Skill/Skill Specialization Question

[bardic design]

Hey all:

Just a question on your thoughts about a skill/skill specialization. A character that is being made in my group wanted to be a more acrobatic (jackie chan in his prime like) persona. She also wanted her character to use her attractiveness to sway others, so she could rob them blind. Now, to have an acrobatics/gymnastics and allure like skill I'm sure fit into some of the other skills, but I'm not 100% sure where. And that's where I'd like to get the experts thoughts.

I was thinking of acrobatics/gymnastics being a specialty of Perform, since Juggling is also found there. I don't want acrobatics/gymnastics to be entirely under the Jump skill since Jump is a universal skill where anyone can jump to varying degrees of aptitude and success, but not everyone can be an acrobat.

With Allure (or seduction) would it be another type of Perform that is more leaning with or connected to Fast Talk and/or Persuade, or would it just fall under the auspices of Fast Talk?

Thoughts?

Pondering newbie GM to BRP (anxiously waiting to start playing since I think I got a handle on how the systems work)

[Mankcam]

Well obiviously this character has to have reasonably high DEX and APP. I'ld make sure that she has high Persuade and Fast Talk skills, the latter being a 'trapping' of Seduction as opposed to 'Conning'.

For acrobatics, a high Jump would do the trick for most situations, and I'ld cover the performance gymnastics with a Perform (Tumbling) skill, or something like that. Perhaps throw Sleight in there as well, for good measure.

If you want to have more 'wow' factor, I'ld possibly house rule that if the character spends 50 pts in character creation you could give the character a 'Knack which allows the character to use her Agility characteristic roll in a much wider scope than other characters can usually do, and perhaps she can spend half Power Points when using using the Fate option to enhance her chances with anything acrobatic.

Something along those lines perhaps?

[threedeesix]

I would go with a high DEX and APP, as well as the Persuade skill to cover seduction. Then add a high Perform (Acrobatics), Jump, and Dodge. This would cover most acrobatic type maneuvers. To get something out of it that other characers don't get, use the rules for Complementary Skills from page 50 of BRP. This would let you add 1/5th of your Perform (Acrobatics) to the other skills when performing Jump and Dodge rolls.

Rod

[Mankcam]

Yes, how did I miss the Dodge skill, that's very important!

I didn't think of the Complementary Skills rule, that's certainly the most canon way to go here. My troupe thinks having the same chance as a critical is too small, and opted to for complementary skills bonus to equal the skill's Special Success instead. It gave them a slightly bigger bonus, and as GM I agreed for the sake of keeping the peace. Either way you'ld probably try this approach first rather than my initial idea of taking on a "Knack; if you start doing that earlier you might as well play GURPS instead of BRP!

[RosenMcStern]

Uhm, the Complementary Skill rule in BRP is already using the Special success percentile. It is a Critical in RuneQuest II.

As for the skills used for Acrobatics and Seduction: please remember that the Perform skill is used to impress onlookers (it is a Communication skill, remember), not to perform (no pun intended) extraordinary feats. As such, I would not use "Perform (Tumbling)" to represent the ability to get out of trouble with your agility, although you might use it as an augment to your "Jump" skill to perform actual Acrobatics. Creating an Acrobatics skill (physical) could be the best solution: at that point, you could instead use it as an augment to the Perform skill when the character is workign in a circus.

Seduction, instead, is about impressing someone else, so it can definitely be interpreted as a Perform specialty, rather than a weird use of Persuade. At least, it is how we have handled it in Merrie England, where there are several episodes regarding courtly (and not-so-courtly) love.

As for the desire to provide the character with a "Special something" instead of a plain skill, see also the Fate Aspects thread and the second iteration of the Alephtar Games home system.

[rust]

I think I would just create two new skills, Seduction and Tumbling, and add them

to the skill list.

In my view both activities are different enough from the ones covered by the al-

ready existing skills that it would make sense to handle them as skills instead of

subsets of existing skills.

This would also ensure that the character remains special. For example, if Seduc-

tion would be treated as a special kind of use of the Persuade skill, every other

character with a high Persuade skill should be able to seduce just as well as the

"special" character.

Besides, if the player wants her character to have unusual abilities, the character

should pay for these abilities in full, and not use another skill's points to reduce

the cost of the special abilities. So, no use of "Persuade points" to make the un-

related skill Seduction easier to get.

[Mankcam]

"The Complementary Skill rule in BRP is already using the Special success percentile. It is a Critical in RuneQuest II."

Umm... getting my rules mixed up again. Never knew it was different actually, and I may have read it first in MRQ2 anyway - well I like the BRP version better in any case.

Looks like you've got heaps of room to move with this one, as I view Seduction being linked to Fast Talk if you're describing a "chatting up" context; but on the other hnd, it would be more linked to Perform if it's used in a Courtier context, and it probably could merit it's own separate skill as well.