I've played a lot of SW but very little Genesys. I've noticed that characters get far fewer career skills in Genesys, and it has me wondering how much it would impact the game to be flexible with the career skills granted by career selection. For example, if a player has a dwarf warrior and never intends to make much use of mounts, would it be reasonable to allow Discipline to replace Ride as one of this character's eight career skills?

I think it shouldn't be game-breaking so long as the character begins with a reasonably diverse range of Career Skills. If a player wanted to swap out a bunch of stuff to get all the combat skills, that might be a red flag, for instance. But if they just want to swap a general skill for another one (like you describe), it wouldn't be game-breaking.

What you describe will not be a problem. I allow players to swap skills in same category if it fits the character better. Has not been a problem so far.

Note there are many talents that add career skills. Especially in ROT. So there are other ways if you simply must have a particular skill

Basically, I don't think swapping out one career skill for another would be game breaking. The example of the dwarf Warrior not needing any skills in riding mounts, and having some dwarvish stubbornness and regimed upbringing in Discipline/Willpower is a very solid one. My best advice would be to discuss this with the GameMaster and come to a mutual agreement.

However, I do think it would be fair to exchange one skill for another within the same category. One Knowledge for another specific Knowledge, or one Combat skill for another Combat skill, for example. Same as @SavageBob indicates.

12 minutes ago, Xcapobl said:

However, I do think it would be fair to exchange one skill for another within the same category. One Knowledge for another specific Knowledge, or one Combat skill for another Combat skill, for example. Same as @SavageBob indicates.

Should the category really matter? A skill is a skill, right? The only skills I could see a reason for restricting would be the Magic skills, but that's because you can only use them if they are Career Skills. Combat, General, and Knowledge skills don't have the same issue.

As far as I can tell, the category matters, as each career tries to provide a (sort of) balance between the categories. You would hardly ever find a career, for example, with all combat skills available as career skills.

I know it would likely be moot. If you make a character with only combat skills, I wish him or her much luck in social situations, or when trying to recall that little piece of ancient lore that could save lives. But as presented, both in Star Wars RPG and in Genesys, the careers try to give career skills as not to specialize in one category too much.

Also (why I edited this as I just realized it) I might think the selection of career skills also provides a reason not to specialize in only one of the attributes. If you change all career skills to skills that use, for example, Agility exclusively, you would have an advantage which other characters wouldn't have when they have a selection of skills that refer to 4, 5 or even all 6 of the attribute scores.

4 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

Should the category really matter? A skill is a skill, right? The only skills I could see a reason for restricting would be the Magic skills, but that's because you can only use them if they are Career Skills. Combat, General, and Knowledge skills don't have the same issue.

The Android: Shadow of the Beanstalk address this in the "I want to Play Something Else!" sidebar of the Career Section:

"...we realize you might have an idea in mind that doesn’t fit any of these careers exactly. Luckily, the career is one of the most flexible elements of character creation. If your GM is fine with it, you can make your own career. Simply choose eight skills to be career skills for your character, and write up a short description explaining what your new career is all about.

Just keep in mind when you create your career that when we make a career, we try to make sure that it has a diverse spread of skills. This is less about game balance, and more because we want to make sure players don’t end up feeling like their characters can only participate in one particular facet of the game..."

Also, as a Gensys GM and player, it greatly helps encounter and puzzle balance. You want about 3 Skills in each of the two "main" characteristics and 1 or 2 is separate characteristics. Taking one of the included Careers and modifying skills to fit your idea while staying within this guide will do just fine. Additionally, you can always ask these forums for feedback on an original Career skill template. Hope this was helpful.

When I was writing up my shameless Indy/Laura Croft mashup, there wasn't really an archaeologist template. There was the Scoundrel, which sort of kind matched and the Scholar which also kind sorta got close. But there was nothing really in the book that was a real good fit.

So I did the next best thing: went to Edge and used the archaeologist from Enter the Unknown as a starting point, tweaked the skills a little bit to be more fantasy and less Warsy while asking myself "Would Indiana Jones have that skill?", bounced it off a couple folks around here and then presented my proposal to the group. There was a bit of back and forth, one skill who's hill I was determined to die on and - tadah! All new, off the books character!

And I've been loving her!