Excavation (Science Skill) base skill level

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Ooga The Barbarian
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Excavation (Science Skill) base skill level

Unread post by Ooga The Barbarian »

Page 303 of Rifts Ultimate Edition lists the base skill percentile for the Excavation skill as 40%, but the actual skill description on page 323 of the same book says the base skill percentile is 30%. Which is it? I already checked the official RUE errata document, but it provides no clarification. Thanks!

P.S. The very next listed skill, Firefighting, also seems to have mixed base percentiles listed on pages 303 versus 323. What's the correct base skill level for that one?
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The Beast
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Re: Excavation (Science Skill) base skill level

Unread post by The Beast »

IMO it looks the two skills got their percentages mixed. I'd go with what each says in their description because it seems less likely that that was when the two skills were mixed up.
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Re: Excavation (Science Skill) base skill level

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

point one: both skills are technical skills... you might want to edit your post.

I would go with the percentages presented with the skill descriptions of those two skills.
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Re: Excavation (Science Skill) base skill level

Unread post by Warshield73 »

The Beast wrote:IMO it looks the two skills got their percentages mixed. I'd go with what each says in their description because it seems less likely that that was when the two skills were mixed up.

First these are technical skills not science. Second I ran into this problem last year when I was creating an expanded skill list for HU and Rifts / Phase World trying to bring in skills from Robotech and BTS. For me if a summary or list contradicts the detailed description the detailed description always wins, with everything not just skills.

In this case, however, I'm not that sure. Excavation appears first in Rifts Chaos Earth and it has a base of 40%. Now Firefighting is not in that book but it could still mean that Excavation is supposed to be 40%. To make it even worse BTS has Firefighting and Excavation listed as 40% but in the skill description Excavation is listed at 30% so they managed to mess this up multiple times. Robotech has the Excavation skill as 30% in both list and description, so after about 5 years PB managed to make the list match the description.

For this reason I determined Excavation is 30% and Firefighting is 40%.

I doubt this helps but
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Re: Excavation (Science Skill) base skill level

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

Warshield73 wrote:snip...
To make it even worse BTS has Firefighting and Excavation listed as 40% but in the skill description Excavation is listed at 30% so they managed to mess this up multiple times. Robotech has the Excavation skill as 30% in both list and description, so after about 5 years PB managed to make the list match the description.

For this reason I determined Excavation is 30% and Firefighting is 40%.

I doubt this helps but

The easiest way to make the list %'s the same as the description %'s is to take a writing implement and write in the correct % numbers. Yes I know this might be considered to be close to heresy for some people. But it is the easiest way to make the correction.
A more complicated way would to scan the skill % lists and then use an editor to make the correct (photoshop or something). Then print out the finished file, & just use the print out for filling in the %'s.
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Re: Excavation (Science Skill) base skill level

Unread post by Ooga The Barbarian »

Warshield73 wrote:
The Beast wrote:IMO it looks the two skills got their percentages mixed. I'd go with what each says in their description because it seems less likely that that was when the two skills were mixed up.

First these are technical skills not science. Second I ran into this problem last year when I was creating an expanded skill list for HU and Rifts / Phase World trying to bring in skills from Robotech and BTS. For me if a summary or list contradicts the detailed description the detailed description always wins, with everything not just skills.

In this case, however, I'm not that sure. Excavation appears first in Rifts Chaos Earth and it has a base of 40%. Now Firefighting is not in that book but it could still mean that Excavation is supposed to be 40%. To make it even worse BTS has Firefighting and Excavation listed as 40% but in the skill description Excavation is listed at 30% so they managed to mess this up multiple times. Robotech has the Excavation skill as 30% in both list and description, so after about 5 years PB managed to make the list match the description.

For this reason I determined Excavation is 30% and Firefighting is 40%.

I doubt this helps but


No, this was actually somewhat helpful, Warshield73, so thank you! I'm also in the midst of making a 'master skill list' which is why this matter came up, and I think I'm going to go with the figures you decided on as well.
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Re: Excavation (Science Skill) base skill level

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

Master list...check out the 'Rifter 0' PDF. If you can find it, it would be in the DTRPG.
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Re: Excavation (Science Skill) base skill level

Unread post by Warshield73 »

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:Master list...check out the 'Rifter 0' PDF. If you can find it, it would be in the DTRPG.

Good idea but I would avoid this. First it had a few inconsistencies of it's own and second it is old missing several books. I actually started with this list but I ended up scrapping it and just going book by book.
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Re: Excavation (Science Skill) base skill level

Unread post by Ooga The Barbarian »

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:Master list...check out the 'Rifter 0' PDF. If you can find it, it would be in the DTRPG.


Thank you for the reference, drewkitty! I had completely forgotten about that list in The Rifter #0. Even with any inconsistencies and problems it may have, it'll be a huge help. Thanks again!
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Re: Excavation (Science Skill) base skill level

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

Ooga The Barbarian wrote:
drewkitty ~..~ wrote:Master list...check out the 'Rifter 0' PDF. If you can find it, it would be in the DTRPG.


Thank you for the reference, drewkitty! I had completely forgotten about that list in The Rifter #0. Even with any inconsistencies and problems it may have, it'll be a huge help. Thanks again!

remember that the inconsistencies within that list is due to that they are taken from the many CORE BOOKS of the PB games, along with skills found in supplemental books. One systems, for Many Games. And each game is tweaked to the specific genre.

So if you are looking for a master list of Rifts Skills just look at the Rifts books, and the HU/rifts book and the ATB/Rifts book. Thou the last two might have skills incompatible with the Rifts environment.
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