dedicating to a skill

[xalabin]

Once a character decides to dedicate to a skill, he/she need to speend half of improvemnment points in that skill and gains a slot for every 5%. That is irrevocable.

 

How realistic is that irrevocalibility?

You can be a soldier dedicated to close combat while young and a wise man dedicated to erudiction when old. Or change your mind for other reasons.
I will like if we can get rules about renounce that dedication, maybe you don't need to speend more improvement point and loss some trait slots, maybe you can keep some extra slots for every year (or 5 years, 10... )

[RosenMcStern]

Good catch. It is a good idea from a rulesy POV, but not that realistic. Nor a stimulus for three-dimensional roleplaying.

[Darius West]

Personally I have met people who had an extreme dedication to a specialist pursuit of excellence in a single field.  Many of them had Aspbergers Syndrome to some degree, while others were academics.  They say 10,000 hours of study will make anyone a world class expert in any field, but what if you double that?  Certainly such specialists are very good at one thing, and often quite bad at other pursuits.

[Zit]

What is a 3 dimensional role-playing?

 

Still it should be possible to renounce. There can be an event in the life which makes people completely change their ways, a revelation, an unveiled secret or whatever. This is not uncommon in fiction (and even in real life), and rpg is about fiction. It does not have to be realistic (Magic rules or stats for a dragon aren't realistic) but consistent.

For exemple, in my current campaign, a PC has been called by the spirits to become a shaman, as usual in Central Asia. What if she was already dedicated to something else ?

[RosenMcStern]

It is exactly what you quoted with your example, Olivier: roleplaying your character as a real person.

However, the rules have been altered to allow un-dedication, and I have provided a lot of alternatives to dedication. It is still an important option if you want to play a "classic" magician with lots and lots of spells, or a fighter who knows every possible trick with one or more weapons. But if your group does not like the idea of dedication, there are other options available as rules variants.

[Prime Evil]

I must say that I really like the approach of having simple core rules but many options. It makes the system highly adaptable.

[g33k]

Late to this thread -- sorry! -- but I'd like to propose a possible solution to the "realism" quandary:  Pay a "dedication" cost up-front.

A character may only have a single Dedication at any given time.  They may begin play with one, and may change it (or start a new one, if not already Dedicated) in-play, as follows:

Quote

A Dedicated Skill may be gained in play (presuming the character has renounced any prior Dedicated Skill) upon fulfilling these 4 items:

1. The player declares the character is newly-Dedicated to the skill.
2. The character spends OVER HALF their Improvement-points on the new skill being Dedicated, for 3 consecutive "opportunities" to spend Improvement points (but does NOT receive the Dedication bonus at this time).
3. The character USES the skill in-play (success or failure matters not:  Just Do It!) after the newly-stated Dedication, at least once between every chance to spend Improvement points.
4. The character practices/experiments/plays with the skill in between-action moments, but when they might profitably be doing something else; e.g. "staying in" to practice, when they might otherwise be researching in a library or studying building-plans... etc.

After completing all the above, the character has become Dedicated and gains the Dedicated Skill.

The idea is that "Dedication" doesn't come easy, and it doesn't come cheap, and it isn't just a d20-esque way to "switch class / buff character" .  It's advantageous ONLY when it's pursued with... well... dedication!