Skills Question

[Julianus Petronius Merenda]

Sorry fo adding yet another thread, but I couldn't find an existing one to roll this question into.

What is the case for a character who needs to perform a task but does not have the skill required ?
For example a Climb check. 
Do they have to pass the check using more dice (4/DX, 5/DX) ?
Are prohibited from even attempting the task ?
Or is there something already in the rules and I've missed it ?

[Deleted]

i anxiously await to hear how other people handle this. i've adopted a 'house rule' that anyone can perform the Athletic skills as noted in the rules but if they have invested in it, they get a bonus. take that with a grain of salt though because i'm new here. my reasoning is that the Athletic skills are kind of mundane...Acrobatics, reducing fall damage, is not so much mundane, but is kind of instinctual. Climbing, Riding, Swimming...seem kinda mundane for a fantasy setting.

[mister frau blucher]

Hey Julianus,

This is actually covered on page 4 of the LAW core rules. You have two kinds of checks: Assisted and Required. Assisted means you may attempt the check (usually 3/DX or 3/IQ), whether you have the skill or not (Example - climbing a tree; someone who doesn't have the skill may try it, but if they do have it, it adds to their chance of success). A required check means you must have the skill to attempt it (example: climbing a tree in a hurricane; if you don't have the skill you can't try).

In our adventures, these are differentiated by the language: "On passing 3/DX+Climbing..." is an assisted check; "On passing 3/DX against Climbing" is a required check.

I thought it was straitforward, but do we need to clarify this more?

As far whether a check in a homebrew adventure is Assisted or Required, that is up to the gamemaster as he assesses the difficulty of the task.

Hope this helps!

Bret

[Deleted]

well i'm embarrassed. i must have read that section many times and it never clicked with me until your post. i kept looking at the skill list that follows for some indication of which skills were required and which were assisted. now i see that it ALWAYS depends on the gamemaster/adventure. thanks for clearing that up.

[sergey]

Question about Bard skill. What does this mean?

Distribute maximum on one karma point per bard level, to be used in the current adventure on 3/IQ.

Who does distribute and whom to? And where can he get these points for distribution?

[Deleted]

hi sergey,
i'm going to guess until someone corrects me...

if a character has the Bard skill, he/she can attempt to generate a karma point. he/she rolls 3/IQ. if he/she passes this test, he/she successfully generates a karma point. this karma point can be used by the character that generated it or given to another character. the karma point is only redeemable during the adventure in which it was generated. the character with the bard skill can only generate 1 karma point per adventure per bard skill level. i believe that "Distribute maximum on one karma point" should be "Distribute maximum OF one karma point".

[mister frau blucher]

Sergey,

ewookie is correct on all counts!

So if a character has Bard+2, he can try to generate 2 karma points to give to himself and/or allies.

Bret

[sergey]

Everybody, thanks.