variant skill list (45+ -> 24)

[evilbob]

Primitive Screwhead: Your "movement as skills" idea is interesting, but I don't know if I followed it quite right. Are you saying anyone could fly if they had a few skill points in it and rolled high enough? Regardless, it certainly seems to be a bit more complex than this particular model was going for. But thanks for the suggestion and please keep them coming! Even things that seem too complex can still serve as a good model for an improvement to this design. Personally, I'm still pretty much fine with "swimming" being part of an athletic meta-skill, but that's not to say the door is closed on other ways to envision it.

MissingDividends: Yeah, I figure if I'm destroying the Craft skill and taking it down to 1 skill only, then Perform pretty much gets the same treatment. The big positive (and negative) to this system is that there is a finite number of skills - and that's it. Fewer options, but faster, simpler, and easier to learn.

Griffith Dragonlake: Neat word! However, everywhere I looked the word was defined as "surgery." Good idea, but perhaps too "literary" for what this is trying to do.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

"Are you saying anyone could fly if they had a few skill points in it and rolled high enough? "

Not quite, altho that could fit some types of games
The character requires the capability to use the movement mode, usually some sort of physical wings gained either by being born with them or via polymorph.

It is a bit more complex, but its more of an aside to the skill system you are developing. By divorcing climb, swim, and flight from the normal skill list, we get a band of ability for handling cliffs or rivers without forcing players to spend skill points on it. This means more encounters can use these sorts of obstacles .
The current system basically means that you can use cliffs as a challenge for a couple of levels. After that point they become too difficult for the characters who didn't spend the skill points or too easy for the ones that did. Due to this, most games don't include cliffs as obstacles.

All that to say, these quasi skills for movement could fit easily alongside your skill system. IMHO, of course

Also, I like "chirurgery", the word has an 'olde english' sound to it.

 

[roguerouge]

Perhaps you might consider moving acting out of perform and into subterfuge? Impersonating someone else while in a costume on stage is one skill, but impersonating someone else while in a disguise off stage is another one....

 

[roguerouge]

"• Profession checks are now only untrained Wisdom checks. DCs may need to be adjusted as appropriate."

I'm afraid I can't understand this one, simply due to what it does to NPCs. How does a great merchant have an advantage over a new guildmember in business now?

 

[evilbob]

How does a great merchant have an advantage over a new guildmember in business now?

Honestly, I guess I never really worried about NPCs, or perhaps I just didn't envision them using this system. However, I would say that ranks in Inspection and Craft would probably be the delimiters in that kind of situation, if they're necessary. NPCs are really more like walking Perception checks this way, I'll grant you.

 

[evilbob]

New question: armor checks.

Athleticism, Acrobatics, and Stealth - for sure.

Legerdemain?

Any others?

 

[Neil Bishop]

I've also been tinkering with my 3.5E skill list, due to the combined influence of SW:SE (Star Wars) and SW:EE (Savage Worlds).

I agree with many of the changes you have made as they are similar to my own.

Here is something you might like to consider as another alternative way to look at Knowledge Arcana, Spellcraft etc...:

KNOWLEDGE: ARCANE (INT)

This replaces Knowledge: Arcana, Spellcraft and Use Magic Device for all arcane magic. It can be used in place of Spellcraft and Use Magic Device for divine and nature magic but with a -5 penalty. It can also be used in place of Psicraft and Use Psionic Device for psionics also with a -5 penalty.

KNOWLEDGE: DIVINE (INT)

This replaces Knowledge: Arcana, Spellcraft and Use Magic Device for all arcane magic. It also replaces Knowledge: Religion. It can be used in place of Spellcraft and Use Magic Device for arcane magic but with a -5 penalty. It can also be used in place of Psicraft and Use Psionic Device for psionics also with a -5 penalty.

KNOWLEDGE: PSIONICS (INT)

This replaces Knowledge: Psionics, Psicraft and Use Psionic Device for all psionics. It can be used in place of Spellcraft and Use Magic Device for arcane and divine magic but with a -5 penalty.

This might be considered overpowered for some campaigns. For me, I just as few skills as possible and I want to see them used more often. I've also ditched Concentration and replaced it with a Will save but need to redo some of the DCs.

(Edit) I'm also working on a Common Knowledge/Regional Knowledge skill inspired by Common Knowledge from Savage Worlds. This will replace Knowledge: Local for the relevant home region (and any new home) and, for a -5 penalty, for any adjacent region. Similarly, it replaces the need for languages. Basically, you're fluent in all your region's automatic languages and have conversational knowledge of all bonus languages as well as pidgin-level knowledge in the languages of adjacent regions. To represent these different levels of fluency, a Skill check can be require at +0, -5 or -10, as appropriate.

As it stands, all characters will gain this as a bonus skill at maximum ranks.

 

[Siberys]

I'll be using "rear creature" , or just "Rear" for handle animal.

 

[evilbob]

If I knew more about animals that might be an obvious choice, but as it stands the potential for player out-of-character abuse more than outweighs the practicality of "rear" as a skill name.