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<blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 9628766" data-attributes="member: 467">Real world skill development is such acomplex, multifaceted thing, I am not sure I have ever seen a RPG that manages to capture it.Let's use combat -- in this case, karate -- as an example. A &quot;first level&quot; or &quot;novice&quot; martial artist is a black belt. That is to say, they have completed their training. They are now able to actually develop their skills. But their is only one way to do that: using karate in fights (sport, life and death, or otherwise). You might gain muscle memory and endurance from constant training, but you will only actually gain skill in combat from being in combat.The same goes for (to use my own profession) land surveying. You can learn the basics in a relatively short apprenticeship, but you only actually become a good surveyor by surveying -- setting up traverse, running loops, locating monuments, researching land records, mathing out boundaries, etc... And this thing -- any trade, really -- gets to the heart of the question of what &quot;a&quot; skill is. Is &quot;land surveying&quot; a single skill, or a collection of skills you use together to achieve a particular result?Games like BRP and Dragonbane that let you make &quot;did I improve rolls&quot; for actually using skills are closest to modeling how skill development works in the real world, but are still so abstract as to be only slightly more &quot;realistic&quot; than gaining levels in D&amp;D.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Reynard, post: 9628766, member: 467"] Real world skill development is such acomplex, multifaceted thing, I am not sure I have ever seen a RPG that manages to capture it. Let's use combat -- in this case, karate -- as an example. A "first level" or "novice" martial artist is a black belt. That is to say, they have completed their training. They are now able to actually develop their skills. But their is only one way to do that: using karate in fights (sport, life and death, or otherwise). You might gain muscle memory and endurance from constant training, but you will only actually gain skill in combat from being in combat. The same goes for (to use my own profession) land surveying. You can learn the basics in a relatively short apprenticeship, but you only actually become a good surveyor by surveying -- setting up traverse, running loops, locating monuments, researching land records, mathing out boundaries, etc... And this thing -- any trade, really -- gets to the heart of the question of what "a" skill is. Is "land surveying" a single skill, or a collection of skills you use together to achieve a particular result? Games like BRP and Dragonbane that let you make "did I improve rolls" for actually using skills are closest to modeling how skill development works in the real world, but are still so abstract as to be only slightly more "realistic" than gaining levels in D&D. [/QUOTE]

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