Ye Olde Inn

Just came up with what could be a great way to offer skill cards to the heroes.
Create special short quests that would test the heroes...if they "survive" the
test, they get the skill card.
(It would not be fatal, really...if they lose all of their Body Points or fail in some
other way, they simply fail the test).
Example:
- Skill card for disarming/finding traps - the quest would be filled with a bunch of
traps to find and disarm, or otherwise get by.
- A magic-use skill card - magical tests that require most, if not all, of the spells
available to the caster seeking the skill card
- Skill card that allows better shooting with a bow - a quest in which the hero can
only use the bow he wishes to use better

One good thing about this, if your gaming group is short one night, you can use these
short quests, and any players not present that night can simply go through the quests
at some other time as a one on one with the game master.

This also would represent a more real-to-life training session that would allow better skills
to be acquired.

Interesting idea and it sounds like it could be a lot of fun, but I think the quests would need to be very carefully crafted.

For the magic-use skill, there would need to be a way to prevent a spell to be wasted by casting it at the "wrong" time. Especially if the spell is required to advance the quest. For instance, if you need to cast Pass Through Rock to get to another room, you could get stuck in the quest with no way of getting out if it's cast anywhere else.

Why not make it fatal? The threat of death lends tension. Optionally, you could allow magic cop-out, but it should cost the Hero. 100 gold or half Body Points/Mind Points to start the next Quest might work. The idea is a Hero has got to take a risk to earn a reward. Risks include penalties for bad outcomes.

yeah a cash penalty sounds right. Fail, and Mentor pulls you out with an escape spell scroll, which costs 100 gold. And no loot in these quests!

you could also make them 'achievements', things that can be done while on normal quests.
Bullseye: if you do 20 points of damage with a bow in a single quest, then one turn per quest you may attack twice with a bow.
Hot Streak: do 100 total damage with fireballs (over multiple quests) and you cast fireball twice per quest
healing splash: Cast water of life 50 times and from then on every other friendly target in the same room or corridor as your water of life target will be healed for up to 1 lost body point.
Survivor: drop to one body point and live to survive on 5 separate quests to permanently increase your body points by 1.

hah, like videogame achievements. I love it xD
I'm an achievement addict on Steam
(look me up if you want to friend me on steam: sjeng77)

I have never known this, so what is steam?

Steam is a gaming platform for videogames. Like a library where you can buy games, and download them digitally. They have lots of sales, and other websites often offer cheap bundles with games for steam (www.humblebundle.com).
www.steampowered.com

From time to time some game gets promoted and discounted, or you get free games

Sjeng wrote:hah, like videogame achievements. I love it xD
I'm an achievement addict on Steam
(look me up if you want to friend me on steam: sjeng77)

Added!