Hedgerow Hall

by Hedgemistress
Hedgerow Hall
Serious role-playing-oriented game world, with animals.
ID:2080424
 
One of the biggest persistent balance issues in old HrH had to do with the differing power levels between a character who was heavily specialized in one area, such as combat, versus those who either created well-rounded characters or pursued specialties that required multiple skills. This exacerbated the divide between combat characters (who could easily put all their points in a single combat discipline) and non-combat characters, and meant that the more interesting combat strategies were often ignored in favor of ones that could be achieved with a single skill.

In order to address similar issues in D&D third edition, the designers of the 4th and 5th editions moved away from a "skill ranks/skill points" system to one that tracks only which skills you are trained in, and applies a general competency modifier of sorts to the use of those skills.

2nd edition Hedgerow Hall uses a system like this. Newly created characters get a number of skill points that is likely to be tweaked, but is currently set at four. This is in addition to two bonus skills determined by your critter type, and 1 to 3 extra skill points that more knowledge-centered critters get. These points can be used only to learn new skills, not improve existing ones. If you have four points, there is no advantage to focusing on one skill over learning four different ones.

New skill points are gained when you reach level 1 (you start out at level 0), and every 4 levels thereafter (5, 9, etc.) At every level of experience, though, your score in every skill you know increases by 1.

THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF THE SKILL SYSTEM

Your effective level in a skill depends on two of your attributes and your skill level. More specifically, it's equal to one attribute plus half of another plus your skill level.

The "average" starting attribute is 6. That is in quotes because most characters will focus on things they are above average at, but if you are trained in a skill for which both your attributes are 6, you'll have a final score of 10 (6 + 3 + 1) the first level you learn that skill. A score of 10 is considered to be basic competency. Every ten full points thereafter is a significant plateau of mastery. Your chance of success at basic tasks increases dramatically at each plateau. Similarly, many formulas in the game use skill / 10 to determine things.

A character who is not trained in a skill can use it at a default level equal to half what the attributes alone would give them, rounded down. This gives a base skill of 4 for average stats, which because of the exponential progression is essentialy 16% as good as a skill of 10. Default skill use is not applicable to all skills and situations; repairing an item would be an example of a default craft skill use, but making a new one requires actual training.

SKILL PREREQUISITES

If a skill has a prerequisite of another skill, it cannot be learned until you have a total skill of 20 in the parent skill.

BONUS SKILLS

Skills you gain from your critter type have a base level of 11, giving you a full extra tier of mastery (the equivalent of 10 levels of experience in that skill). Ones you learn from trainers of your type have a base level of 6, giving half a tier up.

LUCK AND THE SKILL SYSTEM

Luck can play three different roles in the skill system.

First, if you are untrained, a random number between 0 and your Luck score is added to your skill each time the game rolls a check. This doesn't constitute being trained, but it means that when a lucky character does something untrained, they have a decent chance of succeeding like they were basically competent. (The game does care about magnitude of success for most operations, though, so you can't play a lucky character and just ignore all skills that have their main uses accessible by default.)

Second, if you are trained, you can get a similar bonus, but it only happens a tiny (and Luck dependent) percent of the time.

Finally, Luck itself can be the primary or secondary attribute for a skill. Any skill that has Luck as a component in either position is more susceptible to lucky swings; you get the same benefit for trained skills as untrained, and untrained skills have a floor on the RNG equal to half your Luck. Very few skills are based on Luck in the primary slot, but the benefit is the same even if it's in the secondary.

ATTRIBUTE TRAINING

This is not strictly part of the skill system, although it is closely related to it. After trying multiple schemes for customizing your character's abilities before entering the game, I've decided it's better to let players try things out and figure out what skills they're learning (and thus which attributes they need) before locking them in.

The "average", as mentioned before, is 6. However, this game uses the Lake Wobegon School of Game Design, which states that every player character is above average. Each critter type increases one stat by 5, two by 3, and two by 1. I might change the distribution on some critters, but for now they all use the same array of modifiers. You will begin play with 5 attribute training points. These can be used to raise an attribute one point, but you cannot raise the same one twice in a row (meaning the most you can hyperspecialize at level 0 is +3 in your best att and +2 in your second best). Any attribute increases are automatically factored in to your skills. The ceiling on any attribute is twice its starting level; so Mice, with a Strength of 6, have a lifetime cap of 12, and Badgers, with a Strength of 11, have a lifetime cap of 22.

As your best attributes cannot be higher than 14 (6 + 5 +3) and 11 (6 + 3 + 2) using the starting points, your absolute highest initial skill is 30, for a bonus skill that happens to use your highest and second highest attribute for its primary and secondary. While starting at the third tier of mastery would be a huge boost, it's nowhere near a rule that a critter type's bonus skills will relate to its attribute bonuses. For instance, Rabbits get Run and Leap as bonus skills, which have nothing to do with their primary attribute of Perception. The point of the bonus skills is more about making sure each critter type is good at the things it should be good at, regardless of stats.

Further customization of attributes will be possible when I add a positive/negative trait system, but that is not a high priority.