I am getting ready for my first game and have a question regarding some skills. A player has 2 ability in all characteristics. Lets say he doesn't take a skill in Piloting, Skullduggery, Navigation or Medicine...but yet the character sheet shows him having 2 ability dice for each of those skills. Does that mean he has the possibility of making a roll on those skills using the two ability dice even if he has 0 ranks of skill purchased?

Yes, I am not aware of any skills that need to be "trained" in order to be used.

Yes, Characteristic score plus skill training score equals the dice pool. take the higher number (characteristic or skill) that becomes your green dice. The smaller number becomes your yellow dice, replacing that amount of greens. So, if you only had 2 in all your characteristics, and you wanted to use a skill that you didn't have any points in, you would only roll 2 green dice. If you had 1 point in a skill, you would roll 1 green and 1 yellow. Hope that helps!

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It just seems strange to me that all characters can pilot a space ship, navigate hyperspace and perform surgery. But if that is what the rules really intend, then I will roll with that (pun intended).

It just seems strange to me that all characters can pilot a space ship, navigate hyperspace and perform surgery. But if that is what the rules really intend, then I will roll with that (pun intended).

It may not seem realistic, but I can't recall any of the characters in the movies clearly not being able to fly a ship or plot a hyperspace course. Surgery may stretch suspension of disbelief a bit more (I don't think we ever saw an organic doctor in the movies, actually!), but figure that not having any skill is going to limit players' willingness to try something like that a little bit.

It just seems strange to me that all characters can pilot a space ship, navigate hyperspace and perform surgery. But if that is what the rules really intend, then I will roll with that (pun intended).

Well, if you look at the movies, you see the main characters able to attempt a lot of things. Doesn't mean they're especially good at them, but they can attempt them.

One of the major complaints about the d20 versions was that skills were often too restrictive, and that players didn't really have an incentive to try and do things they weren't trained in. Saga Edition made a good attempt at fixing that by adding a level bonus to all skill checks, trained or otherwise, and letting a lot of more common skill uses be performed untrained.

By the same token, the WEG d6 version also allowed folks to roll just their attribute, with skill ranks merely adding more d6's to the dice pool.

I'd look at it like 0 ranks in a skill is basic knowledge, you can put on a rudimentary bandage, drive a car in a controlled environment, 6 ranks is surgeon or The Stig. Characteristics are important too, clumsy folks make poor race car drivers and simpletons make poor neuro-surgeons.

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It just seems strange to me that all characters can pilot a space ship, navigate hyperspace and perform surgery. But if that is what the rules really intend, then I will roll with that (pun intended).

The idea is that while training can definitely compliment and enhance a given skill, raw ability can compensate for lack of training.

Someone untrained in Piloting (Space) but with a high Agility can rely on his/her natural characteristics, but he/she is still not going to be as effective as someone who is trained in Piloting (Space) and also has a high Agility.

Conversely, the untrained pilot with the high Agility is going to be about the same as the trained pilot with low Agility. It's similar to the aspiring musician who is not inherently talented but has trained and trained and trained and reached a respectable level, versus the natural musician who was always good, but can't read sheet music because they never took any lessons.

Mechanically that's why we have Ability Dice and Proficiency Dice.

My surgeon will not be the guy rolling 2 greens.

My surgeon will not be the guy rolling 2 greens.

You obviously haven't looked the providers list offered by ImperiCare.

While I could argue piloting being much more than just reflexes, if these are the rules this is how the designers intended this to be. With all the play testing that went on it would be silly for me to reject this without me having run even run a single game. I think, in the end, it won't even be a problem for me, because when it come down to the serious rolls, they are not going to want just anybody sitting at the helm/making astrogation/performing surgery.

Thanks for your responses, i do appreciate it.

I look at the piloting/astrogation stuff as roughly equivalent to driving a car and navigating around the country for us. It is just basic knowledge for these people/Wookiees/whatever.

Luke: "Ten thousand?! We could almost buy our own ship for that!"

Han: "Yeah, but who's gonna fly it, kid? You?"

Luke: "You bet I could, you know I'm not such a bad pilot myself. We don't have to listen to this ..."

You dont have to be skilled to give it your best shot..(two green die may unfortunately be your ''best shot'')

If the empire is gunning for me and someone says ''grab the sticks and fly this junk heap outa here!'' I'm not gonna stop and say ''oh I cant, I dont have any skill in piloting'' I would just jump in that seat and try not to kill us!

on that note there isnt anything saying a character with no skill in brawl cant take on a group of angry wookies with his bare hands... it just means he will most likely be ripped apart trying

It just seems strange to me that all characters can pilot a space ship, navigate hyperspace and perform surgery. But if that is what the rules really intend, then I will roll with that (pun intended).

You're forgetting just how advanced their tech is. A medpack has quite a bit of built-in diagnostics with friendly readouts for the untrained. Same thing with piloting ships and jumping to hyperspace. Unless you're trying to scout out a new route, making a calculation is as simple as telling the navcomputer where you are and where you're going and it will set your exit vector and entry based on data it has internally, much like telling your GPS where you want to go. It is great at getting you to known/popular places, but not worth a **** at getting you to the unknown/new locations without updates.

If a character attempted surgery with out the appropriate skill wouldn't you add challenge dice to the roll?

If the DM felt it was necessary, and/or used a Destiny Point (which I would because having that Despair chance would be rather fitting). But, chances are, with two ability dice against a particularly tough critical injury (PPPP or so) you'd best not try and do anything if you're going raw baseline 2 intellect. You'll just make it worse, as it should be.

While I could argue piloting being much more than just reflexes, if these are the rules this is how the designers intended this to be. With all the play testing that went on it would be silly for me to reject this without me having run even run a single game.

I think it's intentional more to enhance the game play and not bog it down in restrictions. Rolling two ability dice isn't exactly great, you will make an "Average" check only a little more than half the time, and even an "Easy" check isn't a given. And yes, the idea of upgrading the difficulty dice through a Destiny Point for an untrained check seems perfectly reasonable (provided there's a chance of something terrible happening).

In any case, you could think of it the other way: that being too restrictive isn't realistic either. I've played plenty of games where the list of skills just keeps growing (in supplements, etc) because no skill completely encompasses what the players want to do, and the game mechanics made it almost impossible if you didn't have the skill. Anybody remember Chivalry and Sorcery? The 3rd edition had this insane list of skills, including food prep and crafts. If you didn't have the food craft skill (or even if you did, at low level), you could poison the group when making your camp meal. Ridiculous...anybody can stir a pot of soup.

I never liked the D20/D&D4/Saga methods of skill enhancement either. Spending a whole feat on one skill seemed like a huge investment for little gain, and it meant you were awesome at one thing, and useless at everything else. Driving up the skill level per level just meant you were barely keeping pace with the new threats expected at your level, so it was a wash.

All that is to say, I did notice this about skills with the Beginner set, and decided it was not only an improvement, but fit really well within the Star Wars universe. And so far the gameplay bears that out.

For me I generally assume that any character can do the bare basics unless their backstory says otherwise. Any character can treat a minor cut or bruise, or pilot a simple land speeder. It's when they want to do something fancy that they run into problems. In this game I usually give extra leeway for skills that are career skill that the person has no points in. "I know the take off and landing sequence for a yt-1300 but I've never done more than keep her steady while the pilot was in the john".