Are you supposed to complement the Wises and Trades lists?

Is the list of trades your parents might have or that you could apprentice as only meant as examples you should add to? How about Wises? Is that list meant to be complimented with what players come up with? What are the rules as intended?

ā€¦

1 Like

I believe Wises are just given as examples in the text, along with guidance how to create your own. With skills, I believe the intention is that the list is comprehensive and that players are generally not making up new skills.

Ok. Makes sense I guess. Thanks :slight_smile:

I had this whole thing last night that got lost. Hereā€™s the short:

Wises, yes! Make up your own, use the examples, co-invent with players. My key advice, not too broad, and not too narrow. Vehicle-wise is too broad, and might feel too vague. Infant Stroller-wise is too narrow unless the campaign showcases stroller obstacles frequently, and it kinda seems too specialized for a stroller sales-mouse. Maybe Wheeled Hauling-wise would be a middle ground which reflects knowledge or trekking wagons, hand carts, mining trucks, harvester wheel barrows, dock/cargo rollers, block & tackle or other pulleys, water wheel, etc. So that wise about hauling things using wheels is a sign of common mechanical laws of force regarding moving loads and distributing loads.

Parentā€™s Trade, sorta. Iā€™m open to playersā€™ background story, but Iā€™m not totally convinced everything that Ma or Pa uses at work comes home to little children. My dad has worked in computer technology over 40 years, but I never really learned much about security postures or server backup schedules from him; I only really came away with rudimentary user-level computer literacy. Though, now, Iā€™m a wifi engineer/consultant which I would probably chalk up to ā€˜apprenticeshipā€™; since, I learned through hands-on labs in a college environment and hands-on through work at Cisco.

Apprenticeship, no. So, Iā€™m kinda open-minded, but hereā€™s the take: the Guard doesnā€™t get to place a recruit with just any desired artisan, AND, not every skill is really taught through apprenticeship model. So for example, Scientist, Loremouse, or Boatcrafter are probably not really available in or near Lockhaven by way of an artisan. Scientist seems not really a candidate for apprenticeship, but Iā€™d kinda buy it. Boatcrafter is a good candidate for apprenticeship, but unless I were planned a naval Guard campaign, Iā€™d discourage this from being a commonly available artisan for the Guard. Also, there are some skills common to an artisan which are not core skills of the trade/craft: Persuader, Manipulator, Orator, Haggler are all good skills for a worker/entrepreneur to develop and refine, but if the trade is carpentry, then an apprentice should expect to learn carpentry rather than haggling; similarly, if the craft were weaving, an apprentice should learn weaving rather than haggling. In another perspective, the archivist skill is available, such as working as an apprentice for the library (which I usually play as a library in Ivydale), and maybe that is an idea for a player to say, ā€œI learned Orator from the apprenticeship; because, the librarian always had me doing story-time for the children and helping the local politician to write speeches.ā€ Iā€™d say, 'No, you learned Archivist, but had a natural talent for Orator which the librarian noticed and

In the text it seems they want you to choose a wise from the alphabetic list or make an animal- town- or mouse-specific one. Great if they incourage you to make up your own whatever-wise, but where does everyone get this impression?

Another thing with how broad or narrow the wise should be. They list hawk-, owl-, and raven-wise but they also list bird-wise. They have fox- and wolf-wise, but they also have predator-wise. There is cold rain-wise, but also rain-wise, there is blizzard-wise, but also snow-wise. There is both path-, trail- and road-wiseā€¦ Wises seem to have a lot of overlap and vary a great deal in how broad or narrow they are supposed to be! Which is fine if you are supposed to define your own and the gm can decide how loose or tight she wants itā€¦ but if notā€¦

In the text it seems they want you to choose a wise from the alphabetic list or make an animal- town- or mouse-specific one. Great if they incourage you to make up your own whatever-wise, but where does everyone get this impression?

Another thing with how broad or narrow the wise should be: They list hawk-, owl-, and raven-wise but they also list bird-wise. They have fox- and wolf-wise, but they also have predator-wise. There is cold rain-wise, but also rain-wise, there is blizzard-wise, but also snow-wise. There is both path-, trail- and road-wiseā€¦ Wises seem to have a lot of overlap and vary a great deal in how broad or narrow they are supposed to be! Which is fine if you are supposed to define your own and the gm can decide how loose or tight she wants itā€¦ but if notā€¦