Re: Broad categories, Hunting

From: ian_hammond_cooper_at_...
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 12:30:46 -0000


I think it these topics acceptance may depend on play style.

If we had a character who listed 'hunted with uncle' as a piece of background info in his 100 words (i.e. not one chosen for the keyword) we would probaby give the character a skill of Hunting (or even Hunted with Uncle).

Of course there is no hunting skill in the character keyword - its broken down into sub-components - and a player who has character is a hunter might now feel disadvantaged "hey he gets to try all the things I do track, snare etc. - but on one keyword that costs him a lot less to pay for."

In this case I can see it being fair to ask that player to pay more HP to oush it up a level for balance.

In this case a broad ability is definable as one that disadvantages other players, becuase it is covers abilities they have listed seperately. And in that case maybe the change in cost to increase it a level should not just be 3 but 3,4,5... depending on how broad it is.

What this might also represent is amateur abilities (one broad skill but lower ability levels through point cost) vs. professional abilites (more skills but cheaper)

What would cause me some concern would be if we start to get in to pre-defined skill trees: Close Combat, Hunting, Scholarship... One of the things I like about HW is the way it encourages players to think outside the box of a character sheet style list of skills. Too many pre-defined 'broad' skills might have people thinking 'these are the only skills' the same way people assume a list of feats mean 'these are the only feats'.

Ian Cooper

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