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I have to study all skills and possibilities but I think before dinner I could have it. The ability modification is rigth and Astute Observation is a good talent and easy to connect with the character history. I don't know if I'm going to pick up other talents...  One question... What is the difference between the first purchase, the second purchase, etc...?

Abilities done. That also means the skill costs are correct.

Talents: Astute Observation could combine well with Perceive Tendency. The Perceive Tendency gives you a small speed advantage in duels, something like noticing a drop of sweat on the opponent´s forehead, or a small tick on his eye that tells you he is about to draw. It connects with the history (it can be considered the same talent but with an extra bonus), so we can add it if we have points to spare from skills.

Skills: each skill has “purchases”. These are like skill ranks in other systems (the “crosses”). So the first time you improve the skill, you purchase a skill rank. And your skill is improved by a dice roll (mastery die) plus Ability bonus. There are some skills considered “Universal” which you have a bonus even without a (rank) purchase, based on your Ability score. The first time you improve a skill (1st purchase), the cost is the cost listed in the tutorial modified by a high or low Ability score. But the second purchase is more expensive (basically you pay the cost of the first again to purchase the second). With a very high Ability bonus, the skill cost could be negative. For instance, you have high CHA, so skills which use Charisma you have a “*” as a cost for the 1st purchase (and sometimes even for the 2nd or 3rd). This means that you purchase directly the 2nd purchase and get the same bonuses as if you had purchased the 1st and the 2nd.

Yep, exactly! It´s a loop. Or a vicious circle. But it makes sense. You participate in gunfights. You gain fame. As you gain fame, some crazy young gunslinger wants to challenge you. If you win, you gain even more fame. It never ends hehe

Also, the system is done so that it is very fast to gain fame if you shoot people or commit crimes. Fame is not the same as Reputation, so Fame can be due to good things or bad things you do. You can also gain fame by other means than gun fighting obviously.

I think you are playing Choctaw just right. The idea is that of all the player characters, Choctaw is the deadliest in a gunfight. That doesn´t mean he is invincible, just that he has a bit more experience and he has no ethical issues to kill people.

From the previous scenes, you have 8BP to spend on improving skills. Your Fame is 14 (local) and your Reputation is 31 (you are a man of your word)

Crowe is sort of looking for his place in the world. These skills could be interesting to have (or improve):

Animal Empathy (5BP-4th purchase)
Animal Herding (4BP-4th)
Bronc Busting (3BP-2nd)
Fishing (1BP-1st)
Gunsmithing (8BP-1st)
Nursing (3BP-1st)
Oration (3BP-2nd)
Rope Use (6BP-3rd)

But please let me know if there is any other skill he would like to have. He has been a cowboy for a long time, but he is eager to try something else. When the problems with the cattle thieves started, he hoped Mr. Bronson would count on him and other men to take care of this. Crowe is fast with the gun, and accurate. But lacks experience. There are a number of other professional paths to explore, so let me know your thoughts. There is also nothing wrong about keep on working as a cowboy.

It´s nice to have you back! I´m not sure if you have read the story so far, but if you have any questions please let me know. Also I will upload the character sheet with the new skill bonuses when you´ve confirmed them.

Cheers!

I'm thinking maybe getting Nursing and Animal Empathy. What do you think?

Makes sense! I'll do it then? I'm preparing a few scenes where Crowe is considered a sensible, level-headed and trustworthy guy with a good Reputation. The pace is quite fast with the posting at present, like a post every other day. But I can adapt

​

Ok, cool, then Nursing and Animal Empathy it is.

About posting, I'm now doing pretty much nothing. I mean, I have classes like 4 hours a week, another 6 hours a week boxing and the rest is Umbria, and social life. So... I can post everyday, no problem :3 

Cool! Sheet uploaded. The active scene is here
 

Almost finished... One question or more:

  - Fast talking: I can't imagine what it's that.

  - Nursing and medicine??

  - Is there any ability related to track or something like that?

  - Sleight of Hand: Can I use it with gambling?

  - What are the differences betweeng gambling and gaming?

