[Torg] Improving Attributes in play: Edges

[Travis James Hall]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com 
> [mailto:torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com] On Behalf Of 
> Sam Frazier II
> Sent: Sunday, 16 November 2008 3:30 AM
> To: torg at justintimeadventures.com
> Subject: Re: [Torg] Improving Attributes in play: Edges
> 
> Ah, well there would be an Advantage for that actually which 
> allows you to learn things at a cheaper rate.

And a Disad for the poor audial learning. The one should offset the other.

> >>Even so, only 21 out of the 100 skills cannot be used unskilled.
> 
> Damn, now I have to look a that up. Seems a little low.
> 
> *ponder* Ok I count 59, or 63 if you consider the 
> non-attributed skills, for trained, and 37 for untrained. Out 
> of the R&E book. Considering Storm Knights can learn/earn any 
> skill, it seems our count is a bit off.

Read again. While my count is off (darn it, I'm having a lot of trouble
telling when a skill is bolded with that font - hey, wait, if I blow up the
PDF to 200%... - though I've got no idea where I got 21 from, my figures now
show 34) yours is far, far off. Note that only bold-face italic skills
cannot be used untrained, from that list. As I already pointed out, the
figure is higher for skills that are more difficult to use unskilled - the
bold-face non-italic skills.

> >>After all, if you've got Ayslish magic, you hardly need 
> Nile-Egyptian
> >>mathematics, but everyone wants to dodge bullets.
> 
> Actually it depends on the style of magic. After all Occult 
> covers a great deal of magic as well, but the method of use 
> is different, typically with different RP aspects, side 
> effects, and results often enough. So I'd disagree with this 
> statement.

Really? So how many characters have you seen with both Ayslish magic and
Egyptian magic?

> >> Working out whether you have "shorted" yourselves is
> >>fairly complex.
> 
> I have some players with more untrained than trained, some 
> vise versa, and some with a balance between the two. Teachers 
> are available where you'd think they'd be available. The 
> higher the add, the more difficult it is to find a teacher.

Then you may well have some characters who have gotten their skill adds
cheaper than they would under the standard rules. You'd have to add it up to
be sure.

> Actually the balance isn't in question.

Yes, it is - just not PC/NPC balance. It's the balance of one type of
character against another.

> Faith and Focus: See Lava Storm, Earthquake, Banish 
> etc....Miracles are not all pre-post-support fight like 
> sooth, inspiration, bless, etc

Nor did I claim so. The purpose of Faith and Focus is to allow the character
to channel the power of his god into miraculous effects on Earth. The fact
that some of those effects are useful in combat is secondary. However, it
remains a fact.

And etc.

> I mean really, you can't honestly sit there and tell me that 
> Faith/Focus, Realtiy, etc don't have a primary purpose or 
> have a valid categorisation in combat.

The fact that the primary purpose of a skill is not combat-oriented does not
decrease in any way how useful that skill is in combat.

"Combat is the primary purpose of this skill" is not logically equivalent to
"this skill is my primary combat ability", too.

> If so, I feel for your 
> group which must be sooooo short handed in combat.

Why? I said absolutely nothing to indicate that these are not useful in
combat. Furthermore, I don't see why you need this to be explained to you a
second time.

Travis Hall