[MUD-Dev] Skill defaulting

[rayzam]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan "BC|Uller" Myers" <rmyers at inetarena.com>
To: "MUD-Dev Mailing List" <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2000 7:01 PM
Subject: [MUD-Dev] Skill defaulting


> Hello folks,
>
> Has anyone ever considered the "defaulting" feature of skills in FASA's
> Shadowrun universe?  Although Shadowrun skills are mostly those that
improve
> chances of success on normal actions, the idea could be adapted.
>
> The general idea is that if you attempt to perform an action which is
based
> on a specific skill, but don't have it, you can have it default to a
related
> skill at a penalty instead of rolling with no skill at all.  For example
(RP
> and clerical considerations aside), an unarmed cleric could pick up a
sword
> from the ground and attempt to slash an oncoming basilisk.  Mr. Cleric has
> no skill whatsoever in Edged Weapons, but he has considerable training in
> Blunt Weapons.  Thus, when a skill roll is made to see how much damage he
> did, instead of using Edged Weapons it uses Blunt Weapons with a -2
penalty.
> In SR 3rd Edition, some skills can also default to a character attribute
at
> a higher penalty.


    It's an interesting suggestion for a system. Though you would have to
have all your skills and spells interconnected in webs, as the shadowrun
system lets you choose which skill you use to default from. A better trained
skill that is further away [i.e. more penalty but better overall chance].

    The question is whether this scales. The reason Shadowrun gets away with
it, is that skills are quite comprehensive, i.e. large categories. 'Unarmed
combat, firearms, conjuring'. So most everything can fit within a moderate
number of skills. That also means that being trained in one of these large
categories is a real range of training in and of itself.
    If a mud has many skills and spells, a system like this just may not be
usable.

    Rayzam




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