Greetings, Dan here!

As work continues on the layout of the premium versions of the game (more page previews coming soon), I am hard at work on Beneath Twisted Earth's first expansion, BTE: Overdrive. This supplement is focused on expanding players' and GMs options for play through new pilot, mech, and campaigns features. Today is going to be the first in a series of previews of the those new features, where we'll show off a couple examples of each and discuss the design philosophy behind that portion of the game. First up today, we're going to look at the new Prepared Pilot Skills.

Examples:

Navigation: Ability to navigate terrain well without a map, and +5 bonus to do so with a map.

Medical Treatment: Heal skill bonus in HP per round so long as resources are available. Cannot be used twice on the same injury.

Performing (Singing, Instrument, etc): Skill in some manner of performance. Could be used in combat as a distraction, to enhance inspiration checks, or earn extra credits between missions.

In BTE: Overdrive a list of skills have been prepared that cover a range of abilities that mech pilots would find useful int he course of their careers. Each has been given a mechanic-based explanation to ease the responsibility on GMs to determine how to incorporate such skills into the course of play. These will be especially useful for players who have a hard time with the freeform nature of pilot skills from the core game. For others, these will serve as perfect examples of suggested skills they could give their pilots, as well as examples to GMs on how more freeform skills could be utilized.

For any unfamiliar, during character creation in BTE, new pilots are asked to come up with two pilot skills to reflect things their character could do based upon their character concept. These can range from mechanical skills to musical performance. There are no limitations, rather this is a chance for the player to be creative about their character's abilities. Anytime the player may wish to do something that would relate to one of these skills they can roll against it rather than one of their base stats. These skills can be improved through exp advancements at a faster rate than base stats, and new ones can be acquired through the same process. This was intended to be a flexible and open ended aspect of BTE as it allowed for creativity in character customization/advancement.

That said, this method does leave the responsibility with the player and GM on how these skills will mechanically effect the world. As BTE is a medium crunch system where most hard mechanics are applied to mech combat, while on foot missions/scenes are more narratively driven this should be less of an issue as open ended skills of this nature essentially drive what the pilot will be doing when out of the cockpit thus calling for the need of those chosen skills. That said, one thing I strove to do when writing the core rulebook was to include more tactile options for GMs/groups in the GM Toolbox, purely for groups who prefer a crunchier, tactics-driven experience. While BTE will never be Mechwarrior or Lancer in this respect, these options do allow for groups to flavor their games in that direction. The Prepare Pilot Skills will be one more tool for players/GMs to utilize to give their character creation a more grounded experience.

That'll be it for today. Next time we'll continue to look at new pilot options by looking at a completely new mechanic, Pilot Augmentations. For those of you who enjoyed the dystopian cyberpunk setting of Beneath Twisted Earth should look forward next time. Until then, thank you for your interest in BTE and I look forward to seeing you at the launch of both the premium version of the core rulebook, and the following launch of Overdrive!