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Oh thanks for pointing that out, I didn't notice. And I forgot that dungeoneer is part of the thief class original skill

Guys, I am backing out on game. I cut back to just 3-4 PbP games. Thanks for the opportunity... Let some take over my character...mostly done)

MrHemlocks! no problem at all. I respect quality over quantity and want your games to be the best they can be.

Best wishes!

Your character finds a decent job at home and retires.

OK back on track!

Let's go to Social Graces and Specialties!

What Are Your Social Graces?
How do you convince people that you’re right or to do what you need?
Choose one skill: Haggler, Manipulator, Orator or Persuader. If you don’t have it, give a rating of 2. If you have it, increase it by one up to a maximum of 4.

What’s Your Specialty?
Each player chooses a unique specialty—no two players in your group can have the same specialty. Give the skill a rating of 2 (if you already have the chosen skill, increase the current rating by one to a maximum of 4). Mark your specialty skill by underlining it.

Cartographer
Manipulator
Cook
Pathfinder
Criminal
Persuader
Dungeoneer
Orator
Haggler
Scavenger
Healer
Scout
Hunter
Survivalist

Tell us about your choices!

Alright, so this is a group thing. this clarifies the roles of each member of the group, so what do you think?

Well, this could go a bunch of different ways, really.

I was considering taking scavenger for my elf, though I could also see scout or hunter or survivalist. I'm thinking something in that general area makes sense for him, so he's not too bookish... something about being outdoors. I was also considering persuasion for social graces.

The specialty choices can be grouped a few different ways, but here's an attempt to "group" them rather than just list them...

Manipulator
Persuader
Orator
Haggler

Cook
Healer

Pathfinder
Cartographer

Hunter
Scavenger
Survivalist

Dungeoneer
Criminal
Scout

I agree with drpete that some gaps are inevitable. They will probably prove to be the source of much fun! With that in mind, here are my thoughts for my cleric's skills.

Rand seems to be evolving as a compassionate, martial monk. Though trained to fight, he is more interested in providing for others, as reflected by the Healer and Survivalist skills. Here is what I have so far: I would like to pick up Cook at some point (from a mentor or family member?), but not as a specialty. Though I could be persuaded otherwise, my preferences for a specialty are Healer (up to 3), Survivalist (up to 4) or Scavenger (base of 2). Scavenger would be helpful to assist in finding items for meals, healing, etc, though anyone else could use that skill to assist me and gain a check that way... I could also specialize as a cartographer... What do you guys think?

Of the four choices for social graces, I guess I will take Persuader. Seems the best fit...

Also, per a PM with Steven, I have altered my hometown trait to stoic (to be played more as 'ascetic'). So all those comforts I mentioned? Maybe not always entirely comfortable. Because I wouldn't want to parade around as merely a comfort-offering, nice guy with a blunt weapon.

I had been meaning to mention that sniperknight had dungeoneering 2. Not a great score, but we can probably assist with some of our skills somehow, or you can use a trait against yourself to earn some checks (to be used for recovery and fun stuff in the camping/town phases). And one of us can start learning it with you adding in a die to help, so as a group we can overcome that difficulty. Maybe.

Yeah, like you said rusty, I have dungeoneer 2 and I can advance in it slowly as we progress.

I am gonna choose manipulator for social graces to make it 4 and because it suits my character far more than the other 3.

As for the speciality, I am willing to take one for the team and choose cook, although healer and hunter are also both very important, what do you think?

A question about helping, does the one who helps with the same skill or a different one gain a skill check? and can I use my own skills as help or do 2 skill checks simultaneously to better my chances of success? like hunter and scout

RE: Helping

Firstly, to answer your question, usually the answer is 'no'. You can, however, spend a check to gain advancement on a test.

Which of course brings me to nomenclature and how it is important and a little different in Torchbearer. Usually, when we talk about "checks" in RPGs, we mean "roll dice to see if you do the thing you want to do". Not so here!

Test - roll dice to see if you do a thing
Check - a boon that can be spent in Camp to heal or do camping activities, or can be spent while Helping to gain Advancement. Usually earned in a Test by applying a Trait against yourself and showing everyone the downside of your Traits.
Advancement - What you gain after making a Test, described as either Pass or Fail. Get enough Passes (equal to current rating) and Fails (equal to rating -1) and you increase your rating.

