Alternative General Skills System
by ParzivalI’m a fan of the idea of General Skills as introduced in the Gazetteers and the RC. However, I’m not a fan of the complicated improvement rules in the RC, or the unrealistic nature of it. So I’ve been dabbling with an alternative approach.
My idea is to separate Skill improvement from class level or XP. The Skills have nothing to do with class in the first place, and really should only improve if they are actually used in play (just as in real life— practice makes perfect; nothing gets better from being ignored).
So, here’s what I’m speculating on:
Improving General Skills— a simpler, alternate approach to the RC system.
For starters, some skills cost more in skill slots— namely, Craft, Profession, or Knowledge skills: These take up two slots, and the PC is assumed to be at least 1-4 years older as he begins his adventuring, those years having been spent in training or study. (Want to understand blacksmithing? You’ve got to sacrifice some of your life.)
Intelligence bonus allows additional starting skills, as is standard. The Intelligence bonus may be used to increase the level of a skill instead of acquiring a new one; however, no skill may have more than one advancement in this way, and only one PC skill may be advanced beyond the basic level.
Some skills can be treated as subsets of other skills, functioning at a penalty. (So an Armorer is a subset of Blacksmith, and can do standard blacksmithing work— making tools, hardware, horseshoe, etc.— at a 1 point penalty). Why a penalty? Because the craftsman has specialized in one area, and thus has “lost” the familiarity with more general work, which lack can introduce error. Cross-subset efforts of the same overall skill may be attempted, but often at a more severe penalty (so Armorer and Swordsmith may be subsets of Blacksmithing, but can only attempt to do what the other can do at a 2 point penalty), or in some cases not at all. (A Goldsmith can’t produce a silver tea pot— the approach to working large amounts of the two metals is too different.) This situation is up to the DM to determine what applies and what does not. (A little research is probably warranted.)
Skill Experience Points
Skill improvements (and even acquisition) reject the RC rules, but are instead based on opportunity in an adventure and the type of skill being improved or sought. Normal adventuring experience is never applied to skill improvement or acquisition. Instead, Skill Experience Points (SXP) are tracked, based on a PC’s use of a skill while adventuring (or in DM conducted “downtime.”)
When a PC uses an existing skill, the PC gains SXP for that skill (and only that skill): Success is based on the difference between the die roll and the necessary target number. Failure, however, still counts as 1 SXP (now you know not to make that mistake again).
For example: The cleric Sister Jeanette has the skill of Leatherworking. On an adventure, she attempts to cut and braid some leather scraps into a make-shift sling. Her INT is 11; she rolls a 6. The difference is 5, so not only does she successfully make the sling, but she also gains 5 SXP in Leatherworking. Later, she attempts to use her skill in Navigation to help the party find their way through a dense forest. Unfortunately, she rolls a 13 and fails; however, the attempt helps her consider ways she messed up, so she receives 1 SXP for Navigation anyway.
When a player must make a skill check even when unskilled, SXP is possible for that skill. For every success, regardless of actual roll, the PC gains 1 SXP. Failures here teach nothing, as the PC doesn’t know what to do to begin with.
Example: Marnek the Mage has never learned the Riding skill. He can sit a horse, but that’s about it. His horse is spooked and bucks. Marnek makes a skill check at -4, but manages to hang on. He rolled a 5 on a Dex of 15 (penalized to 11), but he gains only 1 SXP in Riding because he doesn’t have that skill. Had he blown the roll and fallen off, he would have received nothing but a sore tailbone— just another one of many in his adventures. Note that even though he gains SXP in Riding in this instance, he does not thereby acquire the skill of Riding… he’s just building on the opportunity to finally have picked it up.
Advancing in a skill is simply achieving 100 XP per level of the next advancement: So 100 SXP to go from unskilled to basic (now knows the skill, but isn’t great at it, being self-taught). 200 SXP will permit the skill to be approved to a one point bonus… but that’s where self-teaching and skill experience stops. A PC simply can’t improve beyond that status because he’s not spending the time and effort into being that sort of skilled artist/worker/craftsman; he’s being a member of his class instead.
