Beginner's Luck, Abilities, and Skill Rating

Torchbearer An Adventurer's Essentials
1

Total newbie to TB. Really like it.

There is a mechanic I don’t quite grok. It may be that I haven’t completely understood the rules and / or that I don’t comprehend the intention of the rules in terms of evoking RP, enhancing realism, etc. Here goes…

Willie the 1st level Warrior has a Health of 6. He does not have the Dungeoneer skill, as such, for stuff like climbing walls in dungeons, disarming traps, etc. he uses Beginner’s Luck (BL). The BL rating is ability base (in this case, Health) divided by two and rounded up. So he gets a BL based rating of 6/2=3 for these checks. After performing enough checks (pass or fail) equivalent to his Nature, Willie learns the Dungeoneer skill at rating 2.

Assuming the above is correct and I have read the rules correctly, I don’t quite get the philosophy behind learning a new skill at a rating lower than the BL rating one would use for the same skill.

Thanks for any enlightenment.

2

It’s not just Willie’s dice that are halved in Beginner’s Luck. He actually takes his Health + any Help and THEN divides.

When you have the skill, each die of help counts. Also, you have the ability to help others. Having the skill is definitely worth the tradeoff.

3

Plus that’s a very healthy Willie. My halfling weren’t nearly so healthy.

Plus plus, that’s why it’s called Beginner’s Luck. A little knowledge isn’t always a good thing.

4

Thanks. I think I was getting hung up on the incongruity of the rating itself and not considering the effects beyond the single character per Thor’s comments.

Thinking more about the name itself, Beginner’s Luck… As you point out, noclue, the name represents the philosophy behind mechanic. The bonus luck the neophyte feels they posses on his or her first few rolls. I recall the first time I was in a Casino: that Beginner’s Luck doesn’t last very long.

As for contrived poor Ol’ Willie’s stats… just using as an example. 5 would have worked too.

Thanks, again.