adaptable Miracle trophy. And all it does is grant a single Advantage to Awareness Tests. Shows how good Awareness is.
Synergy - This is so useful you may want to get it even if you already have other Miracles (such as Phantasm) in your build. Having more information, which is the whole point of Awareness, means you make better choices.
Somatics
Proactive - The Sight to Fitness' Awareness... Except Fitness is proactive by nature and has several skills that this can boost with an extra Advantage. So this is better than Sight in that regard.
Adaptable - Take every single Fitness Skill and give it an Advantage. Turns out that makes them pretty good in a pinch!
Synergy - Synergy with any kind of Fitness-based build is pretty much the whole point of this skill. it might not be the most powerful Miracle, but it is the most synergistic.
Temperature
Proactive - Cold is just the absence of heat, so you get control over what are usually considered two elements instead of just one. This is one of the most versatile Miracles.
Adaptable - The price of versatility is that conditional Disadvantages based on your emotional state and the temperature of the environment make using this Miracle reactively harder. Suffering a Disadvantage is better than not being able to do anything at all though, so it is still excellent.
Synergy - What makes Temperature interesting is that it is a Charm-based skill, giving diplomancers an option that doesn't involve people skills to their toolbox. This might just be the only offensive Miracle the Combat skill doesn't make redundant, because it uses a different Attribute. These benefits aren't synergistic in the strictest sense of the term, but they do add a lot of value to those builds.
So, in closing, what would I change about Miracles? Well, other than the name, typo fixes and clearer wording the system is very solid. I think combat Miracles need a buff, though. They cost more CP and deal damage to the user, so they're worse than mundane combat skills in combat situations. Figuring out how to buff them is the tricky part. It can't be solved by just giving them bonus Advantages, because then they'd still need to compete with Traits that can grant 2 more Advantages for less than the cost of a Miracle, plus it would raise the question of how come Skills always grant just one Advantage to Tests except Offensive Miracles, which is confusing. Perhaps you'd get something like a free Deathblow use or a boost to Defense to make up for the self-damage. If I ever design a similar system, I'll be on the lookout.
Overall, Miracles are superpowers that avoid long spell lists and keep mundane skills relevant. Considering BCG is a mecha rpg, that's ideal.
Next: Traits.
Gimmick Out.
Anyhow, on to the rules. Superpowers are, by definition, better than mundane skills in most circumstances. This was a problem for me when I set out to design Miracles because I needed them to be relatively balanced against each other. Most games do this by giving them complex subsystems like mana pools, random tables of secondary effects, or having to buy lots of useless powers before you can learn the good stuff. Those are too complex for a system like Battle Century G, so I decided to balance Miracles by making them hurt the user.
Generally speaking, PCs can use a Miracle once per Scene safely, frequent use requires an investment in Willpower, the Psychic Power Trait and then equipment like an Ether Drive or Nanomedical Vest. This does a good enough job of making them usable right away without making them spammable. I like that it adds a minigame with an element of tension to their use, because you're never really sure just how safe it is to use one.
The Miracles in BCG are better spread out over the six Attributes than General Skills. Of the three primary stats Fitness has 4 Miracle Skills, Intellect has 3 and Charm has 2. Fitness and Intellect share most of theirs with each other, while Charm gets exclusive use or shares with Awareness. Awareness is the only secondary stat with multiples (3), Resources has only one and Willpower has none at all, both for balance reasons.
Miracle Skill Review
I'll review the Miracles themselves using similar criteria than the one used for General Skills. Miracle Skills will be measured by their Proactive and Adaptable power, but the third criteria will be Synergy - how well it complements General Skills and Traits using the same stats. Miracles cost between 10 and 20 CP, they need to provide the builds that can use them with better value than mundane abilities.
Electricity
Proactive - An excellent skill. It is like Electronics, except you don't even have to use your hands, which would make it worth taking if it was the only thing the skill did. On top of that it also turns you into a super battery and provides a way to K.O NPCs if you're not trained in combat skills.
Adaptable - Assuming a sci-fi setting, the ability to hack things at range is insanely powerful, arguably making the offensive uses of this skill redundant because you can simply overload or disable an NPC's equipment. And just in case that isn't enough, you can still surprise them with a lightning bolt or two.
