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A Question for personal option
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A Question for personal option
#1This is only nominally for the site's purposes, but everyone whos opinion I want (minus one) can view this thread. I should create a new group and a whole new subforum... but this is easier. (I will go through the rest if you wall want me too)
This is long, so dig in guys.
I have been rewriting my personal RPG game and having some success at it. I have cleaned up many of the text related issues of the game. I am streamlining it. Now I have a quandry when it comes to skills
Okay, my system does not use skills, but it areas of expressions. Each AoE covers a defined cluster of related skills and abilities (because Luck really is a skill). There is minimal overlap between AoEs (Hang Gliding being either Athletic or Vehicular is a popular one). There is a master list of 31 which will satisfy the needs of most GMs in most settings/ millieus.
Animal Handling (ANI) The ability to deal with animals, including riding, grooming, and taking care of them
Athletic (ATH) The ability to do prowess [ability to run, jump, climb, swim, etc] and resistance [add level to Resist MOD]
Art (ART) The ability to produce aesthetically pleasing lasting works, like painting, sculpture, stories, poetry, music lyrics
Business (BUS) Skills with buying, selling, trading, accounting, and all the things to make and manage money.
Combative (COM) The ability to fight with weapons or body.
Communication (CMU): The ability to express oneself through speaking and words, to communicate and persuade others.
Contact (CON) The character's knack for knowing the right people to find information, for buying or selling things, and other little bits of help.
Craft (CFT) The area of professional and domestic skills not covered by TEC, BUS, or ART.
Deception (DEC) The ability to conceal actions and things, combined with the ability to act silently.
Deduction (DED) The ability to find information and clues and draw conclusions from them.
Education (EDU) The important optional ability to teach and learn.
Gee (GEE) The ability to function in both high or low G environments.
Guile (GUL) The knack for lying, double dealing, concealing ones own motives, and using other for your own gain.
Influence (INF) The ability to use the power and influence of a notable organization such as a nation, state, large agency, corporation, religion, or other institution.
Knowledge (KNW) The ability to know and recall facts and information.
Language (LAN)A knack for and knowledge of languages
Luck (LUK) To have the universe flow favorably
Meta (META) The ability to deal with meta effects.
Perception (PER) The ability to notice and perceive the environment around the character.
Performance (PRF) The ability to express oneself through artistic abilities.
Power (POW) The ability to use metaphysical powers such as psionics, magik, “the way�, mystic cards, and so on.
Rank (RANK) This AoE represents “static� social positions in a society. This is never used in a SkillFocus, only in development sets.
Science (SCI) The knowledge and application for a given field of expertise. It is a hybrid AoE, allowing knowledge of a subject (KNW) and the ability to apply that knowledge (TEC).
Social (SOC) The knack and skills for fitting in social situations, granting knowledge of what and what not to do with a given social group.
Status (STA) The character’s knack for cultivating and using fame and social status
Strategy/Tactics (S/T) The knack and skills to find, understand, and use situations to the character’s advantage.
Survival (SUR) The ability to find food and shelter, track quarry, move through the environment, and support others.
Technology (TEC) The ability to use, operate, make, repair and understand all machines and technologies the character is familiar with
Temporal/ Dimensional Empathy (TDE) The knack for perceiving and dealing with T/D phenomena- temporal/ dimensional shifts, warps, alterations
Vehicle (VHL) The skill and knack for using and maintain vehicles of any time or tech level.
Virtual Reality Interface (VRI or NET) The skill to effective use any kind of virtual reality interface.
Okay. I know some of them are restricted in their campaign usage in some settings VRI, GEE, META, POWER, but generally speaking these are the big aoes found in most games. TDE becomes important because of the transdimensional base setting shipping with the game. Because you can travel from milieu to milieu, you need the big ones for supers, hi=tech, supers, and fantasy. So if you are not travelling the 'verse and running a normal game, you might need some of these these.
Because these are totally flexible (as is the game) you can define any listing you want for the AoEs list for your campaign. In fact, certain genres and milieus require it. I have a list with an additional 40+ AoEs, some are unique, but some are replacements for a given AoE (often breaking it down into two or more other lesser AoEs), some just augment attributes, and others are required for specific settings.
Ignoring the ones required for specific settings, I have about nine more that frequently appear on the AoE lists for various suppliments I have written (a good portion of) and are in phase 1 or phase 2 of my release plan. However, some of them would interfere with playbalance in certain campaigns... being more advanced rules (IMO). These ones are:
*Accuracy (ACC): The knack and skill for aiming, throwing, and shooting. Substitute this AoE for COM for the above. Handy when you are using martial arts AoE.
*Bureaucracy (BUR): The ability to deal with and work in a bureaucracy.
*Cool The ability to be cool, a little like luck and a little like status. Very popular in modern settings.
