Talk:Occupation

Andrew's Suggestion

I've been thinking on Occupations, and I think that, rather than come up with a be-all, end-all list of Occupations, it might be better to just design an Occupation template (or templates) and then give a healthy number of examples. I have come up with the following template:

• Occupation Name — A player must give their character's Occupation a specific name.
• Primary Skill — Every Occupation has one Primary Skill. I have a few ideas for how Occupation ranks (say, in Doctor) affect checks against the Primary Skill (Healing, of course).
  • (Idea 1) Occupation ranks ("Doctor ranks") are substituted for Primary Skill ranks ("Healing ranks") -- I am not super thrilled about this option since it is really just the same as ranking up "Healing" and calling yourself a Doctor... "Goddammit, I'm a doctor Jim, not just someone with a bunch of ranks in Healing!"
  • (Idea 2) Occupation ranks ("Doctor ranks") are added to all rolls involving the Primary Skill ("Healing") -- I am equally not super thrilled about this option since it is overpowered in the same way the previous one is underpowered. I don't like the idea of a Doctor creating a character with 10 ranks in Doctor and 10 in Healing... a little overwhelming, ne?
  • (Idea 3) Occupation ranks ("Doctor ranks") are SOMETIMES added to rolls involving the Primary Skill ("Healing") -- Whether based on a passed Focus check, or at the GM's discretion (I would prefer a check), or at the expense of ? AP during battle, or something, the Doctor ranks would only be added to Healing ranks in some scenarios.
• Secondary Skill — Every Occupation has at least one Secondary Skill. These skills would receive the bonus of the previous "Knack" trump, i.e. a character with Occupation "Circus Performer" and Primary Skill "Gymnastics" might have "Climb" as a Secondary Skill and would be able to add Climb ranks at the cost of 1 XP per rank. Players would only be able to use this discount to increase Secondary Skills up to the current number of ranks they had in their Occupation. ~?~ Perhaps limit this to either the Skills all under the same Attribute, or only Skills under the same Attribute Type (phys/soc/ment) ~?~

Cost

• (Idea 1) Every rank in an Occupation costs at least 2 XP. For each additional Secondary Skill the player adds, an Occupation rank costs 1 XP. In action, this would look like:
• (Idea 2) Every rank in an Occupation costs its total ranks in XP; going from 3 to 4 costs 4, from 6 to 7 costs 7.
• (Idea 3) Same as above, but Ranks x 2 so that 3 to 4 costs 8, 6 to 7 costs 14...

Lore -- For all Occupations, a 1d10+OccupationRanks would be used as a substitute Lore check for questions related to the Occupation.

Examples

1. "Doctor" Primary: Healing Secondary: Focus Cost per Rank: 2 XP

2. "Lady of the Night" Primary: Seduce Secondary: Performance Secondary: Disguise Cost per Rank: 3 XP

3. "Sneakthief" Primary: Thievery Secondary: Stealth Secondary: Search Secondary: Disguise Cost per Rank: 4 XP

Notes

Though it may seem that a player could stack a lot of Secondary Skills and abuse this system, if we cap the "discount" (previously "Knack") at the current Occupation ranks, the player would actually not be saving too much (the main advantage being the bonus ranks added to the Primary Skill checks).

Math Examples

(With Sneakthief, above) "Sneakthief" Occupation: 0 --> 4 = 4 XP x 4 Ranks = 16 XP Thievery 0 --> 4 = 2 XP x 4 = 8 XP Stealth 0 --> 4 = 1 XP x 4 = 4 XP Search 0 --> 4 = 1 XP x 4 = 4 XP Disguise 0 --> 4 = 1 XP x 4 = 4 XP RESULT: Thievery ~= 8 (from adding Occupation Ranks) Stealh = 4 Search = 4 Disguise = 4 TOTAL COST: 36 XP

Compare with the current: Thievery 0 --> 4 = 2 XP x 4 = 8 XP Stealth 0 --> 4 = 2 XP x 4 = 8 XP Search 0 --> 4 = 2 XP x 4 = 8 XP Disguise 0 --> 4 = 2 XP x 4 = 8 XP RESULT: Thievery = 4 Stealh = 4 Search = 4 Disguise = 4 TOTAL COST: 32 XP

Difference: So, for 4 XP more, our character can have 4 more Thievery points (sometimes).

It's true that this isn't a huge advantage (in fact, it might be better to give the 1 XP per Rank discount to the Primary Skill too, in addition to the bonus of adding Occupation Ranks to Primary Skill checks -- the result of this would be the same price, but double the ranks in the Primary Skill (due to the help from the Occupation Ranks) ).

Lemme know what you guys think (unless you think this is dumb, then just ignore :cP )

Kozak 17:25, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

Follow-up

After talking to Dusty about this, I have to agree that any application of "Occupations" can and should be both GM-optional and player-optional, that is to say, that the GM can exclude Occupations from the campaign without playability issues and that players can choose to use or ignore Occupations without this creating an imbalance between partymembers who add Occupation(s) and those who ignore.

--Kozak