Oh, I didn't mean that you would ever look exactly like the NPC. I just accept that they use the keywords as short hand, so they don't have to write, and we don't have to look through, a list of 30-ish abilities for each NPC. I assume that the main skills are in that area. I've not run a game yet, but I think for major characters that the heroes would be in serious contests with I'd probably break out the abilities in more detail, so that they would have particular strengths and weaknesses.
I do agree that in certain areas, even for generic NPCs, this can be warping. That an NPC warrior of moderate abilities will have listen and scout at 5W, for example, seems maybe not quite right to me.
But my point wasn't that this short hand for NPCs was perfect, or that you could perfectly recreate it, it was that in theory you should be able to get heroes with abilities on the level of a Kallyr. I've not done it, but there are campaigns out there, like the Gwandorland saga, that seem to have.
-Bryan
Powered by hypermail