Bullseye-> Package Deals!

[AnotherSkip]

YO Bullseye!

Having noted your Package Deals question to Steve I figgured i would bring up an optional rule I have not yet had a chance to fully test.

The Rule is very simple: Create a Skill enhancer named(Package Deal) that only "enhances" skills in that package, thus if a Druid had : Skill Enhancer "Druid" and his Druidical Skills(skills he shared with the package you were bonusing) were: Paramedic, Ks: Poisons, KS: Diseases, Ak: Local Forest and PS: Druid, then to buy the abilites at 11- would only cost 8 points and not 10. The Larger the number of skills in the package the "cheaper" the cost. At this point you have only saved 2 points but with say eight skills you have saved five points. This roughly fits in with the benefits of the 4th ed Package deals, is by the rules (for Gm's to do) and makes for a good 4th-5th conversion tip.

This also is good for building "cheaper" AD&D Classes, as well as making some classes really stand out ( Dave the Druid with eight Druid skills saved 5 points that Rob the Ranger and Bob the Bard buying all of the "Druid" skills did not save) it also can be used in conjunction with "previous training" explanations for buying some skills

Personal reccomendations: Do not allow this with more than one CSL/WF, Decide whether or not the Skill enhancers stack with the previously exisiting "by the book" Skill enhancers, do not allow players to build without Close supervision. and for common sense don't even bother with three or less skills.

[Blue]

I'm not bullseye, but when has that stopped me from commenting :D

I kind of like this for RACE purposes. After all, even though you're a dwarf you don't have to be a stonemason, but it would make sense that you would have a natural aptitude for it. Less so with the "class" packages, but it's likely within the space of three more posts to this thread I'll be convinced otherwise :)

[The Mad GM]

An interesting thought! It makes pretty good sense, and is not overpowering. Like the other Skill Enhancers, I wouldn't put any CSL/WF stuff in it at all. This is mainly for knowledge or background type skills, maybe one or two utilitarian skills, like Stealth or Survival, per Enhancer.

We used to use a variant on this, with a limit of twelve related skills getting one point off, costing 3 points for the "Package Deal". Odd that I never thought of it as an Enhancer. We only allowed one such Deal per character, and any skills bought this way needed GM approval. Also, we played by the convention that if you were using the "Package Deal" you had to take X (I think it was ten, can't recall) number of points in disads that directly related to it - Reputation, Hunted, Distinctive Feature, that sort of thing.

It worked fairly well, but it might have worked better if the specific skills available had been agreed on beforehand, and perhaps had been more limited to Background/KS.

[i3ullseye]

Yeah, not a bad idea at all.


I still think race is better simulated by a different set of everyman skills, but then using this as a layer for profession or culture would work very well.

[Markdoc]

I have been using this approach for many years, and I think it works well - you can find the whole "how to do skills" on my house rules page.

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Castle/9529/Gaming_stuff/hero_houserules.htm

I suggested this to Steve for inclusion in the 5th Ed. rules but I guess it didn't make the cut.

You can expand it further, by giving the allowed skill enhancers with a list of everyman skills tailored to each culture - so a studly barbarian culture doesn't give rise to the "courtier" or "thief" skill enhancers (not that they don't have thieves, just no guilds to pass on skills in an oirganised fashion).

cheers, Mark

[tiger]

Sounds alright to me but will need watching. I can see some players trying to put skills in that have nothing to do with their race or "class"

[AnotherSkip]

Definately the "Cool Skill Padding" needs to be watched.

Like i sad it is a definate option and really shows off the versatilty of the system..... one of the "encourages but does not force" options.

[Mutant for Hire]

Two ideas came out of the last thread we had on this subject. One of them was the idea that was just raised, the idea of having a skill enhancer that could apply to all skills in a Skill Package.

Of course what that really does is just give a fixed formula for the old Skill Package Bonus:

bonus = (# of skills in package) - 3

The other option, which I didn't see mentioned in this thread is the option of having 5-pt skill levels that give a +1 bonus to all skills in the Skill Package. Note that the Skill Enhancer above does not give a discount to these skill levels. That Skill Enhancer just reduces the initial cost of the package.

[AnotherSkip]

Frankly I would rather see a 3 point skill level (rather like martial arts) after alll you can have a "tight" martial art group that is 20 manuvers and 20 weapons and purchase a buttload of 3 pointers and never need another flipping combat skill in your life.

[AnotherSkip]

OOOPsed I accidentally bumped the thraed.

darn my clumsyness.....