Topic: Guild Companion March 2012 (Issue 157)

[Kristen Mork]

Greetings from the Guild Companion; Issue 157 is available at www.guildcompanion.com.

This month we present section 12 of the Art of Fighting, an overview of Martial Arts Styles, which provide characters access to martial skills.  We also have a Celestial Body Classification System for Spacemaster (or any other Sci-Fi RPG).  In the Words from the Wise (Guys), I muse on learning skills based on what maneuvers a character attempts.

Peter Mork
Guild Companion Editor

[Erik Sharma]

I found you musings on the skills very informative. Have been thinking about using something similar myself. I like systems where you advance at the skills you use (like BRP/CoC) and been thinking about how to implement it into RM and so far the thoughts have been very similar along the lines of your musings. With the exception that they have to gain the level first and then get access to the DPs they can spend during their adventures, also removing the need for a downtime to train their skills. Can of course be used for lvl 1 characters too, where they get to spend their adolescent skills and instead of spending the DPs for their first level. They jot em down and instead start to play and start to spend em during their first adventure. I still haven't figured out how to handle getting new spell lists this way. But acquiring and studying spell books and being instructed by teachers is one thought.

[GrumpyOldFart]

The information tracking wouldn't be bad if they got the skill rank no later than the end of the session where they were using the skill.

My questions with it would be

1. Things like talents and spell list access, that require a bit of forward planning and saving of DPs to get. If you get a lump sum of DPs that you can spend in bits at a time throughout the level then saving the DPs isn't an issue, but if you're spending DPs on spell list access, what's the limiting condition (as using the skill is for other skills)? Taking your books along and practicing an hour every night? This is new magic you're learning, does that mean you're a potential hazard to everyone around you while you're practicing, like a student driver?

And then again, talents. Depending on what the talent is, it begs the question of how you practiced for it, or used a skill that resulted in it.

2. Is there any limit to how much of a given skill the PC can learn in a given amount of time, other than just how many times they can use it in that timeframe? This can result in players doing some seriously stupid things just to use the skills involved.

3. If you get to (or even close to) the next level and still have a lot of DPs left over, what are your options?

[Kristen Mork]

1. Things like talents and spell list access, that require a bit of forward planning and saving of DPs to get. If you get a lump sum of DPs that you can spend in bits at a time throughout the level then saving the DPs isn't an issue, but if you're spending DPs on spell list access, what's the limiting condition (as using the skill is for other skills)? Taking your books along and practicing an hour every night? This is new magic you're learning, does that mean you're a potential hazard to everyone around you while you're practicing, like a student driver?

And then again, talents. Depending on what the talent is, it begs the question of how you practiced for it, or used a skill that resulted in it.

Very rarely do I allow new Talents to be purchased after Level 0.  For Level 0, I gave the gods 100 DP, which could be spent on talents or skills (almost all were spent on talents).  For spells, using the spell during a session is tracked just like every other skill.

2. Is there any limit to how much of a given skill the PC can learn in a given amount of time, other than just how many times they can use it in that timeframe? This can result in players doing some seriously stupid things just to use the skills involved.

Yes, there is still a DP limit per level.  If you use a skill at least once during the level, then you need to learn that skill.

3. If you get to (or even close to) the next level and still have a lot of DPs left over, what are your options?

When you level, you need to "calibrate" your skills by spending the remaining DP.  That would be when you might be able to acquire a new Talent.

[Kristen Mork]

Here's the system we use in greater detail:

Assume that it takes N sessions to gain a level.  And, for a given skill, a character can learn at most K ranks each level (e.g., if the cost is 2/7, then K=2, and if the cost is 3/3/3, then K=3).

At the end of each session, the character gains one "free" rank in every skill used that session.  However, a character cannot have more than K "free" ranks beyond their current purchased ranks (learned ranks).  Moreover, the character cannot have more than N "free" ranks in any skill.

When a character gains a level, we first eliminate any "free" ranks whose DP cost is greater than the base cost (normally the cost of the first rank).  For example, if a character has two "free" ranks of Riding (cost 2/7), we eliminate the second "free" rank (i.e., the character is only expected to learn one rank of Riding).  But, if a character has three "free" ranks of Fire Law (cost 3/3/3), we don't eliminate anything.

We then compute the DP cost of the "free" ranks. If the total cost is greater than the character's available DP, then additional "free" ranks must be eliminated until the cost of the "free" ranks equals the available DP.  If the total cost is less than the character's available DP, then additional skill ranks can be purchased normally (or Stat Gains or Talents can be purchased).

In essence, when a character gains a level, the character must first spend DP to convert "free" ranks to learned ranks.

Exceptions:

• Body Development is used whenever a character takes damage, and Power Point Development is used whenever a character casts a spell.  However, the base cost for these skills is 0 (i.e., you are never obligated to convert "free" Body Dev or PP Dev to learned ranks).
  
• Languages are only used when a Communications maneuver is required, and once a character has 10 ranks the base cost becomes 0.
• Maneuver in Armor is used whenever the character suffers a moving maneuver penalty for the armor; once a character has maxed out skill (for that AT), the base cost becomes 0.

Comments:
In our current game, the characters are gods.  Each god level corresponds to five normal levels, and N is 5-7.  Thus, if a skill is used in four sessions, the character can learn four ranks of the skill because the DP cost doesn't increase until the 6th rank is purchased.  In effect, the characters are gaining one level almost every session.  But, they're gods.