DwD Studios
Some basic questions
Wed, 02/13/2013 - 12:12pm | 
AshleyNephilim
Hi everyone, I've got a few questions about doing stuff outside combat.
1) What do you do if you have to perform a task that falls outside the current skills? Just make a straight roll against a relevant ability? I'm thinking of stuff like, persuade a guard to step aside and let you pass (using bribery, rather than intimidation). Or alternatively, the party is running from a horde of angry pirates and they arrive at the docks where a small sail boat is sitting unattended. Who knows how to sail it? (No skill includes knowledge of using specific vehicles in a tense situation that I can see).
2) If you were considering doing a "modern" version of the game. How would you handle skills that everyone in the genre would know, but some might be better than others? (For example, using a computer to access information quickly, drive a car during a chase to throw off a persuer). Without creating a bunch of new "Skills", is it sufficient to simply base those on raw abilities and forget about the hacker expert, or the mob wheelman.
3) Where's the Tradesman skill? I know that people would not often need to be able to use a smithy, or craft fine pottery, during the normal hack and slash, but there isn't currently any scope for them to have skills in non-adventure related activities. How does everyone else handle it? Do masons and shipwrights have levels in Scholar?
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Hi AshleyNephilim,
I'll answer each question, then sum up:
1) yes you'd just use ability checks. If a player's character has a specific background which might give him some kind of reason he'd be better or worse at it, or if the situation demanded it, you could apply modifiers just like you should for any roll (ability, skill, or otherwise). The skill system represents archetypical hero types, not necessarily every aspect of adventurous activity. For instance, as you say there is no sailor skill. In a campaign where being a sailor is a big part of things, I'd say that a sailor is now an archetypical hero type and should then be generated (see elsewhere in these forums where someone has done just that).
2) we're building Covert Ops, an espionage and paramilitary game set in the modern world and based on the d00lite system (same system BareBones Fantasy RPG is using). In this game, we've decided that certain things are deserving new skill attention to match the genre. As mentioned above, skills are designed to model specific archetypical character types for the genre. In a modern spy game where chase scenes abound, having a driving skill becomes mandatory (though we've elected to call it Piloting and let it apply to more than just cars) to properly represent the genre.
3) nope. No tradesman skill. This isn't an oversight, we just thought it didn't represent an archetypical hero character type. If you want your character to be a painter or blacksmith, then make a descriptor like "used to be a skilled painter" or "blacksmith - like to work with my hands." But when actually making a check to represent such non-adventuring activities, we just rely on ability checks with any modifiers you'd prefer.
In a nutshell - if you are making a campaign whose premise requires another archetype for characters, then it needs a newly defined skill. If you have a player who wants to perform an action for which there currently exists no skill, that's an ability check. That applies to persuasion, seduction, intimidation and bribing as well, though in these cases WIL checks are used to compliment role-playing, not replace it.
Hope that helps!
Perhaps none of them, sailing is something I certainly wouldn't know how to do. If you'd like, make it a disadvantaged LOG/2 roll.
If I want my character to be a ship's captain type: navigation, sailing, meteorology, etc. I'd take ranks in Scholar and then focus on "naval" as a "High Scholar"
Great thanks. Can't wait to see Covert Ops. Will be great for running my Nikita inspired game. (Was considering doing it with BBF anyway, but knowing there's official version coming, may hold off).