Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Sharpandpointies]

So for an idea I have, instead of stat points in an RPG I was a thinking of going more towards each player selecting five ‘skills’ they were skilled at and maybe two that they had minor knowledge in. I was wondering what people would think would be a good list of skills (plus this way not everyone would have to be a mech pilot or have the same base ‘power’ so to speak). I have the following (some may not be used or will be merged with others, just cobbling a list together and seeing what’s worth having and sticking in the game):

-Mech Repair
-General Repair
-Engineering
-Piloting Air/Space (small)
-Piloting Air/Space (large)
-Driving
-Control (Mech piloting)
-General Earth/Alliance History
-Military History
-Science (can be broken down into more precise categories)
-Medical
-Small Arms (guns)
-Artillery (grenades, mines, etc….)
-Hand to hand
-Sleight of Hand
-Lockpicking
-Stealth
-Intuition (psychic impressions)
-Survival
-Body reading
-Cooking
-Running
-Polyglot (can speak/read at least three languages).
-etc…….

If running a freeform RPG, this isn't a bad idea; it's better than a bunch of numbers that get ignored or suffer from subjective interpretation.

The only trick is avoiding stuff that will be overpowered and underpowered, especially in a freeform game (unless you don't care about that). For example, I see 'Intuition'. With some persuasion on the part of the player, that kind of skill can be used for a whole whack of things that are covered by other skills. And I see 'cooking'. If the players are given five and two skills only, might want to say 'oh, you get stuff like hobbies for free' (so long as hobbies aren't 'practices martial arts' or the like - artistic stuff, for example).

Alternately, say 'five important skills and two hobbies' to cover that part, and enforce that the hobbies are things for character development and/or extremely limited use. Ie, 'this guy likes doing everyone's taxes' is a good hobby skill. 'This guy likes competing in chess tournaments' is a good hobby skill (chess does NOT translate to strategy and tactics in the real world). 'This guy likes to play hyper-realistic wargames' is probably not a good hobby skill (we're back to 'can now use for tactics and strategy'), and neither is 'this guy likes to go to the shooting range a lot' (unless one enforces 'but his skill for shooting things from that hobby breaks down in real combat due to the unfamiliar pressure and situation').

If all of this is too vague, allow people to 'purchase' Basic, Advanced, and Expert levels of a skill. This way if you have two people who have 'Hand to Hand', someone with Basic can put up a fight against someone with Advanced, but ultimately lose (barring situational stuff or 'getting lucky'), while someone with Advanced just wipes the walls with the Basic guy. Someone with Advanced Control skill is an experienced mech pilot, while someone with Expert is an Ace (then make one NPC Expert+, something players simply cannot achieve for a looooong time).

Uncontested (using a skill to simply produce a desired result) use of skills should be judged by the level of the skill in play compared to 'who would we think could complete this sort of task?'. Partial success should be possible (Medical Basic cannot save someone from their terrible injuries, but maybe could keep them alive long enough for someone with a higher level to help...Survival Basic cannot help the players feed themselves and live in the Arctic, but can allow them to build a snow-hut to manage long enough for a rescue to arrive with them only mildly weakened by starvation...Driving Advanced doesn't give the ability to drive up a ramp and make an insane jump across a chasm to drive away on the other side, but maybe is enough to GET the car to the other side, but wrecked - you're walking from here...knowledge/science skills can give partial information, maybe, if high enough).

With Contested (skill versus skill) use of skills, a difference of one level (None to Basic, Basic to Advanced, Advanced to Expert) means that any contest between them is not ensured, but ultimately the higher level skill prevails (unless other skills come into play, or REALLY good use of the environment, or a specific situational advantage, or whatever). As an example, for hand to hand the Basic fighter can draw out the fight against the Advanced one (play for time?), or maybe even win if they take advantage of something the other fighter doesn't know about. A difference of two levels means the higher level skill wins 100% of the time unless someone else sticks their nose into the contest (or other skills come into play and there's a big enough difference there). A difference of three levels (like 'Nothing against Expert') means we're into 'hand to hand fighter who beats up a mob'. Equal levels gets trickier, and comes down to 'who makes more clever choices', I suppose.

Enforce players starting at Basic level in all of their skills. At different points in the game, allow them to buy a new skill, or store that 'purchase' and pay for Advanced or Expert later (say, make 'Advanced' cost two skill raises and 'Expert' cost four).

Just some easy ideas.

