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Rhetorical question about training


Lloyd Dupont

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We haven't played for 2 weeks due to some life issue..

Anyway one issue I think one of my player have, since we last switched from BRP, is that he feels that training is harder in Revolution than in BRP.

In BRP using a mix of XP and a mentor he was able to quickly improve some new skills. Whereas he feels limited by the skill slot and cost of improvement in Revolution.
While I am not entirely convinced and have to find out more information on the particular skill he feel unable to successfully develop next session I wonder...

In BRP one can improve specific skill percentage.

Could there be some sort of equivalent in Revolution? ie. teachers that help you improve your raw skill percentage? How would that work?

I understand it's much more powerful ask, since they improve all their traits and add new slot, but just asking here! :)

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This is a very intersting topic indeed. No silly question here.

There are two facets to the problem. One of them is common to many non-Chaosium implementations of D100, whereas the other is unique to Revolution D100.

The first facet is that not being able to "push" a specific skill advancement with training is a feature introduced with the often-blamed but in the end not entirely bad Mongoose RQ version 1. In this advancement model, which was inherited by OpenQuest, Legend, Mythras and Renaissance, too, the player has full control over what skills improve, unlike classic BRP where you are limited by "skill ticks". As a result, the ability to guide one's character advancement with training, which is quite big in classsic BRP, was nerfed in MRQ1, and I cannot remember if it exists at all in Mythras - and if it does, you cannot advance much with training. This is a good feature, as it keeps things balanced, and I have not seen many players of OQ or Mythras complaining about it.

The second facet is that the specific skill system in RD100 is even less compatible with advancement by training than the other MRQ derivatives. An advancement in a skill has heavy consequences in Rd100, so I have strong doubts about letting players obtain one by throwin tons of cash at an instructor as we all used to do in the glorious old days of RQ.

However, if you really want to introduce training, you should make it a downtime conflict. You could for example assess half of the trainee skill as the RP to beat, perhaps modifying it by the difference between the trainer and the trainee skill level. Then the trainer rolls Communication [Teach] once per week until the RPs are beaten, and this adds +1 to the improvement points for that specific skill, to be combined with any IP allocated to the skill during last improvement session until enough IPs are accumulated to grant an improvement roll. Consequences accumulated in the conflict should apply to the trainee and not the trainer, and could either be heavy debts incurred to pay for the instructor, or "Lessions not fully learned" that make some skill rolls fail at the most inconvenient time during an adventure. 

Finally, I invite you and your player to think of an important point. In classic BRP there was a limit at 75% for skill training, and the time needed to train a skill also put a cap on the viability of training sessions. In general, one used training to bring skill from its base value to approximately 50-60%, more rarely 70-75%, and then started to rely on experience checks. In other words, training provided the basic score for making the skill usable, but mastery came with experience. The Trait system in Rd100 does exactly the same thing in a simpler way. Assume you are not particularly gifted or trained in a skil, your base chance is around 25%. However, the first point you devote to a Trait brings you chance to around 55%, which is already enough to start relying on that skill during an adventure. This is more or less what you would get with RQ training, just with less maths involved and time spent at the table doing something else than roleplaying the adventurous part of the game. To me, it sounds more than enough.

 

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2 hours ago, RosenMcStern said:

The second facet is that the specific skill system in RD100 is even less compatible with advancement by training than the other MRQ derivatives. An advancement in a skill has heavy consequences in Rd100, so I have strong doubts about letting players obtain one by throwin tons of cash at an instructor as we all used to do in the glorious old days of RQ

It is my thought exactly (with your last paragraph as well)... I was wondering if there was ... some sort of mitigating idea that could give the player a tiny extra bit of agency...

2 hours ago, RosenMcStern said:

However, if you really want to introduce training, you should make it a downtime conflict. You could for example assess half of the trainee skill as the RP to beat, perhaps modifying it by the difference between the trainer and the trainee skill level. Then the trainer rolls Communication [Teach] once per week until the RPs are beaten, and this adds +1 to the improvement points for that specific skill, to be combined with any IP allocated to the skill during last improvement session until enough IPs are accumulated to grant an improvement roll. Consequences accumulated in the conflict should apply to the trainee and not the trainer, and could either be heavy debts incurred to pay for the instructor, or "Lessions not fully learned" that make some skill rolls fail at the most inconvenient time during an adventure. 

I think something like that will possibly please the player and be reasonable! :)
Thanks Paolo!

Edited by Lloyd Dupont
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To a certain extent. gaining Traits negates the need for Training, especially if, like me, you allow multiple Traits to be used.

But, Paolo's idea of a downtime conflict makes sense.

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