*Empathy (EMP): The understanding of emotions and how they work. reading people and working with emotions
*Extra Sensory Perception (ESP): The metasensory abilities every non blocked modern human has. GM advice and odd clues
*Experience (*EXP) The experience, training, and mindset for one general field of endeveor. When this AoE is first taken, the player defines one special and acceptable field of endevor, like espionage, law enforcement (list type of enforcement agency), stellar fleet, Meta-Heroics, Ninja clan, or the Church, that provides its personel with a broad range of training and skills. The character functions like it has a background type gift with this training. Basically it gives pluses to background skills you would have for this field of endevor, negating penalties and bosting these base rolls.
*Focus (FOC):. Abilities gained through concentration of thought. This would be meditation, hypnosis, body control...
*Jack of All Trades (JOT): The knack of learning new abilities and generalizing old ones. Basically this skill eliminates negative modifiers for not having appropriate AoEs, Traits, etc.
*Romance (ROM): The character's knack for dealing with members of the opposite sex.
*Stagecraft (STG): The skills and knack for acting and theater related things.
*Will Power (WIL): The ability to harness personal drive and self control to push itself beyond its normal abilities. Pushing
*Wisdom (WIS): The ability to look at any situation from all side and apply great clarity of thinking to solve the situation. GM advice and extra clues
*Zen (ZEN): To achieve a zen state- to center ones mind with the flow of the universe around it. A little like Luck and a little like focus (but with no overlap in mechanics)
1) Add many of these to the base list and let the chips fall.
2) Keep them for the various suppliments, even though many of them will be re-published in 3 of the first 6 books.
3) List them on the website or as web enhanced material... leaving the core book "virginal" and list them in each of those suppliments.
I have planned in the Almanac series, a master AoE llist that would have all of them and their uses and would come out in the third year or so.
Your thoughts guys?
PS: If you want the blurb about my game, I can get you one. PM me. -
A Question for personal option
#2Hmmm... Interesting.
Only you, Moon, could come up with this. ;)
I like it, it looks like it would work well to me. But of course, I'm not very good at game mechanics. :) -
A Question for personal option
#3From what I can gather this is just a list of skills and possible skills...but without context. The skills in themselves seem logical and not so overlapping but there seem to be a lot of them. Not knowing how skills are chosen and if they go up through the game I can't think of anything to say about it.
It seems that it breaks away from the personal attributes and skill because they are listed together. Wondering how a person would not naturally have, say, communication and perception, to some degree. So perhaps with more information on how the skills are used/chosen/given would give us a better starting point to comment.
An awesome list though, for generics sake to perhaps use as a reminder of traits one can use. Remind you of some of the neglected things and might spur some creativity. -
A Question for personal option
#4I know the list will work. Between playtest and a lot of thinking, I am fairly sure it does. I know we can add a number of additional AoEs, carving out small sections.
My question is... there are more AoEs than the basics which can be included. Most of these I listed will show up on fifty percent of the early suppliments. Should I include them on the basic list?
JOT, Focus, and EXP are all useful and powerful AoEs without any real overlap. However, they can be mangling to a different kind of campaign than the ones they are being listed for.
Sooo which option do you recomend?
1) Add many of these to the base list and let the chips fall.
2) Keep them for the various suppliments, even though many of them will be re-published in 3 of the first 6 books.
3) List them on the website or as web enhanced material... leaving the core book "virginal" and list them in each of those suppliments. -
A Question for personal option
#5I never doubted that it worked, just have no clue how and so couldn't go anywhere with a comment and trying to figure out what to comment on.
For the posted question I would say stick with the base list or something close to it. Perhaps add a couple extra with the base just to show how you would use them in the 'main' book.
You could save some for supplements, but why not an appendix of some sort with the monster list of skills, including the base ones. Then the instructions aren't watered down by the complexity of all the skills but they are still available if they want to use them.
Or leave the core 'virginal' and let them get a taste of the rules and a hint of other skills and then BANG them in the supplement with new material and a huge list of skills. Or provide whatever skills necessary to augment the angle you are going with in the supplement.
The website would be fine to, but better given with the print copy I would think.
Aaaaaaaah. I see your dilemna. ;)
My vote is for keep the basics basic with just a hint of added flavor so they get a better feel of the capabilities. Then parse them out as they fit each supplement. Probably offer a AoE supplement as well that just lists them all for easier reference. Either cheap or a free download when they get the other stuff. -
A Question for personal option
#6The advantage of reprinting with each version is that you can customise the description with examples specific to that setting, or with more specific uses. For example, LAN can mention the languages in common use, and whether literacy is the norm or is the province of scribes & priests.
Reducing the page count is good for keeping the price low, but this seems to be the opposite trend for game design for the larger publishers... but I won't threadjack any further than that.
Many--if not most--of the AoE's can be used by nearly anyone to a limited extent. For example, not everyone would actually be skilled in ART, but any joker with a crayon can make the attempt. I'm assuming that there would be some system in place for such non-skilled (or "default") use of the AoE's?