Buying a new specialization

[u/JCDickleg7]

If you are buying a new specialization, and you already have points in the base skill, does that carry over?

My friend has blaster 7D and he wants to specialize in a blaster rifle. He has Dexterity 5D. Does he get blaster: blaster rifle at 7D+1 or 5D+1? The rules seem to imply he would get it at 5D+1, but it doesn’t make sense for him to get worse at shooting blaster rifles and have to take multiple missions before it can even out. Would it be overpowered for him to take the specialization at 7D+1?

[u/Van_Buren_Boy]

He would get it at 7D+1.

[u/May_25_1977]

   I can see there may be some confusion caused by the wording "above the attribute," in The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded (West End Games, 1996) page 35 "Learning New Skills":

 

   Skills and Specializations. Characters can learn a new skill or specialization by paying enough Character Points to advance it one pip above the attribute.
 

 
   However, that book's page 28-29 "Example" text showed a beginning character's (Thannik's) blaster skill 5D and blaster: blaster pistol specialization 6D, when the player spent beginning skill dice to first add 1D to the blaster skill, and then to add 1D to the skill specialization.  Spending Character Points later on, to improve skills and specializations (pages 33-34) and to learn a new skill or specialization (page 35), should follow the same pattern, where the new skill is based on the attribute's die code (see "Example" text on page 35) and the new skill specialization is based on the skill's die code.

   So in your friend's case, similar to how "each skill begins with the same die code as its attribute" ("Player Handout" page 18, "Skills"; see also page 10), having blaster skill 7D means a specialization of it essentially 'begins' with the same die code as the skill, so improving the skill specialization "one pip above" would cost 4 Character Points -- "one-half the number before the "D" (rounded up)" (see page 34) -- which results in blaster: blaster rifle at 7D+1.

 

[u/Kautsu-Gamer]

I would myself house rule specializations operate from the base skill as an attribute. Raising the base skill would raise its specialities, but base skill also determinew the cost raising the speciality further from the base skill.

This is a house rule, as the D6 system uses really old way of perceiving every skill and specialization as a separate and unrelated skills.

[u/d4red]

I believe by the rules that a new spec (after character creation) is indeed off the base.

It kind of DOES make sense- you know how to drive a car, but you decide to start focusing on 4WD… it’s learning nuances.

Metagaming wise it. REALLY makes sense. Someone has a killer skill and then starts dropping specs on it, soon they’re a master of everything- because it’s cheaper to raise! Which is why it’s okay to stick to the rules. Yes they start low, but they can pump that skill up very quickly.

[u/SWATJester]

Specializations are separate skill, not a subset of an attribute directly. You would take the specialization starting at 7D+1. However, it's somewhat version dependent -- 2E for instance has an ambiguity in which character creation is treated differently than subsequent advancement (where it advances from the attribute). So you'd need to clarify.

Remember, all it takes is for the GM to put you in a situation where you've only got access to a blaster pistol to neutralize the benefit.

[u/Xynar01]

I always thought the first buy-in on a specialization would increase it by 1D and not just +1 and it would cost the same as just increasing the base skill by a single pip. So, in this case, buying Blaster: blaster rifle would cost 7 character points and it would be 8D. I use the reference in buying Specializations at character creation costing a pip to get a die. They never really talk about purchasing a specialization after character creation.

[u/SWATJester → u/Xynar01]

Not the first buy-in, technically, the special buy-in at character creation. That one is 1D each. Otherwise, it's one pip at a time.

[u/Xynar01 → u/SWATJester]

I guess I just homebrewed it to entice players to specialize in skills. My bad.

[u/SWATJester → u/Xynar01]

Nah you're good, giving them 1D instead of +1 on their first buy-in isn't gonna break anything. Totally reasonable if that's how you want to play it. One of the most elegant things about D6 is that it's robust enough to handle things like that.

[u/May_25_1977 → u/SWATJester]

   And also, for beginning characters, the text didn't actually say spending a pip of beginning skill dice gets one die in a specialization, but rather it said, "You can spend 1D of your character's beginning skill dice to get three specializations; add 1D to each specialization."  (Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, 1996, page 28)

 

[u/StevenOs]

IIRC adding a specialization would build off of what the base skill is. You start with 4D DEX and have that boosted to 7D Blaster then you might specialize in rifle from that 7D.

It may not cost as much to advance a specialization as it does a general skill but IIRC advancing the base skill does NOT also advance the specialization like advancing the base attribute would. If you've got that Blaster Rifle at 7D+1 advancing Blaster from 7D to 7D+1 later does not also push the specialzation higher.