I get the idea of practicing now. In my blacksmithing, when I was learning, I would turn out decent-quality equipment for the most part. Probably sold slightly more cheaply or something. A few failures and a few botches. Nothing serious though.
When I was trying to build the Leatherman, I had 1@10. Decent score. However, that probably would have challenged my teacher, Mr. Smith's ability. So, every attempt I made had to be rolled for.
Since Mr. Smith has a higher SAL, and probably a higher BRA, (2@6 strength, easily) if he got all best possible rolls, he would turn out a better tool than if I rolled all best possible rolls. This is starting to make sense.
(Doing Therapy)
My 2@5 driving skill. Driving, I get there, I get back. Really bad GE roll, I get in an accident or something. Practicing.
If I were trying to do something specific with the car (evade pursuit, attempt to break the land speed record, etc.) the 2@5 skill would be tested. I get it now.
Speaking of which, if I did roll a 30 and get in an accident whilst practicing driving, could I roll a driving skill check against getting out of it unscathed?
I would imagine so, which would then not be practicing. It would be doing something specific.
(Doing Therapy)
I tend to think of an accident as a botch option, or very rarely a failure in a skill check that has a serious failure risk. That is, if you use your driving skill to do a jump across the gap of an opening drawbridge and you fail, the question probably isn't whether you have an accident but what kind of accident you have. (On a really close failure I might decide that you recognized you couldn't make it in time to slam on the brakes and avoid the jump entirely.)Speaking of which, if I did roll a 30 and get in an accident whilst practicing driving, could I roll a driving skill check against getting out of it unscathed?
Since the GE roll would mean that something good or bad happens while you are practicing, not necessarily that you botched, it would depend very much on what circustance arose. For example, you're practicing stunt jumps, and the GE roll says something bad happens, and through whatever means I decide that the ramp collapses under you. In that case, a (possibly penalized) driving skill check could determine how you come out of the problem. Similarly, if the "problem" is that an airplane is landing on the highway, or a truck has gone out of control--if it is a road hazard of some sort that has a good chance of causing an accident, you might be able to avoid the accident by making a successful check (if you can reasonably describe how using your skill would enable you to avoid the accident).
On the other hand, if the determination is "you get into an accident" (more common in a botch list than a GE roll, but not impossible in the latter), the best you could do is mitigate it--make it not a serious accident, or shift the damages (the pole instead of the oncoming truck, for example).
If it is a botch situation, then you cannot use a check of the same skill to avoid the botch consequences; but if you have time you can use a different skill. So for example if you botch in a driving situation and are headed straight for the truck, you could not not say, "I'm going to steer out of the way of the truck," but you could say, "I'm going to attempt to TK pulse the truck up and right so that I pass under the left front side."
Whoa, wouldn't that be wild?
--M. J. Young
Well MJ, I think you know that people get into minor bumper thumpers all the time. I've gotten into a few where all parties just agreed to drop it on the spot. (Minor to no damage, pursuing would be more hassle than it was worth) That could be a 30 GE roll right there. You could drive AT LEAST 1,000 days and never have even a minor bumper thumper.
(Doing Therapy)
In fact, I've had guys thank me once for giving them a bumper thump. It was snowing, and I rear ended their SUV. I hit the trailer hitch, so my car took all of the damage (Just a badly dented front license plate) Turns out, they were stuck in the snow, and I knocked them loose. They thanked me for it.
(Doing Therapy)