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Originally Posted by Acleacius Nice info coming thru here, thanks to all, hope it continues. 
Ouch, that is harsh pennypincher! 
So give me a pennypincher, Apperance 5? 
Lucita
"plus 2 dots for each century of age ( for the first few centuries )"
I kinda like the idea of 2 dots per century, why only the first few centuries? |
Awww, I didn't mean to be harsh.
Here's my theory on these kinds of things.
Mortals posses stats bewteen 1-5. 1 is the person who is worst in all the world when it comes to attributes. A strength one person is a weak, scrawny little p***ant who can bearly lift their own weight, two an avergae person who can't kick down a door in one kick, but can help you push a car home, three a larger gent or lady who is in good shape and stronger then most, 4 is a weight lifter professional who could use their strength for a living and is one of the strongest people on earth... Five is THE strongest person on earth. It is impossable for anyone to be stronger then you, they just can't do it, you are THE best...
To that end, giving someone a five in something is a VERY big ask. This person isn't just good (3) they aren't just great (4) they are THE BEST (5). When it comes to things like Apperance, it's even MORE difficult to assign a five... After all, that means that basicly everyone on planet earth has to agree that you are the most beautiful person they know. The woman from that movie really isn't the most beautiful person I know... She just didn't make my jaw drop and have me dreaming of her for weeks to come. I've met women who've had me thinking of them for weeks and weeks, even if I don't know them... She wasn't one.
The same is true with attributes, 0 is untrained... You might not suck at it, but you just really don't know anything about it... A person fighting with Dex 4 and Brawl 0 is still good... They have natural talent, they just don't know the first thing about boxing or martial arts. Meanwhile, a person with 1 dot has some basic skills, natural or trained, 2 is a fully trained person, 3 is an expert in their field and likley saught after for speical tasks, 4 is a genius, maybe someone who created a new form of their own (Brawl: made their own martial arts, Repair: Created their own set of tools thats now world famous. Academics: Discovered and named their own mathmatical theory)... And five is THE BEST PERSON at that ability. You have to be a little old martial arts trainer who lives on a mountain and meditates all day on the body and the form and refuses to train anyone because your art form is too deadly... You are THE best... Unbeatable... Nobody can have more skill then you at this.
Vampires, of course, have different issues. When you have 300 years to read every book on medicine every written, compare them, and test all the theories on living human subjects, your understanding of medicine can surpass what a normal mortal would understand... Hence why some vampires can learn attributes and abilitys and Discplines at 6-10. After 500 years of speaking to mortals, conversation becomes like a script... You know exactly what to say and when to say it and just how to sound to recivie exactly the response you want... Hence your Manipulation 7 and your Subterfuge 6.
That leads us to the question of why the first few years, things come faster. The answer is a little bit two fold from my point of view.
1) The older Vampires get, the less interested in the world and things they become. Learning ANOTHER dot of Presence and reading ANOTHER book on astrology might seem a little meaningless when you can already command the city with a thought and you know the name of all the stars and can tell when one has vanished from the night sky. The more jaded and mired in age they become, the less they seek out new things, and the more things leave them behind... Your computer skill of 5 was prolly GREAT for your C64, but things have changed and you havent... Learning the new skill can be hard, and seem pointless... Afterall, things will only change again.
2) The higher up the tree you go, the more difficult things become to learn (Reflected by higher XP costs and learning time)... Having someone teach you a few words of German so you can ask where the toilet is and if someone speaks English is easy... Learning how to hold a conversation, that might take a few weeks or months... Learning the entier language and speaking it like a native, that could take a year or more... Imagine how long the things vampires need to learn could take. If it takes you 5 years to learn Empathy 5... How long will it take you to learn things about empathy no human can know? Theres no books on it, no tv shows, nobody you can ask... You basicly have to create all new theories and test them over and over and find a brand new empathy... Some people don't achive that in their LIFETIME! 50 years to learn a skill at 6? Not an unreasonable ask... 100 years to learn it at 7? Just a drop in the ocean for a Vampire.
... Now imagine how long the learning times must be for Discplines! How DO you learn Fortitude 5? Stand in front of the 9:15 train to St Loius and if you live, you're learning?? Heck, how would you even know when you HAD learnt it? The train hurts less? Do you test it out by putting your arm into sunlight? NO THANKS!.