Learning Non-Class Skills

[Lizzie]

I think sacrificing current skills is good.  But it would be best if there were some sort of heavy penalty, as in... You must sacrifice two or three for one, with the one at a lower cap.  

While I agree there should be some sort of sacrifice made, this strikes me as decidedly unrealistic from a roleplay standpoint.  People don't just forget one thing because they learn another. There's an almost infinite capacity to retain information IRL, so why shouldn't there by IG? When I had my son and learned an entirely new skill_mothering set, I didn't suddenly forget how to math or wipe my own ass.  If there's any sort of limit put on gaining non-class skill, it should be a time investment versus a skill investment; ie one skill available to apply for every 3 RL months after a character's generation, without having to give up anything already on your skills list.

Using your example - yes, you unlocked skill_mothering, when you had your child. But not all mothers unlock that skill. Some women do not, and will not, ever have skill_mothering, no matter how many kids they have.

In the same vein, not all characters have the ability to unlock certain skills, which is why we have guilds and subguilds, and not a free-for-all smorgasbord.

[Sephiroto]

Lizzie, you're correct that guilds and subguilds dictate natural talent and that some people just can't stuff.  However, the whole point is that karma allows the illogical to occur, like beefing skills on character creation or the unlocking of extra-powerful guilds.  There's a lot of talk about how this new feature could throw balance of the game negatively.  So, consider this:

If people spend more karma points adding tiny bumps to skills or unlocking new skills over the course of their PC's life, then that means more players will be restricted to low or no karma guilds because they'll have less karma to spend on their next PC.  I think that this is something many of the oldschool players can get behind, because it makes magickers and muls more rare than they are now.  It also means that the ones that do exist, will be more infamous.  I think that's how it should be.

Also, the potential to become advanced in a single skill over a RL year isn't what I'd call a free-for-all smorgasbord.  Bias aside, I think it sounds very moderate.

[Delirium]

Completely agree with the above post.

I'm all for breaking down some of the rigid class barriers regardless.

Right now it is still too easy to get guild sniffed.

[Harmless]

Funnily, as this thread matured, and as I played the game more, the more I want the feature. I revise all my earlier opinions to simply agree with Sephiroto's idea completely.

[RogueGunslinger]

Eh. I'm pretty much 100% with Synth in that I'd rather an extended subguild for my next character than a skill-bump or addition for my current one.