Just wanted to share an idea from A&E for tasks that can be extended to cover a lot of skills.
For skill checks where there isn't really a simple success or failure, the Task skill idea in Arms and Equipment is a great game mechanic.
This could cover skills as varied as Singing, Poetry, Skiing a long distance, using Survival to help travel across a harsh environment without problems, Swimming a dangerous river etc.
For those unfamiliar with it you make a number of rolls to try and achieve a score of 100 or over within an appropriate time scale (I use 4 skill rolls as a base and modify this if the task can have more time spent on it). Some tasks will take seconds, others several rounds or even days.
The GM decides how many skill rolls you get based on the difficulty of the task and the time you take. A success gives you 25, a critical 50, a fail 0 and a fumble -25. You make your skill rolls, tot up your points and see how well you did.
In a recent game I used this to see how the PC's did at skinning a huge bear with Craft Leather, to boast about their heroic exploits using Sing and Poetry and even to Skii in heavy snow to their destination.
They took extra time (I allowed them 5 rolls) and they got 100 for the bear skin and earned its full value; they got 75 for their Singing and Poetry rolls and were reasonably well received (but no cigar) and the worst skier in the party got 50 on a 3 mile cross country check and made the journey take twice as long (to the frustration of his colleagues who all got 75 or 100).
Its simple and elegant and means even a moderate skill in something can be useful. It also gives the GM a firm idea of just how well something went without resorting to a simple success or failure result.
I found it also encourages players to have a go at things they would have avoided trying, such as singing in a hall full of drunken Vikings! :lol:
For skill checks where there isn't really a simple success or failure, the Task skill idea in Arms and Equipment is a great game mechanic.
This could cover skills as varied as Singing, Poetry, Skiing a long distance, using Survival to help travel across a harsh environment without problems, Swimming a dangerous river etc.
For those unfamiliar with it you make a number of rolls to try and achieve a score of 100 or over within an appropriate time scale (I use 4 skill rolls as a base and modify this if the task can have more time spent on it). Some tasks will take seconds, others several rounds or even days.
The GM decides how many skill rolls you get based on the difficulty of the task and the time you take. A success gives you 25, a critical 50, a fail 0 and a fumble -25. You make your skill rolls, tot up your points and see how well you did.
In a recent game I used this to see how the PC's did at skinning a huge bear with Craft Leather, to boast about their heroic exploits using Sing and Poetry and even to Skii in heavy snow to their destination.
They took extra time (I allowed them 5 rolls) and they got 100 for the bear skin and earned its full value; they got 75 for their Singing and Poetry rolls and were reasonably well received (but no cigar) and the worst skier in the party got 50 on a 3 mile cross country check and made the journey take twice as long (to the frustration of his colleagues who all got 75 or 100).
Its simple and elegant and means even a moderate skill in something can be useful. It also gives the GM a firm idea of just how well something went without resorting to a simple success or failure result.
I found it also encourages players to have a go at things they would have avoided trying, such as singing in a hall full of drunken Vikings! :lol:
