So, I am flipping through my books at the various Alternate Career paths, and I am wondering something about two of them. If you look at Hostile Acquisitions, p. 35, Cold Trade Brokers CAN get Peer (Xenos) for free, as the advantage for taking that Alt. Career (Cold Trader trait). They don't have to pay anything for it, and it's a nice Trait for one's CTB character to have. The Xenographer, on the other hand, lives in Into the Storm, p.100, and DOESN'T get it for free. They have to take it as an Elite Advance, AND thus pay for it, AND roleplay the crap out of demonstrating their interaction with aliens before taking it. The group who SEEMS to have more likely hood to have positive relations with xenos have to pay for it, while the thieves/merchants get it for free. Beyond that, their reqs are almost the same, with the CTB needing skills I'd expect the Xenographer should also have to need, and gaining a free Enemy, which I suppose pays off the free Peer, but I could also see a xeno-scholar gaining.

So, does free Enemy pay it off, or are the Alt Careers in HA just better? Many of them give you a freebie bonus, in addition to the options for Skills ant Talents, while ItS just gives you alternate skills/traits.

And sadly, neither gets it on their list, so I assume each additional Peer is another Elite Advance, since Peer (Xenos) probably means you need Peer (Eldar) and Peer (Kroot); (Xenos) can't cover every race.

They also get Enemy (Inquisition) to balance things out. They aren't getting it for free.

Think of it like this.

One of them is trying to study things, the other is trying to buy/beg/steal them to make a profit.

Greed isn't a human trait, there will always be some Xenos with the same mentality willing to work for the Cold Trader.

Whereas a guy showing up and saying "Hi, I want to learn about you!!" Is going to raise some eyebrows considering he comes from a species that is infamous for "studying" Xenos into extinction. I'd trust the criminal scum before I trusted the other guy.

venkelos said:

Umm, what? Page 101 of Into the Storm, very first Advance for Xenographer is Forbidden Lore (Xenos) for 100. They can also take Forbidden Lore (Xenos) +10 for 200.

I don't have Hostile Acquisitions in front of me. But from memory they get the Cold Trader Talent for free, but still need to purchase Forbidden Lore (Xenos). I need to double-check on that though.

kenshin138 said:

Well it's "free" but you have to be Rank 2 to get into the alt career, so thats 7K xp spent.

Also, he's talking about Peer Xenos which the Cold Trader talent provides for "free", not Forbidden Lore Xenos.

Giving the peer talent for free makes sense for the CTB since that path indicates they have spent extensive time befriending and trading with one particular Xeno breed. Personally most of the Peer traits I tend to only make available through roleplay or award them for actions in game. It makes more sense to me than just "spend xp - make friend."

Reading forums while at work sometimes isn't the best idea. My bad, I swore this was talking about Forbidden Lore, not Peer.

CARRY ON! Nothing to see here!