Re: Re: Basic competency

From: Benedict Adamson <badamson_at_...>
Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2000 09:30:03 +0100

Tim Ellis wrote:
...
> [competency] can be translated as "The sort of thing no one ever
> fails at - no need to roll" so a score of 12 (or 17, or 10 or 6)
> could represent this just fine

...

To take a different tack, consider that the default ability is 6. If one defines basic competency to be 12, a 'basically competent' Heortling shepherd (Shepherding 12) and a clueless Dara Happan nobleman (Shepherding defaulting to 6) do not have greatly different abilities to shepherd under interesting conditions (when some kind of an ability roll is necessary). If a simple ability test is necessary, the clueless Dara Happan nobleman will succeed when the Heortling shepherd fails about one eighth of the time. This does not seem right.