Slowly plugging away at Mekton (Because I should really be doing other things) and the need for old games to have giant skill lists is always funny.

In this Mecha combat game we have;

  • Personal Grooming and Wardrobe & Style (Both skills go off the Attractiveness stat, obviously)
  • Resist Torture and Drugs (Because that'll definitely be happening enough to require a discreet skill)
  • Human Perception (Can't call it insight, that's from the Dragon game)
  • Interview (A skill for getting non-specific and personal details from someone, because why not.)
  • Seduction (A given for the era, but they at least they didn't specify it's only for the opposite sex. Your attractiveness can bring this down)
  • Compose or Write (A single skill or two skills? Paint or Draw is the only other skill written like this. This is for writing stories, articles, and music.)
  • Gamble (Another skill that is sure to come up often enough to require its inclusion)
  • Programming (The basic level of this skill lets you program in BASIC, a language that was falling out of favor when this book was written.)
  • Teaching (They knew this was pointless to include because they had to write a defense for it into the description)
  • Intimidation (Only including this because a +6 lets you intimidate Sylvester Stallone and a +9 lets you intimidate Schwarzenegger (Maybe). Can you guess when this was written?)
  • Mecha Design and Mecha Tech are separate skills because it's extremely important to separate engineers from mechanics.
  • Photography and Film (Sure, fuck it)
  • Dance, Sing, and Play Instrument are separate skills. (I was gonna give them shit for making Macross characters an XP sink, but this came out the same year as Macross 7 and Plus)

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