Hunting down the Purple Squirrels

A purple squirrel is a Human Resources slang term for a job candidate that doesn't exist. This occurs because the people who want to hire for a position make the requirements so stringent that no human being is likely to fit all the aspects of it. They often require several different skills that nobody really has at the same time. "Looking for a highly analytical accountant with artistic skills and capable of making outbound sales calls".

I think it makes a great analogy over to RPGs.

First, it works in an actual game table situation. The GM (or module designer) should not design problems that can only be solved by combinations of skills/abilities/whatever that are exceptionally rare and prone to failure. If someone has to climb up a cliff face without a rope, then quickly disarm an explosive device while hacking a computer simultaneously, that is probably going to go horribly wrong at the table.

Second, it works in a game design situation, but from the perspective of the employee instead of the employer. If you force people to overspecialize in the character designs; the resulting characters will be incapable of adapting to new circumstances. How can that accountant learn those artistic skills if you force them to jump through hoops in accountant school that weeds those kinds of people out?

In lots of RPGs, your character is forced to specialize in only a handful of things in order to be effective in those things at all, thus leaving themselves unskilled in so many areas that they are almost incapable of tying their shoes. I think one of the big appeals of the OSR is going back to a model where the character is assumed to be fairly competent in a wide range of activities.

I am very much enamored by this idea. In the design of Novarium, I have made the distribution of your magical competency random. You cannot make a character that is only a fire mage. You may be a mage that has a talent for fire, but just because you are good at fire magic doesn't mean you have to give up on every affecting water, earth, air, and so on. You are not forced into a position of specialization. When I am reviewing my designs lately, I am applying this maxim when applicable. Incentives to specialize are there, but if you are specialized you are not giving up other things.

I have tried to come up with a great ending paragraph for this blog post, but I couldn't do it. So I guess I will just come to a jarring stop.

Beep.