Ok, you got me curious, so I’ve plugged the Archetypes from the book into a spreadsheet, done some jiggery-pokery, and managed to come up with a system that basically balances them all roughly around a 100 point buy method (actually turns out to be 104-105 points for all but the Hunter at 106 points).
The jiggery-pokery involved playing with some costs, and also adding Expertise skills and Specialities here or there to some Archetypes which seemed weak and with no other obvious way to balance them using simple mostly linear points values - see below.
The numbers match well with my empirical experience (admittedly from only two sessions), about which Archetypes seemed weaker or stronger and skill gaps some Archetypes seemed to have. Arguably the Heavy and Mr Handy probably don’t need a buff (you could always say that their subtype benefits make up for it, though then the Hunter starts looking relatively strong…), though I do think the added skills and Specialities suit them well.
Based on the spreadsheet, here are my recommended changes to the Archetypes (all bonus Expertise skills or Specialities to keep things simple):
Bandit: add Deception skill
Chem Maker: add Resilience skill
Defender: add Behavior: sense hostile intent Speciality
Forager: add Notice skill
Heavy: add Resilience skill; add one Intimidate Speciality
Infantry: add Medical or Pilot skill
Mr. Handy: add one Knowhow Speciality
Pilot: add one Pilot Speciality
Researcher: add one Knowhow skill and one Repair & Craft skill; add one Knowhow Speciality
Scout: add one Notice or Behaviour Speciality
Technician: add one Repair & Craft skill
After these changes, the following system can re-create any of the Archetypes for a cost of 104-106 points - 104-105 for all but the Hunter):
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S.P.E.C.I.A.L values are bought according to the following slightly non-linear table (a maximum of 35 points can be spent - the highest total is 34 for the Chem Maker, but I rounded up - and no individual value can be higher than 7):
Value = Cost
1…5 = 1 per point
6 = 7 points
7 = 11 points -
Your Move range starts at Yellow and your Charge range starts at Red. Either or both can be upgraded one size (to Red/Green respectively) for a cost of 3 points each.
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Your Armor values start at 1 (physical) / 1 (energy) / 0 (radiation). Any value can be increased at a cost of 1 point per value. You cannot raise a single value above 3, and you cannot spend more than 3 points total on increasing Armor. E.g. to get Armor values of 3/1/1 would cost 3 points. This seems perhaps too cheap, but I found this value hard to balance… I may tweak the values after a bit more playing around with the numbers. Then again, it is largely irrelevant once you have access to armor items, so maybe the low cost is ok? Radiation immunity (Super Mutants and Robots only - and mandatory for those types) costs 5 points.
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Your Awareness range starts at Green. It can be increased at a cost of 2 points per size.
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Each Skill, either Icon-based or Expertise, costs 4 points. Battlecry counts as a separate skill from Intimidate. If you want to use an attribute for an Icon-based skill other than the default (S for Melee and Heavy Weapons, P for Search, Pistols and Rifles, C for Intimidate and Presence, I for Computers and Lockpick, A for Thrown), then it costs an additional 2 points (for a total of 6). You may also add a Speciality for a cost of 2 points (the examples only have one, but I don’t see a good reason why you couldn’t add multiple). Certain skills have built in ranges - Battlecry (Orange), Presence (Yellow) and Thrown (Red). These can be increased at a cost of 1 point per size each.
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Each Action Point Icon costs 5 points.
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Finally, you have other special abilities printed on some cards. Ultimately I think these probably need a variable value, but for now I’ve simply priced them at 3 points each. You can have a maximum of two special abilities.
And that’s basically the system. It’s likely completely different from the actual system the devs used; it needs a bit more time to play with some of the values I’m not happy with (primarily special abilities and Armor); and it hasn’t been playtested at all. But it should give you something to start with at least… 