Learned Skills

[Kytross]

Okay, I'd love to hear what you guys think abut this.

There are skills that aren't really advanced skills, but really shouldn't be rolled at the attribute without training. Skills that the average person doesn't have. Piloting comes to mind. Normally when I'm GMing I just hit characters with a negative modifier if they're using a skill I consider something they need training on and they have no experience.

For instance, if you've never driven a car or flown a plane (speeder, starship) I give your character a negative 5 or 10 point modifier.

Instead of that I'm considering making those skills I consider Learned Skills start at 1D irregardless of the attribute. That way the player knows exactly where they stand.

This rule would not change how starting dice are assigned. If a player has improved a learned skill with their starting dice then they've clearly trained in that skill.

A list of possible learned skills:

Piloting
Astrogation
Investigation
Demolition
Scholar
Swimming

I'll take suggestions on other skills as well.

[garhkal]

I've asked this in the past, in threads like my "skill roll, without the skill' thread, many moons back...
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Whill]

[pakman]

Have seen this topic over the years....

I use a very simple mechanic for this (as part of my houserules and skill overhaul) but it works here.

Some definitions:
Untrained - a skill a character has not improved.
Disadvantage - rolling a check twice, and taking the lower result.
Advantage - Rolling a check twice, and taking the higher result.
Complex Skill - a skill that if used Untrained, is rolled at Disadvantage.

Piloting, Demolitions, Forgery, First Aid, Navigation, Repair,-Tech, Repair - Weapons, Security.
(your specific skills may be different - as many others have, my skill list has been consolidated and reduced - but you get the idea).

Been using it for almost two years in an active game - works well.

(I use the concept of advantage and disadvantage for certain types of modifiers where I felt a +/-D was not relative).
_________________
SW Fan, Gamer, Comic, Corporate nerd.
Working on massive House Rules document - pretty much a new book. Will post soon....

[ThrorII]

"....and with that, Luke crashed his X-wing into the Death Star, dying horribly. Because a T-16 really isn't like a starfighter afterall."

While training and untrained skills are a thing for some games, Star Wars really isn't one of them, in my opinion. The concept that EVERYONE can fly a starship at least at their base Mechanical attribute level is VERY Star-Warsy.
_________________
"The internet is a pathway to many abilities, some considered to be unnatural." - Sheev Zuckerberg

[Whill]

Right. Spaceship technology is ubiquitous in the Empire, but probably not as much as repulsorlift tech.

[pakman]

[Kytross]

That is an interesting use of the Advantage/Disadvantage system. I'll take that under advisement. I tend to favor less rolling in general, so it may not work for me. Though my current players are familiar with advantage/disadvantage.

-----

I considered Scholar as a learned skill because it represents a character's capacity to do academic research. The specialization tends to show their expertise on a specific matter.

I haven't used it in a few years, but it's come up more than once in games I've GMed and played in.

A real life example of someone without the Scholar skill was when I was helping a veteran friend write a paper for his associates degree. Smart man, expert in many skills, never went to college. He was struggling with this paper for nearly a week before he overcame his pride and asked me for help. I explained the Library of Congress system and the Dewey decimal system to him and BAM! he took to it like a fish to water.

In universe, Scholar was the skill roll Obi-Wan failed when he couldn't find Kamino in the archives.

------

Driving a car is an ubiquitous skill in America in real life. It is striking when someone doesn't know how to do it. It is very easy... once you know how.

That's what I'm trying to simulate here. I already hit players with a -5 or -10 point modifier. I'm looking to see if starting them out at 1D in the skill would be easier, and yes, let them advance it like normal. Using it successfully in three adventures would get it to 2D. That may be too harsh of a penalty though. Three adventures is a long time.

Maybe a system where you're at -10 until you succeed once. You're at -5 until you succeed twice, then you're no longer getting a penalty. It's just a lot to keep track of with everything else I'm doing as GM.

[pakman]

[garhkal]

[Whill]

[pakman]

[Crimson_red]

[Mamatried]

Not sure how relevant this is, but I am under the impression (wrong or false) that the Player Characters are "heroic" meaning that the "Average 12D and the +6D to Sttribute" is only in parts what makes them heroic, they CAN default all skills with a chance however slim of sucess.

if we give regular NPCs the 1D minimum, we can then say that with 1D in Mechanical, you really "can not" defualt any skills as the difficulty is simply too high.

I have for some time used a higher difficulty and a -1D to the default roll with the wild dice NOT exploding to solve the issues.

My Gunslinger is that, not a pilot in any way and has a 2D mechnaical.
He has no training at all in any driving or piloting skills, but he does have beast riding.

He is in a desperate situation and tries to figure out hoe to start a speeder bike and escape.

He rolls 1D (-1D becuse the skill requires training to use) and rolls 6
His die does NOT explode and his total is 6
Normally this would be enough, as starting the speeder is easy and was given a difficulty of 6.

However becuse the skill reguire traning his difficulty is increased one step and becomes a moderate and his roll of 6 is a fialure , he has no idea how to start the speeder and must flee on foot.

However becuse of his depserate situation he decides to spend a CP adding +1D to his roll.

Again he rolls perfectly and gets q 12, the action was raised in difficulty from easy 6 to a moderate 11, his roll of 12 is a sucess.
His wild diece doe not explode on " training required" skills.

So in short -1D ro roll
+1 Difficulty tier
Non Exploding Dice

[Totally Not An ISB Agent]

For my game, during character creation, players may choose 25 skills to write down on their character sheet to represent skills that they've learned, if only at base value. Then they can spend their skill dice to improve some skills. If you prefer to use templates, then the skills written on the template would serve the same purpose. In the Blue Book, templates range from having 22 to 35 skills written on the sheet, with an average of 28. I chose 25 because I've combined a few skills.

If a character attempts one of these skills at base value, he gets to roll his full attribute dice. If a character attempts a skill that is not written on his sheet, then he still gets to roll his full attribute dice, but the difficulty is increased by +3 or more, depending on the skill and what he is attempting with it. In addition, he may get an additional +3 or more to the difficulty as he is unfamiliar with the tool/vehicle he is attempting to use.

Also, I use the Know-how skill from D6 Space, and so characters have a chance to potentially eliminate at least some of the unskilled penalties. In addition, a character can use this to eliminate the unfamiliar tool/vehicle penalty.

For example, Bubba is attempting a getaway and hops into an untended airspeeder. He has the Repulsorlift Operation skill, however this one was clearly manufactured for some alien species. The controls are all different, the seat is uncomfortable, and the dials and gauges are in an alien script.

He would normally get an unfamiliar vehicle penalty of +3 or more to the DC of any piloting check he makes whilst in this airspeeder. However, he has the Know-how skill and spends some time studying the controls. I set the Know-how difficulty to Moderate and he makes his roll. "Ah, here's the starter button." He can now pilot the airspeeder without penalty, although the seat is still uncomfortable.