Returning to talents I don't know wich one of the 20's BP choose. My character looks like a quick-witted guy but on the other hand is a bounty hunter. The first talent is perfect when dueling, but I'm not sure it's better than the experiencie on shooting. Using other point of view the rewards are "dead or alive" you can be a bounty hunter using no gunpowder... just with your theatrical abilities... that must be Artistic Ability or a combination of other abilities... you know, try to look so tough to avoid any fight (and danger).

Fast talking: it´s a bit like the Deception-skill. Fast Talking means you know how to overwhelm someone with a torrent of words. If successful, the target remains to hear him speak, and has more difficulty succeeding at a Listening or Observation check while the fast talker rambles on.

Deception: the character is smooth. He can tell untruths in such a convincing manner that those who don´t believe him look like fools. A successful skill check means that people believe the stories. A failure means the lie is too outrageous or unbelievable in some way.

NOTE: This ain´t Rolemaster, so you don´t have to take all the skills. I mean, if you think Deception fits your character better, you don´t need Fast Talking necessarily (or vice versa). You can roll the skill you have, and role play it to your benefit in that situation.

Nursing and Medicine: these are different things. Nursing is to put a bandage on a wound, to clean or sterilize and such. It can save a life. Medicine is to remove a lodged bullet, perform surgery… It´s normally more difficult to learn Medicine than Nursing, and you can´t use Nursing for stuff that requires the Medicine skill.

Tracking: yes, the skill exists. The cost is 11 BP for the 1st purchase, 20 for the 2nd. Since your character concept was more the investigating type, I didn´t include the outdoor skills on purpose. There is also Weather Sense, Survival, Sneaking, Swimming, and all sorts of skills with animals.

In the Tutorial you have the full skill list. I cherry picked the ones that seemed to fit your character, but feel free to include any other skills that you consider.

Sleight of Hand: the description says “to attempt minor feats of apparent illusion by deftly hiding items and distracting observers”. So you can make object disappear (depending on the size of the object, it is more or less difficult). In theory you could use it to hide a card for instance, and I guess to get a card from your sleeve. Things like that. If you are asking if you can combine this skill with the Gambling skill, bear in mind Gambling is a very specific skill that allows for continuous “cheating” or advantage on a poker game. You cannot spot Gambling skill unless you see the same card appear on the table twice. If you are not using the Gambling skill, I guess you can use “Sleight of Hand” WHEN gambling for something specific. Maybe take away a few chips or something.

Talents: my suggestion is NOT to take the Veteran Gunfighter. It is basically one extra gunfight, which you will get anyway in the first scene. The difference between one or two gunfight experience is not that important. For all the characters, I try to write an intro scene with a gunfight experience “with a safety net”¹. Unless you are very unlucky (or stupid), you should survive. Also, as a house rule, I allow for gunfight experience to be purchased later with the BPs you earn from scenes. As there is a period of time between each scene, we simply fit a small narrative story there about a gunfight.

Finally, as you say, you can often talk your way out of gunfights. For that purpose, the best skill by far is Intimidation (cost 6 BP for the 3rd purchase, then 2 BP for the 4th, and 4 BP for the 5th, so for just 12 BP you could have 5 ranks in Intimidation). Characters use this skill to cause others to back down in a contest of wills. He can make others afraid to fight him or use his skill to help in interrogation. The difficulty depends on the consequences, so it would require a very high mastery of the Intimidation skill to convince someone to surrender without a fight if that means he will be hanged :D

Oration is a skill to convince a group of people. Acting (Artistic skill) is not that useful really, as it means you create a performance but it´s difficult to use it to change people´s minds about something.

Hope this helps

More questions.... :(

In the list of abilities sometimes appears Reading Comp/Penmanship 85% or better, how it works? 

Is the "Law" ability suitable only for attorneis and lawyers? That it's because a bounty hunter needs a lincense to pursuit fugitives. Each state had a regulation about bounty hunters. I don't know if my character has to know that or not (In our  world of course yes, but in this one naybe not). 

