Approved Character Stan Brandt

https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=characters:yamatai:stan_brandt

Hopefully I haven't committed any cardinal sins; I'm feeling pretty nervous about this (especially the rather poor descriptions for the skills and the height/weight), and this is my first character. I was also not sure if characters were limited to one specialisation only.

Be advised also that I've gotten into contact with the GM for the relevant plot, but he still has to look it over and approve or reject it.

I'll be happy to change things as necessary, though.

Good day! Name's Kyle, character mod here. Fixed your bio so that the table isn't broken.

When putting height, always make sure that the inches are in " and not a double '

Doing with a double ' breaks the table.

Well, you made common mistakes in choosing your character's skills.

Fighting and Physical are two different skill areas.
Power armor operation falls under fighting.

You should read this article and specifically this part. The second link will help you with your skill descriptions. Marine Discipline and specialties are not skill areas. If you want your character to specialize in something you simply say what he specializes in within the correct skill area description. As an example, you'd put his expertise in sniping under Fighting. You can copy the four necessary skill areas for a Nepleslian soldier verbatim, but you should change any instances of "your character" to your character's name or him/he. It's encouraged that you add your own stuff to the descriptions or rephrase them somewhat to make your entries unique.

I'm still relatively new here, but I've already pointed this stuff out to a few people before so it's really no big deal.

@Kyle:

Thanks very much. I'll keep that in mind in future - hopefully I won't make a silly mistake like that again.

@Amaryllis:

Okay, I see. I consulted both that guide and the one for Marine training, though evidently I confused myself. I'll update the thread once I've finished making corrections. Sorry about that.

Yeah, the Marine Skills article has thrown people for a loop in the past.

I think the Confusion is that for Yamatai, Fighting and Physical is one skill, but for Nepleslia they are separate.

As for those last two skills, I'm not sure about them but then again it's been about four years since I've created a Nepleslian military character. There might be existing skills that fulfill those descriptions, but what you have written doesn't seem bad.

Anyway, Welcome to SARP! Hopefully you enjoy the place!

Thanks a lot, Kai - I hope I can be a productive member of the community in the future.

I'm still in the process of editing the page, but I just want to ask something quickly.

Should I delete the descriptions I had written initially and replace them with those generic descriptions (with some changes, naturally), or what else should I do? I'm asking because I think those were probably not very good, and I'm not particularly confident in my ability to improve them.

I will have to add the rest of those necessary skills, correct? I haven't been too sure on that particular subject, as part of me reasoned that if they're necessary for every member of the Nepleslian Star Military their "presence" so to speak would be a given. However, I'm not completely convinced that is the case (hence my hodgepodge addition of the survival and communication skills).

Geeze, I probably sound so unprepared...

Don't worry, you're doing better than a lot of people I see. We do prefer that you use the provided descriptions, and little changes to them are fine as long as it's nothing ridiculous. We also have those required skills required because those are what we believe is necessary for a soldier to be able to, well, Be a soldier. Starting out most of what you'll know will be what your character learned in basic, plus a couple of extra skills. After your character is played for a while, you're allowed to add new skills, or further develop the ones you have, so don't worry too much about what you have right now and just stick with the basics.

We like being shown who your character is through RP, not told who they are Via the bio. The bio is mostly a tool to give GM's and other players a basic overview of what they can expect from your character, among a few other things.

Ah, okay. I understand.

I put in a lot of information because the other place I RP on tends to expect a fair amount of detail, but I'll be happy to cut down on that.

Judging from your response, I assume you're suggesting that I replace the current descriptions with the generic ones, but I'm going to be cautious and wait for confirmation.

I've finished editing the profile - I've (hopefully) fixed the skills area. The descriptions for the other necessary skills aren't changed much from the originals, and as mentioned above I'll replace the other descriptions as necessary.

Kai said:

I think the Confusion is that for Yamatai, Fighting and Physical is one skill

Click to expand...

I know my post is deviating from the original topic, but I would like to point out that that is not the case right now. I don't know when it changed.

That is the message, Brett. The boilerplates are required, adding onto them is the optional part.

