Alternate Core Documents

[Ghostpony]

In the course of looking at this, I've expanded the write-up on the Speech and Barter skills.

Hrm... I like the idea of having it be a trait that gives +10 to a specific usage of a skill (Such as bartering with spirits for barter, or inventing with an Earth Pony's special talent) and to allow it to break a skill cap. The trait should also be subject to GM Approval.

For Hellgate Canyon group, my character is supposed to be talented with raw magic, but rather lost when it comes to arcanotech. The GM gave me a custom trait that gives me +15 to Science when casting or otherwise dealing with spells, but -15 when dealing with arcanotech (no change for other applications of the Science skill).

Sounds like people are already using variants of this idea.

How does this sound:

Specialized: You are particularly adept at a focused area of expertise within a skill. Choose an area of knowledge, an application of the skill, or a sub-category of what that skill allows you to use (subject to GM's approval). You gain +10 skill points to that skill when it applies to your specialization, but -5 skill points to that skill for any other use of that skill. These skill points affect whether you meet the requirements for skill rolls. Likewise, your skill level cap is 10 higher for you area of specialization, and five lower for all other applications of the skill. Examples include: Survival (cooking), Barter (spirits), Firearms (shotguns), Speech (reading others), Science (Manipulation spells) and Medicine (cybernetics).

Is there any reason a perk version of this couldn't be done?

[Ghostpony]

Something else that got lost way back:

Sneaking is missing a core part of its mechanics from the rules. Nowhere is it defined what constitutes normal sneaking speed, nor what penalties there are for sneak-running without the perk. Additionally, sneak-flying is a problem because it's even more unclear how "fast" you're allowed to move without penalty.

Hrm... I had assumed it was 'No faster than half your regular movement speed'. As for the penalties... yeah. That's a fair point (Maybe a -20? That feels about right).

Half regular movement speed is slooooow. Even using a decently quick character, it tends to take me multiple turns to get within range if I only use "walking" movement speed, using only movement actions, already. If we're talking half that, that's something along the lines of 5+ turns. o.O

Sneaking inst meant to be fast though. Its why if you get the drop on somepony the bonus is so big.

Would suggest a perk for flyers along the lines of Wings of an Owl. Stealth penalties are halved for flight.

Would still need a set of penalties and speeds worked out though. Flight has the advantage of being quite far away if one wants so I do suggest hitting the flyers with a stiffer penalty.

[Kkat]

One thing that the Stalliongrad game brought to light: called shots to limbs is super-easy to heavily abuse. I'm in the process of working on some ideas to help counter that.

An alarm shouldn't be too hard to integrate into a magic ward, besides if something breaks through the ward it would only make sense to have a way to be alerted of this. Without the alarm that would mean something smashed its way through your ward and you're all asleep so you're all doomed to whatever fate this creature decides for you.

You would think so. But remember that an Alarm Ward would have to be an entirely separate type of ward, not something you would add into another ward. So casting an Alarm Ward on a surface would mean that you couldn't have any other type of ward on that surface. And since this isn't a Spell Ward, and thus not triggered by a spell, the Alarm Ward would only trigger if something tried to pass physically through the surface it is on. So what I end up with is a spell that will trigger an alarm if an opponent, say, smashes through the wall it's put on. At which point, the alarm seems a bit superfluous.

Is there any reason a perk version of this couldn't be done?

A perk version would make sense, but would require some mechanical changes. The -5 penalty on non-specialized uses of the skill would have to be removed, as would the ability to break the skill cap. The perk version could, however, also benefit from having more than one rank.

Would suggest a perk for flyers along the lines of Wings of an Owl. Stealth penalties are halved for flight.

Flight is already supposed to be considered silent -- perception checks against flying opponents rely on other senses (primarily sight, although touch could come into play to feel the disturbance of flapping wings, making flying opponents detectable even in complete darkness). I'll make a note of that in the rules.

Edit: added under Stealth...

If someone or something is rendered undetectable to a sense, Perception rolls using that sense automatically fail. Examples include attempting to see invisible objects, smell odorless gas, or hear silenced weapons. (Flight is considered silent, but the disturbance of air caused by the beating of wings can be detected through the sense of touch.)

While I'm at it, Inventing has been given an added note that for complex inventions, GMs may require multiple sub-schematics.

Finally, I've added the following paragraph to Flight...

When pulling a wagon or other vehicle that is up to one size category larger than herself, a flying character can use the Pegasus Trick Haul to negates the encumbrance-based drop in effective flight rank to 1 and reduces the Agility penalty caused by the weight of the vehicle and its contents to -3. This drop in Agility will still cause the effective flight rank of the character to drop if the character no longer meets the prerequisites for their Flight Rank perks.

[Ragebrew]

Depending on the shape of the feather, flight can be fairly loud. The only reason owls move so quietly is because their feathers are designed to produce as little disturbance as possible. I imagine it's all a matter of if they are actively beating their wings or not. Someone gliding over head would be quiet, but someone flapping their wings full tilt would make one heck of a ruckus.

[Ghostpony]

One thing that the Stalliongrad game brought to light: called shots to limbs is super-easy to heavily abuse. I'm in the process of working on some ideas to help counter that.

An alarm shouldn't be too hard to integrate into a magic ward, besides if something breaks through the ward it would only make sense to have a way to be alerted of this. Without the alarm that would mean something smashed its way through your ward and you're all asleep so you're all doomed to whatever fate this creature decides for you.

You would think so. But remember that an Alarm Ward would have to be an entirely separate type of ward, not something you would add into another ward. So casting an Alarm Ward on a surface would mean that you couldn't have any other type of ward on that surface. And since this isn't a Spell Ward, and thus not triggered by a spell, the Alarm Ward would only trigger if something tried to pass physically through the surface it is on. So what I end up with is a spell that will trigger an alarm if an opponent, say, smashes through the wall it's put on. At which point, the alarm seems a bit superfluous.

Is there any reason a perk version of this couldn't be done?

A perk version would make sense, but would require some mechanical changes. The -5 penalty on non-specialized uses of the skill would have to be removed, as would the ability to break the skill cap. The perk version could, however, also benefit from having more than one rank.

Would suggest a perk for flyers along the lines of Wings of an Owl. Stealth penalties are halved for flight.

Flight is already supposed to be considered silent -- perception checks against flying opponents rely on other senses (primarily sight, although touch could come into play to feel the disturbance of flapping wings, making flying opponents detectable even in complete darkness). I'll make a note of that in the rules.

Edit: added under Stealth...

If someone or something is rendered undetectable to a sense, Perception rolls using that sense automatically fail. Examples include attempting to see invisible objects, smell odorless gas, or hear silenced weapons. (Flight is considered silent, but the disturbance of air caused by the beating of wings can be detected through the sense of touch.)

While I'm at it, Inventing has been given an added note that for complex inventions, GMs may require multiple sub-schematics.

The perk version is nicely self limiting if you dont make it alter the skill cap. Why spend a perk for a skill mod then render it useless by raising the skill to the point where it does nothing? Ie if you say take science and specialize in hacking, gain a +15 to it, raising your skill to 90 would loose you part of the perks benefits.

It is? This isn't made clear in the rules and RL birds for the most part are not silent flyers. Owl's being the exception. Perhaps there should be a clarification about that?


Alarm Wards: I would suggest something easy to set up say a casting time of 90 AP or so. Once up anyone passing though the ward alerts the caster. However while the ward is up, the caster is down strain that can not be recovered until they take the ward down.

[Kkat]

Depending on the shape of the feather, flight can be fairly loud. The only reason owls move so quietly is because their feathers are designed to produce as little disturbance as possible. I imagine it's all a matter of if they are actively beating their wings or not. Someone gliding over head would be quiet, but someone flapping their wings full tilt would make one heck of a ruckus.

Based on the show, flying is silent. Although occasionally, it apparently produces rock music.

It is? This isn't made clear in the rules and RL birds for the most part are not silent flyers. Owl's being the exception. Perhaps there should be a clarification about that?

The Stealth examples were based on the idea, but it wasn't specifically stated. Now it is though.

Alarm Wards: I would suggest something easy to set up say a casting time of 90 AP or so. Once up anyone passing though the ward alerts the caster. However while the ward is up, the caster is down strain that can not be recovered until they take the ward down.

Once again, the problem is that I can't imagine alarm wards being useful. Please understand: the way wards would work, putting an alarm ward on the ground around your camp would not mean the alarm would be triggered if someone crossed the ground into your camp... only if someone tried to dig up (or down) through the ground, breaching the ward. Which makes an alarm ward really useful against hellhounds and pretty much nothing else.

[Ragebrew]

Well, it'd be rather bothersome for a show to have the sound of rushing air overwhelming whatever the pony is trying to say. Every show and movies over looks the fact that if you are moving to truly high speeds, the sound of air moving by would drown out everything.

[Kkat]

Well, it'd be rather bothersome for a show to have the sound of rushing air overwhelming whatever the pony is trying to say. Every show and movies over looks the fact that if you are moving to truly high speeds, the sound of air moving by would drown out everything.

Still, the point remains. And... now I'm wondering if we should create a Pegasus Trick for spontaneous flight soundtrack.

(I'd leave that to Random, but pegasi can't get Random. So it really would be a Pegasus Trick, wouldn't it?)

[Ragebrew]

Given just how swiftly a pegasus can move with high flight ranks, I can see this being easily exploited by a high stealth PC. Since their only negative factors are mostly line of sight and air disturbance, that can be handled simply by flying low to the ground. They would completely negate any penalty for moving at high speeds, as well as enjoy having a movement range that no ground bound sneaker could hope to match.

[Ghostpony]

Alarm Wards: I would suggest something easy to set up say a casting time of 90 AP or so. Once up anyone passing though the ward alerts the caster. However while the ward is up, the caster is down strain that can not be recovered until they take the ward down.

Once again, the problem is that I can't imagine alarm wards being useful. Please understand: the way wards work, putting an alarm ward on the ground around your camp would not mean the alarm would be triggered if someone crossed the ground into your camp... only if someone tried to dig up (or down) through the ground, breaching the ward. Which makes an alarm ward really useful against hellhounds and pretty much nothing else.

That assumes the ward is 2 denominational. I don't have the e-book handy of Robert Aspirin's Another Fine Myth, but in it the main character is trained to draw the ward out in his minds eye and feed it energy. Anything that pass though the ward he drew would be akin to something disturbing a spiders web.