So one of my players and I were having a discussion about skills and characteristics and the following questions came up:

1. Since there is no requirement to spend all my xp during character gen can't a player just save xp, wait a session and immediately rank a skill up to 5 thus making the skill cap of 2 during character gen pointless?

2. Also one of the selling points of the system for this player was that you can keep ranking up skills to potentially compensate for weak characteristics. How often has anyone seen this happen on PC's?

I suppose, if you have 75 xp after one session and want to blow it all on one career skill. Seems like a dice pool with a name as opposed to a character though. It's not a very cost effective move as spending the xp to raise characteristics can only be done during CHARGEN and given the fact that some of them like Agility and Intellect impact so many skills it would be a silly thing to not spend the xp.

There also isn't any difference between spending xp at CHARGEN and buying rank 2 in a given skill, saving some xp from CHARGEN, and then using the first session reward of xp in conjunction with your saved CHARGEN xp to continue ranking a skill to 5. I'm not sure what you've really accomplished other than losing out on raising characteristics during CHARGEN?

Ranking skill up minus a good stat is generally something I do on something as I grow a character and I either see some specific need of the group not being met or some aspect of my character I'd like to be better at. For example not having a great Presence but wanting to raise Cool in order to be a good gambler.

Characteristics are way better to spend points at chargen anyways. Only very specific character concepts only ever need one Characteristic. Even then you suffer.

That's ignoring the fact that your question implies someone trying to game the system, fairly obviously too. If someone wants to break this system, it's not terribly hard (true to all systems, this one a little more so) but as a player you shouldn't, cause that's not fun. As a GM if someone tried to pull the above, I would probably allow it, but I would police them closely for other cheesemonkey activities.. if it continued I would warn them and eventually boot them.

As to your 2nd question, yes I regularly see players spend points in skills to make up for a weak Characteristic.

If a player wants to do that they can, but I wouldn't adjust a session or encounter for them since they will be poor in everything except the one or two skills focused on. Also point out no skill can ever go above 5 so yes u may get a 5 in one skill, but you still only have a 2 in the characteristic which isn't leaving as high of a potential for the character if he started with a 3 or even a 4 in the stat and 2 in the skill and over time got the same skill upto 5 later on.

Also that being said as a general rule if a player tries to work the system and it is just for maxing out in one thing usually that player is the one complaining later when all the other players are shining in many scenes and he or she only shines in one. I had an entire session without combat and my non social pc was bored. In combat my social pc still has fun because he is okay since he is average in those. Best characters are the ones who start average in several things, but end up great overtime in sever things

1. Since there is no requirement to spend all my xp during character gen can't a player just save xp, wait a session and immediately rank a skill up to 5 thus making the skill cap of 2 during character gen pointless?

It would be pointless to do that. The character will still only be "good" at one thing, but will never get more yellow dice than their characteristic. So if you leave Brawn at 2, and you jack up Melee, then your Melee will only be YYGGG...good, but not awesome. Meanwhile, if you spend 30XP at chargen to go to Brawn 3, you can still get to 5 ranks pretty quickly, have YYYGG, and all your other Brawn skills will be 1 better.

And if you were a player in my game, you'd soon find out that your YYGGG Melee character can't pass a Fear check, or have the Discipline to not be swindled, or recover from a fight very quickly, or be on the ball with Cool or Vigilance, or climb a tree, or fix a broken shoelace...

So one of my players and I were having a discussion about skills and characteristics and the following questions came up:

1. Since there is no requirement to spend all my xp during character gen can't a player just save xp, wait a session and immediately rank a skill up to 5 thus making the skill cap of 2 during character gen pointless?

2. Also one of the selling points of the system for this player was that you can keep ranking up skills to potentially compensate for weak characteristics. How often has anyone seen this happen on PC's?

On #1, yeah, actually this is explicitly allowed by the rules, and seems to be pretty contrary to the nature "no skills above rank 2 at creation". oh well...

