Now to explain. The system give a base of 6 to do something the character has no experience in, but it also creates a situation where the creativity of the player and narrator are more important than stats on a sheet. The two questions always asked are "How does this help or hinder the story" and "is that credible?"
Sometimes, the character has nothing applicable and the story won't suffer from a failure so you have them try against a 6. Sometimes the story needs them to succeed so you let a credible use of an ability even it that credibility is tenuous. (Remember, just because it worked once doesn't mean it works all the time.)
And, yes, I see "Fit as a Fiddle" to be a credible climb skill. But, if a player in the group has "Climbs like a Monkey" then "Fit as a Fiddle" is not as good... that all gets explained in the book (and it one of the better parts of the game IMO).
As for the modifiers... um... they are rare. What is more common is the Narrator looks over the situation and story and assigns a opposition that fits the needs of the game and story. Higher if it should be hard and they don't mind of the character dies, low if the opposite is true. Then they dramatically describe (nice job, by the way) the results.
Also, remember that a Keyword is not an Ability. It is a collection of them in one of three forms. A list of starting abilities with values assigned, a list of abilities that are raised individually OR a list of abilities that are collected under a raise-able keyword. And the system allows for a "Keyword Free" process that works fine.
Also, the constant encouragement of this (and all) systems is to modify it to your play style. Which means every thing I said is law if you want it to be, or trash if you prefer! LOL What every makes your group work and happy is what you use.
Bo
On 12/15/2011 6:10 AM, Howard wrote:
>
> Sorry, but just thought of this.
>
> If a character only has a finite number of keywords what do you do in
> a situation where he has nothing to apply?
>
> Is there a default number (maybe set by difficulty?) ie. Rurik is
> stranded on a cliffedge and the only way out of the situation is to
> climb (or jump). He doesn't have any climbing-like ability so how is
> that covered? If he had "Fit as a fiddle" 13 would he use that, saying
> "Rurik is fit enough to climb down grasping finger and toe holds in
> the cliff face" or would that be a modifier of some kind to some sort
> of generic number (as it wasn't a specific "climbing" keyword? (My
> impression if the former is the way it works and after climbing down
> Rurik can use his "Fit as a fiddle" to outlast his pursuers in a long
> footchase - correct? But it the character doesn't have *anything* that
> can fit the situation what do you do?
>
> Howard
>
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