[Rq-rules] Re: Aptitude

[Nick.Middleton at invensys.com]

>Actually, you didn't misunderstand. The potential is there but, in
reality, it's never achieved except with extremely low
>skills. The largest number of checkmarks I've seen was 10 (or was it 15?
Fred?)  and then the player just wrote down the
>number. I leave it to the players to remember unless we haven't met for a
few weeks (or months). The actually tracking is
>simple because the players' memories are jogged every time they reference
the skill percentage for a skill roll.
>
>Pencils or water-based projector pens on a plastic sleeve make it all very
easy. And it can actually help reduce skill check
>chasing because players are rewarded in the long run if they focus on a
few skills rather than chasing checkmarks for every
>skill.
>
>A unforeseen side effect of tracking the number of successful rolls is the
players quickly realize just how long they've been
>adventuring away from a "safe" place. Adds a nice little bit of
psychological pressure to the game over time (from my point
>of view as the GM) as well as a real feeling of mental relief when the
characters eventually do find a safe place to relax
>and wind down.
>

I used to use a similar system (describe previously here IIRC), but the
group did find it too much work all round.

These days I just rule that special's automatically earn a tick, and when
the PC's hit down time I tell each player they can have a few (typically
3-5) ticks to put in to skills they can justify to me they ought to have
improved in - and I do accept "that spectacularly bad fumble that nearly
got us all killed" as a justification.

Long periods of low level use (e.g. living in a region where one only
speaks the native language at 15% and no-one knows yours; living rough
somewhere unfamiliar for sixth months with only a 15% Knowledge (Terrain)
skill) I generally award a block of "hours" to spend on learning via
experimentation or training, depending on whether I think the exposure will
have been intensive enough. So living in a foreign country for any length
of time will automatically push up certain life skills (Speak Local
language, Knowledge Local etc) even if the character is "officially"
training in 1h Broadsword, Shield, Long Bow and Brew Poison...

Cheers,

Nick Middleton