On #2, I haven't had a game go long enough to see this work, but I agree that I like that you can compensate for low attributes with skills, e.g. Pre 4/Cool 1 is equivalent to Pre 1/Cool 4.

Additionally, when you look at how the stats work, you get *WAY* more benefit from adding a Green die to a pool than upgrading a Green to Yellow, you don't get the triumph, but meh.

Since there is no requirement to spend all my xp during character gen can't a player just save xp, wait a session and immediately rank a skill up to 5 thus making the skill cap of 2 during character gen pointless?

Well, you could I guess if you wanted to be a master Slicer/Pilot/Gunslinger/Pastry Chief right out of the gate. Mind you, die codes are pointless. Any schlubb with 75 (or 90) points can have five yellows. Big deal. It's the talents where the character really rocks the house.

Besides, if I were the GM, I'd be all "knock that s*** off and stop trying to game the system."

I will say I think PCs do get 'seduced' by Talent trees and if they actually stopped and thought about it, after CHARGEN, focusing more on raising the skills you actually use, or want to, in many cases makes more sense than stampeding down a Talent tree for a dedication bonus. Personally I typically judge a given spec by the first two rows and what I can get for 5 and 10 xp, not the stuff buried in the labyrinth pathways that exist in some trees.

Yeah, you'll be much happier, even from a completely gamist perspective, developing your characteristics at chargen. Most successful Human builds, IMO, are those that go with a 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2 spread. Alien species can often go 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, although that usually takes all their XP. But this results in more favorable dice pools which makes you feel like a more generally competent character. So unless you like failing at stuff all the time, it is inadvisable to do what the OP suggests in point 1.

Point 2, however, is spot on. You can't have every characteristic at a high rating. So you can absolutely use skill ranks to shore up those weak characteristics. Bang-for-your-buck-wise, this is actually more efficient, since every skill rank you purchase after the first or second will give you an extra die, not just an upgraded one. Granted, there's something nice about rolling those 4 Proficiency Dice, but again, it's better bang for your buck.

1. It's up to your individual GM, but I usually won't let a PC leave character creation with more than 15 banked XP, partly because of what you described and partly because I don't want any characters in the party who are that boring. Also, it's a common sentiment in RPGs not to let a character gain more than one or two ranks in a skill at any given time. Again, talk to your GM.

I second the only specific builds will go with 1 attribute. A medical droid might have a 4 in INT and 1's in most other characteristics. Ditto a pilot droid - high Agility, low brawn, presence, etc.

I have a INT 5 Drall and left 1's in both Agility and Brawn because he's a Dr not a fighter.

Quote "My combat instructor told me 'keep slapping on stimpatches and try not to die before someone can help you.'"

Day 1, he's good for Medicine, Education, and computers, but he's not even carrying a pistol because what's the point? If the party isn't large enough for him to stay non-combatant, I'll add the Recruit specialization.

You can't do that with say a Face character, you need willpower and presence to back your skills and agility to run away if it goes bad.

Day 1, he's good for Medicine, Education, and computers, but he's not even carrying a pistol because what's the point? If the party isn't large enough for him to stay non-combatant, I'll add the Recruit specialization.

That look like my Hutt entrepreneur. Not carying blaster because of his 1 in agility. Ok, he has a sword cane but it is only if we really need it. I dont intempt to raise is melee skill anytime soon. I let the big monsters in my group doing the dirty job.

I will say I think PCs do get 'seduced' by Talent trees and if they actually stopped and thought about it, after CHARGEN, focusing more on raising the skills you actually use, or want to, in many cases makes more sense than stampeding down a Talent tree for a dedication bonus. Personally I typically judge a given spec by the first two rows and what I can get for 5 and 10 xp, not the stuff buried in the labyrinth pathways that exist in some trees.

This was exactly what I saw in my players when we started our AoR campaign after playing EotE for a couple of years. In AoR almost everyone started raising their skill ranks as soon as the game got started, whereas in EotE it had all been about going deep into the talent trees with almost no focus on skills at all to begin with.

I think a 50/50 split between skills and talents and as you get better it becomes 60/40 or 70/30