[Torg] New Basic Skills

[Phil Dack]

Haven't used any new skills for my Torg game, although it did annoy me that there were a few stat-based functions that didn't have an associated skill (e.g. what order you go in within initiative) and so I toyed with the idea of introducing skills to fill those gaps.

I did introduce a sort of mandatory specialisation, so that with skills like Fire Combat and Melee Weapons you had to pick 2 items in which you were considered Skilled, and anything else would operate at skill-level -1.

I like your Notice skill - it's kinda what "Find" was used for anyway, but the name better fits the use.

Determination may make logical sense, but I'd be a little concerned of the effect on game balance. Apart from anything else, it would remove the glitch my players discovered that Ninja had dreadfully low SPI so could be intimidated into anything the players wished!

I wouldn't like to comment on your MIN/PER changes without full consideration, but I would agree that the whole balance of psychological and intellectual traits did feel a little muddled and not very intuitive. 

Phil


--- On Mon, 10/11/08, Benjamin Grant <benn at 4efix.com> wrote:

> From: Benjamin Grant <benn at 4efix.com>
> Subject: RE: [Torg] New Basic Skills
> To: torg at justintimeadventures.com
> Date: Monday, 10 November, 2008, 3:50 PM
> I am curious - has anyone else come up with interesting new
> basic skills for
> Torg that seem useful?  What did you come up with and why?
> 
>  
> 
> -Benn Grant
> 
> eFix Computer Consulting
> 
> benn at 4eFix.com
> 
> 603.283.6601
> 
>  
> 
> From: torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com
> [mailto:torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com] On Behalf Of
> Benjamin Grant
> Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2008 8:41 PM
> To: torg at justintimeadventures.com
> Subject: [Torg] New Basic Skills
> 
>  
> 
> Here's a couple of new skills we invented for our
> game's use, for various
> reasons:
> 
>  
> 
> Empathy (PER)
> 
> This is a "folk ken" ability, allowing you to
> read people and more easily
> see through subterfuge and "false fronts" and to
> key in to the emotional
> state of another being.  The downside to this ability is it
> cannot be turned
> off - even when it might not be desirable to feel empathy
> for another
> person, you may understand why someone is acting the way
> they are and
> thereby be less able to easily "handle" them.
> 
>  
> 
> Determination (SPI)
> 
> This skills functions exactly the same as Willpower, and
> can be used in its
> place.  The purpose of this skill is that sometimes someone
> who has a low
> intellect can still be very stubborn and determined.  If a
> character
> possesses both, they can choose which to use.  Willpower
> and Determination,
> since they are completely different pathways, are never
> combined by a single
> character.
> 
>  
> 
> Notice (PER)
> 
> This replaces the Find skill, with the Find skill being
> removed from the
> game.  The reason for the addition of this skill is simple
> - in all Torg
> games I have run or played in, a lot of Perception checks
> gets made, and
> with Torg being so skill centric it seemed necessary to
> have a skill one
> could purchase to aid in such rolls.  It logically seemed
> that Find could be
> subsumed into the Notice skill.
> 
>  
> 
> We also moved all Art skills under Perception (from Mind),
> as we define
> Mind-based skills as left-brained and Perception based
> skills as
> right-brained.  Therefor Intuition, if that was a skill,
> would be placed
> under Perception.  In the same vein we define
> Scholar(physics) and
> Science(physics) thusly: Scholar is knowing *about* a field
> (history, facts,
> basic familiarity), and Science is knowing how to *do* it.
> 
>  
> 
> -Benn Grant
> 
> eFix Computer Consulting
> 
> benn at 4eFix.com
> 
> 603.283.6601
> 
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