Synergy - Effectively a way to buff to the best Intellect Skill in the game with extra utility value for the kicks. The only problem with Electricity is that using it with Fitness is a waste of HP, because the Combat skill costs less CP and doesn't damage the user.
Force
Proactive - Force grants 3D movement for yourself and others, which is guaranteed to come in handy when you don't have your robot around to help you fly or the such. It also lets you throw people around like ragdolls, which is cool.
Adaptable - Remote manipulation of objects is an excellent reactive skill because you can perform telekinesis in combination with Finesse to steal at range or Vehicles to drive without using your hands. The ability to fly in or out of places effectively makes this a better Athletics in terms of adaptability.
Synergy - Force is similar to Electricity, in that the Intellect-based uses more than justify taking it while the Fitness uses are mechanically underpowered. Chucking things at enemies or tossing them into environmental hazards is, at least, more fun than electrocuting them.
Fortune
Proactive - One Advantage to any and all Resources Tests isn't exactly world-shattering, but the ability to let you use them multiple times per Episode turns Resources into a viable replacement for all three primary stats. It also grants reliable access to things like Flight Packs and Backup Bodies without having to spend CP on them ever, which is just plain ridiculous.
Adaptable - Equipment Tests need setup time, so if you want to be Batman and have whatever equipment you'll need for a mission, you still have to plan that out. Fortune turns Resources from a thing you use once or twice per Episode into something easily repeatable, opening up many new ways to solve problems by throwing money and friends at them.
Synergy - This Miracle is obviously for the builds that go all-in on Resources and it is everything they ever wanted. Fortune goes a long way towards making Resources builds versatile enough to be more than a gimmick.
Matter
Proactive - Craftsmanship is already one of the strongest proactive skills and this makes it stronger. As if that wasn't enough, it can improve items and also also destroys objects with a touch, which adds up to a "pretty darn good" rating overall.
Adaptable - Craftsmanship's weakness is that crafting things takes time, and Matter reduces (but doesn't take away) crafting times, so Matter does a lot to help craftsmen and craftswomen be more adaptable. Also, the power to destroy walls and floors can get you out of trouble quick.
Synergy: Everything Matter does, it does with Intellect. This slots very easily into any Intellect primary or secondary build that has an use for Craftsmanship, which would be most of them. A+ Rating.
Phantasm
Proactive - Illusionism is a versatile proactive skill, combining the best of Stealth and Deception into a single skill. It does have a considerable downside in that sustained efforts will deal sizable damage to the user, though.
Adaptable - Like Stealth and Deception, but also grants a huge bonus to Defense when you Maneuver with it. The wording for the Maneuver ability is pretty bad though, it should use the wording on the Phasing skill.
Synergy - So, we've established Phantasm is a great proactive and adaptable skill, but the cherry on top is that it is an Awareness skill. Phantasm alone makes Awareness a viable primary stat that is effective both at getting shit done and reacting to sudden complications.
Phasing
Proactive - This is one of the few Fitness skills that isn't made redundant by having your giant robot with you. The power to go anywhere is a very strong one and, unlike with Matter, the DN is always fairly low, which translates to easy successes for low damage each activation.
Adaptable - A strong contender for the best reactive Miracle in the game, because it lets you escape anything. The Defense bonus when Maneuvering is better worded (but still has a couple typos, ouch) than Phantasm's, also.
Synergy - Phasing fits builds with Athletics & Stealth like a glove, since it even uses the same stat. The Defense boost would work even better in a high Awareness build which, coincidentally, is fitting for a scout or ninja type. Great stuff, overall.
Probing
Proactive - Mind control is a creepy power to have, and not in a good way, so Probing is instead more like hypnotic suggestion. Unsurprisingly, a skill that is essentially Diplomacy or Deception with added mind reading is pretty good to have.
Adaptable - Like a dialogue skill, but you can read thoughts to make it even better. If it is possible to get out of trouble with NPCs using just words, this skill can do it.
Synergy - In theory, a diplomancer who already has dialogue skill(s) doesn't want a redundant one that hurts the user. In practice, Probing adds a third venue of attack, so to speak, where you can make people think that your idea was theirs all along.
Sight
Proactive - The least proactive Miracle of the whole bunch. It does help with Investigation Tests, though, so it is still decent at that.
