Quick and dirty question:
Can we open a skill being learned trough practice? Like a skill that is not even in the being learned log and do it trough practice? I thought I read somewhere we couldn’t but i’m not sure…
thanks!
Practice gives you tests towards opening the skill at half the root stat. The required test to open is 10-root stat. So for example if you are going to open sword, with a b6 agility. It would take 4 tests. As it is a martial skill, it would take 1 month of practice to earn a test, at 2 hours a day for a routine test. When you get the months worth of practice you get a test. When you get 4 tests, you open the skill at a b3.
Yes, you can. However, you use the practice time listed under Routine for the stat.
Gah! That makes no sense. A beginner’s luck test is a stat test in all other respects.
I’m clearly wrong, but that seems backwards. Also, why are Routines for stats even listed in the practice tables?
I have no idea.
Mostly I stick with “use the skill practice times” because some of the skills that are most useful for adventure-having are pretty fast to train up, which is very handy when you’ve got protagonists who start out very specialized or a bit untried but eventually you want them to have a good base of skills for dealing with danger. (Note that there’s still a fictional hurdle to cross before you tick off a bunch of tests. Can’t exactly practice Riding without a horse, you know?) Though for heavy-duty learning you’d want Instruction anyway.
Thanks guys. Thats ineresting…like shawn said its kinda backward since its stat based in beginner’s luck and uses skill cycle in practice. The only reason I see is because when yo TRY to use the skill you dont have you’re using your beginner’s luck per say so it fall down on the stat. BUT when you practice you focus on it so using the skill cycle might make sense in that way.
Maybe this is why players have never opened a skill in your games? I kid, I kid, but I remember one episode of Fire in the Garden where you talked about how rare it is.
In all seriousness, while you are rolling your stat exponent, it is not a stat test. You’re practicing a skill you don’t yet have proficiency in.
Tho it is weird that there are routine times listed for stats.
This was asked a month and a half ago!
http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/showthread.php?14266-Practice-and-Beginner-s-Luck
Our conclusive answer was: it depends on how you read the book! Specifically, Beginner’s Luck tests are explicitly a stat test (Beginner’s Luck page 37, Testing Abilities in Brief page 39, Beginner’s Luck (again) page 49). And at least in my first printing copy of BWG there’s still a Routine line for stats (which, again, would be totally useless except for in the case of Beginner’s Luck). It would be nice to get an official answer and then have someone jam it into the errata.