skills question

[steph]

question for gm.........what you do with players who want to perform a action without the appropriate skills...........( characters want to walk on a rope but some dont have acrobatic .........first i determine that is a extremely difficult -4 so the characters with acrobatic gonna roll a acrobatic roll at -4 but what happened with the one without acrobatic what gonna be is roll

stef

hope i am clear

english not my first language

[Talon]

Re: skills question

 

This is definitely a (small) hole in the rules...what I do is allow a check based on the relevant stat, with a -4 or so penalty (so that a standard person is starting with a roll around 8-). Then, I make it clear that the penalties for failure will be more severe. For example, someone who tries to walk on a rope and misses the roll is going to fall, whereas someone with Acrobatics might get a chance to catch themselves.

[pinecone]

Re: skills question

 

I do it much the same, and modify for other abilitys, so someone with "cat powers" who took Enviro-move narrow surfaces would take no penalty for it being a rope so Dex roll minus 3 or 4 would do it....(maybe 5 or 6 if it's windy..)

[ghost-angel]

Re: skills question

 

You could also double the difficulty penalty. In this case from -4 to -8. That way high DEX ppl without Acrobatics are not only untrained but attempting something even trained people find difficult.

[prestidigitator]

Re: skills question

 

I do similar things in general. Someone who doesn't have the Skill at all had darn well better have a worse roll than someone who has Familiarity. I'll sometimes allow a 6- roll or something. I very, very rarely allow Characteristics to figure in. Of course, there are SOME situations in which a skill roll might be able to substitute for a Characteristic roll if it is higher; that's when the thing being attempted isn't all that specialized, and the skill is just an obvious help.

 

For that particular example, though, the character is probably just out of luck. They'd better find something to hang on to, or lower themselves down and take the time to go hand-over-hand underneath the rope or something.

[Dust Raven]

Re: skills question

 

For many tasks, not having the appropriate Skill means being unable to perform the task. I think walking a tightrope is one of those tasks. Balancing on the edge of a roof or on the top of a wall wider than the character's foot would seem reasonable with just a DEX roll at a mild penalty (-2 maybe), and with Acrobatics with no penalty.

[David Johnston]

Re: skills question

 

question for gm.........what you do with players who want to perform a action without the appropriate skills...........( characters want to walk on a rope but some dont have acrobatic .........first i determine that is a extremely difficult -4 so the characters with acrobatic gonna roll a acrobatic roll at -4 but what happened with the one without acrobatic what gonna be is roll

stef

hope i am clear

english not my first language

 

You let them fall and give them a dexterity roll to catch the rope and then proceed by moving hand over hand along the rope.

[Mike W]

Re: skills question

 

If it is very basic, I let them make a characeristic roll at a penalty, either -4 or 1/2 score, depending partly on how difficult I think it is and partly one how related it is to what they already know.

[CourtFool]

Re: skills question

 

Acrobatics at -4, another appropriate skill (Breakfall or maybe another DEX based skill) at -6, Characteristic Roll at -8.

[JohnTaber]

Re: skills question

 

I use my common sense and go from there. If the feat is something the character would not have a chance of performing then I don't even give them a roll. For example, they find a computer and want to hack it for information. If they do not have computer programming they get no chance at it. In cases where it might be possible I give them an appropriate roll with heavy subtractions. I also severely restrict the use of skill levels in these cases unless they are completely applicable.

 

PS This is a great topic for the Ultimate Skills book. I would definitely cross post this thread if possible.

[radioKAOS]

Re: skills question

 

per 5ER p47

 

Untrained Skills:

 

A character's roll with an untrained skill is a flat 6-, and he cannot apply any type of skill levels to improve this roll. The GM may choose to allow Skill Modifiers [both positive and negative] or Complimentary Characteristic Rolls to apply [but if so, he may wish to cap untrained skill rolls at 8-, regardless of bonuses, so that characters have a reason to buy familiarities]. The GM may rule that characters cannot use some skills, such as obscure KSs, untrained.

[CourtFool]

Re: skills question

 

per 5ER p47

 

That is what I get for not reading cover to cover.

[prestidigitator]

Re: skills question

 

Ditto.

 

About time to do a thorough cover-to-cover on yet another rev. Heh.