Adaptable - Phasing's rival in the race for the Best Adaptable Miracle trophy. And all it does is grant a single Advantage to Awareness Tests. Shows how good Awareness is.
Synergy - This is so useful you may want to get it even if you already have other Miracles (such as Phantasm) in your build. Having more information, which is the whole point of Awareness, means you make better choices.
Somatics
Proactive - The Sight to Fitness' Awareness... Except Fitness is proactive by nature and has several skills that this can boost with an extra Advantage. So this is better than Sight in that regard.
Adaptable - Take every single Fitness Skill and give it an Advantage. Turns out that makes them pretty good in a pinch!
Synergy - Synergy with any kind of Fitness-based build is pretty much the whole point of this skill. it might not be the most powerful Miracle, but it is the most synergistic.
Temperature
Proactive - Cold is just the absence of heat, so you get control over what are usually considered two elements instead of just one. This is one of the most versatile Miracles.
Adaptable - The price of versatility is that conditional Disadvantages based on your emotional state and the temperature of the environment make using this Miracle reactively harder. Suffering a Disadvantage is better than not being able to do anything at all though, so it is still excellent.
Synergy - What makes Temperature interesting is that it is a Charm-based skill, giving diplomancers an option that doesn't involve people skills to their toolbox. This might just be the only offensive Miracle the Combat skill doesn't make redundant, because it uses a different Attribute. These benefits aren't synergistic in the strictest sense of the term, but they do add a lot of value to those builds.
So, in closing, what would I change about Miracles? Well, other than the name, typo fixes and clearer wording the system is very solid. I think combat Miracles need a buff, though. They cost more CP and deal damage to the user, so they're worse than mundane combat skills in combat situations. Figuring out how to buff them is the tricky part. It can't be solved by just giving them bonus Advantages, because then they'd still need to compete with Traits that can grant 2 more Advantages for less than the cost of a Miracle, plus it would raise the question of how come Skills always grant just one Advantage to Tests except Offensive Miracles, which is confusing. Perhaps you'd get something like a free Deathblow use or a boost to Defense to make up for the self-damage. If I ever design a similar system, I'll be on the lookout.
Overall, Miracles are superpowers that avoid long spell lists and keep mundane skills relevant. Considering BCG is a mecha rpg, that's ideal.
Next: Traits.
Gimmick Out.
Jun 19, 2016
BCG Retrospective VIII: General Skills
Battle Century G has 15 General Skills available for all characters to take. While many RPGs eschew skill lists entirely, most of the games that feature them tend to have 20 or 30 skills in total, so comparatively speaking 15 is a very low number. The system bunches up similar skillsets together so if you take 3 or 4 Skills you already have the theoretical and practical knowledge to cover a lot of situations. Also, many games feature multiple skill training levels. In BCG, either you're trained in a Skill and get an Advantage, or you aren't and don't get it.
In theory, having more skills and variable training levels adds options and differentiates characters more, which would be a good thing. In practice, extensive skill lists have the problem where each one is so narrow that you only care about the most useful one or two for your PC (usually a combat or social skill) and ignore the others unless you have spare points lying around. This is then made worse by having multiple skill levels for them, because you must spend your precious customization points going all in on the good skills instead of wasting your resources on the others. Thus, while I think that games without any skill system are fine, I think having more than 20 skills (not including those that represent psychic powers or the like) is a mistake.
Arguably, the skill system has less ways to represent different levels of expertise and doesn't allow for more specialized builds. The rules approximate this with the use of Traits, resolving the issue. At least in build option terms.
Speaking of builds, how are the Attributes balanced in terms of Skill representation? Well, Fitness and Charm have 8 and 5 General Skills respectively. Willpower and Resources have zero skills both, because they're not supposed to. Awareness has one, because I honestly couldn't justify giving that Skill to a different Attribute (and didn't think of simply not making it a Skill at the time). But wait, what about Intellect? Well, Intellect has a ridiculous total of 12 Skills! The heck happened there!?
