I am making a d20 based game system for running one shot adventures and dungeon crawls. To this end I created a stripped down skill set that is hopefully robust enough to cover most situations. It works pretty much as normal 3.x skills so I won't post the "how to use" section. So far I am calling the system basic 20 or b20 for lack of a better name. Comments and crits are welcome!
Skill List
The Skills for b20 are as follows
Athletics
Lore
Mechanics
Perception
Persuasion
Profession
Stealth
Athletics (Dex or Str)
Athletics represent a character's knowledge and ability of physical prowess allowing them to climb, swim, jump, tumble and a host of other physical activities.
The key abilities for this skill are usually either Dexterity or Strength though for an endurance type task it could use constitution as well.
*Athletics skill is effected by Armor Check Penalties
Lore (Int or Wis)
Lore is skill that shows what a character knows about the world in general. If a player asks "what do I know about this?" then lore is the skill you need.
The key ability for lore is intelligence but can sometimes be wisdom especially if the knowledge is a "common sense" kind of knowledge.
*special: Generally lore checks can not be made again for the same topic. A character either knows or does not know any particular bit of lore.
Mechanics (Dex or Int)
Mechanics are how well a character can manipulate mechanical devices such as traps or locks. If you need to figure out how something works or make it break then you'd best use mechanics.
The key abilities for mechanics are often either dexterity or intelligence.
Perception (Int or Wis)
Perception is a character's ability to notice the world around them. Whether they are looking for a particular volume in an ancient library or, trying not to get shilled by local merchants or avoiding nasty traps all are uses for perception. It is also used for many opposed roles as shown above.
The key abilities for perception are usually intelligence or wisdom. As a general rule if a character is searching for something specific use intelligence, if they are just trying to notice things in general use wisdom.
Persuasion (Cha)
Persuasion is used by characters to convince npcs to do something that they might not otherwise be inclined to do. Anything from bullying a better price out of a merchant or convincing some bandits that you are one of them. These are just some of the uses for persuasion.
The key ability for persuasion is almost always charisma.
Profession (...)
Profession is something of a catch all skill and covers almost any other skill a character may want to try. To use this skill just choose a profession, (cook, smith, squire, farmer etc.) with DM's approval, anytime you wish to use some miscellaneous skill pertaining to your profession you gain your skill rank as a bonus on such rolls.
The key ability could be any one depending upon the situation all per the DM's decision.
Example: Reorox the dwarven fighter and his companions are fortifying a small village against an imminent attack. Being a smith Reorox wants to reinforce the villagers tools to make them serviceable weapons. The DM feels this is a tough task (DC 15) and would require constitution for the key ability (because who knows how much time Reorox will spend at the forge). Reorox's constitution modifier is +3 and has 2 ranks in Profession (smith), so he must roll a 10 or better on a d20 to complete his task successfully. Or the DM may say Reorox completes his task automatically because he can take 10.
Stealth (Dex)
Whenever a character doesn't want to be seen or heard or is performing some other clandestine task, like lifting keys off a sleeping guard, they must use stealth.
The key ability for stealth is almost always dexterity and almost always opposed by the perception skill.
*Stealth skill is effected by Armor Check Penalties
Skill Focus
Skill focuses are a way to show a character's specialization at certain tasks. A character may specialize in almost any aspect of a given skill (subject to DM discretion). A character may not have more ranks in a given skill focus than half their ranks in the parent skill. So a character must have at least 2 ranks in any given skill to have a rank in a skill focus or 4 ranks in the parent skill to have 2 ranks in a skill focus and so on.
Some example skill focuses are...
Athletics (swimming)
Mechanics (lock picking)
Persuasion (haggling)
Stealth (moving silently)
Skill List
The Skills for b20 are as follows
Athletics
Lore
Mechanics
Perception
Persuasion
Profession
Stealth
Athletics (Dex or Str)
Athletics represent a character's knowledge and ability of physical prowess allowing them to climb, swim, jump, tumble and a host of other physical activities.
The key abilities for this skill are usually either Dexterity or Strength though for an endurance type task it could use constitution as well.
*Athletics skill is effected by Armor Check Penalties
Lore (Int or Wis)
Lore is skill that shows what a character knows about the world in general. If a player asks "what do I know about this?" then lore is the skill you need.
The key ability for lore is intelligence but can sometimes be wisdom especially if the knowledge is a "common sense" kind of knowledge.
*special: Generally lore checks can not be made again for the same topic. A character either knows or does not know any particular bit of lore.
Mechanics (Dex or Int)
Mechanics are how well a character can manipulate mechanical devices such as traps or locks. If you need to figure out how something works or make it break then you'd best use mechanics.
The key abilities for mechanics are often either dexterity or intelligence.
Perception (Int or Wis)
Perception is a character's ability to notice the world around them. Whether they are looking for a particular volume in an ancient library or, trying not to get shilled by local merchants or avoiding nasty traps all are uses for perception. It is also used for many opposed roles as shown above.
The key abilities for perception are usually intelligence or wisdom. As a general rule if a character is searching for something specific use intelligence, if they are just trying to notice things in general use wisdom.
Persuasion (Cha)
Persuasion is used by characters to convince npcs to do something that they might not otherwise be inclined to do. Anything from bullying a better price out of a merchant or convincing some bandits that you are one of them. These are just some of the uses for persuasion.
The key ability for persuasion is almost always charisma.
Profession (...)
Profession is something of a catch all skill and covers almost any other skill a character may want to try. To use this skill just choose a profession, (cook, smith, squire, farmer etc.) with DM's approval, anytime you wish to use some miscellaneous skill pertaining to your profession you gain your skill rank as a bonus on such rolls.
The key ability could be any one depending upon the situation all per the DM's decision.
Example: Reorox the dwarven fighter and his companions are fortifying a small village against an imminent attack. Being a smith Reorox wants to reinforce the villagers tools to make them serviceable weapons. The DM feels this is a tough task (DC 15) and would require constitution for the key ability (because who knows how much time Reorox will spend at the forge). Reorox's constitution modifier is +3 and has 2 ranks in Profession (smith), so he must roll a 10 or better on a d20 to complete his task successfully. Or the DM may say Reorox completes his task automatically because he can take 10.
Stealth (Dex)
Whenever a character doesn't want to be seen or heard or is performing some other clandestine task, like lifting keys off a sleeping guard, they must use stealth.
The key ability for stealth is almost always dexterity and almost always opposed by the perception skill.
*Stealth skill is effected by Armor Check Penalties
Skill Focus
Skill focuses are a way to show a character's specialization at certain tasks. A character may specialize in almost any aspect of a given skill (subject to DM discretion). A character may not have more ranks in a given skill focus than half their ranks in the parent skill. So a character must have at least 2 ranks in any given skill to have a rank in a skill focus or 4 ranks in the parent skill to have 2 ranks in a skill focus and so on.
Some example skill focuses are...
Athletics (swimming)
Mechanics (lock picking)
Persuasion (haggling)
Stealth (moving silently)
