Enology

Tyalientur · 01-04-2010, 10:45 AM

We agree: your guidelines are quite near the ones I use. On average, I use 10 points too in realistic settings, but maybe 5 or less in fantasy.

Nonetheless, I actually extend this to something more flexible.
I start in a range from 5 to 15 points in flavour skills: 5 suits a pragmatic build, 15 is more realistic for a dilettante-like profile for example. Then during the game, I include two more things:
- first, I do my best to make these skills useful and determinant in some important situations. This is a point to consider, because the problem is found with social skills as well: physical action has a tendency to prevail on social action in a story, I mean on a dice roll basis, making such skills sometimes useless in the perception of the players. It is a tough duty to change this state of mind, first in your own as a GM;
- second, I convert flavour skills to more pragmantic skills when opportune: for example, a "Saber Sport" will make a base to buy "Saber" or "Rapier" and then the player will get back the points of the Sport skill somewhat later. You may transfer points from skills like Connoisseur or Current Affairs to more specific and useful skills too. This option I use for players with a character having more than 5 points on such secondary skills.

Despite the guidelines, balancing all that is of course never easy.

01-04-2010, 10:45 AM	#16
Tyalientur Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: France	Re: Enology We agree: your guidelines are quite near the ones I use. On average, I use 10 points too in realistic settings, but maybe 5 or less in fantasy. Nonetheless, I actually extend this to something more flexible. I start in a range from 5 to 15 points in flavour skills: 5 suits a pragmatic build, 15 is more realistic for a dilettante-like profile for example. Then during the game, I include two more things: - first, I do my best to make these skills useful and determinant in some important situations. This is a point to consider, because the problem is found with social skills as well: physical action has a tendency to prevail on social action in a story, I mean on a dice roll basis, making such skills sometimes useless in the perception of the players. It is a tough duty to change this state of mind, first in your own as a GM; - second, I convert flavour skills to more pragmantic skills when opportune: for example, a "Saber Sport" will make a base to buy "Saber" or "Rapier" and then the player will get back the points of the Sport skill somewhat later. You may transfer points from skills like Connoisseur or Current Affairs to more specific and useful skills too. This option I use for players with a character having more than 5 points on such secondary skills. Despite the guidelines, balancing all that is of course never easy.