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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6506252" data-attributes="member: 42582">I agree this is an issue in RM, and its similar skill rules don't really help.Burning Wheel, on the other hand, solves this quite well. It has very generous rules for combining skills that potentially overlap, together with advancement rules that mean players don't always want to roll the maximum possible number of dice. So the limits on the stacking that can result from generous similar skill rules are provided by an external system of  incentives, rather than having to be inherent to the skill system itself.This is just one reason why I think BW is a tighter design than HARP and RM.I think there are a number of posters on these boards who seem to be using D&D for goals that I think RM, HARP or RQ would serve better.On the verisimilitude issue, I can only speak to my own experiences - I find that the classic skill-list based games produce more subtle character distinctions. Whether or not this matters to verisimilitude depends (in my experience, at least) on the broader context of the game. Certainly in 4e, having a skill system that distinguishes between Falsehood, Seduction and Soothing Platitudes (all different skills in BW) would detract rather than add. 4e is about characters who are broadly competent and who generally succeed. Stereotypes and broad brushstrokes are part of the game's strength.BW is quite different: gritty, and about failure as much as success. This difference in tone and focus is supported (I think) by a different approach to character building.RM wants, I think, to be more like BW, but suffers a lack of RPG design technology (eg there is no hint of fail forward, and if you try to introduce fail forward GMing techniques the system will push against you at nearly every point). So its grittiness can become more like the grittines of low-level Basic D&D - ludicrous body counts and paper cut-out characters. (But with a much more burdensome process for building a replacement character.) That has the potential to be fun in the right circumstances, but doesn't add to verisimilitude!</blockquote>

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