In Dungeons & Delvers, when you level up you get to allocate a skill point. Formerly this could only be used to increase an existing skill (up to a maximum of +5), or to gain proficiency in a new skill, but while working on rogue talents we thought up another way to use them: Skill […]
Earlier this week it was revealed that skills would be part of the default game (yay!), and we even got to see the current roster (yay…). This week’s Questions & Answers follwup sheds a bit more light on the skill list, how proficiencies work, and if/how you can pick more up. The skill list is mostly […]
It is nice that, after a few weeks of no Legends & Lore (and a pretty disappointing packet release), it comes back from hiatus with some good news: skills are back, +10 lore “skills” and skill dice are gone, and skills are not hard-wired to ability scores. I made it pretty clear on at least one […]
If you were wondering why skills were largely jettisoned in the most recent playtest packet, I guess it is to…streamline the game? If you were also wondering why lores were kept (and the bonus drastically inflated), it is because a lot of the players apparently missed being able to be an expert in a field of […]
This is a pretty lengthy article, so I am going to start out by condensing the already condensed list of the current design goals featured at the end: Every class gets ability score increases, though the frequency may vary by class, and you can swap them out for feats (which are optional). Skills are also […]
“Characters get four things–skills or traits.” This model kind of reminds me of a combination of 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons and Exalted, in that skills grant a flat bonus to a variety of related things, but you can opt to nab other things if you want. A workshop was specifically mentioned, but I could also see […]
Cook’s Legend & Lore debut involves him essentially recreating the Passive Perception wheel, ie the system we have now, except that instead of using Passive Perception as-is with numerical DCs he proposes a rank system (novice, journeyman, expert, etc). That is it, and it just feels like he is arguing semantics. The fact that the rules for […]
When it comes to skills I greatly prefer the approach of later editions: let the player tell you what they are generally trying to do, and then let a combination of dice and the character’s modifiers to determine the outcome. Mearls argues that this approach detracts from immersion because it causes players to focus on their […]
Disclaimer: I have never actually played Dresden Files, or even a Fate game. I have read through parts of the book, a wiki article, and listened to an “actual play” podcast. In other words, I might have interpreted aspects grossly incorrectly. Building a D&D character goes beyond choosing a race, class, feats, skills, and gear. Regardless […]
My response was “somewhere in the middle”, because it seems like a good part of what Mike Mearls is musing about already exists in the game–just written in a different way and/or in a different spot–and the other stuff seems fairly situational (likely making it harder to remember, especially if you get a lot of “talents”). I […]
Points of Light 