airwalkrr
Adventurer
In this thread I describe a variant skill system that I am developing. I would like to continue the discussion with a brief overview of the essence of this system, as well as the motivations behind it.
This skill system simplifies skills in a way that is beneficial for the game. It makes character creation faster, it makes skill calculation faster, and it reduces the amount of synergies in existence to one per skill. In addition, it provides an in-game way for PCs to describe their relative ability in a skill. PCs can describe, in character, their ability to other PCs by stating they are either proficient or a master of a skill, (i.e. "I am proficient with athletics, but I am a master of acrobatics."). Obviously, character level still has something of an impact on this, but this can be accounted for by the duration with which the PC has been accomplished in something. A blackbelt who has been a blackbelt for 10 years undoubtedly has more finely tuned reflexes and agility than a blackbelt who has just received his belt, assuming both are in practice.
So why change the skill system of d20? What was wrong with it? Well, the answer is nothing, really. The d20 skill system works very well and has few glaring flaws, at least regarding the way it works. It is consistent, logical, and only bends the laws of physics as much as it has to (understanding this is a game of high fantasy adventure). But simply because something is good does not mean it can not be made better, and just because something works well does not mean it works well for everyone. The new variant skill system is designed for those who are willing to eschew a little bit of realism for a little bit of simplicity and speed of play.
The advantages of the new system over the old system are threefold. First of all, skill points themselves are reduced in number without being reduced in relative effectiveness, giving players less to think about when designing their character. A 1st-level rogue no longer has 32 skill points to worry about allocating. He simply has 8 skill points, and if he wants to master his skills, he will only choose four skills. The system does this while at the same time providing just as much, if not more, relative ability in said skills because of the fact that many old skills have been combined into new skills, which leads to the second advantage of the system. The skills are easier to use and simpler to look at because of the new abbreviated list, which includes only 20 skills, as opposed to the 40-something existing previously once one counts all the Knowledge skills, not to mention the various possibilities within Craft, Perform, and Profession. A DM no longer needs to look up whether fey fall under Knowledge (arcana) or Knowledge (nature). A player does not have to hunt as much to find his ability to swim. Additionally, the skills are defined more broadly to allow the DM more flexibility in deciding what the skill in question can do. Although Acrobatics specifically includes balancing, escaping, and tumbling, a reasonable DM might allow the character to perform a similar feat of acrobatics with the same skill, such as trampolining, gymnastics, or trapezing. Finally, and this is possibly a major advantage for DMs, the skill system is unified in such a way that the source of proficiency bonuses (previously known as skill ranks) is no longer ambiguous. A DM never has to wonder whether the character's bonus in Knowledge (arcana) is from the character's cleric or wizard levels. This makes checking your work when building a stat block enormously easier, allows a DM to more easily police his PCs' skill bonuses, and makes scaling a creature back to challenge lower-level parties a much easier task.
That's all for now. Next time, I will reveal a whole bunch of new skills in their new format, similar to the release of Acrobatics last time.
This skill system simplifies skills in a way that is beneficial for the game. It makes character creation faster, it makes skill calculation faster, and it reduces the amount of synergies in existence to one per skill. In addition, it provides an in-game way for PCs to describe their relative ability in a skill. PCs can describe, in character, their ability to other PCs by stating they are either proficient or a master of a skill, (i.e. "I am proficient with athletics, but I am a master of acrobatics."). Obviously, character level still has something of an impact on this, but this can be accounted for by the duration with which the PC has been accomplished in something. A blackbelt who has been a blackbelt for 10 years undoubtedly has more finely tuned reflexes and agility than a blackbelt who has just received his belt, assuming both are in practice.
So why change the skill system of d20? What was wrong with it? Well, the answer is nothing, really. The d20 skill system works very well and has few glaring flaws, at least regarding the way it works. It is consistent, logical, and only bends the laws of physics as much as it has to (understanding this is a game of high fantasy adventure). But simply because something is good does not mean it can not be made better, and just because something works well does not mean it works well for everyone. The new variant skill system is designed for those who are willing to eschew a little bit of realism for a little bit of simplicity and speed of play.
The advantages of the new system over the old system are threefold. First of all, skill points themselves are reduced in number without being reduced in relative effectiveness, giving players less to think about when designing their character. A 1st-level rogue no longer has 32 skill points to worry about allocating. He simply has 8 skill points, and if he wants to master his skills, he will only choose four skills. The system does this while at the same time providing just as much, if not more, relative ability in said skills because of the fact that many old skills have been combined into new skills, which leads to the second advantage of the system. The skills are easier to use and simpler to look at because of the new abbreviated list, which includes only 20 skills, as opposed to the 40-something existing previously once one counts all the Knowledge skills, not to mention the various possibilities within Craft, Perform, and Profession. A DM no longer needs to look up whether fey fall under Knowledge (arcana) or Knowledge (nature). A player does not have to hunt as much to find his ability to swim. Additionally, the skills are defined more broadly to allow the DM more flexibility in deciding what the skill in question can do. Although Acrobatics specifically includes balancing, escaping, and tumbling, a reasonable DM might allow the character to perform a similar feat of acrobatics with the same skill, such as trampolining, gymnastics, or trapezing. Finally, and this is possibly a major advantage for DMs, the skill system is unified in such a way that the source of proficiency bonuses (previously known as skill ranks) is no longer ambiguous. A DM never has to wonder whether the character's bonus in Knowledge (arcana) is from the character's cleric or wizard levels. This makes checking your work when building a stat block enormously easier, allows a DM to more easily police his PCs' skill bonuses, and makes scaling a creature back to challenge lower-level parties a much easier task.
That's all for now. Next time, I will reveal a whole bunch of new skills in their new format, similar to the release of Acrobatics last time.
