True20 - Skills

[HeapThaumaturgist]

So I decided to pick up True20. The PDF, anyway. I'd been meaning to grab it, since we use M&M alot for odd one-off things and I thought this might be a great way to slim it down a little.

The one thing I really don't like, however, is how they handle skills. It's still the d20 style of skills, right down to the "Max Ranks = Lvl + 3". They just removed skill points and if you know a skill, you know if full out.

I don't really like this.

About half of my players will pick X skills, where X is their SkillPoints per level, and they'll keep those skills at max. The others, however, including myself, tend to level maybe one or two or three skills at max, but then will occassionally spread the wealth around a good bit so they're "good enough" at a range of things.

My current, off-the-cuff thought, is to just double the workload. It's still MUCH faster than point-by-point, but if you open up another level of skill knowledge ... say Untrained/Known/Trained or something, then doubled the "Skills Known" portions of the roles, you could have a little more flexibility. Basically a skill goes from Untrained to Known to Trained ... a fewer-points system. A "Known" skill is at half-ranks to the other skills.

Just ... adds a little more flexibility, I guess. That's the only thing that kept nagging me about the system as-is. I like the light, flexible system ... I don't think it needs to be QUITE so two-dimensional, though.

--fje

 

[Skywalker]

Few points about this approach.

Before doing so, it is important to note that True 20 atcually acheives a seemingly broader skill base for PCs than it first appears. PCs can spend a Conviction Point to get Skill Training Feat for 1 round. In play, though a PC may have a small number of Known Skills, he can access others if the player considers it important for the PC or story to do so. The result is though a PC is specialised he is all round competent when you expect him to be so. This is reminiscient of SW or other adventure settings where each hero has a strong Skill area but is still competent unless he goes way out of his depth. Overall the effect works and keeps the record keeping down a lot.

However, I can understand if you still wish to pursue a more tiered Skill system. There are lots of options:

1. Skill Ranks. It isn't hard to reintroduce them.
2. Favoured Skills. These were in Blue Rose and created a middle tier of Skills.
3. Half Trained. Double the number of Skills Known or granted. However, when you take a Known Skill it grants only (3+ Level)/2. You can then take the Skill again to get 3+Level.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Few points about this approach.

Before doing so, it is important to note that True 20 atcually acheives a seemingly broader skill base for PCs than it first appears. PCs can spend a Conviction Point to get Skill Training Feat for 1 round.

See, the problem with this is there's already a feat in there called "Beginner's Luck" which allows you to spend a Conviction point to get 5 ranks for the scene. Which, itself, also helps ... but I don't think I would -regularly- want characters to have to depend on spending conviction to make skill rolls. I'm thinking about the system for modern games, on one hand, and my games in that genre tend to be much more skill-intensive. In fantasy games, skills seem to often take a back-seat, where the ease of the "all or none" might be more appropriate.

1. Skill Ranks. It isn't hard to reintroduce them.
2. Favoured Skills. These were in Blue Rose and created a middle tier of Skills.
3. Half Trained. Double the number of Skills Known or granted. However, when you take a Known Skill it grants only (3+ Level)/2. You can then take the Skill again to get 3+Level.

All of these are great suggestions. I don't know what BR's "Favoured Skills" are exactly, though.

--fje

 

[Denaes]

My current, off-the-cuff thought, is to just double the workload. It's still MUCH faster than point-by-point, but if you open up another level of skill knowledge ... say Untrained/Known/Trained or something, then doubled the "Skills Known" portions of the roles, you could have a little more flexibility. Basically a skill goes from Untrained to Known to Trained ... a fewer-points system. A "Known" skill is at half-ranks to the other skills.

This is basically how Blue Rose handles it. I think they go into more detail with Backgrounds offering skills which become favoured and you have to take a feat to make other skills favoured

But it does have Untrained, Trained & Favoured meaning: +0/+(lvl+3)/2/+lvl+3

I think what you have is perfectly acceptable and I might use it in some of my games. It won't really slow skill selections down and it's not as bad as adding SP back into the game. You have some variation and can have characters who are spread out or focus

Kudos

 

[Nomad4life]

I remember being a little put off initially by the way skills were set up back in Blue Rose- Our adventures are more RP and skill-oriented than combat after all.



All I can say is- “It works in play.” My suggestion is to try a game with the rules as written, it may not be as bad as you think. The trick is this: instead of having one character who can do everything, make sure that each character in the party has different skills for certain situations. The effect is that each character in the party feels important to the story at some point or another.



If you still just hate it after that, but like everything else, by all means tinker with it!

 

[Macbeth]

I was a bit put off by the 'all or nothing' skills when I first read True 20, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. Especially if your players take the time to spread out the skills (so they have maybe one or two skills in common with any other character), it makes for some strong differences between characters. You no longer have A whole lot of charaters who all have a few ranks in Listen/Spot, you now have one guys who's a spoter. It's a different way to do things, and I htink it helps make everybody important. Being able to say "I'm the guy with that skill" makes you stand out. And when you're missing a guy with a certain skill, wyou spend some conviction and you can handle it for the scene. Overall, while not abosultely superior to the classic skill points, I think it has some great strengths.

PThough I do like the 3 tierd idea too.