Basic competency

From: Benedict Adamson <badamson_at_...>
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2000 16:25:25 +0100

Jane Williams wrote:
> > I'm going to let them have one skill at 1W, since they really must have
> > basic competence at doing *something* without supervision in order to
> > class as an adult.

...
David Dunham replied:
> Basic competency is really whatever you define it as -- if their
> opponents all have 15, then the PCs would need 15 as well, but the
> game *system* supports defining basic competency at 12.

I agree with Jane here. Basic competency is not 'really whatever you define it as'. Competent means being able to do a job. In game system terms that means achieving a 'victory' result (at least Orlanthi) all the time. That requires a mastery. Greg underlined this at Convulsion this year. Granted, for new adults that competency will be in something unexciting, such as Farming or Herding.

Some people seem to get nervous about the word 'mastery', especially when used for normal folks rather than heroes, but 'mastery' is just a game system construct. I doubt so many would be bothered it we wrote 1W as 21.