The Drunken Lizard Pub

I'd like to suggest that you add "skill perks" into Book 2. By this I mean concrete, qualitative extras that you gain for raising skills to some specific cutoff.

For example, perks could be gained when you raise a skill to level 10, and maybe another one at 20. Examples of perks could be:
Dodge level 10: "Pit Fighter": When you are in melee range with multiple enemies, you gain a bonus to your dodge rate
Dodge level 20: "Devastating Counter": When you "unbalance" an enemy with a successful dodge, your return attack (if it hits) is automatically a critical hit

I'll admit that this idea is lifted from Elder Scrolls: Oblivion -- hardly old-school -- but sometimes great ideas are worth implementing even if they're new. The real advantages of a skill perk system is that it gives the player both an interim target ("gotta hit 20") and a tangible reward for leveling a skill. Most skill leveling gives minor quantitative effects that are hard to notice; can you honestly "feel" that extra 1% chance to Dodge? But you sure could feel that crit you got thanks to the level 20 dodge perk! Anything that makes leveling more fun in an RPG is a good thing.

Or, when you get a skill to a certain level, it unlocks a new skill you can train in.
Say, alchemy and imbuing are seperate skills, once you get alchemy to level 5, you can start training in imbuing.
Think of it like a tech tree.

i'm not sure i like my idea though

Hmmm these are excellent ideas, and I think may already be in the works, or at least something like that.

I wanted to also comment about the "Perks" this game engine and the way the stats are arrayed are similar in some ways to how "Fallout" had their SPECIAL attribute system laid out. I LOVED perks in that game, I wouldn't make them skill level based. I would make them so that they would be awarded every so many levels and you could choose from the ones that best suited your skillset. However, upon reaching a certain skill set or level like Swords 10, you could plug in title changes. So, in stead of just Mercenary, you could be "Master Sellsword" or something. If you killed lots of innocents other titles like "Butcher" could be assigned and cause prices for you to go up in stores because of your negative rep, yet at the same time in dialogue you would gain more or better "Intimitadtion" dialogue.

Just some thoughts

And the books should have levels too...

e.g. legendary swordsman II... Could give specialty attacks

hidden treasures II... pick a lock using a fork & spoon set when you last pick breaks.

etc.

a fork and a spoon huh? HA! that's pretty good. I would make it a skill perk by itself, where you could use a dagger, spoon and fork or some other similar object but with a greater chance of failure and a better possibility of ruining the tool used for balance purposes. I also like the thought of getting more bonuses from books. But I think the initial book would be the most telling. Two levels or the base skill. Then any book after that would only give you one level.

Champeene wrote:And the books should have levels too...

e.g. legendary swordsman II... Could give specialty attacks

hidden treasures II... pick a lock using a fork & spoon set when you last pick breaks.

etc.

LOL No, no..you need hair pins from poor ol' Witch Mazel who kept dropping them back in the beginning of the game to pick a lock...

(you know the cartoon witch Hazel versus Bugs Bunny...)