You see, most of those are secondary applications of other Skills having to do with theoretical knowledge. So, for example, Combat is a Fitness Skill but military strategy (which is not how you tend to use the skill at all) uses the Intellect stat. The total of Skills where you're expected to actually use Intellect with are just six, which is a lot more reasonable. Still, having so many Skills tied to Intellect means that getting points in Intellect is comparatively cheaper than buying two or three of its Skills, because the stat bonus applies to all of them. To alleviate the issue, most of those Skills have accompanying Traits that require you to be trained in them to use them.
General Skill Review
The structure of the Skill system is fine, but how about the skills themselves? Would the same list be worth reusing in a future project? I'll review the skills based on three criteria:
Proactive - A good Proactive skill is one that can be used to advance the plot or further your PC's agenda.
Adaptable - An Adaptable skill lets you react to GM prompts and resolve the problems they present.
Essential - A truly Essential skill is one where each group needs to have at least one PC trained in it.
If these sound kind of abstract, that's fine. Each entry will have an explanation to make things clearer.
Athletics
Proactive - Athletics is an alright proactive skill, it lets you get to places most people can't reach. This is a game with giant robots though (or henshin suits or summoned monsters or whatever), so at best this lets you do it earlier than other PCs.
Adaptable - The true power of Athletics is in reacting to things that happen to you like catching a thief or climbing down a building you're trapped in. When the GM puts you in a tough spot, Athletics is the Skill that lets you use your physical prowess to solve the situation and it usually proves its worth.
Essential - While having Athletics is usually a decent idea for your own convenience, most groups will be fine without it by virtue of having mechs. In theory the worst thing that could happen is a TPK when the GM places everyone in lethal peril, but in practice it is probably more like getting captured by antagonists or the such.
Craftsmanship
Proactive - This is an excellent skill when you have some downtime to use it with, but a terrible one when you're pressed for time. Unless you're playing 24 With Mechs, you'll be able to craft all sorts of cool stuff.
Reactive - Craftsmanship is awful as a reactive skill, it is pretty much its only weakness. I guess you can still use it to try and dismantle a bomb or to fix something broken when in a hurry but just how often does that happen?
Essential - Having someone trained in this is probably a good idea, but you'll be fine if nobody else takes it. It is just so good and does so much that it is unlikely that no one will have it.
Combat
Proactive - If you don't mind getting violent or threatening people, Combat is a great skill to help you get what you want when you can't use your robot to do it. You'll run into other people's mechs if you do this often though, so be careful.
Adaptable - Much like Athletics, Combat shows its true worth most of the time when you're in trouble and want to use physical means to solve it. Unlike Athletics, this needs to be a problem you can solve by hitting it until it is not a problem anymore, which is still pretty good even if it is not quite as good.
Essential - When one or more PCs have the combat skill they get to be the ones who show off when the group is in trouble outside of their robots. Depending on how easy or hard it is to get to mecha at a moment's notice, Combat may be essential or just a nice thing to have just in case.
Deception
Proactive - Being a good liar can get you far in games if you're not afraid of gray morality in your PCs. Just be careful not to get caught, that's when things get complicated for you (hint: you'll get caught at some point).
Adaptable - With a good Charm score Deception will get you out of a lot of trouble. Arguably the skill is even better used reactively than proactively, because that tends to have lower odds of getting yourself caught.
Essential - Most teams should have someone who can use Deception well, if not both Deception and Diplomacy. While it is not absolutely necessary, it is often invaluable.
Diplomacy
Proactive - Saying the right things to the right people can, and often will, be a very efficient way to further your agenda in game. The only downside is that it doesn't work on those not interested in anything you have to say, which hopefully isn't too many folks.
Adaptable - There's a lot of problems you can solve by talking, and those who can't be solved can be often mitigated at the very least. Your own ingenuity at working out a good deal can be more important than dice rolls here, though.
Essential - Just as important as Deception, if not more, because it doesn't tempt fate (read: the GM) to make people figure out they've been fooled.
Finesse
Proactive - It is solid, but not great, because this is the stuff that good spies are made of. You may need Stealth or Electronics to complement it, but this is almost obligatory for the roguish types.
Adaptable - Reactively, this skill has problems in that it has narrow uses and other skills like Athletics or Combat also use Fitness can achieve similar ends with generally more efficient means. If you're going to train your PC in Finesse, you should be proactive about it.
Essential - As non-essential as it gets. Even if nobody has this, you can get by using the skills mentioned above.
