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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alex319" data-source="post: 5065565" data-attributes="member: 45678">A few comments:1. If I'm understanding this correctly, the skill lists you have REPLACE the normal skill lists, right? So that means you don't (directly) have access to the normal skills like insight, bluff, diplomacy, thievery, etc. If this is true, it seems to significantly limit the options available. For example, suppose I want m character to be good at lockpicking, pickpocketing, disarming traps etc. - the things that are currently covered by the Thievery skill. The only skills in your skill lists that might cover that are "Born on the Street" background (having to steal in order to survive), the "Elven Precision" elf racial choice (precise movements are useful in the tasks above) or maybe a "thief" Social Class (human). So are you saying that if my character isn't a human or an elf, and he wasn't born on the street, then he can't learn any useful thieving abilities? It seems like this kind of restriction would actually inhibit character concepts. For example, suppose I have a character concept of a halfling raised in a noble household who rebelled and became a rogue as a way of getting back at what he perceived as a corrupt society - but oops, when I take that background, there are no more choices that actually let my character be good at thievery, which he'll need as a rogue.2. I don't understand the difference between "passive" and "active" skill use in your system. Is the difference just that when you do a "passive" skill you are taking 10, while on an "active" skill you roll the die?3. There are lots of mechanics in the game that reference specific skills. For example, utility powers or feats that require you to be trained in a specific skill, utility powers and items that give bonuses to specific skill checks, traps that have Perception and Thievery DCs to detect or disarm them, making Heal checks to grant someone a second wind, making Athletics checks to reduce falling damage, etc. If you are junking the existing skill system, you'll have to rewrite all of those.==============So here would be my suggestion:Keep the existing skill system. However, in addition to their ordinary trained skill choices, each character can choose up to four of the items from your list: one general, one background, one class choice, and one race choice. (You could change this as you like.) Call these choices "auxiliary skills." Then calculate the skill modifiers as in the existing skill system and apply skill as in the existing skill system, with the following exceptions:1. Players don't say "I am using skill X", except in situations where there is a specific game rule action that requires a specific skill check (e.g., making a Heal check to give someone a second wind.) Instead, players describe what they are doing, then the DM tells them what roll to make. (This addresses item (1) on your list.)2. When players describe their actions, if one of their auxiliary skills applies to the situation, they get a +2 bonus to their skill check. For example, if the character's background was "raised as a blacksmith," and the character wante dto forge a beautiful weapon for the King as a gift in order to win him over, then the character could get a +2 bonus to his Diplomacy roll. (The bonus amount could be adjusted according to the needs of the system.) This addresses your items (2) and (3) because it gives the characters background information and makes the characters' background information matter.3. The method you describe in your post for setting skill DCs looks fine, so you can use that. And the rest of the skill check sequence you've described makes sense - players describe actions, DM tells players what to roll, then DM tells players what the consequences are. So that works fine, and addresses your item number (4).</blockquote>

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