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Old 12-30-2014, 01:38 PM   #2
Nymdok
 
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Houston
Default Re: Purely Natural Defaults

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sindri View Post
Defaults require that a character be from a society where the skill in question is known. In most cases that's reasonable.

However there are some things where someone without the right cultural background could attempt the skill and also would perform worse than someone who actually has been exposed to it enough to normally warrant a default.

If, for example, a PC with very high attributes encounters some children playing a physical sport with which he has had absolutely no exposure until now wants to give it a try how well should he perform? He shouldn't simply be unable to perform. It is, after all, just a variation on the pattern of hit [object A] with [object B] to get it into [object c] so [result A] happens. Naturally he won't perform as well as someone with the same attributes who had enough exposure to get a default but it's also not impossible for him to be able to play along after a few seconds of observation just quite difficult.

So what should be the absolute minimum default for cases like these?
If its an absolutley simple game (playing tag comes to mind), then why roll at all? If its A given that something can happen then why the roll?

But if, for example, your looking for something that easily observed and understood but slightly more challenging to be done, Id say DX-6 to DX-4 sounds like a good place to start just on the basis of other defaults.

Note that, as always, it depends on your setting and players. Im pretty sure that If I had a good basic move and basic speed Id take the default versus a buncha 6 year olds playing tag :)

Nymdok
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