Quote:
Originally Posted by ChalkLine
This is pretty much my thinking
I used to have a vast list of these on a character sheet and recently I have ruthlessly cut them all out and replaced them with generic skill "areas".
The problem I found is that they're all linked and I was unwilling (and due to the peculiar system I'm using unable) to create nested skill trees like Traveller, or better yet 1st edition Paranoia.
The problem arose that players would have a high skill in one tiny thing like "weaving" but couldn't make a rope because they had no "ropemaking" skill. That's a poor analogy but you know what I mean. I tried to introduce a one task difficulty skill level penalty for associated skills but in some cases the players were better off using the base statistic or we'd have extended sessions in-game where a player and I had differences in what we considered "associated". It also made skill allocation difficult for CharGen.
A classic case for this is "armouring", creating armour, and "cutlery", making swords. I can do both, but really I'm an armourer first and foremost. However I can't make textile armours for the life of me, I wouldn't even know how to start.
So now a lot of it is simply broadly-drawn skill areas and I ask for detailed backstories so I can work out what a PC knows with input from the player.
However this works for me, I'm not going to assume it's a universal truth or anything.
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I have adopted a system where if a Skill is part of a Cascade, I give them a 0 Level in the other Skill choices in the Cascade list if they need to attemp to use another skill in that Cascade. IF a person doesn't have the relevant Skill, I will let them try with a 0 Skill... but I will also apply DISADVANTAGE to the task roll for their lack of knowledge/skill. I basically use the D&D5e ADVANTAGE/DISADVANTAGE system, but I am currently renaming it to BOON & BANE like the Mongoose Traveller game uses (for continuity with Marc's works).
However, this works because my PCs get more skills than RAW. I give a player INT+CHA+EDU in EXPERIENCE POINTS every Term. The players can then place a number of experience points in a single Skill per Term equal to the LOWEST SCORE of the three Characteristics used to determine their Experience point total per Term. All "Initial Skills" for a Term are now just Experience Points which must be added to that specific skill. Skills cost:
0 Level (familiarization) = 1 point
1 Level = 1 point
2 Level = 2 points
3 Level = 3 points
4 Level = 4 points
...and so forth. A player MUST buy EVERY LEVEL of a Skill so getting to Level 3 would cost 7 Experience Points. This system creates Characters with lots of Skills but at a lower level than RAW.