Post originally by James_Nostack at 2005-01-10 17:04:14
Converted from Phorums BB System

If I had to guess, the design decision is like this: If everybody is rolling 2d6+(skill) and nearly all skills start at 1, newbies can only achieve a maximum of 13. Meanwhile, if a highly advanced character has a skill score of 11 or higher, he automatically ties or beats the newbie on *any* roll.

The transcendence thing pretty much makes sure that that new characters will always have some relevance, no matter how statistically unlikely, in the tales of really powerful dudes. If you're so powerful that the little people can't affect you at all, The Shadow of Yesterday graduates you into whatever comes next.

But it's important to note that transcendence is *entirely* a result of the player's choice. It can't happen unless you bump a skill's rank to 10, at which point you've pretty much indicated you're ready to retire this guy when the time comes.