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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GM Dave" data-source="post: 5842093" data-attributes="member: 6687992">Recently, I've been thinking of skills in RL because I annually get a flood of people that are trying to learn to do taxes and be the new help for the season.After seven years, I've grown in my own skill as I know more on the topic and problems because I have dealt with these situations.The difficulty of things that used to take time and effort for me are now routine.Some things that were beyond me are still beyond me.I have shifted from needing help with 80 to 90% of situations that came through the door to being the 'tax guru' (though I know other people in the company that I go to for solutions to things that are in specialties that I have yet to learn).How does this relate to skills in games?I don't think a skill rank system would properly reflect things.A skill rank system has never given 'the feel' for task resolution that I feel is appropriate.I know how to drive a car.  That doesn't mean I should be anywhere near a race track or working as stunt driver (even if I were to roll a 'critical' I'm still not getting my car to ski on two car wheels).  Yet, there are people that these tasks are routine and part of their daily tasks.There is danger for the race driver being on the track but it is managed to the point that for them they are confident in handling it.  Other forces need to act on them to push them beyond treating the race track as routine.Tasks tend to come in a series of levels.Routine tasks are things that we do every day and we don't think of really as tasks.  For me these things are adding up columns of numbers, writing coherent thoughts, driving to work, explaining to people the impact of their choices.  I do these things several times a day.  I often do several of these tasks simultaneously (I can now drive and keep up a conversation or drink a beverage without major adverse effects in reasonable weather).Focused tasks are things that we would likely treat as routine but don't encounter them enough and require us to pay more attention to what we are doing.  Some people have taxes that just involve more paperwork do to the volume of information meaning I have to pay attention more to make sure I don't miss key information.  Some have situations like owning a business that I only see a dozen times a year (though over the years I now am fairly comfortable with this type of problem).  What are Focused tasks for me would be pushing a new person to the limit of their skill.Tasks on the limit.  These are things that I can still do but they often take me more time to complete because they require specialized knowledge.  I don't know the specific rules for how each country interacts with my own countries task code.  I know the general rules and points that I need to look up but I still need to research those points when a situation comes up.  I often see these kinds of situations once or twice a year for a particular country or need to look up some fact because it is only needed once every few years to complete a tax return.  I know the information exists and where to research the knowledge to complete the task.  If I have time and the proper resources then I can complete the task correctly.Tasks beyond me.  There are things that are beyond my training and I know they are beyond my training.  I know that I don't have the training to properly handle farms or taxes of foreign countries.  I know people that can handle those tasks and I turn to those people for aid in these areas.These levels are related to how much I know as things that I treat as routine are beyond other people.I like using attributes as a base for determining skill.I may treat driving as routine but my ability to park or go in reverse is still woefully poor compared to other people with better hand eye co-ordination.This is why when I suggested that you learn a skill then you know that skill.I do though think that there can be levels within that skill to represent how routine a task is to you and what specialized knowledge you have within that broad skill.  Driving a car is a base level of skill.  Driving a big rig trailer usually requires a person to first know how to drive a car.  Knowing how to drive a police car in a chase requires a different specialty of skill.  The big rig trailer driver is not going to know how to do pit maneuvers with a police car and a police officer is not going to be able to properly handle backing up a big rig to an entrance.The measure of success at a task should use a comparison of roll to the person's skill.  You can either use the Alternity idea of closer to the attribute or the closer to 1 as long as you have some idea that getting closer to one number signals getting closer to the bullseye.You could even allow that people with more advanced level of skill doing something that they consider is routine get a free re-roll.  This allows two rolls to compare against what is a good achievement (representing the fact that someone who is an expert brewer is more likely on average to make a better beer than an amateur but an amateur could still get lucky and have a decent batch).</blockquote>

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