I think that the character shoud read and count better than others (an advantage to perform CHISELER) but I don't know if there is abilities for that purpose. 

Good questions :)

There are certain skills that have a minimum requirement or prerequisite. For instance, to make purchases of the “Law”-skill, you first have to Reading Comp/Penmanship skill with a minimum of 60%. It makes sense.

Law: hmm, I hadn´t thought about this skill, but I understand what you are saying. This skill allows to recall case law accurately and even to act as attorney. It can also be used to conduct basic legal research, to prepare legal documents… According to the description, it is more for attorneys as you suspected, but it might be an interesting "nice to have".

As to the bounty hunter regulations, they do vary from one area to another, but the frontier was, well, very wild. I have included some basic info regarding bounty hunters for the first scene, but in general the license is not difficult to get (the license still exists today in the United States, and it more regulated nowadays). So you don´t need to have a profound knowledge of the legal system to operate as a bounty hunter, but it could be useful one day. Maybe if you are accused of entering a private property while hunting down someone, etc.

Reading and counting: there is the Reading Comprehension/Penmanship skill. It´s quite useful, and the cost is 3 BP for the 1st purchase, 7 BP for the 2nd and 11 BP for the 3rd. Mathematics is for different mathematics (geometry, trigonometry, calculus), but at a novice levels it allows for general math (addition, subtraction, division, multiplication). It´s also a prerequisite for other skills such as Accounting (and you need to have Reading Comprehension/Penmanship 90% or better to start with Mathematics).

Each purchase translates to a % improvement (a mastery dice is rolled and a possible Ability bonus is added). For instance, if you make a purchase in Reading Comp/Penmanship you get 12+1d6 increase (so the new value would be 82-87%). Skills that are classed as Universal you learn quicker. For instance, one purchase of Sleight of Hand would give you 26+1d6 improvement. Remember, that the goal is to roll higher than your skill value, so 60% is better than 90% on the skills.

One skill I considered for Chiseler background was “Appraisal” (to know the value of things). This has to be developed separately for: animals, businesses/land, minerals (mines, gems, jewelry), antiques, old books, works of art… And the other interesting one was Salesmanship (to negotiate a good deal).

Talents:

  -Astute Observation (50)

  -Perceive Tendency (20)

Partial sum (70)

Ablities:

Deception  (5)               
Diplomacy (5)
Gambling (3)
Glean Information (1 +1 )
Hiding (2 + 5)
Interrogation (7)
Intimidation (6 + 2 )
Listening (7)
Riding (5 + 8)
Distraction (4)
Salesmanship (2)
Graceful Entrance/Exit (4)
Seduction (4)
Sleight of Hand (2+4)
Appraisal (2 + 3)
Reading Comp (4)
Nursing (5)
Swimming (1)
Social Etiquette (1+3)
Diplomacy(5)

Partial sum 101

Total Sum 171

Correct! Well, almost. A few minor things. You put Diplomacy twice, and the cost for Social Etiquette I had put wrong, it is “*-6” (the cost 1+3 was for Stonemasonry hehe).

With that, you have 4 BP left if you wish to use, or you can save them for future (they are not lost if you do not use them all).  

We are nearly done. If you wish to have a look at the equipment, you have $13 starting money (poor background). You get the basic clothes for free, but not the hat, the coat, etc.

However, all the characters may choose one weapon of less than $20. More info here.

​Appraisal: You have to specify Animals, Antiques, Books, Businesses, Gems, Jewelry, Land, Minerals, Ore...

Weapon:

  - 607 Colt SAA (.45) $18,75

Equipment:

 - 703 Knife, jack $0,17

 - 665 Cartridge .45 caliber pistol (100 rounds) $2,85

 -  422 Tobacco, smoking $0,15

 - 384 Beef jerky (per lb) $0,20

 - 382 Beans (3 lb. tin) $0,12

 - 236 Cards, playing (1 deck) $0,15

 - 249 Mouth organ (Jews' harp) $0,10

 - 129 Pan, frying (11 in.) $0,15

 - 121 Matches (Lucifer), box of 150 $0,05

 - 4 Belt, leather .............$0,10

 - 37 Hat, cavalry............. $1,37

 - 31 Gloves, buckskin ........$0,78

 - 67 Traveling bag (16 in., alligator skin) $0,65

 - 13 Coat, wool .............$2,25

- 20 Duster (oilskin slicker) $3,50

All this stuff 12,59$... 

