Technomagicon: Craft Skill (v2) & Ordinary People (v4) [Updated 06Jul08]

[EnglishScribe]

Also consider that 'common' feats (as most of the feats in the Craft document are) can be gained by training, which costs only time and wealth. This detailed in the 'Ordinary People' document, the craft document has not been updated with these rules yet. Also, as 'common' feats have no real impact on combat ability, they are the type of reward that the GM can give to characters with a detailed occupational background or who roleplay in that way.

Think of the character Durnik from the Belgariad and Mallorean. He is a craftsman, stays a craftsman and is a heroic craftsman right up until the point he takes the 'Belgariad Sorcerer' epic destiny. In my opinion with the core rules this type of character is very difficult to model.

 

[megasycophant]

Ah, well this makes sense. I didn't catch the "common feats" bit.

 

[EnglishScribe]

Ah, well this makes sense. I didn't catch the "common feats" bit.

I apologise for this. I'm gearing up to do some work on this over the weekend, so the first action on my list is to make common feats more distinct and to explain them better.

 

[EnglishScribe]

And that's the first job done. I've changed the type from common to ordinary feat, to match the ordinary tier in 'Ordinary People'. Each ordinary tier feat has a banner detailing training options. See the attached example.

 

[EnglishScribe]

Another week, another update, this week for Ordinary People, which goes from the 4 page draft 3 to a new 10 page draft 4. I'll be back to Craft, Artistry and Engineering next week.

Ordinary People Draft 4

Not all characters are heroes. Any character that has not had a life changing epiphany and began a life of adventure belongs in the Ordinary Tier. The ordinary tier forms a layer below the Heroic, Paragon and Epic tiers presented in the Player’s Handbook.

Ordinaries Page 1
An Ordinary is any non-heroic, non-combatant character, a Craftsmen, Merchant or Prince for example. Ordinaries are a step in between Minions and standard creatures. A minion trained in at least one skill becomes an Ordinary
Vocations: A vocation is a small subset of skills that all have a common use or theme.

Role Page 2
The role that the non-player character (an NPC) plays in the campaign is an important consideration when creating new characters. A role describes how a character applies knowledge and ability. The vocation, role, and for heroic characters the power source, combine to categorise the character. The GM needs to decide the degree to which a new individual will help or hinder the players, and how involved each individual is in the ongoing plots of the campaign.
Becoming a Hero: At any point in live an Ordinary may have an epiphany and strive to become a hero. The stages to attain this are detailed in this section.

Lifestyle Page 4
Age: Determine a Minion or Ordinary characters age and level.
Income: The income received by an adult Ordinary depends upon the Ordinary’s pay scale.
Influence: Influence describes the amount of social control a given character is able to wield. The Influence score gives a rough indication of a character’s Social Status.
Rank, reputation and renown: The three aspects of influence that a character can actively seek to improve.

Example Lifestyles Page 5
This page lists example lifestyles for characters in each vocation.

Example Occupations Page 6
This page lists a wide range of occupations and relates each to a particular skill and vocation.

Racial Traits Page 7
Aging: Some races learn more slowly or quickly than is normal for humans. These races have either the Quick Learner or Slow Learner features for part of their lifetime.
Non-combatants: In general Ordinaries are not as likely to be involved in combat as their heroic idols. At character creation or at any time the character is eligible to retrain, a character may elect to give up a listed combat-related racial trait and in place of this trait a select new one.

Training Page 8
Ordinaries advance only though training packages gained from the expenditure of money and time. This section details Training Packages to allow Ordinaries to gain skill training, skill focus, common feats, and a small selection of heroic feats.

Feats Page 9
Ordinary and Resource feats are available to all characters irrespective of tier. For Mundane Tier characters (and characters of a higher tier if they wish) these feat can be gained though training. The number of Common Feats gained in this way is limited only by available money and time. Heroic, Paragon and Epic characters can also select these feats whenever they gain a new feat.

Genealogy Page 10
This section allows the GM, or the players themselves, to develop more background for their characters by detailing his or her family. To Generate a more complete family tree, repeat the procedure outlined in this section to devise the Parents family (the individual’s grandparents), and then the head of the family, (the individual’s great grandparents).

 

[darkrose50]

You might want to check out this book A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe for some ideas.

I would think each skill roll to attempt to sell an item would take a period of time depending on the items level.

 

[Crashy75]

I just want to pipe in and say I love all the thought you have put into this. I don't have any comment right now (still digesting it all) but I'll let you know. Keep it up!

 

[EnglishScribe]

Thanks for the fedback folks. I'm sorry there have been no updates this week, unfortunately I am out of the country this week for work (visiting you Americans in Washington) and spending the wekends being a tourist

 

[El Mahdi]

Nice work. This is a really nice product. I think this could be used for any system. Thanks for all of your hard work on this.