Seeking some feedback on a possible ED4 change

[Antra]

[Spader]

Stamina Pool:

If the goal is to give some balance to some disciplines that are too strainivorous, why not just give them a talent option that wourd give them some "stamina points"?... It could be temporary and could cost Karma...

Let say this talent:
Stamina
Step: Rank
Action: Standard
Karma: See text
By rolling a number of Karma point up to Rank in Stamina, the character obtain a pool of Stamina Point for Rank minutes.

or

Step: Toughness+Rank
Action: Standard
Karma: Yes
Roll Stamina to gain Stamina Points for Rank minutes.

[UglyGoblin]

[Utsukushi]

[UglyGoblin]

[Slimcreeper]

Orks get +1 on tests when they are acting in the course of supporting their Gahad. (What a player once called +1 CIAO ('Cause I'm An Ork')

T'skrang get +1 to resist hats. Dwarfs get +1 to walking under low-hanging branches. Obsidimen get +1 to resist mosh pits. Elves can wear up to 3 more earrings per ear than other races. Windlings get 3 free ranks in Speak Painintheass. And trolls require one less success than normal for tests to Craft Hornaments.

[Telarus_KSC]

I've been playing around with "Skill Packages", and having one for Race and one for Background. I'm still considering the mechanics, but it's probably "pick a skill from this small list, you get it, or get +1 if you spend starting skill points on it". Have 3-5 skills for each background to choose from, to keep the 'player choice' feeling central.

Things like:

Elf - Artisan, Missile Weapons, Wilderness Survival, Read & Write Languages, Knowledge (Province History, Botany, Court Lore)
Dwarf - Craftsman, Diplomacy, Haggle, Climbing, Knowledge (Mining, Architecture, Trade Routes)

Tribal Background - Wilderness Survival, Tracking, Hunting, Fishing, Knowledge (Creature Lore, Botany, Tribal Lore)
Underworld Background - Streetwise, Bribery, Forgery, Conceal Object, Knowledge (Art Appraisal, Black Markets, Underworld Lore)

Would that be useful?

I want to build Random Character generators out of this at some point.

[Tattered Rags]

[Utsukushi]

I could see those as kind of... quick start suggestions for how to arrange your starting skills, based on different backgrounds. As a step to making the game easier for new players, that has potential.

I don't like them with the racial connections, though, because that quickly drives stronger stereotypes -- which, I mean, is kind of inevitable once you start writing up cultures, but all the same, is something Earthdawn has always done a great job at resisting.

So with a broader base, like, highlight some of the differences between coming from a City, a Small Town, or a Recently-Emerged Kaer. Nomadic Raiders, whether it's an Ork Scorcher tribe, the Riders of the Scorched Plains, or - with Air Sailing swapped in for Ride - a Troll Sky Raider Moot; or, by comparison, a traveling merchant clan (whether by wagon, or, of course, riverboat, again with a couple of quick substitutions - "Riding/Boating"; "Animal Handling/Swim"; but things like Haggle, Navigation, and Knowledge: Trade Routes would apply to both). Suggestions for some locations with special requirements -- Skill sets that someone from the Badlands might need (especially with Travar coming to prominence!), versus what you need in the Servos; near the Poison Forest; up in the Ustrecht Mountains.

Some things might strongly imply a certain Race. You get mostly Trolls in Ustrecht. There's a reason Bloodwood is 99% elves, and it almost certainly has its own common Skills. But there are always no'a'grul. ...Basically, I like the "background" ones, but not the common "Elf" or "Dwarf" Package.

[Tattered Rags]

"Quick start packages" sounds good. I recently read an article about D&D Next that talked about how they were doing the same thing. It sounded good there, and it sounds good here.