Let’s say my Constution is 3. That means my Constitution modifier is -3. When I set my general skill ratings, they begin at 1/6 plus the governing ability modifier. I assume this cannot go below 0/6. Since my Sang Froid is governed by Constitution, it is reduced to 0/6.
If my starting Lifepath is Americaine, I gain 1 Sang Froid (from the skill World Weary). Does this make my final Sang Froid rating 1/6?
If you have less than 1/6 you drop to 1/10. That should be the minimum score.
If you have a negative modifier that reduces you to skill 0 but you take LP skills to overcome the deficit, the total LP skill levels has to exceed the penalty for you to be able to use the skill.
That makes sense. Would it be reasonable to mark this as [Sang Froid -1/6] to keep track of the deficit you need to overcome before the skill may be used? (With the understanding that you would still roll 1/10 until your advance the skill to at least 1/6.)
I have a follow-up questions: If your skill roll is modified by exertion and a difficulty modifier, in what order would you modify your skill roll? Let’s say, I spend one year and get (+5), the difficulty ist (-2) and I have a Skill of 3/6.
My options are:
a)(+5)+(-2)=+3
(+3)+(3/6)=7/8
b)(+5)+(3/6)=11/12
(11/12)+(-2)= 9/12
If it’s an ability modifier, you should have that factored into the rating listed on your character sheet. So a 3/6 rating becomes 11/12.
But if there’s an additional negative modifier on top of that, you subtract it from the target number, not the die step. So that 11/12 becomes 9/12.
It’s a bit counterintuitive to start, but this is one of my favorite aspects of the system. Negative modifiers have a noticeable effect, but higher skill ratings grant more cushion so the system rewards expertise in characters (without inflating the numbers).
Yeah, I understand that part!
But in my example there was also a modifier from exertion. If I spend mortal coil do I factor that into the additional modifier (-2, in our case) or do I handle mortal coil like an ability modifier?
I would handle it like an ability modifier, but I am not sure how it was intended to be.