#retraining

Sunshine need retrain need help guardian Wizard going talk trainer soon

Way to hug pt1

(art by Joseph C-Knight on Artstation)

 Folks who have been fans of this blog for a while will probably know that I have opinions about this subsystem, but this is the first time I’m actually talking about it as a system in full detail.

It’s an inevitability in RPGs both on the table and on the screen. Sometimes you’ll not be happy with the choices you made during level up. Maybe an option sounded cool but is mechanically not paying for itself. Maybe you realized that you made a mistake. Heck, there might even be an in-game reason why the character might not be what they were previously anymore.

This is where retraining comes in. With it, your character can take some downtime to train, swapping out the offending option, whether it be feat, class feature, or even entire class level or class choice, and replace it with a new, legal option in it’s place.

On the one hand, this signals to players and GMs that they can work together to make a character the best version it can be, making it fun for the player to, well, play.

On the other, the idea that you can just magically forget an entire skillset and replace it with another can completely shatter the immersion for some players.

Like, I get it, when it’s something small like a feat or a spell known, you can flavor it as them trying something new, but it not working out, so they drop it and focus on a new technique. But racial traits? Class features that you’ve had for a long time… an entire class level???

You can see where this might start to make my eyes twitch.

If it were just a player and GM working together to rebuild the character better, I’d be ok with that. Sure, their may be some differences with the players’ memories of events and the character’s current abilities, but they’ll adjust and revise the way things happened as needed. But the fact that this subsystem requires you to spend money on retraining… i.e. tying this whole revision of a character’s abilities to the mechanical and “actually happening in the game” layer of the game is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, and in most cases, I would not use it, at least not usually with the price tag.

 So when would I use it?

Well first, I would forgo the price tag entirely unless it made sense in the moment, and I would have it take a lot longer in terms of downtime unless it’s just a quick fix of replacing something that the character took last level but decided they didn’t like. Again, there are exceptions.

The act of retraining itself I would also use if it made sense for the character. Consider that there are archetypes out there that have alignment requirements, such as the dark elementalist kineticist, or that require atonement to remove, such as any of the ex-class archetypes from Antihero’s Handbook. If the character’s ideology or circumstances change, they often lose class abilities, so being able to retrain for free into a different archetype or even an archetype-less build is important, as well as the reverse. Alternately, if the character wishes to change to a similar class, they may spend downtime there, such as paladin into antipaladin, or fighter into paladin.

Another example is the game with a childhood origin introduction session, or a “before the call” session. In which the characters play young or otherwise non-adventuring characters playing in a sort of introductory session where some formative event happens to all of them. In this case, they might start playing level 1 characters in an NPC class, and then retrain out of that class once the real adventure begins.

 There is also one example of using the retraining rules to gain something without losing something else in kind, and that is using downtime to learn a new language, the gold being spent on resources and tutors to learn it. This is the one area where I would recommend using the gold price for retraining, as it actually makes sense, and I would also use this as the basis to homebrew one spending money to increase physical ability scores through exercise, though I would put long downtime requirements and an upper limit on it to prevent exploitation.

 In the end, the idea of retraining characters to be different is fine with me as a thing that occurs between player and GM to fix mistakes and get the character you want out of things. Having it be a downtime activity that characters do in-game and costs money to do makes no sense to me and breaks my immersion, but maybe it’s right for you and/or your game. Maybe you’re playing a game inspired heavily by certain Final Fantasy titles where people change classes or “Jobs” as easily as putting on a new outfit (often literally!).

Training Our Minds Completely Wrong

When we say, "I can't", we are unknowingly training our mind for the exact results we don't want. Our minds are always listening and when we tell it, "I can't", it listens and moves forward with the direction we've just given it.

Don't believe me?

Remember the last time you were driving down the road and realized 10 minutes into the ride you don't remember a thing. I guarantee you were thinking about something, anything, but it most certainly had nothing to do with driving.

In fact, when you awaken from this haze it may not even dawn on you that you haven't been present whatsoever.

Sound familiar?

Thanks to our subconscious minds, all kinds of routine behaviors like this are taking place throughout the day. It's an automatic program we've created and trained over the span of our lives. With these inputs over the years, our subconscious minds run the scripts we've built and away we mindlessly go.

What's the Point?

If you don't like your life. Change it. How? By giving your mind a new set of inputs. Build a better script to replace the one currently letting you down.

Retraining Your Mind Is Easier Than You Think

It's like training for a marathon - sitting on the couch, visualizing crossing the finish line, only gets us so far. Sooner or later we need to put down the Doritos and go for a run. Only by changing the inputs can we obtain the skills needed to run the marathon.

Start with small steps and compound these steps routinely and consistently. When we do, results start to come through the new habits we're developing.

Retraining our mind is no different. When we change the input, we begin changing the outcome, but it's a process that takes time, so this is where most people quit.

Since they don't "see" change or the change isn't coming quickly enough, they give up.

Don't! This is where all the "magic" happens.

Since the process is slow, it's oftentimes not even noticeable in the beginning, so perseverance is a must.

When You Say, "I can't", You are Training Your Mind that It Can't, So It Won't

After my daughter's soccer game yesterday, she was frustrated that a player got around her numerous times. This player was faster than her. I could sympathize with her frustration, but not with her attitude.

She told me, "I couldn't defend her".

Why not, I asked? She rolled her eyes at what seemed to be such an obvious answer yet humored me and said, "because she was faster than me".

"True", I responded, but you could have defended her I said.

Unfortunately, my daughter had sold her mind on the idea that she couldn't defend this player. She told herself, "I can't", so that's what her mind set out to do. Subconsciously of course. Not intentionally.

What if My Daughter's Thought Process was Slightly Different?

Instead of being defeated, working under the obvious rationalization that this player couldn't be defended because of the differences in their speed, what if her thought was, "I can defend her, but I need to find another way to do it".

Then, her mind would have started identifying other ways to compensate.

Ex: What are her tendencies?

This player, 8 out of 10 times, went to her right. So I told my daughter, when she's in front of you, pressing down the field, take an angle to the right. You'll be right most of the time.

"But Dad, she's still faster than me, so she'll still be able to turn the corner and get around me".

Yes, I said, but she can only turn the corner when the angle you've taken is too tight. Give her some room and concentrate on getting down the field to where you know she's going 80% of the time.

Now, without being faster than her, you've stacked the odds in your favor that you'll be able to successfully defend her even though you're slower than her. This small change enables you to keep the player in front of you. It slows her down. And, it gives your teammates time to get in position to support you.

Don't Make This Harder Than it Needs to Be!

These seemingly small changes in mindset are the differentiators that can be used to enhance nearly everything we do in life.

By telling our minds that we need to look for new solutions we're training our mind to figure it out, so it naturally begins to look for solutions to figure things out.

Then, once we being to figure things out, our confidence grows, and the positive impact on our lives begins to manifest.

Hi guys! 

My name is Char and welcome to my blog! A bit about me - I’m 27 years old and I live in North Yorkshire, England! I have 4 horses, all pictured here, a dog and 6 cats! Now a bit about “The Boys”!

First up we have Taz. He is 14.2hh, a cob x warmblood and is 38 years old! He is my first pony and we have been together 15 years!

Riley - he is a 9.3hh Shetland Pony and is 13 years old! I got him as a companion for Merlin.

Merlin - he is a 17hh Warmblood x Cleveland Bay and is 19 years old! I have had him for 10 years! 

Donald - he is a 16.3hh Thoroughbred and is 7 years old! I have only had him for 6 months but I looked after him when he was a racehorse!