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Is their an acting skill in any books

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 12:33 am
by dragon_blaze_99
Is there an acting skill in any books?
i was thinking of just using the dance skill

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 2:30 am
by verdilak
Adventures on the High Seas I believe.

Re: Is their an acting skill in any books

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:16 am
by asajosh
dragon_blaze_99 wrote:Is there an acting skill in any books?
i was thinking of just using the dance skill


Performance, RUE page 305. Public Speaking is on the same page.

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 7:46 am
by dragon_blaze_99
thanks all :D

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:48 pm
by KillWatch
Here's a thought, make your own

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 11:33 pm
by Marrowlight
KillWatch wrote:Here's a thought, make your own


a lil late to the party eh?

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:53 am
by KillWatch
OR am I early to the next one

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 3:54 am
by Rallan
KillWatch wrote:Here's a thought, make your own


Yeah it's not like its hard. Just invent a base percentage (35% or 40% is fairly common for most Palladium skills) and add 5% per level and a one-time IQ bonus.

Voila, that took all of ten seconds work on my part, and reminded me of why I think Palladium's skill system is so useless :)

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 9:01 pm
by Damian Magecraft
Rallan wrote:
KillWatch wrote:Here's a thought, make your own


Yeah it's not like its hard. Just invent a base percentage (35% or 40% is fairly common for most Palladium skills) and add 5% per level and a one-time IQ bonus.

Voila, that took all of ten seconds work on my part, and reminded me of why I think Palladium's skill system is so useless :)
wow ten whole seconds to get the major crunchy part out of the way.....

but whats the parameters of the skill? when would i be required to make a skill check? under what circumstance?....there is more to developing a skill than just asigning a base and an advancement....

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 9:50 pm
by KillWatch
When you are trying to act,.... It might give you a +2 to MA. You would use it when trying to mimic or portray someone fictional or real. Conveying emotions, mannerisms, delivering dialogue, etc

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:07 am
by Rallan
Damian Magecraft wrote:
Rallan wrote:
KillWatch wrote:Here's a thought, make your own


Yeah it's not like its hard. Just invent a base percentage (35% or 40% is fairly common for most Palladium skills) and add 5% per level and a one-time IQ bonus.

Voila, that took all of ten seconds work on my part, and reminded me of why I think Palladium's skill system is so useless :)
wow ten whole seconds to get the major crunchy part out of the way.....

but whats the parameters of the skill? when would i be required to make a skill check? under what circumstance?....there is more to developing a skill than just asigning a base and an advancement....


What difference does it make? Palladium's skill system is so vaguely defined and devoid of rules for applying it to in-game situations that it barely even matters. As for parameters, that's just a matter of whipping up three or four lines about whatever the author believes the basics of acting are. Can't be that hard to cook up something as vague and generalized as the other skill descriptions.

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 10:14 am
by Marrowlight
Rallan wrote:
Damian Magecraft wrote:
Rallan wrote:
KillWatch wrote:Here's a thought, make your own


Yeah it's not like its hard. Just invent a base percentage (35% or 40% is fairly common for most Palladium skills) and add 5% per level and a one-time IQ bonus.

Voila, that took all of ten seconds work on my part, and reminded me of why I think Palladium's skill system is so useless :)
wow ten whole seconds to get the major crunchy part out of the way.....

but whats the parameters of the skill? when would i be required to make a skill check? under what circumstance?....there is more to developing a skill than just asigning a base and an advancement....


What difference does it make? Palladium's skill system is so vaguely defined and devoid of rules for applying it to in-game situations that it barely even matters. As for parameters, that's just a matter of whipping up three or four lines about whatever the author believes the basics of acting are. Can't be that hard to cook up something as vague and generalized as the other skill descriptions.


So you don't like the skill system either, eh? ;)

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 3:56 pm
by KillWatch
I've been wrestling with skilsl for some time. From stacking skills to point based.

Right now I am trying to figure out if First Aid and Para Medics are automatically known by an MD. I mean obviously a doctor would know them but why aren't they prereqs?

Also trying to figure out if there should be a multi tiered system of skills or just one. Like First Aid and Paramedic as secondary then MD as primary, or if I should just call it Medical Skill and say that at 25% you can perform first aid, 50% you can perform paramedics 75%= md and start at 0% base level

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 9:53 pm
by Rallan
Marrowlight wrote:
Rallan wrote:
Damian Magecraft wrote:
Rallan wrote:
KillWatch wrote:Here's a thought, make your own


Yeah it's not like its hard. Just invent a base percentage (35% or 40% is fairly common for most Palladium skills) and add 5% per level and a one-time IQ bonus.

