CoActionDrama

Developments

Developments are the things that you learn as you go through the world.  NPC’s start at 0 for any Development, PC’s start at 1.  This means that they always get a 1 bonus for a straight roll then making it against a Nature.

Developments must be specified appropriately.  It would not, for example, be appropriate for someone with computing to assume that they are numerically competent, or able to use an abacus in older cultures, unless this was appropriate and contextual, i.e. they live in an old culture.  They may, however, be extremely numerate and be able to use these skills as well as a result.

Applying Developments

Developments are applied in three ways.

General Competency

Developments point to a character skill which indicates that they are competent at a task.  Others would naturally turn to them for advice, and they may pursue the task as part of their profession.  It is natural, therefore, to assume that in a stress free environment, a character may take as much time as is needed to complete a task satisfactorily.

Stress over Time

Characters may be under stress, this can be divided into two ways each representing a slightly different use of the Development,  the mechanics of the game play are the same. 

Performance Stress

Duress

A character must perform well because the current situation depends on it, life and limb are threatened in some way should the task fail.

Non-Duress

The second is desire or need to excel.  If a character requires to excel at a task and has the time to pursue the task, they may make a roll to determine the quality of the result, the more the roll is made by, the better it is, but the character should not be regarded to have failed at the task if the roll is failed, the result is merely not as good as it might have been.  If the roll is missed by 15 or more, then the task should be regarded as failed, the character will know it, and the time used will be gone, perhaps with no more to repeat the task.  Following completion of the task, there should then follow another roll, as if under stress.  This roll determines the success of the characters assessment of the work.  Failing this roll makes the character believe that the work is good, irrespective of the quality, and they will present it as such.  The GM should make this roll, in fact, the GM should really make both of these rolls.

Time

The second stress method is time stress.  This is similar to performance stress under duress, the current situation depends on the Development execution, with some undesired result in case of failure.  In this situation it is a single roll that makes the choice, the character succeeds or not, with results for good and critical accordingly, but there is not time to assess and no chance to perform the task again.

The third use of Development is assistance or teaching.  In the first case, someone may apply their Development in a joint task with another character, who may have a different competency, but both are required for a successful completion.  The rolls are made, but this time a “good” checks the other characters work, if they have failed their roll, the amount under the good rolled acts as a bonus to correct their fail. 

The second situation here is teaching.  GM’s should roll for this.  If the roll is failed, extra time is spent because the character suddenly realises that the student has asked a question outside their current lexicon, but if a roll is failed “badly”, 15 or more over the target, the teacher realises nothing, and carries on regardless.  For each month spent teaching, and doing nothing else, the taught character gets to roll over the new Development, and the teaching character rolls as normal, if both rolls are made, the taught character gets a Development point in that Development.  The reader will see that it is very hard to teach someone at the top of their profession anything new.  It is important to note also that the teaching character must have at least 1 Development point more than the taught in the same Development.

Developments can reflect the profession of a person and this little table shows the expected levels.  It is always reasonable that a person pursues a career that does not reflect their true ability.

Profession Levels