Advancement discussion

[eruditus]

okay, I wanted to hear from folks how advancement has worked in practice. I have ssent he start of certain trends and I want to see if they are indicative of others experiences...

My concerns run along thee lines:

1) Most characters within the campaign are going to start looking very similar in certain respects. they are going to hit on a similar number of tests for stats and often will test on similar skill sets (combat, persuassion, survival) depending on the bent of the game.

2) Skills and stats begin to flatten out around 5 so not only do folks have similar skills but soon they all have them at 5.

This is without practice and just seems to bear out during play.

Any other experiences?

[Kublai]

It has been my experience that all characters will develop a grouping of skills that we call "adventuring skills": a weapon skill, Stealthy or Inconspicuous, a social skill - typically either persuasion or haggling, and a healing skill. But after that, most PCs will vary greatly depending on what they are best at. Traits will also affect the trend.

Take my group for example. We all have the basic adventuring skills by now. My character has a high Will, and thus has lots of social skills. Another character has a high Perception and lots of skills based on that. although we've been playing for years, we still have very different skill lists.

The group I game for is another good example. Again, they are slowly developing the adventuring skills, but beyond that they are completely different. They have skills which reflect what they are naturally good at - determined by their Aptitudes based on Stats.

I think if you have a party with similar Stats, you might see a trend towards similar skills. This however is offset if they have taken different lifepaths, of course.

When it comes to Exponents, of course they begin to slow down at 5. This seems perfectly natural. 5, after all, is Master level for a skill. Not many people get better than that - it takes a special someone to break that barrier. However, I have noticed that characters will begin to specialize before they reach this level. For instance, in my party, since the PC with high perception was the best healer, my character never developed his healing art. He was satisfied as being a helper. Likewise, other characters haven't pushed hard for social skills because my character is so good at it.

So, in summary, BW's skill trend leads to specialization rather than homogenization. PCs will develop the same adventuring skills - which are necessary to survive - but beyond that, they will grow to be unique individuals.

[mike_ravenwood]

for a bit I had several players who started with no adventuring skills and had to learn them while playing. They were quite good at what they did. Social and medical skills were at 5, but sword was around 2. while they fighters had the opposite. The players trained each other to ensure that they had a cohesive group and provided dice to help each when an extra pair of hands was needed.

[Bankuei]

Hi guys,

I've found that this is a common situation in any game that doesn't offer hardcore niche protection(classes, clans, splats) regardless of whether character improvment is through use or by spending experience points. In the first case, depending on what the general campaign is about, you see that sort of growth occur pushing everyone towards the "ideal" skill package for that style of play. In the second case, folks are "forced" to spend xp to buy up skills suited for the situation, or else suffer serious problems.

Chris

[Kublai]

The players trained each other to ensure that they had a cohesive group and provided dice to help each when an extra pair of hands was needed.

Reminds me of the scene in The Fellowship of the Ring when Boromir is training Merry and Pippin to fight with swords.

[mike_ravenwood]

the two characters in my game that opted to spend timing training in sword did so because they had plently of time during an long journey as part of a caravan. they didn't feel they had to, it never became a vital part of they characters. they never even had to fight once they learned. but the characters had never had a chance to gain these skill before so they thought why not. also the training game them a method to increase they painfully low Steel. they were more confident so they did piss and run ever time there was combat.