Re: Critique of Summarized plans

["Michael B. Martin" <martinm@sps1.phys.vt.edu>]

> >>>>[From Brian Thomas]
>     
>     	And so on. A player without "praying" or "wizardry" would 
>     be unable to perform magic. A player without "arms" would be able to 
>     attack with weapons, but would never advance without the skill. Lack
>     of "hth" skill would make martial arts attacks impossible. 
>     
> I liked it fine up until here.
> 
> realistically speaking;
> Anyone can pray, without an in-born "skill".
>   (but getting something back is going to be rather rare :-)
> Anyone can fight,without a "skill".. and if they fight a lot.. they are
> going to get better.

I agree.  For example, a "fighter" may start with a very small but
non-zero amount of clerical ability.  (You could have a "Paladin"
as a "fighter" with good clerical ability  :)  (And I don't mean
clerical ability in the sense of typing, filing letters, etc. ;)

> magic is the only thing I could see as "you got it or you don't"
> kind of thing.
> 
> If a "magic user", maybe you need the special "magic-chanelling gene".
> If you're doing clerical type magic, you obviously need to have
> devoted your life to your god toget special favours

I'm not sure I agree with this.  An old Atari/Amiga game called
Dungeon Master used a 4-way class system like what has been proposed,
and each character had experience to some degree in each of the
classes.  Even my fighters had at least a little magical ability (but
they started with quite a small amount), and by the end of the game
(after working on their magical experience a lot) they could cast
usable spells (like light spells).  But, of course, they were always
well behind the mages.  I think this helped to provide better game
balance (in the end, I needed every last spell point I could get).

I would suggest that if a "class-as-skill" system is used (which, BTW,
sounds fine to me), that each character at least start with the 4
basic class skills (or whatever the "basic" skills are; there could be
a few "basic" thief skills).  Additional skills could also be granted
initially (maybe selecting the "class" of your character initially and
receiving related additional skills, like smithery for a fighter),
or just let the characters have to acquire them later in the game.

Also, I just had another thought.  In addition to gaining skill
experience through direct use of the skill, why not add "mentors", who
you could visit (and pay a large sum of money or something else very
valuable, no doubt) to increase a particular skill.  Perhaps even
something along the lines of a real-world university (a place with a
lot of NPC's of different "classes" who could teach you skills).  You
could even place limits on how high an NPC might be able to take you
(can't teach you beyond their ability/knowledge).  How about a
powerful mage in a distant tower who will increase your magical
ability, but first you have to do/get something for him?  (I.e. could
relate skill acquisition/improvement to quests for more variety.)

Well, these are just thoughts.  What do you think?

-Michael