Nuclear Beasts

Good-bye Race/Instinct Trait?

Do I really want an Instinct trait? Let me look at the pros and cons of having a trait full of dice vs a flat bonus.

• Pro: you can increase all of the skills that your race is good at simultaneously, at a slight price discount.
• Con: Low Beasts starting with a higher Race trait isn't that amazing of a benefit, since 20 XP or so can duplicate the effects.
• Pro: you can apply it to whatever tasks you want without increasing the maximum result.

Maybe it would be better to just make Instinct another stat (like Ironclaw does) and give Low Beasts a flat +1 or +2 to it?

Alternately, we could dump it entirely and say that High Beasts get a +1 on tasks that their race is good at and Low Beasts get a +2. For a bigger differential, it could even be +2/+4. A +4 is a big bonus.

One downside of dumping it entirely is losing the ability to apply it to social checks... also, then you can't increase your instincts as well... there might be an Edge that grants an additional +1 or something, but that would be about it. On the other hand, I could rule that folks get a flat +1 or +2 to social checks with other members of their species, but that doesn't get around the botch rules for unskilled attempts... unless a successful roll is a success even if it would normally be a botch. Hm.

Posted by Kiz at June 5, 2004 09:14 PM