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Author Topic: Dwarf Skills Based on .....  (Read 1188 times)

DavionFuxa

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Dwarf Skills Based on .....
« on: July 25, 2012, 07:45:18 am »

I'm not sure if this is been suggested, but an idea I had for this game might be to include Dwarves who have different foci on their skills (Jack of all Trades, Prodigy, Legendary) These foci wouldn't be pronounced on birth (or some could, or all could), but rather they would just be decided by other factors. For example:

  • UristMcProdigy of 7 Years old enters a strange mood, claims a workshop, starts a mysterious construction of an artifact, completes a mysterious construction of an artifact, becomes Legendary (insert skill and if mood is applicable) and becomes a prodigy in (insert skill).

Prodigy - Children who enter strange moods and complete artifacts become prodigies. Whether or not the child is in a mood that gives experience or not, the child will never become rusty in the skill associated with the making of the artifact, and if they gain no experience then they level in that skill far faster then a normal Dwarf.

  • UristMcLegendary hits the Legendary skill level for his skill.

Legendary - Besides them flashing a lot, maybe make it so Legendary Dwarves get some added bonus' or penalties. IE, they don't suffer rusting in their skill, but at the same time, they may have problems leveling in other skills. Building off from the Prodigy idea, Prodigies would have their own special title of 'Legendary Prodigy.'

  • UristMcDoEverything switches his profession for the 3rd time in three different fields.

Jack of all Trade - Dwarves who you constantly switch their profession, and do so in multiple fields may become Jacks of all Trade. This might be considered a dangerous thing becomes a Jack of all Trade is indeed a Master of none. Basically my thinking would be that a Jack of all Trade could train up ridiculously fast in any profession he is not already at least skilled or adept it, and those skills would never become rusty, but therein after he would have difficulty training up skills above the set level, possibly with a high chance of them becoming rusty or very rusty.

I'm sure the ideas for this could be vast - you could have one that is dedicated to a Dwarve who trains in a specific skill set (like Farming skills or Military) and there could be tier ranks as well - Jack of all Trades for example may not have to be Master of None, who could one day be Master of All...
« Last Edit: July 25, 2012, 02:34:31 pm by DavionFuxa »
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A Google Doc I wrote up in regards to making a new 'workable' definition for the Roguelike Genre:
Defining the Roguelike Genre

GreatWyrmGold

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Re: Dwarf Skills Based on .....
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2012, 10:55:11 am »

I'm not sure if this is been suggested, but an idea I had for this game might be to include Dwarves who have different foci on their skills (Jack of all Trades, Prodigies, Legendary) These foci wouldn't be pronounced on birth (or some could, or all could), but rather they would just be decided by other factors. For example:
Search. A couple of these, at least, have been suggested; one of them I suggested maybe a month ago.

Quote
  • UristMcProdigy of 7 Years old enters a strange mood, claims a workshop, starts a mysterious construction of an artifact, completes a mysterious construction of an artifcat, becomes Legendary (insert skill and if mood is applicable) and becomes a prodigy in (insert skill).

Prodigy - Children who enter strange moods and complete artifacts become prodigy's. Whether or not the child is in a mood that gives experience or not, the child will never become rusty in the skill associated with the making of the artifact, and if they gain no experience then they level in that skill far faster then a normal Dwarf.
Prodigies sound neat, but it shouldn't be through strange moods. Maybe 1/100 dwarves should be prodigies; these dwarves would be great at learning a certain class of skill but worse at learning other skills. A stoneworking prodigy might be better at masonry, mining, and stonecrafting, but worse at everything else. Military progidies would be valued, if they were found.

Quote
  • UristMcLegendary hits the Legendary skill level for his skill.

Legendary - Besides them flashing a lot, maybe make it so Legendary Dwarves get some added bonus' or penalties. IE, they don't suffer rusting in their skill, but at the same time, they may have problems leveling in other skills. Building off from the Prodigy idea, Prodigy's would have their own special title of 'Legendary Prodigy.'
Prodigy's is possessive. Prodigies is plural. On to the idea: Legendary dwarves never getting rusty sounds good, but perhaps a bit weak for being a living legend. Again, search--I suggested legendary feats for legendary dwarves not too long ago.

Quote
  • UristMcDoEverything switches his profession for the 3rd time in three different fields.

