Re: Mastery Inflation

From: Mikael Raaterova <ginijji_at_...>
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2000 20:53:28 +0200


Steven White:
>Sorry, quoting from you, more exactly:
><IMG only one in ten has a mastery, one in hundred has two, one in
><thousand has three. And that distribution may be too frequent.
>
>This indicated to me that you were looking at a very low power
>world. And with normal character development, normal player
>characters would be utterly beyond the average joe. And so I was
>thinking you been going for low skill gain. So I was explaining
>this is where I got that idea.

OK, now i see where the misunderstanding arose. And, no, lowering the frequencies of masteries _for everyone_ doesn't in the least affect the power level of the world. Psychologically, it increases the power level, because that makes the multiple mastery guys stand out more, instead of Xw2 guys being part of the common scenery.

It does mean that player heroes have an easier time development-wise to become Movers and Shakers. Which is nice.

>If 17 is a _good_ skill, and 5w a real mastery.... and you give 1 or
>2 HP a session...
>
>Then things like a +5 to close combat geas for humakti, a +2 extra
>edge from a weapon, iron armour, followers, and improvisation
>penalties have a far more serious impact on the game then if
>you're playing with 1w1..20w1 being compentency.

Exactly. The relative impact of +1 mods is increased when you lower the mean ability ratings. A Good Thing IMHW.

-- 
-
Mikael Raaterova        [.sig omitted on legal advice]

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