Electronics
Proactive - I hear hacking is a cool and good thing in science fiction. This is a strong contender for the position of most powerful proactive skill in the game for that alone.
Adaptable - If you can't think of ways to solve most problems using computer skills in a science fiction game, you're not trying hard enough. It might be harder than if you used other skills, but that it is possible (and even plausible) to do so makes the skill very strong reactively.
Essential - At least one person should have this, because you'll need it. If nobody in the team does, then you're probably doing something wrong.
Humanities
Proactive - As a knowledge skill, Humanities has narrow proactive uses, though it has them and they'll come in handy. Most of those involve research, which needs downtime, so it isn't exactly stellar.
Adaptable - Humanities is useful to figure out bits of lore in the spot, which is okay I guess. It must be something your PC could reasonably be assumed to know though.
Essential - Groups where no one has this are fine. Lore skills are handy to have around though, and it should come in useful a handful of times in most games.
Investigation
Proactive - You don't need to be playing Mecha Detectives: The Game to want to solve mysteries often in games, making this skill one of the best. That you can use it to find clues in the spot even without the need for downtime makes it even better.
Adaptable - This might be the best reactive skill in the game, because it applies to nearly every reactive uses of Awareness for in addition to all its proactive uses. In retrospect, it probably should have been strictly a proactive skill.
Essential - Every group needs this, period. Preferably in multiples.
Medicine
Proactive - Not applicable. Well, unless you're going to combine it with Craftsmanship to play mad scientist, I guess.
Adaptable - You use this when someone gets injured or catches a case of plot disease, making it a very reactive skill. It is a strong one though, saving the lives of your fellow PCs (and NPCs too!) is good stuff.
Essential - It is possible nobody in the group will ever need this, but it is still good to have just in case. Sure, you may never need it, but when you do you'll be sorry you don't have anybody trained in Medicine.
Presence
Proactive - Catching people's attention and giving good speeches is often helpful but doesn't really do anything by itself. You're either motivating other people or distracting them from something else going on, so this is one of the worst proactive skills there is.
Adaptable - The neat thing about Presence is that it can be a good complement to other people's skills in many, many situations with some creative thinking. It needs the Leadership Trait to be less narrow though, but Leadership is very powerful when you have a good Charm score anyway.
Essential - Probably the least essential skill in the whole game in mechanical terms. Ironically, every team needs a leader and this is the skill that distinguishes an okay leader from a great one, so it balances out to being alright.
Sciences
Proactive - Another knowledge skill, and like with Humanities it has limited proactive uses. Probably more useful in a science fiction setting than Humanities, though.
Adaptable - The cool thing about an omniscientist PC is that you know about things that you (the Player) would need decades of studying to learn. With Humanities a lot of its reactive uses come down to guesswork, but Sciences is a little more reliable.
Essential - See Humanities, but slightly better because most BCG games will be science fiction. You know how this works.
Stealth
Proactive - This is a good one, because most games involve some sneaking in or out of places at multiple points. Even without Finesse or Athletics, just being able to move around without being noticed is very handy.
Adaptable - A lot of the time, when you want to hide something in your person or to outright hide yourself from other's eyes, you're doing it as a reaction. The usefulness of both those things makes this a solid reactive skill against many different kinds of shenaniganry the GM could throw your way.
Essential - It is undoubtedly a good idea to have at least one person who can hide from the enemy when the whole of the group is about to be ambushed and captured so they can break the other PCs out. There's even Traits to enable this kind of thing (Smoke Bomb and I was Here all Along) no matter how unlikely or implausible it might seem.
Survival
Proactive - There are proactive uses of Survival, but they're not suitable to games involving consistent access to mechs. It is a lot more useful with powered armor and lack of a battleship to ferry you around in between missions though.
Adaptable - If you're separated from the benefits of modern society and any convenient means to get back to it (such as, say, giant robots) then this'll come in handy. This might not happen more than once but, much like with Medicine, you probably want to be prepared.
Essential - Most situations where this skill would help need the session (or the whole game) to revolve around making things different from the norm for BCG. This might just be the least useful skill in the game.
Vehicles
Proactive - Vehicles is so-so, while it can be very useful proactively, because it does what every other physical skill does for a fraction of the cost as a bonus... The problem is that you often don't have access to a vehicle or, more importantly, you have access to your mech which makes Vehicles pointless.
