random skill names

[crufty]

so brought up from the basement an old roguelike that never got very far.

The basic concept is: what if everything was random? I would like at some part to have randomized playable races but I don't even have a playable dungeon yet so a long ways to go. We do have random classes, histories etc.

started toying with random skill names?
would this drive people nuts?

so instead of bows one could have
street / constrained-space / distance / tree-top / cave / arial
archery / targeting
(ranged weapon)

the idea being it possible to acquire multiple versions of the same skill (eg have mastery in both street archery (short bow) and arial targeting (short bow)) and have the results stack.

wasn't sure if it would drive people nuts...or give more flavor to pcs? thoughts?

i might do it anyway.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

the idea being it possible to acquire multiple versions of the same skill (eg have mastery in both street archery (short bow) and arial targeting (short bow)) and have the results stack.

Wouldn't this be easy to break? Stack enough and you'll have a monster archer.

 

[Phelot]

I'm not sure I follow. Random names for skills?

If you're talking about different fighting styles for a weapon that traditionally would only have one skill, then yes, that would be awesome.

 

[crufty]

@ck, skill progression is logarithmic but that is a good point. I am thinking more on the side of ridiculous right now so hope players to have long skill lists at end game.

other concept is knowledge skills are acquired at pc gen and not elsewhere. So any addtl skills will be combat or action related: no learning medicine etc while camped out on the bio deck!

the setting is in the far future so in typical rogue like fashion hope is for dramatic early death coupled w/tense endgame death.

Other concept is player controls a party but creates party members at different parts of the game, which are 'auto-leveled' w/different pieces randomized. For example pc#2 has random race but more control over class and is created once pc gets to level 2. pc#3 / pc#4 are randomized except for skill tags and created at level 4. this way pc concepts can be tried out and then gaps filled later on. so by the time a player gets to say level 4, if he really needs a pc w/healing skill he isn't out of luck. not expecting more then 15 pc levels.

items will have skill trees for use (which also generate skills to advance in). Having a bunch of skills leveled @ basic (eg snub nosed pistol (basic), bolt action targeting (basic), infrared scope targeting and range finding (basic)) won't make someone super duper. But it might make them advanced.

 

[crufty]

I'm not sure I follow. Random names for skills?

If you're talking about different fighting styles for a weapon that traditionally would only have one skill, then yes, that would be awesome.

yes...so instead of Healing, a player might have a skill generated from:


Homeopathic
Organic
Osteopathic
Fundamental
Critical
Internal

+

Herbs / Spices
Surgery
Physiology
Care

+

for Infections and Diseases
and Biological Processes
(Chemical Warfare)

So pc1 a doctor for a large corporation might have skills of
Fundamental Surgery and Biological Processes (2-Advanced)
Internal Herbs And Spices for Infections and Diseases (1-Basic)

which internally might matrix to healing (3).

There would be no opportunity to improve or buy these skills in-game is the current thought, since a space marine veteran trapped on a starship can't learn much biology!


etc. But is it too much? Would it be fun?

ps. the hope is randomized weapon styles. like snub nosed pistol John Woo (basic), sawed off shotgun - gangsta style (Advanced) etc. It is trivially easy to build these objects in TADS3: the object doesn't exist until the game instantiates it, and when it does, it's real as if its been coded that way all along. Hoping for might and magic style items too.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Could you really code with that kind of detail, though? It would be amazing (and, perhaps, vastly overwhelming) to see a game where your skills are actually defined by the very action you used it for. In the previous case, what kind of treatment was used, in what context and with what purpose. This might require DF-like levels of complexity I'm not sure humans are allowed to reach.

On the other hand, if it's just going to be flavor-fluff name randomization then meh.

 

[OSK]

So like Diablo weapon modifiers, but for skills?

 

[Alex]

How about if, instead of having multiple skills equivalent, they could add different bonuses to different skills. So, boxing and karate (for example) would add different bonuses to hand combat. Maybe karate is more defensive, and gives a chance for you to deflect blows, but boxing gives you a bonus to attack and damage. So, if each skill type had various possible kinds of bonuses, you might make not only the names random, but their actual effects too!

 

[crufty]

So, if each skill type had various possible kinds of bonuses, you might make not only the names random, but their actual effects too!

I like this! This gives the skills more meaning.

code

Well that is a different question--intent vs reality for these things.

Ideally thats where I'd like to go. I think its possible.

Yes, diablo mods for skills--exactly that.

 

[Phelot]

How about if, instead of having multiple skills equivalent, they could add different bonuses to different skills. So, boxing and karate (for example) would add different bonuses to hand combat. Maybe karate is more defensive, and gives a chance for you to deflect blows, but boxing gives you a bonus to attack and damage. So, if each skill type had various possible kinds of bonuses, you might make not only the names random, but their actual effects too!

Yes, this would be great and I've thought of in the past about it.

Like I mentioned above, a weapon would be a base skill with various fighting styles being subskills for it. So for sword fighting you'd also have as sub skills for it something like Fast sword fighting, or defensive sword fighting, etc. The idea is that each style has strengths and weaknesses against enemies using the same set of fighting skills.

This would force players to develop different sub skills depending on what they are having to face.

I'm not sure how fun it would be to have your skills randomly generated like this, but it might work, but realistically, why would your skills be generated in this manner?

 

[crufty]

I'm not sure how fun it would be to have your skills randomly generated like this, but it might work, but realistically, why would your skills be generated in this manner?

yeah, it might make sense to have a mix of 'stable' skills.

Part of it is the setting is far future; the plot, as loose as it is, is very simple. Players have been assigned a mission, but don't know it.

Spoiler

The objective is psychic and can see the future. It also can cause severe hallucinations in people suffering PTSD, eg active/retired military types.

They are on a transport ship, so wanted to reflect really diverse parties. Ideally wanted to visit random worlds and really go nuts, but since I'm not even at a place where a party can go anywhere still have a lot of figuring out to do. I'm not sure I'll be able to do really random dungeons to be honest. Will have to dive into it.

Playable races are standard right now(human, elf, dwarf) with some exotic ( glowing orb). So thats where the idea for random skills would come into play. Initially, I was going to have a craft skill--but then how to reflect the diverse nature of future equipment w/out coding a gazillon skills? So I was going to have 5 crafting skills, alpha thru epsilon, and then items would have minimum skill checks for those five areas (crafting would be party based). But then that is boring. So maybe if we randomized the names...then well, why not randomize *all* skills.