The majority of game play in an RPG comes from a character’s interactions with the world around them; whether through physical manipulation of objects and the environment, social interactions with other inhabitants or the use of their ‘mind palaces‘ to unlock the secrets of an investigation.
The skills to pay the bills.
So far, so obvious, right.
Rank amateurs!
- Knowledge: A broad skill that sits under the Mental ability, this represents the general knowledge of a character and covers a wide variety of subjects. Someone with a high mental ability and lots of ranks in Knowledge would be a must-have for any quiz team.
- Athleticism: Part of the Physical attribute, this skills covers all of those tasks that rely on core strength and defines a character as physically imposing.
- Languages: Another broad member of the Mental ability skillset, rather than impose a multiple language scenario this skill covers the overall ‘feel’ for languages that a character may have.
- Equipment Use: Using a toaster isn’t the same as using a kettle but having skills for each piece of equipment would get old really quick. This Technical ability skill broadly encapsulates a character’s ability to use any of the specialised kit they may choose to use in an investigation.
Another interesting concept we are planning to introduce is the option to be able to change the core ability that a skill is tied to. This could be as a result of a specific character build or as part of a Talent1. The overall aim is to provide a way to create truly unique and believable characters without forcing a player’s hand too much.
Not wanting to spoil it any more than we have to at this point although we’ll absolutely look at showing off some sample builds sometime in the future, especially as these rules and options get closer to completion.
Until next time.
1 Coming soon to a DevBlog near you…
