Sidereal Character Creation 1 : Skills

[atolnon]

So, I'm playing in a Sidereal game pretty soon, and like Dragonblooded characters that work for Lookshy or the Realm, non-ronin Sidereal have some pre-requisites. And they're pretty strict, actually. Luckily, they get 36 initial skill points to work with, but like most pre-requisites in a game like this, life isn't fair. Some Chosen come out of the deal better then others.

All Sidereals have a certain baseline they're required to meet regardless of Caste. It works out to 15 skill points out of  the initial 36, broken down into 9 different skills. This is a little misleading, because the Castes that favor those skills are spread out. Here's the breakdown.

 

J : Journeys, S : Serenity, B : Battles,   Se : Secrets, E : Endings
Starting Abilities :
Sidereal Baseline - Required of All Non-Ronin Sidereal

Awareness : 2 E
Bureaucracy : 2 E
Linguistics (Old Realm) : 1 S
Lore : 3 Se
Martial Arts : 2 E
Occult : 2 Se
Socialize : 1 S
Stealth : 1 Se
Archery, Melee, or Thrown : 1 J or B

Journeys only gets one in potential, and Thrown kind of sucks for Sidereals. Battles gets one as well, but at least it's Melee or Archery. Serenity comes off just a little better with 2, but they overlap later, so it's moot. Endings and Secrets come out the best with 3 each.

Each Caste requires something from their organization as well. Nominally, they have 11 other skill point allotments broken up over 5 skills, but some of these overlap. Ready?

Journeys Only :
Athletics  2
Linguistics 2
Presence 2
Survival 2 *
Ride or Sail 3 *
Overlap : 1

Serenity Only :
Craft or Perform 2 *
Linguistics 2 *
Medicine 2
Presence 2
Socialize 3 *
Overlap : 2

Battles Only :
Archery or Melee 3 *
Athletics 2 *
Dodge 2
Presence 2 *
War 2 *
Overlap : 1

Secrets Only :
Awareness 2
Investigation 3 *
Larceny 2 *
Socialize 2
Stealth 2 *
Overlap : 3

Endings Only :
Awareness 2 *
Dodge 2
Integrity 2 *
Martial Arts 3 *
Stealth 2
Overlap : 3

Required Skill Expense per Caste :
Journey : 24 of 36
Serenity : 23 of 36
Battles : 25 of 36
Secrets : 20 of 36
Endings : 19 of 36

Dots Purchased out of Favor :
Journey : 19 of 24
Serenity : 17 of 23
Battles : 16 of 25
Secrets : 13 of 20
Endings : 13 of 19

Basically, the this falls out is that you would want to have as many required skills from the baseline as possible to fall under skills that you need for your Bureau because this basically allows you to double up. For example, all Sidereal need Martial Arts at Rank 2, but Endings are already going to be buying that at 3. Serenity are buying Linguistics and Socialize at 1 and 2, but are already going to be spending 2 and 3 because of their Bureau, respectively. If you're trying to find out if you come out ahead (and there's the numbers above), you check your Bureau requirements first and then see what you've got to purchase for general ed requirements later.

Now that I've found the numbers, probably what I'll do is check the dots purchased our of favor against dots that overlap. The other requirement is that 10 dots be spread among Auspicious or Favored abilities. The hope is that you'll be able to finish that prerequisite with the above prerequisites. Which Castes do? We can check by looking at Bureau requirements, then finding general requirements that don't overlap. This is without introducing Favored Skills, yet.

Journey : No. 5/6 of 10. (3 Ride/Sail, 2 Survival, 1 potential in Thrown)
Serenity : No. 7 of 10. (3 Socialize, 2 Linguistics, 2 Craft/Perform)
Battles : No - but it's close! 9 of 10. (3 Melee/Archery, 2 Athletics, 2 War, 2 Presence)
Secrets : Yes! 12 of 10. This is because, for some reason, the Bureau of Secrets requires no Lore or Occult. Weird.
Endings : No. Like Battles, it's close. 9 of 10.

Actually, what's the above mean? It means that 4 of 5 Castes are required to spend Bonus Points just to make their character. Journeys come out the roughest. They're required to spend between 5 and 6 BP. Serenity 3, Battles and Endings 1, and Secrets... none. These requirements were obviously made by an elder Chosen of Secrets.... but who could that be?

Edit : Actually, I don't think it's Bonus Points that need to be used. I'll double check, but I'm pretty sure these points can just be pulled from the remaining allotment.