The art of writing: what skill would you use?

[guntheory]

Greetings all,

I'm creating a new character with his primary focus being on gathering age-old lore. Of course in an effort to share the information that he finds with the wide-world, the character will need to be able to write effectively. When the time comes for the character to produce codices, manuscripts, et cetera, what skill would he use: craft, profession, or perform?

I think that craft is the most logical choice, but I wanted to get the opinions of others.

thanks,
guntheory
www.thetan.us

 

[Crothian]

Okay, the problem with craft is you need to determine the final price of the writings before you write it. That's not really how writing is done. Proffesion Scribe has been used in official products. Perform is also the more creative types of skills.

When it's all done, I think craft is the best. But I'd make the roll of the skill be decide the quality instead of settign a base price and working towards that.

 

[Undead American]

Monte uses Craft in Call of Cthulhu. He says its up to the DM to make a value call. I'd call it a craft because craft is the only skill that creates and gives a rule for quality.

You could also let the roll determine the value (this is how I'd do it, after the roll I'd assign time to the process).


Good luck.

 

[boothbey]

I would use craft if he is creating historical tomes for as you said gathering age old lore.

Perform I would use more for creative writing.

 

[Knightcrawler]

Check out Bastion Press's Ink & Quill. Its a free pdf download and deals with writing, plays, scholars and music writing. Its actually quite interesting. More use to a DM than a player. Still I think you could find some interesting things in it.

Here's the link.

http://www.bastionpress.com/Downloads.htm

 

[hong]

For game purposes, I think having lots of ranks in Knowledge (History) should be sufficient.

 

[Cyraneth]

I'd let Profession (scribe) determine the effectiveness or speed with which the character writes, while Craft (calligraphy) would be the quality (or beauty of the text). Perform (poetry) could be how well (or poetic ) it is written... But that's just my call...

And as Hong mentions, Knowledge (history) would hurt either...

- Cyraneth

 

[Spatzimaus]

If he's just writing down facts, no style to it, and you don't really care about the final product's quality, then Profession: Scribe would be the most appropriate, but if he's trying to put a certain style into it, and you care about the quality of the final product, I'd do:

For the content, use a Perform check (assuming he had Storytelling or Epic as a style), with a synergy bonus for Knowledge: History (if it's a retelling of history, pick some other one like Politics if it's modern)
For the physical object, it'd be a Craft (calligraphy) check, with a synergy bonus for Profession: Scribe.

The point is, keep the two separate; you could end up with good writing that's hard to read, or bad writing but done really nicely.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Hmm...

...I actually created a new skill named "Artistic Ability", to represent those arts that aren't meant to be performed in front of an audience, but are used in private until the artwork is finished.

Somehow that's something WotC missed while designing the 3E skill system. And yes, I know it could all be emulated by using two or more existing skills...but I rather have one roll of the die.

 

[mkletch]

Profession (scribe) or Profession (author) for the text, Perform or Profession (artist) for the quality/fanciness of your handwriting, artwork or any illuminations. Craft only applies to making a physical object, such as the book you write in, or sheets of paper. Check the skill descriptions, especially Profession, for a discussion of what things are and are not included in Craft, Perform and Profession; I happen to agree with that split.

-Fletch!