From:	Mark Steedman <M.J.Steedman@***.RGU.AC.UK>
Subject:	Re: (Skill+Att)/2
Date:	Thu, 10 Jul 1997 13:32:44 GMT

David Buehrer writes

> I'm not going to put a [SRIII] header on this cuz I don't even know
> if it'll work.
>
> I'd like to see most skills linked to attributes. With this system
> you have two types of skills, standard and stand-alone. Standard
> skills have a link attribute, stand-alone skills don't.
>
> Average the rating of a standard skill and its link attribute to
> figure out how many dice you get to roll for that skill for any given
> test. If you've got Firearms 6, and it's linked to a Quickness of 4,
> you'd get to roll 5 dice for Firearms tests.
>
The BIG problem with systems like this is that it is often FAR FAR
cheaper to just buy every skill in dight at 1 and then buy your
attributes to silly levels than it is to buy the skills up because of
the knock on affect it has.
Both 'Mechwarrior' and 'Earthdawn' have Attribute values that figure
inot skill ratings, i have seen what a maximum attrubutes priority
clan Mechwarrior does to the Mechwarrior system it isn't funny, it's
plain stupendous compared with a medium attributes character
regardless of skill points (though the relative cost of increasing
the skills and attrubutes 1:10! does reflect the attributes value).
In Ed most folks stick the vital attributes high anyway (and ED is so
dangerous you cannot have tooling 1's in atriubtes, eg several VERY
nasty talents attack social defense so charisma is a must) and you
cannot increase them very much so it works.

> With a stand-alone skill you just roll a number of dice equal to the
> skill's rating.
>
> I haven't categorized the skills yet because if this doesn't fly with
> my players I'm don't want to waste the time.
>
> I would also like to add that I feel that standard skills should have
> a maximum rating equal to their linked skill x1.5. Stand-alone
> skills would not have a maximum.
>
Um.
I have heard and occasionally looked at systems like this before and
it seems SR just does not respond well. As minimum you would have to
put the cost of rasing attributes up to 3 or more times new rating
and limit rolled dice to skill*1.5 or something.

> And a magician would not be able to learn a spell with a Force
> greater than his Magic Theory x1.5.
There is already a limit in GR2 that you cannot research spells with
forces higher than magic theory, though it's so well hidden nearly
nobody finds it. More limits like this could really help keep
rampaging magic in check though more sensibly than fiddling with
drain as skills are the one thing in SR that make initiation look
cheap (except possibly ally spirits tough enough to stand in LOS of a
combat).

>
> I know that with Steve's SRIII stuff you may not have time to respond
> to this :), but I'd really like to know if there's any holes in this.

Mark