Wik's Triumphant Return to 3e!

[Dannyalcatraz]

Not to intrude but I find it somewhat telling that what I'm seeing is "I put points in craft/profession so I could roleplay."

I can't help but wonder what you guys did before 3e/NWPs? ;p

Earlier editions had professions, so I'd just write down which one I thought would fit the PC's concept.

 

[JamesonCourage]

Not to intrude but I find it somewhat telling that what I'm seeing is "I put points in craft/profession so I could roleplay."

I can't help but wonder what you guys did before 3e/NWPs? ;p

Or that those skills aided in role play? Because that's how I feel about them.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

But - at least, going from these posts - they aren't really backed up. You aren't rolling your Profession: Bad Chef very often if at all.

What I'm seeing is "I want to be a blacksmith so I devout some of my points into 'have a backstory.'" I don't understand why "have a backstory" requires taking points out of other things.

Or maybe I'm just amazing; I can cook and swim and rock climb and hold down a job teaching and dance. That puts me ahead of most D&D characters!

Actually, if I have Profession [Bad Chef] then I damned well am going to use it at every opportunity! I may even put points into it as the game progresses. Eventually I might even cross out 'Bad', as my character learns the trade.

My paladin in a current game (I actually get to play for once!) has Perform [Storytelling] as a cross class skill, and trust me, I am carrying the skill with intent to use it. (I have Perform [Storytelling] on my own sheet, somewhere - I used to be hired for such, often enough to be ego building. So, I play characters with the skill.)

As for your skill ranks, that is because you have an NPC class, Expert. Get a good Int and you can have a pretty decent assortment of skills. (Pretty much everybody is an NPC class... I know that I'm one, also likely Expert.)

Cook, yeah, rock climb... does spelunking count? (I hate heights, but have no trouble with caves.) Teaching, yes, dancing... well, I dance, but I don't think that I have any ranks in it.... Sing, a little, and a weird mix of Knowledge skills. (I'm a gamer, it just happens....) Ride, maybe a pip, I know enough to post.

The Auld Grump, what, doesn't everybody fill out a character sheet for themselves?

 

[malkav666]

Not to intrude but I find it somewhat telling that what I'm seeing is "I put points in craft/profession so I could roleplay."

I can't help but wonder what you guys did before 3e/NWPs? ;p

We had the same concepts and still played them. I believe the point being made about 3e was the niceties of having a system that could back up RP concepts with in game skills that had measurable gamist effects if the player cared to use them.

My GMs tend to let craft skills double as highly focused knowledge skills as well, and will drop occasional important bits into the story via those avenues. On more than one occasion, the milliner/hatter I mentioned in a previous post would help drive the campaign direction to new locations just because he wanted to get to a particular city or place and rid the world of another milliner/hatter that was putting out head wear that my character thought was atrocious. But sometimes he just made hats in his downtime as well for extra GP using the rules in the book that covered crafting.

The italicized portion of your post I find to be be very snide and condescending. Robust skill systems don't enable roleplay, they support it, and give certain of those choices a metric. I like having options, even if I never use them. There will never be rules to govern every aspect of a character. But rules/materials that encourage a player to define a character in ways other than by what they do in combat are most welcomed at my tables.

Have a nice day,

malkav

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The italicized portion of your post I find to be be very snide and condescending.

You may want to edit that to boldface- quoting text already italicizes it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

What I'm seeing is "I want to be a blacksmith so I devout some of my points into 'have a backstory.'" I don't understand why "have a backstory" requires taking points out of other things.

1) It doesn't require it...unless you want to have the skills to be a competent member of the profession in question. I could call myself a doctor, and everything will be just fine until I actually try to treat someone. IOW, calling myself a doctor doesn't make me a doctor, but it may make me a charlatan. So I don't do that. But the other things I call myself, I have measurable skill in...and acquiring those skills took time away from improving or learning other skills.

2) And that's the way the game is designed.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

1) It doesn't require it...unless you want to have the skills to be a competent member of the profession in question. I could call myself a doctor, and everything will be just fine until I actually try to treat someone. IOW, calling myself a doctor doesn't make me a doctor, but it may make me a charlatan. So I don't do that. But the other things I call myself, I have measurable skill in...and acquiring those skills took time away from improving or learning other skills.

2) And that's the way the game is designed.

3) It's more fun that way!

The Auld Grump

 

[Wicht]

But - at least, going from these posts - they aren't really backed up. You aren't rolling your Profession: Bad Chef very often if at all.

I'm not sure how you got the idea people take the skills and then don't use them. Sometimes they don't get used (in real life, I have plenty of skills here and there I don't get to use as often as I would like; just too many other things to do) but other times they do. My girl's wizard ran her inn and made profession inn-keeping rolls on a weekly basis (in-game) as she tried to pay off the mortgage.

I might point out that the Pathfinder Society rules have profession/skill/perform rolls built into the system so that your character can make a bit of money between adventures. My wife's bard has traits and feats that pump up her perform skill and she can make a pretty penny between games helping to fund her character's adventuring.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Sometimes they don't get used (in real life, I have plenty of skills here and there I don't get to use as often as I would like; just too many other things to do) but other times they do.

Yep, yep!

I got some lifeguard & CPR training, and at one point could swim the length of an olympic pool underwater.

Unfortunately, I haven't been swimming in years, and if I were forced to do a rescue swim, I'd probably wind up just adding to the body count.

And as for CPR? Well, I know I can still do the Heimlich, but I'd probably have difficulty locating the right spot for proper chest compressions, and the rules for rescue breathing have changed since first I certified.

 

[ExploderWizard]

And as for CPR? Well, I know I can still do the Heimlich, but I'd probably have difficulty locating the right spot for proper chest compressions, and the rules for rescue breathing have changed since first I certified.

The rules may have changed but I doubt that human physiology has all that much.

So as long as you remember what you learned it should still work.