Skills Question

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    • Skills Question

      I'm a little shaky about how skills work in Shard, I think I understand it but I'd like to have a head nod from someone who has played before, as this sort of thing is important.

      When a character buys a skill the first time they use it at the base attribute level. So for example Let's say my Large Bat Summoner Mystic (let's call him Jasher) has the a Wit of 4 and Knowledge Magic Theory bought at the base level.

      Assume that as part of the adventure a town is suffering because of the deaths of a large number of babies. The children are either still born, or die shortly after birth, leaving horrified and crying parents.

      Let's say as Jasher's player I think that this might have something to do with a renegade mystic abusing their gifts, and this village is paying the cost for this witch's (meaning one who uses magic/supernatural means to inflict harm on another) hubris.

      I want to use my Magic Theory skill to figure out what kind of magic would require the souls of innocents as payment, and just how large of a scale this thing would be. Now I get to roll and 4 dice (wit 4) hit the table, right?
      So if I buy up my skill by spending 2 points I now have level 2 knowledge. Does that mean I get to roll 6 dice? What if I later increase my wit score as the game goes on, does that mean I get 7 dice?
      If it comes down to the rules or the story; sorry but the rule book just became a paper-weight.

    • RE: Skills Question

      Originally posted by HereticalGM
      I want to use my Magic Theory skill to figure out what kind of magic would require the souls of innocents as payment, and just how large of a scale this thing would be. Now I get to roll and 4 dice (wit 4) hit the table, right?
      So if I buy up my skill by spending 2 points I now have level 2 knowledge. Does that mean I get to roll 6 dice? What if I later increase my wit score as the game goes on, does that mean I get 7 dice?


      Hey there HereticalGM!

      You've essentially got it right! Although you mentioned buying the Skill up with 2 points and thus having a "level 2 knowledge", which isn't quite the right way to say it... If you had a Skill with a Rank of 4, and you bought it up 2 more Ranks (with however many points),...that Skill would now have a Rank of 6, thus allowing you to roll 6 dice to attempt it.

      Let me try to restate what you've asked to make it as clear as possible (though it will be a bit more "wordy")...

      If your bat character has a Wit Characteristic of 4, any Wit-based Skills (Skill linked to the Characteristic of Wit, such as Languages, Knowledge, Research, etc.) purchased for that character at full cost would start with a Ranking equal to character's current Wit...which in your case is 4... Thus, on your character sheet, you'd record the Cost on the left of the Skill as 2, and the Rank of the Skill to the right as 4 (which represents the number of dice you roll to attempt it).

      Magic Theory is indeed a Knowledge Skill, which costs 2 points to purchase initially, and one Story Point per Ranking level to buy up after initial purchase... This means, just as you indicated, that you would start with a Magic Theory of 4 (costing you 2 points to buy it at that level), but if you spent 2 more points (making the Cost 4), you will have bought that Knowledge Skill up to a Rank of 6, meaning you would then get to roll 6 dice when attempting to use that Knowledge.

      Later in the game, if you chose to buy up your Wit by 1 point (at the cost of Story Points equal to your current Wit Rank of 4), not only would it raise your Wit to a Rank of 5, it would also raise all Wit-based Skills by 1 Rank level as well, including your Magic Theory Knowledge Skill.

      Thus, you would add 4 more points to the Cost of your current Wit (making it show a Cost of 8...) and record its new Rank of 5, after which you should immediately go and raise every Skill linked to Wit by one Rank level as well, which would cause your Magic Theory Rank to become 7 (meaning you get to roll 7 dice to use it) just as you said. It's important to note that the Cost of Skills raised in this way (by raising their linked Characteristic), doesn't change.

      Hopefully that clarified things further, while acknowledging that you were basically correct in your assumptions about how it all works...

      Scottie ^^