Adding dice to skills

[SeeleyOne]

I want to use Languages as the variant under the Knowledge skill. This is easily done by making a copy of Knowledge and calling it Language.

What is not easy, however, is how I want the Linguist edge to work. Instead of giving a die roll bonus like other Professional edges, I want it to actually bump the die rating up for any Language skills that the character possesses. A new Language will therefore start at d6 instead of d4.

I can get it to add to one Language, but not all of them. I think that it would probably use the trtBonus syntax but I am not sure how to word it.

[zarlor]

I hate to send you right back to the same place almost every time, but that's almost exactly the second part of the very first example on the Common Codes thread I posted. The only difference is you'll use whatever UniqueID you used for your Language skill instead of Knowledge (I'd just stick with the Knowledge mechanic, personally, though.)

[SeeleyOne]

Well, that worked great, thanks!

I was coming up with quite a few things several months ago, but my hard drive died between backups. I lost what I had come up with. It was before that thread, and at the time I felt like I was but one of three people that looked on this forum anyway. I need to get in the habit of visiting here more often again.

[zarlor]

I kind of know the feeling, but it looks like a few more of us are on here a bit more often now, so hopefully we can all begin to really help each other better in figuring more of this stuff out.

[jbearwillis]

Yes, having another person to help with ideas would be must appreciated in this forum, zarlor and I help each other as much as possible but I would have to say my knowledge is not up to par, as far as I see myself is a mad scientist just put things together until they work lol. Sometimes that works and sometimes it's a disaster waiting to happen - lookout here comes Frankenstein Script.

[CapedCrusader]

You'll probably need to create a customized version of the Linguist Edge that will operate with the new Skill.

[SeeleyOne]

Originally Posted by CapedCrusader

You'll probably need to create a customized version of the Linguist Edge that will operate with the new Skill.

I did, and it works like I wanted it to (thanks to Zarlor's link).
In my game, we don't bother to make Language checks, but go by the die rating as per the Knowledge skill description. In light of this, a bonus to a die roll would not be easily quantified. However, it is reasonable to have a die bump in this case. All Language skills are at one die higher.

As a side-note to thos rules, it is possible to "wing it" for similar languages. For example, I speak Spanish, probably at the d6 level (d8 is somewhat optimistic for me). I can often understand Portuguese and Itialian. I have no idea how to actually speak them, though, but if I speak Spanish the reverse is also true. They can understand me when I speak Spanish even though they do not officially speak it. I would say drop a die level, maybe two for more specialized conversations. It really goes into the "common knowledge" area as it is dependent on what type of words you might know.