Adaptable - Great if you have your vehicle around when you're being put on the spot, but terrible otherwise. You probably do go everywhere you can with your vehicle though, otherwise what is the point of it?
Essential - As far as skills that every group should have covered go, this is on the worse half of the list. It is useful, but not really essential.
In Conclusion
So one thing I notice from going over the General Skills section is that, in trying to make the rules system truly generic, it ended up looking more like something out of a non-mecha game. Many of the example skill checks given aren't related to the kinds of things you would do in the average Battle Century G game, and the issues that many skills have being overshadowed by giant robots have already been noted. With that said, an important part of the system is that you can reskin robots into power armor or magic monsters with minimal tweaking, so this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
One thing I think would have changed is rolling the Finesse skill into Stealth and Athletics. Another would be removing Presence and making a Trait to grab people's attentions once per Episode, kind of like how Leadership needs its own Trait for balance reasons but is probably better off that way. Awareness should have been a proactive skill without being a passive buff to most Awareness Tests as well. Lastly, I would have probably split Craftsmanship into its Fitness, Intellect and Charm versions to keep novelists from being engineers and the such.
Overall though, I'm very happy with the skill system and this skill list, because it makes characters that are capable and powerful from Power Level 1 onwards, as generalists and specialists both.
Next: Superpowers, aka Miracles.
Gimmick Out.
In theory, having more skills and variable training levels adds options and differentiates characters more, which would be a good thing. In practice, extensive skill lists have the problem where each one is so narrow that you only care about the most useful one or two for your PC (usually a combat or social skill) and ignore the others unless you have spare points lying around. This is then made worse by having multiple skill levels for them, because you must spend your precious customization points going all in on the good skills instead of wasting your resources on the others. Thus, while I think that games without any skill system are fine, I think having more than 20 skills (not including those that represent psychic powers or the like) is a mistake.
Arguably, the skill system has less ways to represent different levels of expertise and doesn't allow for more specialized builds. The rules approximate this with the use of Traits, resolving the issue. At least in build option terms.
Speaking of builds, how are the Attributes balanced in terms of Skill representation? Well, Fitness and Charm have 8 and 5 General Skills respectively. Willpower and Resources have zero skills both, because they're not supposed to. Awareness has one, because I honestly couldn't justify giving that Skill to a different Attribute (and didn't think of simply not making it a Skill at the time). But wait, what about Intellect? Well, Intellect has a ridiculous total of 12 Skills! The heck happened there!?
You see, most of those are secondary applications of other Skills having to do with theoretical knowledge. So, for example, Combat is a Fitness Skill but military strategy (which is not how you tend to use the skill at all) uses the Intellect stat. The total of Skills where you're expected to actually use Intellect with are just six, which is a lot more reasonable. Still, having so many Skills tied to Intellect means that getting points in Intellect is comparatively cheaper than buying two or three of its Skills, because the stat bonus applies to all of them. To alleviate the issue, most of those Skills have accompanying Traits that require you to be trained in them to use them.
General Skill Review
The structure of the Skill system is fine, but how about the skills themselves? Would the same list be worth reusing in a future project? I'll review the skills based on three criteria:
Proactive - A good Proactive skill is one that can be used to advance the plot or further your PC's agenda.
Adaptable - An Adaptable skill lets you react to GM prompts and resolve the problems they present.
Essential - A truly Essential skill is one where each group needs to have at least one PC trained in it.
If these sound kind of abstract, that's fine. Each entry will have an explanation to make things clearer.
Athletics
Proactive - Athletics is an alright proactive skill, it lets you get to places most people can't reach. This is a game with giant robots though (or henshin suits or summoned monsters or whatever), so at best this lets you do it earlier than other PCs.
Adaptable - The true power of Athletics is in reacting to things that happen to you like catching a thief or climbing down a building you're trapped in. When the GM puts you in a tough spot, Athletics is the Skill that lets you use your physical prowess to solve the situation and it usually proves its worth.
Essential - While having Athletics is usually a decent idea for your own convenience, most groups will be fine without it by virtue of having mechs. In theory the worst thing that could happen is a TPK when the GM places everyone in lethal peril, but in practice it is probably more like getting captured by antagonists or the such.
