Re: Re: broad abilities

From: Benedict Adamson <badamson_at_...>
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 11:37:48 +0100


David Cake wrote:
...
> Keywords is just a shorthand for common combinations. You
> could easily remove them from the core rules and the game would be
> the same, just more cumbersome ie instead of writing 'he is a
> warrior', you could write 'she is a warrior skilled in spear and
> shield fighting, in riding horses

...

My point is that 'Hate Chaos' is a short-hand for the combination 'Hate Broo', 'Hate Scorpion-men', 'Hate Dragonsnail', etc. All abilities are 'broad' or 'narrow' to some degree. A player might want an ability of ANY breadth: very narrow ('Hate Ox-headed Broo'), narrow ('Hate Broo'), medium ('Hate Chaos') or broad ('Hate the Living'), or any shade in between.

The rules should cope with this. The rules currently have a 1 tier approach (with Affinities, etc. a special case). The proposed rule is a 2 tier approach ('broad' and 'normal' abilities, with Affinities, etc. being 'broad' abilities).

The rules suggestion I made (which nobody seemed to like) allowed abilities of any degree of breadth or narrowness. It would also eliminate the distinction between 'keyword' and 'abilities' (by changing 'keyword' into abilities with a high breadth rating).

Nick pointed out that the existence of keywords makes broad abiltieis problematic.

Recall that Nick said:
> [the planned new rule] I am happy to oppose, as being clearly contrary to the
> game's core design philosophy ("write down any ability and a rating:
> that's your ability, and how good you are at it, too.").

Which I agree is a good design decision.

But earlier he suggested that Narrators should not allow players to choose abilities, such as 'Hunter', which are the same as keyword names.

Nick seems to be suggesting more than keywords being shorthand. He seems to be suggesting that abilities as broad as the area covered a keyword should not be permitted. That is, he is proposing a 2 tier approach ('keyword' and 'abilities' being different). Any 2-tier approach breaks the design.

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