Quest for the BIG LIST generator.

[manfred]

See the Big List of..., unless you haven't already.


Seeing what comes with just a few examples, it clearly needs an editor. Sadly, I do not have time for this. Any volunteers? We need you to have strong systematic thinking, and to be unafraid of large amounts of data. It is OK if done in parts. It could be even done by several people, you may just divide the Skills by alphabet letters (or however), and stay consistent with each other.


The job is to divide the Skills into selected categories, and add them to the generator. Volunteers please apply here. I can give more info on the desired format in case my chaotic JavaScript is not clearly understandable to you.

The reward is undying fame eternal, and a small note in the Credits. Once we jump over to Citadel V2, we could also give you some extra XP... but I am sure you fans of roleplaying games won't do this for the XP only, right? *cue evil Game Master laughter*

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UPDATE:
the Big List is actively worked at and may be complete in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

[Ancient Gamer]

If it is just alphabetizing and readying for insertion into your Javascript + moving into categories, then I can help. I will use this thread and continually update my progress.

It would be nice if others contributed, it does not seem like terrible fun. Contribution need not be more than a comment on my chosen categories and the like.

[manfred]

Thanks you for your quick reply, AG. Good Luck on your Quest!

The categories/clusters so far are: (not all are used yet)

Agricultural
Artistic/Performance
Athletic
Combative
Deductive
Knowledge/Lore
Mercantile
Mystical
Natural/Outdoors
Perceptive
Political
Religious
Social
Shadow
Technical
Traveller

A "Craft" or "Professional" category is being considered (many seem to fall into Knowledge/Lore).


The other kind of sorting is the Any/Fantasy/Modern/Sci-fi grouping... most fall naturally into Any, so this shouldn't be a problem.

[Ancient Gamer]

Good thing I did not use my weekend on this then, considered that Mourngrymn already has completed it.

Quest accomplished by him then, and I abandon it. And people (mourngrymn in this case) Perhaps it would be wise to let people know when they are working on the same thing, to avoid a duplicated effort?  

[manfred]

*ahem*

The Quest is not over yet. My fault for not being clear in that post: Mourngrymn has created a nice document with those Skills, etc., in a form handy for printing and reference.

BUT...

Those Skills are still not sorted into groups (clusters), so the Big List generator is not finished yet.

The quest is certainly not over yet... *pulls out a very small whip, enchanted to cause pleasure instead of pain, cracks whip* Back to work!

[Nosredna]

  Wheres the point in a whip like that?!?

*Shakes fist* Bring on the Pain!!!

[manfred]

(This is a repository for all things we don't want to decide right now, but leave for later on. It will be edited as the work progresses.)

Skills that are hard to categorize/Unclear skills:
(ponder on these later)

?'survival' - as a general skill, not bound to locale (there are such already)

'naturalist' - ??? there are several definitions and points of view on this

What is H.A.M. again?

Add:
?'Florentine Style' - 2-weapon attacking.


Not sure about combining Perceptive and Shadow... keep them separate for now.

[CaptainPenguin]

Note to Shadow: 'stealth', 'silent move', 'sneak', 'shadowing', even 'hide in shadow'; make sure there is not duplicity or make differences clearer

Stealth is far too general.
Shadowing would be following someone closely behind them without being noticed.
I would suggest that Silent Move and Sneak are the exact same thing.

[Kinslayer]

'Zero-G maneuvers' - is it same as 'zero-G combat'?

In Palladium's Mutants in Orbit book, movement in low or no gravity required a separate skill, and was used for moving your body about a spaceship (or outside thereof), rather than moving the spaceship itself.  There were also zero-G combat skills, as in that system, combat bonuses are a function of skills rather than based on class & level.
 
'Theology' - can be separate from a Religion skill.  The former is a scholarly overview of many religions, while the latter is specialised for a single religion & studies within the context of that religion.  For example, a professor of theology needs to know different things--and in a different way--than a Baptist minister, even on the same subject.

As regarding categorising, this is what I do.  If it involves magic at all, it's Mystic.  If it is used primarily to harm or hinder another in combat, it's Martial. If it is used to deal with other people--other than by enchantment or violence--it's Social.  Everything else goes into the catch-all category of Technical.  Thus, skills such as Speak Language would then be Social.

[manfred]

Updated the generator and the WTF post above. Now contains stuff from I upwards, and A-D.


Hearty thanks to CP and Kinslayer!

[manfred]

Got a real intensive session on the Big List generator. Doing a letter or two at once, and getting up to F (so all MoonHunter's stuff from F upwards is there). It is fast work if divided into small manageable chunks, and leaving all unclear skills for a later decision (see the WTF post above).

Decided to skip many skills, particularly of the medical field, and a large number of skills with the bio- prefix. The list started to look unbalanced, and adding skills from ather areas of knowledge would make it more of a human-generator.


Skill clusters evaluation:

Agricultural - too few, will do better in a new Crafts cluster
Artistic - not many, but can stay I think
Athletic - can stay
Combative - seems small, but weapon skills are usually system-dependant. Stays.
Knowledge - the largest group, some should go elsewhere
Mercantile - a small group that could handle some increase
Natural - small, but can possibly stay
Perceptive - very small. Add to Shadow? (possible duplicities)
Social - a manageable size. Stays.
Shadow - not large, but ok
Technical - fine, stays


New Clusters/Unused clusters

Crafts definitely. Will also recieve some of the Knowledge and Technical, probubly join with Agricultural.

Mystical has very few but quite desirable skills; if not more are found, they will be spread into Knowledge and even Perception.

Deductive: deduction - is there any other skill to the Deductive cluster? And where to put it?

Political: bureaucracy, counter-espionage - any more skills? Probably into Social and Shadow.

Traveller: boating, camping, astrogation(interstellar navigation), navigation - too few - divide into Natural, Athletic and Knowledge

[Ancient Gamer]

Okay, I realize that some skills were put in the wrong category (like bioengineering), but that is bound to happen. Many are ambiguous, but there is no point in dwelling on that, so I just alloted such skills to the most suitable category.

So... What are my next two and half letters for this week? D-F?

How much is already covered?

Perhaps you should post a link to the generator... With big fonts and all, like, for instance, this:

Code: [Select]

[size=18][url="http://manfredslink.sk/"]Link to generator[/url][/size]

Or?

[manfred]

The link is only some two posts above, dear AG.

But fine, how about:

Link to the Big List generator


All letters from F upwards (F included) area already added. (You may also peek into the code, if you want to see some awkward Javascript. It's all there.)

[Ancient Gamer]

Okay, then just parts of D and all of E remains. Say so if those are done before the weekend, aye?

[manfred]

Added Iain's few, and started with Kinslayer's list (done up to F). Problems due to many skills that are certainly spells, and several hard-to-explain ones. Updated WTF post above again.

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Also, seeing this all turned into a blog of sorts, the thread deserves some cleaning up once the Big List is completed.