Craftsmanship
Proactive - This is an excellent skill when you have some downtime to use it with, but a terrible one when you're pressed for time. Unless you're playing 24 With Mechs, you'll be able to craft all sorts of cool stuff.
Reactive - Craftsmanship is awful as a reactive skill, it is pretty much its only weakness. I guess you can still use it to try and dismantle a bomb or to fix something broken when in a hurry but just how often does that happen?
Essential - Having someone trained in this is probably a good idea, but you'll be fine if nobody else takes it. It is just so good and does so much that it is unlikely that no one will have it.
Combat
Proactive - If you don't mind getting violent or threatening people, Combat is a great skill to help you get what you want when you can't use your robot to do it. You'll run into other people's mechs if you do this often though, so be careful.
Adaptable - Much like Athletics, Combat shows its true worth most of the time when you're in trouble and want to use physical means to solve it. Unlike Athletics, this needs to be a problem you can solve by hitting it until it is not a problem anymore, which is still pretty good even if it is not quite as good.
Essential - When one or more PCs have the combat skill they get to be the ones who show off when the group is in trouble outside of their robots. Depending on how easy or hard it is to get to mecha at a moment's notice, Combat may be essential or just a nice thing to have just in case.
Deception
Proactive - Being a good liar can get you far in games if you're not afraid of gray morality in your PCs. Just be careful not to get caught, that's when things get complicated for you (hint: you'll get caught at some point).
Adaptable - With a good Charm score Deception will get you out of a lot of trouble. Arguably the skill is even better used reactively than proactively, because that tends to have lower odds of getting yourself caught.
Essential - Most teams should have someone who can use Deception well, if not both Deception and Diplomacy. While it is not absolutely necessary, it is often invaluable.
Diplomacy
Proactive - Saying the right things to the right people can, and often will, be a very efficient way to further your agenda in game. The only downside is that it doesn't work on those not interested in anything you have to say, which hopefully isn't too many folks.
Adaptable - There's a lot of problems you can solve by talking, and those who can't be solved can be often mitigated at the very least. Your own ingenuity at working out a good deal can be more important than dice rolls here, though.
Essential - Just as important as Deception, if not more, because it doesn't tempt fate (read: the GM) to make people figure out they've been fooled.
Finesse
Proactive - It is solid, but not great, because this is the stuff that good spies are made of. You may need Stealth or Electronics to complement it, but this is almost obligatory for the roguish types.
Adaptable - Reactively, this skill has problems in that it has narrow uses and other skills like Athletics or Combat also use Fitness can achieve similar ends with generally more efficient means. If you're going to train your PC in Finesse, you should be proactive about it.
Essential - As non-essential as it gets. Even if nobody has this, you can get by using the skills mentioned above.
Electronics
Proactive - I hear hacking is a cool and good thing in science fiction. This is a strong contender for the position of most powerful proactive skill in the game for that alone.
Adaptable - If you can't think of ways to solve most problems using computer skills in a science fiction game, you're not trying hard enough. It might be harder than if you used other skills, but that it is possible (and even plausible) to do so makes the skill very strong reactively.
Essential - At least one person should have this, because you'll need it. If nobody in the team does, then you're probably doing something wrong.
Humanities
Proactive - As a knowledge skill, Humanities has narrow proactive uses, though it has them and they'll come in handy. Most of those involve research, which needs downtime, so it isn't exactly stellar.
Adaptable - Humanities is useful to figure out bits of lore in the spot, which is okay I guess. It must be something your PC could reasonably be assumed to know though.
Essential - Groups where no one has this are fine. Lore skills are handy to have around though, and it should come in useful a handful of times in most games.
Investigation
Proactive - You don't need to be playing Mecha Detectives: The Game to want to solve mysteries often in games, making this skill one of the best. That you can use it to find clues in the spot even without the need for downtime makes it even better.
Adaptable - This might be the best reactive skill in the game, because it applies to nearly every reactive uses of Awareness for in addition to all its proactive uses. In retrospect, it probably should have been strictly a proactive skill.
Essential - Every group needs this, period. Preferably in multiples.
Medicine
Proactive - Not applicable. Well, unless you're going to combine it with Craftsmanship to play mad scientist, I guess.
