Should GMs allow new skills to occur in session or make players wait until they are trained?

How and when characters gain new abilities in Tortured Earth has been a debated question since the inception of the game. This is ultimately a decision for the GM to make at the game table. The purpose of this discussion is to make the GM aware of the issue and solutions from a game mechanics perspective.

 

Playtesting has shown players tend to cash in points quite frequently causing these concerns to become mute in the overall storyline. If either of these limitations (On-the-Fly Acquisition or Trained Acquisition) are imposed on the players, it is wise to let players know at the beginning of the campaign. This both establishes expectations and allows players the opportunity to plan advancement.

 

On-the-Fly Acquisition of skills. Due to the skill point-based advancement of Tortured Earth, a character does not have an entirely new skill dumped on them at one time. The system was purposely designed to simulate learning. As a character gains a use-per-day in a skill, that skill’s occurrence increases by 1 for each point placed in it. With that first point placement, the Flux or Basic projection is unlocked and becomes a use-at-will ability with a limit per turn. Once per day, the character can generate a larger, more refined application of the ability.

 

In a modern world analogy, a child learns to tie their shoe for the first time. Throughout the day, they may tie and untie their shoe with ease. However, once per day, they can apply their knowledge of shoe tying to create a specialty knot. At first, their specialty not is not very effective at holding things together. However, as they continue to build on that skill, they can advance their ability to create more and more specialty knots daily. At some point (when they rank up), they learn special ‘tricks’ to make better and better specialty knots. At first, their efforts are focused on creating the specialty knots and can only produce a few high-quality knots a day (the cashing in of skill points reduces the number of uses per day). With continued practice and usage (additional uses-per-day placed in the skill at its new rank), their ability to produce more high-quality knots per day increases.

 

Following this line of reasoning, a character placing a single point in an ability discovers a trick or mechanic which causes something to occur. As they continue to use this trick, they experiment with applications which lead to skilled abilities. The learning process becomes gradual and follows an expected learning curve observed in daily life.

 

The problem with this line of logic is point dumping. Due to the Point Pools allowed in each skill division: Non-combative skills, Weapons, Magic, and Psychic, a character can realistically develop large point pools and simply dump 15 uses-per-day in a single skill, cash in 10 of them, and instantly have a Rank 3 ability with 5 uses-per-day.

 

Mechanically, this is well within the allowances of the game system. In terms of story development, it can be devastating depending on the scenario. Solutions regulating should be determined by the GM and are best handled at the game table. Possible solutions/guidelines include:

• A character may only increase rank by +1 per day.

 

This limitation can be quite harsh depending on the scenario. A character can place 10 points in a skill (5 to open the skill + 5 to advance the skill), advance it to Rank 2 immediately, and then restrict advancement to +1 Rank per day.

 

• In single point placements greater than 5 skill points in a single ability within one day require 2 days training to a professional holding +3 Ranks above the potential rank of the ability. +2 days are added for every +1 Rank added to a skill added to this ability within 1 day. Reasoning: This decision allows for the placement of 1 rank to be added to a single skill in a day. However, anything higher than the addition of 1 rank requires training. It also allows for a character to place 5 skill points in an ability instantly and open it up for advancement that very round. 

 

A character having 30 points in their Point Pool cannot dump 25 uses per day onto a new skill and suddenly increase it to Rank 5. This strategy allows a character to acquire a skill with large point pools to place many points on one day but wait to convert to a higher rank until another day. This limits a character to first placing 5 skill points in a skill (required to become eligible to rank up) and live with that skill for a minimum of 1 day. The following day, they may increase rank to Rank 2.

 

Trained Acquisition of Skills. In storylines having an established culture and operating institutions, having magical and psychic abilities simply pop into existence might not make sense. In such settings, a GM may wish to have either an institution for formal training or center for skill development. Trade schools, practice centers, libraries, and learning institutions all serve this purpose.

 

The benefit of such institutions is the logical and progressive increase of character skills and learning. In such settings, an institution allows a point pool to open a new skill or advance from one skill rank to another. The point pool can expand to infinity if need be and existing skills remain at their current rank until the character has trained to advance these skills.

 

In developing such institutions, we need to keep in mind the purpose is to explore roleplay. Some institutions are of higher quality than others. Although it is not required to perform rolls to gain abilities, the GM does have the right to impose this rule. A suggested roll is to take the primary attack attribute and roll against 8 + Rank Increases.

 

A character wishes to advance from Rank 1 to Rank 3 in Swords. PM is the primary attack modifier. The increase in rank is +2 (Target Rank of 3 minus the current Ran of 1). The roll to increase is PM vs 10 (8 + 2). The character may re-roll as many as PE times per day for physical attack modifiers and as many as WP for mental attack modifiers.

 

Using Trained Acquisition, a player is limited to the skills and abilities of a specific story setting. However, it does not affect the acquisition of Unlock Abilities.

Thanks for reading! 

K. B. Kidder

 

If you are checking out this blog for the first time, you may access our website by clicking here: Tortured Earth

Character Species released for review: Allorn, Dwarf, Elf, Eoceph, and Goblin.

Combat Creatures released for review: Braunach, Faeda, Fetid Hound, Minotaur, and Wolf.

If you are interested in the creature development process, you may submit your own creatures by filling out the following form. We will review the forms before publishing the creatures to the website. Creature Creation Form

If you would like to see what Tortured Earth looks like, the GM portion of the rule book is available as a free download on the Tortured Earth Home Page. Tortured Earth Beta GM Guide  

And finally, I have created a Tavern Generator and Loot Generator. Both are free downloads and can be adapted to a wide range of story settings. Both are written in Excel. If you are using a tablet, you can download a free version of Excel and operate it live at the game table.