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Message: <blockquote data-quote="_Michael_" data-source="post: 9510969" data-attributes="member: 7045276">This thread is only a month or so old since last post so I hope I'm not necro-ing the thread. I am actually working on a system that takes every thing from 3.5e and turns it into a skill similar to how Friday Night Firefight/Interlok was for Cyberpunk. Yes, it's skill-heavy, and complex, but by making everything a skill, I can then have skills with their own set of sub-skills that players can specialize in. I love details and complexity, though I understand that not everyone does. Moreover, there are skill tiers that define competence and play into a reputation system: 0-5 skill ranks being Novice, 6-10 being Journeyman, 11-15 being Expert, 16-20 being Master, and 20-25 being Legendary. As the character rises in skill tiers, they become renown for their skills in a given field and likely attract followers or people that want to learn their techniques, adding more value to specialization in subskills.Moreover, after initial character creation, skill points aren't rewarded at each level anymore, but are improved through use and by the GM rewarding attempt points at the end of each combat encounter (or scene). Basically, the GM notes which skills are used throughout the scene, and then gives 1-5 attempt points for each of them, depending on how clever the player was in using them. Even failures get 1 point since there is still the ability to learn from mistakes ("Gee, maybe sticking the wand of fireballs into that lock and triggering it wasn't the best idea..."). Additionally, each skill would have a basic set of uses, and then there would be skill rank (or skill tier) thresholds for additional, more specialized uses, allowing a much more diverse array of NPCs and characters with skills, and taking emphasis off of classes by making the class/non-class skill guardrails more fluid. For instance, a black smith could take something like Craft (Blacksmithing) and hammer out basic stuff on a forge, but could then specialize in things like use of specific metals for alloys, or crafting armor, or making wrought iron architectural items (granted, this would be more an NPC thing to add flavor), or any other number of specialities that would be found in a real-world setting. You wouldn't go to a tinker (pots and pans blacksmith) to make horseshoes, you'd go to a ferrier, even though, in a pinch, the tinker could probably cobble together some crude shoes to use until you could get to one.That was one aspect I both loved about 3.5e and hated at the same time. The diversity of skills and customizability (through great books like Ultimate Game Designer's Companion) was awesome; the ability for players to just drop points into hitherto unused class skills without any effort prior to that to realistically train in those skills was not. I figured by combining the feats into the skills under specialized sub-skills, and making everything a skill check (even attacks and defenses), 3.5e would become a lot more lethal for the foolish and a lot more self-moderating as for min-maxing and skill point bombing. The use of attempt points would also encourage down-time training and perhaps offer even more side-adventures as characters try to find ways to up their skill ranks so they can specialize and customize their character's abilities. I loved Star Wars Saga Edition for what it was--it offered a platform to create entire stories based on a character's abilities and skills, but I really didn't care for the lack of number of skills. It was very sparse and felt cheap. They could have offered a lot more skills and made it more detail-oriented, but it ends up feeling like it was meant for people with the attention span of a goldfish. The condition track was cool, and I'm working on a similar fatigue system for my own system based on that to reflect a more realistic approach to armor.I feel like 3.5e could have been so much more with as much diversity as they had through the OGL, where they could have issued a 3.6e incorporating the best that these alternative rule sets had to offer. Still my favorite edition, and likely always will be for that reason alone.</blockquote>

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