Inspired by reading Death on the Reik from the old Enemy Within campaign, I've been thinking about allowing characters with an applicable specialisation to automatically succeed in situations where characters without would have to make a skill check (in the case of DotR, it's sailing/rowing).

Another example might be overland travel, where a character with "locate shelter" would automatically succeed under normal conditions (fair weather, known climate).

I might even go so far as to only allow a character with a relevant specialisation to make a check, or at least make it significantly  more difficult for others. For example; only a character with "dance" would have any real chance of performing a complicated waltz, or something similar, without preparation.

Does anyone else play in this way?

Croaker13 said:

I think this is a very good idea as long as the skill is not super crucial for the plot, in the line of using traits in The One Ring! It will streamline your games and sharpen the wits of your player to look for good oportunities to use their skills.

Croaker13 said:

I think this is not a good idea.

I think that probably the best solution for especializations would be the one proposed time ago by _______(fill in the name) to reconsider the skill ranks in a tree form. For example in you spend 1 xp in Observation to fill in the first rank of the skill, and you gain one expertise die to all observation checks. At rank 2 you spend another xp to rise observation to rank 2, but this time you have to choose a more specialized area, like search, follow trails, alertness… and you will only get a second yellow dice under the situation you picked up, you can spend further xps at rank 2 to pick up other fields of the skill . Finally at rank 3 you would rise observation to rank 3 where you will further specialize. I found it a good idea but it implies too much rework of the game.

Cheers,

Yepes 

Wouldn't that be what Mastery is all about?  As long as it is a simple and not an opposed check, you treat it as if it has 1 Hammer.

Such as an observation check to see if you noticed the flag signalling nurgles rot is ravaging a town before you walk in.

Specializations themselves are great, especially if you can stack them, but you don't want to make everything too easy.

I'll use my character for an example, he has STR 4, WS trained 3 times, specialization in my Axe, as well as Parry.  Plus my Axe is of superior craftsmanship.  So on a standard attack roll, I am rolling 4 char, 3 expertise and 2 fortune.  If I happened to Parry an attack, I roll 4 Char, 3 Expertise, and 3 fortune.  Not to mention that I also use Flanking, so I add another fortune die if I am engaged with an ally.

Expertise training is great, but so is specialization.

On a side note, My character is at the end of his Ironbreaker career path, and could continue into Champion, and as soon as I can buy epic talent cards, I would buy 'Weapons Expert'.  So basically I will be a dwarven space marine in power armour.  Do I think the system is broken when it comes to Ironbreakers? Yes.  Is it cheating to use the system as it is? No.  

Now if I really wanted to be a pain and abuse the game, I would transition into the Runesmith careers and start adding runes to my weapons and armour.  I could technically get away with having a defense rating of 7 and a soak of 9.  Personally I won't go that route, I'll be happy with the Ironbreaker line and I might go into a less tactical career next, such as Apothicary maybe.

I don't have Heroes Call (yet), so I didn't know about mastery.

However, this is more to simulate how someone with a specialization might find a certain task very simple, when someone without might struggle even under the best circumstances.

In DotR its sailing (I realize that 1st ed skills worked very differently than 3ed ed), where a party without anyone with the sailing skill have to roll every day to keep their boat out of trouble, even in calm waters.

As a boat owner myself, I think this makes a lot of sense (at least when you have to rely on sails). Most people would probably be able to figure out how to make the boat move forward, but there's also a very real chance that they'll break something in the process - possibly by accidently ramming it. And I know this, because it's exactly what I did when learning to sail 

Once you get the basics down however, you usually don't make these types of unforced errors. 

Success chance: 97% Three success: 79%

 

 

 

 

Success chance: 92% Three success: 66%

Success chance: 83% Three success: 53%

With success rates at that point there really is no point in bothering to roll.  This is typical by 30 advances (3rd yellow).

http://file:///C:/Users/Jay/Documents/My%20Dropbox/Public/wfrp%20pix/WFRP3%20Full%20html%20Dice%20Roller%20All%20Probability%20Included/WFRP3%20Online%20Dice%20Roller%20All%20Probability%20Included/diceprob/diceprob.html

http://laakmann.free.fr/wfrp/ Standard dice probability roller

Emirikol said:

Sadly, not even as far as by the 30 advance! A PC is rank 3 as soon as the 20th advance. You need as few as 20 xp to have already the maximum.