Open Skill System

[Jotenbjorn]

I've put a lot of time and energy into attempts to improve the skill system, and the results are usually improvements (in my view at least) but are also much more complex than the rules in the CRPG. So I've decided to go in the opposite direction and am contemplating using the following house rules, tell me what you think.

The entire skill section in the CRPG can be thrown out. YOU define your skills as broadly or as narrowly as you want. Both Athletics and Jumping Over a 10 Year-Old Girl While Flapping My Arms are legitimate skills, though one will obviously be more useful than the other. Whenever you want to do something simply tell me what you want to accomplish and what skill you want to use. I will then decide what ability modifier you will use and set the DC based upon how well your skill fits the situation. As an example, the party needs a piece of information about Ancient Acheron. One member of the party has ranks in Knowledge and would like to make a check to see if he may already know the information. Since his skill is so broad I decide the DC will be 25, using Knowledge and Intelligence (obviously). The player rolls a 22 and fails. Another player's character has ranks in Knowledge (Acheron), since his skill is so narrowly focused I decide his DC is only 15. The player rolls an 18 and knows the information.

Players will either know or not know the DC based upon the situation. You can look at a chasm and get a pretty good guess at how difficult it would be to jump it.

 

[Spectator]

I like it.
The fundamental reason I dont like 3.5 is the skill thing. It really seems to break down, for me, so any suggestion or improvement is welcome.

 

[rabindranath72]

I like the skills system in the new Dragon Age rpg. It's easy to adjudicate and fun to use. No skill points, no advancements.

 

[Malcadon]

You might what to balance out such skills by noting universal, general, job-related, specialized, and nose-picker type skills. That is, you could buy Acrobatic at a 1:1 skill point value, but you can get the Jumping Over a 10 Year-Old Girl While Flapping My Arms at 1/4 (or so) the SP value. This is so you could have a fair number of generalized skills, or a bunch of highly specialized skills. Foreshadowing rules should reflect using the more unique or unusual skills.

Personally, I like to keep skill lists as generalized as possible, and with less conditions (special notes, graded effects, and special bonuses) as possible. I also like to keep the bonuses to a minimum, so that a +0 to Jump is not bad, because the PC has natural talent (a good ability score). If that PC gets a +1, then his is a little bit better at jumping. A +5 would make that PC a really good jumper. A +10 would just be a little over-the-top! But that is just me.

 

[Jotenbjorn]

I thought about having different costs, but I think changing the DC is a simpler mechanic and accomplishes the same thing. With differing costs players have to ask me how much every skill they want costs one at a time.