[Torg] Skills now....

[Benjamin Grant]

Well, I think your observation that none of the others make sense is a
starting point.  And in *my* mind, the ability for fine control over one's
movement is a large part of being Stealthy, so Dex partially fits, at least
in my opinion.  However, (again IMO) there are many skills that seem to
partake of more than one underlying attribute.

Take Dance for example.  (Or Art(Dance)) I just got done watching So You
Think You Can Dance not long ago, and I was able to see for myself people
excelling at different kinds of dances under stressful conditions.
Unquestionably, one must have a certain amount of Dexterity to be able to
pull off these dances.  For that matter, especially with the guys and the
lifts they have to do, a certain amount of Strength is also needed.
However, when it came down to the judging, the Strength and Dexterity helped
nail the Technique of the dancing, but what the judges were really looking
at is the style and expressionism - the performance factor, and while Dex
and Str let you pull off moves, creativity comes from Perception.  (I do't
know if this is Torg cannon or not, but in my interpretation of Torg, Mind
governs left brain activities while Perception governs right brain
activities.)

How to sum this all up?

Well, you *could* have multiple skills:  Dance-Technique, based on Dex,
Dance-Tricks, based on Strength, Dance-Performance, based on Perception.
But this would require a LOT of extra rolls and management, and is not my
preferred solution.  It also makes being a dancer very expensive skill wise.

You *could* take a White Wolf approach, and have one skill, Dance, that you
add to Dex, Strength, or Per depending on the situation.  While this fixes
the expense issue, it still means making multiple rolls.

You could *even* take some average, like Stealth + (2 times Dexterity + 1
times Stealth, sum divided by 3).

What I have done instead is retain the basic Torg method while flexibly
linking the skill with an attribute, with other attributes being use a
requisites.

For example, to be a master dancer, you need to have a minimum Dex of 11 and
a minimum Strength of 10. Nevertheless, when you roll your Dance skill, you
are rolling Dance + Perecption (right brain).

Or you can make it slightly more sophisticated: At adds 1-3, Dance is linked
to Dex, because you are learning the techniques.  Strength still has a 10
requirement.  At adds 4+ Dance becomes linked to Perception, but gains a 11
Dex requirement.  Someone who does not have an 11 Dex cannot proceed past
the third add of Dance.

You can get even more detailed - perhaps certain kinds of dances have lower
or higher requirements, even though you only have one Dance skill.  Ballroom
dancing, for example, may have no Strength requirement at all.  Or maybe
each style of dance is its own skill - Dance - Ballroom vs Dance - Hip Hop.

Finally, you may also want to include a Toughness requirement, both for
stamina and to recover from the inevitable drops and falls.

I think this kind of thinking can be applied to any skill where the
relationship of Skill to Attribute may be more complex.  In all of the
above, we maintain the Skill + Attribute relationship, and for any dance
attempt, we only need to make one roll.

Of course, you can skip all this and decide that Dance plus Perception (or
Dance + Dex) is good enough for you.  One of the beautiful things about Torg
is it is so adjustable - you can add more or less sophistication to taste.

Good luck.

-Benn Grant
eFix Computer Consulting
benn at 4efix.com
603.283.6601


>-----Original Message-----
>From: torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com [mailto:torg-
>bounces at justintimeadventures.com] On Behalf Of Phil Dack
>Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 9:30 AM
>To: torg at roadkill.com
>Subject: [Torg] Skills now....
>
>Am thinking about Torg so I'll throw some more stuff about. It's
>all because a member of my gaming group is running a Torg 1-off
>for his own D&D group, so he keeps asking my advice on things
>which has got my Torg-brain ticking!
>
>I was wondering about skills. In particular Stealth. Why is
>Stealth attributed to Dex? Strikes me this is a classic
>roleplaying game hang-up with D&D. I can't really think of any
>good reason why stealthiness should be linked to manual
>dexterity, hand-eye coordination, physical agility or any other
>of the classic attributions of Dexterity.
>
>In part it might be because no-one can think of a good
>alternative of course! Personally, I could consider slotting it
>under Perception but that's probably about all. Just curious
>what other people think.
>
>Phil
>
>
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