Game News The Broken Hourglass - Group Skills @ Official Site

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Tags: The Broken Hourglass

<a href=http://www.planewalkergames.com/>Planewalker Games</a> has released their weekly update for their upcoming CRPG <a href=http://www.planewalkergames.com/content/view/32/46/>The Broken Hourglass</a>. This time the update concerns <a href=http://www.planewalkergames.com/content/view/63/1/>Group Skills</a>:
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Group skills reflect those activities where it is reasonable or expected that the ability and insight of each member of the party could be used in conjunction, to increase the overall chances of success. For instance, it seems only natural that a group of smart shoppers working in tandem should be able to negotiate better prices in a shop than a single negotiator. Similarly, one strong tactical mind in a group during a fight is a benefit--but two working in tandem should be able to do even better.
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Group skill bonuses are calculated on the fly based not just on party membership, but proximity. Party members must be a reasonable distance from one another in order to provide a group skill benefit. This is done so that individuals clear across the map (behind several closed doors, in a completely different part of the neighborhood, etc.) are not credited with offering their insight from a position where their input is unlikely to be of any use.
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Nifty. Though I'm uncertain how that will apply to Tactics. Better bonuses to hit? Better ways to dodge?
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.planewalkergames.com/">Planewalker Games</A>

 

[elander_]

This reminds me a perk in FT that defines the character as a lone warrior with bonus in everything for playing alone and penalities when playing with a team. The more team menbers and less charismatic the greater the penalities i think. Most PNPs have this kind of group skills and it's a shame this isn't used more often.

 

[sheek]

Realms of Arkania had Tactics as a skill which improved the whole party TH-roll (I think) during fights. I would prefer that the effect of Tactics is represented through more options for the player than just an abstract bonus.

But otherwise group skills are a good thing.

 

[Lord Chambers]

Haggling with a merchant presents just about the worst analogy for when team skills are applicable of any typical RPG skill I can think about. Save skill with swinging a sword. Have you ever seen a panel of adventurers haggling with a merchant?

Searching ala Wizardry 8 or identifying an item are the only skills that come to immediate mind as being group skills, and they are usually modeled pretty well by skills checks at the individual level.

Generally speaking the only realm that a group has an advantage in over an individual is decision making. As such, the part about tactics is very relevant. However, trying to concieve of what shape "tactics" takes in a game reveals the fact that the human player almost always does the decision making in games. Group efforts like combat are almost always just the sum of individual efforts.

In the real world it's easy to see how groups are valuable, but in a game world, I'm not seeing how modeling certain skills in that way will make a very meaningful impact.

 

[FrancoTAU]

Avernum has some decent group skills with Nature Lore and Arcane Lore. If you take a bunch of guys who know a little about a subject and pool them together than it makes sense your group would pretty knowledgable overall.

 

[Top Hat]

If you take a bunch of Elder Scrolls Forumers who know a little about role-playing and pool them together than it makes sense your group would LARP about eating poisenout apples.

Fixed.