Hrmmm,

Here's my thought on specialties, having mulled it a bit.

We can go one of two ways on this, or some go one way, some go the other...

I think each of us has a reasonable "adventuring" choice and a reasonable "support" choice that they could make. By adventuring choice, I mean something that would directly help us with a dungeon delve, and by support, I mean something that'll keep us alive. These are by no means the only choices... anybody could do any of them and have something useful, but this is where my head is at the moment.

I think for my elf, the "adventuring" choice would be Scout, and the "support" choice would be Scavenger.

I think for Knight, the "adventuring" choice would be Dungeoneering, and the "support" choice might be Cook (though that's mostly because it came up, rather than something obvious to his character)

I think for Rusty, the "adventuring" choice would be Cartographer, and the "support" choice would be Healing.

Does that mean if you try a new skill you gain a rating immediately since its rating is 0, or is it that you can't learn new skills with out Mentor?

Alright, I will be the group's cook, don't complain about the taste XD

If you try a skill you have no rating (besides Resources), you pick up the skill at rating 2 after you accrue a number of tests, pass or fail, equal to your Nature. Nature will start between 3 and 6.

drpete wrote:I think for Rusty, the "adventuring" choice would be Cartographer, and the "support" choice would be Healing.

I already have both at level 2. So I will bump my healing skill up to 3, giving me two "supporting" skills (healer and survivalist) at that level.

And per drpete's delineation, I see I only really have one adventuring skill currently. :unsure: But Fighter (3), isn't bad. I will definitely try to pick up another of those more proactive, adventuring skills.

Out of curiosity, is the Scavenger trait also useful for foraging (for wild edibles and food in a trash head of a town)? If so, that seems really useful!

Heh, dunno if my delineation made sense. I was just trying to divide the specialist skills up into categories that made some kind of sense and offer my ideas. Obviously, there are a variety of ways to do that, and I was just looking for some simple ways to divide them, I guess exploring the world vs taking care of the team was where I was going with that. Not trying to push anything, just trying to propose one solution.

I agree that scavenger seems like a good skill. I was on the fence for scout 3 vs scavenger 2, and I guess I'd go with scavenger unless you want it to go with your survivalist. Not sure if you're interested in having your cleric be sort of an outdoorsy druid type or just wanting to see it covered...?

Thanks, I understand better now

I have scout 3 so I can help you or you help me on this skill, and scavenger seems to be a really useful skill, same as survivalist and hunter

I updated my skills, Manipulator is now 4 as my social graces and cooking 2 as my speciality

A solid choice! DrPete and Rusty, let me know your skill choices and we can move on to Wises.

So I went with Oratory for social graces and Scavenger for specialization. If Rusty would rather have Scavenger, I've got no problem tweaking that, though.

OK, well you guys figure that out and let's move on to Wises.

By the way! Really like the touch you added by highlighting your rated skills in read Makes it very easy to zero in on.

How Are You Wise?
Wises are a category of special abilities that represent your fields of expertise. They are not rolled, instead they augment other abilities and skills. This is kind of a weird one. Wises are kinda like knowledge skills. You can help people with your wise, but not endanger yourself if they fail. When you eventually get Fate and Persona points, Wises become very powerful.

Evereyone gets one Wise of their own creation, see below for guidelines. In addition, the Elf Ranger gets his choice of either Elven Lore‑wise or Elven Craft-wise

Examples Wises

Specific Town Wises
You can take a wise about a particular town or city; Helgen-wise, Winterhold-wise, etc.

Specific Location Wises
You can be wise about terrain features and adventure locations—Reach-wise, Lake-wise, etc.

Specific Monster Wises
You can take a wise about a particular sort of monster— Dragon-wise, Zombie-wise, etc.

Specific Group Wise
You may take specific wises for types or groups of people— Barbarian-wise, Bjorning-wise, Gott-wise, etc. You may develop your own wise to represent the group. For example: Armorer-wise, Apiarist-wise, Bandit-wise, etc.

Specific Thing Wise
Wises can also be about things—Book-wise, Ice Storm-wise, Trap-wise, Ugly Truth-wise, War-wise, etc.

Tentatively, I've added Elven Lore-wise and Herb-wise. It seems like that might be a good supplement.

I had originally thought about doing some kind of monster, or ancient underground civilization, like Dwemer-wise or something, but wasn't sure what would've been a good thing to specialize in