Which RPGs best model real-world skill development?

[Committed Hero]

GURPS' combination of skill defaults (ie, letting one skill stand in for another at reduced efficiency), plus the way it charges more XP for more complex skills, colors my answer.

 

[Celebrim]

I feel like it's a sensible rate for academic skills being studied in a calm situation with a lot of time doing other things, but a rather low rate for practical skills being used in real situations on a daily basis. For example, people in WW2 went from never having flown a plane to the greatest pilots on the planet, capable of incredible feats, in a lot less than 4 years.

Traveller's inability to distinguish routine (which teaches only slowly) from high stress/high activity environments is one of the many things I hold against what could be a really great system. The way the CharBurner works should not necessarily reflect the most intense possible training, either focused or "on the job". It's fine to separate the mundane from the unusual or the heroic.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Traveller's inability to distinguish routine (which teaches only slowly) from high stress/high activity environments is one of the many things I hold against what could be a really great system. The way the CharBurner works should not necessarily reflect the most intense possible training, either focused or "on the job". It's fine to separate the mundane from the unusual or the heroic.

Part of it is, of course, that when Trav was created, the mechanics were such that there was a very strong incentive not to let players get their skill values up too much. I just think that would have been better served by having advancement done in micro-increments so it didn't do so rather than, effectively, saying no one ever learned in the field.

 

[mmadsen]

I asked Qwen: if you use the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons and you scale it towards real-world realism of skill development, what is the highest level a fighter could reach?

There’s an actual field of motor learning that studies how people learn physical skills like sports or martial arts. A game like GURPS models the learning curve of each skill individually. D&D clumps skills into classes with a shared level.

That’s a simplification that isn’t terribly unrealistic, but then the bulk of D&D’s system strays away from modeling reality, with hit points, AC unrelated to fighting skill, ability to hit only loosely tied to skill, etc.

Try modeling a fencing match between a master and a student. In real life, the master should hit 19 times out of 20, the student one time in 20. That’s just not how D&D works.

 

[TreChriron]

In GURPS, 200 hours = one skill point. That seems like a pretty good measuring stick to me. Of course, for cinematic adventures, I doubt we would care.