Voila, that took all of ten seconds work on my part, and reminded me of why I think Palladium's skill system is so useless :)
wow ten whole seconds to get the major crunchy part out of the way.....

but whats the parameters of the skill? when would i be required to make a skill check? under what circumstance?....there is more to developing a skill than just asigning a base and an advancement....


What difference does it make? Palladium's skill system is so vaguely defined and devoid of rules for applying it to in-game situations that it barely even matters. As for parameters, that's just a matter of whipping up three or four lines about whatever the author believes the basics of acting are. Can't be that hard to cook up something as vague and generalized as the other skill descriptions.


So you don't like the skill system either, eh? ;)


Let's put it this way. Some of Palladium's games have been pretty good apart from the rules :)

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 11:34 pm
by Marrowlight
What's always amused me about the skill system is how quick skill checks are versus the monstrosity that is the combat system.

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:17 am
by Rallan
Marrowlight wrote:What's always amused me about the skill system is how quick skill checks are versus the monstrosity that is the combat system.


Combat's pretty easy as long as you remember that doing anything except standing your ground and returning fire on full automatic will be heavily penalised, so the only rules you'll ever use are to-hit rolls and damage rolls :)

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:01 pm
by The ineffible GM
Calling it a Skill system isn't really accurate, it's more like a Skill Collection. And each new book has something new for you to look at and maybe add to your personal horde. What's most amusing I find, is that a short while ago I started looking at changing Palladium's skill 'system' to make a little more sense and to be a little more cohesive and condensed...and I realized it would probably be easiest to just replace the entire system completely. Rip the whole thing out and make a new one...and it wouldn't really have any affect on the rest of the game.

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 10:18 pm
by KillWatch
Well here's my monstrostiy:
1: Three tiered system: Basic Advanced Master
2: Skill points based on IQ with bonus points per level
3: Usage points, so that those skills you actually use are increased proportionately, and if you don't cook a dish in 13 levels you are not at 98%
4: Skills over 100% limited by individual character capacities. Penalized by rough conditions, damage, lack of proper gear, etc can put big dents in it. But if they are that good then they are just that good.
5: Leveled physical skills so that they can grow with characters

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:56 pm
by Wise_Owl
Karandor wrote:What's wrong with the system? It's incredibly un-complicated and doing checks when needed is very fast.

Alright, sure, it's fast to use in game. Roll dice, hope you roll low. Uncomplicated? Have you ever gone about creating a Palladium character? It seems almost random which skills require prerequisites and which ones don't, the myriad of sub-skills that gymnastics and acrobatics grant you are encumbering at best, and then there's the matter of exactly which skills within what categories you can select skills from. Character creation is complicated, and lengthy, and in a lot of ways due to skills.

Karandor wrote:The skill descriptions are vague because most skills cover a large amount of knowledge. Where that knowledge starts and ends should be a combination of the player's character description and what the GM decides.

Skills do not always represent a broad area of knowledge. Demolitions and Safecracking are seperate skills in Rifts. It is fully possible to be a master and blowing safes open, but not have a clue as to how to set explosives against the side of a parked tank. Ninjas and Superspies is probably the worst for narrowly defined skills.


Karandor wrote:Everyone ***** about the skill system but never says what they want instead.


Killwatch, it's like you're reading my mind.
:shock:
*Spends ISP, initiates Mind Block*

Rallan said it right though, it's not the rules that have made Palladium's games fun over the years.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 12:04 am
by Rallan
What I'd like would be a skill system like, say, the one in White Wolf's game. Y'know, where it's actually connected to the rest of the rules instead of being its own isolated ghetto, where how good you are at something depends on how much you've invested in the skill rather than just your level, where your performance is affected by stats that are relevant to the skill rather than an across the board IQ bonus, where you've actually got one skill system (instead of Palladium where you've got a hand to hand skill system, a WP skill system, a physical skill system, and an everything else skill system all working in different ways), where the result of your rolls means more than just a binary pass/fail outcome, and where the skill tree for skills that need prerequisite skills doesn't look so damn arbitrary.