JohnSnow
Hero
My experience is that systems like this lend themselves to abuse unless the GM keeps copious notes.I’ve grown quite fond of games that don’t really worry about the difference between attributes and skills. Blades in the Dark, for example, just has Action Ratings. So your Prowl rating is a measure of how good you are at moving quietly and the like. What that rating means… natural skill, intense training… is up to you.
And the Resistance System, which is used in both Spire and Heart, skips Attributes and instead has a list of Skills and a list of Domains. It has no ratings, you either have a Skill or Domain or you don’t. When you make a roll, you start with 1d10. If you have an applicable Skill, add 1d10, if you have an applicable Domain, add 1d10. So the relevant Skills and Domains add to your dice pool, increasing your chance of success.
Other games do similar things. I’ve come to like this approach; it seems simpler and allows the player some freedom in describing how and why the PC is good at any given skill.
“You say it was all training Mr. Wayne? I see. How exactly did you, a normal human, train yourself to be able to bench press a truck?”