Jack of all Trade - Dwarves who you constantly switch their profession, and do so in multiple fields may become Jacks of all Trade. This might be considered a dangerous thing becomes a Jack of all Trade is indeed a Master of none. Basically my thinking would be that a Jack of all Trade could train up ridiculously fast in any profession he is not already at least skilled or adept it, and those skills would never become rusty, but therein after he would have difficulty training up skills above the set level, possibly with a high chance of them becoming rusty or very rusty.
Jacks of all trades should be either dwarves good at learning skills up to, say, Talented or so, but bad at learning them higher, and wanting to try new things when they reach those skill levels (determined at the same time Progidy status is); OR simply dwarves with roughly equal levels in a bunch of skills. No need to make a dwarf who switches between, say, mining and masonry a lot horrible at learning after an arbitrary number of times that one skill crept above the other.

Quote
I'm sure the ideas for this could be vast - you could have one that is dedicated to a Dwarve who trains in a specific skill set (like Farming skills or Military) and there could be tier ranks as well - Jack of all Trades for example may not have to be Master of None, who could one day be Master of All...
There's a bunch of possible ideas. The "Master of All" JoAT seems more sensible for the most part (search for "Morul the most interesting dwarf in the world" and see what pops up). Obviously, if a dwarf never bothers to go above adequate or competent skill level in any skill, he's not going to do well at anything, but there's no reason for all dwarves with a bunch of skills to be that way.
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DavionFuxa

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Re: Dwarf Skills Based on .....
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2012, 08:27:58 pm »

Adding some links then - will note though that I didn't really see anything conclusive for 'Jack of all Trades' and 'Prodigy' though.

Quote
Legendary - ....
suggested legendary feats for legendary dwarves not too long ago.

Found it, dropping this link here for some alternative ideas for Dwarves that get Legendary then.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=112023.msg3396932#msg3396932

Quote
Jack of all Trade - ...
Morul the most interesting dwarf in the world" and see what pops up). Obviously, if a dwarf never bothers to go above adequate or competent skill level in any skill, he's not going to do well at anything, but there's no reason for all dwarves with a bunch of skills to be that way.

Found it, linking it again here so other people don't have to go find it.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=34933.msg534048#msg534048

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A Google Doc I wrote up in regards to making a new 'workable' definition for the Roguelike Genre:
Defining the Roguelike Genre

GreatWyrmGold

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Re: Dwarf Skills Based on .....
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2012, 08:45:02 pm »

Neat, thanks.
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DavionFuxa

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Re: Dwarf Skills Based on .....
« Reply #4 on: July 26, 2012, 08:52:58 pm »

Figured I would build a bit on the Jack of all Trades, not to mention related ideas, so to expand on it:

  • UristMcSpecialist changes from a Miner to Stonecrafter profession. Later on he starts dabbling in Stone Detailing.

Specialist - Dwarves that focus on a specific set of skills will level in those skills faster. As an example, they may specialize in working in Stone Related jobs such as Mining, Masonry, Stone Detailing, and Stonecrafting and find themselves becoming a Stone Specialist. As a bonus, they increase in rank for those skills faster, while perhaps as a negative, level in outside skills much slower.

It should be noted one might look at jobs in a matrix type of thinking as well. For example, the Stone Specialist Above has several skills that might fill other specialist roles: Plant Gathering, Wood Cutting, Mining, and Fishing could be another set for a Gathering Specialist; Stone Crafting, Wood Crafting, Metal Crafting, Bone Carving, and Wax Working could be another set for a Crafting Specialist; Masonry, Carpentry, Building Designer, and Metalsmith (Whatever Metal Profession Lays Walls) could be yet another for a Building Specialist.

Depending on how it's done, a Dwarf might only be able to become a specialist in one set of skills, or certain sets might not work with each other. This might be important for Military skills since you wouldn't want a Military Dwarf to potentially level slow in Military skills if he's a specialist in something else (unless you have something like an Axe Specialist or a Pick Specialist like set where Military skills are shared with other labors). Perhaps as well, even though you might train a Dwarf in a specific set of skills, if you start training him in another set he may switch over - or the Dwarf simply turns into a Jack of all Trades. As for the Jack of all Trades, that could simply be a catch up for any combination of unrelated skills not in a set.

****

Building on the Jack of all Trades - let's say you make your Dwarf carefully so that skills don't rust. If you manage to get him up to the Master skill rank, you might be able to upgrade him from 'Master of None' to 'Master of All'. At that point your Dwarf can beginning leveling up skills quickly to the Master rank before problems begin to occur.

Additionally, if your the type of person who wants to get Dwarves with a bunch of Legendary skills, you can eventually do it since if you combine with the Legendary status I mentioned before, you wouldn't have to worry about the skills degrading at all.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2012, 08:59:06 pm by DavionFuxa »
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A Google Doc I wrote up in regards to making a new 'workable' definition for the Roguelike Genre:
Defining the Roguelike Genre