Skill merging: Permissable?

[TigerwiseVillain]

So for a while now I've been thinking of building a Freespacer character in the Nepleslian Star Military, and I think I have a pretty good idea in mind. But there's a problem: A character can only take a maximum of seven skills, and all of those slots are taken up by the character's faction, race, and profession. The Nepleslian Star Marine Corps automatically grants four skills: Fighting & Physical, Strategy(Tactics & Discipline), Survival, and Communication. On top of that, Freespacers have Starship Operations and Mindware. That leaves me with a single slot, and if I take a profession, like, say, Engineer, that slot gets filled, leaving no room for skill customization. What this means is that in terms of skills, all Freespacer engineers in the NSMC are identical, which not only creates little incentive to play them, but completely contradicts the individualistic flavour of the Freespacer faction.

I've noticed that Mindware overlaps a lot of areas covered by other skills, particularly Knowledge, Technology Operation, Survival, and Communications. Could I merge Mindware with Communications, with the justification that my character just stored the procedures in a file instead of actually bothering to memorize them? If that's allowable, could I merge Survival as well? I don't want to be overpowered, but it seems Freespacers in the NSMC are underpowered by default as a result of redundant skills.

 

[Kokuten]

You can have more than seven skills if some of the skills are innate of your race. Skills can be edited fluidly to handle the purpose of the character, and seven skills are guideline we like to enforce to encourage development of skills in a character. For the character creation, just add everything that's required and gifted of the character and mix together those that overlap for added flavor.

At least, that's what I would say.

 

[Ira]

I figure it is at the discretion of the GM you are under.

 

[raz]

You can have multiple skill specializations in parentheticals, within reason. And standard skill packages can have minor tweaks to suit a character. But keep in mind: Skills don't define a character or even limit what they can do well — you don't need to, like, put down holo-calligraphy as a skill if you want your character to know how to make wacky tattoos, just put it in your history.

 

[Wes]

I would allow mindware to be counted under communications.

Also please note that while you can start with 7 skill areas, you can add more skill areas as your character learns things in the roleplay.

 

[TigerwiseVillain]

Hmm. It occurs to me that most characters don't start out with a specialization, so it probably isn't much of a problem anyway.

By the way, while we're on the topic, how long does it usually take to pick up a new skill area? I suppose the GM would inform me on when I can take it.

 

[Wes]

There's no set time requirement. Just be reasonable.