Wacky RPG Hijinks, again

[crowroadaw]

Arrowflight character creation steps ...

1. Choose race.
2. Point buy attributes.
3. Randomly roll your social class (which can do anything from triple or halve your starting gold), whether you're from a rural or urban environment, and what your apprenticeship was. This will determine your background skills

Comments

[kayjay1970]

I think it is realistic and that the nobility probably did have a lot more skills. They had all their time to develop skills as they didn't have the humdrum of normal life to worry about. The idle rich get to read and ride and shoot wild life much more than the potato peeling indentured servant... and sure he had 20 skill points tucked away in peeling the humble spud... but there are not many times a GM is going to call for a skill contest involving the de-skinning of a nightshade.

It might not fit some notion of character balance, but it is realistic.

[crowroadaw]

Giving the PCs a level playing field >>>> social realism.

Me, I'd be giving the indentured guys extra points in sneaking around and pilfering (since they probably grab food and hear gossip that way), stuff like that.

[crowroadaw]

On further thought, perhaps the simplest solution is to give wach social class 4-n "any skill, subject to GM approval" slots, where n is the number of skills the game currently gives them.

So the current array:

Noble - 4 skills - triple standard gold
Professional - 3 skills - double standard gold
Freeperson - 2 skills - standard gold
Indentured - 1 skill - half standard gold

Becomes:

Noble - 4 set skills - triple standard gold
Professional - 3 set skills plus 1 free choice - double standard gold
Freeperson - 2 set skills plus 2 free choice - standard gold
Indentured - 1 set skill plus 3 free choice - half standard gold

That way, you have to balance additional starting cash against greater freedom of skill selection to 'fit' your concept (subject to GM approval, of course). It achieves a greater level of parity between the various character options, without sacrificing 'realism' in any significant sense.