Newbie "where are my skills" questions

[Rampage]

I got my Sorcerer books and, guess what? I have questions! :) I'm posting 'em grouped by themes. First is about cover/skills (not task/conflict resolution)

1. Say a PC has Cover:Stamp Collector and wants pick a lock. Given there's no direct relation between both, cover doesn't apply. So what does the PC roll? 1 dice vs an arbitrary set number because even if he hasn't got a clue we assume sorcerers are pretty smart and could figure out how a basic lock works, so he gets 1?

2. Same PC decides to attend intensive lockpicking 101 for a week, good enough to get him the basic skills of the trade. Does this translate into an additional Cover/Past?

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

I like questions.

#1: Yes, you have it correct. He gets a single die.

Except ... note that the rules always give the option of saying, "Forget it," giving him no chance at all. This is important because usually the entire group including the GM agrees simultaneously (which is how you know when to apply the option). When that happens, it overrides the single-die option. He can't say, "But I always get a single die!" if the whole group gives him The Look which means, as you know, "that's lame."

All of this is an informal way to say that Cover defines a range of plausible action that aesthetically suits that character. Going out of that range expands to a wider, surrounding zone which applies in the sense of "anyone in our game should have a shot at this," but going further out into the zone of "that's lame" should be called for what it is.

Oh yes, one other point - many other score descriptors (for Stamina and Will especially) will imply ranges of expertise that are not found in the Cover score, but they are treated exactly the same. So someone might have "Combat trained" for Stamina, and "Accountant" for Cover. Obviously this character will not roll a mere single die when doing combat-oriented stuff which happens not to be fighting, but instead will use the Stamina dice.

#2. No. That sort of thing is strictly reserved for the character improvement/alteration system that is applied after a character resolves his or her Kicker. That system permits changing the character's Cover descriptor.

Best, Ron