Proficiency System Rework

[MonMarty]

We have a habit of changing the Proficiency system once a year fundamentally, both to improve the way the mechanics work, while adding more content to make the whole concept more interesting. At a base line, Proficiency was always meant to improve character balance through solidifying numbers like in a D&D Character Sheet, but recently it has been expanded to improve fairness and flexibility for Crime-Rp as well as niche specific roleplay that isn't widely available to mundane characters. There is a very long list of changes to consider, so lets.

After three weeks of feedback from players on the discord, over voice chat, as well as internal discussions among lore staff, we concluded the following:

• Proficiency now starts recording at age 0 with 5 as a default, up to 55. Altalar continue to gain points up to 65 years old, to accommodate younger characters and hopefully drag age down across the board.
• All Proficiencies are now capped to 20 points, to encourage players to spread their points more.
• Front line Combat Skill was removed and merged into the Tactical Skill Proficiencies.
• Eastern Blades Skill was changed to Eastern Martial Skill to include Eastern Unarmed Combat also.
• Tactical Proficiency now contains clear separations of different skill levels, along with cool background data that can enhance your roleplay. It also no longer requires specific weapons to be used.
• Criminal Proficiencies replace Rogue Skill, adding a long slew of crime rp rules to how to behave with criminals, including an update to the Crime Rules. The goal here is to both eliminate god-rp among criminals which was rampant (no evidence, no fail on pickpocket etc,) but also give them more protections (to also counteract god-rp among the recipients of cirme rp which was rampant). In many cases, victims could just deny crime rp from taking place and it was generally just not fun.
• Underworld knowledge disappeared completely and is being replaced with a (hopefully) once weekly black market event where a staff member sells contraband for actual value instead of just making it so every gang just gets 1 dude with this proficiency to get unlimited free rare goods.
• Statesmanship has been changed to Study Case, to enhance in proficiency rolls, but otherwise charisma and leadership are declared by your ooc capabilities, not by your character proficiency.
• Knowledge for sailing has been given cool background stuff, Hunting clarified its abilities, Magical knowledge has been re balanced, society knowledge replaced Religious knowledge with clear packs, historical knowledge has been expanded, as has linguistic knowledge. The goal here was to ensure that each knowledge felt like a worthwhile investment at each level, instead of just being a point sink.
• Science Proficiencies remain the same, except that Nature Care has been split between a plant and animal variety.
• Theater Arts has been split away from Literary Arts, but everything else remains the same.
• Body Proficiencies have been given useful utility functions across the board, ranging from ability counters to proficiency counters, it's generally a useful proficiency investment.
• Altalar Martial Skill has been re-clarified to be its own unique thing, as a result, Altalar Rings have also been slightly nerfed, but given more individual freedom.
• All Ritualism skills have been revamped to cost drastically less points, have more aesthetic uses, and also be flexible among each other. Additional new packs for Ritualism were added also.
• Instead of racial boosts, races now have +5 increased limits to a variety of proficiency. The logic here was that in many cases, the boost made balancing really hard because some boosts made more sense than others, while others were more useful. By only affecting the upper limit, you aren't forcing a character down a path they don't want to go.
• Altalar are the sole exception who don't have 3x25 limits, but 1 flexible 30 limit.
• Orc, Url and Varran (and some Half Races) also gain Physical Stat.
• Imperial Culture can only inherit from another Culture now.
• Physical Stat has had that weird term Body Stat removed, it served no function and actually was just confusing as hell.
• Physical Stat calculations have been changed to include more flexibility.
• Physical Stat limits for all races have been brought closer together to reduce the discrepancies.
• Body Shape numbers have been reduced across the board to accommodate for less proficiency investment.
• Body Fat limits for all races have been unlocked to allow greater freedom.
• Racial heights remain the same.
• A complete Slizzar rework was made to help with the changes.
• A new Vampire Bloodline was implemented to help with the changes.
• A new blurb on factoring Character age was introduced on the /Proficiency Page
• A new blurb explaining Virtuoso was added on the /Proficiency Page to explain the rules of Virtuoso. All Virtuoso holders will soon be contacted about the status of their Permission.
• The Recommended Combat Roleplay Rolls system was updated to include more offensive flexbility, while also updating it based on the new calculations of Proficiency. It is now also mentioned on the page, as well as the freedom to use whatever system the players want. As long as it's not d20+proficiency. Seriously stop using that shitty system guys. It's practically god-rp when used on a non-combatant character.
• Racial boost and special powers have been flattened to remove as many "add xyz to proficiency abc", to reduce complications with balancing. The less boosts exist across the board, the easier everything is to balance.

All of this took quite a while, and it is no doubt far from perfect. We're still due a potential revision of Hunting Proficiency, and others, should problems arise in the future, but the players can rest assured that the functional mechanics of the system are set in stone for the rest of the year and then some into the next (since Proficiency reviews occur at the end of summer.) So what does a player do now?

Help my Character sheets!
All Character sheets are currently marked as Rejected. This is because a Proficiency change is substantial enough that it requires some people to rethink how they divided their points. When we do this once a year, there is a big app update, which also helps us, because it cleans out old unused apps that have been sitting around for over a year without use. Your app isn't rejected permanently, rather, we use this temporary rejection to weed out the unwanted and inactive apps before they get sent to deletion. so here's what you should do:

• Consider, do I want to make a new app from the ground up, or update my old one? If you want to make a new one, ignore your old apps. If you want to update an existing one, do the following:
• You as a player can tag your own thread as Needs Reviewer (orange). If you want your thread updated, update your thread first, then tag it Needs Reviewer (orange).
• You're done. But you could consider if you'd like your previous reviewer to look over your app again. If you use your previous reviewer, you might get your review done faster (but no promises!). If you want to make use of your previous reviewer, scroll up in the thread to make sure your reviewer is still staff (do they have a blue name and tag?) If they are, tag them and ask them to be your reviewer!
• Keep in mind, we have to re-approve hundreds of applications, so it may take a while for all apps to be done. I have called in extra help from staff who normally don't review, so we should be going through it relatively quickly.
• If you have any questions, consult the RP Com Discord ticket bot, or Help Chat for player assistance.

 

[Argens_Aegis]

What's the status of the Dread Corruption? Does it still exist just not tied to Void Ritualism? Also what are Lavvanya Summons mutations mentioned in the Light Weaver Ritualism? There is no explained details beyond that?