zarionofarabel
Hero
Burning Wheel and Burning Empires have "one roll combat" as an optional way to resolve combat, especially if the combat is of little real consequence. So, while it might not be the norm, and something you've never done, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Honestly I love it as an option as it allows me to have small fights sometimes that don't need much more than a quick explanation of the situation, a roll, and a description of the outcome. Stops the game from completely bogging down cause the loud mouth Dwarf got in to yet another bar brawl.
As for the OP question...
I specifically differentiate between player skill and character skill. More to the point, I feature absolutely no player skill in the context of how it affects the adjudicating of rolls. Modifiers are determined by the details of the situation. So in combat it's the environment, in a social situation it's the attitude of the NPC. The actions of the PCs determines when a roll is called for and the skill that is rolled, but how a player describes what they are doing has zero effect on the roll. Johnny can go on a ten minute in character voice acting speel to convince the town guard that his PC is not the thief, or Johnny can literally say the words "my character tries to convince the town guard he is not the thief" and the roll will be exactly the same. It's the only way I can ensure that there is no favoritism shown towards one player over others. The system determines the success and failure of rolled actions, not a player's description of what their PC does. I've found doing things this way really allows shy, neurodivergent, and not super imaginative players, enjoy the game just as much as the charismatic imaginative players. I want everyone to enjoy the game. I loathe "good role-playing" rewards and NEVER use them.
I also find that systems with robust skill lists really help players to latch on to a character concept and help them come up with ideas for different ways to deal with problems. I don't know how many times I've had a player say "wait a sec I have [insert skill name] I will try to do X", where X is an action related specifically to said skill. I think having a nice long list of diverse skills is basically an idea board for players. I find games with few skills often leave players short on ideas and often leads to frustration as they seem to self limit on what they think a PC is capable of doing. I'm not sure why as I don't have that issue as a player, so your guess is as good as mine. Cheers!