Appraisal jewelry

Gear done. I´ve applied the discount as extra money, so you start with $1.62 in your pocket. The $1.25 difference on the gun price I´ve put into the “Miscellaneous Bag”. So you have different items and cheap jewelry for that value in the bag.

I´ve uploaded the character sheet! You can find it in “PERSONAJES => FICHA”. Also, you have the data sheet for your gun in “notas”. Do you have a story ready? Or should we start while you complete it?

Another thing. Profession Paths. In this system, there are no “Character Professions”. But before each scene, a Profession Path is specified. During a long campaign, you can change professions and go back and forth. The profession path gives you goals or objectives that, if accomplished, grant you extra BPs. There is no harm not following any profession path and just “coasting along”. Also, after a certain period of time, a character may have achieved all the goals of a specific profession (regarding BPs).

As we discussed, the first Profession Path for you would be “Bounty Hunter”. The goals have to be achieved more or less in order, so the first two would be “Capture a criminal” and “Bring in a local criminal”… Before you can start bringing in Notorious Outlaws, dead or alive. More info regarding Profession Paths in the Tutorial scene .

History:

It was the beginning of 1860 when Trinity was born in the city of New York. His father used to work on the piers every time a job was offered. It wasn't bad times and a second brother came so quickly. In 1863 his mother was pregnant that
fact that didn't change the brutal aggression his father suffered at the irish riot on July 11. His father's right hand was cutted off and the right leg was badly injured (squased by a horse), the poor man had hundreds of minor 
injuries along his body. Six months later all the family left the city and travelled to the west, one of his father contractors horrified by the brutality of the agression offered a job in one of their plantation. The truth 
was that Trinity's father suffered the attack of the irish because he defended the contrator, the bunch took him because the white man had scaped, the secret never was revealed. The next years were so kindly, 4 more brothers 
were born and Trinity's family had the affect of all the workers of the plantation, no slaves. 1873 was a bad year, an outbreak of tuberculosis took away the weak father of him, his mother and his little brother. The owner 
of the plantation adopted Trinity and the rest of his brothers. In 1876 Jack, the owner of the plantation, organized a catter-drive to sell many of their cows. The convoy was attacked by the Chickasaw indians and the little 
son of Jack and two of Trinity's brothers were killed. Jack became a dark and untrusted fellow. His eldest son gone away. Few years after Trinity left the plantation, his eyes couldn't stop the well up of tears when he said goodbay to
his broter Booba, their realtionship was so strong but the recalls of what happened in that place forced him to gone away. He wandered a couple of years since he met Jack Junior his "stepbrother", 
Jach had became a bounty hunter, his hate against indians hardened his heart. Together they started a travel to the savage west, looking for adventures, looking for revenge.
 

OK, character done! The background is good I think. I´ve edited just a few things and posted it here

That is the opening scene of the story (or the Prologue). Just to get a feel of the setting for all characters together, and then each characters background as a private post. There is nothing to post there, just read it and shortly I´ll open your intro scene called The Hunter^TM

You have a total of 15 BPs to spend. A few recommendations/options:

*Observation: 8 BP (1st purchase)
*Animal Lore: 2 BP (*-2nd purchase)
*Artistic Ability: mouth organ: 3 BP
*Climbing: 2 BP
*Current Affairs: 4 BP
*Glean Information: 3 BP (4th purchase)
*Language-Spanish: 4 BP
*Oration: 5 BP (*-*-3rd)
*Rope Use: 2 BP (if you capture someone)
*Tracking: 11 BP
*save the BPs to purchase for later or to purchase a gunfight experience (the cost is 20-nr of gunfights currently=19 BPs). This is a house rule, and you would have to write a short story about the gunfight.