Posted By Sullen at 3:03 PM - Fri Aug 12 2016
There will be definate skill degrigation after the age of 45. You will become weaker but possibly more focused. How will these degregations affect the skill ramp in the next life? Will ending a lifetime at 35 instead of 75 be benifial to a soldier? I know you are supposed to have different 'roles' in differnt part stages of life but am just curious how this will trasfer over to the ramps.
And perhaps I am confused on the ramps. You stated the more 'time' you spend in your body the higher the potential is in the next life. Just to understand that living to 75 with degregated fighting skills will provide a higher ramp with higher potentials in the next life than dieing at 35 with high current skills
There's a difference between Attributes and Skills.
Attributes are stuff like Strength and Will, stats your character has, and are the things that get adjusted as you age. They have no influence on your skill ramps, since they're character-bound rather than soul-bound.
Skills are things like Axe-wielding or Farming, things your character learns, and while the attributes you have might make you more or less capable at those skills, they don't affect how fast those skills grow otherwise. For that matter, using a skill will often improve related attributes, like a blacksmith getting stronger the more she works the forge.
This difference is found in a lot of games, especially table-top RPGs, where you might have a low DEX score but if you train that Archery skill enough you'll do fine anyway.
There's also an additional option that opens up as you get later in life and start having trouble using your skills thanks to attribute decay: mentoring. Training other people works a lot better if you're higher ranked in the skill, and it's apparently one of the best ways to reach the top ranks of a skill, bolstering your future skill ramps.
So older characters won't be as spritely as they used to be, since their attributes are decaying, but they're also tons better at teaching other people. They can get their skills up that way instead of, say, dragging their old bones into combat.
And finally Caspian didn't mention about Story Points and how they are earned or spent. If they are part of the new system, I think when he catches his breath in a day or two he could address these questions as well. Some of the question concern how exactly they are earned, who can earn them, and how often they can be earned.
The Story Point system was talked about in Design Journal 17, in the second section. Basically, the more you follow the story, do quests, and raise skills and the like, the more story points you gain. Everyone earns them.
Mind you, higher noble ranks gain them faster, especially by taking care of the responsibilities their rank demands. But then, they have both higher risk and a higher cost involved in passing their title to their heir so the higher rate is more a balancing act than anything else.
