Re: Subskills

["dbarrass_2000 <david.barrass@ed.ac.uk>" <david.barrass@ed.ac.uk>]

I'd like to add a few
Assasin - improve memory and spy/theif photographic memory
All of the courtisan skills in 54.2, play instrument, dance - that 
sort of thing.  Similarly the list in 62.1 for a troubador. To be 
able to dance is a nescessary skill for a man of the world (for 
example) but none of the others would be (possibly)
Troubador - disquise, a useful skill for a spy of theif

But I do agree that it does hang together fairly well.

How about not defining a table but instead having an experience 
multiple for these sub skills?  This would reflect the fact that out 
of the "profession" they're more dificult to get very good at (and 
make it easier to draw up).

Most of the courtisan/troubadour are 90% + rank; how about an exp 
multiple in the range of 100 to 200 points?

As for the question you asked earlier about hero level; any ranks 
spent on these are not counted

David

--- In dq-rules@yahoogroups.com, Rodger Thorm <dqn@e...> wrote:
> This was going to be just my first pass at a list of skills which 
could be learned separately.  I wanted to see what the scope of the 
list would be, and then try to generate some discussion about costs.

> There are actually a lot fewer subskills that I would break out and 
allow characters to obtain individually than I thought there would 
be.  As I was going through it, most of them seem pretty integral to 
their respective skills, and while you could make a case for a 
character having one or another without the whole skill, in most 
instances I find myself preferring to leave them alone.

> As it is, there are only three subskills that I would create:
> 
> Proposed Subskills List
>  Navigator -- Determine Compass Directions
>  Thief -- Climbing
>  Troubador -- Acrobatics 
> 
> While there may be some things in the list of Courtesan abilities 
that a character might wish to do, in most cases I would simply 
suggest the character learn the Courtesan skill in order to reflect 
that ability (esp. Dance, Dress Well, and Recite Stories, but also 
Play Instrument, Sing, and the rest).  If a character wants to 
compose a heroic epic of their great adventure, but does not want to 
acquire Courtesan skill in order to Compose Story, I would work that 
out through role-play, rather than force a character to take an 
unwanted skill.  If they wanted to compose stories regularly and 
without playing it out, then some skill (either Courtesan, or perhaps 
more approipriately Troubador) would seem in order.
> 
>   To at least partially address the Climbing and Acrobatics issues, 
I created the Adventure Abilities (Rule 115 in Poor Brendan's 
Almanac).  This rule does not allow for practice or improvement by 
Rank, but has worked well enough in my own campaign.  So of the three 
subskills that I might think are worth creating, I've already 
addressed two of them in my own way, and would probably handle the 
third similarly, if it ever came up.  But generally any character who 
might want such a skill will be a Ranger already, so that too is moot.
>   
> I came into this whole thing expecting to work on 8 or 10 subskills 
for DQ and end up writing something up.  But having taken a look at 
it, I'm more inclined to leave things exactly as they are in the 
skils themselves, and just add a couple minor adventure abilities to 
address non-Thief characters being able to climb anything more 
difficult than a ladder.
> 
> Maybe this will trigger some further discussion and alternate 
points of view anyhow.
> 
>   --Rodger Thorm