Re: _Narrow_ abilities, for a change...

From: Tim Ellis <tim_at_...>
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 12:48:13 -0000

>
> Why write:
>
> Escape Chains(24): Foil Restraints(+5), Strong
>
> its no clearer and the numbers are the same.
>
> I don't see that anything needs to be added to the rules for this.
> Provision already exists for penalising 'non-mathcing' abilites.
> Maybe I am missing something ...
>

The missing link is the "Narrow" skill. If you have a character with "Foil Restraints" and another with "Escape Chains", you may feel that the latter deserves some sort of bonus, rather than just treating it as a simile - so your Standard Contest Notation would read

Esacape Chains (24): Escape Chains (+2), Foil restraints , Strong (-5)

for example, whereas the alternative is

Escape Ropes (24): Foil Restraints, Escape Chains (-3), Strong (-5)

The idea being to reward people for taking a narrow skill when it becomes the most appropriate skill to use in a contest (their being no rule that says any of the following descriptions should be translated to a skill of "Foil Restraints"

"...Even as a child no one could keep him tied down..." "...In the jails of the city where he learnt to escape from all bonds..."
"...He escaped from the slave coffle and swore he would never be shackled again..."

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