Starting the iteration at DDXP: Reimagining Skills and Abilities

[Anselyn]

Has this been chewed over? It certainly sets an agenda!

Baldman Games - DDXP News

By Sunday we get to:

Reimagining Skills and Ability Scores (Sunday)
The role of skills has fluctuated throughout the life of Dungeons & Dragons, and ability scores have been of varying importance in each edition. Find out what the design team has done to reimagine these aspects of the game, and how they arrived at a system to marry the two concepts more closely together. Seminar includes Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, and Robert Schwalb, and will be followed by a Q&A session.

Looks like the old ability bonuses are in File 13?

 

[Frostmarrow]

I bet they will do this:

First you have Strength. You pick Swim. Strength forms the basis of your chance to swim. The chance never changes unless your Strength-score does. As you gain levels you get to add capabilities to your skill such as Salmon Swim (You can swim up a waterfall) but the chance to do so is still tied to your Str (some modifiers might apply.)

Or:

If they are really brave they can do this. Pick skills. The skills you pick increase your ability scores. Ability scores is the last thing to be summed up on a character sheet.

 

[Number48]

I bet they will do this:

First you have Strength. You pick Swim. Strength forms the basis of your chance to swim. The chance never changes unless your Strength-score does. As you gain levels you get to add capabilities to your skill such as Salmon Swim (You can swim up a waterfall) but the chance to do so is still tied to your Str (some modifiers might apply.)

Or:

If they are really brave they can do this. Pick skills. The skills you pick increase your ability scores. Ability scores is the last thing to be summed up on a character sheet.

I was going to say that I'd be okay with ditching ability scores. They have definitively stated that won't happen, so it's just how I feel. But I gotta admit, I am liking the idea of skills to ability scores. Or even other non-rolling, non-buying of skills.

 

[Mercurius]

I'm not sure what you mean by "File 13," but I'm guessing this is where they'll talk about the Ability Scores as core and skills being modular options with varying possible degrees of complexity, from broad skill groups to more specific skills.

 

[Number48]

File 13 is the trash bin, also know as the circular cabinet.

 

[Anselyn]

I bet they will do this:

First you have Strength. You pick Swim. Strength forms the basis of your chance to swim. The chance never changes unless your Strength-score does. As you gain levels you get to add capabilities to your skill such as Salmon Swim (You can swim up a waterfall) but the chance to do so is still tied to your Str (some modifiers might apply.).

Can you use an abilty in a strightforward way in a d20, roll high - system?

I like the advanced abilty tree idea though.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Like in one of the L&L articles I believe they may go with Ability Score checks on things, whereas Skills allow you to do new things.

So I am with Frostmarrow's 1st option .

When I read that idea in L&L, it made a lot of sense to me anyway.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

Perhaps they disconnect skills from abilities. Sometimes a Swim check will be based on Strength, sometimes on Constitituion.

I quite like the way this works in Traveller, for instance.

 

[Szatany]

I think an important change that will be introduced in 5e will be a divorce of checks from skills. What I mean by that is that you will have rules section that will explain what a swim check, climb check, bluff check etc. are. Those rules will not be bundled together with skill rules. Skills will probably be optional and checks can't be, they are too important to the game.
Then you will have rules for skills which you won't have to use. For the basic game you will have ability scores cover all checks. If you pick a subsystem that uses skills, then you will use skills for checks.

 

[Guest 85555]

I bet they will do this:

First you have Strength. You pick Swim. Strength forms the basis of your chance to swim. The chance never changes unless your Strength-score does. As you gain levels you get to add capabilities to your skill such as Salmon Swim (You can swim up a waterfall) but the chance to do so is still tied to your Str (some modifiers might apply.)

Or:

If they are really brave they can do this. Pick skills. The skills you pick increase your ability scores. Ability scores is the last thing to be summed up on a character sheet.

I think the way NWP worked is a good foundation. Ability score is the basis of your chance to succeed, and this can increase as you take ranks. It is so much more contained than the skill system of 3e plus. I really hope they consider doing this as a roll under ability check rather than d20 + modifier. Yes it is less streamlined, but I think in practice it works a lot better.