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Message: <blockquote data-quote="R_Chance" data-source="post: 8298978" data-attributes="member: 55149">Thieves HD were a D4 in original D&D in 1975 (Greyhawk iirc) , and went up to a D6 in 1E AD&D (AD&D PHB 1977). The percentages for skills (except climbing at 87% iirc) always sucked (10-25% for most with racial and dexterity bonuses added). And players were always asking why they couldn't climb at all. Most thieves skills were pretty unusual / professional for the class, but climb was the odd one. Of course it was meant for shear surfaces, but it rolled over to a lot of other things (trees, natural rock walls / surfaces etc.). I came up with an alternative skill system based on the combat charts but people wanted "percentage skills" (can you hear me grumbling <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> ). In the late 70s my players had complained D&D had "no skill system" (Runequest and Traveller were out by then). Well EPT (1975 with it's D&D based mechanics) had one (with percentages even) based on it's chance of spell success / failure. I tried that and then came up with (I thought) a better idea. Use the combat charts, and have skills be primary, secondary, tertiary (as in EPT) for each class and advance in levels like combat. Just assign a difficulty rating (similar to AC) and there you go. It gave a fair chance of success at  low levels for simple tasks and hard ones were more difficult / impossible until you gained levels. I thought I was terribly clever <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> My players still wanted "percentages". I imagine you can gear the tooth grinding and deep grumbling by now <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> So, I stuck with EPT system and later used the NWP system. Sigh. I am planning on trying my idea in an OSR type game in my campaign soon. Start with no AC / low difficulty = 0 and go up. Ascending AC (difficulty) is a godsend for this. Just know your number and add the difficulty. Have a bonus / penalty for every ability and skills have an associated ability. Combat is just another skill (AC  is the difficulty number) Strength is the ability for melee and Dexterity for missile / thrown. Skills go up in groups of 3 levels (primary), 4 levels (secondary) and five levels (tertiary) depending on the class and how you gain the skill. Trying to do things for which there is no  associated skill is a "Task" (not original I know) and I based the probability on the to hit for "zero" level characters. And now that I have that off my chest, and my finals are graded, I can get back to working on this. I am looking forward to some face to face gaming soon. With old geezers like me. I can spring this on them because 5E is not on their radar and they are interested in a game <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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