Character capacity for learning

[Pellanor]

Something that you could do, which is what I'm contemplating for my skill system, is having those "different things" that each system lets you do come at a different rate.

For example, the "Magic" skills in my system will have a lot of entry ranks. First you need to understand the principals (equivalent to ranks in the arcane skill), then you can learn some trinkets, and so on and so forth, until finally you start to get some really fantastic powers.

I have to say that this thread has been really inspirational to me, as I've been working on my skill system over the last week or so.

[LordVreeg]

(You call that self promotion??  HAH!)

http://celtricia.pbwiki.com/Skill+List

AT the bottom here is the current list of playable skills.

I have to buy a new computer tonight, as a lightning strike blew mine last night  ( a word to the wise--surge protectors effectiveness is ablative), so I will not be in the chat area tonight...but maybe tomorrow.  we talk about this stuff a lot there. Crow---what type of game do you want to run, in terms of a combat/ social interactio ratio?  What type of power levels?

[Aequitas]

Crow, I've been debating the same issue with the system I'm messing around with. As it stands (almost) everything is a skill: weapons, spells, reading, stealth, etc. In the end I went with 15 skills for a "heroic" character (someone who has adventured for many years) and around 20 for "legendary" characters (decades of adventures). I figured most of the selected skills would be either various weapons (maybe 4 or 5) and spells (5-7 maybe) with the remaining skills for tasks such as deception, stealth, riding, swimming, etc.

LordVreeg, being new here I appreciated the shameless self-promotion :) nice system, great rationale section!

[Superfluous Crow]

Something that you could do, which is what I'm contemplating for my skill system, is having those "different things" that each system lets you do come at a different rate.

For example, the "Magic" skills in my system will have a lot of entry ranks. First you need to understand the principals (equivalent to ranks in the arcane skill), then you can learn some trinkets, and so on and so forth, until finally you start to get some really fantastic powers.

I have to say that this thread has been really inspirational to me, as I've been working on my skill system over the last week or so.

Glad I'm not the only one who has been inspired :)
So your skills have a different number of ranks?

As to LV:
I'm not going for a combat-centric game, although I would hate it if it was devoid of fighting :-p
So a blend of roleplaying and cinematic combat. I would like to make it more worthwhile than usual to take other skills than combat skills, though.
Btw, something i have always been wondering about guildschool: How do your players keep track of all those skills???

[LordVreeg]

[blockquote=CC]I'm not going for a combat-centric game, although I would hate it if it was devoid of fighting  
So a blend of roleplaying and cinematic combat. I would like to make it more worthwhile than usual to take other skills than combat skills, though.
Btw, something i have always been wondering about guildschool: How do your players keep track of all those skills???[/blockquote]

Then make sure the social/researching/knowledge game mechanisms are very apparent and constant.  My social skills for my first couple of years, despite their copious nature, were under utilized until I created the Basic Social CC (basically a to-hit roll in social undertakings), that is used EVERY time a player meets an NPC they are not very well aquainted with or have not seen in a long time.  Much like combat, different social skills can be used as adjustments, and PC's can request extra Social CC rolls.  Makes for a lot more emphasis on the whole social skill continuum.  Also makes for a lot of note  taking on my part  ('OK...so last time they ran into this blacksmith, Bard Cucino sang a smelting song, so I have to remember to have him welcome them in...')

And as to keeping track, it's actually simpler in some ways.  Straight excel spreadsheet, characters use a skill, they get experience in the real experience column in that skill, the EXP mod is already there and it changes the adjusted exp in that skill.  No point-buy, or choosing what to gain ranks in...use a skill, get experience in a skill, get better at a skill.
And as has been pointed out before, no one gets better at picking locks by killing things.

[khyron1144]

That's true of course; we aren't necessarily equally good at all our skills.
Hmm, is anyone capable of listing their real-life skills? :-P

Dishwashing: Excellent
English Language: Excellent
Computer Use: Good
Basic Math: Good
Advanced Math: Fair
Knowledge (American History): Good
Knowledge (World History): Fair
Knowledge (Science): Poor
Knowledge (Taoist Philosophy): Good
Knowledge (Buddhist Philosophy): Fair
Knowledge (Confucianist Philosophy): Poor
Knowledge (Christian Theology): Fair
Knowledge (DC Comics Continuity): Good
Knowledge (Marvel Comics Continuity): Fair
Knowledge (Shakespeare): Poor

[Pellanor]

Glad I'm not the only one who has been inspired :)
So your skills have a different number of ranks?

Things have actually changed a little since I posted this :)
Each skill is going to have the same number of ranks, but they won't be purchased at a 1:1 ratio. There's going to be a few (3-5) different levels of costs for purhcasing ranks in skills. Some "Flavour" skills, like cooking, are going to have a low cost, so that they're easy to pick up, where as more complex and potent skills, like Spirit Control, are going to have higher costs.

One thing this will let me do is give races special traits that scale better with level. For example, instead of an Orc (not that there are Orcs in my world) getting +4 to strength, then instead get to purchash points in strength at a better ratio. This will make it easier for Orcs to specialize in strength based abilities, or to just have a higher stregth score when they've hit the level cap for whatever skills they're focusing in.

As for the number of skills characters will have in my system. I'm thinking that I'll give them enough points per level to keep two or three average skills at the max rank, and have a handful at lower ranks (costs will be exponential).

Right now I'm just working on putting together a skill list. I've still got a bunch of wholes that need filling.

[Acrimone]

Wow... listing our skills.  What fun!

But what's the scale?  1-10?  Excellent to poor?  What's the fun of listing our skills if we don't have a common baseline?

[Nomadic]

Not to mention how you compare different skills. I mean I have been programming for 8 years, but how would that stack up against someone who has been training running for 8 years?

[Acrimone]

There's another thing.... 8 years of running training actually changes your STATS more than it gives you a skill (although to be sure, there is a skill to running).

How do you model that?

[Superfluous Crow]

Rate them from 1 to 10, with 10 being masterful/genius, and 1 being beginner.
EDIT: actually, i think using descriptive words might be better (simpler anyway). Unskilled, beginner, weak, simple, average, decent, good, great, amazing, could do okay as a scale?

And Pellanor, I also thought about doing somewhat the same with races, so a physical ability that would normally cost 3 points would cost 2 points for an orc (or something such; not that i have orcs either).
I think having levels cost different point values might be troublesome though. Although it could make for some interesting decisions at times: "hmm, should i buy cooking 3 now, or should i wait until i get 2 more points so i can pyromancy 2?"

[Pellanor]

The important thing is to make sure it's easy to keep track of. I've seen a lot of systems which cost a number of points equal to your the rank you want. So to go from 0 to 1 is 1, 1 to 2 is 2, 5 to 6 is 6, etc... The old white wolf system worked this way.

It tends to make specialization a more painful process. However if you use a system that doesn't have much random variance (ie. 3d6 instead of 1d20) then that extra +1 or +2 bonus is actually worth quite a bit.

[Superfluous Crow]

Another typical way of determining point cost is to add the new rank to the amount of points the previous one cost. So 1 is 1 point, 2 is 3 (2+1) points, 3 is 6 (3+2+1) etc.