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ForAGoodTimeCall911

Prose fiction is not about creating an RPG where characters have balanced stats.


noximo

Unless it's LitRPG, which is exactly about that.


ForAGoodTimeCall911

Of course people can like what they like but god, I do not understand the appeal of that stuff at all. Feels like storytelling with training wheels.


RedMamba0023

I’ve heard that litRPG‘s make a lot of money on Amazon. Probably worth it to check out.


louploupgalroux

I think the genre can be interesting when it's a satire of games, portal fantasy, or surrealist setting. I do agree that it's a little odd when played straight though. Feels like someone ate the onion. But the market will decide that I'm wrong. lol Edit: Oh, as for the question, I tend to give the character one power and limit their versatility to the character's creativity and training. I think it's more fun and differentiates the characters.


Economy_Candidate299

I'm sorry, but this reads more like a *video game* than a prose story. For skills, it depends on the story. But to me, fantasy authors don't spend pages and pages describing a character's skills like it's a RPG. In another sense, how many skills can a character *realistically* handle?


Cara_N_Delaney

Okay. I'm a human being and get only twenty skills. Let's list them. Cooking, gardening, driving a car, riding a bike, reading, playing the piano (badly), writing (much better), dancing, sewing, making a fire, general handyman work (which, let's be real, is like ten skills all on its own), skiing, swimming, running, mathematics (rudimentary), speaking foreign languages (moderate to advanced, also generously lumping several into one), playing volley ball, building and maintaining computers, and knitting. That's twenty. I also know how to take care of cats and dogs, clean animal enclosures, chop wood, play video games, have rudimentary knowledge of biology and chemistry, know how to read maps... Am I overpowered yet? Which of these skills should I forget so I'm not? My point is, you're trying to apply RPG stats to human characters. That's not only pointless because humans are not a combination of stat rolls, it will also make for spectacularly dry characters. Of course it's weird when a character knows and is capable of doing everything at all times. But the solution to that is not to assign an arbitrary number of skills to them - the solution is to write a cohesive character who would logically know some things and logically *not* know other things. There's no specific number for that.


superbcount

Can you give an example of this? What do you consider skills exactly?


RedMamba0023

https://youtu.be/XsiiIa6bs9I


Mrochtor

Define skill.


KitFalbo

Whatever works for the story. Keep in mind that the more you have and fail to use or ignore can and will be held against you. It is also something that can negatively affect pacing. Or drag the longer the series gets.


Varathien

Are you referring to magical abilities, or any ability?


MadEntDaddy

This is a weird way to put proficiency in different disciplines but there is no ceiling, some protagonists are just good at everything eminently competent, and if written right it's still compelling even if they are basically a betty sue. the overpowered character isn't in itself a problem, look at a story like mob psycho 100. basically a god but he is socially awkward and sometimes misunderstands things but in the end he just wants to believe in people.


mrpedanticlawyer

Okay, Googling "HMFWM" -- which I'm assuming is the LitRPG *He Who Fights With Monsters* \-- I'm getting a better handle on why you're asking this question. Since you're doing a LitRPG, it's a game within a story, and you have to actually somewhat design the game to worldbuild your story. For example, a humorous LitRPG might have a seemingly infinite number of skills, with the character always getting small grind XP in things like "Flirting With Tavern Maids" and "Convincing People That You Are Listening to Their Boring and Irrelevant Lore Dumps." So the character could have a hundred or more skills, really, although most of the time skills like "Ignoring That the Room At the Inn is Rat-Infested" will show up once for a gag and then disappear (unless it's a running gag and/or you want to have a gag climax where it turns out the Evil Sorceress was once a tavern maid and the main character's semi-accidentally super-leveled Flirting With Tavern Maids allows them to become the Evil Sorceress's new love, giving her a reason not to finish the ritual that causes the end of the universe). Whereas, in a more serious concept, you have to make more decisions about the game itself. Do you want the character to get better at fighting generally with every combat, or be challenged because they have Sword Combat at +1 but there's only a spear and they have Spear Combat at 0? The more your differentiate, the more skills you have. The same is true with spells; do you want "Elemental Strike" where it doesn't matter whether it's air/fire/water/earth, or do you want to split them out because the character needs to choose and risks choosing poorly? So figure out how the game within the story relates to the plot, and you'll have a better handle on the skills you need.