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Rules for Changing O.C.C.s |
By: Stephen P. Dragoo (stephenpdragoo@yahoo.com)
Based on Concepts and Game Design by: Kevin Siembieda and
Palladium Books (http://www.palladiumbooks.com)
Many people have found Palladium's rules for changing O.C.C.'s very confusing. This is my attempt to clarify some of that confusion.
- You can only change O.C.C.'s when you have advanced at least 1
level in your current O.C.C. So, you could keep changing O.C.C.'s
every time you hit 2nd level, if you wanted to.
- Unless an old skill is also taken with the new O.C.C. (or any
subsequent O.C.C.), it remains frozen at its last level. So,
someone with 5th level HTH: Martial Artist who switches to a new
O.C.C. which doesn't permit it will either need to take a new HTH
(probably Basic or Expert), or simply make do with their 5th level
Martial Artist bonuses from now on.
Example: Willie the Wilderness Scout, just as he has become 2nd level, decides he wants to switch O.C.C.'s and become a Ley Line Walker. He started off with 19 O.C.C., 10 O.C.C. Related, and 8 Secondary Skills as a Wilderness Scout, which will now be frozen at 2nd level. However, he gets to now choose 4 new O.C.C., 3 or 4 (depending on GM) O.C.C. Related, and 3 Secondary skills from the skills available to Ley Line Walkers. Both O.C.C.'s have Climbing, Land Navigation, and at least 2 language skills as part of the O.C.C.; my recommendation would be to "unfreeze" the Climbing, Wilderness Survival, and 1 Language skills; they will advance when he reaches 1st level as a Ley Line Walker, and will continue to advance. This uses 3 of his 4 O.C.C. Skill choices. I would recommend using the 4th choice to get Lore: Demon at +5% (important for any mage to know...). Of course, he also has the option of using those 4 choices to pick from the Ley Line Walker O.C.C. Skills that he didn't know before (Pilot Hover Craft, Math: Basic, etc.). With the remaining 6 to 7 selections he has available, he can either use them to "unfreeze" more of his Wilderness Scout skills, or can pick completely new skills. Since, however, a Ley Line Walker can pick just about any Physical, WP, Rouge, or Wilderness Skill, I would probably recommend using them to unfreeze 6 or 7 of his Wilderness Scout O.C.C. Skills. That way, even though he's only got 37 skills (with 26 or 27 frozen), a 1st level Ley Line Walker will only have 21 skills; they will never have 37 skills, frozen or unfrozen. Basically, you're trading either skill advancement for extra powers, or vice versa.
- You start off with the initial rules for H.P./S.D.C./M.D.C.,
P.P.E., and I.S.P. of your initial O.C.C. selection (by level or
not, depending on the choice). When you switch O.C.C.'s, you don't
lose any of these; however, any subsequent increases are based on
the new class' rules. Basically, it prevents someone from learning
every single mage class and gaining a ton of spells and P.P.E., or
a psychic from gaining all psionic powers and a ton of I.S.P.
Example: a CS Technical Officer decides to desert one day, and becomes a Techno-Wizard. As a normal non-mage, he had a P.P.E. base of 2D6 (or 3D6, depending on your view). By becoming a Techno-Wizard, however, he does NOT get to replace it with the 2D4 x 10 base for TW's; however, he does get to increase it by 2D6 P.P.E. per level from now on.
- You don't get to start off immediately at level 1 in this new
character class. Instead, you start off with negative XP equal to
the maximum for 2nd level (3rd level if a mage or psychic O.C.C.,
i.e.. Mind Melter or Mystic). Remember not to roll for new H.P.,
I.S.P., S.D.C., and/or P.P.E. yet. You get all the O.C.C. skills
of the new class, but only half the normal choices for the O.C.C.
Related and Secondary Skills. Also, none of the skills have
bonuses (except for high IQ). Once you reach 0 XP, you reach 1st
level in the new O.C.C. (this is where you also roll for your
level increases of P.P.E., I.S.P., H.P., and S.D.C.), and you get
to add half the normal O.C.C./O.C.C. Related bonuses to your
skills, rounded down [Note: I may be wrong about it only being
half for the O.C.C. skills, but I'm almost positive about the
O.C.C. Related skills]. For any skills which were chosen in
both the old and the new class, however, only the higher of the 2
bonuses will be applicable.
Example: our former Tech Officer-turned-TW had a +15% to his Electrical and Mechanical skills, as well as +30% to Math: Basic, +10% to Radio: Basic, and +20% to Literacy. As a TW, he gets to keep his Literacy, but gets no new bonus, as he would only get +5% (half of +10%). The same happens with Radio: Basic (half of +10% is +5%). In fact, the only place he'll make out with bonuses at all are in those Computer skills, Carpentry, Land Navigation, and the 2 Languages he gets. Of course, he had better knowledge anyway than the typical TW (no bonuses for Electrical or Mechanical skills, and each counts as 2 skills). Plus, since the TW is a mage O.C.C., he starts off in his new O.C.C. with -9200 XP; and, when he finally does reach 1st level, he's going to be have a lot less P.P.E. (4D6 or 5D6 total versus 2D4 x 10; difference actually corresponds to about -6D6).
I know it's confusing, but the rules actually make sense. They're basically reflecting that, not only will you need some retraining when switching from one occupation to the other, but that the farther apart each occupation is in terms of the knowledge used or learned, the less likely it is your former knowledge can be transferred over.
The only option I would add in, though, is that instead of starting off at negative XP, take the character out of the campaign for a period to reflect their training. I would suggest 2D6 to 4D6 months game time for normal O.C.C.'s, 3D6 to 6D6 months for psychic or mage O.C.C.'s. This would be a way to maybe let the player use someone else during the downtime (maybe role-play an NPC for the GM), or maybe to let your characters have a break in the action (take a vacation, go see the family for a bit, maybe hide out and let some heat die down... you get the idea). This gives the GM's a little more flexibility.