Re: Olympia: get rid of PC's?

Carl Edman (cedman@714-725-3177.nts.uci.edu)
Fri, 24 Apr 92 14:30:38 PDT

I agree that helping new characters somewhat is a good idea, but I
really don't think that 'skill points' are the way to go.

1. If they are arbitrarily distributed, skill points don't solve the
"initial character" problem.

2. Using skill points at any time except to create your initial
character is extremely unrealistic, methinks. Have a battle on the
second day of the month ? Just buy level 8 military skill instantly
without any requirements on day 1 a.s.o.

3. 30 skill points seems an awful lot. Even if they are rated to cost
more for higher levels, I don't think that anyone should be able to
start the game with total mastery of one subject - something for
which other characters might have needed dozens of months. 10th level
magical research should be earned.

Instead, I would propose a system like this. Make up a number of
"profiles" i.e.

- "The mage": level 6 magic research, member of magicians guild, one
or two random spells

- "The general": level 5 military leadership, levels 2 or 3 in
combat, archery and equestrian. Has a little extra money

- "The warrior": level 8 combat, level 2 or 3 in military leadership,
archery and equestrian. Starts with a warhorse, platemail and a good
sword aso.

aso.

When a new faction gets generated, the player simply selects one of
these "profiles" for his initial character. Only the original
characters of advanced players will be a lot better, and it will take
the player quite a while to create characters of comparable skill.

Carl Edman, aka BtA [801]

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