Originally posted by Justin on the V20 Blog.
Okay, after a day’s delay, here are the Attributes and Abilities, ready for playtest and scrutiny. Some of the high points:
- Specialties changed a tiny bit. Instead of exploding 10s, they count as two successes. It saves a bit of time when they do come up, and it makes them inherently more valuable, as opposed to the bonus-type fun of rolling the exploding die that wouldn’t always pay off.
- Retooled Appearance. I saw a lot of commentary that made the case that Appearance wasn’t being used to its full potential. I pushed the emphasis on first impressions and added a few more explicit options as to how it could be used. Also in the rewording, Appearance becomes less conventional “attractiveness” and instead become more versatile noteworthiness. You might not be the most beautiful woman in the room, for example, but you’ll turn heads. E.g. interesting-looking and memorable people like Uma Thurman, Tilda Swinton, and Adrien Brody.
- Dropped Dodge. Much feedback seemed to approve of moving the behavior of Dodge over to a Dexterity + Athletics roll, and once me move into combat development, we’ll playtest having another dodgish action that’ll probably be based on Wits. For now, this leaves an empty spot in the Talents column. Don’t sweat it.
- Retooled Security. This was more of a rebuild, actually. It was a little too narrow previously and “security” was a bit of misnomer, so I broadened it here, making it a more general Skill for dubious activity. The previously included ability to tinker with alarm systems and hotwiring instead moves to Technology (added; see below) or Crafts as a mechanical inclination. It’s now Larceny.
- Reworked Computer. It’s a little broader now, reflecting the greater ubiquity of computers and the Internet in our daily lives since 1998 , when the revised edition was printed.
- Dropped Linguistics. “Linguistics” as a Knowledge representing the study of languages is a fine specialty of Academics. Actually knowing individual languages will move to either a Background or (more likely) a Merit.
- Added Technology. As a complement to the “mechanical” nature to which Crafts can be turned, Technology encompasses the more electronics-oriented end of technical knowledge. Since retooling Security as Larceny, which covers shady activity, messing around with security systems would more logically fall under this wires-and-chipsets Knowledge.
Anyway, bang around under the hood, if you’d be so kind. OpenDev doc is available at:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1EjLGebjfni1MDsZO2QFo_9EsPNY4gj8y_mp7F-3WBu8