[UA] Varying skill costs . . .

[Chad Eagleton]

Amen.


--- "Hammons, Jade" <jade.hammons at attws.com> wrote:
> If you can not find time to spotlight what your
> characters think are
> important skills/abilities/personality traits, you
> should not be
> game-mastering. Period. 
> Let's take CSI as an example. Player says, "I want
> my investigator to
> have a really high level in entomology", GM then
> places something buggy
> every few episodes. 
> "I want my 23rd century navigator to have knowledge
> of 19th century
> earth firearms." - Ok Takei, I think I can work that
> in there.
> 
> A player not being motivated and sitting on their
> ass is not the same as
> not having the ability as a game master to make your
> players choices
> important. If your player took 50% in cat lover,
> they obviously wanted
> it to define there character, and that becomes your
> job to make it
> important from time to time. If you can't, and your
> players feel
> shorted, it's your fault, especially if you just
> nodded your head and
> said "Uhm, ok, you can take that skill."  If you are
> doing your best,
> and they still whine, then maybe you have a valid
> complaint.
> 
> If you have a classic D&D game going and you have a
> thief and you fail
> to put in things for them to overcome, you are
> shortchanging him. If you
> don't have a thief but insist on putting thief
> challenges in your game,
> you are punishing your players for a party
> imbalance. 
> 
> The story has to adapt to the skills and
> personalities of the characters
> involved, not the other way around.  If you want
> your story to survive
> contact with the players, you better be making some
> pre-rolls, and
> writing up some strict psychological outlines for
> them to adhere to.
> 
> If you became a GM to satisfy some control complex,
> maybe you should
> take up writing, because that's the only way you
> will get your
> characters to play their roles just like you want.
> 
> As a GM it is my job to make Hairdressing, or Cat
> Lover important. If I
> can't do my job, then I need to be fired. It's that
> flexibility that
> makes me a dangerous player, because if I take an
> esoteric skill in a
> game, you can be damn sure I will find ways to use
> it.
> 
> Jade Hammons
> "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous
> energy merely to be
> normal." - Albert Camus
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ua-bounces at lists.unknown-armies.com
> [mailto:ua-bounces at lists.unknown-armies.com]On
> Behalf Of Chad Eagleton
> Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 11:15 AM
> To: The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [UA] Varying skill costs . . .
> 
> 
> 
>  
> > If the player takes the skill, it is
> his/her/hir/hes
> > prerogative as a player to find an application to
> > use
> > the skill they took in the freaking first place.
> If
> > players can't find a place to use their skills,
> too
> > damn bad. 
> > 
> > This is crap. As a GM I've had it up to the
> ruptured
> > fucking jugular with players that sit on their
> asses
> > and whine about not being motivated or there's
> > nothing
> > for them to do, or the game is boring.
> 
> You do have a point. There are players who just sit
> around and bitch. But I've also played with GMs who
> were just as responsible for games sucking...case in
> point I was playing in a Fading Suns game...during
> character creation I decided I wanted to play a
> priest, so I went to the GM told him what I wanted
> to
> play and asked, "Is that going to work with what you
> have planned for the game?" "Sure, sure," he says.
> And
> then lo and behold look at that, I have nothing to
> fucking do, because my priest character with his
> lack
> of combat skills or piloting space craft ability had
> nothing "useful" to the game. Oh, I still had
> fun...for a while, but then when I tried to mention
> it
> to him, even suggesting I make another character
> more
> suited to what we were doing, he assured me no, no,
> we'll work something out. And you know what--it
> never
> came, and I just got a lecture about how I should
> take
> inititive and not his responsibility, blah blah blah
> blah, he crafted this fine story blah blah
> blah...then
> who's responsibility is it? You're the one running
> the
> fucking game. If you can't look at my character
> sheet
> and do something with what's there to give me a bit
> of
> a personal interest, then what the fuck? Hell, even
> Xander on Buffy got his "own" episodes...Maybe you
> should just try to right novels on your own and give
> up gaming. 
>      Players can and often do suck, forgetting that
> they are the main character and they should be
> interested in what's going on because of that very
> reason. I mean hell, would you what I tv show where
> as
> soon as the first plot point came around the main
> character decided he was going to go off and work on
> his car? No.
>      But GMs can suck just as much too...and I think
> all it takes is a littler effort at character
> creation
> and a little time spent now and then doing something
> for the characters to improve things all around.
> 
> chad
> 
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