Non-Combat skills

[CroBob]

What are the most important skills to have in a fantasy RPG? Ignoring specifically combat oriented skills, what skills could an RPG not do without, and what skills are so beneficial that are nearly necessary? Further, what individual skills can be combined, or what one skill might need to be divided into different skills? I'm trying to find the perfect balance, and it's... well, difficult.

Further, should the skills then be sub-divided into social type, adventuring type, etc?

 

[Argyle King]

What are the most important skills to have in a fantasy RPG? Ignoring specifically combat oriented skills, what skills could an RPG not do without, and what skills are so beneficial that are nearly necessary? Further, what individual skills can be combined, or what one skill might need to be divided into different skills? I'm trying to find the perfect balance, and it's... well, difficult.

Further, should the skills then be sub-divided into social type, adventuring type, etc?

Skills which help you interact with the environment. Examples include (but are not limited to) climbing, lock picking, swimming, and various others.

Skills which help you interact with the people and things in the environment are nice as well. Animal Handling, Leadership, and various other things might be important depending upon the game style.

Stealth skills and their perception based counterparts. Stealth and Camouflage versus whatever the skills or abilities are for hearing and listening.

If you are a mage, it is probably a good idea to train in some of the spell skills. Having magery without training in any spells isn't very helpful.

 

[Razjah]

It depends on the style of game you are going for. If you want dungeon crawls, then any skill that aids survival, exploration, or movement is very important. If you are looking for a social game, then persuasion, lying, and bargaining skills would be best.

I think Burning Wheel does a great job of making non-combat skills important, they are almost everywhere. The Fight mechanic is gritty and dangerous which can encourage the players to invest in non-combat skills in order to accomplish a goal without resorting to a brawl.

As for combining umbrella skills, that too depends on the style you are trying to convey. Perception is fine for many games, but if you want/need hearing, observation, investigation, searching, feeling, smelling, and tasting to be separate skills- then the umbrella idea won't work well.


What is your goal for this? Without knowing what you are trying to accomplish, and why, this is difficult to answer.