Death to the Profession

By Charles Ryan

The Profession skill isn't like other skills. Rather than measuring a character's ability to succeed at a specific range of closely related tasks, Profession instead measures the character's ability to make money (usually during downtime), presumably at a variety of amorphously defined and loosely related tasks.

Is There a Doctor In the House?
Take Profession (doctor) for example. This skill lets a character make money being, well, a doctor. Doing so assumes the character has some ability in medical sciences and biology, knowledge of current medical techniques and alien physiologies, and perhaps a little ability in running an office or a business.

The problem, though, is that the skill doesn't actually give a character those abilities. To heal someone, a character must have the Treat Injury skill -- you can't use Profession (doctor) to treat an injured friend. Knowing things related to the practice of medicine might require Knowledge (life sciences). Establishing a practice might involve Knowledge (business). Many players are disappointed to realize that the ranks they spent in Profession (doctor) don't actually give them the ability to treat an injury, identify a strange infection, or operate a sophisticated medical device. And if they do buy all those skills, why shouldn't they be able to use them to make a living, without having to spend even more ranks on Profession (doctor)?

The short answer, and the one we settled on when designing the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, is that it's just simpler that way. For most players, their profession is just background color for their character, not something that has much bearing on what they can do in the game. It's simply easier for those players to put a few ranks into Profession (bartender) or Profession (droid programmer) than it is to figure out which skills actually relate directly to bartending or droid programming. After all, their heroes are going to be out blasting stormtroopers, not sitting around the shop pouring drinks.

Going Pro
Of course, the simple and easy route isn't always a satisfactory arrangement for many other players. So for those willing to accept a touch more complexity in choosing their profession-related skills, we offer this set of optional rules.

The table below lists a wide range of popular professions. Each profession lists one to three primary skills needed to practice its arts -- and make a living at it. Following that are some secondary skills that are also common to that profession, but not as critical. Finally, an earnings multiplier is given for each profession.

To be considered a "professional" at something (and to earn money doing it), your Star Wars hero must have at least two ranks in each of the listed primary skills, and one rank in each secondary skill. (It's common, of course, for accomplished professionals to have much higher scores in both their primary and secondary skills, and other related skills as well.) For each full week spent at work, you can generate income by making a check against the primary skill for which you have the lowest skill modifier. Multiply the roll result by the listed earnings multiplier to get the total credits earned for the week.

For example, say your character is a droid engineer. Her skill modifiers for her primary skills are Computer Use +9, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) +5, and Knowledge (droids) +6. Each week that she works as a droid engineer, she makes a Knowledge (architecture and engineering) check, since that's the primary skill with the lowest skill modifier. On her first week, she rolls a 9, for a total on the check of 14 (9 + 5). Since the earnings multiplier for an engineer is 80, she earns 80 x 14 or 1,120 credits.

Get Your Hands Dirty
Not all jobs are professions. A character can get an unskilled or semi-skilled job without any primary or secondary skill ranks. To earn money in this situation, simply make an ability check against the most relevant ability for the task and multiply the result by the earnings multiplier for the "unskilled" profession listing on the table.

For more ways to get the most out of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game , read the first and second installments of our monthly column "Tips and Tactics."