Post by dagonex on Mar 17, 2006 15:52:10 GMT -5
Okay, perhaps this issue has already been addressed and I'm just too lazy to look it up on here, but my friend and I were discussing the use of Social Skills in the game and the question came up concerning how many stones one puts in it when they want to make a convincing point. Now, as far as the rules are concerned right now Social Skills works the same way as, say, Force Blast: You put in a number of stones equal to how much effort you want to put into it. But the problem for my friend and I was this: how can just talking take up as much energy as using a superpower? I don't know about the rest of you, but this has started making less and less sense to me, so I tried to reason out how we could change/improve it. I think I found a simple solution (and it's probably something a lot of you have already thought of, so forgive me if I'm waisting your time).
I'm wondering if we could treat Social Skills the same way we treat Actions like Running and Flight, where the Resistance is much lower than the Difficulty. For example, as of now we can Fly at a speed of 3 for only 1 stone of effort per Panel. If a superhero can defy the law of gravity for such a low cost, shouldn't he/she be able to make a good argument for just as low of a price, if not lower? I'm thinking it might be a good idea to just use the same scale we use for Flight as we do for Social Skills, if not making it even easier. So, in other words, a character could talk at the equivalent of a 3-stone effect while only putting 1 stone into his Social Skills Action Box. Or perhaps this also feels like too much effort for the sake of talking. In that case, just allow them to speak at a higher "effect" for only 1 stone, where the "effect" is determined by how high their Social Skills Action Number is. That way a skilled talker like Dr. Doom doesn't have to back off on using something more useful, like Technology or Inventing, simply because he had to put a whole 5 stones into talking to someone.
I realize I'm rambling a bit as I try to get this idea written down, but I guess all I'm saying is "treat Social Skills like Flight". Any thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Put-downs? Mud-slinging? Tuna fish sandwiches?
("Tuna fish sandwiches?" Must not have put enough stones into Social Skills. Whew, but man, talking gets me winded! If only I didn't have to put so much energy into it...)
I'm wondering if we could treat Social Skills the same way we treat Actions like Running and Flight, where the Resistance is much lower than the Difficulty. For example, as of now we can Fly at a speed of 3 for only 1 stone of effort per Panel. If a superhero can defy the law of gravity for such a low cost, shouldn't he/she be able to make a good argument for just as low of a price, if not lower? I'm thinking it might be a good idea to just use the same scale we use for Flight as we do for Social Skills, if not making it even easier. So, in other words, a character could talk at the equivalent of a 3-stone effect while only putting 1 stone into his Social Skills Action Box. Or perhaps this also feels like too much effort for the sake of talking. In that case, just allow them to speak at a higher "effect" for only 1 stone, where the "effect" is determined by how high their Social Skills Action Number is. That way a skilled talker like Dr. Doom doesn't have to back off on using something more useful, like Technology or Inventing, simply because he had to put a whole 5 stones into talking to someone.
I realize I'm rambling a bit as I try to get this idea written down, but I guess all I'm saying is "treat Social Skills like Flight". Any thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Put-downs? Mud-slinging? Tuna fish sandwiches?
("Tuna fish sandwiches?" Must not have put enough stones into Social Skills. Whew, but man, talking gets me winded! If only I didn't have to put so much energy into it...)
