Just a question I thought up whilst reading the book:
If a stat increases, do skills currently at its root increase? And if the stat gets lighter, does the skill turn a lighter shade too?
And I’d like to say that BW is a great system, and I plan on running The Sword scenario pretty soon with some people who’ve never RPed before- I think it’ll be three people; any pertinent advice?
The answer to both questions is no.
Thanks
What about the odd case where the new root is above the current dice pool? (IE, it’s just opened and not been raised, and the stat goes up to an even number)
Once the skill is opened, it is completely separate from its Root stat and not affected by it.
I might let you cheat and bump the skill if this happened on the same session you opened the skill. It would kinda suck to get the last test you need to open something and then the last test you needed to advance the root, instead of the other way 'round.
I would under no circumstances let everyone root through their character sheets looking for skills with raised roots, though.
It is easy to game this and make sure you get the stat test first. Then if you’re one test from opening a skill, you should get it when your aptitude req drops.
In the case of a stat shade-shift, would you allow people to re-lean the skill (going through the whole Aptitude tests at beginner’s luck) in order to reopen the skill at the new shade?
I’d tell them to write a belief about getting amnesia first. I figure surviving a mortal wound to the head could do it, out perhaps an art mage. And that’s if I were inclined to let them relearn, but I think there’s more interesting things that could be done
That’s the opposite of the case I’m thinking of.
Your case:
Joe is working on getting Dervish dancing, and has Speed 5, and needs 5 tests to open it at 2. He’s got 4 of them.
He also needs one difficult speed to raise speed to 6.
You advise working the situation to raise speed to 6 first.
My case Joe, in session X, finally opens Dervish Dancing at 2 off his speed of 5.
In session X+1 and X+2, due to lots of running away from things, including a lot of unsuccessful ones, raises to speed 6. But he’s not had any time nor reason to use Dervish Dancing.
No. If you want to gray out that skill, you’ll have to Epiphany it too.
Yup, it is much wiser to grey out a stat in burning an open everything of the grey stat. It’s an advantage of having 6LP Old Ben instead of the 3LP farmboy Luke.
You know, to remove the weird disincentive to open skills if you intend to shade-shift, I’d be inclined to count all routine tests of a skill with a higher shade root stat towards a flat 10 needed to shade-shift the skill as well. That’s entirely academic, though, as I’ve never seen a stat shift in play. It’s tough to pump enough Artha into most of them.
In our Burning THAC0 game (currently on hiatus), nearly all of the characters have or are close to shade-shifting their third skill, stat or attribute. It works just fine as is guys.
The think I found hard is setting short term belief goals rather than long term ones to earn Persona points. I’d clock over FP, but PP were too hard with the goals I was setting.
I’m starting to get the hang of things now, by breaking down my grand plans into achievable sub-goals thusly…
B- I will achieve [Grand Plot A], the first step is to establish [Sub-Plot B].
Wow, their third shade shift? How long has your game been going for? I admit I’ve got little play experience, but I thought shade shifting was supposed to be quite rare? Is it more common in THAC0 style BW? Mostly curious because I was probably going to emulate the Burning THAC0 style if I do end up ever running a BW game.
Speed, check. Perception, check. Up next: Agility!
We started playing in 2006, with a couple long hiatuses due to my (well, my wife) having kids.
I’d be very impressed if you manage to grey out those three stats in order without ever spending one or two deeds points to survive a life or death situation.
I had intended to do something like that, but then one deeds point was needed to restrain the Lord Protector when he’s about to go crazy, another deeds point was needed to out-wrestle the mounted soldier who’s trying to cut off my head, and suddenly I’m one deeds point from shifting Power. Might as well spend the third one somehow to get full value for the previous two deeds points…