OgreBattle wrote:So how would a standard "Dungeon crawl with some traps, ancient lore to give clues on things inside, ruined sections that need to be worked around, and monsters" use yer ideal vision of a skill system?
When would dice be rolled, when wouldn't they be rolled.
To expand upon myself three years ago:
1) Things that should be things everyone should do, and not fucking graduated skills with rolls: Appraise, Gather Information, Heal, Perform, Profession, Use Rope.
I would imagine Gather Information and Appraise have rolls that don't scale with level, and that anything you can do with Heal, Perform, Profession, or Use Rope, you can just use. There would be between 0 and 1 graduations in what you can do. Either you "are trained in heal" or you aren't. Or it is assumed that all adventurers can do all the things that heal allows them to do.
Gather Information falls under the generic MTP social systems are hard no one ever does it right setting, but basically, no one invests character resources, they are better or worse based on things that happened in the campaign. Appraise is either a roll independent of level (if you have a more torchbearer game) or totally something everyone can just do for non magic items (if you are using a D&D style but more dungeon crawly).
2) Things that should be class features, or racial features, or feats, and not fucking graduated skills with rolls: Balance, Decipher Script, Forgery, Escape Artist, Handle Animal, Open Lock, Ride, Sleight of Hand.
If you are a good Balancer, you can just balance on things, if you are good at escaping, you can do that, and if there is any roll, it would be for time. If you can Decipher Scripts, Open Locks, or Forge things, you can just do that. For a more dungeon crawly version of D&D, Open Lock would probably have levels, but certainly the other two wouldn't.
If you want to ride a horse you get on a horse and you know how to ride it. If you want to give people specific advantages to riding based on their class, then those are class features and whatever they do, they do.
Sleight of Hand tricks that don't involve literally taking other people's stuff, you can just do. Sleight of Hand that involves pickpocketing people is just not a skill that really makes sense competing with other skills in a Dungeon Crawler focused game.
3) Movement modes, which would have some other method of increasing them that might be a pool of points be level, or might be feats/class features. Jump, Climb, Swim, Fly.
You have some method of improving movement speeds, you pay points. Obviously Fly costs the most, and doesn't work underwater, and this is balanced on the Dungeon Crawling nature of the game.
4) "Knowledge Skills" that you get points that can only be spent in this category, This would be all Knowledges, all Crafts, Speak Language, and maybe Spellcraft, these could be rolls or just abilities, probably better as just abilities honestly, but that would involve reinventing the entire knowledge system.
It really depends what you want Knowledges to use, you say something about ancient lore or some shit, so if it isn't helping you with monsters, and it's just a gateway to hints or content, it could go without rolls. Or if it does tell you about monsters, there should be a roll, see my knowledge houserules.
Spellcraft... Honestly, I don't know, you could have rolls or not, I'm mostly indifferent.
Obviously crafts and languages are just things you do and know.
5) Exploration skills: Disable Device (and everyone would have trapfinding up to their DD skill, so if you can disable it you can find it, and if you can't, then you can't basically, DD would be essential to finding traps, where Search is something everyone has to find doors and gold and shit), Hide/MS, Spot/Listen, Survival.
So no searching, you either all can find secret doors or you can't. If the game is very craw focused, people might buy different kinds of search abilities, like depth sense, stonecunning, elven hearing or whatever.
Traps are a completely different almost certainly reactive roll to notice.
Perception skills are rolls, so are hiding skills.
6) Social Skills (hopefully made less shit in some way, but probably won't happen): Bluff, Sense Motive, Diplomacy, Disguise, Intimidate.
Fuck it, just MTP all this shit, still no one has a better system.
7) Things that should be incorporated into the combat system as rolls that have to do with your level and nothing to do with any skill system: Tumble, Concentration.
If you need to cast a spell when you might be interrupted, that is a combat thing, not a skill thing. If you need to get past someone without being hit, that is a combat thing, not a skill thing. As combat things in a combat game, they will have rolls. Not opposed ones, because opposed ones are dumb. (To be clear, I mean where both people roll shit, the DCs will of course be based on the opponents, because that is how combat works.)
8) Things that shouldn't exist: UMD.