[Gryphon]

[Dark Soul # 7]

And speaking of One Piece, the latest episode (1015) is absolutely gorgeous! One of the best animated single episodes I've seen in ages, and it goes a great way in giving Yamato more characterization as well as giving his connection to Ace some further depth.

Like, seriously. Just look at this.



Freaking beautiful! And I do love it when the main character does something crazy impressive that has a bunch people staring at them in awe while their close friends just smile knowingly.

[Dark Soul # 7]

Gonna dodge this one until I've finished Demon Slayer.

Who's up next?

[The Dog]

Gonna dodge this one until I've finished Demon Slayer.

Who's up next?

Vegeta vs. Thor.

[Nik Hasta]

Like, seriously. Just look at this.



Freaking beautiful! And I do love it when the main character does something crazy impressive that has a bunch people staring at them in awe while their close friends just smile knowingly.

I genuinely cannot understand how One Piece is a weekly show and still looks this good. I don't know what the studio workflow is but it is working.

I sincerely hope it isn't exploitative of the animators because they are putting out real good on a stupidly consistent basis.

[Guy1]

Madoka Rebellion is weird but enjoyable.

[Len Ikari145]

This will never cease being cathartic when it comes to seeing Joker dressed down.

[Jcogginsa]

I genuinely cannot understand how One Piece is a weekly show and still looks this good. I don't know what the studio workflow is but it is working.

I sincerely hope it isn't exploitative of the animators because they are putting out real good on a stupidly consistent basis.

They may have gotten some extra time because the studio just went on Hiatus because of a hack

[Alvacron]

So for an idea I have, instead of stat points in an RPG I was a thinking of going more towards each player selecting five ‘skills’ they were skilled at and maybe two that they had minor knowledge in. I was wondering what people would think would be a good list of skills (plus this way not everyone would have to be a mech pilot or have the same base ‘power’ so to speak). I have the following (some may not be used or will be merged with others, just cobbling a list together and seeing what’s worth having and sticking in the game):

-Mech Repair
-General Repair
-Engineering
-Piloting Air/Space (small)
-Piloting Air/Space (large)
-Driving
-Control (Mech piloting)
-General Earth/Alliance History
-Military History
-Science (can be broken down into more precise categories)
-Medical
-Small Arms (guns)
-Artillery (grenades, mines, etc….)
-Hand to hand
-Sleight of Hand
-Lockpicking
-Stealth
-Intuition (psychic impressions)
-Survival
-Body reading
-Cooking
-Running
-Polyglot (can speak/read at least three languages).
-etc…….

I have an idea for this: get the skills into a growth tree, with the more basic skills as "Starter" skills, and so forth. I always wanted to make an RPG, so if this becomes an actual thing, tell me please.

[Len Ikari145]

Madoka Rebellion is weird but enjoyable.

Are you looking forward to Madoka: Walpurgis' Revolution?

[Beadle]

More on my reading random current Marvel solicits and previews etc.

Thunderbolts these days is just another superhero team, isn’t it?

It’s not got any original members (unless you count Hawkeye), and unless you kinda vaguely count Persuasion (Purple Girl), no reformed criminals. It’s so far away from its original conceit that they could just have called it anything, basically.

Hawkeye, Spectrum, America Chavez, Power Man, Persuasion and random new guy.

That might as well be Defenders, Champions, Warriors… bleh. What’s the point?

[Dark Soul # 7]

Vegeta vs. Thor.

Ok, I get the connections and they are generally at appropriate power levels. Should be a fun one.

I wonder if they'll include Ultra-Ego and Thor's recent All-Father status.

This will never cease being cathartic when it comes to seeing Joker dressed down.

This along with the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited episodes I've rewatched recently just reaffirm to me how great the DCAU was.

I genuinely cannot understand how One Piece is a weekly show and still looks this good. I don't know what the studio workflow is but it is working.

I sincerely hope it isn't exploitative of the animators because they are putting out real good on a stupidly consistent basis.

They may have gotten some extra time because the studio just went on Hiatus because of a hack

Yeah, the unexpected hiatus probably helped a bit.

But it's still valid to be concerned about what kind of workplace Toei has. Hopefully it's a good one where the animators are treated justly. And even if it is they should most likely be paid more than they are.

[Nik Hasta]

They may have gotten some extra time because the studio just went on Hiatus because of a hack

Hack was recent though, One Piece has been looking really good and consistent since like... last year or maybe even year before?

[bruceleegreyhulk]