I was wondering about dice rolls, and how they affect your character. Skill rolls and skill learning rolls in particular. For instance, if I got a good dice roll, my character would be able to climb up a rope. However, I have never in my life been able to do that. I would feel like I was cheating if my character did something that I know I am not capable of doing.
Skill learning rolls. My character was learning to knit. The dice said that I learned it at 1@2. In real life, I really am trying to learn to knit, and I still haven't gotten the hang of the first step. I'm nowhere near 1@2 in my real-life knitting. I'm probably not even 1@1 in real life.
I know that the dice are the best, and only way to decide some things, but it was kind of bothering me. I feel like I am cheating in a way, by doing things I know that I couldn't really do, based on a dice roll. I'm not quite sure what I'm asking, but any insight would be great. Thanks in advance.
Remember that at this point, you and your character are no longer exactly the same. How long have you been playing? And how long, in game time, has your character lived since versing the first time? I bet there's a fair amount of extra time available to spend learning things. If nothing else, your character probably hasn't spent the time you've spent playing the game...
The knitting is the easy one. You say you aren't yet 1@1, but at this point, we have no clear reason to believe that you can't eventually become 1@2. Spend time practicing, read books or magazines, watch an experienced knitter (even if they're not trying to teach, just watch someone on the bus...), and you should do better. Well, it's likely that in the verse, you've had time to do all those things to an extent that you, here, haven't.
As for rope climbing, why haven't you been able to? Strength? Coordination? Technique? For the first two, perhaps your versing self has improved, however marginally, in these areas. As for technique, maybe the way you try to climb isn't appropriate to the conditions (how the rope is attached at the top, whether or not it is fixed at the bottom, the size and elasticity of the rope, whether it has knots...). Maybe your versing self saw someone climb a rope and remembered something that helped. Or maybe you just got lucky and tried the right thing for the conditions.
Say I made you try to climb a rope every day for a week. I might vary the conditions of the test some days. Meanwhile, you would be trying different things each day as well, and hopefully learning something from day-to-day. At some point, you might hit on the right technique for that day's setup. Whether or not it would be repeatable would lead to whether you would gain the skill Rope Climbing, but it is possible to succeed one or more times without actually having such a skill...
For knitting, if nothing else, I would have had a different teacher. Maybe that teacher knew a better teaching technique than my mother did.
And yes, my character is stronger now than he was when he left. Maybe that would make a difference in rope climbing. Thanks for the tip. I guess I'm not cheating after all.
Good to see you, Llarry--and thanks for providing an excellent answer.
--M. J. Young
Hi, M.J. I'm here regularly, I just don't have all that much worth saying... I generally read the game mechanics/theory threads, though I am enjoying Future Roma, since that's a kind of setting that appeals to me.
Yeah, that's a strange one--a sort of high-tech sci-fi future built on an alternate reality. It's actually more complicated than that, because of things about the Mongolchin and Azmayincans which have not yet been uncovered in play, but I'm enjoying how it's unfolding.
What is it that appeals to you about Future Roma?
--M. J. Young
It combines two of my favorite things, Alternate History and Rome. Then throw in the Sci-Fi future, and you've got me hooked. I'm also enjoying the way the gods figure in. They're important and powerful, but for the most part, these people don't cower in fear before them. They're considered a "normal" part of everyday life.
I don't particularly like Magic in roleplaying. It's not that I mind other characters doing it, but I'm just not interested myself. The few games in which I have played a magic user, it's been a character who looks at magic scientifically, as if it's just another natural force to be studied and used technologically. I'm getting that sort of vibe (correct or not) off this place.