I've been on the SilentTower email list for years, but this is my first fotay into the forum in its new guise, so be gentle...
After a long hiatus, I'm back to revising my RMFRP chargen spreadsheet and had a couple of questions about Adolescent Hobby progressions:
1. Does anyone use the rule that weapon skills allocated at Adolescent skills must be from the cultural weapons
2. Has anyone noticed that Woodman has cultural skill of PoleArm but no cultural polearms listed?!
3. Hobby Skills: RMFRP p18 "hobby ranks may be used to increase the ranks of any combination of skills and/or skill categories." RMFRP Cultures then list "Standard Hobby Skills" - should this be interpreted restrictively as per cultural weapons (i.e. these skills and none others without good excuse to the GM) or merely as a guide?
4. Can characters develop Closed Lists as Hobby Ranks? - I can see that they might be able to, although I'm nervous about this.
5. Can characters develop Base Lists as Hobby Ranks? - I'm thinking they shouldn't, because by definition they haven't actually joined that profession until they enter the Apprenticeship phase of character generation.
6. I can't find any official comment about how restricted, everyman and occupational skills "stack", which makes me assume they don't - for example, a dwarf with racially restricted Swimming that became a Pearl Diver (a fictional campaign-specific occupation with Swimming as Everyman!) would become Everyman in Swimming, rather than R+E = normal? Similarly, a High Elf layman would actually be no better in his "specialist" craft than any other High Elf?
Finally, an observation on Channeling Companion. Speciality Priests are out of sync with other professions in terms of Everyman skills. Absurdly so. More than 1 speciality priest, for example, has all Outdoor Environmental skills at E. Compare that to the Ranger who has none. I'd be interested to see if anyone else has noticed this and whether it's been an issue. (and btw I also hate the fact that there is a section on the rules for rituals that basically says "use the rules in Essence Companion except for the following changes" - that's a cheap shot, especially when that book hasn't even been published for RMFRP)