[Psionic Powers] Clarifying Borrow Skill

johndallman · 08-10-2018, 06:22 AM

The psionic PC in my Infinite Cabal campaign has just bought Borrow Skill, which prompted me to take a careful look at a few aspects of it.

Languages and learning them are important in the campaign, and this PC has Language Talent, in addition to level 4 of Borrow Skill. That suggested an interesting question: You want to borrow a language, and the closest person who knows it has it at Accented/Literate, for [4]. But the character with Language Talent doing the borrowing would acquire a language at Native/Native for [4]. Can he get a language at better fluency than the person he's borrowing it from?

Since the campaign isn't very cinematic, the player and I concluded that Borrow Skill can't give you a language at better fluency than the person it's being borrowed from, even if you have Language Talent. This is unlikely to matter often, unless you're borrowing a very rarely known language.

Thinking about this led me to the conclusion that since you obviously can borrow the spoken form of a language from someone who's illiterate, and thus presumably the written form from someone who knows that, but can't speak it, that generalises to allowing you to borrow different levels of spoken and written deliberately, if you want to.

Finally, I reckon you can borrow techniques of a skill, as well as skills, provided they aren't psionic techniques, or otherwise forbidden by the description of Borrow Skill. You can even borrow a skill and a technique in the same Borrow Skill slot. provided they come from the same person. If you have more than one slot, you can't stack them for the same skill, but you can use one for a skill and another for a technique of the skill.

08-10-2018, 06:22 AM	#1
johndallman Night Watchman Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Cambridge, UK	[Psionic Powers] Clarifying Borrow Skill The psionic PC in my Infinite Cabal campaign has just bought Borrow Skill, which prompted me to take a careful look at a few aspects of it. Languages and learning them are important in the campaign, and this PC has Language Talent, in addition to level 4 of Borrow Skill. That suggested an interesting question: You want to borrow a language, and the closest person who knows it has it at Accented/Literate, for [4]. But the character with Language Talent doing the borrowing would acquire a language at Native/Native for [4]. Can he get a language at better fluency than the person he's borrowing it from? Since the campaign isn't very cinematic, the player and I concluded that Borrow Skill can't give you a language at better fluency than the person it's being borrowed from, even if you have Language Talent. This is unlikely to matter often, unless you're borrowing a very rarely known language. Thinking about this led me to the conclusion that since you obviously can borrow the spoken form of a language from someone who's illiterate, and thus presumably the written form from someone who knows that, but can't speak it, that generalises to allowing you to borrow different levels of spoken and written deliberately, if you want to. Finally, I reckon you can borrow techniques of a skill, as well as skills, provided they aren't psionic techniques, or otherwise forbidden by the description of Borrow Skill. You can even borrow a skill and a technique in the same Borrow Skill slot. provided they come from the same person. If you have more than one slot, you can't stack them for the same skill, but you can use one for a skill and another for a technique of the skill. __________________ The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques.