Now, on to Professional Skills

More of my house rules influenced by EPT. This is a riff off Barker's professional skills, but with the knowledge that Barker's magic rules are very different from D&D/S&W style magic.

---

Characters start play with 3-5 professional skills. This includes special training with weapons, languages, or spells, depending on the character's class. Characters can improve these skills over time, but this represents how well-trained a new character is.

TABLE: STARTING PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
d20 rol  Result
-------  -------------------------------------------------
01 - 04  Choose any 3 from the first 4 in your profession.
05 - 08  Choose any 4 from the first 5
09 - 15  Choose any 5 from the first 6
16 - 18  Choose any 5 from the first 7
19 - 20  Choose any 5 from the first 8

TABLE: PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

FIGHTER                 MAGIC-USER              ROGUE
------------------      ------------------      ------------------
Brawler                 Detect Magic            Knows 2 modern languages
Pole Arms               Read Languages          Knows 1 ancient language
Hafted                  Purify (Putrefy)        Brawler
Blades                    Food and Drink        Blades
Archer                  Light (Dark) I          Detect Magic
Musketeer               Cure (Cause) Wounds I   Light (Dark) I         
Two-weapon Combat       Hold Portal             Cure (Cause) Wounds I
Cannoneer               Charm Person            Hold Portal
Strategist              Sleep                   Charm Person

FIGHTER SKILLS
Most of the fighter skills provide a +1 bonus with appropriate weapons, as noted in the Fighter Weapon Skill Table. Cannoneer is skill in using field artillery pieces. Two-weapon Combat allows a character to fight in melee with one weapon in each hand. This does not grant the character any bonus attack, but does result in an additional +1 bonus to attack rolls. Strategist is skill in battlefield planning and commanding troops.

TABLE: FIGHTER WEAPON SKILL

SKILL  APPLIES TO
---------- ----------------------
BRAWLER  Unarmed combat
POLE ARMS Spear, Halberd, Misc. Polearms
HAFTED    Axe, Mace, Hammer and Morningstar
BLADES  Dagger, Short Sword, Sword, Two-handed Sword
SLINGER  Slings
ARCHER  Bows, Crossbows
MUSKETEER Pistols, Rifles

MAGIC-USER SKILLS
Every magic-user begins with the spell Read Magic in his or her spell book. Professional skills represent additional spells the character may begin play having scribed in his or her spell book.

ROGUE SKILLS
Rogues have access to some fighter weapon skills and to some magic-user spells for his or her spell book.

GAINING ADDITIONAL CLASS SKILLS
Each even level (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) gained, a character may add one more skill from the class list automatically. However, magic-users and rogues are free to also acquire additional spells for their spell-books in play.

Background Skills for Athanor, take 2 (or is it 3 or 4 by now?)

On reflection and thought, these rules are a bit more heavily influenced by EPT than EGG.

I have tried to fit the skill lists and notes to my vision of Athanor, but with some work I think it could be adapted elsewhere.

---

Background skills represent the training a character received before beginning his or her life as an adventurer, and tends to include rather mundane activities associated with non-adventuring activities. These skills may have some impact in game, but largely serve to build up your character's background, distinguish him or her as a character, and provide a springboard for role-playing. Consider these a way to help define who your character was and is, rather than a limit on what he or she can do in the game.

TABLE: STARTING BACKGROUND SKILLS

d20 ROLL  RESULT
--------  ------------------------------------------------------
01 - 06   Choose 1 Common
07 - 12   Choose 1 Common and 1 Skilled
13 - 16   Choose 1 from each category
17 - 18   Choose 2 from Common, and 1 each from Skilled and Elite
19        Choose 3 from Common, 2 from Skilled, and 1 Elite.
20        Choose 3 from Common, and 2 each from Skilled and Elite

TABLE: BACKGROUND SKILLS

COMMON                  SKILLED                 ELITE
----------------------  ----------------------  ----------------------
Baker                   Accountant              Alchemist
Beggar                  Animal Handler/Trainer  Artist
Bricklayer              Armorer                 Assassin
Butcher                 Bowyer/fletcher         Astronomer
Carpenter               Captain, Airship        Courtier/Courtesan
Cobbler                 Healer                  Dancer
Cook                    Jeweler/lapidary        Engineer/Architect
Dyer/Fuller             Locksmith               Horticulturalist
Farmer/Gardener         Navigator               Hunter
Gambler                 Sail-Maker              Mathematician
Glass-blower            Scribe                  Musician
Leather worker/tanner   Shipwright, Airship     Natural Philosopher
Limner/painter          Smith                   Naturalist
Mason                   Teacher/Professor       Orator
Miner                   Tracker/Guide           Poet
Potter                  Trader/Merchant         Priest
Tailor/seamstress       Weaponer                Scholar
Tanner                                          Spy
Thief
Weaver

All skills should be considered as having three elements: the ability to appraise goods, services, or phenomena involving the skill area; the ability to perform tasks in the skill area; and the possession of social connections based on the skill area.

Most of the Common skills are fairly self-explantory. Some of the elite skills are scholastic skills similar to modern scholarly areas (Alchemist = Chemistry, Natural Philospher: Physics and Geology; Naturalist: Biology; Scholar: History, Literature and Philosophy). Other professions give some general background in related skills (Assassins might understand poisons and disguise; Courtiers understand how to seduce, flatter and act in polite society; Priests do the same in the Church, etc.)

LEARNING ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND SKILLS
Characters gain additional background skills every 2 levels you advance as noted in the table below:

TABLE: AUTOMATIC BACKGROUND SKILLS BY LEVEL

SKILL TYPE      LEVEL
----------      -----
Common          3
SKILLED         5
ELITE           7
ANY             9

Character may also spend money and time learning new background skills. This will require down time from adventuring and finding a teacher in addition to monetary costs, as noted in the table below.

TABLE: ACQUIRING ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND SKILLS

SKILL TYPE      G.P.COST        TIME
----------      --------        --------
Common            500           2 months
SKILLED          2000           4 months
ELITE           10000           6 months

Generating some EPT characters to get a better sense of the feel.

Busting out my PDF copy of Empire of the Petal Throne, I generated some starting characters to get a feel for the skill system (as minimal as it is) and how it affected the feel of starting characters. The results are below.

I like the general feel, since the push is less toward mechanistic skills and more about differentiating characters and giving some background -- the key things I want in skills.

I think I need some major work on what I posted yesterday, but I might not be on a bad path.

BTW, these EPT characters really do have a very pulp fantasy feel to them. Character 1 is very much a bureaucratic priest, probably out of his league adventuring. Character 2 is devilishly handsome, talented in magic, but has a puny constitution (too much of a rake to exercise?), while the last is a wall of mountainous manhood. I could see these three as sword and sorcery heroes.

Character 1

Alignment:  Good
Profession: Priest
Level:      1


BASIC TALENTS
Strength:           40  Weak      -1 hit dice
Intelligence:       51  Average
Constitution:       28  Puny      -1 hit dice, 40% revivification, 20% healing/eye fail
Psychic Ability:    55  Average
Dexterity:          68  Clever    +1 hit dice, spells and weapons always hit if indicated
Comeliness:         43  Average

ORIGINAL SKILLS
Group I:    Merchant
Group II:   Scribe-accountant

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Knows 2 Ancient Languages
Knows 2 Modern Languges
Can Produce Light (3"r., once per day, 10 turns)

Character 2

Alignment:  Good
Profession: Magic User
Level:      1

BASIC TALENTS
Strength:           54  Average
Intelligence:       94  Brilliant +1 hit, damage, 40% find secret doors as pass them.
Constitution:       32  Puny      -1 hit dice, 40% revivification, 20% healing/eye fail
Psychic Ability:    79  Somewhat  +5% all spells working, may use all levels of spells
Dexterity:          75  Clever    +1 hit dice, spells and weapons always hit if indicated
Comeliness:         99  Wildly Handsome

ORIGINAL SKILLS
Group I:    Cook, Glass blower, Merchant, Paper-inkmaker
Group II:   Animal Trainer, Bird Trainer, Scribe-accountant
Group III:  Alchemist, Don Juan, Scholar

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Clairvoyance
Control of Self
Illusionist
Telekinesis

Character 3

Alignment:  Good
Profession: Warrior
Level:      1

BASIC TALENTS
Strength:           83  Powerful      +1 hit, damage
Intelligence:       10  Brilliant     -1 hit, damage; cannot use eyes or technology.
Constitution:       87  Very Healthy  +1 hit, damage, 70% revivify, 100% healing
Psychic Ability:    52  Average
Dexterity:          83  Dextrous      +1 hit, damage
Comeliness:         34  Average

ORIGINAL SKILLS
Group I:    Butcher
Group II:   Smith-armorer

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Mace/flail user
Axeman
Swordsman

Skills (inspired by AD&D secondary skills and EPT skills)

Here is my loose idea for non-skill skills in Athanor/S&W, in a very loose format. I am NOT conceiving of skills as anything but a loose framework for adjudication. So, for these skills, you would propose an action ("I'm going to sneak up on Count Orlock") a reason ("because I'm trained as an assassin"), and I get to set some odds as the DM ("okay, roll a d6, on a 4-6 you surprise him.")

Skills may be obtained in-game through roleplaying. Usually you need to train for a level and gain the skill next time you level up, but it may take longer or less time in particular circumstances.

Characters get two kinds of skills: background and class, largely to have a mechanic for determining the initial spell(s) a journeyman first-level magic-user starts with.

Table 1: Number of Background Skills

d6      Number of Background Skills
-----   --------------------------------
1-3     1
4-5     2
6       None

Table 2: Random Background Skills

d%      Result
-----   --------------------------------
01-02   Alchemist
03-04   Animal Handler/Trainer
05-06   Armorer
07-08   Artist
09-10   Assassin
11-12   Bowyer/fletcher
13-14   Bricklacker
15-16   Butcher
17-18   Captain, Airship
19-20   Carpenter
21-22   Cobbler
23-24   Cook
25-26   Courtier/Courtesan
27-28   Dancer
29-30   Dyer/Fuller
31-32   Engineer/Architect
33-34   Former/Gardener/Horticulturalist
35-36   Gambler
37-38   Glass-blower
39-40   Healer
41-42   Hunter
43-44   Jeweler/lapidary
45-46   Leather worker/tanner
47-48   Limner/painter
49-50   Mason
51-52   Mathematician
53-54   Miner
55-56   Musician
57-58   Natural Philosopher (Physicist/Geologist)
59-60   Naturalist (Biologist)
61-62   Navigator/Astronomer
63-64   Orator
65-66   Poet
67-68   Potter
69-70   Priest
71-72   Sail-Maker
75-76   Scholar (Historian/Philosopher/Linguist)
77-78   Scribe
79-80   Shipwright, Airship
81-82   Smith
83-84   Spy
85-86   Tailor/seamstress/weaver
87-88   Tanner
89-90   Teacher/Professor
91-92   Tracker/Guide
93-94   Trader/Merchant
95-96   Weaponer
97-98   Weaver
99-00   Woodworker/cabinetmaker

Table 3: Number of Class Skills

d6  Number of Skills
1-2 Choose 1 from the top 2 for your class.
3-5 Choose 2 from the top 3 for your class.
6   Choose 3 from the top 5 for your class.

Table 4: Class Skills

Fighter         Magic-User          Rogue
--------------  --------------      --------------
Athlete         Light               Carouser
Carouser        Hold Portal         Streetwise
Streetwise      Cure Wounds I       Read/Speak 1 modern language
Cannoneer       Charm Person        Read 1 ancient language
Tactician       Sleep              

An athlete is skilled in physical tasks; a carouser in drinking and social tasks; and streetwise allows one to navigate the seamier parts of a city. Cannoneers are experts with heavy cannons. Tacticians lead armies. Magic-users start with Detect Magic, Read Magic, and whatever other spells the pick as class skills.

Not exactly the cleanest and most polished post I've ever put up here, but there it is.

Back to thinking about skills and magic

The past week I have been immersed in my life as an student -- my three-week summer "vacation" for the last three weeks have involved a few days settling into a new apartment, a few days of down-time for the San Diego Comic-Con and the visitors who came to our house as a result, and the rest of my time has been filled by intensive reading in psychology, sociology, and educational theory. I'm about 80 pages into a journal of notes on the stuff after about 2 weeks, but this is what's going to keep me on track to finish what I need to finish by the end of next year so that I can advance to candidacy for my Ed.D. But enough of the personal griping. The point is, my academic life has put the gaming blog life on the back burner again, but as always, stuff is brewing back there.

As I was thinking about my problems with skills and magic, my mind seized upon the old Different Worlds reprint of the first edition of Empire of the Petal Throne that I had sold ten years ago before moving from Santa Cruz to San Diego. In EPT, Dr. Barker included, I remembered in a moment of procrastination, a set of skills and magic rules that, while inspired by D&D, had some key differences.

On top of this, I started looking at Gygax's AD&D 1st edition "secondary skills" list. There may be some sort of solution in that, I thought to myself.

Normally, this is where I would post some draft rules I had cobbled together, but frankly, I'm not there yet. But maybe after I finish the chapter of Sociology of Education I'm reading, I'll start on something.