Character Templates are a large, LARGE step in the direction of
playability/simplicity vs. realism/complexity. I, personally,
regard the character creation process as the single most important
part of gaming, and am loath to encourage cookie-cutter characters.
I will, however, suggest another area which CAN and SHOULD be
simplified by templating: combat, either between individuals
or between starships. This is an idea I have used extensively
in the past, and while I have not yet tested it on the T2k2 rules
or any of their ilk, it has worked exceptionally well for Trav Classic
and many other rules systems. The basic idea is as follows:
Most characters have a particular set of equipment that doesn't
change all that much over the course of a campaign. They usually
wear the same kinds of armor and protective gear, and in these days
of the collapsing Imperium they are even more likely than before to
travel with the same types of weapons regardless of where they are.
Their skills change only slowly, as do their stats. Furthermore, when
they use a particular weapon, one can make an educated guess as to the
range and armor of the opponent for better than half of the cases
encountered: pistols are more likely to be used against targets at
short or medium range, blades only at close or short, longarms at
medium or long, etc.
What this means is that for each of his weapons, a character can have
a couple of task rolls pre-worked-out on his character sheet, to cover
the vast majority of situations under which the weapons are used. The
referee can add or subtract from those Combat Sheet Baselines (CSB's,
as I call them in my modified Trav Classic rules) on the fly:
"I normally need an 8+ to hit him...."
"Make that an 11+, he's under cover."
"Made it anyway. And a 7+ to penetrate...."
"Only 5+, his armor is flimsier than you're used to."
These baselines usually take up only a few lines at the bottom of a sheet,
and are immensely handy for staying within the rules and speeding up the
die rolling in combat situations. A set of characters who are used to the
baselines, and a ref who has the mods involved (if any) well in hand, can
get through an entire melee in almost realtime with this setup.
This doesn't fall so much into the area of "New Rules," Bryan, but I'd
appreciate it if you'd pass it on to GDW. If simplification of something
as important and fun as character generation is going to be considered,
then simplification of something as dreary and dice-laden as combat should
be as well. (My biases are showing; my favorite combat system involved
slightly more die rolls than Trav Classic but fewer than MT.)
- --
Mike Metlay
[email removed]
[address removed]