Skill systems

Carl Edman (cedman@golem.ps.uci.edu)
Sat, 18 Jul 92 09:30:17 PDT

One vote for Scott Turners flat skill system. Not only does it
reflect the real world best, it also is actually quite a lot simpler
in basic structure than the other skill systems - after all in this
system all skills are created equal. Details as I'd like to see them:

- Each skill would have at most one use which you could call via 'use
X'.

- Higher levels would just increase the proficiency at a skill.

- Most skill would be completely ineffective at level 0.

- Each skill level might have another skill at a certain level as a
prerequiste. eg. the spell skill 'call lightning' might have weather
magic 4 as a prerequisite for level 1, 'call lightning' level 3 might
require weather magic 5 aso. Here USE-less skills like 'weather
magic' come in. You could require many such skills for the more
scholarly professions like eg. magic.

- Whenever a player reaches level N, he is informed of the
prerequisites for level N+1, if any. He can then go on studying the
skill as long as he wants, but he won't reach level N+1 without the
prerequisites. However, the studies aren't lost but accumulate up to
(level N+1) - 1 day. This provision prevents people from losing when
they study a skill and reach a new level during the month.

An unrelated change which I'd like to see, would be a much greater
emphasis on teaching.

- Study effectiveness should be cut to a third or a fourth of what it
is now. This would represent research into the field instead of mere
learning.

- An effective teacher cancels out the previous effect ie. if you
have a level 0 teacher who teaches in the stack and knows the skill
at a sufficient level, you'll be able to learn at the current rates.
Higher level teachers will of course get the corresponding bonuses.

Carl Edman


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