11-09-2018, 01:09 AM | #61 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Skills and Techniques are too expensive
In keeping with the OP's request, I've been thinking of adapting the front benefits from Wildcard Skills and/or Talents as a way to make spending points on skills more useful. Specifically, I do this though Styles: every x points spent on a Style's skills and techniques gives you a +1 Reaction bonus from aficionados of that Style (similar to the +1 Reaction bonus that a level of Talent grants you), and/or an equivalent benefit (see the Talents Power-Up for ideas on equivalent benefits). Every dozen or so points spent on a Style's skills and Techniques gives you one Impulse Point per session on matters relating to that Style; and so on.
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11-09-2018, 01:25 AM | #62 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Skills and Techniques are too expensive
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Attributes, Talents, and most physical and mental Advantages fall into an Ability Pool that you can improve using character point rewards. Skills, Techniques, and a handful of Advantages that represent expertise rather than raw ability fall into a Training Pool that you can improve through the Study system. And social traits fall into a Background Pool that tends to fluctuate wildly as the twists and turns of the campaign giveth and taketh away. Some crossover is permitted; for instance, I'm OK with a character spending some of his starting allotment of Background points on skills or even physical or mental Advantages that wouldn't otherwise be purchasable through this Bucket, so long as they flesh out the character's background but aren't likely to show up in the game very often. Last edited by dataweaver; 11-09-2018 at 01:30 AM. |
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11-09-2018, 02:48 AM | #63 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: Skills and Techniques are too expensive
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
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11-09-2018, 02:56 AM | #64 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: Skills and Techniques are too expensive
A solution to that, and to very high skill levels, is to cap skills relative to attributes. Attribute+5 and/or Attribute x 1.5 might give a reasonable result.
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
11-09-2018, 03:05 AM | #65 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: Skills and Techniques are too expensive
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The biggest issue I see with techniques is players going "Ooooh! That looks cool!" and buying a technique without actually asking themselves how often they'll actually use it. Just because a player buys something shiny and never uses it (and thus 'wasted' the points) doesn't mean it was over-priced for the game or campaign as a whole.
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
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11-09-2018, 03:07 AM | #66 | |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Skills and Techniques are too expensive
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My point was to not base skill costs off of some subjective value. Ummm... who is 'the audience'? I hope you don't mean 'the Players'. |
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11-09-2018, 03:18 AM | #67 | |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: Skills and Techniques are too expensive
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And/or halving the cost for hobby/background skills and advantages unlikely to matter in the game.. That work well too. An untested alternative could be to give the player access to an "informed ability" perk : If they buy an appropriate reputation (for exemple: best surfer among US army troops in vietnam,+4) and the perk, as long as the skill use doesn't matter, they add their reputation level to the skill. If they try to use the skill for anything else than showing off or playing around, they use their actual skill (or default as the case may be). Opinion ? --- Hard technique cost, otoh, I agree there is a theoretical problem in many cases. Not sure of the solution, it never mattered enough in my games. 1 Free technique point for each +4 skill purchase would seem a good start, but again this is untested. Last edited by Celjabba; 11-09-2018 at 03:22 AM. |
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11-09-2018, 05:19 AM | #68 | |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brighton
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Re: Skills and Techniques are too expensive
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I try and come up with reason for the Players to use the skill their characters have. Or to address the wider topic I as the GM am in better position to make brought skills cheap or expensive in relation to their utility, than the game is.
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Grand High* Poobah of the Cult of Stat Normalisation. *not too high of course Last edited by Tomsdad; 11-12-2018 at 03:21 AM. |
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11-09-2018, 06:55 AM | #69 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Skills and Techniques are too expensive
The players are the main audience. And in my experience, it's perfectly possible for a player not to remember all of a character's traits, let alone all of the applications of those traits. Not all players are rules/game mechanics geeks; some have more the actor/storyteller mentality. But beyond that, each player is part of the audience for the other characters.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
11-09-2018, 07:31 AM | #70 |
Join Date: Jun 2017
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Re: Skills and Techniques are too expensive
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