"Buying" Dice (General vs Specialized, Outlier Sub-Systems)

Over at Western Animation, the discussion derailed into tabletop games (and how one might represent the particular show via tabletop) when the Star Wars tabletop was brought up.

I was told someone's character had bought 6 die in Rifles and 3 more die for Blasters in "general". This interested me, a lot.

• What other games do this?
• What are the advantages of specific skills versus general ones?
• How are things like damage and hit points calculated in these systems?
• How easy would it be to wing this?

Which Star Wars RPG?

Are we talking about Edge of the Empire here?

Sounds like you are talking about 1st-2nd edition, which I am preparing to run eventually. Basically, damage is done by rolling your damage (depends on weapon: blasters rifles do 5D normally, while most melee weapons do Strength plus extra dice) versus the opponent's strength, and the difference determines what wound level you are reduced to.

And how does the skill dice work into all of that?

Skill dice are added to your attribute for certain rolls. Example: Bob has 4D Knowledge, but no first aid skill. He rolls 4D when applying a medpac. Alice has 3D in Knowledge, and 2D in First Aid, a Knowledge skill. She rolls 5D for First Aid. Then, there are the rare Advanced Skills, like Medicine. Alice's Medicine (after a few adventures) is 1D; she doesn't add her first aid skill OR her Knowledge attribute to it. However, it goes back and DOES add to her First Aid dice (knowing basic first aid won't make you a better doctor, but being a doctor will make your basic first aid better)

So, general skills are more expensive than specific skills?

All normal skills are the same price. There are Advanced Skills, like Medicine, Engineering, and Design, and there are Specialization skills, such as Specialization (YT-1300 Freighter) for Space Transports skill. They cost the same I believe (might cost less), but don't change when your base skill goes up, its like going on two different tracks.