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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 4910688" data-attributes="member: 3887">The thing about 'player skill' is that it's only good for certain character actions. It's great when the player's describing exactly how their character is searching a room or dealing with a potential trap. That kind of descriptive, player skill-based resolution works for things like physical puzzles.It's not so good at resolving a PC's attempt at a complicated feat of acrobatics. Or a chase on horseback. Or an attempt to build a big siege engine --unless both the player and the DM have the relevant skills. Which bring up another problem: without help from the mechanics, 'player skill' is only as good as DM skill -- the DM needs to be knowledgeable enough to evaluate the player's descriptions. If not, they'll just dice the outcome. While I'm sure they are still a few polymath DM's out there, most of us are rather more limited in our expertise.And then, switching genres for a minute, how does 'player skill' fit into trying to fix your starship's warp drive? What player skill can be tested when the in-game problem is one of  bullsh*t engineering based on bullsh*t physics?This is why having a mechanical skill system that describes character aptitudes is nice to have, if only for emergencies.</blockquote>