Athletic skill too important?

[ric]

Sorry for the probably dumb question, but I'm right to assume that every PC who tries to run away or to engage in a chase is severely penalized (-4 to the roll) if doesn't have at least 1 skill point in Athletic?

It's, then, heavily implied that every PC must put at least 1 point in the skill or I'm missing something?

Thanks in advance

[Stormcrow]

I think you're misreading the rules a little, but in a very understandable way.

The game distinguishes between things you're trained in and not trained in on the one hand, and your skill levels on the other. For example, if your Background is "Famous rock star on early 21st century Earth" and your Craft skill is 5, and then you try to paint a painting, you're completely untrained in that, so you get a -4 penalty.

As another example, suppose your Background is "Jewel thief" and you have a Subterfuge skill of 4, but on an adventure you find yourself needing to hide from a ferocious beast hunting you in a forest. This isn't exactly something you've trained to do, but you do have experience sneaking around and camouflaging yourself, so you have a -2 penalty to your roll.

See "Unskilled Attempts" in the rule book that describes this.

So now consider running away. Everybody knows how to run away (unless you're a very strange alien who's never heard of such a thing), so there's no such thing as an unskilled attempt to run away. Your Athletics is 0, but you don't get a penalty on top of that.

See "Common Knowledge" in the rule book for a full explanation of this.

Basically, skills don't represent what you know how to do; they represent how well you do the things you know how to do. If you try to do something you don't know how to do, regardless of what your skill level is, you get a penalty.

What you know how to do is judged by the game master, and is based on the Background you write on your character sheet when you create the character. (You shouldn't skip this.)

[Stormcrow]

You can see this effect clearly in some other skills. For instance, if my Background is "Gym teacher, former army soldier," my TL is 5, my Coordination is 3, and my Transport skill is 3, the GM can safely say that my character has skill driving cars, jeeps, and maybe trucks, but probably not airplanes or helicopters. There would be no reason to assume that I could pilot ships or submarines. So if I end up on an adventure in which I have to fly a TL 8 spaceship, I'll be rolling Coordination (3) + Transport (3) + 2d6 - Unfamiliarity (-4) - TL penalty (-6); that's a total of 2d6-4. Not impossible, but pretty hard. On the other hand, if I end up in a TL4 (really early) bicycle chase, well, most people where I come from know how to ride bicycles, so the GM rules there's no unfamiliarity penalty, and it would be Coordination (3) + Transport (3) + 2d6 - TL penalty (-1) = 2d6+5.

Look beyond the numbers on the sheet.

[ric]

Stormcrow, thanks a lot for the articulate reply, it's quite useful; coming from a wargamer background I tend to read rules a bit strictly.

Following your input, I could infer that an old teacher could suffer the whole -4 to running, while an healty but unskilled student could get away with no penalty at all?

If I may bother you a little more, can you prompt me with other examples of this situation (not having penalties for being unskilled)?

Thank you very much

[Stormcrow]

Jun 1, 2021 19:47:52 GMT ric said:

Following your input, I could infer that an old teacher could suffer the whole -4 to running, while an healty but unskilled student could get away with no penalty at all?

I wouldn't do it that way. Even an old person remembers how to run. I would reflect being old in the attributes, not in the skills, and not as a penalty for being unskilled.

So someone who is really old might have a Coordination of 1, while the average, healthy person might have a Coordination of 3. If that's still not slow enough — if they can only hobble along with a walker — I'd give them a Slow trait for a Speed of 0.5.

If I may bother you a little more, can you prompt me with other examples of this situation (not having penalties for being unskilled)?

Suppose you've got two characters from Earth, each with Ingenuity 3 and Technology 3, but one of them has TL 5 and a Background of "Early 21st century physics undergrad and amateur guitarist," while the other has TL 4 and a Background "19th century inventor, father, and heavy drinker." Both are on an adventure on a TL 6 planet, and each has to search for information in the planet's world-wide information net (Difficulty 12).

The GM rules that the undergrad is familiar with Internet searches, and this isn't all that different, so the undergrad rolls Ingenuity (3) + Technology (3) + 2d6 - TL penalty (-2) = 2d6+4. There is no penalty for being unskilled, only a penalty for the TL difference. The undergrad has a reasonable chance to find what he's looking for.

The GM rules that the inventor has never used a computer before and has no concept of a global information network, so the inventor rolls Ingenuity (3) + Technology (3) + 2d6 - TL penalty (-4) - unskilled penalty (-4) = 2d6-2. The inventor has basically no chance to beat Difficulty 12 unless he gets more help or spends story points.

[Stormcrow]

Another example, this time with skill 0:

Suppose two characters are ordered to each make a delicious desert for a ruler. Fortunately for them, the ruler is easily pleased, and the difficulty is only 9.

Both characters have Ingenuity 3 and Craft 0. One character has a Background of "Reality TV junkie, works at McDonalds"; the other has a Background of "Famous football player, automobile aficionado." Assume they're in their home TL.

The first character's player suggests they've watched a lot of reality cooking shows, and so could have picked up some good recipe ideas. The GM okays this, but says they haven't actually tried making any of these things, so there will be a penalty of -2.

The GM rules that the second character doesn't have any apparent training in preparing desserts, so they'll have a -4 penalty.

So...
Character 1 rolls Ingenuity (3) + Craft (0) + 2d6 - unfamiliarity penalty (-2) = 2d6+1. (41.7% chance)
Character 2 rolls Ingenuity (3) + Craft (0) + 2d6 - unfamiliarity penalty (-4) = 2d6-1. (16.7% chance)

[ric]

Jun 1, 2021 20:54:37 GMT Stormcrow said:

Another example, this time with skill 0:

Suppose two characters are ordered to each make a delicious desert for a ruler. Fortunately for them, the ruler is easily pleased, and the difficulty is only 9.

Both characters have Ingenuity 3 and Craft 0. One character has a Background of "Reality TV junkie, works at McDonalds"; the other has a Background of "Famous football player, automobile aficionado." Assume they're in their home TL.

The first character's player suggests they've watched a lot of reality cooking shows, and so could have picked up some good recipe ideas. The GM okays this, but says they haven't actually tried making any of these things, so there will be a penalty of -2.

The GM rules that the second character doesn't have any apparent training in preparing desserts, so they'll have a -4 penalty.

So...
Character 1 rolls Ingenuity (3) + Craft (0) + 2d6 - unfamiliarity penalty (-2) = 2d6+1. (41.7% chance)
Character 2 rolls Ingenuity (3) + Craft (0) + 2d6 - unfamiliarity penalty (-4) = 2d6-1. (16.7% chance)

That's it! thanks a lot, I don't know why but this example has clarified the concept for me

Thank you very much!