Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="mlund" data-source="post: 6044401" data-attributes="member: 50304">Irrelevant. We're talking about survival skill and investigative training. In those situations you train eyes, ears, and methodology or you aren't trained. Paying attention to touch, taste, and smell can be nice too, but they aren't the focal points.That's not a skill, that's a physical ability. As noted, specific physical abilities like &quot;keen ears,&quot; &quot;sharp eyes,&quot; or whatever are perfectly fine attributes to have alongside skill training. You can't skill-train away being hard of hearing, nearsighted, not-an-elf or whatever.Daredevil is a superhero. He's isn't what he is because he's particularly skilled at those things (though it helps).The situation is much more analogous to front-line soldiers dealing with things like ambushes and booby-traps. Either someone gets good at spotting warning signs or you get dead quickly. Very few groups have someone who &quot;trains to listen&quot; while someone else &quot;trains to look&quot; and someone &quot;trains to scrutinize&quot; - that's just ridiculous. You're either developing the skill to observe and scrutinize your environment with your eyes, ears, and mind under a particular set of circumstances or you aren't.I agree with the general principle, if not the specifics. &quot;Alertness&quot; should jolly well help you notice someone hiding during combat, as well as identify traps and other hazards. A skill is not Spidey Sense - it is a completely mundane phenomenon. You notice things are out of place, that people are hiding, that objects have been disturbed, that birds stopped singing, that women and children are conspicuously absent from the street, or that everyone is constantly giving you sideways glances when they think you can't see them.No, it probably doesn't alert you to things like whether or not that Mona Lisa is a forgery.I can see a firm distinction between Investigation and Awareness, or even some broader skills that encompass situational awareness. There's no need to be so narrow that two characters couldn't confront the same problem using two different attributes, and there's no reason two different skills couldn't apply to the same problem either. Exclusive silos (monster X only goes under skill Y, searching the room is only skill Z) are unnecessary.I'd much rather see a skill list like &quot;Alertness,&quot; &quot;Investigation,&quot; &quot;Low Society,&quot; &quot;Polite Society,&quot; &quot;Commerce,&quot; than &quot;Spot,&quot; &quot;Listen,&quot; &quot;Search,&quot; &quot;Diplomacy,&quot; &quot;Bluff,&quot; &quot;Use Rope,&quot; etc.- Marty Lund</blockquote>

[QUOTE="mlund, post: 6044401, member: 50304"] Irrelevant. We're talking about survival skill and investigative training. In those situations you train eyes, ears, and methodology or you [b]aren't trained[/b]. Paying attention to touch, taste, and smell can be nice too, but they aren't the focal points. That's not a [B]skill[/B], that's a [B]physical ability[/B]. As noted, specific physical abilities like "keen ears," "sharp eyes," or whatever are perfectly fine attributes to have alongside skill training. You can't skill-train away being hard of hearing, nearsighted, not-an-elf or whatever. Daredevil is a superhero. He's isn't what he is because he's particularly [b]skilled[/b] at those things (though it helps). The situation is much more analogous to front-line soldiers dealing with things like ambushes and booby-traps. Either someone gets good at spotting warning signs or you get dead quickly. Very few groups have someone who "trains to listen" while someone else "trains to look" and someone "trains to scrutinize" - that's just ridiculous. You're either developing the skill to observe and scrutinize your environment with your eyes, ears, and mind under a particular set of circumstances or you aren't. I agree with the general principle, if not the specifics. "Alertness" should jolly well help you notice someone hiding during combat, as well as identify traps and other hazards. A [b]skill[/b] is not Spidey Sense - it is a completely mundane phenomenon. You notice things are out of place, that people are hiding, that objects have been disturbed, that birds stopped singing, that women and children are conspicuously absent from the street, or that everyone is constantly giving you sideways glances when they think you can't see them. No, it probably doesn't alert you to things like whether or not that Mona Lisa is a forgery. I can see a firm distinction between Investigation and Awareness, or even some broader skills that encompass situational awareness. There's no need to be so narrow that two characters couldn't confront the same problem using two different attributes, and there's no reason two different skills couldn't apply to the same problem either. Exclusive silos (monster X only goes under skill Y, searching the room is only skill Z) are unnecessary. I'd much rather see a skill list like "Alertness," "Investigation," "Low Society," "Polite Society," "Commerce," than "Spot," "Listen," "Search," "Diplomacy," "Bluff," "Use Rope," etc. - Marty Lund [/QUOTE]

Verification