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[Zeitgeist] Coaltongue Encounter
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<blockquote data-quote="rangda" data-source="post: 5992835" data-attributes="member: 86125"><p>I talk about them a bit in my <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/en-publishing/326527-rangdas-zeitgeist-campaign-spoilers.html" target="_blank">campaign thread</a>, but they are based on the concepts of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUMSHOE_System" target="_blank">GUMSHOE</a> system.</p><p></p><p>I've broken skills into two groups, active skills and investigation skills. Some skills have moved and some have been split. For example perception is now the active part of perception, i.e. spotting an ambush and evidence collection is the investigative part of perceptions, i.e. finding clues. Characters get a certain number of investigation points to spend on investigation skills (the idea is to have close to 100% skill coverage so as you have fewer players they get more IP each so party IP is vaguely the same). I give PC's one point in the IP for their class' power source (I've added Tech and Martial Lore skills so every skill has a power source) and other than that it's a free for all, they can buy any skill or investigative skill as long as they have the points or spend feats. For investigative skills they can spend multiple points.</p><p></p><p>With investigative skills it is assumed the players are actually good at what they do so (generally) there is no dice rolling. Low to moderate DC check information I give anyone who has a point in the appropriate skill. High DC information (say DC 18+ @L1) is purchased by spending points; so if a scene has information like this I'll say "you can spend a point of these skills to find out more" and it's up to the PC's to decide whether they spend their points. Spent points refresh at level up (in GUMSHOE they don't refresh until the module ends but GUMSHOE modules are much smaller than the 2-3 level modules ENWorld does).</p><p></p><p>In skill challenges I give the party an automatic success for every investigative skill point they have that is appropriate for the challenge. So if Arcana & Nature are listed as skills in the challenge and the party has 3 Arcana points and 1 Nature Lore point (the investigative version of nature) they get 4 auto-successes. The only requirement is that they tell me what they are doing with their points to get the auto-successes, for example "I use Arcana to do some research on the artifact". Once they get their auto-successes just for having the skills they can spend IP as with high DC information to get more auto successes (in my previous example, someone could spend 1 Arcana IP to get a 5th auto-success).</p><p></p><p>I really like this for seveal reasons:</p><p></p><p>1. Opening skills up makes for more well rounded parties skill wise, and helps eliminate some of the rock-paper-scissors in D&D skills (we have no DEX character so nobody has theivery).</p><p>2. Skill challenges become more a give and take between the GM & players instead of an exercise in dice rolling tedium. The auto-successes encourage the players to think of ways to use their skills.</p><p>3. (The big reason for GUMSHOE in the first place). You don't have the players getting stuck because they arbitrarily rolled poorly on a skill check to get some vital piece of information.</p><p>4. It encourages players to spend feats on something besides raw combat power.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rangda, post: 5992835, member: 86125"] I talk about them a bit in my [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/en-publishing/326527-rangdas-zeitgeist-campaign-spoilers.html"]campaign thread[/URL], but they are based on the concepts of the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUMSHOE_System"]GUMSHOE[/URL] system. I've broken skills into two groups, active skills and investigation skills. Some skills have moved and some have been split. For example perception is now the active part of perception, i.e. spotting an ambush and evidence collection is the investigative part of perceptions, i.e. finding clues. Characters get a certain number of investigation points to spend on investigation skills (the idea is to have close to 100% skill coverage so as you have fewer players they get more IP each so party IP is vaguely the same). I give PC's one point in the IP for their class' power source (I've added Tech and Martial Lore skills so every skill has a power source) and other than that it's a free for all, they can buy any skill or investigative skill as long as they have the points or spend feats. For investigative skills they can spend multiple points. With investigative skills it is assumed the players are actually good at what they do so (generally) there is no dice rolling. Low to moderate DC check information I give anyone who has a point in the appropriate skill. High DC information (say DC 18+ @L1) is purchased by spending points; so if a scene has information like this I'll say "you can spend a point of these skills to find out more" and it's up to the PC's to decide whether they spend their points. Spent points refresh at level up (in GUMSHOE they don't refresh until the module ends but GUMSHOE modules are much smaller than the 2-3 level modules ENWorld does). In skill challenges I give the party an automatic success for every investigative skill point they have that is appropriate for the challenge. So if Arcana & Nature are listed as skills in the challenge and the party has 3 Arcana points and 1 Nature Lore point (the investigative version of nature) they get 4 auto-successes. The only requirement is that they tell me what they are doing with their points to get the auto-successes, for example "I use Arcana to do some research on the artifact". Once they get their auto-successes just for having the skills they can spend IP as with high DC information to get more auto successes (in my previous example, someone could spend 1 Arcana IP to get a 5th auto-success). I really like this for seveal reasons: 1. Opening skills up makes for more well rounded parties skill wise, and helps eliminate some of the rock-paper-scissors in D&D skills (we have no DEX character so nobody has theivery). 2. Skill challenges become more a give and take between the GM & players instead of an exercise in dice rolling tedium. The auto-successes encourage the players to think of ways to use their skills. 3. (The big reason for GUMSHOE in the first place). You don't have the players getting stuck because they arbitrarily rolled poorly on a skill check to get some vital piece of information. 4. It encourages players to spend feats on something besides raw combat power. [/QUOTE]
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