[Torg] New Basic Skills

[Sam Frazier II]

Sure all the time. Everytime we use Science or Scholar, we have a new skill, so to speak. The others we came up with just made sense to us. Things that were missing.

My opinion of your new skills:

Empathy: I don't have a better name for it, but I wouldn't really call it Empathy. The ability to read someone is a skill, I'd probably catorgize it under Evidence Analysis or test of wills as your read into another's mannerisms. I also wouldn't say it cannot be turnned off. Sure the base skill might show something about someone, but only if that someone is under the characters skill value. 

Determination: I don't like it. Faith I could understand as a substitute for Willpower in certain circumstances, but not another skill in another attribute that does the same thing. If someone of low intellect is very stubborn, perhaps they have alot of adds in the Willpower skill or lean upon their fiath for those certain sircumstances. This seems like a skill to get around those non-intellectual types. Bad idean IMHO.


Notice: Change the Find skill to be Notice skill. MMmmm Gee I don't care if you change it in your game. We have the same problem with Find and Perception from all the years of playing Shatterzone (A next generation TORG system for one cosm) where you had Mind and Intellect as Attributes, and Perception was the Find skill. Everytime we swap from SZ to TORG I make the mistake of asking for Perception totals when they should be Find totals. I'd leave it alone or more confusion will ensue. My opinion.

Moveing Art Skills: This is one of those like the Science and Scholar skills. Dance could be Dex or Charmisa based depending on the type of dance, Storytelling could be more Perception, more Mind, or more Charisma depnending on Fact, Fiction, or flatterizing. I agree on this. It depends on what the character is going to do with the skill.Of course as a GM, I find I must smack my characters for attempting to use the skill in a way that would cover another attribute. E.G. Dance with Dex to charm an NPC. While I usually take the modpodge skill adds + different attribute + bonus roll like in that one game that does that, I frown upon it heavily. It does lead to abuse among those who'd use the Determination Skill to keep their MIND at 7 and their Dex at 13 and Spir at 10. Be careful. Don't be charmed (plays supporter card).

So Essentially I'd change the name of Empathy to something else less Psionic, drop Determination, forget about renaming Find, and keep going with the different attributes for ceratin Macro skills.

I have a small write-up/review on your Weird Science, but I'm not done with it just yet.

SDF II



________________________________
From: Benjamin Grant <benn at 4efix.com>
To: torg at justintimeadventures.com
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 9:50:28 AM
Subject: RE: [Torg] New Basic Skills

 
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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