Assumptions on High School and College Skill Levels

[Langy]

If the 'responsible' students you know are only taking two classes per semester, it would take them ten years to finish a normal 120 credit degree.

Sorry I don't understand how since there's academic skills listed in the book, there aren't people capable of retainiing them over a semester. Also there's Research.

People can still learn skills in college - it's just a lot slower than 1 skill point per class per semester. That's about five skill points per semester or forty total for a normal bachelor's degree. 1 skill point per year might work - 1 skill point per full load of classes in a semester might work, as well, though I'd only put half of those in their primary skill.

[Dwarf99]

Nope they're only studying 3 hours a day for two of the full load. The others are cores from the first year they didn't get early, and as I said before they only get the point for the one or two classes where they study 3 hours a day. Also we're only required to take 4 classes a semester

[cptbutton]

About a year ago I started a thread for a game I was thinking of running:

Anime Ordinary High School Students

I got some good comments. I gave my first try at a template at the beginning and a revised one at the end of the thread.

Short version: High school gives you 4 points a year, 1 each in Math (applied), Literature, History, and Writing,

[tanniynim]

I'm going to voice my support for the use of the Dabbler Perk for College classes. I've used an unofficial version of this for a while and it seems to work well. I generally use plain 'ol default for High School Students, however.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by tanniynim

I'm going to voice my support for the use of the Dabbler Perk for College classes. I've used an unofficial version of this for a while and it seems to work well. I generally use plain 'ol default for High School Students, however.

Yes. If you gain skill pts from a College curriculum, you don't from a High School one covering the same broad subjects. High School barely covers the basics (i.e. Defaults). If you didn't have the HS education you mostly wouldn't get a Default.

Even with largely Yes/No things like Languages there are significant amounts of nuances they don't cover in High School.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Yes. If you gain skill pts from a College curriculum, you don't from a High School one covering the same broad subjects. High School barely covers the basics (i.e. Defaults). If you didn't have the HS education you mostly wouldn't get a Default.

I think this is a fundamentally wrong understanding of what Default means. I'm curious what others think.

[Green-Neck]

read somewhere that one skill point equals 200 hours of study.
40 hours a week (including homework) for 40 weeks a year would yeild 8 CP per annum. whether you actually paid attention in school is another thing!

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Green-Neck

read somewhere that one skill point equals 200 hours of study.
40 hours a week (including homework) for 40 weeks a year would yeild 8 CP per annum. whether you actually paid attention in school is another thing!

That is assuming one on one teaching, and the ration ares if it pressure learning, self taught etc.. a point in a skill can also represent a narrower than a Talent natural gift.

Compulsory Education is the modern Western way of imparting working knowledge (defaults) some of it goes to raising IQ other part grants a default in the first place.

[Langy]

I think this is a fundamentally wrong understanding of what Default means. I'm curious what others think.

I agree with Fred. If you've never had a calculus class (Mathematics; Applied), I wouldn't let you even try at default a calculus problem - if you've never had calculus, you won't even know what the symbols mean!

It'd be either that, or assess massive unfamiliarity penalties for anything you didn't study in school, and have high school just give you some familiarities - essentially making it so that any time you attempt a skill taught at school at default, if you haven't finished high school you're also getting further penalties on top of the default use.

Effectively, before you take high school you have lowered defaults on anything high school teaches. It's only after you pass your classes that you get to use your skills at their actual default.

[Infornific]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I think this is a fundamentally wrong understanding of what Default means. I'm curious what others think.

I also agree with Fred. Defaults are supposed to be dependent on the character's background. In a modern campaign set in a first world country, people are typically high school graduates. So the general knowledge from high school in game terms is your default in History, Literature, Mathematics, Science skills, etc. A lack of a high school education would be represented by a Social Stigma plus possibly reduced IQ, Illiteracy of some level and an implied lack of default skills. You could certainly justify a few points in skills based on your interests in high school, but learning them in high school is just a feature.

College again I would treat as a feature. If you went to a good school and took advantage of all opportunities to improve your mind you could justify buying a level of IQ plus points in skills for your major. If you partied a lot, possibly nothing but points in certain social skills. A skill level of 12 or so sounds right for the typical major for a good college but a character could justify higher or lower skill easily enough. If you really want a game mechanic, maybe assume 15-20 points in Attributes, Advantages and skills acquired for an active college education.

- DW