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Thoughts on 5e skills.
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<blockquote data-quote="FrogReaver" data-source="post: 7147773" data-attributes="member: 6795602"><p>Of course you need skills. Saying that you can do any activity in the game without a skill for it isn't an argument that no skills ever are needed. It's an argument that not all activities need directly mapped to a skill.</p><p></p><p>If one wanted to make the case that no skills ever are needed you would not just need to show that you <strong>can</strong> play without any skills but also that there is a<strong> benefit to doing so</strong>. I'm not advocating the later. I believe there is a benefit for an RPG to have skills, but not because they are needed to perform or resolve some action a player takes. The benefit is in having more granularity to activities that are going to affect the campaign. If an activity is going to only have a very minor impact on the campaign then that same level of granularity isn't needed and if a check is ever needed for such an activity then it can be resolved by just using the stat and possibly the most similar skill in the game to the activity in question. However, if certain checks are going to be very important or used often then having that granularity around them is very useful.</p><p></p><p>For example. Why doesn't anyone ever worry about D&D 5e not having a cooking skill? What about a blackmail skill? What about a lockpicking skill? A trap disabling skill?</p><p></p><p>And yet for some reason I find resistance (and from you of all people) when I suggest animal handling and acrobatics and possibly performance should fall into the same category as the above examples?</p><p></p><p>Not everything a character can do or wants to be good at needs covered by a skill. A character may be a great cook due to their background writeup. While there is no cooking skill and there should never be a cooking skill IMO, there are other ways to bring that background to life. Advantage on any check involving cooking is one. A ribbon ability that says everyone always likes your food. And here's the thing, if cooking is going to only have a very minor impact on your campaign then these abilities don't even need a cost or a tradeoff involved with them. You can just give out a few cool things like that to enhance the various players role playing experiences. However, if somehow you were going to make a campaign where cooking would play a large role then by all means add a cooking skill in as an option. At that point the granularity probably matters enough to make it a benefit!</p><p></p><p>The point is, once you understand these things you will see that just having a skill for the sake of a skill isn't a good plan. It limits choices instead of invites creativity. I only get a limited number of skills. I can only make my character skilled in so many areas. If almost everything is handled by a skill I can't have the good cook flavor in a campaign where cooking doesn't matter without sacrificing a skill that's useful for that campaign. Right there my creativity just got limited by being forced to sacrifice something useful for a very subpar ability to create the character I want to create. That isn't really a "fair" or "good" way to get players to actually create a quirky and interesting character because it outright penalizes them mechanically for doing so.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FrogReaver, post: 7147773, member: 6795602"] Of course you need skills. Saying that you can do any activity in the game without a skill for it isn't an argument that no skills ever are needed. It's an argument that not all activities need directly mapped to a skill. If one wanted to make the case that no skills ever are needed you would not just need to show that you [B]can[/B] play without any skills but also that there is a[B] benefit to doing so[/B]. I'm not advocating the later. I believe there is a benefit for an RPG to have skills, but not because they are needed to perform or resolve some action a player takes. The benefit is in having more granularity to activities that are going to affect the campaign. If an activity is going to only have a very minor impact on the campaign then that same level of granularity isn't needed and if a check is ever needed for such an activity then it can be resolved by just using the stat and possibly the most similar skill in the game to the activity in question. However, if certain checks are going to be very important or used often then having that granularity around them is very useful. For example. Why doesn't anyone ever worry about D&D 5e not having a cooking skill? What about a blackmail skill? What about a lockpicking skill? A trap disabling skill? And yet for some reason I find resistance (and from you of all people) when I suggest animal handling and acrobatics and possibly performance should fall into the same category as the above examples? Not everything a character can do or wants to be good at needs covered by a skill. A character may be a great cook due to their background writeup. While there is no cooking skill and there should never be a cooking skill IMO, there are other ways to bring that background to life. Advantage on any check involving cooking is one. A ribbon ability that says everyone always likes your food. And here's the thing, if cooking is going to only have a very minor impact on your campaign then these abilities don't even need a cost or a tradeoff involved with them. You can just give out a few cool things like that to enhance the various players role playing experiences. However, if somehow you were going to make a campaign where cooking would play a large role then by all means add a cooking skill in as an option. At that point the granularity probably matters enough to make it a benefit! The point is, once you understand these things you will see that just having a skill for the sake of a skill isn't a good plan. It limits choices instead of invites creativity. I only get a limited number of skills. I can only make my character skilled in so many areas. If almost everything is handled by a skill I can't have the good cook flavor in a campaign where cooking doesn't matter without sacrificing a skill that's useful for that campaign. Right there my creativity just got limited by being forced to sacrifice something useful for a very subpar ability to create the character I want to create. That isn't really a "fair" or "good" way to get players to actually create a quirky and interesting character because it outright penalizes them mechanically for doing so. [/QUOTE]
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