[Torg] Stat/Skill balance

[Kansas Jim]

Garrett writes:

[...]

>>> First off, I made an Artist Meta Macro skill.  The Macro part just
>>> means that there has to be a foci for the skill, metalwork, poetry,
>>> paint, food, leather, stone, statuary, bonsai, trumpets, etc.  The Meta
>>> means that the artist can 'embed' an Interaction skill into a work and
>>> the skill is the limit on how much oomph the Artist can put into a
>>> work.  For example: Mike

>> It seems to me that would mean that an uncharismatic artist, regardless
>> of his talent, would be incapable of producing artwork that could move
>> people.

> My apologies. I forgot to mention that Artist has become a stat-less skill,
> like the Arcane Knowledges (State, Fire, etc.) for spell design.  It isn't
> based on CHA.

Artist is actually based on MIND in the published rules.

>> But how many times have we seen in fiction, and even real life, cases of
>> artists who produce greatly moving works yet as soon as you interact with
>> them you discover they're boorish, unfriendly, unlikable cads?

> Because instead of buying up the CHA and/or Charm score they spent all
> their PP in getting Artist(Paint) +5. :)

But all that does is set an upper limit on success levels. If you've
got a crappy Charisma, Charm, Persuasion, Taunt, Intimidation or
whatever to embed you're never going to get enough success levels in
the first place for an upper limit to come into play. Yay, I can
get a maximum of five success levels, too bad I never manage to get
more than two because I'm an introverted hermit with no personal
interaction skills. Guess I should have gone to charm school instead
of practicing my art?

(Note: this ignores your statement below about using DN 0. Hell, if
DN 0 gets used then the embedded skill becomes utterly pointless,
CHA 7 with no skill adds at all will on average get you three or four
success levels without even trying!)

> 'Moving' in this context a function of embedded Skill Value, a the Bonus
> Number, the viewer, and the ability of the Artist.  Which is why Art
> doesn't effect everybody the same - a Bonus Number is rolled to generate a
> Skill Total.  People who want to enjoy the work aren't resisting, so the DN
> is 0.  Someone who is forced to experience it may roll an Active Defense. 
> People who could care less, use a Passive Defense.   Then the Artist skill

So if I go into something wanting to enjoy it, it's basically impossible
for me not to enjoy it? Because if the DN is 0 the odds of an artist
rolling low enough that he doesn't beat that DN are pretty slim, even if
he's an uncouth troglodyte with no interaction skills to speak of
embedded in the piece. And if he's actually got some skills...like your
example of Mike with Charm 10, he would only fail to gain a success
level if he rolled a 1 (since with a roll of 2 he'd have a skill total
of 0, which still counts as a Minimal success level.) I've been
disappointed by things I've wanted to enjoy way too often for it to be
that unlikely!

-- 
Kansas Jim, Torg guru (ksjim (at) sdc (dot) org)
Torg website: http://www.sdc.org/~ksjim/index.html