Attempt on a split skill ranking system.

#1
Sup o wonderful Penguinos!
Some skill trends systems feel stagnating, not that that's a bad thing. The current ones are amazing.
I'd like to make a contribution towards diversity anyways. I had some discussions with a friend, but now, the heavy penguin cavalry is needed. I'm confused whether I'm just reinventing the wheel to be a square.

The context of my idea:

litrRPG scenario( where else would you find a gamelike system? ;)  )
The settings are going to be as realistic as it can, as in: A skill will only reflect how good you are at something, and how potent that something is; it'll be a way for the reader to easier monitor the heroes progress, rather than something that allows for the heroes to do things easier or more conveniently.

The coarse idea:

-----------------------
Split a skill into two different categories, give it a cooler title than just "Intermediate, lvl 2":

  • Potency - how much damage/heal/defence/avoidance/advantage the skill can/does provide ('can' or 'does' depends if you want the potency to reflect how strong the skill can eventually get or how strong the skill momentarily is. My fiction will use the latter.

  • Finesse - How well the user has mastered the skill. There are different interpretations, for example:


  1. How unlikely it would be for a beginner to pull the current level of skill off

  2. How much focus the hero can spend and still gain a linear increase of result output

-----------------------
My idea for naming potency/finesse is:
Finesse:
(all lvl 1-5)
1. Plummeting - Anyone could do it
2.  Skipping
3.  Flapping
4.  Fluttering
5.  Hovering - You're skilled as fuck
6.  Soaring
7.  Looping
8.  Diving
9. ???
10. Tempest - Ultimate god of infinite complexity

Additional name suggestions: Wingless, Flightless, Grounded, Flying, Clippled, Descending, Swirling, gliding, plummeting, rising, orbiting, landing.

Potency/Cruciality:
1.  Chick - Maybe the level to kill a rabbit?...
2.  Sparrow - Maybe the level to kill a wolf?...
3.  Swallow
4.  Raven
5.  Owl
6.  Eagle
7.  Gargoyle
8.  Pegasus
9.  Hippogryph
10. Phoenix





So, If we have an OP character for instance (And a potency that's objective, non progressive), he might have a "Wingless(lvl 2) Phoenix" skill, which would progress, giving an obvious sense of the skills awesomeness.

You could might have a character with nose picking: Soaring(lvl 2) Chicken, which is quite descriptive...

In the case of progressive potency title, things wouldn't be as black and white, but getting an OP sword might increase your skill spotency. Think of a "secret OP spell" as a ticking bomb, resting at chicken level, despite it's hardness, but then it's combined with another skill or something, and BAM! Diving Swallow -> Diving Pegasus!

The worries(Gordon Ramsay me here):

I'm a bit worried as to the choosing of words, as well as the range of levels, although I suppose the can be customized for to match any fiction.
A part of me want funny, "evil" names, showing how low leveled a skill is (Grounded, crippeled, flightless, wingless...), but at the same time there's need for a sense of progression reasonably early.

On the verbs: It might be cool to illustrate a bird, going from flightless, to mastering flight, to landing to catch a prey. IDK.
On the Birds: There are probably better choices, if you have critique, i'd love it.

Maybe birds aren't the best analogy for skills. They just happened to be the first thing i thought of.

I like the word 'cruciality' more than 'potency', but I'm not an English native though. Are there better words, or are they good enough?

Trying to write: The Humanity Initiative

RE: Attempt on a split skill ranking system.

#2
Here comes the roasting?
1. Chategories is spelled as categories
2. Its kind of confusing. So the mastery is now called finesse? And since your potency is already based off animals, why not just put the equivalent. Like (chicken= kill chicken wolf=kill wolf)
3. Lethality(?) Puissance(?) Sounds simpler as compared to potency since potency could confuse the dirty minds.
4. So how would your characters speak of their skill? Like "I'm on the level of a tempest chicken?" Are you aiming for a comedy or something?
5. This reply has too many ?s
Gibe CaNcer b0ss
I hAbe 3 ch0m0s0mEs left


novels: cancer
And this one: that ione.

RE: Attempt on a split skill ranking system.

#3
'NotTzx' pid='820016' dateline='1483552180' Wrote: Here comes the roasting?
1. Chategories is spelled as categories
2. Its kind of confusing. So the mastery is now called finesse? And since your potency is already based off animals, why not just put the equivalent. Like (chicken= kill chicken wolf=kill wolf)
3. Lethality(?) Puissance(?) Sounds simpler as compared to potency since potency could confuse the dirty minds.
4. So how would your characters speak of their skill? Like "I'm on the level of a tempest chicken?" Are you aiming for a comedy or something?
5. This reply has too many ?s

Wow! Totally missed out on a few things, thank you!
1. Thanks, that was embarrassing,
2. I think the two could both be used, depending on the scenario. ( I think so now, earlier the thought wasn't thought. My writing was silly)
Mastery is more a definitive thing, showing how close you are to hit the maximum mastery of a skill whereas finesse would not require a set maximum level of mastery. Finesse would be vaguer, but more free in the sense that your skill is measured compared to a baseline rather than a set maximum level, known by the system. What if the player makes a skill not in the system? How does the system know the skills full capacity? At least that was how i reasoned when I chose the word.

The animal thing is there because I thought of it as artistic, having a verb matching an animal. Somehow i hoped that animal hierarchy would be more easily visualized than "wizard, sage, king, emperor, etc. Even if that wasn't the case I got biased because I wanted a fitting werv for a fitting title.

3. Thank you! My mind is dirty, but not native enough to make that connection.

4. I am including elements of humor, the names are chosen with that in mind. Still, I'm not sure if the names are perfect all-round for the story. Asking for advice when you don't know what context in which the thing would be used was a bad idea, thank you for giving me that insight that should've been obvious. I'll try to apply that model to my thinking more often

5. I'm thankful for them. They opened my mind. :)
Trying to write: The Humanity Initiative

RE: Attempt on a split skill ranking system.

#4
It isn't a bad system, I also designed my own unique game system for my story. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that it should be simple and easy to understand. Remember that these skill statistics are just numbers on a spread-sheet. When you're actually playing the game they matter, but for the reader they're very insignificant. Put an emphasis on the skills themselves, make them interesting. And make the interface simple. Those two things will go a long way.