Playing to the Skills You Don't Have

January 12, 2009 No comments

We’ve all been there: You carefully craft a new character for a game, finding what you think is the optimal mix of skills and abilities for the concept you’ve come up with, only to learn during actual play that you forgot something significant. “How did I forget that?”, you ask yourself. You feel kind of foolish. Another thing that happens is that you build a character on the assumption that the campaign will be headed in one direction, so you load up with skills you anticipate you’ll need, only to find those skills are next to useless within the actual scenario. Or, maybe you just like a particular concept, and even though it’s not a “fit” for the campaign you’re okay playing the metaphorical fish out of water. But what do you do? What happens when you have a character that’s not equipped with the abilities needed to get by?

Explore the Backstory Opportunities
So your thief can’t climb, your secret agent can’t drive, and your space pirate doesn’t know how to use a gun. Ask yourself why. How did this character get to this stage of their life without these skills? There has to be a story in there. An interesting story. Possibly something that could introduce an adventure hook or some non-player characters. How has the character gotten along without this skill? What do that do instead? If their skills are atypical, then they must have some atypical methodology as well. Use the missing ability as a springboard for creativity.

Barter the Skills You Have
Ask your gamemaster if there’s a supporting character somewhere that has need of your character’s “useless” skills. Somewhere in the setting there’s a need, or else how or why would your character have learned them? Trade the use of the skills you have for hirelings, gadgets, or magic items that compensate for the missing skills. Trade the use of your skills for lessons to learn the missing skill.

Find Creative Uses for the Skills You Have
Approach each task or action from a different angle, and see if there’s a skill you do have that could be substituted. Ask your gamemaster. You may be at a penalty to do it, but it’s better than nothing, right? You may also get a bonus, depending upon the gamemaster and the system mechanics, for being clever and thinking outside the box. If you pull it off, it’ll look cool. If you don’t, it’ll be amusing. Have fun with it. You never know what you might come up with.

Ask Your Gamemaster to Incorporate “Useless” Skills
I’ve always argued that game balance comes from the gamemaster giving everyone something to do. Point out the skills that you do have that aren’t coming into play, and ask if somehow they can get worked into the adventure. You gave them to the character for a reason, right? You should be able to use them. Any reasonable and creative gamemaster should be able to work out an accommodation.