Adaptable - You use this when someone gets injured or catches a case of plot disease, making it a very reactive skill. It is a strong one though, saving the lives of your fellow PCs (and NPCs too!) is good stuff.
Essential - It is possible nobody in the group will ever need this, but it is still good to have just in case. Sure, you may never need it, but when you do you'll be sorry you don't have anybody trained in Medicine.
Presence
Proactive - Catching people's attention and giving good speeches is often helpful but doesn't really do anything by itself. You're either motivating other people or distracting them from something else going on, so this is one of the worst proactive skills there is.
Adaptable - The neat thing about Presence is that it can be a good complement to other people's skills in many, many situations with some creative thinking. It needs the Leadership Trait to be less narrow though, but Leadership is very powerful when you have a good Charm score anyway.
Essential - Probably the least essential skill in the whole game in mechanical terms. Ironically, every team needs a leader and this is the skill that distinguishes an okay leader from a great one, so it balances out to being alright.
Sciences
Proactive - Another knowledge skill, and like with Humanities it has limited proactive uses. Probably more useful in a science fiction setting than Humanities, though.
Adaptable - The cool thing about an omniscientist PC is that you know about things that you (the Player) would need decades of studying to learn. With Humanities a lot of its reactive uses come down to guesswork, but Sciences is a little more reliable.
Essential - See Humanities, but slightly better because most BCG games will be science fiction. You know how this works.
Stealth
Proactive - This is a good one, because most games involve some sneaking in or out of places at multiple points. Even without Finesse or Athletics, just being able to move around without being noticed is very handy.
Adaptable - A lot of the time, when you want to hide something in your person or to outright hide yourself from other's eyes, you're doing it as a reaction. The usefulness of both those things makes this a solid reactive skill against many different kinds of shenaniganry the GM could throw your way.
Essential - It is undoubtedly a good idea to have at least one person who can hide from the enemy when the whole of the group is about to be ambushed and captured so they can break the other PCs out. There's even Traits to enable this kind of thing (Smoke Bomb and I was Here all Along) no matter how unlikely or implausible it might seem.
Survival
Proactive - There are proactive uses of Survival, but they're not suitable to games involving consistent access to mechs. It is a lot more useful with powered armor and lack of a battleship to ferry you around in between missions though.
Adaptable - If you're separated from the benefits of modern society and any convenient means to get back to it (such as, say, giant robots) then this'll come in handy. This might not happen more than once but, much like with Medicine, you probably want to be prepared.
Essential - Most situations where this skill would help need the session (or the whole game) to revolve around making things different from the norm for BCG. This might just be the least useful skill in the game.
Vehicles
Proactive - Vehicles is so-so, while it can be very useful proactively, because it does what every other physical skill does for a fraction of the cost as a bonus... The problem is that you often don't have access to a vehicle or, more importantly, you have access to your mech which makes Vehicles pointless.
Adaptable - Great if you have your vehicle around when you're being put on the spot, but terrible otherwise. You probably do go everywhere you can with your vehicle though, otherwise what is the point of it?
Essential - As far as skills that every group should have covered go, this is on the worse half of the list. It is useful, but not really essential.
In Conclusion
So one thing I notice from going over the General Skills section is that, in trying to make the rules system truly generic, it ended up looking more like something out of a non-mecha game. Many of the example skill checks given aren't related to the kinds of things you would do in the average Battle Century G game, and the issues that many skills have being overshadowed by giant robots have already been noted. With that said, an important part of the system is that you can reskin robots into power armor or magic monsters with minimal tweaking, so this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
One thing I think would have changed is rolling the Finesse skill into Stealth and Athletics. Another would be removing Presence and making a Trait to grab people's attentions once per Episode, kind of like how Leadership needs its own Trait for balance reasons but is probably better off that way. Awareness should have been a proactive skill without being a passive buff to most Awareness Tests as well. Lastly, I would have probably split Craftsmanship into its Fitness, Intellect and Charm versions to keep novelists from being engineers and the such.
Overall though, I'm very happy with the skill system and this skill list, because it makes characters that are capable and powerful from Power Level 1 onwards, as generalists and specialists both.
Next: Superpowers, aka Miracles.
Gimmick Out.
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