[ORN RPG] Skills Insights

[Quim]

Hi, first time poster.

First of all, I'd like to apologize for my bad English, since it isn't my mother language. I'll try to do my best.

I'm currently trying to develop a RGP based in the ORN Comic (Surely you have never heard of it, because it's comic from Spain). It is about anthropomorphic animals in a world of medieval fantasy.

Anyway, I'm currently thinking about skills and I'd like some insight from you. What do you think it's the best option:

1.- Having an small and fixed array of skills, which both GM and Players know how to handle or,
2.- Having a huge amount of it depending on professions from which players will have the "capacity" to accomplish their intentions.

I'd rather prefer the second option, as the "philosophy" of the game is being more or less "open". I'd like players manage their PC skills for doing their actions, proposing to the GM which use in each intention, instead of being the GM who establish which skill to use by the PC. Do I explain myself? I think it's a bit confusing, isn't it?

What do you think? Please ask me if you need more clarifications. Thanks for your help.

Joaquim B.

[Thunder_God]

Welcome to the board.

I usually tend to like medium-small Skill lists I guess.
What purpose do you have for having 300 skills(Some games do)? Note that the players can choose and suggest the skills they want to use even if you have less skills.
You said you want the players to suggest their skills, why? What would happen if they choose a wrong skill? Is there such a thing? If not, why just pick the highest they can somehow logically use, unless you want to bring narration in this way?

More information on your goals :)

[Anders Larsen]

Like Guy say, we need some more information on the game. What is it about? What do you want to achieve with it?

These information is necessary because these two skill system will create different kind of feeling for the game, and it is important that that feeling match what you want.

The first option is simple but kind of neutral. You should go for this option if the skill system is not really important for the game, but just have to be there in the background.

The second option (I am not quite sure I understand this one), will be much more prominent in the game. It is tied into professions, which can be a great part of what the characters are. You should go for this potion if you want the players to define their characters through skills (and professions).

 - Anders

[Quim]

What purpose do you have for having 300 skills(Some games do)? Note that the players can choose and suggest the skills they want to use even if you have less skills.

No, we don't want so many skills. We are just considering a more or less open ended list, linked to the professions. For instance, we were discussion about a soldier.related skill to represent their physical training (running, jumping, swimming, etc.). But this broad skill couldn't be applied to other professions which focus in only one aspect of the this training (sailor, for instance, would be only swimming and jumping), thus we had to "define" a new skill (marine training(?) or split them all. Problem with this is that skills wouldn't be tied to skills as we firstly intended. So we decided to have a broad of self-explanatory-rather-open-skills-list that player could "invoke" when trying to do something related to them.

What would happen if they choose a wrong skill? Is there such a thing? If not, why just pick the highest they can somehow logically use, unless you want to bring narration in this way?

Of course, DM has the last word in this decision, applying bonuses or penalties on the fly depending on the intention or the action difficulty.

It is tied into professions, which can be a great part of what the characters are. You should go for this potion if you want the players to define their characters through skills (and professions).

This is definitely our intention, as we don't want class-based system, so we would rather prefer a "profession-path" one such as burning wheel or WHFRPG.

Any more opinions would be greatly appreciated as we are still in internal discussions about this topic. Thanks.