New command to self-test stats/skills

Better name pending, but something like that:

Help roll

syntax: roll

Invoking this command will challenge the selected skill/stat to a given difficulty level (with a lot of added randomness to prevent it from some weird skill gauging) if they wish to decide a PC direction in weighted randomness-way. For example you could roll intelligence to see if you are going to make some very smart chess move, or a munitions to see if you've heard of this exotic gun and then RP accordingly.

It also has optional parameter, without which it will display pass/fail of the challenge to everyone in the room, for extra amusement.

This is an RP-only command, in no way enforceable by staff and no one is bound to it's outcome.

Bruh's seal of approval for this.

I've read about this type of mechanic in other games, and understand the appeal for roleplaying purposes as a way to introduce novelty for the player and their choices. It wouldn't be very probable to see something like this come in in Sindome, I don't think, for a couple of reasons, among them that skill and stat checks (that the player gets feedback on) are almost always things they have to get out in the world and actually do ie. you see how good you are at fighting by actually fighting, you see how good you are at medicine by trying to keep someone alive, et cetera.

The other reason is that parts of everyone's character sheet (their substats) are actually secret and different between characters even when they've been trained the same, and the game more or less tries to avoid giving players too much information about them unless they're engaged in real in-world activities that have them involved with other players and contributing to gameplay.

The substitute provided in lieu of being able to make checks against your own character's abilities, is the rough sizes on stats and skills (see help skills) and help stats) where the letter grades on skills and stats give players some rough roleplaying guidelines to play around until they get a more expert handle on skills. So for example, you might not know as a player if you're able specifically to use a ceramic katana to kill a certain other character when asked purely by checking your sheet, but you could, while still learning about the game, look at your sheet and reasonably tell someone you were 'good' with a sword if your skill had reached E.

This is not always perfect (hence 'rough sizing') and this scale may suggest a character is above average at something that they actually don't really have the skill to do properly (like when skills are especially demanding), but it works reasonably well as a purely roleplaying guideline – though do not that letter grades on stats and skills are not interchangeable; skills will usually have lower letter grades compared to skills even at the pinnacle of training (you can see this distinction in the two rough sizing descriptions in the help files).

We won't be doing this at this time. We have certain IC ways to test various skills, and the skill/stat letter grades are the IC indicator of where you are at. In the end though, it's still a roll, and can also include luck, which means that passing it on your first try and failing on your second are totally possible. Even very skilled people fuck up sometimes.