Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - In Nomine Second Edition: What have we learned?

Azel · 10-12-2010, 06:19 AM

The mechanics for Free Skills for Mortals being codified into Core is a hard one for me. Part of what I love of IN is how much stuff provides alternative suggestions to tailor your gaming experience. So instead of CPG alt. mechanics being incorporated into canon and "defined," I'd dig more elaboration of said alt. mechanics through examples.

From my experience, I find allotting points to Profession and Everyday Life skill sets (pre-selected by GM) to be better for my needs. I mean, if I deal with a white collar worker who lives in suburban America, they are going to have a very different skill set than an Afghani shepherd. Suddenly professional and everyday life skills are radically different, but still critically important.

I personally use a mix of Routine Actions + Free Skills for Mortals. (Knowing that other alternate rules to keep mortals capable is in the CPG is reassuring. I can't think of which ones I'd part with if we had to establish a canonical way to beef up mortals.) Even still, humans are quite squishy -- but that's as it should be. Humans don't really get spare vessels, therefore combat with creatures who do should be petrifying. However, I don't have "Sunday drivers of death!" 10-car-pile-up flying all over my games either.

Now, I could go for a Core elaboration of how to set up such alternates, i.e. Free Skills for Mortals. Currently I do 6 Char. pts. for each Profession and Everyday Life set, and place anywhere between 4-8 skills within each skill set to choose from (with occasional overlap, depending). Dunno if giving equal points to both profession and everyday life is the best way to go, so having a few layout recommendations for this could be nice in Core.

10-12-2010, 06:19 AM	#44
Azel Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: South of the Town across from the City by the Bay	Re: In Nomine Second Edition: What have we learned? The mechanics for Free Skills for Mortals being codified into Core is a hard one for me. Part of what I love of IN is how much stuff provides alternative suggestions to tailor your gaming experience. So instead of CPG alt. mechanics being incorporated into canon and "defined," I'd dig more elaboration of said alt. mechanics through examples. From my experience, I find allotting points to Profession and Everyday Life skill sets (pre-selected by GM) to be better for my needs. I mean, if I deal with a white collar worker who lives in suburban America, they are going to have a very different skill set than an Afghani shepherd. Suddenly professional and everyday life skills are radically different, but still critically important. I personally use a mix of Routine Actions + Free Skills for Mortals. (Knowing that other alternate rules to keep mortals capable is in the CPG is reassuring. I can't think of which ones I'd part with if we had to establish a canonical way to beef up mortals.) Even still, humans are quite squishy -- but that's as it should be. Humans don't really get spare vessels, therefore combat with creatures who do should be petrifying. However, I don't have "Sunday drivers of death!" 10-car-pile-up flying all over my games either. Now, I could go for a Core elaboration of how to set up such alternates, i.e. Free Skills for Mortals. Currently I do 6 Char. pts. for each Profession and Everyday Life set, and place anywhere between 4-8 skills within each skill set to choose from (with occasional overlap, depending). Dunno if giving equal points to both profession and everyday life is the best way to go, so having a few layout recommendations for this could be nice in Core.