Fair point, but I still think it's odd.

I mean it certainly doesn't fall squarely under the "already possess talent, skip it" rule, but it easily could.

The cost is low but that is an argument both for and against I think. They're cheap so why pay? It's pointless basically. On the other hand, they're so cheap that why not pay, its not like 5XP is that much... although it's still 5 wasted XP...

Ah well, we'll see if they ever replies to my email. I doubt it somehow.

Yes, I'd personally feel inclined to let them skip it if they had these as career skills anyway.

But heck, I gave them 'Recruit' and a bunch of starting XP just to get them up to a good starting standard anyway...

If you're a Soldier already, or an Ace, you're probably not going to need Recruit to flesh out your combat skills but if you want those juicy unique talents anyway, there's a price to pay.

You can work up one line and back down the other... it's a convenience.

Our Commando is going up the armor line, and planning on coming back down the infantry one.

His intended pattern on the recruit tree is:

- 1 - -

5 2 - -

4 3 8 -

A 6 7 -

- B 9 -

Which will get him..

_5 Second Wind (already taken)

10 Vehicle Combat Training (adding Gunnery and Pilot Planet)

15 Grit

15 Quick Draw

10 Another rank of Second Wind

20 Jump Up

20 Another Grit

15 Another toughened

25 And another Toughened

25 Dedication.

We'll see if he sticks to it. He's already gotten up through vehicle combat training. ( 5 left from session before last, 15 from last session, 5 from chapter break, 15 this session)

[...] I gave them 'Recruit' and a bunch of starting XP just to get them up to a good starting standard anyway...

My player's are about to get to a point to where they can join up with the fledgling (we're playing pre-BBY) alliance. I'm considering allowing players a flat XP bonus, equipment package, or this specialization for free. Making a commitment to the Rebel Alliance should be a big deal, I want the narrative and the mechanical to reflect this sudden shift in priorities for the PCs.

Anyway. Would you require someone to buy any talent that grants new careers skills if said skills are already career skills when going that route on the talent tree? I'm thinking specifically about the new Recruit universal spec as this is the first spec with so many skill granting talents.

I would, personally. Only because the talents are set in a specific way as to costs, with talents further on the list being there strictly to be weighed against the costs. So in that essence, yes, I would make them buy level one to get the link to level 2. That said, out of the 13 people I run the game for, I don't have a single player that has all 4- brawl, ranged light and heavy, and melee, prior to the recruit tree.

I would be willing to swap the skills they are getting to one(s) they don't already have. For instance I'd swap column 1, row 1, with column 4, row 1 if the person was after the 2nd wind (or something further down row 1), but already has the skills given in Basic Combat Training.

I think the fact that there are multiple progression paths up the Recruit tree provides enough alternatives that if someone already has the skills covered by the Recruit's "gain these skills as career skills" talents, they can easily enough maneuver around it without getting a free "jump" up the tree. For the 5 XP talents, it may not be a big deal, but for the two 10 XP talents, it's a more important factor that you'd be able to skip some of those talents, simply based upon your starting career.

I have a question to you guys. I tried sending it to FFG but it didn't seem to work.

Anyway. Would you require someone to buy any talent that grants new careers skills if said skills are already career skills when going that route on the talent tree? I'm thinking specifically about the new Recruit universal spec as this is the first spec with so many skill granting talents.

My players were discussing that yesterday. Without my input, they came to the conclusion that, yes, you do, as it's a speed-bump en route to the real meat of that table.

My problem with this is that speed-bumps are pretty much always terrible, boring, and to be avoided whenever possible, even if they're super cheap in terms of cost.

Quick question for those that dislike the speed-bumps for the recruit, how do you feel about the slicer talent tree? It has a detour rather than a speed bump? Have you altered that?

It's a different issue in my opinion - one is the design of a talent tree, the other is an issue of how skill granting talents are to be treated, if possessing both the skills of a given talent meets the requirement of "already possess that talent? skip it" rule or not.

Quick question for those that dislike the speed-bumps for the recruit, how do you feel about the slicer talent tree? It has a detour rather than a speed bump? Have you altered that?

No, while I disagree with the starting completely linear nature of the tree, nothing on it is completely useless or redundant, so.

I do question how often Defensive Slicing will come into use, though Improved Defensive Slicing is quite good and gets around opponent NPCs with Codebreaker.

My only issue with the Recruit tree is that it's sole purpose seems to be delivering career skills. It has no flavor. The few unique talents it has are hard to judge because it's so difficult to pin down exactly what the Recruit is supposed to do (that others wouldn't).

The only reason we need this tree is because of the xp cost of buying a spec out-of-career.

It seems that a more coherent alternative would just be two+ specs that each focused on a different aspect of training and had its own theme. Maybe you got some survival and small arms training. Maybe you were trained with vehicles and heavy weapons. Either way it would mean more to your character than the current option, and allow you to further differentiate your character from the others in the party.

Submitted feedback to just such effect, I hope?