[Backstage] Job Title/Description vs Actual Skills

[daMoose_Neo]

Original "Backstage" post for reference... (a diceless, almost statless game).

Originally, I was trying going with a Skill system for this, allowing the player to choose a few skills with which to begin the game, but found this, even with variations or so a little too limiting.
Following the theme/idea behind Backstage (that the players are Castmembers of the "reality" comic strip about living in the Neo Productions corperate HQ), I'm playing with a "Job Title/Description" idea.
Under this, there are no real Skills, at least not like I had originally drawn up. A player chooses a Job Title when beginning and writes up a Job Description or uses a pre-made one to determine their character's abilities. This isn't the ONLY source, but provides the basis: Using the Job Description determines what range of abilities the player has access to.
Thus, a "Programmer" will have a lot of knowledge about computers and program development. While not stated, the player will be able to write software of varying complexities, naturally. By extension of understanding programming, the player may also be able to hack or bypass security systems or reprogram say the Giant Evil Robot so that it thinks its a giant fluffy bunny.
Job Descriptions need not be limited to just the corperate environment either (Lord knows we aren't). "Would-be-Robotic-Dictator-for-Life" would be Imp's Job Title, followed by the description:
"Seek world domination through deceit, manipulation and treachery. Must possess knowledge suitable for the development of weapons of mass destruction or major inconvenience with which to threaten world governments, the ability to coerce others to comply with demands or trick others into aiding self. As would be dictator, no affront to authority or dominance shall be accepted."

That description sets Imp up fairly well as well as providing his motivations. In each instance, Imp has always worked toward World Domination, occasionally helping us because it suited the need for the moment.
A Narrator can also draw on a Character Biography to allow skills outside of the Job Description or award Additional Skills based on performance, learning or "leveling" (there is no actual leveling yet, least not that I've developed).

This isn't concrete, I'm still playing around. Thoughts and ideas appreciated however ^_^

[daMoose_Neo]

Rather than clutter the board with posts about the project, I think I'll try to keep them confined.

I'm looking into alternatives for action resolution.
The original thought was the democratic approach: Narrator sets the skill check value, player describes it, other players vote for points. The player then may or may not add Sanity/Caffiene points to improve the score to sucess.
Not sure how much I like that. I DO like the other players ranking their attempt, want to incorperate that yet.
One of my friends thinks if you have a lousy GM that it can mess up the game royally, which is possibly so. The above would work (I think) if you restricted the value or based the max value off the number of players. Base it on 4 points per player - thus, having 5 players with the potential of a rank of 1-3 leaves you with 15 points possible. Nudge it slightly so you're calculating 4 points per player yourself (20 max = really hard) means when the time comes a player will have to exert him or her self.
Also on on Success vs Failure- say a player has to ante up points BEFORE knowing the target score: if they fall under, it fails. The next turn, if they can talk themselves out of it they can spend the additional points (possibly plus a couple as a penalty for delaying) to turn that failure to success (Moose and the Chicken from the last post).

I also took a look at Pace and pondered this: Rank the actions on a scale of 1-5 and Deduct those points from the players Sanity or Caffinee (Sanity is for thinking/mental processes, Caffeine is for physical actions). I like the Pace idea that a player WILL be good at their job, so they automatically get a basic success which is improved by how much more they exert themselves to do this.
Also, to factor in my voting: I was asked how experiance/leveling might work. Per each action, probably a 3,4, or 5 (non-basic actions) ranked from the above, the players vote and the the performing player gets points based on like the average (or sum) of those points. Leveling might yeild more Caffine/Sanity points, additionally defined skills or the option for a secondary Job Title (PROMOTIONS!)

Also thought the character sheets could be drawn up as Resume's ^_^