>Saravan Peacock would like to see the concept of "skill levels" in the new
>G:RPG. Thus allowing a master crafter the ability to create thing that a
hack
>could only dream of doing.
>This is a lovely idea and one I believe can easily work with RQ or
Pendragon
>mechanics. I admit that I haven't thought this out, but I submit the
>following idea anyway for people to shoot at.
>The concept is to assign level descriptor to skills that correspond to the
>number rank of the skill. I first saw this used in a little RPG called
Malanda
>back in 1981(?). The goal was to discourage players from using game terms
to
>describe their characters. It was well received by the players and worked
>pretty well in practice.
>Under these rules when a Master successfully uses a skill the results can
be
>assumed to be better than the best efforts of an Apprentice. The skill
level
>descriptor helps qualify the expected results of the two craftsmen. The
whole
>concept just feels right to me.
>Thoughts, suggestions?
Another system that works this way is the MasterBook system by West End Games (basically second edition TORG). Characters have skills that can be equated to levels of proficiency, novice, apprentice, master etc. (I can't remember the exact terms). When performing any sort of task the GM assigns a difficulty number that has to be met or exceeded to succeed at the task. The more you beat the number by the better the result. Naturally someone with a better skill is going to, on average perform better than someone with a lower skill. However the system also makes use of open-ended rolls when you actually possess the skill (as opposed to someone just trying to do something they've never done before) so you can get the occasional result where a novice whips up a work of art (or cuts the Death Lords head off, etc). It's sort a neat system outside the card deck which I have mixed feelings about and I've thought about trying to adapt it to Glorantha.
Using opposed rolls removes one of my big beefs with straight die rolls and criticals-almost making one. Well I missed my critical by 3% so I just roll normal damage, oh 2 points, yippee! You still rolled real well but you need a second roll for damage which can blow the whole deal. With MasterBook (like Rolemaster except without all the tables) the better you roll the more damage you do. It's fairly consistent throughout the system.
Anyways that's my rambling two bits worth.
Oliver D. Bernuetz
bernuetz.oliver _at_ic.gc.ca
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