From: millerl@wharton.upenn.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: RQ: reversing skill multiplication
Date: 13 Dec 92 01:24:09 GMT
Organization: Newt World Order

In article <Bz49uF.7Jy@acsu.buffalo.edu>, v124pz9t@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (David Cheng) writes:
> I'm trying to think Devil's Advocate, as I type here...
> If I am trying to "Fast Talk" my way out of a situation, do I
> use Oratory or Sociable?

That's the player's choice. Are you trying to browbeat or confuse the
target, or are you buttering him up, complimenting him so much that he
gets careless? Or are you using Empathy to bribe or otherwise convince
him? Note that I'm willing to allow for other skills if desired by
individual GMs, but I don't think the default set should be as
fragmented as the currently proposed one.

> How would certain cultures value each of these "stereotypically:"
> Orlanti vs Eirithan vs Yelmic vs Eastern vs Western vs Pamaltelan, etc?

That's a good question. IMHO, the split between oratory and sociable
falls along gender lines. Oratory is a typically male way of dealing
with others, and Sociable means are often seen as female, or weaker,
methods. Orlanthi, being patriarchal and enamored of rhetoric and fancy
words, would prefer Oratory. Eirithians, being matriarchal, would prefer
the Sociable skill. If other cultures have a preference for one mode of
communication or another, they might prefer oratory, sociable, empathy,
or even bargain or courtesan. I don't know enough about eastern
genertelan and pamaltelan cultures to predict which communication skill
they would prefer, but I'd guess that malkioni cultures, being
patriarchal and caste-driven, would prefer oratory.

> Is there enough variety to fully show the diversity of Gloranthan
> culture?  Was there before?  Is this not a culture issue, but
> an individual issue? (Yes, I think so, as I free associate).

One possibility is to do the same thing to skills as has been done to
spells. Instead of multiplying the number of skills, just keep their
descriptions limited and give them lots of names.

"While in Farwall I studied the art the local grey sages called Oratory,
and found it used all the same skills I had learnt years before when I
trained as an officer. Captain Gheloron at the time told me I was
learning to Command Underlings. Once I discovered this I ceased to
attend lectures and spent my time in the Silver Tusk Inn, and aced my
final exam whilst imagining the crotchety old bearded sages were teary
eyed recruits dragged fresh from their mothers' embrace, a most amusing
juxtaposition indeed."
                                          -- Annals of Zani the Blade

> (PS:  Stafford says that the original skill list dwarfed the one
>      currently being kicked around in RQ4.  So, don't think that
>      they were spontaneous geniuses [genii ?].  Early  playtesting
>      showed them to cut it down to what appearedin RQ1.
>      Ah, how the pendulum swings...  Kind of like politics.)

Time to go in swinging that machete, then.

-- 
whoah,
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller                           internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
Mediocrity is a hand rail.                         -- Baron de Montesquieu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc