Re: Improv skills

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_...>
Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 20:48:27 +0100 (BST)

Steve Lieb:
> Therefore, let's say you have Bluster 18. You need to bargain a merchant
> down, so the narrator says sure, you can use Bluster at -3. Then, at the
> end of the adventure you could specifically take Haggle with Merchant 15
> (for 1 hp) or improve your Bluster by 1 for 3 hp.

I'm not sure I 'get' this. You're saying that it now costs _more_ to raise Bluster than the normal max of 2 points, when you've used it? So what's the cost of raising it when you haven't used it?

I'd say the best thing would be to be a little stricter on the improv. mod in the first place, if you think being are being a little too rough and ready in their use of 'milk one ability for all it's worth'.

I'd suggest that if someone has improvised an ability use that's pretty much 'within the scope' of the original ability, then the best way to handle the 'cementing' is as a 'sit-mod', of some kind. Either just let the extra sentence serve to negate the penalty, as it does if you add a new style of fighting that's still Within Your Idiom, wrt your existing ability; or even allow a positive sit-mod, should that seem merited. (Have the rules for ability sit-mods absconded? I couldn't find them, on a casual flick-through.)

Cheers,
Alex.

Powered by hypermail