Yes, I’m still playing catch up but that’s now what this post is about. It’s about skills. So let’s get down to it.
First, let’s hit the big one. Skills aren’t Old School! Well, I’d say a huge number of skills aren’t old school and a skill roll isn’t the answer to everything. I’d also say that if you include non-D&D games in the old school category then you’ve got Runequest and Traveler. Both with skills. So in my mind skills are OK. Just don’t make them too important and have take a moment to decide when to roll ’em and when not too.
So yes, I am going to do some sort of skill system for YARC but I’ve got a bunch of ideas bouncing around inside my head so I’m using this post to throw ideas out there and see what happens. So here’s the systems that have caught my fancy.
x in D6: It’s simple and easy. I believe the basic concept is pulled from the old “Open Doors” and “Find Secret Doors”. Lamentations of the Flame Princess, White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game, and Swords & Wizardry Light uses it. My only problem is that it’s not very granular and there’s very little room for improvement as a character progresses. I’ve used the system before and threw in my own house rule to adjust difficulty by die type. So average tests are x in d6, but it’s very difficult it might be x in d10.
%: Hey Thief skills are already percentile based then why not make the rest of the skills based on that as well. It worked to Runequest/Basic Roleplaying. A more accurate example than the Thief skills is in the Rules Cyclopedia and look at the Mystic’s (aka Monk) Acrobatics ability. It’s (3 x Dex Score)+2% per level. While it is much more granular than the above x in d6, it’s almost too much.
Saves as Skills: I think this originated over here and was adapted to Crypts & Things (which I love). Since YARC is built on the Swords & Wizardry framework. This is a no brainer. And the one I’m most likely to use.
So there are my thoughts. I know you’re probably wondering what exactly are the skills? Well, that’ll be in Part II as bring the skill system together.