Topic: Races & Cultures Errata

[Arawaen]

Races and Cultures PDF

Adolescent Skill Ranks by Culture table lists ranks in Awareness*Perceptions Skill Category for Aerial, Arctic and Desert.  Perceptions does not have skill category ranks.

Wood Elf Racial Information table has RR modifiers for Disease at +15 (should be +100) and for Psionic at +50 (should be -5 I think).

[Marc R]

Should the former only be in the specific Awareness Skill?

[Marc R]

Should it?

[RandalThor]

I believe what he is saying is that Awareness*Perceptions is a Special skill, so the category itself can't have any ranks devoted to it, only the skills under the category can have ranks.

[Marc R]

But should the ranks be in Alertness, or Sense Ambush?

[yammahoper]

Sense Ambush seems a redundant skill when you have Alertness already.  The definition of alertness is, paraphrased, "the natural ability to percieve when no statement of perception is made."

As such, I struck sense ambush from my skill list.

[RandalThor]

I agree with Yammahopper, Sense Ambush (along with all the uber-specialized situational awareness skills) needs to go. Alertness, the general subconscious awareness of your surroundings should be used in all of these cases. The only thing I would think modifies this, is specific professional mods and/or talents, like fighters getting a +30 to Awareness when in combat, a rogue gets their bonus when someone tries to sneak up on them or palms a knife, etc...

Marc R: In all cases (I believe) only Alertness is acquired through racial templates, never Sense Ambush. Usually it is 2 ranks, as well.

[Marc R]

OK, now that an actual specific change is on the table, agree, disagree, flaming buckets of pitch?

[RandalThor]

I firmly state that RM needs to pare down its skill bloat.

[rdanhenry]

To stay on the actual question at hand: it should be Alertness.

[markc]

Does not Sense Ambush reduce the ranks of an opponents Ambush skill?
MDC

[yammahoper]

Any successful perception check will reduce ambush ranks to zero, as the attack is no longer a surprise attack.

[Kristen Mork]

Sense Ambush reduces the attacker's Ambush ranks, even when the attack is not perceived.

[yammahoper]

Must be a school of hard knocks rule, not the RM2 version I base my statements on.

If the skill works passively to reduce ambush ranks, that is handy...not that I have met may GM's with the testicular fortitude to use them against poor PC's.  Heck, if your stun no parry in my game, the attacker gets to use 1/2 his weapon ranks as ambush.  I went from RQ to MERP to RM.  A step down in risk is not acceptable.

[Marc R]

So should it be one skill, the other, a choice of either?

[rdanhenry]

Alertness is normally developed by everyone. Sense Ambush is a highly specialized skill, that would not be standard unless you had a culture in which assassination attempts were everyday events. I could see that for certain specific fantastic subcultures, but not such broad, normal categories. Definitely Alertness.

[GrumpyOldFart]

Alertness is normally developed by everyone. Sense Ambush is a highly specialized skill, that would not be standard unless you had a culture in which assassination attempts were everyday events. I could see that for certain specific fantastic subcultures, but not such broad, normal categories. Definitely Alertness.

I could see it being taught to the royal family of almost any kingdom you can imagine, but that's one of the few places I'd consistently expect to see it.

[markc]

IMHO it would be alertness not sense ambush.
MDC

[Marc R]

My personal opinion also leans toward alertness, but keep in mind that if you live in an area where predatory cats see people as food, you might find yourself a potential ambush target more often than the most hated king. . . .of course per my opinion you'd still likely be more alert if you were living in such a place.

[Kristen Mork]

In my game, Sense Ambush can be used to a) detect traps as they are going off, allowing a moving maneuver to evade the effects, b) avoid being surprised by an opponent, allowing full activity during the first round, c) as a defense against Subterfuge * Attack maneuvers, possibly negating the Silent Attack / Ambush maneuvers completely, and d) as a penalty to Ambush ranks even if the Ambush was successful.  These effects are enough to convince many players to invest DP in the skill.  All of these could be handled using Alertness, but I prefer more granular skills.