However, even on campaign a PC can gain a new skill, or improve an existing skill even if largely unused, in special circumstances allowed by the DM, where the PC is constantly exposed to the skill as demonstrated by someone who has more ability in it than the PC. So, for example, Sister Jeanette with her Navigation skill could improve it by watching a Master Navigator perform the task daily (or more frequently) while on a lengthy voyage together. So skills like Mountain Climbing, Navigation, Foraging, Hunting, Tracking, Sailing, Riding, Stealth, and so forth could be “learned by doing” but also improved by watching a master at work (and maybe asking for tips, etc..). However, truly detailed professional skills— carpentry, stone work, armor-making, smithing— skills that require dedicated tools and a dedicated work area or the like— cannot be learned or improved in this manner. The skill has to be possible to do within the context of an adventure, or it cannot be improved in this way.
So the best bet for a PC is to pick such high level training skills at the start, and try for experiential skills as the result of actions taken on an adventure. But at no time does the PC take “time off” to study anything. That’s just a drag on a campaign. My system assumes that sufficient time is happening “in context,“ one way or another.
Technical Skills
The following skills are “technical”— that is, they assume a good deal of special equipment or specific tools are required to carry out the skill. These are the skills of professional craftsmen, tradesmen, and the like. Thus, they cannot be “learned on the go” by any PC, but are rather skills assumed to be acquired as part of the PC’s background before pursuing their actual vocation (i.e., their class). Thus a PC can only have one trade skill, and is assumed to essentially be a “trained apprentice” at that skill. Such skills are:
Alchemy
Armor Making
Art (choose type)— this assumes serious training in painting or sculpture or the like, and the tools for the same. Casual sketching, wood carving (with a basic knife), or clay work might not be considered ‘technical’ in nature.
Craft (choose type)— would include smiths, jewelers, carpenters, coopers, stone masons, tent makers, leather workers, etc., etc.. Detailed, specialized construction of objects, buildings, etc.. falls into these categories.
Engineering
Magical Engineering
Mapping I Cartography (this does not refer to casual mapmaking, but rather detailed and precise mapping using surveying, and requiring expensive precision map-making tools, smooth drafting surfaces, substantial light, etc., etc..)
Piloting (choose type— river, coastal, ocean, or possibly even magical air craft)
Profession (choose type): Physicians, lawyers, scribes, architects, “specialists”, etc.. Basically anything which requires significant scholarly study, access to libraries (of some sort), intense instruction, and so forth.
Science (choose type): These skills are rare in a fantasy setting. Astronomy/Astrology, geology, biology exist, but chemistry, physics, sociology, psychology, etc., are unlikely, as magic fulfills these roles and supplants them in both culture and the academic structure, to the extent any exists. Philosophy, mathematics, logic— these do exist. But so-called real world sciences generally do not. (This is one reason to shut down discussions involving real world chemical compounds, elements, radiation, etc., etc.. Nobody knows what those things are, because magic takes their place.)
Shipbuilding
Trade (choose type): Farming, tailoring, winemaking, brewing, gourmet cooking (i.e., being a chef), baking, tanning— anything which requires dedicated effort and knowledge combined with a specific location of operation (as a farm, vineyard, etc..)
Non-technical skills improved by frequent use would include (not an exclusive list):
Acrobatics
Climbing
Deception/Detect Deception
Fire Making
Foraging/Survival
Healing
Hunting
Riding
Stealth
Tracking
And so on— basically, skills that don’t require large or unique equipment or a specific location as a smithy or brewery or laboratory.
In moments of uncertainty, the DM should judge whether a skill can be self-taught, or practiced “in the wild”— and allow a player to present a (brief) case. Then rule and get on with play.
I’ve not playtested the above or introduced it into a campaign. Just wondered what others think of it?