Starting Skills

[Darren Hill]

When we designed characters yesterday, something struck us as odd:

Players can then choose all abilities that fall into A-rated categories, 5 abilities that fall into B-rated categories, and 3 abilities that fall into C-rated categories. Some species and cultures may have mandatory abilities, which are marked. These must be taken, and count against the character's beginning ability slots. These abilities chosen are only for initial ability point distribution: past this stage, you can increase any ability that your character has access to.

Players have ten points to split among abilities rated at A, with no ability ranking higher than 3. They have six points to split among abilities rated at B, with no ability ranking higher than 2. Three points can be split among abilities rated at C, with no ability higher than 2.

The the bit in bold in the first paragraph above seems pretty redundant, unless we missed something. We wondered if you got a free level 1 in each of the abilities chosen in the first paragraph?
If not, you could just as easily remove the first paragraph. If you did that, players would have: "spend 6 points on B abilities; none higher than rank 2. Spend 3 points on C abilities; none higher than rank 2."
It's possible with this approach that someone might end up with 6 B abilities at rank 1, but is that so dreadful? It removes the oddity of choosing abilities when it makes no difference for the most part. That oddity just introduces the question, "what am I doing this for?"

(edited to add the italicised bit for clarity)

[KingstonC]

This is different in the published version. In the published version, there is no rule about how many skills you can devote points to.

-K

[Darren Hill]

Are there a lot of differences between the web version and the published version, or are they mostly clarity things like this?

[KingstonC]

Mostly clarity. There is also more GM advice in the published version, and an example of character creation.