Stats and Skills – The Second Hurdle

Well it has been a while but I am still thinking and writing down concepts and ideas for the RPG System. I have arrived at the Skills section, I really need to get this figured out up to a decent point otherwise the character creation part of the game will be very difficult to create.

So skills it is, but this is also the second hurdle in designing this game, I have played so many systems, read many rpg books and the problem I am getting to is which ones to pick. Do I want a skill heavy game or do I want it to be light an easy to play? On the other hand I want a bit of realism into it.

Skills will be a bit different this is something I want to test a lot in games so I can find out which ones will be useful and which ones are obsolete. I do not like having a general skill for pick pocketing, sleight of hand and stealth, these things are not the same movements and knowledge. Same goes for sciences or knowledge, if you have studied geology and specialize it does not mean you are also specialized in chemistry.

In my home brewed rules for Unisystem I have added quite a lot of skills, for me it feels like it works quite well. I do not ask a roll for every task a character performs, if a certain level in a skill is achieved I tend to say that it works. Excluded combat of course, I do want the thrill of the fight to be present. Normally I ask for a skill check/roll when a character is in distress/stress or if the task is particularly difficult. I have gaming sessions where my players do not even have to roll the dice, but in the end I am also building this system for other people. So this makes it a bit more difficult but I will get to the next part of designing the game.

Writing about Unisystem, there is a skill specialization rule, the idea is that you have normal skill and with the specialization you can add +3 to the roll corresponding with the specialty. For example someone can have the skill Medicine but when specialized it also has Medicine – Surgery which adds +3 on medicine rolls involving surgery. I like the idea but in my home brew games I have abandoned the idea and sometimes I even create a new skill what would normally be a specialty in the basic Unisystem games.

One of the other small struggles in my head are the names of the skills, other systems have named their skills in a particular way but I think I should let go the notion of similar names as long as I don not use System specific skills like the Mythos skill in Call of Cthulhu.

In the end I like a bit of realism so I have a list of skills I want to have in the game for example:

 

Animal

• Handling
• Training
• Veterinary

Appraise

Art

• Acting
• Dancing
• Drawing
• Graphics Designer
• Holography
• Musical Instrument
• Painting
• Sculpting
• Writing

Athletics

• Strength
• Agility
• Durability

Bureaucracy

Climb

Computer

• Hacking
• Programming
• General

Concentration

Craft

• Wood
• Tanning
• Etc.

Demolitions

Driving

• Car
• Motorcycle
• Tracked

Electronics

• General
• Fine

Engineer

• Electronics
• Computer
• Architectural

First Aid

Gun

• Handgun
• Shotgun
• Assault Rifle
• Rifle

Hand to Hand

• Street-fighting
• Kung Fu
• Tae-Kwon-Do
• Karate
• Judo
• MCMAP

Investigation

Jump

Knowledge

Language

• English
• Latin

Lock Picking

• Mechanical
• Electronic

Lore

• Eldritch
• Occult

Mechanic

Medicine

Navigation

• Astrogation
• Land
• Sea
• Sky

Notice

Persuade

Pick Pocket

Piloting

• Plane
• Helicopter
• Boat

Riding

• Horse
• Cart

Science

• Archeology
• Astronomy
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Cosmology
• Cybernetics
• Economics
• Genetics
• History
• Linguistics
• Philosophy
• Physics
• Planetology
• Cryptography
• Psychology
• Robotics
• Exobiology

Stealth

Streetwise

Survival

• Sea
• Desert
• Arctic
• Woods
• Mountains

Swim

System Operations

• Communications
• Weapons
• Security
• Sensor

Throw

Track

Vacc Suit