Quote from: Levi Kornelsen;379574Well, since nobody seems to have a preference....

Here's a first redraft of Character Creation (doesn't include professions, mind).

Now, this also has a bunch of editorial liberties taken with it, which will likely get adjusted, and may get some "look and feel" changes too.

But, anyway.  It's a thing.  Whaddaya think?

Holy shit.

Clash, I love your books but the layout makes me feel like I'm reading a manual for something at work.  I work in IT, so I'm used to technical documents, but this one just made me all giddy.

Levi wins!

Quote from: Kinetic;379981Holy shit.

Clash, I love your books but the layout makes me feel like I'm reading a manual for something at work.  I work in IT, so I'm used to technical documents, but this one just made me all giddy.

Levi wins!

I think everybody wins.

You do know I'm a Tech Writer professionally, right?

-clash

Yeah, I'll be throwing the profession map up fairly soonish.

Just started spring term yesterday, so got nothing done, game-wise, since last post.  I'll be firing up the software again in a few minutes.

Quote from: Levi Kornelsen;380027Yeah, I'll be throwing the profession map up fairly soonish.

Just started spring term yesterday, so got nothing done, game-wise, since last post.  I'll be firing up the software again in a few minutes.

Awesome! Thanks, Levi!

Also:

I have to say I'm deeply tempted to rephrase the terms "prerequisite" and "waiver"...   and turn them into "pass" and "audition".

So, you can audition for an apprenticeship, journeymanship, or profession, with a roll (possibly even moving this up to a full-blown skill check).  Or, if you have the right qualifications, you can just take a pass.

(This is very close to the same mechanic.  It's just phrased the other way around.)

Annnnnnnnd:

Profession intro & "Map"

This doesn't include the skills lists for professions (three pages long, good lord).

And now, I'll be re-sweeping what I've laid out so far, and probably putting together somewhat tighter sheets for Associations & Characters.  

...Hmm.   I run a Larp on friday, and have classes until 9pm tomorrow.  So, likely I'll be back on this project, and waving around shiny sheets sometime Saturday night.

Klaxon boiled down the skill list to about 20 for Look, Up in the Sky. That's a supers/pulp game though.

This is sweet!

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;380152Klaxon boiled down the skill list to about 20 for Look, Up in the Sky. That's a supers/pulp game though.

Hmm.  

I suspect I could get this list down to about 35-ish, but after that, it'd start to lose flavour that the game will actually want in play.

(Oh, plus magical skills.  Those would stay the same).

Quote from: Levi Kornelsen;380158Hmm.  

I suspect I could get this list down to about 35-ish, but after that, it'd start to lose flavour that the game will actually want in play.

(Oh, plus magical skills.  Those would stay the same).

Well, don't! Please! :O

There are plenty of games out there with short skill lists. If someone wants a short skill list, I direct them away from my games towards some other games I like. Shorten the skill list much, and everything else in the system will start to fall apart - seriously. Klax's game is different, because he is heavily de-emphasizing skills in favor of powers, and he knows the game better than I do.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;380167Well, don't! Please! :O

Turns out I was lying anyway.

After checking, there are only a few places I actually think condensing skills would be a good idea.  Something like:

Physic: Would be Diagnosis + Treatment + Human Biology
Husbandry: Would includes Animal Biology
Social Science: Would combine Organize and Sociology
Strategy: Would include Tactics
Convince: Would 'eat' some of negotiate
Bargaining: Would be Evaluate + Sell + the rest of Negotiate
Focus: Would include Meditation
... And Mineralogy would just go away.

Which still leaves 73 skills.  Any more cutting would mess up the feel.

(I'm kind of suprised.  Usually, I'm far more ruthless.)

Quote from: Levi Kornelsen;380180Turns out I was lying anyway.

After checking, there are only a few places I actually think condensing skills would be a good idea.  Something like:

Physic: Would be Diagnosis + Treatment + Human Biology
Husbandry: Would includes Animal Biology
Social Science: Would combine Organize and Sociology
Strategy: Would include Tactics
Convince: Would 'eat' some of negotiate
Bargaining: Would be Evaluate + Sell + the rest of Negotiate
Focus: Would include Meditation
... And Mineralogy would just go away.

Which still leaves 73 skills.  Any more cutting would mess up the feel.

(I'm kind of suprised.  Usually, I'm far more ruthless.)

That's because I have been ruthless already. I know the skill list is long - I am continually reminded by customers of this - so I watch it like a hawk. Thing is, the system is actually built around that skill list. It needs to be about that long and about that varied to work properly, so that it's self-balancing. What Klaxon is doing is not just pruning the list, he's making Skills a sub-set of Powers, effectively replacing the Skill list with a Power list. This is the only way it could be done and still work properly.

The fact that you can see this confirms that you understand how it all works. Of the changes you propose above, all are matters of taste, and there are enough skills to take up the slack. The only one I would nix is Evaluate, because value =|= monetary value. The skill can be - and is - applied in a great range of situations. Check out the professional skill sets where it appears.

Also, including Diagnosis and Treatment into Physic may be problematic. If you check out the bit on medicine, each Diagnosis success gives you an extra die on Treatment, Surgery, Drugs, an/or Herbalism. That needs to be handled carefully.  

-clash

I should be studying.

Instead, I started in on a character sheet.  Here's a tester, just to look at basic ideas.

The most notable oddity in there is the weird little dot/square things.  So, if you have a trait at 3, you black out three dots.  Then, the squares underlying are checkboxes for when the trait gets used.

(I put those in for masteries, too - although, thinking about it, I'm not actually clear yet if mastery re-rolls get used up and need refreshing, or just ride on through).

Quote from: Levi Kornelsen;380364I should be studying.

Instead, I started in on a character sheet.  Here's a tester, just to look at basic ideas.

The most notable oddity in there is the weird little dot/square things.  So, if you have a trait at 3, you black out three dots.  Then, the squares underlying are checkboxes for when the trait gets used.

(I put those in for masteries, too - although, thinking about it, I'm not actually clear yet if mastery re-rolls get used up and need refreshing, or just ride on through).

Hi Levi!

Masteries don't need the checkboxes - they don't get used up. Looking awesome otherwise!

-clash

Someone needs to pathfind the shortest path through that Profession Map that hits the maximum possible professions...I could *do it, but it'd kinda be cheating, because I'd *get a computer to do it.

* Cause, y'know, hobbyist programmer.

...Oh, and the layout is awesome.

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;380996Someone needs to pathfind the shortest path through that Profession Map that hits the maximum possible professions...I could *do it, but it'd kinda be cheating, because I'd *get a computer to do it.

* Cause, y'know, hobbyist programmer.

...Oh, and the layout is awesome.

Dagnab min-maxing twink!

-clash