Done and done. Sorry for not having figured that out earlier.

I've tried to be as faithful to the original descriptions of the specialties as possible, though I have had to change a few things to have it sound natural.

Now you just need to choose 3 more skill areas you'd like your character to have to get the total of 7. You don't really have to, but it's encouraged since they'd make your character more unique and give you more options when you're actually in a plot.

I'm not really sure what other skills he could have, and I don't want to make a hash of things again, so I think I may leave things alone unless I get a particularly good idea.

I know I've said this before, but thanks for all the help - it's much appreciated.

Amaryllis said:

Kai said:

I think the Confusion is that for Yamatai, Fighting and Physical is one skill

Click to expand...

I know my post is deviating from the original topic, but I would like to point out that that is not the case right now. I don't know when it changed.

Click to expand...

I would like to second that. Laura, Bernhard and Kokuten's Bastilen were all approved with Fighting and Physical rolled into one. I also have a couple characters who have "Fighting" but no "Physical". That reminds me, I need to update the ranks for Bernie and Laura.

I want to point out that we don't issue PA weapons (HPAR Master Sets for example) to soldiers who aren't assigned a power armor. No armor, no guns.

I also think that some of your "Fighting" description goes better in the "Strategy" skill section. Specifically what he knows to do tactically. Fighting and Physical is all about what the character is physically capable of doing, not mentally.

Going over my PM, I realize I forgot to say I'm always on the fence about snipers/designated marksmen. If this was a light infantry plot, I'd have much fewer reservations. But since we're power armor infantry, a lot of weapons have the range to take out distant targets and optics are easily digitally enhanced.

At this juncture, I find the character a little lacking. Everyone should be able to fill out the 7 skills to make a more interesting character. I like how he dislikes Yamataians and Nekos (a fact that many new players don't pick up is that Nepleslians really Nekos). But I feel like, with some help, you can go the extra distance to create a stellar starting character rather than a cookie-cutter one. Below is a list of some points which you can expand upon.

1) Why does he idolize ID-SOLs? Tell us a bit about the reasoning.

2) This list is your friend. Brandt must surely know more than just those four skills considering how he grew up. Rogue? Domestic, engineering?

3) Expand on why the parents missing and when in his life this happened. That's a mysterious element - play it up.

Okay, sure thing. Nixed the power armour stuff, shifted information around as necessary, added in a bit more history about his parents' disappearance and filled out some more information about his ID-SOL hero worship in the personality section. I also added some more skills, though since they had no boilerplate descriptions I had to improvise. I hope that none of them are unacceptable.

On another note, what would you suggest would be a better occupation if being a sniper is a bit of a shaky proposition? I'm aware that your plot already has a "surplus" of medics/engineers and demolition characters thanks to your PM, so my thoughts were that I could help round things out in some way, or fill in a niche that the others do not cover.

The funny thing is, I think we've got more "specialists" than we do General Infantry. This is the most up-to-date roster I have. Its not that I consider snipers unnecessary but I would hate to see you make such a specialist character only to find that most of 4th Fleet's PA combat is close quarters, a range not entirely suited for a long-range specialist. Hence why I suggest a more well-rounded character who can train to use the Scout cannon.

I honestly don't think I can suggest a specialization since I feel like we're pretty well covered in those areas. If he can a musical instrument, we can try to start up a PC Marine band. Lisa plays the guitar, Santiago the violin, Motoyama the drums. My only helpful suggestion with choosing skills or replacing them.

I'm the resident blow stuff up guy for the 4th fleet.

@Sigma:

Ah, I see. I've taken out the sniper training so that he can be a bit more of a jack of all trades - those are one of my favourite kind of characters, if only because they can do a bit of everything. I don't think I could have him do anything like being part of a Marine band, because I'm clueless about music (and he doesn't really strike me as an instrument player anyway, as amusing as the thought is).

Thanks for the advice, by the way. Out of curiosity, is my character still on the bland side? I apologise for asking so many questions, I just want to make sure I have everything just so.

@Centurion0507:

Well, it's nice to meet you!

No, now I think you've got a great starting character with flavour. This has GM Approval so character mods, its your turn!